A to Z of arts for children

TO celebrate Culture Night on Sept 20, four children’s arts organisations have teamed up to showcase arts productions for babies and toddlers and their parents.

They can experience music, theatre and the visual arts in counties Cork, Westmeath, and Sligo.

In Cork, Graffiti Theatre Company, whose 2012 ‘baby culture night’ inspired this year’s showcase, will present Lullabies and Lavender, in association with Music Generation Cork, bringing composer and singer, Fiona Kelleher’s lullabies to children aged up to three years.

Also in Cork, Acting Up Arts will present Silver Tree, a relaxing, first-time theatre experience for babies aged up to nine months and their carers. This introduces early stimulation through lighting, music, rhyme and simple vocal engagement, under a silver-and-crystal tree.

In Sligo, Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership presents ‘lull for babies’, inviting parents, and babies aged six to18 months, to enjoy a gentle, soothing space in the company of an artist and a musician. In Westmeath, mums and babies will chill out in a specially designed jazz lounge, as part of the regular, Friday morning ‘baby café’ in Mullingar.

Helene Hugel, artistic director of Helium, an arts-and-health organisation for children and one of the four bodies involved in the Culture Night babies’ programme, says the ‘baby café’ will have an extra-sensory quality next Friday. “It will be a soft, plush play area, with lights and interactive mobiles hanging from the ceiling. There’ll be a jazz musician in the corner and interactive play with fabrics and feathers,” says Helene, a puppeteer, who has brought her 16-month-old, Lily, to a weekly mum-and-baby music class.

She says the creative arts develop children’s brains through socialising and extra-sensory stimulus. “It’s very much about another space where you can be with your child, away from the home and the routine that you grow into as a parent with a baby. You’re constantly looking after their physical needs — sleeping, eating, washing. You have creative moments scattered through the day, but it’s lovely to have this other, creative space, where you can just be with your child.”

Miriam Mulrennan, Westmeath Co Council arts officer, says the babies’ Culture Night programme is about fun and the spontaneous creativity it encourages. “There’s also the ‘science bit’ — we know, from various studies, the importance of music in early education and development for children. The physiology of creativity suggests we should start ‘firing-up’ our creative minds as early as possible.”

* Visit www.babyculturenight.wordpress.com/