-
Status
Received: 2 days late
-
Income
£402.8K
-
Spending
£352.7K
Public benefits
The direct benefits include new awareness of and participation in creative activities for individuals, for groups and communities and for the general public. Collaborative and celebratory Carnival activities and events foster good relations and result in sharing of public spaces including spaces that have been or are contested. Public spaces and
communities where the activity takes place are made more welcoming for all. Carnival parades on the streets, with large numbers of people from diverse backgrounds are experienced in ways that are culturally inclusive. Participants and audiences develop and enjoy new forms of communal celebration that move Northern Ireland’s cultural and community celebrations away from tribalism, fear and confrontation. Carnival arts bring new creativity and life to Northern Ireland’s traditions of parades and street music. More networks as well as increased informal relationships provide shared benefit to participants. Beat Carnival’s activity increases interest in arts in young people and under-engaged groups. It improves access to information and expertise about arts for excluded people and communities. In areas that are troubled and disadvantaged it inspires ambition and enables personal achievement and communal pride. New and unique opportunities facilitate people and communities to increase skills; meet new people from other areas, backgrounds and traditions; and gain positive experiences. Beat Carnival’s activity is provided free of charge to participants and audience so that the barriers to access and engagement are as low as possible. This is one of the ways that the activity increases equality, by increasing affordability. Beat creates developmental partnerships with diverse community groups and other agencies, to increase representation, knowledge sharing, skills sharing, specialist support, capacity building and the promotion of shared values. Beat’s safe, imaginative and attractive arts and cultural activity results in people, including children and young people, engaging with others, visiting and learning about areas where they have not been before or previously been fearful of. This provides benefit for both local people and for tourists. The public events and activities present a more positive, forward-looking face of Northern Ireland, to ourselves and to others. Pleasure and fun is experienced through the programmes. Children and young people benefit from emotional growth, personal development and increased social skills. Participants, both individuals and groups, are better able to make positive changes in their lives. The activity increases civic engagement and volunteering. Social connections are increased and more people take positive action on local issues. Beat Carnival is recognised by the Arts Council NI and Belfast City Council as the lead organisation in Northern Ireland, benefiting other arts and festival organisations and community organisations by developing the Carnival Arts artform. The activites raise artistic quality, while also increasing access and participation. Due to the visible evidence of benefit, help is regularly sought from Beat Carnival by community groups, local authorities and others to make their community and civic events more inclusive, participatory and of higher quality. Beat’s carnival arts activity builds community pride, for both ‘arts communities of interest’ and for ‘geographical communities’. Beat Carnival can ascertain the value and effectiveness of its activity because it monitors details of participation and outcomes; collects statistics and gathers feedback from participants and audience; uses agreed performance indicators and toolkits; produces regular reports for consideration by others and commissions external evaluation.
... [more] [less]What your organisation does
BEAT CARNIVAL is Northern Ireland’s Carnival Arts company. We create carnival parades and outdoor performances. We encourage our City to think big about celebrating our creative, community life in ways that are ambitious and welcoming to all. Beat’s specialisms include performance arts such as drumming, music, singing, street dance and puppetry.
We provide training and free-of-charge participation programmes and we have extensive experience of work with community organisations. Beat’s first parades were in 1995. The organisation runs the Beat Carnival Centre. The Centre and its programme of events, outreach work, arts production, education and training, provide a focal point for anyone interested in the development of carnival arts. It makes a special contribution to festivals, community celebrations, civic events: all of which have grown substantially in recent years. Importantly, the Centre provides an accessible and ‘safe space’ for people in the context of an emerging, post-conflict, environment. In Beat’s weekly programme there are 6 open workshops at nights. Ages range from 4 to over 60 years. These specialise in teaching carnival arts of drumming, dance, making (floats, puppets, props, costume), music and street theatre performance. Annual production organised at/from the Centre: 5 large-scale, public performance events; 20 to 35 smaller performances. 100 individual artists create, perform, produce, rehearse at the Centre annually. 250,000 general public spectators at free annual events gain enjoyment, share space and gain a shared sense of pride. Up to 2,000 diverse individuals at 400 to 650 arts activity & training workshops annually. Participants gain new skills and relationships at weekly activity programmes include BeatSchool (specialised arts skills for people of all ages), BeatStyle (young people from 4yr up) plus extensive local outreach (almost every Belfast postcode and in areas across Northern Ireland).
... [more] [less]The charity’s classifications
- The advancement of education
- The advancement of citizenship or community development
- The advancement of the arts, culture, heritage or science
- The advancement of human rights, conflict resolution or reconciliation or the promotion of religious or racial harmony or equality and diversity
- The relief of those in need by reason of youth, age, ill-health, disability, financial hardship or other disadvantage
Who the charity helps
- Adult training
- Children (5-13 year olds)
- Ethnic minorities
- General public
- Interface communities
- Learning disabilities
- Men
- Older people
- Parents
- Physical disabilities
- Specific areas of deprivation
- Unemployed/low income
- Voluntary and community sector
- Volunteers
- Women
- Youth (14-25 year olds)
How the charity works
- Arts
- Community development
- Cross-border/cross-community
- Cultural
- Education/training
- Urban development
- Volunteer development
- Youth development
