Grasshoppers is a partnership community project for Balbriggan between Acting Up! Early Years Arts and Our Balbriggan.
Grasshoppers celebrates the youngest citizens of the town and their friends, carers and families. It is a three stage arts project which begins in May and ends in August 2019. All events are free and open to the general public with children aged 0-6 years.
What are the three stages?
Stage 1
A series of eight workshops and two performances dedicated to children aged 0-3 and their carers. The workshop sessions will focus on music and storytelling along with crafts on various themes and facilitated by Cliodhna Noonan of Acting Up! Arts. Twenty places for each workshop will be offered to families in Balbriggan with children under 3 years old.
“I would like the workshops to be a meeting place for carers to explore their own creative thinking while sharing parenting and childminding tips with one another” says Cliodhna.
“I am very much looking for learning together through process rather than product and I am really looking forward to exploring the diverse heritage of the community that is Ireland’s youngest town!”.
The workshops were launched at Hamilton Hall in the Fingal County Council offices with a special performance of the Silver Tree for babies and they will continue on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10.30am until June 6th. To sign up, please send an email to actinguparts3@gmail.com.
Stage 2
An art exhibition around town by members of the early years creche, preschool and school facilities in and around Balbriggan on the themes “Our Community” and “Our Balbriggan”.
Look out for the displays on shop fronts in the main street, and hopefully in Millfield and the Balbriggan Library. What do the youngest citizens feel about their town and how will they represent it in images? Keep your eyes peeled in the month of July for their answers (participants aged 2-5 years).
Acting Up! is very grateful to Katia Silva Campion, who comes on board as the festival assistant for this stage, with her vast network of local knowledge in Balbriggan. Katia hails from Brazil and is raising her young family in Balbriggan, where she feels most at home!
Stage 3
Grasshoppers culminates with an international festival weekend in August just for the early years community in Balbriggan. This will be the first (and only) dedicated event to 0-6 years in the area and we hope to have full houses for all events!!! Artists will travel to Balbriggan from Romania, Croatia, Lithuania and Belgium to present specialised performances for the 0-6 years audience!
The festival will open with a first ever BUGGY PARADE on Friday 16th August. Decorate your buggy/sling/carseat in your own style and come along to the square in front of Balbriggan library!
(Programme will be released later this month – book early to avoid disappointment. Places are limited as the audience is very young.)
Why celebrate the early years community?
All sorts of research and statistical evidence now points to the importance of stimulation in a baby’s first months and years. Balbriggan is the youngest and fastest growing town in Ireland.
We would like all our citizens to feel included in the development of our home by the sea and so we dedicate a festival just to our babies, toddlers and preschoolers! The festival reflects the diversity in the community and the performers bring a unique and vibrant cultural experience to the community of Balbriggan!
Through the arts we can learn more about each other – our languages, heritage, customs and traditions. We can celebrate what we have in common and look forward to inviting more communities into Balbriggan to the festival for early years as it grows, like its audience, into the future!
Contact: Cliodhna Noonan (Acting Up! Arts)
Bookings : Actinguparts3@gmail.com
