Our Community
Arts participation has been proven to improve wellbeing and our mental health. Our artistic educational programme, Hawk's Well Pathways aims to provide everyone in our community with the opportunity to learn, develop and express themselves through the transformative power of the arts.
Through Hawk's Well Pathways, we facilitate workshops, provide courses, and create community groups so that everyone can gain the confidence, skills and experience necessary to create something extraordinary.
Engaging with Culture and Creativity
Hawk’s Well Theatre's Cultural Companions was set up in 2019 to create a network of like-minded people interested in arts and culture, who would accompany each other to cultural events. This is a great way to meet new people with shared interests. The aim of the initiative is to provide increased opportunities for older people to engage with Sligo’s vibrant cultural and arts scene.
Learn More About Cultural Companions
Together with Sligo Academy of Music, we formed the Sligo Community Adult Orchestra in 2018. Led by conductor Niamh Crowley, this fun initiative gives both people who play regularly and those who haven't played an instrument in a while, a chance to play as part of a large collective, sharing the joy of music making together.
Past projects have included the following:
During the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 Cultural Companions evolved into Creative Companions, to bring artists and older people together to create new work. You can watch a streamed show all about this project here.
This annual choral participation programme has been running since 2015. Each year we bring people together to celebrate the joy of singing, culminating in a magnificent performance at the theatre at the end of the year. In 2020 and 2021 while we couldn’t hold this event at the theatre, we engaged with our community online to create an online choir and even staged a pop-up performance on Sligo’s main street.
Sligo Acts is a fun acting programme suitable for all levels of experience which has been running since 2018. This programme is suitable for both those with plenty of performances under their belts and those just starting to tread the boards.
We aim to bring all ages together to explore the arts through the workshops and programmes we present throughout the year. Our partnership with Cairde Sligo Arts Festival and Undercurrent saw us produce a series of intercultural dance-share workshops in 2021 where people of all ages and backgrounds explored the universal language that we can all speak – Dance.
Art Education for All
Shine has been running since January 2023. The Hawk’s Well Theatre started the programme of weekly immersive drama workshops for a group of young people with intellectual disabilities. This project aims to achieve greater equality of accessibility by supporting people with intellectual disabilities to access theatre as participants.
Engagement with community groups and support services shaped the programme and Hawk’s Well Theatre partnered with Sligo-Leitrim Community Inclusion Training Services, National Learning Network, This Ability and Down Syndrome Sligo to get the programme up and running, providing a series of immersive drama workshops for young adults with intellectual disabilities, along with training for local artists to work in this area.
Learn More About Shine
There is strong evidence that participation in the arts can contribute to community cohesion, reduce isolation, and make communities feel safer and stronger. Our workshops invite people from all walks of life to journey towards a magical, innovative, creative leap of the imagination that brings everything together.
Have a look at our workshops to see how you can get involved.
Learn More About Our Workshops
Creating Artistic Futures for Young People
We work with various communities and organisations to offer access to the arts for young people. We also collaborate with Music Generation to subsidise half price tickets for u18s for all professional music shows.
Our creative learning programme for young children includes a series of fun weekly music and drama classes for babies and young children as well as a variety of fun workshops and camps throughout the year.
Take part in workshops for young children
Drama at the Well is a fun and engaging drama course which encourages young children to act and participate in many different activities specially designed to explore creativity and build confidence.
Learn more about our workshops for children
Past projects have included the following
A junior book club that inspires the joy of reading developed for & with a focus group of young readers.
Where young people become decision makers at the theatre. The Takeover 2019 saw secondary school students from Sligo, produce, devise and present their original play The Ballad of Burke and Hare at the theatre.
