The Long and Short of It

The Long and Short of It is a community engagement project with older communities.

This creative project engaged the older community (65+) of four areas, Rathvilly, Hacketstown, Myshall and Graiguecullen, across County Carlow. The Long and Short of It is part of ASSEMBLY, the arts participation and community engagement strand of Carlow Arts Festival.

In each area, over seven-weeks of workshops, our participants collaborated with writer Darren Donohue, director Janice de Bróithe, artist Paul Bokslag, and animator and sound designer Seán Parnell to create animated stories inspired by their personal memories and their community’s social histories.

Voiced by the participants, these beautiful and evocative papercut animations bring to life stories of communities gathering for the threshing at harvest-time, children swimming in the River Barrow and young couples dancing to showbands.

Hacketstown's Animation: The Harvest

Hacketstown: Making The Harvest

Rathvilly's Animation: The Marquee

Rathvilly: Making The Marquee

”We are delighted to support this project which has a clear focus not only on the creative process but harnessing this as a vehicle for community engagement and combatting social isolation. 'The Long and Short of It’ has enabled older people to get back out there, rediscover skills and talents and learn new ones in a fun and enthusiastic environment”.

Annette Fox, CEO of Carlow County Development Partnership CLG

The animation and art works created in each place have been shown in local community halls in each location. All the animations and artworks from each area were brought together in a special exhibition at Carlow Arts Festival in June, 2023.

Myshall's Animation: The Community Hall

Myshall: Making The Community Hall

Graiguecullen's Animation: The Barrow

Graiguecullen: Making The Barrow

The Long and Short of It is funded by Creative Ireland’s Creativity in Older Age Fund and delivered in partnership with Carlow Arts Office and Carlow County Development Partnership.