Creative Holywood
We firmly believe that the arts and creative activity are an important strand in fulfilling HST’s goals for a vibrant and cohesive community.
In normal times we run a programme of events across the year under the banner, Creative Holywood. These include, for example, workshops for young people, live events, talks, commissioning of new work, and collaborations that bring together a mix of local groups and artists.
In the past we produced the town’s Culture Night – part of a nationwide initiative to celebrate local artists. One of its most memorable highlights was in 2019 when the Ballykeel Conservative Flute Band and the Aisling School of Irish Dance to performed together. Included in their programme was the premiere of a piece called Chrysalis, written to celebrate the School’s 20th anniversary.
We enjoy commissioning new work and have recently been behind the creation of a piece called An Féileacán agus an Rí (The Butterfly and the King), a modern retelling of an Irish myth that brought together the distinguished author Myra Zepf, Northern Ireland’s first-ever Children's Writing Fellow, and Clara Kerr, a young up-and-coming choreographer. It had three sold-out performances and was included in the Belfast Children’s Festival 2020.
We also commissioned a film during lockdown in March 2021 called Entity/Spéirbhean, with original verse, music and choreography. Again, using local artists. To date it has had almost 9.5k views.
We are planning a festival of events in early September 2021 (Covid restrictions permitting) – watch this space.
Amongst our ambitions is the establishing of a dedicated arts venue for the town. It’s not going to be tomorrow, but, who knows……
