What’s Inside Our 5km: A Creative Placemaking Pilot for Claregalway

The project invites people living in Claregalway to explore, map and reimagine their place through accessible and inclusive creative engagement. It provides a positive and welcoming way to record the stories that have shaped Claregalway and to express shared aspirations for its future.

Using inclusive creative methods such as guided place-walks, storytelling, drawing and visual mapping, the project will gather local knowledge, memories and ideas from a broad cross-section of the community, reflecting Claregalway as a lived place, shaped by people, landscape and heritage. The pilot offers a gentle entry point to arts participation while generating creative research that can inform future placemaking, regeneration and town-planning initiatives.

The project will consist of:

- 2 community engagement creative workshops using drawing, mapping and storytelling at the community centre

- An open invitation for residents to share stories, ideas and reflections on place

- A guided historical walk and outdoor sketching session

- Creative workshops with primary and post-primary schools in Claregalway, designed to spark curiosity, creativity and early interest in place, mapping and the built environment

- A final exhibition at the Community Centre, with outcomes shared online to widen engagement

Creative outputs generated by the community will be compiled into a bilingual (Irish and English) publication as a shared community resource, with elements of the final presentation delivered as Gaeilge