NICVA Member Spotlight: Beat Carnival
Beat Carnival reflects on a year of creativity, collaboration and community, following another successful Culture Night Belfast. From inclusive carnival parades and creative workshops to supporting emerging artists, Beat Carnival creates opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds to participate in the arts. In this Member Spotlight, the team discusses the importance of Northern Ireland’s arts and cultural sector, the challenges facing the industry, and how people can get involved in Beat Carnival’s upcoming work.
This month, we're catching up with Beat Carnival after another successful Culture Night.
What are you most proud of from Beat Carnival’s work over the past year?
Through a year of significant change, including new leadership, new commissions and collaborations, we’ve kept creating, collaborating and celebrating our communities in the cities, towns and villages they call home.
Beat Carnival has a strong focus on participation and bringing people together through the arts. What does that mean to you in practice?
It means choice, self-expression and shared experience. There is room for everybody in carnival, whatever their age, ability, background or skill level, to bring something of themselves to the process and create, collaborate and celebrate together.
What does an event like Culture Night bring to Belfast?
Culture Night brings a participatory and inclusive cultural spirit to Belfast, encouraging people to explore, engage and participate in venues and activities they might not otherwise experience. Our Culture Night carnival parades have brought hundreds of participants together to create, make, dance, sing and play instruments, owning the streets for the night.
From your perspective, what makes Northern Ireland’s arts and cultural sector so important to our communities?
Cultural activities, particularly in public spaces, bring communities together through joy, celebration and conversation, while enabling people to explore and empathise with different viewpoints. They provide a space to explore opinion and debate in a way that is non-confrontational, respectful and often celebratory.
What are some of the biggest opportunities – or challenges – facing the arts sector in Northern Ireland at the moment?
The opportunity is to build on the momentum, energy and investment seen through events like the Fleadh and Culture Night, and the collaboration between culture, arts, hospitality and tourism.
The biggest challenge is sustainability — of people and skills, financially and environmentally — with chronic underfunding leaving much of the sector struggling to survive, develop and grow.
How does Beat Carnival create opportunities for people to get involved, develop their creativity and experience the arts?
We create opportunities at every level, from children having their first creative experiences to young artists taking their first steps into the sector and established artists developing their practice. Through workshops, training, mentorship and financial support, we help people develop from taking part to leading and making work themselves.
As a NICVA member, what value does being part of the NICVA network bring to Beat Carnival?
NICVA provides training and learning opportunities, connects us with organisations across Northern Ireland’s community and voluntary sectors, and keeps us connected to our peers and up to date on policy and best practice. Through the Impact Practice Network, we can also share learning and think more deeply about how we understand, measure and communicate the impact of our work.
And they always share their biscuits!
How can people find out more about Beat Carnival and get involved in your upcoming work?
There are lots of ways to get involved, whether you want to make something, learn a new skill, join a workshop, perform, collaborate or experience one of our events, with opportunities shared through our website and social media. Upcoming opportunities include a workshop with Austin Dance Theatre on Friday 15th October and performing in Parade: The Giant Wheel on Saturday 16th, as well as BEATnDRUM performing with Tudo Azul at the Black Box on Tuesday 20th October; people can also get in touch with Beat directly to discuss ideas or collaborations.
