The Civic Contributes to Tallaght’s Covid-19 Time Capsule

Our last event was  ‘Queen of Technicolor the Maureen O’ Hara Story’ on 12th March, 2022. We then began the process of postponing or cancelling events and issuing refunds, contacting disappointed event managers and reassuring many many worried artists who did not know when their next gig would happen.  In response to this, The Civic set up a go fund me to support artists and raised over €58k.  This initiative received worldwide reaction reaching coverage on RTE, The Guardian in the U.K. and blogs in the U.S.A. We then set about planning on how we would work from home and finally switched off the lights on 20 March 2020. The desk calendar marks this date.

Almost 2 years of stopping and starting, Covid signage and masks, capacity changes and postponements.  We did achieve some great things such as outdoor events for children with Anna Newell, seeding of ideas in Ready, Steady, SHOW! our programme of work for children and young people, an outdoor installation across venues in Tallaght with RedBear Theatre, Cessair from SoloSIRENS outside the Civic along with numerous digital experiences and artists support.

Finally since early 2022, we have returned to full capacity and to a somewhat sense of normality. Our shows are selling out, such is the appetite for live connection and we cannot thank enough our patrons and supporters and our funders The Arts Council and South Dublin County Council for helping us ride the treacherous waves over the past 24 months.  For now the waters seem a bit still and with Spring, fresh hope.

The community-led Tallaght Community Council (TCC) project to gather art, merchandise, letters and momentos from the pandemic that capture our shared experience of Covid-19  will be buried in a specially-made time capsule, created by Tallaght Training Centre.

This is a unique opportunity to be part of Tallaght history and to help tell the story to Tallaght in 2080 of what living through a global pandemic was like.