Blue Drum Annual Report 2012

Activity Report 2012 Compiled and written by Ed Carroll (November 2012)

CONTENTS

1. Highlights & Challenges 2. Happy Parent Initiative 3. City (Re)Searches – An EU Culture Programme Research Study 4. Artizen 2012 5. Advocacy 6. Information ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The contribution of the board and staff of Blue Drum and Family Resource Centres is acknowledged in compiling this report.

Blue Drum was set up in 2001. It is a specialist community arts body funded by the Family Support Agency to nurture local arts and cultural work in Family Resource Centres.

It is a not-for-profit company with a voluntary board, with 3 staff employed part-time and 13 other practitioners contracted to a two year EU Culture Programme research study.

 1. Highlights & Challenges  Our work in 2012 addressed the needs of Family Resource Centres and disadvantaged children and families. Key achievements are:  Happy Parent Initiative for parents and children tested in 6 sites and evaluation report produced by Barry Cullen;  Additional almost 10K funding given to actions targeting children and families from Community Foundation for Ireland, Culture Ireland, Give EUR Hope, and the Arts Council;  Research visits to 20 FRCs in Cork, Tipperary, Dublin, Louth, Cavan, Mayo and Meath.  3nd Edition of Artizen Autumn School underpinned by a focus on cultural rights of children and families;  Hour long conversation with the Association of Local Authority Arts Officers about our experience of community arts in Family Resource Centres;  Commitment from key Limerick, Drogheda, Cork and Dublin FRCs to work for greater visibility of the work;  Policy work with the Dáil Committee on Arts and Disadvantage and one-to-one meeting with Minister Deenihan in November 2012.

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Annual Accounts 2011 and Company AGM completed.

Active engagement on website, 900 friends on Facebook, 6 e-Notes distributed to all FRCs, and 8 podcasts produced focused on family cultural rights.

Locating Blue Drum’s work with FRCs in national media i.e. Today with Pat Kenny’s show on RTE Radio and in the summer edition of The Village magazine; Communications with FRC’s developed through open calls, phone contact, our annual survey mail-out and regular email notifications; Internship to support the work of Happy Parent Initiative in 2012 via MA in Cultural Policy and Arts Management in UCD; Project Bud exchanges sent Board members to attend Community Arts Conference.

(St. Louis, USA 04/12) and artist Con Christeson to Ireland.

Commitment for joint meeting with Ministers Deenihan and Fitzgerald in January 2013.

The climate for working in the community and voluntary sector this year was particularly uncertain with regard to finances.

However, we still have a valuable role to play and will place our

energy in addressing the following:  Developmental work for a community art platform with grassroots organisations;  Building relationships with new staff in Support Agency and local FRCs;  Managing move to the new Child and Family Support Agency and defining a child/family well-being lens for community art.

2. Happy Parent Initiative HP¹

Happy Parent (HP¹) is about finding the time to make a “creative space” for parents, which might allow for a different kind of communication involving fun and expression.

It arose as an attempt to insert an arts-based intervention in support of existing programmes and actions undertaken by FRCs within the context of their own strategic plans and developments, and it emerged from internal Blue Drum consultations that considered undertaking practical initiatives that corresponded to the provision of direct supports and programmes to families.

Blue Drum designed a workshop with a specific focus on enhancing

the self-esteem and confidence of participating parents which would potentially have the outcome of improved family functioning.It was also envisaged that the positive experience of attending the workshop would have an effect of boosting parents willingness and confidence to use basic creative activities at home with their children, thereby contributing further to overall family functioning.

The workshop consisted a 3-hour, hands-on, once-off arts workshop, targeted at parents of children between the ages of 4-8, primarily, with a specific focus on parents considered vulnerable within the context of the work of FRCs. Barry Cullen’s review report has recently been produced as a pamphlet.

Click here to learn more with a Slide Presentation and the full Review Report (October 2012).

Feedback was hugely positive as this comment from Gillian McWilliams from Killinarden showed: I found the project fantastic.

I thought it created a very safe way for people to communicate and get to know each other. It was great for the girls to mix with other girls. I have

even tried it at home with my 4 year old and we got more than the usual scribbles but more importantly we were communicating effectively.

Overall I really enjoyed it and I feel it is a very safe and creative way for families to improve communication.

