Help to wake The Dragon of Shandon, 2023!

Re-emerging from the underworld, the 36-foot Dragon made by the hands of the Cork City community will once again prowl the streets escorted by her legion of loyal ghouls, beasts, misfits and spooky creatures to celebrate the ancient tradition of Samhain in a thrilling nighttime parade and Finale Show attracting thousands of spectators, young and old, to Cork City on the 31st of October.

A true grassroots event that began by asking the people of Cork, what do you want in your city? The event has grown into a real-life urban legend and myth, showcasing a night for the community, built by and with the community of Cork City, it is The Dragon of Shandon that belongs to the people of Cork and CCAL need the support of the city to bring her back, bolder and brighter than ever!!

Does this sound like a project you would like to support? Great! Because we need your help! With the growing demand for group participation and our ethos to try and keep providing as many free workshops for the community as we can, CCAL needs the public’s support now more than ever to continue bringing this one of a kind community driven event to the streets of Cork for the benefit of all.

They say it takes a village to raise a child, but to raise a Dragon, we need an entire City!

Every donation big or small will be felt by CCAL on our mission to bringing the Dragon to life and always removing barriers to creativity, arts education and cultural democracy.

So join us!

Partake in this inspirational venture and support an arts charity that has been bringing the people of Cork together through creative and inclusive community art projects for the past 30 years! Every Donation will help us finance The Dragon of Shandon and assist in building it together with the city.

5 Euro

Will feed our hungry, hungry Dragon of Shandon.

10 Euro

Will buy our chief volunteer ‘tapers’ 2 rolls of tape to doctor the dragon back to together and bring our skeleton puppets to life.

Fun fact, there has been 7,200 rolls of tape used on the Dragon to date!

20 Euro

Will mean that you have sponsored a one of the many bone props made for the overall parade by community groups, volunteers, artists and the CCAL crew.

30 Euro

Will buy one floodlight that our art workers will use to animate and light the nighttime parade so the Dragon and her motley crew can parade in their full glory, just as the tradition of Samhain intended.

40 Euro

Will buy materials for costumes, masks and face-paint for one of our 500 parade performers, who volunteer on the night after engaging in our community workshop programme.

50 Euro

Will go towards our free puppeteer training and performance for our skeleton puppeteers! We have a troupe of larger than life and dead to the bone skeleton puppets that lead the Dragon on her walk across the city.

Fun fact, look out for this troupe around the city of Cork in the lead-up to parade on October 31st.

100 Euro

We pay our facilitators fairly, as per the standards set by the Arts Council, by donating 100 euro you have facilitated one free community volunteer workshop.

Fun fact, over the course of our Dragon programme, we run over 30 open and free community volunteer workshops, outside our CETB funded workshops.

Find out more about the Dragon of Shandon Parade at our event website

http://www.dragonofshandon.com/

About Cork Community Art Link

Cork Community Art Link is a community arts organisation and registered charity in Cork, Ireland. We encourage meaningful collaborations between artists and people that result in the creation of great art, bringing creativity to places where people live, work and play. We work with people to create a sense of community identity and collective pride, enabling people to learn more about themselves and the world around them while having fun. Our work engages with people both as participants and spectators in public spaces, developing new ways of connecting with the arts to come along, learn new skills and to make their creative contribution to society.

We specialise in providing equal access to all in the process of art making and performance, often using the streets, the public space, as our canvas for community driven initiatives. At CCAL we believe that everyone should have the chance to experience the benefits of community projects, artistic creation and collaborative work which all contribute to learning and developing new skills, enhance self-esteem, and increase social engagement. We also believe in Cultural Democracy, which means that everyone has their part to say and should be allowed and encouraged to participate in the making of culture and express themselves. We view individual as well as collective creativity as fundamental and necessary rights!

Find out more about Cork Community Art Link on our website

https://www.corkcommunityartlink.com