Northern Ireland Politicians Talk Arts and Culture

The recent arts hustings event in Northern Ireland organised by Audiences NI, Arts & Business and Voluntary Arts Ireland saw the five main political parties begin to set out their policies in relation to arts and culture. With their policies only published the day before it gave a strong turn out from the arts community the opportunity to open up a positive dialogue with candidates seeking election.

The proceedings took the form of a panel discussion with questions and answers hosted by the talented BBC presenter Marie-Louise Muir. A provocation was provided by Declan McGonagle, one of the most influential figures to emerge from the arts scene in the north west, who said "It’s the economy that is broken in this society, not the culture," and called for a fundamental reworking of the relationship between the arts community and the politicians who make funding decisions - "we need to break the cycle of threat, cut, begging, and reprieve"

Although the event did not solve the very many challenges faced by the arts and cultural community there was a sense that an opportunity now exists to reframe the discussion and to engage politicians in a robust policy debate. A quick survey of the manifestos outlining the various policies the main political parties will promote if elected confirms that we are very much at the start of this debate. Policies still struggle to get away from partisan positions and neglect the need to provide access to cultural and creative activities as a fundamental entitlement for all citizens.

But make no mistake culture and the arts is definitely on the agenda. Why not engage with your candidates on the basis of their policy towards culture, arts and leisure – maybe we can move the debate on.

The main political party manifestos are available through the following links:

Alliance Party             http://www.allianceparty.org/

DUP                          http://www.mydup.com/efiles/DUP_Manifesto_2011/index.html#/28/

SDLP                        http://www.sdlp.ie/images/files/44339%20final%20low%20res2.pdf

Sinn Fein                    http://www.sinnfein.ie/files/AssemblyManifesto2011.pdf

UUP                          http://www.uup.org/index.php/jo-anne-dobson/item/389-campaign-story-3.html

Square Mile, Round Mile

It is still a little known fact that the City of London and the City of Derry/Londonderry are linked in a rather unique way. The current form of Derry/Londonderry with its still intact walls (one mile round) was not only built by money from London companies but is still owned by the Honourable The Irish Society - a committee of the Corporation of London established by Royal Charter in 1613. Relations between the square mile of the City of London and the round mile of Derry/Londonderry have very often been about trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. As the 400th anniversary of the relationship is fast approaching in 2013 it brings the shared histories into sharp focus.

Last week on the 07th and 8th of April 2011 Voluntary Arts Ireland helped host a visit by the Barbican Centre and the Honourable The Irish Society to look at shared programming, co-commissioning and knowledge exchange in the context of Derry/Londonderry's City of Culture year also in 2013. Louise Jeffrey's - Director of Programming, Sean Gregory - Director of Creative Learning, Catherine McGuinness - Board of Barbican and Deputy Governor of the Honourable The Irish Society, and Edward Montgomery - the Irish Society's local representative took a whirlwind tour around Derry's cultural, educational and creative organisations.

What struck me was the possibility to look at the City of Derry/Londonderry as an interconnected cultural cluster, a place where you could programme across spaces, landscape, art forms and themes, across voluntary, community and professional arts. The city as a whole is compact enough to create this dynamic. Within the city walls alone there are at least 7 arts venues alongside a huge range of organisations and creative businesses. If you add the soon to be developed cultural cluster at Ebrington Barracks - no longer needed for military purposes - which is going to be joined to the city walls across the River Foyle by a foot and cycle bridge, the heart of the city will be transformed into an engine of cultural activity. Even this is not the whole story. Community and voluntary arts organisations across the city region have been keeping communities together through the arts for decades and as well as the city centre focus there are hubs of artistic endeavour operating at the very core of local communities.

The very big challenge with this is of course how to make the local relationships strong and effective so that the cultural offer in Derry/Londonderry can operate as a whole, as individuals and as ad hoc partners for particular projects including working with international partners. In the end it is likely to be the people and the relationships that matter and it is in that space that the work is needed. My guess is that this is not a challenge that is unique to Derry/Londonderry. No doubt the City of London faces this too.

