Museum of Everyone sets the beat for Offaly

THIRTEEN strong young dancers from the Donlon Dance Company, led by founder Amy Donlon and choreographed by internationally acclaimed breakdance and hip hop dancer, Tobi Omseto, brought their Hip Hop moves to Lloyd Town Park on Saturday last as part of Museum of Everyone’s (MOE) inaugural program for collaboration and creativity.

Once the rain passed, many families had gathered across the green and paved terrace to enjoy an energetic execution of a well rehearsed and exciting dance performance, a welcome treat for all present after many months without live in-person performances. The show was being live streamed through Museum of Everyone Instagram and Facebook accounts with a full video production in the pipelines.

The crew has been rehearsing with Tobi and the Donlon Dance Company for 3 months online with only 1 previous meet up with Tobi before Saturday. Tobi trained at Broadway Dance Centre & the birthplace of Hip-Hop - New York; he has been dancing for 15 years. On-screen he has performed on Sky’s Got to Dance, hit US TV show Penny Dreadful and in numerous music videos and commercials, events and choreographies.

Donlon Dance Company teaches Contemporary, African Contemporary, Hip/Hop and Dancehall with emphasis on the development of Technique and Performance. Their aim is to instill confidence and enjoyment of Contemporary and Hip/Hop dance, with a goal of competing at Dance competitions and performing at dance-related events.

Museum of Everyone

The Museum of Everyone, an inclusive portable platform for artists and creatives, aims to amplify a diverse range of voices and perspectives through both artist and community-led collaborative initiatives. The programme aims to engage with artists, underrepresented groups, and the public by developing an active platform for creativity within the community. Brendan Fox, a local Tullamore man, now based in Dublin, is the Curator behind this progressive project. Brendan is bringing a world of arts and curation experience that is already making this project stand out from the crowd.

With workshops, talks, collaborations and cutting edge installations taking place now and all over the summer, Tullamore is seeing a strong creative community develop. grow and learn together.

Moe Family Art Challenge

As part of the drive to bring more creativity into our homes, Tullamore Tidy Towns and Tullamore Credit Union have teamed up with MOE to offer €1,000 to one lucky family in this exciting art challenge. A family can be defined as a group of two people or more related by birth, marriage, or adoption and residing together. To enter, a family should send their creative family portrait by email to moefamilychallenge@gmail.com and add a narrative about your family. Once you have entered and received confirmation from a member of the MOE team, a series of weekly art challenges will start in July, running over 3 weeks. Everyone in your family has a part in each week’s artwork, either in front of the camera, or behind the scenes. Each family submits three pieces of work. These will be judged and the winning family will win a prize of €1,000. To allow for students to finish their exams, MOE has extended the deadline for entry to Thursday 8th July. They thank everyone who has entered already, and hope they will remain excited for the new launch date. The competition is open to families based in Offaly, of all shapes and sizes. The winner will be announced on Friday 6th August.

A number of projects will be based in Offaly over the next number of months. To learn more about the Museum of Everyone, connect with their social media channels and visit www.museumofeveryone.com for the latest updates.