Culture Arts and Heritage Taskforce Focus Group Monday 7th June, 3pm

The taskforce have been asked to provide recommendations on how to :·      to support the reopening of heritage sites, theatres, performance venues and relevant public gathering places in line with the Executive’s Pathway Out of Restrictions;

·      to stimulate culture, arts and heritage activity, re-start the cultural economy and enable the sector to play a central role in rebuilding social and economic life here;·      to explore outdoor performance/activity, including at youth, amateur and community level across the summer, autumn and into the longer term, as a means of encouraging participation and building audience confidence as the opening of indoor and outdoor facilities and activities rolls out;

·      to advise on any  short-term actions to support skills retention and to provide opportunity for potential new-entrants embarking on a career in the sectors; and;·     

 to identify medium to long term actions which might be considered in the development of a new Culture, Arts and Heritage Strategy.  What is the timeline?  The Taskforce is working to have a draft report complete by the end of June given that there is an immediate funding issue to be addressed following the Executive's announcement of £13million to the sector. Who sits on the Taskforce? Given the footprint of the sector, membership ranges from representation from Community Arts, theatre, music, Freelancer to name but a few.  A full membership list can be found here https: //www.communities-ni.gov.uk/articles/culture-arts-and-heritage-recovery-taskforce

Who are we engaging with and how? The taskforce has established 7 focus groups to ensure the widest reach across the sectors, with wider engagement through a live online survey available here:     Culture, Arts and Heritage Recovery Taskforce Survey - NI Direct - Citizen Space Please disseminate the link to the survey to your own networks please.

This survey will take approximately 10 mins and it will complement and provide an update to the survey’s which we already know have been completed across the sector over the last 12 months.Ideally,  we would like to have key recommendations that can cover immediate needs, medium term needs and longer term needs of the sector – we would ask fora time frame to be considered, what funding would be required to take forward each recommendation as well as its potential impact. 

This group includes represenation from disability arts, arts and health and intercultural arts practices who all work directly with community participation as a core activity.