The concept of the Square Mile, Round Mile was first articulated by the brilliantly insightful Ian Ritchie of the City of London Festival, who has championed shared programming between the two cities for a number of years. How the City of Derry and the City of London shape this towards 2013 will be fascinating.

Old fashioned democracy?

Well its official, the Northern Irish arts community will have its very own hustings event on 19th April 2011 from 09.30am-12pm in the Grand Opera House, Belfast. Invited representatives from all the political parties will articulate their policies towards the arts and members of the arts community across Northern Ireland will get the chance to question and challenge those policies.

I'm sure its not the first arts hustings event in Northern Ireland but it certainly is not a regular occurance in the region and perhaps taking a leaf out of the National Campaign for the Arts in Ireland is the beginning of a more constructive dialogue between the sector and government.

There are many questions to raise with political parties in Northern Ireland not least "do you have a policy on the arts?" Questions around how the arts impacts on peoples' lives are also likely to take precedence - the contribution of the arts to a healthier civil society, to the economy, to wellbeing, to education, to the economy. Perhaps fundamental to this is how to place the arts within policy - its not a singularly definable subject, indeed its strength is in its diversity. This is often at odds with the way in which government in Northern Ireland is structured, however, how is that Health - itself a fantastically diverse range of disciplines commands such singular attention? There is perhaps something for the arts to learn in this?

Nevertheless the old-fashioned democratic values a hustings event has come to represent should be a natural catalyst for the many articulate people involved in the arts in Northern Ireland. It is true to say that a lot of the time now we are seeing these debates carried out online through social media, which is perhaps the up to date hustings. Very much to the vanguard and the potential for seismic change when it is wedded to citizens' core desires is certainly exciting as witnessed in places such as Egypt.

We could well need a seismic change in arts policy now - some would say it is long overdue. In a small way this live hustings could be the beginning - lots of small changes often add up.

To book your place at the event please contact karen.orawe@audiencesni.com or tel: 028 9043 6480.

For more Voluntary Arts Ireland news visit http://www.vaireland.org

Life is Organic

Its been a very interesting day attending first a breakfast meeting and then an all day session around creativity as part of Derry/Londonderry's Cracking the Code programme leading up to the 2013 City of Culture.

An impressive bank of speakers including Sir Ken Robinson and Phil Redmond were punctuated by some engaging local characters and idea generating sessions in smaller groups. On behalf of Voluntary Arts Ireland I played a strong part thinking about how participation in the arts and crafts stimulates creativity. However, I was struck most by a phrase that came from Ken Robinson's initial address - "life is organic not linear"

When we think of all of the structures and processes that seem to provide the framework for our activities on the ground - virtually none of them are organic - they are nearly all linear and top-down. And yet this is just the opposite of how we, as human beings, go about living and interacting with others.

Take the creative process, which was also talked about today. We get an idea or a kernel of an idea, we play with it, we refine it, we connect it to other ideas and sometimes it becomes something that we act upon - we create it. One of the key skills in this process is the suspension of critical judgement. I might also say that one of the key skills is critical judgement. However, we must be able to suspend it long enough for us to create a bank of possibilities that encourage us to take the kernel further.

Critical judgement seems to be at the heart of most of the structures and processes mentioned above - it is a fairly advanced form of compounded critical judgement that say creates the legal system, and the influence of critical judgement is very great throughout policy making.

But is this now to our best advantage? Is this focus the way in which we are going to create a wider bank of possibilities that we all now seem to be seeking? Life is clearly organic and critical judgement has a part to play but do we have the balance right?

