The fifth of a series of public consultation focus groups was held in RUA RED South Dublin Arts Centre in Tallaght on Friday 27th July. The event targeted arts and cultural organisations operating within the county. Eight organisations participated, representing a cross-section of arts and cultural organisations, venue and artists workspace providers as well as programming and arts training/ mentorship providers.
The agenda was broad based, focusing on priorities and future needs for arts organisations working locally. Particular interest was laid on partnership as a sustainable strategy towards arts service provision and feedback was sought around the nature and role of partnership/ collaboration for each respondent’s organisation.
The outcomes of two facilitated Arts & Cultural Organisations Focus Group discussions are outlined below. These serve to summarise the key priorities and concerns for the cross-section of participants attending the event. These discussions while facilitated, were free-flowing.
The first, asked participants to identify what they consider important for successful collaboration or partnership between arts organisations? Below are the key concerns listed in order as they arose in discussion.
Tallaght Theatre Ltd.
- We work with amateur, student and professional groups. For our organisation, developing relationships bound by time and space limitations/restrictions is how I would characterise our partnerships.
- An additional facet to our approach to partnership is in audience development, advertising and marketing. Here, we link with other venues to offer good value to our audiences – offering deals between Tallaght Theatre, Civic and Rua Red.
Down to Earth Theatre Company
- Our venues tend to be public spaces and we have strong links with the local authorities to secure access to these.
- We would also like to draw on the audiences of other venues when communicating / marketing events and opportunities to participate in our shows.
- Advocacy for and wider recognition of contemporary circus as an artform is necessary. I would encourage the Arts Office to develop a contemporary circus strategy.
- In a partnership or a collaboration roles should be defined, whilst remaining flexible. Patience, communication and trust are vital. It is important to recognise the identity and remit of each partner when teasing out an opportunity to collaborate.
Civic Theatre
- No co-operation or partnership can happen without trust. This is developed over time, within the context of a working relationship.
- The Civic is not simply a venue, our priorities are to showcase quality events, to develop audiences, to co-produce work and to manage, develop and promote the theatre mentorship programme ‘Tenderfoot’ with Transition Year students (this also involves a work experience element where participants may volunteer as ushers and will get to see all of our shows free-of-charge).
- We [all arts organisations] must communicate our programme aims – and be clear that the arts are not a babysitting service, but have intrinsic value for participants of all ages.
- Working with schools is key to communication, publicity and information sharing.
- It is important to recognise that documentation, monitoring and evaluation are valuable throughout a programme – not just at the end.
- There is an issue with the reputation of ‘Tallaght’ as a venue or cultural hub. Some of our client groups have concerns over safety issues.
Tallaght Community Arts
- Collaboration/ partnership is for audience development – for getting the numbers up.
- It is for sharing costs
- It should be relevant to the work in hand and be complimentary.
- It is of assistance in outreach and communication with non-traditional audiences.
- It requires partners to really listen to each other in determining relevant issues and roles.
Alternative Entertainments
- Sometimes this discussion feels insular – we all know what we are talking about but do the people out there in the carpark know what we mean?
-Is it possible to share information between our organisations about approaches to outreach/ communication / audience development?
RUA RED
- Collaboration is really relevant to everything we do including our daily programming. We already work in collaboration with the Arts Office. The commercial and voluntary arts sectors are predominantly the type of organisations that use the centre.
- We are interested in audience development and how we can work together to increase engagement with the arts. What is the Arts Office role in enhancing cultural entitlement across Sth Dublin County?
Outcomes:
Common call for future joint strategy towards cultural entitlement:
• There followed a broadly agreed call from participants to see the new Arts Strategy present a policy which determines and promotes a universal / countywide approach to cultural entitlement that will encompasses issues of equality, accessibility and quality of opportunity/ output.
•It needs to be recognised within the new arts strategy and cultural entitlement policy that there are many publics and that amongst theses there are ‘the engaged and the non-engaged’.
•Interest was expressed by all attendees in taking part in further discussions on this topic, with the proviso that further discussions be action oriented and should seek to identify strategies.
