Words of wisdom from older generations are being shared with children throughout Ireland and as far afield as the US, thanks to A Book of Hope, edited and illustrated by artist Ana Colomer.
As part of Clare County Council’s Keep Well campaign, Clare Arts Office supported Ana to create the book under the Cúram initiative. Ana invited older writers to submit pieces about aspects of life when they were growing up. She then illustrated each submission.
The first copy of A Book of Hope was presented to one of the contributors, Mary McMahon. Mary, in turn, has passed the book on to her grandchildren.
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In recognition of the benefit that arts and creativity can bring in assisting individuals and communities in this challenging time, Clare Arts Office created the Cúram awards, an initiative as part of Clare County Council’s ‘Keep Well’ campaign.
There was a very strong reaction to this call and some wonderful proposals were received. Awards have been made to poet Grace Wells, traditional singer Rachel Uí Fhaoláin, theatre practitioner Jenny Bassett, and artists Tim Humphries, Róisín Kelly and Ana Colomer.
Ana’s project, A Book of Hope, is the first project to start. Ana is inviting older writers to submit a short story, letter or poem, written to a child in their life, for her new project. It could be written to a grandchild, a nephew or niece, a friend’s child, or even to themselves when they were little. It could be factual or fictional, but she is asking them to write about life as they knew it when they were children, and mention things such as toys, g