For the past 7 years, Donegal County Council, through its Cultural Services Division, has participated, with partners in Iceland and Norway, in an innovative transnational, North Atlantic cultural project entitled, ‘EDGES-Three Sides of the Same Sea’. The project is a co-operative effort combining cultural heritage and contemporary art as a means of strengthening local identity and of sharing experiences to further cultural, educational and tourism development practice in three peripheral regions of the Northern Atlantic. The project partners are Vesterålen Regional Council (Northern Norway), East Iceland Cultural Council and Donegal County Council Cultural Services.
EDGES is based on the collaboration initiated in 2004 between Vesterålen and East Iceland. Donegal joined the partnership in 2007. The coastal areas in these three countries share similarities in terms of economies and cultural traits and are historically linked through the Early Christian and the Viking Eras.
Among the projects completed in recent years have been ‘Awakening The Horsemen’ with LUXe Landscape Theatre Company at An Grianán of Aileach in 2013, and three artists’ residencies in museums in Donegal, Vesterålen and East Iceland between 2010-11 (i. ‘The Teelin Voyage’, ‘Edge of The Pier’ and ‘Edge of The Imagination’). Most recently, the inaugural Ramelton Storytelling Festival (November 8-10, 2013) enjoyed input from visiting Nordic storytellers Berglind Agnarsdottir from East Iceland and Hilde Hansen from Vesteralen, both of whom had their travel to Donegal supported by their respective Cultural Councils. Hilde Hansen’s visit was also supported by the Norwegian Embassy in Ireland.
For further Information on the EDGES project, please contact Donegal County Council Arts Service, see Contact Us or Donegal County Museum, High Road, Letterkenny. Tel: 074 9124613 E: [email protected]
