Governance

Listowel Writers’ Week and the National Children’s Literary Festival are governed by a voluntary board of Directors. See list of Directors above. Listowel Writers’ Week and the National Children’s Literary Festival are committed to good governance and are compliant with the Governance Code since November 2018. See HERE.   The organisation complies with all regulatory requirements and operates in accordance with its governing document, available HERE.

Listowel Writers’ Week and the National Children’s Literary Festival keeps detailed books and records of accounts and maintains strict financial controls. The organisation is transparent in its audited financial statements, with most recent statements (2020) available HERE.

Listowel Writers’ Week and the National Children’s Literary Festival are open, honest and fully transparent in their fundraising activities, the proceeds of which all go towards the primary activity of organising and promoting annual literary festivals for both adults and children. Listowel Writers’ Week and the National Children’s Literary Festival confirmed compliance with the Statement of Guiding Principles of Good Fundraising developed by Irish Charities Tax Research Ltd (ICTR) See more….  Public Compliance Statement HERE.

Complaints, Feedback and Comments

Any complaints, comments and feedback can be addressed to: Catherine Moylan, Listowel Writers’ Week, 24 The Square, Listowel, Co. Kerry Tel: 068 21074

Name and Registered Address:

Writers’ Week Company Limited by Guarantee
24, The Square, Listowel, Co. Kerry, Ireland V31 RD93
Writers’ Week Limited is a company limited by guarantee and is a not for profit arts organisation.
See Memorandum and Articles of Association

Registered Number: 55241
Registered Charity: Chy8045
Registered Charity No. 20019112

Writers’ Week Company Limited by Guarantee is trading as Listowel Writers’ Week and the National Children’s Literary Festival.

Board of Directors

Simone Langemann – Festival Officer

Eamonn Dillon (Chairperson) – appointed 2024
Dr Faye Boland – appointed 2023
Sean Lynch – appointed 2023
Robert Vance – autumn 2023
Margaret Sheehan – appointed 2023
Noel Keenan – appointed 2024
Senator Ned O’Sullivan – appointed 2024

 

Directors’ Biographies HERE

Listowel Writers’ Week Artistic Policy 2020 – 2025

Listowel Writers’ Week provides a creative and entertaining festival that inspires its participants and, by encouraging engagement in the arts, enriches cultural life locally, nationally and internationally.

The main tenets of our artistic policy are as follows;

* Promote access to works of literary excellence in the various genres of writing to diverse audiences whist ensuring value for money within budgetary constraints.

* Curate a spread of art forms to engage and entertain. Sub-committees discuss how literature, art, theatre, film, drama, music and poetry fit into our programme, and these can be developed in order to support the framework of engagement and development of our audiences.

* Provide a forum for emerging, established, mid-career, senior, significant or honorific artists to include local, national and international artists.

* Enable writers to advance their skills and develop their careers with forums for meeting other writers, publishers and writers’ agents etc.

* Guarantee that artists are always fairly and equitably remunerated.

* Ensure gender balance and social diversity across the programme of events.

* Encourage an outlet for artists from groups that are at risk of discrimination or exclusion and support artists from a diverse range of communities.

* Welcome and embrace different ideas on presentation and context.

* Evaluate artists’ suitability for participation and inclusion in the programme of events to enhance and achieve the KPI’s of our audience development strategy.

* Enable the creative processes of writing through literary workshops for children and adults delivered by reputable and professional facilitators.

* Engage with school children and young adults. Our family and school events programme which runs over four days, covers the age group from birth to 12-13year olds. It is fully inclusive, offers disabled access and events specifically programmed to ensure inclusion and cultural diversity across the festival.

In addition, and under the same premise, we run a day long festival for young adults, 13-15+ year olds – Young Adult Book Festival, also known as YA Book Fest.

* Develop partnerships with strategic partners, local authorities, organisations, community, government authorities and other stakeholders thus facilitating evidence-based decision making for the purposes of future planning and curation of the festival including professional development of volunteers.

* Consult with attendees, strategic partners, stakeholders, community and local authorities each year with a desired outcome of monitoring and evaluating the demographics to ascertain what steps are necessary to further increase our audiences, deepen our relationship with our audiences and diversify to become more inclusive in terms of audience development and public engagement.

* Host multi-disciplinary arts events during the year to engage with the local community.

Listowel Writers’ Week remains committed to being an inclusive and welcoming festival that willingly and enthusiastically collaborates with artists, arts organisations, communities, government authorities, and other stakeholders in pursuit of the mutual goals of Making Great Art Work.

Listowel Writers’ Week Child Protection Policy

Listowel Writers’ Week Child Protection & Welfare Policy document can be viewed here.