Civil Arts Inquiry (2002-2004)
In 2001, a decision was taken by the Board of City Arts Centre to cease programming and to enter a period of strategic review named 'The Civil Arts Inquiry'. The Civil Arts Inquiry was a two year review of the City Arts Centre's conceptual and organisational basis and specifically focussed on the idea of civil culture, meaning a culture belonging to citizens, and its implications. The Civil Arts Inquiry was not a private review, rather a public inquiry held with all key stakeholders, artists, youth and community development organisations, academic institutions and other arts organisations working across all art forms.
Nathan Coley's Show Home, on the roof of City Arts Centre, 2004
The story in audio
The challenge was to re-vision City Arts Centre without losing the values it held dear over the years. The Inquiry therefore, set out to generate new ways of thinking and a new language to project and fulfil new ambitions and expectations around participatory and engaged arts practice, not only for City Arts Centre, but in terms of contributing to a process of change within the sector as a whole. This would mean new ways of working on the part of City Arts Centre and also on the part of partner organisations and practitioners. City Arts Centre would be the 'locus' of responses to new needs; in community, in society, among practitioners and in culture.
The work of the Civil Arts Inquiry (2002 -2004) involved public seminars, specialist roundtable discussions, research actions, publishing, communications, as well as a number of public events. Notable pieces of programming included the conference at Axis, Ballymun, Dublin, The Role of Arts Centres in Civil Society, in partnership with Trans Europe Halles - the network of European cultural centres (2003); the Haunted exhibition (2003); a season of work at the Dublin Fringe Festival (2003); Nathan Coley's Showhome, which appeared on the roof of the City Arts Centre; and Steve Powers graffiti art on the exterior of the building, Waylon Saul (2004).
The proceedings of the Civil Arts Inquiry were published in a series of documents numbered 1 - 16, plus the Position Paper which was summary of proceedings. A final document, Document 17, Art and the City, was released in in DVD format in 2005.
Over its long history, CityArts has always moved and adapted to the dymanic and changing nature of culture in Dublin and beyond, both physically and in terms of its objectives, which have always maintained a clear policy line. This history, now housed in The Archive, provides the organisation with a strong foundation on which to build a new future, developing the vision of a civic culture in where all voices are equally valued.
