What Next? A public meeting for the arts community on 9 June

Press Release :: 23 May :: NCFA calls on Minister for All-Party approach to National Cultural Policy
23rd May 2016
NCFA Newsletter: June 2016
10th June 2016

What Next? National Campaign for the Arts

The National Campaign for the Arts is a volunteer-led, grass roots movement that makes the case for the arts in Ireland. It seeks to ensure that the arts are on local and national government agendas and are recognised as a vital part of contemporary Irish life.

NCFA will host a public meeting for the arts community in Project Arts Centre on Thursday 9 June from 09.45 – 11.15. The purpose of the meeting is a forum to discuss the viability of the setting up of a movement similar to What Next? What Next? is a national movement of arts and cultural organisations, artists, funders, policy makers, institutions, and individuals in the UK who come together regularly to articulate and strengthen the role of culture in society.  They’re interested in how they can act together to make change happen and how they can hold an authentic conversation about value with decision makers, the public and each other.

Speakers at the event include Hannah Bird (National Movement Lead, What Next?) and Brian Sheehan (Co-Director, YES Equality).

There will be room for discussion around practical next steps that the arts community can take to get involved at local and national level, and engage in our country’s conversation about culture.

Timetable
Thursday 9 June 09.45 – 11.15
Project Arts Centre, Space Upstairs, 39 East Essex Street, Dublin 2. 

09.30 – 09.45 Arrivals
09.45 – 10.15 Brian Sheehan (Co-Director, Yes Equality)
YES Equality Campaign – Persuading People to Come with You
10.15 – 10.45 Hannah Bird (National Movement Lead, What Next?)
An Introduction to What Next?
10.45 – 11.15 Jo Mangan (Chair, NCFA) & Maria Schweppe (Freelance Arts, Festival & Comedy Producer)
Q&A – Next Steps

Please RSVP in advance to confirm your attendance at https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/what-next-national-campaign-for-the-arts-tickets-25718979159

Brian Sheehan
Brian is the Executive Director of GLEN, one of Ireland’s leading LGBT strategic and advocacy organisations since 2007. He was the co-Director of the Yes Equality campaign for the successful marriage referendum in 2015, along with Grainne Healy.. Brian is also co-chair of ILGA-Europe, one of the main driving forces for political, legal and social change at the European level for LGBTI people, which represents 400 member organisations across 45 countries in Europe.  He has been involved for many years in LGBT community organisations, including support, cultural and advocacy. He has a background in the corporate, IT and non-profit sectors.

About Yes Equality
Yes Equality, formed by GLEN, Marriage Equality and the ICCL, led a country-wide strategic and focussed campaign to persuade a majority of Irish people to vote yes in the marriage referendum. It galvanised support from individuals and ally organisations and set a tone and messages which were carried through all aspects of the successful campaign. The campaign itself was built on years of solid work by the three organisations and on a history of successful progressive gains for LGBT equality in Ireland over the preceeding 20 years.

https://www.yesequality.ie/

Hannah Bird
Hannah is a Creative Producer. She creates and leads projects in the creative industries and is passionate about exploration. Much of Hannah’s work is focused on developing collaborative projects between the cultural sector and other disciplines. Hannah is the National Movement Lead for What Next? She has developed programmes of work for clients including Southbank Centre, King’s College London, Clore Leadership Programme and University of the Arts. Other high-profile work has included producing the Culture and Climate Change: Future Scenarios artist residencies project with the Open University and University of Sheffield, developing a STEM to STEAM policy and 24hr STEAM Hack for the Cultural Learning Alliance, and leading art and science expeditions in the Arctic and Andes for Cape Farewell.

http://www.hannahbird.net/

About What Next?
What Next? are a national movement of arts and cultural organisations, artists, funders, policy makers, institutions, and individuals who come together regularly to articulate and strengthen the role of culture in society.  We’re interested in how we can act together to make change happen and how we can hold an authentic conversation about value with decision makers, the public and each other.

Over the last four years the What Next? movement has grown organically to encompass 35 chapters around the UK, each meeting regularly and bringing together individuals, organisations and institutions to work on locally significant issues, and to consider how to contribute to wider action.  Each chapter identifies its own priorities as well as collaborating with others and working as a national movement.  Some are headed by cultural leaders, some by young professionals at the start of their career.  All activity is open to anyone who chooses to attend. Chapter Chairs step forward to take the initiative to set up each What Next? Group. What Next is sustained by an extensive voluntary effort and buy-in – from Chairs, attenders and collaborators across this picture – and then also by a minimal enabling structure of paid freelance support at the core.

This structure has enabled What Next? to become a catalyst for fresh thinking and new policy ideas, and to engage with Ministers, politicians and civil servants from different national, local and devolved governments, experts, activists, policy makers, peers and colleagues from many dimensions of civil society, policy making and political life.  It has built new relationships, understanding, and best practice between colleagues, and new levels of trust, openness and externally engaged action within the sector.   Combined with the political lobbying skills offered by What Next? adviser Rosie Luff of Hanover Communications, What Next? advocacy and case making have had an impact on government policy and on funding decisions, particularly in 2015 Comprehensive Spending Review when we took a delegation to Treasury and ran a national campaign aimed at back-benchers: Arts 4 Britain.

http://www.whatnextculture.co.uk/

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