Lockdown Letters

Hi there, 

How are you doing today?

We hope you and your family are staying safe and sane during these strange days.
We’ve been thinking about how we stay connected. It’s not easy.
Some of us have to stay indoors all the time. Others mostly all of the time.
We’ve had letters and postcards through our letterboxes that made us smile.
We’ve got emotional sending messages of support and solidarity to others.
Some of us have wifi, Social Media and laptops. Some of us don’t.

So, we’re starting LOCKDOWN LETTERS. To try to stay connected to as many of our communities and programmes as we can. We’d love you to join us by writing or emailing a letter to us or send us a video letter via our Facebook or Twitter during this lockdown.

You can talk about anything
But if you’re stuck for a beginning. Maybe these might help?

“I’ve been thinking about the last time…”
“I’ve been thinking about the first time…”
“I’m remembering a moment of resilience that helped me to adjust to what’s happening now…”
“I once saw the most beautiful …”
“My first demonstration was when I was 14, it was for…”
“Living here I often wonder…”
“I’m wondering, what’s coming next…”

But really, write about anything you want, as long or as short as you like.
If you don’t want to write maybe you can draw, or send a voice note or video.
If you don’t want to do anything, that’s ok too. We just wanted to get in touch anyway. See how you’re doing.

Maybe at the other side of all this we’ll make something out of all these letters, a sort of time capsule of these days together, an exhibition, a song, a show, a sculpture, who knows.

But mostly we’re looking forward to hearing from you, reading your words, seeing your faces, and hearing your thoughts now anyway.

We’ve tried to make it easy to send LOCKDOWN LETTERS.

Here are the ways you can get involved:

Via Post: Lockdown Letters, Project Fatima, PO. Box 13171, Dublin 8.

Via email: lockdownlettersfatima2020@gmail.com

Yours sincerely,

Joe Donohoe, Fatima Groups United

Veronica Dyas, Project Arts Centre

#LockdownLetters   #ALLINVirtualStudio   #ProjectFatimaALLIN

Project Fatima: ALL IN is a Collaborative Arts Engagement Programme for 2020 supported by the Ireland Funds. Our intention is to develop the relationship between Fatima Groups United and Project Arts Centre.  ALL IN began in January 2020, we were just getting started when the Pandemic shifted everything. For 4 weeks we introduced some of the Project Artists to the Fatima Community via the ALL IN Virtual Studio, we tried to imagine in these conversations the ways we might work together in the future unknown. We were concerned though, that these chats were only going one way, from Project to the Fatima Community without the means to generate a two way conversation. Our motivation is to create a real and ongoing collaborative arts engagement. With this in mind, we hope that LOCKDOWN LETTERS will help to continue that conversation. While hosted by Project Fatima, it’s an open invitation for everyone to get involved and be part of ALL IN.

Keep up to date with Fatima Groups United and Project Fatima: ALL IN on Twitter and on Facebook.

Fatima Groups United (FGU) is a family resource centre based in Rialto, where many people experience disadvantage and poverty. FGU led the transformative social and physical regeneration of the flat complex Fatima Mansions and is based in the widely used F2 Community Centre. FGU supports the local community in the areas of health and wellbeing, education, employment, arts, childcare, counselling supports, information and advice, family support and advocacy, civic awareness and community development. It is a lead organisation in the development of Social Prescribing (including social prescriptions to the arts and green prescriptions to nature). While there is a long history of FGU initiated community arts practices there is still a low level of cultural participation in formal arts organisations. It is a key aim of this organisation to extend the scope and depth of its arts programming by creating access points to professional arts and cultural resources in the city and build long term collaborative relationships with professional artists.
www.fgu.ie

The Ireland Funds is a global philanthropic network established in 1976 to promote and support peace, culture, education and community development throughout the island of Ireland, and Irish-related causes around the world. With chapters in 12 countries, The Ireland Funds has raised over $600 million for deserving causes in Ireland and beyond, benefiting more than 3,200 different organizations.
www.irelandfunds.org

Project Arts Centre is Ireland’s leading centre for the presentation and development of contemporary art, dedicated to protecting the independent sector and nurturing the next generation of Irish artists across all forms of the performing and visual arts.
A home for contemporary arts, a producing house, a resource for artists and a critical hub, Project works with artists across all art forms to make and present extraordinary works that inspire and provoke.
www.projectartscentre.ie