Arts Council encourages applications from Newry groups on International Peace Day
The Arts Council of Northern Ireland is calling on community groups and local authorities across Northern Ireland and the border areas of Ireland to embrace International Peace Day, which takes place on Saturday 21st September, and apply for funding to tackle sectarianism and racism in their local communities.
The £3.125m Building Peace through the Arts – Re-Imaging Communities programme enables community groups and local authorities to improve community relations and reclaim shared spaces through engaging local people and experienced artists to create vibrant and attractive public artworks.
Funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, the European Union’s Programme for Peace and Reconciliation and the International Fund for Ireland, the programme has already approved £83,000 to undertake the initial consultation stages of 20 public art projects across Northern Ireland and the southern border areas and further applications are welcomed.
Suzanne Lyle, Head of Visual Arts at the Arts Council, said; “For the UN, Peace Day is devoted to commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples.
“The Building Peace programme gives communities the invaluable opportunity to use the arts to promote tolerance and understanding and, in doing so, finding positive new ways to express identity and tradition.
“The arts introduce a new dimension to the process of building reconciliation within and between communities and, through placing creative regeneration at the very heart of local community neighbourhoods, we are helping communities to take their first steps to building a better future for everyone.”
The Blackwater Regional Partnership is one of the groups to have been awarded initial funding from the Building Peace programme. They plan to use the grant to facilitate a series of artworks with engagement from diverse communities from both sides of the border, all of which have a shared heritage of the Blackwater River and waterways.
To find out more about the programme, please contact the Arts Council’s Re-Imaging Communities team on +44 (0) 28 9038 5228, visit: www.artscouncil-ni.org or email: mbeck@artscouncil-ni.org
Short URL: https://newrytimes.com/?p=34790
Posted by Newry Times News
on Sep 20 2013. Filed under Community, What's On.
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