Sligo County Council, through the Sligo Healthy Ireland Fund 2019-2021 has commissioned four artists to creatively capture Sligo walks to explore the relationship between people and their environment.
Take a Walk for Me
Take a Walk for Me
The idea around the Take a walk for Me project is to present an opportunity to support Older People’s wellbeing during the pandemic, to creatively connect with them during a time of social isolation.
As journalist David Farrier says, the Coronavirus has “brought us back into the age of the foot instead of the age of the wheel”. Why do we walk for pleasure? One reason is connection to nature which speaks to us through our senses and our feelings and memories. Walking clears our head and helps us to reflect calmly. Our mind and body are simultaneously engaged and present. The artist, Richard Long once said “It is always possible to walk in new ways”
Call Out
This is a time when so many people are missing their favourite walks which might be just out of reach. We ask older members of our Sligo community to share their favourite walk with us.
Where would they like one of our artists to take a walk for them? The artist will aim to transport you through their artistic senses into the outdoors to rediscover a favourite walk through their own sensory experience. We would like walks suggested from all parts of County Sligo to choose from.
The ‘Take a Walk for Me’ project aims to explore four of the suggested walks through song, visual imagery, written word and soundscape recordings whilst also investigating the history of walking and its social meaning. A selection of the visual imagery and written word created will be presented as postcards during the Bealtaine Festival Sligo May 2021 and will be distributed widely throughout the community via Active Age groups, Walking groups, Men’s shed groups and Nursing Homes.
If you have a favourite walk to suggest for one of our four artists, please share it with us. Where is your walk? Have you a story to tell us about your walk? To tell us about your walk you can:
Text Catherine on 086 8424 969
Put pen to paper and send it to: Take a Walk for Me project, Sligo Arts Office, City Hall, Quay Street, Sligo, F91 PP44
Email, catherinefanning@hotmail.com (heading: Take a Walk for Me project)