Minister Says Older People Have Vast Bank of Knowledge & Experience to bring to Creative Activities
The Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Séamus Brennan T.D., today (Monday, 22nd April 2008) urged older people to become more involved in artistic and creative activities through which they can tap into their vast reservoir of experience, knowledge and wisdom to remain active, involved and fulfilled long into their later years.
Minister Brennan was speaking In Dublin when launching the Bealtaine Festival 2008, a national arts festival celebrating creativity in older age, which runs from 1st-31st May. This year's festival will feature some 1,500 events in theatre, literature, dance, film, storytelling, music, painting and sculpture throughout the country.
Minister Brennan said the Bealtaine Festival sends out the clear message that creativity in its many shapes and forms can improve with age.
"Increasing access to and participation in the arts is something that I am especially committed to driving forward", the Minister said. "I am pleased that a number of the policies we are now working on are targeted at opening up creative, cultural and artistic opportunities to wider audiences, regardless of age, regardless of social background and regardless of nationality. As the Bealtaine' Festival has demonstrated year after year, our older citizens bring to the arts a vast reservoir of experience, knowledge and wisdom. These are citizens whose dedication, sacrifice and vision have built this vibrant 21st century Ireland that we see around us today".
Minister Brennan added: "Indeed, every opportunity I get I remind the new generations who believe they alone are responsible for our Celtic Tiger success that, in reality, they are merely standing on the shoulders of the men and women who in this country, and as exiles abroad, kept Ireland afloat during the bad times and helped lay the foundations for economic revival and later spectacular success".
In celebrating the voices and experiences of older people, the Festival facilitates individuals to meet and collaborate with artists and to explore their own creative identities through theatre, literature, dance, film, storytelling, music, painting and sculpture.
Minister Brennan said the festival celebrates the fact that the individual spirit is as strong in someone of 80 years as in someone of 30.
As Seamus Heaney said in his work 'Station Ireland':
"Take off from here. And don't be so earnest,
so ready for the sackcloth and the ashes.
Let go, let fly, forget.
You've listened long enough. Now strike your note".
Minister Brennan added; "I'm also much taken by the response of the American writer and poet Oliver Wendell Holmes, who when asked about how he felt on reaching his 70th year, replied "To be 70 years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be 40 years old". In many ways that sentiment sums up for me the spirit of the ‘Bealtaine' Festival. It is about discovery, rediscovery and the well-spring of new opportunities and limitless possibilities long into the future".