Creative Citizens project is piloted

For the Council has been chosen to be the pilot local authority for a new ‘Creative Citizens Consortium’ initiative.

Bringing details to last Monday night’s Community Planning meeting in The Braid, Council officer Karen Hargan said an approach had been made to Council, through Ballymena Arts Partnership, by Voluntary Arts Ireland.

The new consortium, she said, aimed to create a local infrastructure which encourages active involvement by citizens in creative cultural activity.

The pilot would be run as part of Ballymena Arts Festival in May, next year, and would include a series of regional events to be held in the borough.

She added that, with over 100 local arts groups in the borough, the pilot would also offer a full programme of enhanced opportunities for those local groups to collaborate with regional groups.

Councillors also heard that a major part of the programme, which is a joint collaboration with DCAL, would be to involve town centre empty spaces and regeneration of areas through the arts in collaboration with Ballymena Town Centre Development.

“The legacy of the pilot is that the infrastructure remains after it’s over and is there as a resource to help sustain creative cultural activity in an area,” said Mrs Hargan.

The Committee approved the officer’s recommendation that Council, through Ballymena Arts Partnership, becomes the pilot for the Creative Citizens Consortium.