creative policies for creative cities

curated by nollaig ó fiongháile

 

‘how may artist-led policies and practices engage culturally diverse publics in the regeneration of our civic space?’

 

 

about creative policies for creative cities

 

GradCAM – The Graduate School of Creative Arts & Media at IADT (Institute of Art, Design & Technology, Dún Laoghaire); in association with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, UK-based Creativity, Culture & Education with Intercultural Arts & Newcastle City Council and Spain’s Semetrías Fundación Internacional with Cuenca Council, is undertaking an innovative music and arts’ programme, Creative Policies for Creative Cities.

 

The project brings together musicians, artists, educators, businesses and public officials who, over the next number of months, will be piloting music and arts initiatives in Dun Laoghaire town centre, Newcastle and Cuenca. The idea underpinning this initiative is that culture-led policies – in collaboration with local agents (businesses, local authorities, and the public) – can yield new opportunities for musicians and artists, offer workable mechanisms for engaging business and investment, and through a multi-agency approach, enliven and animate our civic and shared public spaces.

 

The Creative Policies for Creative Cities Research is an EU project led by artist researchers & cultural operators across UK, ES & IE, investigating civic issues for the city; with an interdisciplinary team of researchers-creatives, architects cultural operators, public administrators; - undertaking audit, pilot-project interventions & impact assessment; - culminating with a model that can be implemented in other regions.

 

Creative Policies for Creative Cities is a research project coordinated by Nollaig Ó Fiongháile, Development Manager of the Graduate School of Creative Arts and Media (GradCAM).

 

For Information on the Creative Policies for Creative Cities actions across the three sites download the Creative Policies for Creative Cities Factsheet here.

 

DL5-8 (Dun Laoghaire 5 pm to 8 pm)

 

See the 'DL5-8' schedule at a glance here.

 

Starting Thursday, May 20 at 5pm, a new weekly, Dún Laoghaire-based music and arts programme, DL5-8 runs every Thursday evening May 20 to June 17th and features film screenings with live performances at 5pm in the Pavilion Theatre Gallery, public talks with artists at 6 pm at the Sunshine Café'; At 7pm in Weirs Bar, the Damian Evans Mixed Ground Jazz Series will be running; temporary art works are underway at the artists' studios on Lr. Georges' St, and Koshka, Passer Bem, Cafe Orchestra, the North Strand Kontra Band play at 10pm at the Purty Kitchen. For more information, call 01- 646 1181 or see www.creativepolicies.com

‘DL5-8’ (Dun Laoghaire 5 pm to 8 pm) is the pilot project undertaken by an artist-research collective from the Graduate School of Creative Arts & Media GradCAM developing new ideas in public culture. DL5-8 project is undertaken by GradCAM, on-site in Dun Laoghaire, in association with Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council with business owners and residents in Dun Laoghaire. We are set the task to consider models and practices by which we may ‘animate Dún Laoghaire Town Centre from 5.00-8.00 pm, each Thursday, May-June 2010 in so doing improve the civic life of a suburban centre after office hours.

 

The process by which we have undertaken to deliver this task is in four concrete steps.

 

1) Public Space Mapping Audit.

 

This Public Space Mapping Research forms part of the ‘Creative Policies for the Creative City’ project of GradCAM at IADT in association with Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council is addressing a suburban centre’s civic life outside of office hours. The Mapping Research was carried out in the Summer of 2009 by a group of architects, students and artists, based in UCD School of Architecture, Landscape & Civil Engineering, thereby also taking part in the Now What Summer School initiative of the School.

We commissioned a mapping exercise to audit and set the stage for understanding how the public space is currently in use; to demonstrate where people go, congregate, why and how? What might be the inhibitors and whether there are shelters and or rest spaces for people to use in the public space; how the lighting affects usage and where graffiti occurs as this tends to suggest a congregation site. And so, a public space mapping of Dun Laoghaire was carried out on our behalf with Alan Mee Architects & students from the UCD School of Architecture, Landscape & Civil Engineering. In so doing, this exercise allows us to consider how we may enhance and use the public space-through, observing, recording and mapping; where people engage or do not engage with particular parts of the public space. It serves as a 2D assessment of the overall public life of the community and place, scoping, data collection, mapping, and conclusions demonstrating the opportunities for making links, physical, economic, social and cultural between outdoor, indoor, public and rivate business, and local government.

