City Arts Centre 1989 - 2002
The story in audio
The development of the new centre in Dublin's Moss Street on City Quay, meant a higher profile and a conscious expansion of programme. Not only was the building now one of the largest and busiest arts facilities in the country, the Centre had ambitious plans to tackle cultural deprivation through a unique combination of local and citywide in-house and outreach programmes.
With the policy statement, 'putting arts to work for the community in a way that is relevant practical and exciting', CityArts entered the 1990's with groundbreaking programmes, opening up debates, producing and hosting work, initiating training and education courses, facilitating community arts groups, and providing cheap and open space for young musicians.
During this time the City Arts Centre became the Irish affiliate for the international disability arts programme Very Special Arts (which later became Disability Arts Ireland); hundreds of young bands practiced in the protective environment of the Yamaha Rehearsal Room (supported by the Irish rock band U2, who had their offices on the quays)); and for four years the centre organised the Dublin Street Carnival.
Denis Buckley, In Full View, in association with St.Patrick's Festival. Performances and installations commissioned by CityArts for Dublin's O'Connell Street, 2005.
The Centre also made it a priority to engage with the local community in the South Inner City, leading to an active partnership with St. Andrew's Resource Centre (including the establishement of the South Docks Festival) on Pearse Street, City Quay School and many other local organisations. This was in addition to the Centre's work with Route 36, Ballymun; Walk the Talk, Coolock; Rialto Youth Project; The Balcony Belles, the Liberties; and KLEAR (Kilbarrack Adult Education); all of whose work was presented at City Arts Centre.
The Centre's commitment to education and training grew and included MAP (Music Management and Promotion); the Roots project; the Horizon project; the Music Business Course; and ACT (Arts in the Community Training).
International links and projects also developed when the Centre became a member of Trans Europe Halles, a network of independent cultural centres in Europe.
By the mid nineties the City Arts Centre had emerged as the foremost model of a multi-disciplinary, community based arts centre in Ireland. As the decade drew to a close it had spearheaded a wave of new, more democratic and more deeply considered approaches to the arts in Dublin.
