Introduction
Westmeath County Council invites quotations from suitably qualified and experienced personnel to prepare a Culture & Creative Strategy for Westmeath.
At the same time, it is the intention of the Arts Office and Library Service of Westmeath County Council to develop their respective 5 year strategies (Arts Strategy and Library Development Plan).
The successful tender will work with the Arts Officer and County Librarian to deliver elements of their strategies as outlined below (Arts Strategy, Library Strategy) in addition to the County Cultural Strategy.
It is the intention that the County Cultural Strategy will be the overarching strategy, and will relate to and have links with the Arts and Library Strategies and that the completed document will set out a Culture and Creative Strategy for County Westmeath.
The successful tenderer will be required to comply with the scope of the requirements set out in this Brief.
Background
The Creative Ireland Programme is the Government’s Legacy Programme for Ireland 2016 – a five-year initiative, from 2017 to 2022, which places creativity at the centre of public policy. It is a high-level, high-ambition, all-of-government initiative to mainstream creativity in the life of the nation so that individually and collectively, in our personal lives and in our institutions, we can realise our full creative potential.
The Creative Ireland Programme is a culture-based programme designed to promote individual, community and national wellbeing. The core proposition is that participation in cultural activity drives personal and collective creativity, with significant implications for individual and societal wellbeing and achievement.
The Creative Ireland Programme is also the main implementation vehicle for the priorities identified in the Government’s policy document, Culture 2025 – Éire Ildánach which states that arts and culture are intrinsic to the Irish State, acknowledges the need to increase access to, and participation in the arts, boost our creative industries, and preserve our heritage with a particular focus on language, landscape and the environment.
The programme is built around the themes of identity, culture and citizenship. The core operating principles are Collaboration and Communication, Community Empowerment, and Internationalisation.
Local authorities have a crucial role in the overall local delivery of the entire Creative Ireland programme and are exclusively mandated, through their culture teams, to deliver Pillar 2 of the programme – Enabling Creativity in Every Community. This devolution of responsibility for Creative Ireland to local authorities is inspired by the extraordinary impact of collaborative local authority co-ordinated projects for the centenary of 1916.
Please see Request for Quotation Culture Plan attached below for more details.
Submission details
One hard copy of the tender and one electronic copy of the tender should be submitted no later than 5.00 Thursday, August 31st, 2017. Email arts@westmeathcoco.ie
Queries can be submitted by email to arts@westmeathcoco.ie with the subject ‘Creative Strategies’ in the subject line. All queries must be submitted by August 23th, 2017.
The hard copy should be submitted in an official envelope clearly marked Tender for Westmeath Culture Plans, and addressed to:
Arts Office,
Westmeath County Council,
Aras an Chontae,
Mullingar,
Co. Westmeath.