For further information and to access the Public Space Mapping Audit download here.

 

2) DL5-8 Programme

 

DL5-8 Programme, is a suite of events including film screenings with live performances, temporary art works, traditional & improvised music gigs, featuring local and international artists, and a public talks series with artists and creative thinkers; all taking place in Dun Laoghaire, every Thursday evening from 5pm - 8 pm with a late events programme of live bands from 10 pm to late. The programme runs for over a month from May 20 - June 17, 2010 and blends improvised spontaneity with curated eventing.

For Information on DL5-8 download the DL5-8 Project Programme here. (Posted 17/5/10).

For Press information on DL5-8 download press release and press contacts here.

 

3) Artists Temporal Residencies Programme

 

Artists Temporal Residencies Programme involves the coordination of agreements between artists and proprietors of ground-level retail and commercial spaces in Dún Laoghaire. These agreements provide the opportunity for a professional musician or artist to inhabit vacant retail spaces and occupy them for an 8 week period for use as studio space, exhibition space and/or performance. To do so, contracts and agreements have been developed to secure necessary conditions to ensure health & safety, insurance cover and protection for both landlord and artist.

 

4) Artist-led Models

 

Artist-led Models: Artist-led policies have been designed to underpin the DL5-8 programme. The actions underway include 'artist collective agreements' - a series of agreements between artists, the academy, businesses and the local authority that have been implemented whereby investment from each has generated a sustainable events program and site-based exhibition budget. Initially, the academy invests 30% of programming fees under an 'artist honarium' with the business and local authority financing 30% each respectively and the artists offering a 10% input. This has resulted in the establishment of artist studios in previously vacant retail spaces with contracts formed between the landlords, the local authority and the artist. It has resulted in a series of events, programmed and directed by a lead artist of high-level professional standard, with a diverse range of visiting artists profiled each week. The offer has involved a choice of events, ensembles, inter-disciplinary collaborations with a range of performance groups of traditional, world, jazz and improvised musics. The policy of a 30/ 30 / 30 financing rule between the academy, authority and local business offers a unique, sustainable model for eventing in the public space.

The policy titled 'musicians & artist honarium' underpins the planning and eventing of the DL5-8 programme. The lead artists in question are financed by an honorarium and undertake to prepare, plan, programme and implement a series of events in the public space. This relationship may become a sustainable one with agreement from an appropriate government agency, whereby artists with an active record of annual performances and exhibitions would acquire state recognition as a professional 'honored' artist. By doing so, artists are awarded an 'honarium' with standard health and pension benefits for which they are contracted to programme and deliver a range of performance events to non-commercial venues and to those commercial venues that are working to the co-financing rule. Depending on the scale of event, the engagement will be co-financed under the 30/30/30 rule by interested parties, businesses, and or public-private agencies and facilitated through the local authority. In so doing, the honorarium system may apply to both commercial and non-commercial venues. The artist may then earn above the honorarium without penalty. This policy has the potential effect of offering artists a reliable opportunity to work as a professional, honored artist with standard levels of personal security experienced and expected by society today. It provides local and small scale communities and business’ access to artists of a high level, while also animating our community lives and public space with international and local based cultural eventing.

For further information on these models; briefing docs are underway and will be available soon.

 

DL 5-8 Team

 

Programmers, Technical Expertise & Project Developers include Tara Byrne, Drazen Derek, Damian Evans and Alexis Nealon (GradCAM) and Dr. Elaine Sisson (IADT: GradCAM Fellow); Aidan McElwaine (GradCAM) Conor Logan (IADT) (Conference Finances); Nollaig Ó Fiongháile (Programme & Conference Director); and Richard Shakespear (Dun Laoghaire - Rathdown County Council). 'Creative Policies for Creative Cities Network include Paul Collard, Director of Creativity, Culture and Education; Oscar Watson, Director of Intercultural Arts; David Faulkner, Deputy Director of Newcastle City Council; Angeles Diaz Vieco, Director of Simetrías Fundación Internacional; Juan Avila. President of the County Council of Cuenca; Jim Devine, Director of the Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dún Laoghaire; Richard Shakespear, Director of Department of Environment, Culture and Community, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. Nollaig Ó Fiongháile, Coordinator and Project Developer, GradCAM.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This communication and associated events reflect the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.