Creating a corridor of cultural opportunity

The Irish Cultural Centre of New England (ICCNE) and iDance Shawn Silver Irish Dancing team up to promote, preserve and honor Irish heritage.

By Joe Normandin

Though they had never met and lived in different countries, Sean Grant and Shawn Silver (pictured left to right: Grant and Silver) shared the same vision: create a “corridor” extending from New England to Newfoundland that celebrates Irish culture and stimulates economic activity.

As executive director of the Irish Cultural Center of New England (ICCNE), Grant started drafting mental blueprints for this concept in September 2007, two months before he met Silver, the artistic director and founder of Newfoundland-based iDance Shawn Silver Irish Dancing. So when Silver came to Boston in November 2007 as part of the Team Canada Atlantic trade mission, he brought his blueprints to Grant at the ICCNE’s 46-acre campus in Canton and together they started laying foundation for the “Celtic Corridor.”

They both agreed that the Celtic Corridor would be built on strengthening links between New England and the Atlantic Provinces of Canada (Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) by focusing on a shared Irish heritage. As a result of creating these cultural links, both sides believed a lot of opportunities could be opened up, including arts exchange programs, tourism, trade and regional performances.

Grant believes building this corridor will have numerous benefits culturally and economically, particularly for small Irish organizations and businesses.

“This Celtic Corridor would help the small cultural organizations as far as promoting what’s going on not just around St. Patrick’s Day, but every day,” Grant said. “But on the business side, the hope is that this partnership will greater enhance the business opportunities available on both sides. Invariably, a lot of business connections can be made through culture.”

Silver knows firsthand, because in his particular business, “it’s all about culture.”

A professional Irish step dancer for over 15 years, Silver established iDance—an Irish dancing studio in St. John’s, Newfoundland—in 1998 to teach and share the rich culture associated with Irish dance (pictured to the left are Silver and his dancers). He sees the Celtic Corridor as a way to not only showcase the strong Irish culture that exists in New England and the Atlantic Provinces, but also illuminate how people of Irish descent living along the corridor can feel like they’re part of one giant community.

“There are all sorts of opportunities in terms of building stronger connections between ourselves,” Silver said. “Together we can let the world know that we’re working in unison and that we’re working towards the same goal, which is to share, foster, preserve and protect traditional Irish culture.”

But before a master proposal can be drafted on what the Celtic Corridor will create in terms of cultural connections and economic activity, legislatively authorized funds are needed. Grant said he’s already been in contact with Massachusetts’ Irish-American legislators about formalizing a partnership and securing funds.

State Senator Jack Hart, who’s been part of the Massachusetts legislature since 1997, was one of the people Grant contacted first. Hart thinks the Celtic Corridor presents “an opportunity for significant economical benefits,” but says the ball is still in the ICCNE’s court.

“If the ICCNE can make the case that by investing taxpayer dollars to the Celtic Corridor the state will see revenue being generated, then we have a good case to make,” he said.

Hart added that another option legislators can consider is an amendment to the state budget. Still, the senator isn’t optimistic given the state of the economy.

“Through the MOTT [Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism] line item we could possibly seek an earmark to appropriate some funds to the ICCNE for the Celtic Corridor,” Hart said. “However, this would be new language and we already know that the Fiscal Year 2010 budget will be very lean.”

Despite tough times and truncated state budgets, Grant (pictured to the right) believes the revenue that could be generated from tourism and business makes the Celtic Corridor worthy of legislative support. Additionally, Grant feels strongly that without support, small Irish organizations and businesses may sink in this turbulent economy.

“Developing this Celtic Corridor would allow the small organizations to survive,” Grant said. “They would survive because it’s an economical way of getting their info out there and letting people know what they’re doing.”

Because of Newfoundland’s 450-year history of Irish settlement, the island has become a hotbed for traditional Irish culture. According to Irish author Tim Pat Coogan, because Newfoundland is so steeped in tradition, “it’s the most Irish place in the world outside of Ireland.”

Silver takes Coogan’s statement to heart. He said the Celtic Corridor could help get New Englanders, especially people here in Boston—which he calls “the heartbeat of Irish America”—to realize the authentic Irish culture within Newfoundland and get them to come visit.

“Instead of spending $1,400 on a flight to Ireland, perhaps they can easily drive up to Newfoundland,” Silver said. “They would save a ton of cash and experience that same sense of Ireland, receiving the same quality of understanding of Irish dance, music, culture, traditional and language.”

Ultimately, for both Silver and Grant, the core mission of the Celtic Corridor is to educate people on traditional Irish culture and allow for the flow of business between the two regions.

But for Silver, he feels a strong obligation on the part of himself and Grant to protect what they ancestors have properly maintained for over 2,000 years.

“Collectively we look at Irish art and we can relate to it,” Silver said. “We can relate to the vitality of the music and the beauty of the dance. So there’s something very special there and it’s incumbent upon myself, Sean Grant and people like us to ensure that we protect traditional Irish culture and art along this corridor.”