ARTiculate was a Peace II funded community arts programme that ran in two stages between September 2006 to June 2008. The programme gave communities the opportunity to use the arts to explore the legacy of the Northern Ireland conflict.
Community arts projects have a proven track record in helping communities address a huge range of issues such as sectarianism, unemployment, racism, social exclusion, suicide, homelessness, health awareness and the environment to name a few.
The ARTiculate programme allowed groups to run arts workshops which explored the legacy of the conflict.
Aims of the project
The main aims of the programme were to:
To contribute to the processes of peace building.
To allow participants to explore the impact of the conflict, the legacy it has left behind and the wider peace process.
To analyse the impact the Good Friday Agreement has had on marginalised groups – who has it benefited?
To provide communities with skills and experience necessary to deliver their own community arts projects
To offer structured opportunities for groups to develop partnerships.
To develop a catalogue of community arts models of practice.
About the ARTiculate Workshops
Participants took part in a 20 hour programme of workshops based in their own centre. Each group created a piece of original artwork that reflected their experience of the conflict.
Working in partnership with the Community Arts Forum (CAF), groups identified the art form they wished to work in, the issues they wanted to address and an artist to facilitate the project.
Over the course of the programme participants:
Produced their own piece of original artwork
Developed ways of tackling issues affecting their community
Learnt project management skills
Helped develop a library of good practice to inform future practice
ARTiculate Seminars
A representative from every participating group attended each of the two ARTiculate seminars during the programme. These sessions included advice and guidance on how to use the arts to explore peace building, drawing from local and international examples and guidance on good community arts practice.
ARTiculate was funded by Peace II through the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland.
For more information on CAF’s development work contact hfloyd@caf.ie
Detail from mosaic by Woodvale and Cambrai youth and community group
