The Ark is a dedicated cultural centre for children. We create opportunities for children, along with their families and friends or with their school, to discover and love art. Through our work with leading Irish and international artists children can enjoy performances in our unique child-sized theatre, view engaging exhibitions or participate in creative workshops.
Ark illustration by Kate Brangan
This Sept-Dec we have something for everyone with world-class music, theatre and visual art events for children aged 2-12 and their families.
You are invited into the action of the busy basement of the royal palace. Get stuck in, but be warned, things could get messy.
A delightful new theatre experience for young audiences performed by Paul Curley
Presented in partnership with the Design & Crafts Council of Ireland’s primary schools CRAFTed programme. make|shape leads you playfully through techniques, processes and explorations of clay.
A tactile workshop for you and your child using child friendly modelling dough and a range of decorations. Inspired by our ceramic exhibition make|shape
A very special exhibition - of cake!
Some of Ireland's best cake artists have joined together to bring the worlds and characters of Roald Dahl alive with an exhibition of cakes.
In this workshop with ceramic artist Adele Stanley you will learn how to roll clay slabs, a hand building clay technique. Part of the make|shape programme.
Explore texture and pattern marking on clay using natural everyday objects, materials and tools.
Part of the make|shape programme.
Part of the Dublin Theatre Festival Family Season 2014. A Mano is a story, told with clay, about a small character with a great desire to escape from a shop window and those who inhabit it.
World premiere as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival Family Season 2014. When a boy discovers a single-propeller airplane in his closet, he does what any young adventurer would do: he flies into outer space!
Part of the Dublin Theatre Festival Family Season 2014. Inside an enchanting travelling theatre tent, discover a storyteller who shares a timeless tale...It's the story of a boy made of cheese!
Part of the Dublin Theatre Festival Family Season 2014. The clues are in the pages of The Curious Scrapbook of Josephine Bean.
Join Ark favourites Nico Brown and Martin Brunsden for a gig full of songs, imaginative sound play, unusual instruments and a little bit of joyful chaos!
Come join our ghostly house band and play some fun ghoulish pop tunes with other young musicians – who knows, maybe we’ll make music loud enough to wake the dead and get them dancing!
Dracula has raided The Ark’s music instrument cupboard for all of our weirdest instruments and has put them in his spooky sound lab in his lair in the basement. Presented by The Ark & the Bram Stoker Festival 2014
A jazz-inspired early years music workshop for 2-4 year olds.
Jump on board as harmonica player and guitarist Michael McInerney takes you on an easy music adventure into the mellow world of the blues.
Relax and enjoy a family gig with a tasty mix of early jazz, country and blues as well as some fun spooky sing-along songs to sink your teeth into!
Presented by The Ark & the Bram Stoker Festival 2014.
Create your own rhyming rhythmic rap just like your favourite hip-hop music heroes with the help of rapper GMC. Rapping is great fun, easy and great for confidence too so come along and give it a try.
Become a dance music producer in this music technology workshop especially for ages 8+
Come to our Halloween hang out zone and get in the spooky spirit with our resident un-dead DJ spinning the decks and scratching vinyl and some spooky themed spoken words and stories.
The Ark and Music Network present a brand new festive music show exploring the magic and mystery of Winter.