The second discussion asked participants to identify gaps in arts service provision within the county. Summarised below, in the order in which they were discussed:
Public Services which affect access to local arts services:
On public transport – it was commented that the LUAS line poorly serves its community having inadequate access points to stations from the ‘walled’ estates along its routes.
On public safety – lighting and security around the ‘cultural hub’ at Tallaght is poor and problematic.
On dereliction at Tallaght new town centre – not only unattractive but dispiriting. Since some of the properties have been taken into NAMA the Council is developing a proposal for artists and arts collectives to access some of the ground floor vacant spaces. Other ideas include offering artists a 1 yr residency in vacant apartments. RUA RED, TCA and DTE are interested in joining this dialogue.
Communication and Marketing:
On sharing information - There is a difficulty finding out what is going on with other arts organisations. There is a great curiosity to discover what work is ongoing with other organisations in the area.
On Arts Office role as communicator –
o It would be helpful if there were an Arts Directory published by the Arts Office. It can be very beneficial for individuals and organisations to register and publish their details as it can be a way of finding work at festivals etc…
o Another useful publication might be a Community Arts Quarterly bulletin – seek a media partner in publishing, to reduce costs and improve circulation.
o A Cultural Network – offering face-to-face encounter, information sharing and debating current issues affecting the arts community locally.
o Establish a set of high-street cultural ‘shopfronts’ in the villages / townlands around the county, offering a noticeboard facility promoting arts activities, updating arts information.
o Develop a relevant and accessible on-line presence
o Seek cultural and business partners for some/all of these developments enhancing synergy and sustainability.
Large-scale Arts Incubation Spaces required:
On new thinking - new arts spaces required to facilitate the development of new large-scale street performance and spectacle, nurturing and challenging existing talent to devise new types of work.
Prioritising networking within a limited time resource:
On value for time invested - My role and time resources don’t often permit me to look at a county-wide arts service overview or strategy. I need to see that the time invested has a return.
Neglected communities in arts service provision:
What do we mean when we talk about ‘cradle to the grave’ access to the arts for all?
On working with primary years and education - There is a lack of visual arts literacy at primary level. Schools are not always aware that we are arts organisations that can help them to deliver this.
On working with disability services – there are so many facilities across the county catering mainly to adults who, it they were younger would be in mainstream education. What is cultural entitlement in relation to this constituency?
On working with older generations – How does this happen? Where is the place for inter-generational project work?
Audit, promote and evaluate existing facilities:
On RUA RED facilities – Needs of the artist community do not necessary match the space provision at RUA RED.
There is not a visual art literacy/ development plan for the county but the largest space at RUA RED is a double vaulted gallery.
The music rehearsal spaces are in high demand. Greater capacity is required in order to satisfy needs of contemporary musicians. However the music rehearsal spaces are not sound-proofed and do not have the capacity to cater for bands playing at the same time.
The dance studio is also in high demand – in fact three studios would be required to satisfy current demand.
There is also a waiting list for studio and incubation spaces.
On additional facilities needed within the county -
Additional multi-purpose spaces are required to fully achieve the potential of facilitating cross-cultural/ cross-disciplinary work and encounter.
To facilitate artform ‘literacy’ development – some sort of laboratory or workshop spaces are required, these should be amenable to (sometimes messy) new/work and skills development, affordable and of appropriate size to accommodate large-scale work.
Research into temporary spaces needed.
Networking and information sharing:
On partnership with the Arts Office – There is a need for ongoing input and feedback from arts organisations working on the ground, identifying priorities for the future.
On advocacy – We must all take the opportunity to advocate collectively on ‘arts literacy’ eg. In particular in early years and family engagement, schools and the primary curriculum.
Outcomes:
•It was agreed that further meetings in a similar discursive vein would be beneficial in co-ordinating a collective approach to key common issues.
•Attendees agree to assist in promoting and publicising forthcoming Public Consultation events.
Fiona Delaney
Public Consultation Co-ordinator
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