7 Achievements 2014 1. Happy Parent Initiative, a three year cycle of workshops came to an end. We delivered to 22 Family Resource Centres which included Counties Cork, Kerry, Mayo, Louth, Tipperary, Galway, Cavan, Meath and Dublin. We worked in urban and rural areas with migrant Chinese mothers, volunteers and grandparents. In September we published the HP Booklet which is a small treasure trove of creativity.
3. A new Evidence Room and Wiki arising from the City (Re)Searchers, a two-year Creative Europe funded project, is now online. The legacy of the research is most clearly felt in the Community Culture Strategy which seeks to renew, refresh and reinvent community art. Check out Evidence Room and Wiki Independent research Brian Harvey remarked “a lot of really interesting ideas, concepts and thoughts here and work to be progressed�.
2. We are Family #2 The event in Dublin Castle attracted 100 people. The photo documentation gives a real feel of the day. Watch [+] We are grateful to the fantastic organisations who ran workshops on the day including: EPIC; Pavee Point; New Communities Partnership; Rialto Youth Project & Fatima Groups United; TCD's New Irish Families Research Team; Age Friendly Network; The Community Foundation for Ireland and ReCreate with artist Rhona Byrne. Thank are also due to Eimear McNally, Niall Crowley.
4. Cultural Rights is known as the Cinderella of the rights family. When it comes to arts and cultural work it is not clear what it stands for, how progress is achieved and how criticism voiced. Yet it is precisely its uncertainty that has attracted us to it. We made a joint submission, with the Equality and Rights Alliance, to the Irish shadow report on progress under social, economic and cultural rights. In November, FLAC submitted the final report to the UN and adopted a community culture strategy. Read [+]
5. Engaging with arts and cultural institutions. Blue Drum knows how important it is to engage and acknowledge the work that is done in the publicly funded arts sectors. Our analysis about how the gap in participation by citizens and communities needs urgent work to find solutions. Our conversations were fresh and met with enthusiasm at ministerial, Arts Council and local authority arts office levels. We have contributed to a new consensus that participation is a core issue and worked strongly with the Equality and Rights Alliance. All of us are interested to work out how equality, social inclusion and cultural rights work integrates into community arts practice and beyond.
6. Blue Print 2015-2019. Since September, the Board were reviewing the strategic direction for the next five years. Most of this internal work will pay dividends early in 2015. We are delighted to welcome three new board members: Sheelagh Colclough, Jim Aherne and Ciarán Cuffe. A draft of Blue Print is now available and we have been getting really good feedback about its draft content. Ceara Conway remarked: “I strongly
resonate with the visions/principle values that have been set out within it and I find what's written is really developmental and it challenges the current status quo on Culture. 7. TUSLA Child and Family Agency was established this year and we have transferred from the Family Support Agency into the Family and Community Support section of the Agency. We had strong working
relationships and these have continued during the transition period. We also had opportunities to establish new relationships with TUSLA’s Gordon Jeyes (Chief Executive) and Fred McBride (Chief Operating Officer).
January-March 2014 Happy Parent (HP)
Watch Happy Parent is now in its third year. It began as once off workshops evolving into four workshops with an emphasis on peer led development. This year we are tried out more intensive programme in Ballinrobe and TACU FRC. Happy Parent targeted parents, grandparents, carers and anyone working with children with an emphasis on group work.
Workshops / Seminars TUSLA met the Specialist Support Structures in February and April 2014 (2502-2014 // 7-4-2014). These meetings gave a real opportunity for specialist structures to exchange ideas, to share plans and to get an update on the new Agency structure and strategy.
Social Inclusion Forum (1-04-2014) This year’s Social Inclusion Forum (SIF) took place on 1st April 2014. This event was part of the institutional framework put in place by the Government to support the development of the National Action Plan for Social Inclusion 2007-2016. During the Forum we exhibited the City (Re)Searchers Project as part of the Showcase of Projects 2014.
April – June 2014 Cultural Rights Cultural rights are often described as the ‘neglected’ or ‘under-developed’ category of human rights. We have lots of questions to answer: What do we understand by ‘cultural rights’? How can cultural rights be made more visible and be accorded greater status?
The Agency of Community Culture Creativity and Memory ‘Great to see a social model of dementia care’ Participant evaluation sheet.
Promoting Cultural Rights involved an indepth discussion about how to influence the review process of the international Covenant on Economic, Social and Political Rights especially with regard to cultural rights. Blue Drum and the Equality Rights Alliance found a shared equality and rights agenda to work. We also engaged the Children’s Rights Alliance and Free Legal Aid Centres Interestingly, in 2015 the Ireland will report on its progress to the UN. We also ( ERA and Blue Drum) jointly prepared a submission to the Shadow Report. Read here: Issuu
FRC Networking
The first 2-day workshop 24/25-3-14) called Creative Reminiscence in Dementia Care had 10 participants from across the country. Participants came from a health care and age activist groups. The workshop was delivered by Annemarie Bolder and Mark McCollum who are both members of the European Reminiscence Network.
We met with the Eastern Region on May 13th, St. Kevin’s Kilnamanagh. Eleanor Phillips and Gillian Keogan met with Family Resource Centres from the Eastern region flagged up the possibility of running a ‘train the trainer – art in group/family work as well as supporting summer programmes where possible. Eleanor and Ed took part in Visualising Advocacy: Creative Strategies for Social Change. This event, organised by The Advocacy Initiative, Claiming Our Future and Blue Drum continued with much wider reach our initial workshop called the Art of Campaigning
Remembering Yesterday, Caring Today was a one-day London symposium focused on reminiscence in dementia care. Mark McCollum, Chair of Blue Drum and who was involved in developing a reminiscence network in Ireland took part and delivered a workshop.
