Alternative Energies receives funding from Arts Council Northern Ireland

16th January 2025

We were incredibly pleased to receive funding from Arts Council Northern Ireland to support Alternative Energies – our community-based arts project benefitting older people.  The funding received is part of the National Lottery Arts and Older People Programme, a pioneering initiative funded by The National Lottery and Public Health Agency, which aims to tackle loneliness as-well as promote positive mental health and well-being among older people, through engagement with the arts.

The National Lottery Arts and Older People Programme was established by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland in 2010 and is now a cross-governmental partnership with funding also from the Public Health Agency. The programme has been designed to challenge perceptions of what it means to be an older person, empower participants, and give older people a voice. To date the programme has provided over £2m funding to community organisations and voluntary groups across Northern Ireland in the delivery of over 272 arts projects to older people.

Alternative Energies is an intergenerational dance project which brings together young people aged 15-18 years with elders 65+ in Ballycastle, County Antrim, to meet, create and have fun.  By taking part in dance workshops and performances, older and young people from the same community are given an important opportunity to engage in the arts.

Alternative Energies is free to join and sessions take place weekly on a Wednesday from 4pm to 5:30pm starting again on Wednesday 22nd January 2025.  They take place in Sheskburn Recreation Centre, 7 Mary St, Ballycastle BT54 6QH.   For more information, please contact deborah@dudanceni.com.

We are looking forward to seeing you all there and if you haven’t been before, come along and give it a go! 

Thanks to National Lottery Players and money raised for good causes for the continued support for this programme.