New cultural programme is officially launched in city

LORD Mayor of Dublin Brendan Carr and Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Heather Humphreys, officially launched a new cultural programme at a special event held in the Mansion House.

Following the adoption of a new cultural strategy in 2016, Dublin’s Culture Connects sees Dublin City Council place culture at the heart of its corporate strategy for the first time. 

A series of legacy projects developed from the Dublin 2020 Capital of Culture Bid, this innovative programme creates new connections and partnerships across Dublin between neighbourhoods, national cultural institutions, city libraries, artists and the city.

The programme comrpises four pillars, the first of which, Dublin’s Culture Connects: The National Neighbourhood, was launched on September 27. The three other pillars are a new EU Funding Unit; support and training for cultural and community groups in the area of fundraising, the Fundraising Fellowship partnership with Business to Arts; and a new cultural audit and mapping project as part of the recently adopted Dublin City Development Plan.

Spanning the Dublin City Council region, the project, for the first time, brings together the council’s arts, cultural and community resources in partnership with all eight national cultural institutions located in Dublin – The Abbey Theatre, The National Museum of Ireland, The National Library of Ireland, The National Gallery of Ireland, The National Concert Hall, The Chester Beatty Library, The National Archives and The Irish Museum of Modern Art.

Each of the council’s five administrative areas has been partnered with national cultural institutions. These include: 

• The North Central Area will see community groups from Belmayne and Coolock partnered with the Irish Museum of Modern Art to build a sense of local identity in the ‘It Takes a Village’ project, and

• The Central Area will connect with the National Library of Ireland to map the story of food in the city, working with the NLI’s collections in the ‘Around the Table’ project.

The Lord Mayor said he was delighted to see that all the work that went into the Capital of Culture bid was being rewarded. 

“Thousands of Dubliners engaged with Dublin City Council over a number of months to suggest projects and programmes and The National Neighbourhood is just one of the great ideas to come out of the process. 

“Culture is an important part in building neighbourhood spirit and it is an ambition of Dublin City Council to continue to give the opportunity for people to learn and participate in the arts in their neighbourhood in all parts of the city,” he said. 

Minister Humphreys said: “A spirit of working together, of partnership, and creative collaboration has been the striking feature of everything we’ve seen throughout this special year of commemoration.

“I am delighted to see this approach to collaboration embodied in the Dublin’s Culture Connects initiative. It is helping to build an ever-expanding partnership between citizens and the cultural community, developing new audiences, encouraging participation and supporting our great artists and cultural organisations.”

Further details on the programme will be posted regularly on the blog at www.dublinscultureconnects.ie.