Tower Songs
Tower Songs is a long term city-wide arts project in Dublin, Ireland. The project seeks to make visible the collective memory and experience of a number of Dublin communities as they make the transition from tower block living, via major urban regeneration initiatives. Tower Songs was conceived as a response to the extent of development in Dublin where the social and architectural landscape of the city is being significantly transformed. The project works through voice sound and song to explore the various collective historical and personal narratives of place in these communities. Tower Songs collaborates with youth and community development organisations in Dublin to realise a series of community based performances across the city where the experience of regeneration resonates.
'A New Day', performed by The Ballymun Music Programme and friends, The Helix, Feb '09.
The project is led by CityArts, an arts organisation with a long history of developing work in community contexts in the city. Tower Songs has a dedicated artist team who collaborate with a number of youth and community development organisations and residents of tower block estates in different parts of the city. Working closely with the Rialto Youth Project and Fatima Groups United, the project has realised performances by residents in Dolphin House and Fatima Mansions in Dublin's south inner city in 2005 and 2006 respectively. In 2007 through the Ballymun Partnership, Tower Songs worked with a group of older residents in Ballymun on the north side of the city. In 2008 and 2009, the project worked with the Ballymun Music Programme and composer Daragh O Toole, culminating in a large scale performance, 'A New Day', by 270 young people from Ballymun and members of the RTE performing groups, under David Brophy in February 2009.
Performances
- 'Leaving Ballymun' Performance, Axis Theatre, 2008
Documentary Films
- Leaving Ballymun (2007-08) by Fergus Tighe
- Tower Songs, Fatima (2006-07) by Aoibheann O Sullivan
Tower Songs Artist Team
- Daragh O'Toole, Composer
- Brian Fleming, Project Leader
- George Higgs, Composer (2005 & 2006)
- Sean Millar, Singer Song Writer
- Ailbhe Murphy, Artist (2003 to 2006)
Ballymun Players, Tower Songs Ballymun, 2007
New Day Rehearsal, St Joseph's Ballymun Jan 2009
