Leaflets Printed

The lovely lads from printworld in Clondalkin have printed our leaflets and they're all ready to send out.

Who can Apply?
Any organisation with a waiting room in Kildare can contact us(leave a comment) to order a set of leaflets to leave for their visitors. The leaflets are issued free with an information and guidelines sheet included in each pack. There is a suggested donation of €20 for each institution, to cover postage and costs but this is not mandatory.

Words Worth Waiting For
Poems in the Waiting Room is a project to supply a short collection of poems for people in waiting rooms in County Kildare. These can be doctor's surgeries, dentists, medical centres, county council offices, hospitals, libraries, clinics, day centres, social welfare offices, NCT centres, anywhere the public has to wait. The waiting room is the one place that at some point, everyone has to pause. It is a room full of strangers that levels us and where we have a chance to reflect. Poetry can help humanise these impersonal places. And hopefully, some people will take away something more than a brief relief to the boredom or worry of the wait. They will take away a newly awakened appreciation of poetry.

What type of poetry?
The poetry is carefully chosen firstly to be accessible. Many people complain of being put off poetry since school so experimental or demanding poetry would not work well in this context. It must also be sensitive to the possible feelings of people in a waiting room, frustrated, worried, even emotionally disturbed. The poetry should speak to all parts of the community. Poems will include those from from contemporary poets with a preference for Kildare based writers. This new work will be put alongside older poems, which are familiar to the older generation, poems for children, which are also enjoyed by adults.

Future
Funds permitting, we will publish more issues. It would be good to tie in poetry readings in some of the waiting rooms. If you have suggestions for poems for future leaflets, please let us know.

Poems in the Waiting Room is supported by the nice people at Kildare County Council Arts Service.

NESF Report shows Arts have strong social bias

We're finally getting closer to a publication. Meanwhile I bring you a report on breaking down the barriers to the arts.

The National Economic Social Forum launched on Monday 25th February 2008 has a report which directly compares people from different social backgrounds who listen to or watch the equivalent amount of arts coverage on TV and radio and found that even with an equivalent interest, people from a less well-off background were much less likely to attend arts events. Dr Maureen Gaffney said "the report underlined the need to dismantle barriers that block participation in cultural events." Surely Poems in the Waiting Room helps with this?

Seamus Brennan the minister called it "a wakeup call for to all of us who ae committed to increasing opportunities for access to arts and culture for all of our people."

Arts for All - including poetry.