Blue Print

Blue Drum Agency: Advancing Cultural Rights, Creativity and Resilience in Communities Blue Print for 2015-2019: When dreamers and activists co-create for community culture Context 

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The evidence is clear that we live in an era of broken systems. The political, social and economic ‘shocks’ of austerity left many organisations reeling from the effects. Some collapsed in on themselves and were unable to call abuses of power to account. Others responded by becoming more cooperative as a counter current to the drift towards loss of agency so that change and transformation can be possible individually and collectively.

At a cultural and institutional level the Arts have more or less reflected the broken circuitry between institutions and ordinary people. Artists and arts organisations were more fragmented and unable to take part in questioning, revealing and challenging the mechanisms of exclusion, inequality and denial of rights.

However, many individual artists and cultural workers have been at the forefront of creative work nested in wider ethical initiatives of activists and community organisations.

Vision  Flourishing communities in which equality and rights drives engineers of the imagination.  Cooperative ventures with ‘citizen artist’ and ‘creative community’.  Deeper response-ability towards people, places and practices (locally, nationally and internationally).

Principal Values  Our advocacy is about the right to art and culture underpinned by a set of values:  Creativity based on a new channels for participation by citizens and creative communities;  Community-led based on a commitment to empowering leadership from disadvantaged communities;  Equality based on the recognition of the injustices experienced by groups in our society; P a g e |1

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Flourishing based on a commitment to the freedom and capability of people to live creative lives they have reason to value; Value for Money based on the fact that as a not‒for‒profit our income depends on the Irish and European taxpayer and has to be accountable and transparent.

Strengths, Concerns, Opportunities, Threats The board and staff undertook a SCOT exercise and followed it up by asking the views of 150 key informants (individuals and organisations).

Priority

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2 3

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Strengths Freshness in the quality of conversations & initiatives.

Attract skills and expertise that add value to the work.

Resilient in terms of background and track record.

Opportunities Linking with others who focus on developing ideas and solutions.

Digital presence and real exchanges between the local and global Advocacy for cultural rights via digital presence.

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2 3

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Concerns Staying relevant in terms of evidence, approaches and capacity to convince.

Amplifying the successes and challenges via social networks i.e. web, facebook, communiqué, etc.

Biting off more than we can chew i.e. too extended too many solutions to be found?

Threats Getting buy-in from peers in the field that we can address the challenges.

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Biting off more than our funders or collaborators wish to manage or fund.

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Getting traction for the work and/or withdrawal of funding.

3 Principal lines of action (1)

Family / Art / Pedagogy

 To support and develop community arts in proximity to family support and community development contexts. Activities here should cultivate the power of art to contribute to well‒being and weave informal networks of social support with vulnerable families and communities. This will happen in conjunction with TUSLA Family and Community Supports, Family Resource Centres, community and cultural partners.

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Activities to show what this could look like

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We Are Family – a short series of touring fairs (workshops, exhibition and screenings) to re-energise and refresh family support and community leaders.

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Creative Parenting in Ireland – research evidence and test practice about how to embed creativity.

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Digital connections - develop social networks for family support and community practices.

Community Culture / Equality / Rights

 To advocate for the right to art and culture through a strategy to reset,

renew and refresh community arts. Activities will look to transfer knowhow and show-how and will strengthen the constituencies and conditions for equality, cultural rights and social inclusion. Modest cooperative ventures and the artefacts produced may be calibrated to a larger scale.

Activities to show what this could look like

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Community Arts: Rights and Culture Cluster – via self-organised clusters that are emerging from public deliberations. Clusters in each Province will  Initiate arts action on Rebirth Day (Dec 21st each year).  Participate in an annual Artizen School for the field.  Plan a 10 day action in 2016 to be facilitated by ‘artway of thinking’.

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Equality and Rights Framework – to c0-deliver with the Equality and Rights Alliance workshops about cultural rights in family support and community development.  To amplify and imagine culture as a critical witness to the potential of those whose participation has been denied and/or curtailed.

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Cultural agencies and institutions - Co-deliver workshops about equality, rights and public sector duty in family support and community development with arts officers and cultural institutions.  Work with and, where necessary, challenge, resistance of the arts and cultural framework to refresh the models of participation and to take and receive art from people and places so far untouched.

Cooperative Ventures and Sustainability P a g e |3

 To be connected to a field of national and international practitioners pioneering actions for flourishing communities.  To draw from the capacity for imagination (artists) and for transformation (activists).  To take risks so we co-generate and thus open up new cultures of cocreation focused on citizen and community.

Activities to show what this will look like 

Position the organisation in a new co-operative and co-creative context through the process of community culture;

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Negotiate a new organisation platform that critically reviews progress and recalibrates progress of the blue print;

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Animate a ‘hub’ from which to deliver local, national and international programmes in cooperative ventures with civil society;

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Attract people and places to conversations and exchanges focused on new forms of participation;

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Establish an Editorial Unit, involving all whom we work closely with, to identify and implement common strategies, tools, concepts and messages making the results more recognisable beyond Blue Drum.