3 . City (Re)Searches Research Study funded by EU Culture

This research study is an arts-led inquiry, which engages ordinary people about their culture. The research was awarded only to organisations with a track record of cultural policy analysis. The work involved ‘gathering’ over four days, in three locations, knowledge from non-experts in the arts and cultural field. For four days in Cork a group of 12 activists/artists listened to the views of families and their communities who are often excluded because of being poor, disabled, migrant worker, refugee, or member of a minority.

We heard about cultural artifacts e.g. Travellers room in Civic Museum as well as a host of other narratives, and treasures.

We wanted to understand how to

value local cultures that are often not recognised. We also wanted to understand if excluded minorities use their right to access the cultural riches of the State. Participating actively in the four day Cork inquiry was Mayfields Arts / Newbury House (a HSE funded family centre), Niall O’Baoill (Fatima Groups United) and Niall Crowley (Independent Equality Specialist).

The EU Project Assessor noted in her assessment of the project application: “Here is a research based on the correct observation that there has been an institutional failure to create conversations between arts/culture and other momentums for social and political rights, and rightly place their efforts in the framework of developing a new consensus about the public value of culture.”

City (Re)Searches still has a lot to do. It started in June and will continue in 2013 and 2014.

Watch this space!

4. Artizen

This 3rd edition of the autumn school is a space to reflect on the work we are doing. This year‘s theme, Pedagogy of Cultural Rights, wanted to highlight the

message that children and families have a right to art.

Some activities included: Show and Tell of FRCs from Kells and Drogheda and which celebrated the work of parents and children. In parallel we followed up with a Roundtable HP¹ to HP2 which explored with peer groups the potential for next phase of Happy Parent Initaitve with Family Resource Centres.

Study visit to Liverpool involved nine local activists.

Colleagues from Southill, Limerick and Connect in Drogheda took part. Jimmy Prior and Geraldine Minogue were especially impressed by our visit to Homebaked, a regeneration initiative in Anfield. Coming back after the two-day visit Nicola Coffey reflected, „I can really see the creative contribution that having an artist can make to FRC programmes.“ Conversation inserted into the Local Authority, Arts Officers Association Annual Conference in Thurles. We held an interesting exchange about the work of 2012 Dáil Joint Committee on the Utilising the Arts to Combat Disadvantaged.

Many local authorities art offices spoke about social inclusion of poor families as something that Arts Offices were doing and valued. We also spoke

abot how to be more critical, and to be inclusive of Family Resourece Centres.

5. Advocacy

The establishment of the Dáil Committee on Arts and Disadvantage in 2012 became a key target of our advocacy work.

It provided an important policy level action to show that community arts programmes encouraged greater integration and combat disadvantage among families.

We followed carefully the work of the Committee and made an analysis of the various witness statements which were reproduced on our website. Here are the highlights of our work: 

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Invitation by Senator Marie Louise O’Donnell to convene three exploratory meetings in Dáil Eireann about a ‘gathering’ initiative for family centres in 2013; Board visit in April to major international conference on Community Arts in St. Louis accompanied by Senator Marie Louise O’Donnell; Production of a pamphlet entitled, A Case for a Community Arts Support Agency in Child and Family Support to make the case for on-going support by the

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new Child and Family Support Agency; Submission to the Joint Committee on Arts and Disadvantage; Meeting with Minister Deenihan followed up by a commitment to a joint meeting involving Minister Fitzgerald in January 2013.

Survey to all FRCs about cultural rights of families.

which had 347,071 impressions and 516 clicks.

We also produce in-house a number of podcasts and video documentaries. Here are some highlights from 2012: 

 6. Information

Blue Notes produced six ejournals in 2012 and highlighted current news and events happening within Blue Drum and the wider arts based community sector. We use it as a tool to tell and hear about any community arts related work that is happening in in Family Resource Centres.

Our website and facebook pages bluedrumers, northside museum and city (re)searchers – are all important platforms for communications with Family Resource Centres and others. In 2012, we had over 900 facebook friends and keep good contact with FRCs who are using that platform.

Between September and November we had our Artizen banner on www.activelink.ie

page

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Catherine O'Halloran, a youth worker and artist with St. Munchin's Family Resource Centre, spoke about her work.

Hear Barry Cullen produced this review of Happy Parent Watch Ed Carroll speaks asks what are cultural rights? Hear and writes about the role of Community Arts in Ireland today. Read [+]

Contact Details: Blue Drum is the Arts Specialist Support Agency The Outreach Centre, Clonshaugh Drive, Priorswood, Dublin 17.

T. +353 (01) 8771446 E blue.drum@yahoo.com W. www.bluedrum.ie