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Irland: Sixth Intercultural Practice Exchange

“Navigating the journey from conflict to interculturalism: The role of the arts in Northern Ireland”

When Bertolt Brecht said “Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it”, he had the reality of class conflict in mind. However, the reality of inter-community conflict such as in Northern Ireland lends itself to a similar discussion of the role of the arts. Platform for Intercultural Europe’s 6th Intercultural Practice Exchange, in collaboration with its member, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, will examine the varying responses of artists to the Northern Ireland conflict; some felt free not to engage while others were compelled to respond. What’s clear is that there was no single ‘right’ artistic response.

The transition from conflict has been made and the people of Northern Ireland now live in a peaceful political dispensation. Yet some challenges remain; and we will consider the role of the arts as a tool to enable reconciliation, allowing peace to firmly bed down across the region. We will also ask how the experience of this reconciliation affects the reception of newcomers in Northern Ireland.

A special focus will be on the role of cultural institutions in transforming society. We will look at the challenge of transforming existing institutions in order to provide equality of opportunity as well as at the need to create new infrastructure to promote good community relations.

We invite workshop contributions, which can bring comparisons from other intra-community conflicts in Europe to the following sub-themes:

Building partnerships across sectors. Making minds meet.
Changing the public realm. Transforming common space.
The unique offer of the arts: neutral space, innovative tools and languages.
Transforming arts institutions to serve diversity: Between self-motivation and policy incentives
Changing cultural infrastructure: Salvaging the old and creating the new
Building intercultural competence in cultural institutions: What does it take?
Organisations with relevant experience please write to dialogue@intercultural-europe.org soon (ideally before 31 August).

The programme and the announcement of registration opening will be posted on PIE’s website soon.

Arrangør

| CKI | Center for Kunst & Interkultur | Nørre Allé 7, 2. sal | 2200 København N | Tlf 2343 80 09 | Mail: info[a]dcai.dk | Annonce info |