Testimonials

"Fab Show, a place where children can be children – A huge relief for parents! Also lovely to have a space where children can freely express selves in an artistic context"
Parent, Telling Tall & Tiny Tales

"I love coming to The Ark. The staff are wonderful, the building has a sense of magic about it. A very important space for cultivating our children's’ imaginations and curiosity"
Parent

"A lovely mix of seeing/experiencing and doing. Amazing place, educational, creative, lots of room, great staff who are interested in children"
Parent, Awakening Curiosity

"I loved it! I'd come a million times if I could"
Elizabeth (Aged 9)

“A sterling put-your-money-where-your-mouth-is salute to children’
The Irish Times

“It’s fantastic to have a place like this”
RTÉ

“Brilliantly designed – a remarkable building”
Times Education Supplement

“Put simply, The Ark means opportunity. A former Presbyterian Church, but now almost a fairy-tale world in the cultural centre of Dublin city where any given day is filled with magic and imagination.”
The Event Guide

“Crucially, the Ark…understands the chemistry that happens when children meet other children.”
Irish Examiner

"The Ark is one of the great and certainly one of the most enduring initiatives to come out of the reinvention of Temple Bar. My children loved the place, so warm and welcoming and fairly fizzing with creativity, and now that they are too old for it - but then, is one ever too old for The Ark? - they recall it with vivid fondness. Long may this wonderful children's centre thrive."
John Banville, novelist and screenwriter

“Just a note to say how much I loved the show. It was amazing, everyone should see it from 4 to 400 years...Great production and performance, you are doing a wonderful service by bringing raw and imaginative theatre to a young audience…Ooooh aaah aaah..”
Robbie Harris, Musician

“I liked seeing the theatre...it reminded me a bit of the Globe in London, a pint-sized Globe, very intimate, a perfect scale for theatre for children.”
Deirdre Madden, Writer

“The Ark […] is a truly amazing organisation”
Leas Giles-Peters, State Library of Queensland

"The work you're doing at The Ark is very inspirational."
Eleanor Albanese, Canadian children's playwright, March

“One 10ish boy sitting near us said “How do they do that – this is brilliant –10 out of 10”. Now it is seriously difficult to grab that age cohort – a real testament to the work I think!”
Enid Reid-Whyte, Theatre Specialist, The Arts Council [Funder]

“We were very impressed by the transformation of the space and its shared useage with the community of Temple Bar, there is much that we can learn from this in terms of our own redevelopment. Equally impressive is the respect inherent in every aspect of the organisation for the voice of the child and their cultural entitlement.“
Lynda Winstanley, Performing Arts Officer, Darlington Arts Centre & Civic Theatre

“This time last year Heather and her pals had the art workshop in The Ark, it was total magic, doing a little script and filming it etc. and then coming back later to see the results. You have no idea how much stimulation it gave them and how many scripts and lyrics have been written since. It is frightening to think how much we DON'T stimulate children to develop their creativity. “
Martin Croghan, Senior Lecturer in the School of Communications & Journalism in DCU