Kevin Murphy
Chief Officer
Voluntary Arts Ireland

Big Community

Following the launch of the European Year of Volunteering in Ireland, Voluntary Arts Ireland along with partners the Gaelic Athletics Association, the Church of Ireland, City Church Belfast and the Department of Social Development took over the Long Gallery in Stormont, Belfast last Friday, 25th February 2011 to celebrate our joint volunteering project. Two years on the go the project highlights the impact that sports, arts and faith-based groups have in making communities better and bigger places

Big Community was the phrase that stood out to us all - volunteering makes communities bigger and across our society which is looking for a way to share the future, engaging people voluntarily through the various disciplines that make up the fabric of society seems crucial.

"Volunteering's not important - it's essential" said Robin Simpson, Chief Executive of Voluntary Arts. Sentiments echoed by Minister Alex Attwood MLA who talked about volunteering reflecting the best of society.

The contribution by keynote speaker Peter Jenkinson, OBE was provocative - encouraging us all to be "promiscuous" and to "make friends with strange people" - and highlighting the trend towards DIY/Open Source voluntary action that most recently has affected enormous positive change in Egypt.

The event was genuinely stimulating and threw up a number of challenges around how and what we measure as the benefits of volunteering. Rather than falling into the age old argument around how you measure the value of something that has a multitude of intangible benefits, there was a grown up discussion about focussing on outcomes and shifting our measuring mechanisms to accommodate the more intangible.

Another exciting thought was how the four partner organisations, coming from very different places could create a programme together and build on this very unusual connection. Perhaps taking up Peter Jenkinson's challenge of making friends with strange people is a potential starting point for many new innovations. As Einsein said  - "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them"- perhaps we also need to shift our thinking by regularly going outside of our normal connections and relationships.

Perhaps also this is what a big community is - not necessarily big in size, but a big space, an accommodating space, a safe space for us to come in and out of, a space to be creative in.

In the best democratic traditions we also voted on a number of questions at the celebration in Stormont - not sure if the results were particularly surprising but the questions did force us to think - never a bad thing. To check out how we voted visit http://bit.ly/hLnn6q.

Kevin Murphy

Sure that's not really volunteering, is it?

The recent launch of the European Year of Volunteering 2011 in Ireland was an example of how, in the face of very significant challenges both economically and socially, that the state, voluntary and community sector and the private sector can come together for the common good.

Hosted in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham by the dynamic Volunteering Ireland, led by Elaine Bradley the event involved the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, Minister Pat Carey from the Department of Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs, Minister Alex Attwood from the Department of Social Development in Northern Ireland and Eamonn Sinnott of Intel Ireland - who sponsored the event.

Not only a great event with lots of involving performances from a range of groups and some stirring speeches, but an event that acted as a call to action for all involved in this year of volunteering.

It also brought into focus Voluntary Arts Ireland's joint event with the GAA, the Church of Ireland and City Church on Friday 25th February in the Long Gallery, Stormont, Belfast. Mild panic as lead organisers as the date quickly approaches and a nod towards what our contribution might be in this year. One of the key elements of the Living Together : Giving Together celebration event in Stormont is how we encourage people to think about volunteering.

One of the difficult concepts to get across in the traditional world of volunteering is the concept of cultural volunteering - the idea that people coming together to create arts and crafts in a voluntary setting for the benefit of their own and society's cultural enrichment. Sure thats not really volunteering, is it? Perhaps  because in the world of the arts we tend to call it participation, this voluntary action is not viewed as volunteering? It is certainly true that those who participate voluntarily don't view themselves as volunteers.

So it may be that the distinction between volunteering and cultural volunteering or participation is important but it is interesting to look at how similar the benefits to individuals and society are when we look at them side by side:

Benefits of Volunteering 
paraphrased from Volunteer Now website

•Enjoyment, pleasure

•Meet new friends

•Help others and make a difference

•Personal development

•Improve your health

•Be part of something bigger – connect to your community

Benefits of participating in the Arts 
taken from Rand Corporation Gifts of the Muse

•Development of learning skills

•Development of positive attitudes and behaviours

•Improve your health

•Develop social bonds – sense of community identity – build community capacity

•Contribute to the economy

•Captivation and pleasure

•Emotional and cognitive growth

The Living Together : Giving Together event will explore this concept and the impact voluntary participation in sports and faith-based groups make. We will also pose some provocative questions which those attending will be able to vote on:

• We don’t need to invest in volunteering, do we? It’s freely given and costs nothing 
• We are not competing for volunteers; we need to be making partnerships in unexpected places
• In present times of greater social and economic need, volunteering can only scratch the surface.

