2009 promises to be a year fraught with challenges. As financial worries grip society, it follows that those communities least able to cope with an economic downturn are likely to be hit the hardest. These are the communities that New Belfast serves. Although many may feel that art is perhaps a luxury in such increasingly difficult times, my reaction is that it is required all the more. We need ways to divert ourselves, look to new horizons, make statements about how we are living and offer new creative possibilities for employment. We also need to maintain the transformation within our local community. Community arts offers communities a real opportunity to engage in challenging activity and develop greater collective thinking about what we need at this time. We need to support each other, recognise the innate value in community relations and collective artistic statements and enjoy the security of local people coming together to address common concerns. We cannot afford to see the development and infrastructure within our community centres crumble through lack of support. Indeed, I would encourage everyone to grasp the chance to build stronger community bonds at this time, especially those groups working on our programme and those considering an application to our 2009-2010 programme, which will be opening in April this year.

 

2009 is a big year for New Belfast Community Arts Initiative. At the end of this year we will be celebrating our tenth anniversary. From some conversations in 1999 between the playwright Martin Lynch and others, the idea of New Belfast Community Arts Initiative was born. Since then we have seen tremendous growth in the variety of projects offered and communities supported but one thing has remained the same; high quality arts facilitation to support communities and help underpin the changes in our city. I have had the privilege to have been the Programme Director since September 2003, having previously been a facilitator and volunteer for New Belfast.  This organisation values trust, integrity and shared humanity and with every project, we see strong outcomes flowing from the work of our excellent range of artists and dedicated project co-ordinators. We have seen funding highs, like the largest single grant to community arts through Peace II (2003) and indeed, we have overcome very lean times. But we continue to offer a range of activity to help communities retain and encourage strong local and cross community bonds and promote the role of the arts in our everyday life.

 

We have a few months left of our current programme and are awaiting news of our funding position for the next financial year (09-10) but we have been working hard to widen our funding base and develop new projects with new funders. We will keep you updated as to our progress.

 

Since mid 2008, I have been working with other colleagues from the arts sector, in the on-going development of the Cathedral Quarter by sitting on the Cathedral Quarter Steering Group. This body wishes to place arts and culture at the centre of the regeneration of the quarter and we hope that this grouping, with representatives from statutory agencies, developers, business owners, council and the arts, will steer the sympathetic development of this key area of the city into an outstanding example of how cities can be remade and renewed. There will be exciting developments for the area through this work and greater opportunities for the city to enjoy the arts.

 

Cities are not just about how they look, or how many visitors or investors they attract. Cities are about communities of individuals living side by side, cheek by jowl and finding a way to accommodate each other amid all the pressures of life. Citizens make cities.  We all have a stake in how our city develops and flourishes and how we are reflected in Belfast's cultural life. For many, New Belfast Community Arts Initiative offers the first step to actively taking part in the cultural development of this city of ours. With the ongoing support of our principle funder, The Arts Council of N Ireland, and of course Belfast City Council through the Multi-Annual Programme , we will hopefully continue to offer over 2,500 individuals, 40 schools and 100 community groups that step.

 

Conor Shields - Programme Director