Resurgence 25X for the Arts
RESURGENCE 25X for the Arts Webinar
7 April 2021
Building on the extraordinary success of the initial Resurgence 25X event on the 19th of January ATPO in association with the Theatre Royal Waterford convened a webinar dedicated to a vibrant recovery from COVID 19 for the Arts. All those working in the Arts domain both in Ireland and worldwide have been heavily impacted by the COVID 19 pandemic. Resurgence 25X for the Arts is intended as a platform for ideas that will help its full recovery. The intention is to share, magnify, and multiply the ideas and opportunities for a resurgence for the Arts that can be adopted now and show fruit in 2025.
The objective is
- To share, magnify, and multiply the ideas and opportunities for a resurgence for the Arts that can be adopted now and show fruit in 2025.
- To maximise the engagement of attendees during the event.
- To achieve the above in a manageable chunk of time for participants and attendees (two hours ).
The event included
(A) My perspectives on mindset and momentum creation and key momentum shift for the Arts .
(B) Inputs from 5 guest contributors presenting examples from a diverse range of expertise, practice, and perspectives.
(C) Customised interactive engagement activities (the X element) to expand on and multiply the resurgence themes from the event.
Each of the guest speakers was given the same ‘5 for 25X’ challenge. To speak about their perspective on resurgence for the Arts based on their knowledge, experience, and ideas for our recovery from COVID 19 over the next few years (to 2025). To add to the challenge each speaker is asked to provide at least 5 examples of resurgence in their delivery.
The guest contributors and theri presentations are below;
Sean is an environmental artist best known these days for his sand art. He draws massive pictures on beaches around Ireland and the UK with a garden rake! He's even been known to venture as far as Texas where he was part of a Land Art festival last year. Collaborative art has always been a big part of Sean's work. He and his wife Miranda run The Art Hand, which was until recently an art school. Since last March they have had to adapt their business to an online gallery in order to be sustainable.
Sean spoke about the following resurgence topics
Before we can decide where to go we need to consider where we have come from and where we are right now.
If we are to emerge from this crisis with a genuinely better outlook then we need to fully reflect on how things were before the pandemic.
We don’t need to make a replica!
Now is the time to rethink everything!
Now is the Ground Zero for humanity!
Eoin is a freelance Project and Production Manager. He has toured across Ireland and the world with theatre productions from Landmark Productions, Rough Magic Theatre Company, Fishamble: The New Play Company, Cois Ceim Dance, Abbey Theatre and many more. In music he has worked regularly in the National Concert Hall as well as a variety of artists such as RTE Concert Orchestra, Colm Wilkinson, Wallis Bird, Gabby Young and Other Animals.
Eoin produced his own events such as Midsummer (a play with songs) in 2019, Irish Tour of This Lime Tree Bower in 2016/7, and Songs in the Key of D from 2013 to 2018. He has worked at some of the best festivals at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh during the Festival Fringe, Galway international Arts Festival, Melbourne International Arts Festival, Dublin Fringe Festival and London international Festival of Theatre.
Eoin was honored to work at some very special events including the State Visit by HM Queen Elizabeth II, Visit of Pope to Dublin in 2018, 1916 centenary celebration and 2012 Olympic Games.
Eoin's five resurgence ideas were
Online Morality and Remit for the Arts. As long as its live!
Recognition of the importance of the Arts
Working conditions for those working in the Arts
Representation for those working in the Arts.
Faith in the Arts industry
Siobhan is a professional Harpist and Harper who holds the Guinness World Record for the Highest Altitude Harp Performance at 16,000ft in the Himalayas in aid of Cystic Fibrosis. The Guinness World Record-breaking Highest Harp Concert was performed at 5000m on the 6th of September 2018 just above the summit of Singla pass on the Himalayas in the Ladakh region of India. Based on achieving this Guinness World Record, the Highest Harp Concert team are now planning another record-breaking fundraiser to perform a harp concert on Kilimanjaro (900m higher than the altitude achieved in the Himalayas) with a pedal harp in 2022/3.
Siobhan is currently a third-year student at Cork School of Music studying for her Bachelors of Music Degree with internationally renowned harpist, Anne-Marie Papin Labazordie. Siobhan studied Irish Harp under the direction of Grammy award-winning performer, Dr Janet Harbison for over 10 years. In April 2018, Siobhan was awarded first place in two international harp competitions in the North London Music Festival. Siobhan has toured multiple times internationally with the professional touring production, The Irish Harp Orchestra.
Siobhan exhorted us to do the following
Be entrepreneurial
Be grateful
Be involved
Be connected
Believe in the impossible
David is a professional musician, producer, DJ and performer, radio DJ and charity worker. David has played in a host of venues in and around Scotland from the legendary King Tuts to the O2 Academy/ABC, including a 10 year residency at Macsorleys Music Bar. He is currently studying Sound Production at College with any eye on achieving his Masters over the next 3 years. David is also involved with the 'I Was Gonnae' charity as Musical Director. The charity is designing a musical experience that appeals to children/adults with a range of disabilities and/or mental health issues as an aid to assisting their wellbeing.
David's five resurgence ideas were
Maintain an online presence.
Develop an all round music education experience for children.
‘I Was Gonnae’ experience for children with disabilities.
Online streaming service owned by artists.
Have a collective community Arts event.
Megan Nolan
Megan is an author, journalist and critic. She lives in London and was born in 1990 in Waterford, Ireland. Her essays, fiction and reviews have been published in The New York Times, The White Review, The Sunday Times, The Village Voice, The Guardian and in the literary anthology, Winter Papers. Megan writes a fortnightly column for the New Statesman. Her first novel Acts of Desperation has just been published by Jonathan Cape in the U.K. and Little, Brown in the USA.
Megan spoke about the following five resurgence ideas
Alone together: using remote working for community building.
Innovating the reading experience
Taking advantage of international opportunities
Continue to consider inclusivity
Remember the advantage of being a writer: Need for minimal materials
Customised interactive engagement activities (the X element).
As with the original Resurgence 25X webinar, interactive engagement activities that began at registration and then continued through the event itself were created
- So that attendees could expand on and multiply the 25 examples of resurgence for the Arts from the guest speakers and
- To provide a platform for an exponential growth of ideas from a single event to support a vibrant recovery for the Arts from COVID 19.
These activities are central to the Resurgence 25X concept of sharing, magnifying and multiplying ideas. These 'Virtual Whistlestop Workshops' include customised individual, pair and group activities. The activities are designed to ensure that attendees 'meet' and share with as many different fellow attendees as possible as part of this process.
As with the first Resurgenc 25X event the feedback from attendees was very positive. New ideas are still being added to the inputs from the speakers. These are being shared with attendees and will create the base for future Resurgence 25X for the Arts events.
See the full Resurgence 25X for the Arts webinar below.
