Case Studies & Research Conducted

Case Study

The Shannon Creative Development REDZ Project

The Shannon Creative development project was initiated in early 2016 with the dual aim of developing community capacity and also developing opportunities for the creative sector to act as an economic driver in the locality.  The project addressed the rural challenges of a fragmented community infrastructure and lost opportunities for using local capacity / combining creative synergies, which were addressed by capacity building through training initiatives delivered by creative experts and developing a series of online tools.

One of the principal factors in the project was to raise awareness of the creative sector in the local communities by showing that expertise is available locally; there is the capacity to pay creatives for a sustained period via the project by providing them with some job security (highly significant in a rural context) and promoting a longer-term sustainability strategy for the area.

The REDZ program (Rural Economic Development Zone) funded the project. The REDZ area for this project includes Shannon Town, Sixmilebridge, Kilmurry, Bunratty, Cratloe  and Newmarket on Fergus.

The project was presented as a model project by Dr. Marie Mahon & Dr. Maura Farrell (NRN and NUI, Galway) at the National and European Rural Networks European network conference in May 11-12 2016, Amsterdam

Project Team

Council: Clare County Council (Siobhan Mulcahy, Gerard Dollard)

Local Coordinators: Shannon Venue (Derek Barrett, Kevin Thompstone)

Local Project Support: Shannon Chamber of Commerce (Dympna O’Callaghan, Helen Downes)

Principal Project Contractors: eTownz (Pat Kennedy, Mark O’Leary)

Principal Capacity Development & Programme Providers: Centre for Creative Practices (Ian Oliver)

Principal Research Advisors: National Rural Networks and NUI, Galway (Dr. Marie Mahon & Dr. Maura Farrell)

Case Study

South-eastern Creative Corridor – Entrepreneurs Academy & Wicklow Local Enterprise Office

South-eastern Creative Corridor project aimed at creating a vibrant, viable and growing creative industry cluster in the Region through the use of capacity building, networking and other supports

We were asked to develop the capacity-building element of the project, which aimed to engage with as many relevant participants as possible and to give them access to training and development opportunities that were relevant and helpful to their creative enterprise.

The programme is aimed at startups, micro and SMEs within the five counties, Wicklow, Wexford, Kilkenny, Carlow and Tipperary.

We also looked at address several questions:

•            What is the most critical help or support a creative enterprise could receive?

•            How should they receive this help and support?

•            Do they have the resources to implement the help or support?

•            If not, how can they still access the necessary resources to act upon the help or support?

•            What makes the Creative enterprise complete the training?

•            How do the Creative Enterprise keep up its engagement with the programme?

•            What is the ideal training programme for creatives?

•            What does it look like?

•            And critically, why should a creative enterprise do the programme?

We concluded that the best way to deliver the programme was to deliver it as distinct programmes based on the needs of the creative enterprises rather than as the same programme for each county.  Our rationale was that we wanted to ensure that each programme was geared to a specific outcome for the participants. 

In Streamlining the programme delivery, we can help through an incubator/accelerator programme to allocate time and resources more efficiently.  For Creative entrepreneurs, this means they have a fixed and focused time frame to accomplish milestones, providing an atmosphere of intensity and setting expectations with deadlines that will ultimately define their success in a competitive world.

The aim is to deliver high-quality services through 4 main development areas (training packages) ranging from basic to intermediate support for all in the creative sector to narrow access to high-level specialist business incubation and acceleration services covering specific outcomes.

Case Study

Centre for Creative Practices

The Centre for Creative Practices (CFCP) is a national development organisation for migrant and culturally diverse artists in Ireland.

CFCP is acknowledged as a catalyst for promoting cultural diversity, intercultural collaboration and exchange, enabling migrant and culturally diverse artists to access resources and the local arts scene where they are able to showcase their work and build sustainable careers in the arts.

So far CFCP has provided support for over 2,500 migrant and culturally diverse artists living in Ireland and delivered over 2,000 hours of mentoring and professional development training. 

CFCP supports Migrant and Culturally Diverse artists and art practices through two main streams: Programmes and Resources.

In order to develop CFCP the organisation needed to conduct research into the Economic Situation of Migrant Artists within an Irish context. (Research document attached).

Also, CFCP needed to financially secure funding from the Arts Council of Ireland in order to continue its activities. In 2022 CFCP was awarded €70,000 and in 2023 €75,000 from the Arts Council of Ireland in order to continue.  To date CFCP have been awarded €100,000 from the Arthur Guinness Award, over €300,000 from the Arts Council of Ireland and over €50,000 from over funding bodies for its activities.

Research Conducted

The economic situation & business development needs of Migrant and Culturally diverse artists in the Cultural & Creative sectors in Ireland

Aim

To assess the economic situation & business development needs of Migrant and Culturally Diverse Artists in the Cultural & Creative sectors in Ireland, so as to be able to provide relevant continuous professional business development training, mentoring and resources geared specifically to meeting the identified needs.

Therefore, by providing Migrant and Culturally Diverse Artists in Ireland with continuous professional business development training, mentoring and resources they have the opportunity to develop sustainable artistic practices.

Why is this Important?

We need to include the voice of all members of society if we are to have an all-inclusive population.

Cultural organisations need to become spaces for deepening the understanding of different cultures and provide room for participative and creative encounters.

Cultural organisations play a pivotal role in connecting people and in building a more cohesive and open society

In April 2018, there were 593,600 non-Irish nationals resident in Ireland accounting for 12.2% of the total population. The number of immigrants to the State in the year to April 2018 is estimated to have increased by 6.7% from 84,600 to 90,300.

2015, EU Member States’ Culture Ministers agreed that, beyond providing humanitarian support to meet migrants’ and refugees’ immediate needs, attention had to be paid to their social and culture integration.

Integration is a two-way process meaning that it is as much about the way in which destination countries receive migrants as much as what migrants do to adapt to a new setting.

Download the research and results >>