WOMAD Legacy - It takes a community to raise a child

WOMAD The Creative Legacy

(It takes a community to raise a child)

Beyond Skin would like to thank everyone who contributed to the week of arts activities in Coleraine, Moyle & Limavady that came together for Coleraine’s first Culture Night featuring a WOMAD showcase. An amazing achievement for all involved.

Over 120 people participated directly in WOMAD workshops in Coleraine, Moyle & Limavady facilitated by the WOMAD NI professional team of artists. Groups then presented their creative productions to a packed Coleraine town hall audience in a spectacular exhibition of world arts. Music & Dance activities also took place outside the town hall in The Diamond Area with a WOMAD pre-show workshop and artistic contributions from the local community.

The event also launched the WOMAD OCN course in “Understanding Diversity Through The World Of Music Arts & Dance” with Stepping Stones from Lisburn being the first group to go through the programme who also performed at the event in Coleraine.

“Just want to say that the showcase was fantastic! Our guys here at Stepping Stones were so nervous to get on stage but when they did it, it was a massive sense of achievement for them.” -  Niamh Watson. Stepping Stones

Joy from Coleraine council also said "“We have organised multicultural arts events in the past, but our WOMAD experience has taken this type of initiative to a whole new level. The professionalism of the artists and the way they engaged with children and adults in the prior workshops was inspirational. Beyond Skin, the local partner for Womad in Northern Ireland, showed enormous dedication and attention to detail in order to provide us with a fantastic event which exceeded our expectations”

In 2013 along with 10 other organisations Beyond Skin received an investment through Belfast City Council Creative Legacies II Peace III programme to launch WOMAD in Northern Ireland with a Belfast outreach programme. From the first WOMAD workshop starting in Belfast May 2013, to date over 300 workshops in schools and communities spreading across 14 council districts have taken place with five large showcase events in Belfast, Ballymena & Coleraine giving short term paid employment to over 50 artists/professionals. It has been a very rewarding journey and a real learning experience for the Beyond Skin team under the mentoring & guidance of WOMAD. And Beyond Skin's creative legacy will continue as part of the 2013 – 2016 outreach plan.

One of Beyond Skin’s roles as an organisation is to go to places where there is no guaranteed audience and work to develop one. This is our strength as a diverse team of passionate people; to inspire & empower people; to go against the grain of thinking that things can’t be done and to reach out to those who don’t know how to access authentic world culture or wouldn’t normally attend a multicultural event. These recent events in the North Coast have generated an unprecedented energy and hunger for more arts activities that can improve good relations a better social & economic standards. Following on from the previous Ballymena events this is another fine example of true & transparent partnership working between front line organisations and council units.

“Thanks for organising and funding an excellent event. The children had access to instruction and opportunities which they have never had before and they showed how much they are capable of when provided with authentic world class dance teachers and musicians.” David Dunlop Armoy Primary School

The event was symbolic in many ways and could be compared to the arrival of a child, the activities representing a new birth in the arts and the creation of a shared community spirit as Darren Ferguson (manager of Beyond Skin) describes...“One of my many favourite moments was in the Coleraine Diamond (Pedestrian area) when a child disappeared during our pre event open air workshop. At the time WOMAD artist Ripton was on the mic and announcing to a mixed crowd of shoppers and school kids that a child was missing he said – No need to panic because WE are a community so the child is safe, because it takes a community to raise a child. People in a calm manner then started to look for the child who was found and returned to her mother. For that moment in time Coleraine became a united diverse community and we all felt the sense that any concerns people had around religion race and flags were gone. There were many more moments that made this WOMAD programme very special that myself and friends will document in some way. As we hear about all the successes across Northern Ireland regarding Culture Night there is more hope that better times may be ahead, it demonstrates that a better future is a certain reality if the arts and good relations agencies continues to have the support they need.” 

 “The one main thing that mattered to us was the level of respect we were shown by everyone involved in the showcase, but mostly Ripton as he was on our level and knew where we were coming from, understood our issues and listened without passing judgement.” – Young people from The Den Bushmills

Photographs by Hannah Mitchell are now online

Workshops slideshow: http://s1259.photobucket.com/user/Beyond_Skin/slideshow/WOMAD%20Outreach%20Programme%20Autumn%202014

Coleraine Showcase Event: http://s1259.photobucket.com/user/Beyond_Skin/slideshow/WOMAD%20Showcase%20Coleraine%20Culture%20Night%202014

Coleraine Multi-Cultural Forum Dance Video - http://youtu.be/ajlKbvvhbzE

A full report of WOMAD outreach programme to date will be online soon along with many other updates

www.womadni.com  @womadni   www.facebook.com/BeyondSkin.HomelyPlanet

So what next?

As we can see a WOMAD Festival on the horizon the next ship closer to our shores is the pioneering educational work of the WOMAD Foundation.  News to follow….

#comethechange

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