President Michael D. Higgins speaking about Art, Creativity and Imagination

President Higgins speaking about art, creativity and imagination.

For more information, see https://president.ie/en/specia....l-initiatives/imagin

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“Artist, here in Ireland and all around the world, have always invited us to look at our world in new and creative ways; to celebrate who we are, to aspire to become a better version of ourselves.

Through our art, our music, our dance, we are enabled to connect to our shared past, to celebrate our present as well, and, most important of all, imagine the possibilities for our futures together. Samhlaíocht.

What our culture and our arts give us must never be regarded as something to be enjoyed out of surplus, or having to be let go in times of economic adversity.

Rather, it is that our cultural heritage and practices are at the heart of our identity and the spaces for creativity are as important to us as a nation as the physical infrastructure we build for ourselves.

The cultural space is always wider and larger than the economic space: Because we live together and depend on each other, we need the arts – our music, our dance, our film, our painting, our poetry – to build bridges among people, and to make connections with each other.

It is on the performer and the performative that we rely above all, to encourage the creativity and independence of mind that we need to re-shape the places we inhabit, the dreams we are re-crafting.

So let us continue to dream. Let us continue to love. Let us continue to encourage. Let us continue to create.

For through our creativity, we live.

Beir beannacht.”

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