Spectacle of Defiance and Hope (2011-12-5). Source: broadsheet.ie
This page is about programming with others in ways that can re-set the state of our nation and the European Union. On the 23rd of November, the European Commission published their proposal for the new Creative Europe programme, that would replace the current Culture programme. The absence of provision for the protection and promotion of cultural rights is a disappointment. Our intention is to make cultural rights realisable at state level. Practically, we programe an ongoing Conversation, a Community Art Petitions and an annual school called Artizen. You can find out more about these by clicking the links at the top corner of this page.
On December 10th, 2011, we are joining with others in a Radical Spectacle. The heart is literally being ripped out of our communities and this affects the country as a whole. The Spectacle will be an act of Creative Resistance to the redundant policies of a redundant regime. This day is United Nations International Day of Human Rights around the world and is an appropriate moment to mobilise.
Here the letter 'e' is for everyone to access to their own creativity with a preference in our work for local cultural practices of families and communities in poverty. We were invited by the European Anti Poverty Network to write about our ideas and we welcome your comments. Read online [+]
We developed proximity to Claiming Our Future because we want links with people from different pursuits so as to propose how the island of Ireland can be re-set. We have yet to bridge the distance between aspiration and action. Want to understand more? or see how we act silently!
A New Pact Conversation by Blue Drum
Re:vision Arts Council: 1952-2012
The Irish Times reported that the Arts Council's allocation of €63.1 million in the Budget means continued funding for its silo i.e. Abbey Theatre, 50 venues, 200 festivals and 400 arts organisations. To what extent does this funding of a small part of the arts community matter to people trying to live on less than ten thousand euro? In this 60th year since the establishment of the Arts Council, Blue Drum calls for a revision of its functions so that the Arts can be a significant contributor to re-setting Irish society.
City (Re)Searches: Experiences of Being Public
Commencing in June 2012 a new three-year international feasibility study will probe local knowledge about cultural rights.
We are committed to organising a Practice Circle in Cork, Derry and Kaunas, Lithuania. The idea is to creatively engage with families and communities in poverty and to map the local typologies of being public and the role of art and culture.
A dissemination event will be hosted by the New House Project in Rotterdam in 2014.
The formation for each Practice Circle will involve researchers with arts and non arts specialisms. Each Circle will be supported by an arts practitioner who can exchange their practice, ideas and experiences (PIE Advisors).
A specially commissioned travelling inquiry space will be designed by Jeanne van Heeswijk and travel to each city to house the probe process. The outcomes will be presented to the shared Irish:Lithuanian Presidency of the EU in a publication entitled Culture Policy 20:20 Vision.
City (Re)Searches will build the capacity of cultural producers to inform policy with new local and translocal narratives. The practice circle may include : artists, philosophers, human rights activists, architects, educators, and curators. Each researcher will engage local publics and to map experiences of public-ness. The outcome may identify a new prototype (tactics and devices) in which the public value and therefore the public investment in culture are captured using a cultural rights lens.
The partners in the project are Community Arts Partnership (Belfast), Cork Community Arts Link (Cork), Maybury Community Arts (Cork), Kaunas Biennial (Lithuania), New House (Rotterdam) and Blue Drum (Ireland).