Cuala Foundation, Inc. was founded in 2016 to create innovative collaborative opportunities for knowledge exchange and critical dialog between Irish and other cultures through festivals, events, after-school workshops and other projects supporting youth civic engagement. We launched April 2016 with CualaNYC, New York’s first annual Irish cultural festival that commemorated the 1916 Rising, in which New York played an important role, and celebrated the links between New York and Ireland. Our 25 events over six weeks took place at New York cultural institutions and innovative locations such as: Irish poets on the East River Ferry; John Montague at the American Irish Historical Society; and actors Stephen Rea, Ciarán Hinds, Mercedes Ruehl, Marin Ireland and Amber Tamblyn performing with musician Steve Earle in The People Speak: Ireland for a sold-out audience of 650 people at The New School, and presented in partnership with Voices of a People's History. We presented Irish bands Walking On Cars and Old Hannah, who performed to 350 people at The Music Hall of Williamsburg with local Irish American band Cosmonaut. We also secured visas for Belfast theatre companies Green Shoot Productions and Aisling Ghéar, and for Sligo’s Blue Raincoat Theatre Company who brought their production of Yeats play 'On Baile’s Strand' to Coney Island.