Arts – towards an inclusive society

The Community Arts Forum (CAF) is organising a major community arts conference with key partners NICVA and the Rural Community Network.

An international community arts conference
Arts – towards an inclusive society.
Northern Ireland 2005-2006

It will involve three key stages.

1. Launch and opening symposium on 21 October 2005. Delegates will include participants in the forthcoming projects, representatives from community arts groups across the world and community artists. Participants in exchanges will have the opportunity to meet each other, discuss and plan projects and learn about community arts in Northern Ireland, with in-put from local and international speakers. They will also have the opportunity to participate in community arts workshops. Delegates may also have the opportunity to go on study visits.
2. The development of seven international community arts exchanges. These will run between November 2005 and October 2006 involving seven local community arts groups working in creative partnership with seven international community arts groups.
3. Closing conference on 26 October 2006 which will include the showcasing of work from the above projects and from community arts groups throughout Northern Ireland.

A ‘Scoping the Concept’ document has recently been developed which outlines progress on the project to date. This is available on CAF website www.caf.ie . At present, we are on the cusp of receiving confirmed funding through Belfast City Council’s Capital Celebrations 2006 programme.

This conference will highlight community arts activity in Northern Ireland, showcasing local projects to a global audience - this is a unique opportunity for your group to display its work to international delegates. It will also present the opportunity to network with local, regional and international community artists. It may also present the opportunity to work in a partnership exchange with an international group. The conference will highlight local community arts activity and, in particular, the role community arts has played in the peace process.

Themes which the project exchanges are required to address are:

• arts at the interface: community arts in post-conflict situations
• nurturing and sustaining creativity within socially disadvantaged communities
• building bridges across generations – inter-generational community arts
• community arts in the digital age – the local and the global
• addressing the creative needs of rural populations
• exploring the ‘arts continuum’ – all kinds of arts for all kinds of people
• exploring and celebrating cultural diversity: designing creative participative process that work.

The projects will be implemented between November 2005 and October 2006. There will be a budget of up to £7,000 allocated to each project (pending funding). Criteria for selection of projects are listed below.

Selection criteria:

Essential

1. Proven track record (at least two years) of developing community arts projects containing significant elements of: access, authorship, ownership and participation
2. Proven ability to engage in an international project
3. Proven capacity to manage budgets
4. Proven capacity to record and evaluate all aspects of arts project work, eg human, financial and physical
5. Development worker or volunteer in place to coordinate the project
6. Ability to address one of the themes (listed above).

Desirable

1. Practical experience of participating in an arts exchange programme.

More information

We are very keen to hear from you and want as many local groups and individuals involved as possible. Please contact CAF to request to be kept informed of the conference, whether you would be interested in displaying work at the opening symposium or closing conference or whether you would be interested in applying to become one of the seven projects working in exchange with an international group.