Outputs/Legacy  We view the outcomes as the legacy of significant changes that directly result from the actions outlined above and depend upon co-operative and co-creative ventures as well as critical voices to monitor and assess whom it all will benefit.  The legacy will be a charter for networked community culture through  Increased engagement between civil society and cultural sector to help understand the power of art and culture in transforming society.  New channels for participation by citizens and creative communities through  clearer proximity between community-led work and cultural institutions and  new cultural innovation (entrepreneurship, enterprise, etc) routes for ‘citizen artist’ and creative communities.  New interface between communities, artists, cultural players, and cultural institutions  Editorial Unit to facilitate communication and dissemination of practices, ideas and tactics beyond Blue Drum.

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Year Quarter

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2015 2

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Blue Drum FAMILY, ART, PEDAGOGY

We Are Family Local / Summer Workshops Creativity and Parenting Digital presence and social networking Study visit COMMUNITY CULTURE, EQUALITY AND RIGHTS

Strategy roll out (national platform building) Strategy roll out (local platform building) Equality and Rights Workshops (ERA) Community arts learning network Milestone 2016 - Artway of thinking LAB Re-birth Day COOPERATIVE VENTURES AND SUSTAINABILITY

TUSLA to agree new plan and issue contract Social, Economic and Cultural Rights Advocacy Negotiate organisational charter (blueprint) Animate a 'hub' for programming CRITICAL ACCOUNTABILITY

Board and Governance Editorial Group Advocacy / Dissemination Approval budgets Tusla / EU Culture Fundraising

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2016 5

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2017 1 2

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2018 4 5

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Glossary Community art refers community-led practices with roots in social justice and the methods of cultural pedagogy e.g. forum theatre, theatre of the oppressed, carnivals, etc. Community Arts can be about communal artistic processes involving solidarity that act as a catalyst to trigger new values, events or changes within a community reflecting an increasing concern about inclusiveness, equality and rights. The ‘citizen as artist’ and the ‘creative community’ are primary tenets of this work albeit enriched by cultural expression in other settings and situations.

Community Culture refers to the published strategy produced by Blue Drum and which involved many stakeholder conversations including an indepth process in 2013 and 2015 with the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and the Minister for Children. It seeks to renew, revalue and reinvent community arts.

Equality and Rights Framework explores the application of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Act 2014. All public bodies now have to give regard to equality and human rights in carrying out its functions. to demonstrate and the specific measures in place that seek to protect and bring meaning to the cultural lives of all citizens. In 2015 Social, Economic and Cultural Rights are highlighted because of the implication of Ireland’s Third Report under this International Covenant.

Support Funding TUSLA Child and Family Agency is the dedicated State Agency responsible for improving wellbeing outcomes for children and families. Blue Drum is one of five agencies who provide support, advice and training for community groups under the Family & Community Support programme. www.tusla.ie Nationally here is an indicative list of organisations we work alongside: Carmichael Centre, is a centre for voluntary organisations and provides support and infrastructure. www.carmichaelcentre.ie Claiming Our Future is a national non-party-political civil society network www.claimingourfuture.ie Equality and Rights Alliance (ERA) is a coalition of over 170 civil society groups and activists in Ireland. www.eracampaign.ie European Anti Poverty Network (EAPN) is a network of groups and individuals working against poverty. www.eapn.ie The Wheel is a support network for the community and voluntary sector in Ireland. www.wheel.ie P a g e |6

Internationally here is list of individuals and organisations we will continue to work with over the new period.

Afrikaaner cooperatif in southern Rotterdam helps the district to grow stronger culturally. We continue exchanges with, Jeanne van Heeswijk in her work on arts and cultural rights.

Community Arts Training (CAT) Institute based in St Louis understands that cross-sector collaboration is the key to enhancing the power of art. and provides links to diverse practitioners.

Mary Jane Jacob, a curator from Chicago who has a deep connection to social practice in Ireland. She connected us to artway of thinking, an Italian collective that aims to research on collective creative processes. We also developed links to Love Difference, a cultural association established

by Michelangelo Pistoletto who developed the Rebirth Day initiative.

Dvimiescio kulka is platform for the Friendly Zone project cycle and our partner in City (Re)Searches, Lithuania.

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Blue Drum Agency – Advancing Cultural Rights, Creativity and Resilience in Communities Address: Carmichael House, North Brunswick Street, Dublin 7 IRELAND. blue.drum@yahoo.com www.bluedrum.ie Bank: Permanent TSB, Artane Roundabout, Dublin 17 IRELAND Auditors: McCloskey & Co, Apex Business Centre, Blackthorn Road, Sandyford, Dublin 18, IRELAND

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