Communique 4 2013

communiquĂŠ Tipperary and Baldoyle FRC, North Dublin.

A big thank you to all those who made it happen. From our experience Happy Parent works effectively when the local Centre really buys into it and makes it their own.

And that does not mean that everything always goes perfectly! Interesting for your FRC in 2014? Contact Gillian 018111446.

Ballyboden FRC 25th Years (1) Ballyboden FRC Celebration For three months, artist Eleanor Phillips together with community workers Jean Bates and Audrey Reddin worked with women, aged from 18 to 80 years old, from Whitechurch and beyond. The process involved many voices, experiences and abilities. The group also experimented with different materials and techniques producing a variety of art works. In the end a final group work of ink on cotton which reflects the history, personalities of the area. Travellers, older teenagers, young and middle aged mothers, and was structured in a way which facilitated participation at any point throughout the process. The local primary school provided their parent room to create the final art work. The programme resulted in new friendships, introducing residents from neighbouring estates to each other, and the discovery of hidden talents. Will your FRC celebrate an event in 2014. Let’s know if we can work with you too? Email Gillian at blue.drum@yahoo.com

Volunteers from Connect FRC, Drogheda, Co Louth (3) Connections / Seminars (i) Community Culture Strategy (Dec 6)

(2) Happy Parent (HP)

The Steering Group met to finish the work of the Strategy which we presented to Ministers Fitzgerald and Deenihan in December. We have worked closely with the Family Support Agency because FRCs continue to report positively the benefits of community arts. The Strategy seeks to revalue, reset and reinvent community arts. Blue Drum looks forward next year to continuing to serve as the catalyst to enable the foundation phase to be agreed and implemented..

In this quarter, we continued to delivery for parents in Connect FRC, Drogheda, Gort FRC, Galway, Spafield FRC, Cashel,

(ii) CREATE Networking Day (Dec 7) Eleanor Phillips attended the networking day and was impressed by the case studies

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communiqué of work in the UK and elsewhere. The focus on the risks taken by all who engage in work with communities of place, identity or issue raises some interesting questions in what are difficult times.

tactics and actions for social change and overcoming economic inequalities. The meeting was about sharing tactics and we got lots of ideas from Joe Murray and Gary White Dear from Afri, and artist Siobhan Clancy. We all agreed it was worth continuing our conversation early next year and to look at a practice collaboration in which to find new ways of campaigning.

(4) We Are Family 2014 Gillian Keogan has begun preparations for We Are Family 2014, a feast of new generation community arts practices with a new set of ideas and dispositions. Our initial idea is to focus on the theme of disposable income of families. Like our inaugural event in Limerick and Clare in 2011, the event will be packed with

www.create-ireland.ie www.advocacyinitiative.ie (iii) Advocacy Initiative Seminar (Nov 20)

Collaborative

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Gillian Keogan found this seminar really exciting. It focus was about building greater collaborative projects between groups as many people say that we need more of it and more forms. So much of our work is organisation-dependent and organisation-driven. But maybe we are less skilled in trying to work cooperatively and that is part of the reason that our individual voice is not heard. One playful exercise that made the same point was where each group had to make a structure out of spaghetti (uncooked), ball of twine, scissors, and cellotape. The aim was to stick a marshmallow on top of the structure at the end. All sorts of solutions and structures were created with differing degrees of success and failure. Of course there is a cost! It requires significant investment and time and energy, is not always successful and at times can end up damaging relationships where trust breaks down. www.advocacyinitiative.ie

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EXHIBITION AND PERFORMANCE OF COMMUNITY SNAPSHOTS of work developed by FRCs; SHOW & TELL MARKETPLACE of projects and ideas; PANEL DISCUSSION related to disposable income of families.

Now we need a regional network or cluster of local FRCs to become a co-creator with us of the day. We will do all we can to plan the day but, like all the work we do, we need the local input to make it real.

Interesting for any of you? Email us!

(5) Baldoyle FRC’s new building Our congratulations go to everyone - staff and volunteers in Baldoyle FRC - who organised a wonderful opening of the new premises in October. We really enjoyed the hospitality and conversations on the Open Day and hope we can continue to work together in the future. _______

(iv) The Art of Campaigning with Claiming Our Future in association with Blue Drum (Dec 3) Over 30 people came to talk about the art of campaigning and how to use creative

Issue 4 / December 2013

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