July - September 2014 Happy Parent Booklet
In this booklet you can find out how to recycle and recreate using things often thrown out in the home. “Sharing in creative activities helps to facilitate positive communications between parent and child”
City (Re)Searches: Pamphlets We launched the Pamphlets which were a result of this research project. Each researcher wrote-up their reflections following short inquiry visits to Cork, Belfast, Kaunas and Rotterdam. We are immensely appreciative of the 12 artists and researchers who contributed their practice, ideas and experience over the last two years. These are: f marquespenteado, Jeanne van Heeswijk, Mary Jane Jacob, Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas, Susanne Bosch, Vagabond Reviews, Fiona Woods, John Mulloy, Niall Crowley and Niall O’Baoill. All pamphlets are available to download here: Issuu and an archive website will hold a lot of documentary material too here: City (Re)Searches
FRC Art Days
Each summer we engage with an FRC as part of their Summer Programme, This year we engaged with the young participants of St. Kevin’s Family Resource Centre’s Art Day in Dublin 24. Together we created large group paintings and used recycled materials to explore
ways we could “fit-in” using the paintings as backgrounds.
Creative Communities – From St. Louis,USA to Ballyboden 2011-2014 We continued to engage with the Community Arts Training Institute in St Louis. Ed took part in CAT seminars and held meetings with various activists with a view to continuing a future cooperation programme. In 2011 Ballyboden FRC’s community worker Jean Bates collaborated with Eleanor Phillips in a residency exchange in St. Louis, USA. Upon their return they set about using the lessons they learned with the Ballyboden community to creatively explore the context of the centre’s work. The process included exploratory walks, interviews, photography, drawing, textile painting and relief sculpture.
We Are Family Thanks to the 100 people from the four provinces who attended the day of workshops, friendly conversations and screening in Dublin Castle. Thanks too, to our peers who helped coproduce this event: Empowering People in Care (EPIC), New Communities Partnership, Rialto Youth Project, Fatima Groups United, Pavee Point, Community Foundation of Ireland, Age Friendly Ireland, ReCreate and, of course, TUSLA. Also, we were supported by artist, Lisa Fingleton, Eimear McNally and Frameworks Films.
October – December 2014 Blue Print 2015-2019 We have developed a new strategic orientation. Blue Print 2015-2019 will lay out the ideas, analysis and evidence that informs our new work plan. There are 3 strands of work being considered: (1) Family, Art and Pedagogy through activities like: Exploring creativity in the context of a national parenting strategy. Provincial We Are Family workshop series; (2) Community Culture, Equality and Rights through activities like: Community Culture via DIY clusters in each province to network and train; Equality and Rights– to co-deliver workshops about the value of rights in family support and community development with others. (3) Cooperative ventures and Sustainability through activities like: Position the organisation in a new cooperative and co-creative context; Animate a ‘hub’ from which to deliver local, national and international programmes in cooperative ventures with civil society; Attract people and places to conversations and exchanges focused on new forms of participation.
United Nations Our Voice, Our Rights, a parallel report in response to Ireland’s Third Report under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights was submitted by FLAC. It is an independent human rights organisation dedicated to the realisation of equal access to justice for all. The official Irish launch was in November in the Mansion House. Blue Drum formed part of the panel on the day presenting the importance of art and creativity and the right to culture and its resources.
Ballyboden FRC’s Anniversary Each year ask FRCs to tell us if they are celebrating an anniversary. This year we returned to Ballyboden as a follow on from their previous years artwork celebrating their 20 year anniversary. We explored, through the use of clay sculpture, symbols which could communicate the ethos of the family resource centre.
As part of the next phase of FLAC’s campaign, leading up to the examination of the State in June 2015 in Geneva, a website is now live: www.ourvoiceourrights.ie.
*-------*
Rebirth Day This was the first year we sent out a call for symbolic actions on Dec 21 (shortest day of the year) called Rebirth Day. Rebirth-Day is about making an Action for Change with the means at your disposal. We hope to grow this initiative in 2015 and 2016. Here is a link Waterford based Jeffery Gormly, Dance of myself: www.bluedrum.ie
2014 Annual Report Blue Drum is registered as The Arts Specialist Support Agency, Clonshaugh Drive Dublin 17 Company No. 364118 Auditors: McCloskey & Co. Dublin 18. Charity No. 14699 If you require any information email Eleanor or Ed at blue.drum@yahoo.com.
Cultural Rights Workshop In November we delivered a two day workshop with Listowel Family Resource Centre’s Men’s Shed where we explored culture and difference, facilitating drama and creative workshops which encouraged participants to discuss the roles and needs of men.
[In] this aesthetic dimension of “communicative action” … unalienated social labor becomes, after a fashion, “dance,” the craftspersonship of daily self-making and survival in the idiom of cultural-economic production. D. White, Email Coresp. I dance by the river Which never stops flowing. I dance with the tree; The wind is blowing. I dance in the field I frighten the cattle The darkness surrounds me, My midwinter battle. I dance with the blues, They hug me so tight I dance in the muck, I dance in the night,
I dance for my self I dance for my freedom I dance for more money I dance for my family I dance for my daughter My woman, my people I dance out my body I give myself to everything I cultivate hope While others are dreaming I dance for my life I dance unashamedly I dance ‘til I’m tired I walk home I know serenity Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you
I dance under the bridge The bridge to our destiny. I dance with my death, We make an agreement: I won’t seek her out, She’ll come when she’s ready. Jeffrey Gormly: Dance of myself.
Action for Rebirth Day 2014