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.
Showing posts with label city of culture 2013. Show all posts
Showing posts with label city of culture 2013. Show all posts
Monday, 11 April 2011
Monday, 7 March 2011
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
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
Monday, 16 August 2010
Just Say Yes!
It seems odd to be writing this with my Derry-Londonderry City of Culture 2013 pen, (yes, I may be a young person growing up in a technological era, but I always write everything out before I type it!) given that until a year ago, I had never visited the city before.
This first visit, which formed part of my work experience with Voluntary Arts Ireland, saw me at the Nerve Centre, meeting with and interviewing some of their lovely staff members. One year later, with the judging committee having said “YES” to Derry-Londonderry being the first UK City of Culture in 2013, I met with Giorgia Gazzerra to discuss the possibility of the Young Arts Creativity Co-ops working on a joint programme with Reach Across and the Friendship Club, 2 groups based in the city with which Giorgia is involved. We came away with lots of great ideas to bring back to our groups, some of which will hopefully materialise in the not-too-distant future.
Spending some time in the city and the meeting with Giorgia left me thinking about just how much can stem from one simple word, “Yes”. So often, young people are met with “No” responses, but at some point, some years ago, Voluntary Arts Ireland said “yes” to the need to develop a youth-led, youth-centred model for the arts in Northern Ireland. Numerous “yes” declarations since have allowed this to become a reality; for many young people to not only access, but engage in and facilitate arts activities and to have a voice within the youth/arts sectors, as well as gaining new skills while developing old ones, having opportunities for new experiences, meeting new people, visiting new places, (such as an art gallery!) receiving help in relation to their future careers, having fun and doing what they want to do, in their own way that works for them!
Just as the City of Culture 2013 title will undoubtedly be invaluable to Derry-Londonderry, so too, has the YACC project and the continued courage to say “yes” been invaluable to the young people involved.
Back in July 2008, I said “yes” to attending a ‘Create Your Place’ event at Lusty Beg Island with Pauline and two other YACC members, at which we had the opportunity to meet and have important conversations with a wide variety of interesting people. Over a year later, I didn’t hesitate to say “yes” to attending a follow-up event in Donegal which once again consisted of interesting people, (both some who had attended the previous event and some new faces) discussions and arts activities, all in beautiful surroundings. One of those new faces was Giorgia Gazzera. The fact that both Giorgia and I said “yes” to our involvement in ‘Create Your Place’ has led to our continued contact, our meeting last week and following a few more “yeses”, it will hopefully have led to not only a joint project between YACC, Reach Across and the Friendship Club, (among other groups who may be interested) but new friendships, new art work, sustained relations between the groups and ideally, the beginnings of a truly youth-centred, youth-led arts network.
So, “Just Say Yes”?
This first visit, which formed part of my work experience with Voluntary Arts Ireland, saw me at the Nerve Centre, meeting with and interviewing some of their lovely staff members. One year later, with the judging committee having said “YES” to Derry-Londonderry being the first UK City of Culture in 2013, I met with Giorgia Gazzerra to discuss the possibility of the Young Arts Creativity Co-ops working on a joint programme with Reach Across and the Friendship Club, 2 groups based in the city with which Giorgia is involved. We came away with lots of great ideas to bring back to our groups, some of which will hopefully materialise in the not-too-distant future.
Spending some time in the city and the meeting with Giorgia left me thinking about just how much can stem from one simple word, “Yes”. So often, young people are met with “No” responses, but at some point, some years ago, Voluntary Arts Ireland said “yes” to the need to develop a youth-led, youth-centred model for the arts in Northern Ireland. Numerous “yes” declarations since have allowed this to become a reality; for many young people to not only access, but engage in and facilitate arts activities and to have a voice within the youth/arts sectors, as well as gaining new skills while developing old ones, having opportunities for new experiences, meeting new people, visiting new places, (such as an art gallery!) receiving help in relation to their future careers, having fun and doing what they want to do, in their own way that works for them!
Just as the City of Culture 2013 title will undoubtedly be invaluable to Derry-Londonderry, so too, has the YACC project and the continued courage to say “yes” been invaluable to the young people involved.
Back in July 2008, I said “yes” to attending a ‘Create Your Place’ event at Lusty Beg Island with Pauline and two other YACC members, at which we had the opportunity to meet and have important conversations with a wide variety of interesting people. Over a year later, I didn’t hesitate to say “yes” to attending a follow-up event in Donegal which once again consisted of interesting people, (both some who had attended the previous event and some new faces) discussions and arts activities, all in beautiful surroundings. One of those new faces was Giorgia Gazzera. The fact that both Giorgia and I said “yes” to our involvement in ‘Create Your Place’ has led to our continued contact, our meeting last week and following a few more “yeses”, it will hopefully have led to not only a joint project between YACC, Reach Across and the Friendship Club, (among other groups who may be interested) but new friendships, new art work, sustained relations between the groups and ideally, the beginnings of a truly youth-centred, youth-led arts network.
So, “Just Say Yes”?
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