Making Art In Our Community Events

Haunted House
Every Halloween, our Coop placement students from different third level institutions are tasked with converting the basement of the Learning Hub into a terrifying Haunted House. Normally reserved for music classes and workshop activities, our coops take over the basement for a week using props, sound effects and acting in horrific roles to convert the space into our own catacombs of doom. Families from the area are then invited to take a tour of the basement. Guided through the labyrinthine chamber of horrors, they are led on a terrifying journey pursued by ghouls, vampires, zombies and anything else that can or can’t be imagined. Most emerge from the tour genuinely frightened but many want to go back for more! A real day for the community, children attend with parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts and older siblings and, after the tour, are treated to some festive delights in our Youth Café. Now very much an annual event, the Hub Haunted House is eagerly anticipated by all in the community. Do you enjoy a scare? Maybe you should drop by the Learning Hub next Halloween!

St. Patrick’s Day Parade
The Learning Hub takes part in the Limerick City St. Patrick’s Day Parade every year. Preparation for the parade begins in late November of the preceding year. Workshops are done with young people attending the Hub to decide what theme will be adopted for our entry. Drawings are done, prototypes developed and designs agreed upon. As soon as an overall theme and design have been approved, we begin work on the actual float. Then materials are acquired and building can begin in earnest. Children come to weekly workshops from January to March to make develop costumes, making musical instruments and props as well as building the float. All but the most labour-intensive tasks are done by the children with the heavier lifting carried out by Learning Hub staff and members of the community. On the week of the parade all the last-minute work is done and on the day before the parade we go through a ‘run through’ to make sure that we have everything that we need and that everything is working as it should. On the day of the parade itself, all the logistics come into place. Staff, volunteers and parents help to get the children into the city and get our float through the city. Always a success, from the very beginnings to collection of the children in town and getting the float back to the Hub, our parade entry has received several awards over the years. More importantly, children and families have grown to love taking part in the parade and it has become a flagship event in our calendar. We welcome all who want to take part, maybe you could join us for the next parade?