The Museum of Local Happiness is a site-specific project bringing together four international artists who live in Kildare with young people from Newbridge and the surrounding areas.
The project runs from September to December 2026 and is supported by the Creative Communities strand of the Creative Kildare fund, managed by Kildare County Council.
Participants will devise short performances and art installations that share and record their relationship with particular local public spaces that bring them happiness. These spaces might be a quiet part of the park near the river, a skatepark where they socialise and have fun, a wall where they gather and talk, or a bench on the street where they meet their friends.
Each artist will work with two young people to discover these spaces. Together, they will create a short performance located in the chosen space. This gives young people the opportunity to work with a trained theatre-maker from another country.
The performances will be staged together as a daytime promenade in early winter. Audiences will move from one space to another to experience each performance. The idea is that each space will be memorialised in the same way that exhibits in a museum are shared. The audience will see each space through the eyes of the young person for whom it holds significant positive meaning.
Through this project, we hope to enrich the local environment and draw attention to the importance of nature in supporting our emotional wellbeing.
Decisions about the length of performances, the location of each piece, and the timing of rehearsals will be made by the director and participants together. The project manager is Graham Butler Breen, who oversees and manages the project.
The performances can take any form, including:
- Narrative, character and plot-driven work
- Monologue
- Movement or dance
- Immersive performance involving the audience
Please check our newsletter for updates about artists, performances and dates.
Enquiries about this project should be directed to info@crookedhouse.ie.
Apply
To apply to take part as a young person in this project please go to the Google Form linked here and complete it:
