Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media

Music Network was established by the Arts Council in 1986 to develop music on a nationwide basis. The organisation is committed to making music accessible to all
people in Ireland, regardless of circumstance or location.
Various healthcare centres around the country participated in the initial Concerts in Healthcare Environments project, including residential centres for older people, day
centres for older people, central remedial clinics, residential centres for adults with learning difficulties, educational training centres for young people with physical and/or
learning disabilities and one general hospital. In this initial project, 22 concerts were held in 22 centres. Nine musicians were involved in the concerts, which drew an estimated audience of 900 people.

In this programme, two phases of which have taken place to date, participatory workshops and performances took place in six long-stay residential and day care centres in the Midland Health Board region. Each phase consisted of six weeks of activity in each participating centre. Phase one ran from April to June 2000, and phase two from October to December 2000. Two facilitators led each phase of the programme, each working with two other professional musicians in three venues. The aims were to provide older people accessing day-care or living in residential care environments with access to live music experiences, including performances and participative workshops and to measure the impact of these experiences within participating centres