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01/03/2010
Professional Development Training Workshops from CAF & VAI
CAF, in partnership with Visual Artists Ireland, Digital Arts Studios (DAS), & Belfast Exposed will present a series of Professional Development Training Workshops for Visual Artists.

Digital Photography & Photoshop Skills with Joanna Karolini
Date: Fri 9 Apr
Venue: DAS

Peer Support Session - for Artists Working Collabortively with Rosie Burroughs
Date: Fri 16 Apr
Venue: Belfast Exposed

Workshops are £20 / £15 and are day-long events.

For full details see: www.visualartists.ie
(click on ‘Professional Development Workshops’)

To book: kate@visualartists.ie T: +353 (0)1 8722296

01/03/2010
CAF hosts 'Arts in Challenging Contexts' discussion
Current class structures in western society are giving rise to growing numbers who feel completely disenfranchised and shut down their creativity in response. How do artists creatively engage with this group? What can they learn from each other?

This round table conversation will bring north of England artist Barry Stone and Dublin's Fiona Whelan together with local practitioners. Barry will talk about his experience of using the arts in a range of contexts including with very young mothers and also young people involved in car crime. Local community arts practitioners will share experiences of working with communities in a range and variety of challenging settings in Northern Ireland.

Fiona Whelan is a visual artist whose work develops from a set of cross sectoral relationships. For over 6 years Fiona has built her practice in Rialto, Dublin working with Rialto Youth Project. In recent years she has worked as part of an interdisciplinary collective with youth workers and young people committed to exploring and creatively responding to the power relationships in their everyday lives and in the systems they encounter. www.section8.ie

This event is part of 'Exchange Mechanism' at Belfast Exposed. Exchange Mechanism is an exhibition that questions the demands and denials of freedom in contemporary life, alongside artists’ responsibility to actively engage with the political.

Over eight weeks, Belfast Exposed’s public gallery will also be transformed into an alternative political space, where activists, artists, campaign groups and interested citizens are free to meet to exchange ideas, whether via talks and debates on a specially constructed platform or informally over a drink or a coffee.

Arts in Challenging Contexts
Venue: Belfast Exposed
Date/Time: Saturday 13 March 2010, 11am-1pm

For a full programme of events see www.belfastexposed.org/exhibitions/?exhibition=74&year=2010&show=future

11/02/2010
World community arts day 2010 – 17 February at Belfast's Ulster Hall
For the 3rd year running the Community Arts Forum – the umbrella body for community arts in Northern Ireland - will join organisations across the world in a global celebration of community arts next week in Belfast's Ulster Hall.

Now in its fourth year, World Community Arts Day (WCAD) aims to raise the profile of community arts and bring people and projects together from around the world together.

WCAD was started in 2007 and was an instant success. The subsequent events in 2008 and 2009 went from strength to strength, with interest in the event growing exponentially. The brainchild of Scottish community artist Andrew Crummy says. “I knew that our work was connected to a bigger network of projects worldwide and that if I asked enough people we’d get started, but I didn’t really realise it was going to get so big within just three years. It started off as one idea and then evolved into another and then another.”

Last year over 200 projects from around the world were featured on the WCAD website, representing only a fraction of those involved in events to mark the day. CAF’s contribution to the 2009 day was a gala event in Belfast’s Waterfront Hall.

This year’s event promises to be another exciting showcase of the exciting community arts projects happening all across the region. The day will include dance performances, live music, a participative drum session, art workshop and organisations from across Northern Ireland represented with stalls showcasing and offering information on their work.

CAF Director Heather Floyd says. “Community arts in Northern Ireland is a vibrant and grassroots movement and we are delighted to hosting this event as part of the global celebrations. We would encourage individuals, groups or anyone interested in finding out more about community arts here to drop by.”

WCAD will be held from 2-5pm on Wednesday 17 February 2010 at the Ulster Hall, Belfast. The informal drop-in event is free of charge.

For more information contact Heather Floyd on 028 9024 2910 or hfloyd@caf.ie

World Community Arts Day www.communiversity.org.uk

11/02/2010
Government Inquiry into arts funding - ACNI and CAF responses
In November 2009 the long awaited report from the government Inquiry into arts funding was launched. The report was the result of a consultation process begun in early 2009.

Initiated by the Stormont based Committee for Culture, Arts and Leisure - made up of a selection of cross party MLAs – the terms of reference for the Inquiry sought to investigate a number of topics including how Northern Ireland compares to other regions in terms of the per capita arts spend; how current funding addresses social need and if particular artforms are not currently receiving adequate funding.

CAF’s long held position has been to lobby for increased spend for community arts within existing budgets. As such CAF submitted a response making this recommendation along with a number of others.

The resulting report included a range of recommendations such as suggesting that further investigation into how much funding is provided to the arts through other departments is carried out; working to ensure equality in the level of council spend on the arts; and that the level of funding to community arts from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI) be increased.

Whilst the recognition of community arts and other forms of participatory arts is to be welcomed, there was immediate concern that the report did not recommend an increase to the overall budget. This has been the key aim of a long running arts funding campaign in Northern Ireland. There was further concern that the unresourced recommendations in the report had the potential to be problematic for the ACNI and consequently the arts sector.

ACNI recently published its response to the Inquiry policy recommendations and justifiably criticised this lack of support for an overall increase in funding and highlighted the fact that the recommendations contain a resource implication which is not supported and cannot be realised in the current economic climate.

ACNI also usefully explained how the per capita spend is broken down calculated and presents a like-for-like comparison with other regions of Ireland and the UK. On all these points CAF supports and endorses the ACNI response.

CAF is however disappointed that ACNI felt it appropriate to criticise the CAF submission to the Inquiry process at this crucial point in the public arts funding debate.

Specifically ACNI questioned statistics used in reference to community arts spend – CAF used publicly available figures whilst ACNI referred to beneficiary data gathered through its returns system – and secondly CAF’s recommendation that ACNI consult with the arts sector to develop a transparent process for appealing decisions. CAF has entered into private correspondence on this matter with ACNI.

CAF believes it is vital that the arts sector focuses on lobbying for the sector as a whole and presents a united front. This latest development comes shortly after the announcement of a significant cut in ACNI funding for the coming year.

Instead of the projected budget increase hard won through very active lobbying in 2008, a cut of £1.1m has been announced. When allocations for new venues and the recent announcement of funds for a new opera initiative are considered the actual remaining budget is even further reduced.

The budget is being consulted on until 23rd February after which it will fall to the ministers of individual government departments to confirm the budgetary allocations within departments.

It remains to be seen how far reaching the impact of the cuts will be, but within the proportionally small arts budget, this is a potentially devastating cut to an already fragile sector.


For more information on the CAL Inquiry and the final report see www.niassembly.gov.uk/culture/2007mandate/culturereport_07.htm

CAF's submission: Download (Word document)

For the ACNI response to the CAL inquiry report see www.artscouncil-ni.org/news/2010/new19012010.html

Full CAF response: Download (Word document)

09/12/2009
CAF to lead creative consultation session on Bill of Rights
CAF will host a creative consultation session on the Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland. The event will form part of a broader consultation process on the draft proposal for the bill.

The session will take place on Thursday 28th January at the CAF offices. To register interest please email heather@caf.ie or call Heather Floyd at (028) 90 242910.

Further information on the proposed Bill of Rights is available at the following websites:

www.billofrightsni.org
www.nihrc.org

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