PRESS RELEASE | Teatime marks
key MOMENT for Cork 2005 cultural health project. Senior
citizens and older homeless adults from O’Connell Court,
Cork are preparing an original performance work to mark the culmination
of a three-month creative project as part of the Cork 2005 Culture
and Health strand
in association with the Health Service Executive.
Tea time, an
established ritual at O’Connell Court, has been chosen for the MOMENT
Performance and Community Tea Party on the 1 and 2 October at O’Connell
Court, Windmill Lane.
MOMENT is an intergenerational, intermedia, ensemble
project involving residents of O’Connell Court as primary collaborators, together
with four contemporary artists and students from UCC secondary schools in the area. Under
Artistic Director, Molly Sturges, who has previously worked as
a guest director at the Creative Centre for Women with Cancer in
New York, the creative mediums used in the project include video,
storytelling, movement, sound art and music.
Since 11 July,
creative sessions have taken place two and three times a week at
O’Connell Court. Initial workshops inspired a sense of play, curiosity and
safety among residents. Participants were then encouraged to work
one on one, or in a group with the artists and students, in order
to develop creative expressions which would form elements of the
tea party performances at the end of the project. The use of video
and sound recording has allowed for participants who do not choose
to perform live to contribute meaningfully to the end performance.
Staging the
tea party performances at O’Connell Court and involving the
artists and residents in the performance is crucial to the goal
of the project, in challenging conventional notions of where performance
can be created, by whom it can be created and where it can be shown.
The MOMENT tea party performances take place on Saturday, October 1st
and Sunday, October 2nd from 2.30pm to 4.30pm at O’Connell Court, Windmill
Lane, Cork. Attendance is free and there are limited spaces available
to the public. Please call for reservations at (086) 8947570. People of
all ages are welcome to attend the performances.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT - PROGRAM
EXCERPT
Welcome to our tea party performance!
| Today we share with you a glimpse into a unique kind
of creative ensemble developed over the last three months. The
MOMENT ensemble consists of five contemporary artists, secondary
and UCC students, community members and residents from O’Connell
Court. Over these three months we have engaged in a creative exploration
characterized by a sense of play, curiosity, respect and humor.
In our creative exchanges drawing from video, music, sound and
movement, we have been able to witness one another as fellow humans,
freed up from the roles, labels and constructs that are imposed
upon us or that we impose upon ourselves. In this way, we have
the opportunity to meet as equals. The work that you will see
tonight has emerged from these collaborative sessions, both group
sessions and through one to one exchanges. There are many people
who contributed to the work but chose not to participate in the
live performance element. They have been essential to the project.
MOMENT is based on the principle that all people are creative
and that meaningful creative expression and exchange is vital
to the wellbeing of our individual selves and our communities.
CULTURE & HEALTH PROGRAMME | As
part of the European Capital of Culture programme, Cork 2005 has
joined forces with the HSE Southern Area to make a number of projects
accessible to patients, healthcare staff, and visitors in a number
of hospitals, daycare centres, residential units and community
healthcare settings
in the Cork area. The working partnership
between Cork 2005 and HSE Southern Area personnel is bringing music,
dance, drama, and the visual arts to patients in a number of healthcare
locations in the region who otherwise would not be able to participate
in the Cork 2005 programme.
Studies
have shown that the arts have a favourable impact on the overall
health of patients in a healthcare setting. There is a growing
body of qualitative evidence which indicates a significant health
gain from this type of process.
For example, The British Medical Journal has endorsed the benefits
of bringing the arts to a healthcare setting as follows: “If
health is about adaptation, understanding and acceptance, then
the arts may be more potent than anything that medicine has to
offer”. The Cork 2005 Culture
and Health Programme consists of three signature projects and a
Culture in Residence programme, designed specifically for the health services.
UP
