Arts & Regeneration Project

The Arts and Regeneration project is jointly funded by the Arts Council for Northern Ireland & Derry City Council until 31st November 2008.

This post has been established to strengthen community involvement in regeneration issues. Through creative initiatives targeting groups and individuals in areas of urban development and regeneration we aim to:

• Increase awareness of the potential for redevelopment and renewal in four specific geographical areas each year
• Work with residence and area users to generate ideas and aspirations for local areas
• Produce creative ways of expressing the ideas of communities, individuals and user groups
• Support the work currently underway in local areas and bring added value to them
• Inspire participation by users of the area and provide a system for underrepresented communities or individuals to voice their ideas or concerns around the reinvigoration of their area.
• Promote and publicise the work of the arts in relation to regeneration in the participating areas.

Participation:

In the first year of the programme there will be five projects, four of which will be geographically based and one non-geographical community which in the first year will focus on Disability. The four geographical areas in year one are:

• Riverview/Bishop Street
• Newbuildings
• Shantallow
• Clooney

Over the past six months the Arts & Regeneration Officer has met with residents associations from all four areas, and has started the first two series of artist workshops with eight schools in the Shantallow area and three schools in the Bishop street area.

Art and Regeneration at Foyleside

Art and Regeneration at Foyleside, is the first completed project with schools and a residential home in the Bishop Street area. This project was funded by Foyleside shopping centre and created an opportunity for children and adults in the area to express their views on the city they live in.

Artist Helen McAleer created this artwork with help from the pupils of both Longtower and Fountain Primary Schools, and Lumen Christi College. The artist also worked with residents from Alexander House.

To make the work, ‘Journeys, Visions and Memories’ the participants were asked to look at the city, their journeys around the city, shopping, travelling to work and school. The adults also reminisced about the city in years gone by and the children imagined how the city might change in the future.

The Mayor, Councillor Helen Quigley, welcoming the project, said it was innovative as it looked at the different ways people viewed the city.

She commented: “The art project reflects how adults reminisce about the city and how they remembered the city as it was, while the children portray how they see the city progressing and developing in the future. It is an extremely creative and innovative project, which accurately unites the old with the new. I believe this piece of artwork is something that can be enjoyed by everyone in the city.”

Find out More

To find out more about the Derry City Council Arts and Regeneration Programme contact:

Alice McCartney
Arts Regeneration Officer
Derry City Council
Tel: 02871 365151 ext. 6939
email alice.mccartney@derrycity.gov.uk