We would love to hear your take on any of these questions - so feel free to comment or follow the threads through our facebook and twitter feeds. Full details of the speakers for the event is at http://www.vaireland.org/cgi-bin/website.cgi?tier1=ireland&tier2=volunteering%20in%20sports,%20arts%20and%20faith-based%20organisations&fp=true

In the meantime congratulations to all involved in the recent launch of EYV2011 and we look forward to a great year of volunteering.

Kevin Murphy

The Power of Play

A recent article in the RSA Journal sports writer David Goldblatt talked of the potential of sporting clubs to make a real difference to the life of local communities. He wasn't talking about the professional clubs such as the Manchester Uniteds of the world but rather the primarily Victorian legacy of the club as a "mutual association of individuals who above all want to play and participate, rather than consume, make money or accumulate power".

He talks of the development of clubs such as AFC Wimbledon, formed in 2002 by fans appalled by the the move of Wimbledon FC to Milton Keynes. Now AFC Wimbledon, still owned and run by its members is on the threshold of entering the Football League. Goldblatt also asks the question:

"If clubs are capable of mobilising citizens' energies for the benefit of common projects, can they do more than just put a team out on Saturday?"

In other words can they contribute to wider social activism? Can they use the power of play to engage citizens in projects that benefit the wider community?

Central to this is the idea of supporting common ownership and the transfer of relevant assets from state to society - for example in the case of football the transfer of playing fields - so that local communities can run them with and for their citizens.

Another legacy of the Victorian era is the voluntary and amateur arts club. This legacy still exists across the island of Ireland with 100,000s of people getting together to create art and craft every week in their communities. Voluntarily and collectively run by their members they account for the vast majority of arts participation and attendance at arts events across the country.

However, can they do more than just run their weekly and seasonal activities? What if there was collective ownership of underutilised or derelict spaces that could be turned into spaces for the arts? What if professional arts venues turned over sections of their programme and venue to voluntary arts groups to run?

At the very least this would help many groups who struggle to find or afford suitable spaces in which to run their activities. It would also help space owners populate their space and generate strong community connections. And what other assets are there that would be better placed in collective ownership run for the benefit of communities rather than profit.

No doubt this form of self-organisation is on the increase as essentially the state tries to withdraw. However, this very positive move by communities to help themselves is unlikely to be enough to drive the sort of transformation that many of us would like to see.

Governments and their policies have a crucial role to play because they are creating the frameworks in which we operate. At the moment we are seeing the strongest emphasis on rebalancing the books, with a nod towards a notional increase in civic and private sector engagement to take up the slack. The risks of that approach have been well documented. In Northern Ireland they are huge, with both civil society and the private sector still struggling to get back on their feet. In the Republic of Ireland it is at this point impossible to say. A former colleague suggested that the most likely outcome of the elections on 25th February is the return of Fianna Fail, the party that has presided over the recent national crisis. As unbelievable as that might seem she could well be right.

I think the truth of the matter is that in order to transform our society into one which is driven locally by engaged citizens which then influences government policy is going to cost more money in the first instance. I think I would agree that it should result in a healthier civil society and cost the state less in the mid-long term but the idea that we can radically cut our spending and then expect this transformation to happen is flawed - and in the Irish context particularly so.

The power of play and creativity to engage people in positive activities that have personal benefits and societal benefits is real. These benefits, although often economic, are primarily for the good of society. Like anything else they require investment of time and of money.

Are our governments brave enough to make them?

Kevin Murphy