Bank of Ireland’s Begin Together Arts Fund announces £270,000 in funding for music, theatre, dance, traditional and visual arts projects
1st February 2021 – Bank of Ireland, in partnership with Business to Arts and Arts & Business NI, has announced that 36 projects spanning music, theatre, dance, opera, and the visual arts will receive support from the first phase of the Bank of Ireland Begin Together Arts Fund. Nine of the projects are NI based, with projects in every county across the province.
Funding of £270,000 will be provided to artworks or arts projects which have been inspired by the experience of living through COVID-19 or have been adapted in response to the pandemic. The all-island Begin Together Arts Fund will make a total of €1 million/£910,000 in arts funding available over three years and will open for a second round of applications in April.
Oliver Wall, Chief of Staff and Head of Group Corporate Affairs, Bank of Ireland said: “Art has such an important role to play in helping us to understand, express and reflect on the world, especially at challenging times like these. I am delighted that through the Begin Together Arts Fund Bank of Ireland can help sustain the development of new work and artistic practice during the pandemic. There’s a wonderful spread of projects across all art forms in this first phase and I look forward to seeing them come to fruition over the rest of the year.”
Deirdre Hargey, Communities Minister for Northern Ireland, said: “This Fund, which I understand has received a high standard of applications, will have a tremendous impact on the livelihood of artists and groups from all art forms across the island of Ireland. This has undoubtedly been a difficult time for the arts sector, but their creativity as well as diversity have certainly come to the fore. This fund supports those arts projects that have responded to or have been adapted due to Covid-19. It is important that people from all of our communities continue to have access to the creative, heritage and arts sectors.”
Mary Nagele, Chief Executive, Arts & Business Northern Ireland, said: “We were delighted to work with Bank of Ireland and Business to Arts to maximise the impact of the Begin Together Arts Fund across Northern Ireland. We thank the Bank of Ireland for its long-term support for the Arts and their investment in this Fund. It is wonderful that it puts artists and artistic practice at the heart and is enabling so many incredible arts initiatives that will positively impact on people and communities in these difficult times for all.”
The nine artists and projects in Northern Ireland funded through this first phase of the Begin Together Arts Fund grants are:
- Over the Hill Music Collective, a project that will focus on four older musicians in the rooms where they live alone. Songs will be produced recorded, mixed and mastered by Oh Yeah Music Centre in Belfast. The recorded work will be available by August 2021 and performed live when possible.
- Locked Up in Lockdown, which will develop a piece of theatre with a number of current or former students from Hydebank Wood College, a Young Offenders’ Centre in Belfast. Lyric Theatre staff worked with staff in the college, encouraging students to write about their perception of the pandemic. The result was a 36-page booklet of letters, poems and prose summed up by the title, ‘Locked Up in Lockdown’, describing so many interesting and unexpected responses to the situation – both positive and negative.
Philip Crawford, Head of Creative Learning, Lyric Theatre said: “This is a really exciting chance for two recently graduated actors, David Evans and Finnian Garbutt – attempting to begin their careers at an impossibly challenging time – to develop their artistic and project management skills. While training at the Lyric Theatre, both David and Finnian developed an interest in working creatively with young men in custody at Hydebank Wood Young Offenders Centre and Prison. To continue this vital work, thanks to support from Bank of Ireland, Business to Arts, and Arts & Business NI, is a hugely appreciated learning opportunity for all involved.”
- The Night of the Big Wind, is an operatic musical reimagining of the infamous 1839 storm. The piece will trace the stories and encounters of six fictional characters in an all-Ireland tour that will visit six venues. NI Opera’s main objective is to provide as many children as possible with the opportunity to see the opera. This goal will be supported by professionally filming the piece and sending it to schools and community groups, as well as broadcasting it on the company’s YouTube channel.
- BENCH MARKS will see two bench seats with low backs formed from flotsam tree trunks, washed and bleached by the elements on Runkerry Strand, close to the Giant’s Causeway. Glass, ceramics and copper will be used to transform the rugged timber into a narrative of their response to COVID-19. The two seats will be placed opposite each other and significantly, they will be more than two metres apart. Their location will be on the freely-accessible, public footpath and cliff path that joins the National Trust Visitors Centre at the Giant’s Causeway to Innisfree Farm, which houses the administrative HQ of the Trust, and the Boat House Gallery.
- At the Margins, is based on poet Maria McManus’s large-scale public engagement letter-writing project “Filling the Void” (2018/19). A site-specific literary event, it will animate the library for the public, responding to the letters through dance and an original score. The project will be adapted with film, for online distribution, outside performance or projection onto the Armagh Robinson Library.
- Caffrey/Seamus Heaney HomePlace – Based on several poems from ‘Death of a Naturalist’, this work will be filmed and there will be a video created which can be exhibited, disseminated and drawn upon as need be for years into the future. There is great potential in terms of broadening an audience for Heaney’s poetry beyond solely literary enthusiasts.
- Covid Care Concerts, a new project that has been devised by Mobile Music Machine (MMM) in collaboration with local partners in Ireland. Covid Care Concerts will visit ten residential care homes across Derry county or city, with each performance lasting one hour and taking place in the grounds of the nursing home.
- I am here: short film series is a series of new media/social media-friendly short films further exploring the relationship between two people separated by the current pandemic and in need of connection.
- Music To Your Ears (Strabane) is a two-hour musical concert featuring members of the ‘Music To Your Ears’ Group, Strabane, broadcast through Derry and Strabane District Council’s Alley Theatre portal. The ‘Music To Your Ears’ Group is comprised of over 30 men all over 55 years of age and some as old as 84. Members include widowers, retired men in all types of health and social situations, mostly from Strabane Town.
The assessment panel for the first round of the Fund featured three independent representatives from the Arts and Culture sector, three representatives from Bank of Ireland, and was facilitated by Business to Arts and Arts & Business Northern Ireland:
- Lorraine Maye, Director, Cork Midsummer Festival
- Colette Norwood, Arts Manager, Northern Ireland, British Council
- Alex Petcu, Musician
- John Greer, Head of Governance NI, Bank of Ireland
- Anne Mulcahy, Group Brand Director, Bank of Ireland
- Oliver Wall, Chief of Staff and Head of Group Corporate Affairs, Bank of Ireland
Please see https://personalbanking.bankofireland.com/campaigns/begin-together/begin-together-arts-fund-webpage/ for the full list of supported projects.