Residents of Belfast are being asked to join conversations on how culture can transform the city’s public spaces during a series of webinars called “Making Places Together”.
Belfast City Council has teamed up with Voluntary Arts Ireland to host a series of five virtual conversations to explore ways of creating a more vibrant city.
Lord Mayor Frank McCoubrey said: “Culture is vital to our recovery as a city, and important to our city’s future resilience. We want to create a vibrant city centre which is a catalyst for growth and regeneration.
“It’s important that we hear from the people of our city and look at ways of injecting energy and colour into our public spaces, so we want to hear from artists, creatives and indeed anyone who is interested in the regeneration of our city spaces.
“The webinars are a chance to explore the potential for more collective action for the benefit of the city, especially as we progress towards a major year of cultural celebration in 2023.
“Covid-19 has had a huge impact on our city centre, so now is a good time to rethink and explore new opportunities and creative approaches on how we interact with our city and use its spaces.”
The “A City Imagining: Making Places Together” sessions will take place every Wednesday 10am starting on September 23. The series will culminate in a final reflective discussion on October 21."
The five webinars discussions are titled “Playful City”, “Repurposing City Spaces”, “City as a Gallery”, “Changing Neighbourhoods, Changing Cities” and “Reflections and Next Steps”.
Kevin Murphy, Creative Associate at Voluntary Arts Ireland, said: “The Making Places Together conversations aim to bring people together to imagine a more culturally vibrant city.
“There will be input from internationally acclaimed speakers including Anita Durst, Artistic Director of New York’s ChaShaMa, which transforms unused real estate into space to create and present. Also joining the debate will be Rhiannon Corcoran, a Professor of Psychology and Public Mental Health at the University of Liverpool, who has recently been exploring the psychological and social impacts of Covid-19.
“Everyone is welcome to sign-up and have their say and the broader the range of participants, the better.”
For more information or to sign up to the webinars, go to www.belfastcity.gov.uk/culture-projects.
