Countdown to City (Re)Searches

An international arts inquiry

The Pop! Culture Space, Writers Square, Belfast 20-23 February

Community Arts Partnership is hosting City (Re)searches, an international public arts inquiry exploring issues of access and participation in the cultural life of our society. We are inviting community artists, community activists, policy makers, funders, politicians, cultural leaders and the general public to take part and contribute to this unique four-day event.

Community Arts Partnership has been trying to widen the conversation locally, nationally and internationally about issues of access and participation in the cultural life of our society.

With City (Re)searches, CAP is  bringing together a range of highly regarded, experienced and indeed award-winning international artists and activists to meet in Belfast with individuals, communities and organisations’ representatives to look at what makes culture important and valued.

City (Re)searches will be hosted in the Pop! Culture, a special pop-up space created by the Annenberg prize winner, Dutch artist Jeanne van Heeswijk. Developed for the International Participatory Prize in Bologna in 2010, this space will be installed for first time ever in Europe for an arts participation event. From here the Pop! Culture is going to travel on to other European cities, offering other communities, artists and the public the chance to explore culture and creativity. Find out more about the City (re)Searches Team.

Conor Shields, Director of Community Arts Partnership: ‘City (Re)searches is like no other research project. For a start, we’ve going to have a really big inflatable shelter in the middle of Writers’ Square.’ Conor further explains ‘In an unequal society, how do we enable everyone to share in the cultural life of a place? What approaches do we have? What are the challenges? We’ll be working with different groups and individuals in the pop-up, but various members of City (Re)searches will be travelling around the city as well to find answers to these questions’.

City (Re)searches programme

  • Day 1 Wednesday 20 February, 3-5pm. An afternoon session will provide access to the general public where anyone can drop in and tell us what they think.
  • Day 2 Thursday 21 February – morning session 11am-1pm

Community Artists and Community Activists are invited to join us and share their experiences in relation to notions of cultural agency and the value of culture (click here for session agenda).

  • Day 3 Friday 22 February – morning session 11am-1pm

Statutory Agencies, Policy Makers, Funders, Politicians and Cultural Leaders are invited to take part in a deliberation / discussion and share their ideas, experiences and practices (click here for session agenda).

  • Day 2 & 3 Thursday 21 and Friday 22 February – afternoon sessions 2-5pm

During some creative workshops, we would like to talk to community groups and organisations about what they value about culture and creativity, what they do in their local communities and what the challenges are ( Click here for registration form).

  • Day 4 Saturday 23 February 11am-2pm

This final session will be open to the public and enable people to provide their opinions around culture, while getting creative in workshops with the CAP team.

For further details or to register your interest contact

Lucy Cochrane, CAP Information Officer

T 90923493 / lucy@comartspartner.org.

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New Belfast Community Arts Initiative trading as Community Arts Partnership is a registered charity (XR 36570) and a company limited by guarantee (Northern Ireland NI 37645).Registered with The Charity Commission as New Belfast Community Arts Initiative - NIC105169.