IDEATE is a multi-disciplinary mini-festival about making. It explores and celebrates craft, design and creativity through experimentation and collaboration and aims to build a
community of practice actively engaged with innovation, technology and design. The festival has been devised and produced by the Crafts Council of Ireland and the National
Craft Gallery to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Kilkenny Design Workshops. It is part of the Gathering Kilkenny 2013 programme, Kilkenny and funded via
the INNOCRAFTS programme as part of INTERREG IV. It is sponsored by Allied Irish Bank and the Pembroke Hotel.
At the centre of IDEATE are two seminars mapping current terrain; Making Things explores how user-focused design and shifts in technology are transforming relationships between object, maker and user in the 21st Century; and Making Worlds explores the active roles that craft, design and creativity are playing in the civic space, looking at planning, sustainability, and inclusive methodologies.
The INNOCRAFTS strand offers information and access to design processes and digital technology through talks, discussions and hands-on practice. It includes a packaging design
workshop with industrial designer, Jordan Ralph; a simple, low-cost route into the world of digital fabrication with The Civic Works; practical workshopsin Solidworks and Haptic
Modelling with designCORE; and Design Intelligence, a trio of talks exploring different models of excellence in practice.
The Exhibitions strand includes Making Things Better at the National Craft Gallery, in which emerging talents Designgoat and Derek Wilson respond to objects from the National
Museum of Ireland to create new prototypes which will be shown at the London Design Festival in September 2013; The Secret of Kells, an exhibition of prints by the Oscar nominated and multi-award winning Kilkenny-based animation studio, Cartoon Saloon; and Pallet to Product, a nationwide design challenge to innovate sustainably.
At the heart of all of this, is Kilkenny city – once home to the Kilkenny Design Workshops, now home of the Crafts Council of Ireland, the National Craft Gallery, Cartoon Saloon, and
the many creative practitioners both from and based here, a selection of whom are participating in Creative City – a series of inspirational talks by significant figures such as
AnnaO’Sullivan, curator of the Irish Pavilion atthe 2013 Venice Biennale; Ross Stewart, the artistic vision behind two Oscar-nominated animated feature films; Mel O’Rourke, Director
of themulti-award winning design agency, Creative Inc; and Naoise Nunn, Artistic Director of the Sky Cat Laughs Comedy Festival and Programme Director of the Kilkenomics festival of
economics, both based in Kilkenny city. There is also a Creative City film night featuring more incredible Kilkenny talent, including David O’Reilly, recently awarded the World
Culture Council Leonardo da Vinci Award for his services to animation.

The packed two-day programme also includes a variety of drop-in creative activities, films on  design and craft, live music, street food, craft beer and an exciting live-art Draw-Off between the Cartoon Saloon team versus Kilkenny-born craft-punk artist Mick Minogue. Make sure to like our the IDEATE festival facebook page to keep up-to-date on the programme and events – https://www.facebook.com/ideatefestival
For further info –
e: ideate@ccoi.ie
http://www.ideatefestival.com