The north west’s moment in the sun

City of Culture 2013 is the chance to tell a new story about Derry/Londonderry, Culture Company 2013’s Chief Executive Shona McCarthy tells Owen McQuade.

City of Culture 2013 is one of the 11 core steps within Derry’s regeneration plan: ‘One City, One Voice, One Plan’.  Culture Company 2013 Ltd is an independent company formed to manage and deliver the UK City of Culture 2013 programme in partnership with Derry City Council, Ilex Urban Regeneration Company and the Strategic Investment Board.

“We are part of a big wheel and we are very much seen as a catalytic project that fits into the whole regeneration plan for the whole city,” McCarthy tells agendaNi.

“Obviously, the plan to relocate to the Ebrington site, which is probably the most significant, physical and visual manifestation of the regeneration in the city, really sets the City of Culture project in the heart of what’s going on.”

City of Culture programme

The draft programme is ready, McCarthy reports, a trailer of which will be announced on 17 May with the details of the full programme to follow in September.  Its three core themes are:

•    telling a new story;

•    joyous celebration; and

•    purposeful inquiry.

McCarthy explains: “It’s not about trying to whitewash over what did happen in this city.” The purposeful enquiry strand “is there to allow for ongoing enquiry, questioning or discussions about what tensions do exist in society.”

Within those overarching themes, the company aims to ensure that Derry is seen as:

•    a digital city;

•    a place for culturally-led regeneration; and

•    a place where on-going peace building occurs through culture.

City of Culture 2013 will enhance cultural tourism, develop digital skills, create jobs and business opportunities, McCarthy contends.

In terms of cultural tourism, “part of the remit of the Culture Company was to put together a programme for 2013 that would have a local identity and be hugely relevant to this city, but also be of international significance so that it will attract people from outside.”

The Culture Company will target the North West’s nine million Diaspora and encourage them to  return to the region in 2013 and will contribute to the expected 570,000 additional visitor nights. There were 94,951 enquiries to the Derry Visitors Convention Bureau in 2011, a 13 per cent increase on the previous year, which the bureau believes is due to it being awarded the City of Culture title.

Sixteen of the Culture Company’s 18 staff are from the north west. Their “cultural leadership” will “stand the city in great stead over-and-beyond 2013.”

Instead of appointing one creative visionary director to curate the whole programme, the company “decided that we wanted to do things a bit differently.” There are two senior programmers: one who leads on the international projects and the second who leads on education and community programming. This is to “ensure that this wasn’t just a programme that’s built for outsiders, but was written from within the city, said something about the city, and would leave a lasting legacy for the city.”

1,300 new jobs are predicted across the arts, creative industries, cultural tourism, business and management services and the construction sector. An extra 3,500 volunteers are also expected and McCarthy note: “volunteering is often a step in the process back to work.”

New business opportunities can be created off-the-back of the City of Culture. McCarthy points to the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann which is coming to the city in 2013. When it was held in Cavan in August 2011 “every hole in the wall was turned into a business opportunity.”

Telling a new story

Ultimately, the 2013 City of Culture is about projecting Derry in a different way and to allowing the local people to tell the stories that have never been told.

“The one story that has been told about this place, which is of troubles and conflict and civil strife, is not the one story because during all of that people fell in love, had children, lived their lives, emigrated, came back, people wrote music. Life went on and went on wonderfully in many cases but those stories are never told.”

‘Portrait of a City’ involves collating old photographs and film footage from locals and setting up digital hubs within communities. The hubs will have equipment and trained staff or volunteers who will equip local people with the skills to digitise their footage, which will then be relocated into different parts of the city. The company has been able to “tap into” existing organisations which have already started photographic exhibitions such as the GAA which is gathering old photos and video footage from across County Londonderry. The Long Tower Church will feature photos of christenings, weddings and other personal religious events. The result will be “really beautiful.”

As well as local, personal stories, McCarthy believes the city should capitalise on the Amelia Earhart story. The female pilot touched down in Ballyarnett Park in 1932 during her historic solo flight across the Atlantic. She went missing over the Pacific during an attempt to fly solo around the world in 1937.

“That story is of international significance,” McCarthy reports, pointing to Hillary Clinton’s support for an expedition this summer by researchers who believe they will find Earhart’s plane in the Pacific ocean.

“Ten years ago Belfast was accused of not properly celebrating its association with the Titanic. In a much smaller way, Derry has this direct connection with a story that is of international significance but who would know about it?”

Long-term educational projects involving schools include the ‘Children’s Music Promise’, which aims to see every school child in the city playing a musical instrument before 2013. ‘The Digital Book of Kells’ project will use the history of St Columba as a vehicle to introduce digital literacy skills into primary schools.

As well as the Fleadh Cheoil, 2013 will see Derry hosting the Clipper round-the-world boat race which includes team Derry/Londonderry, the prestigious Turner Prize and three new productions by the renowned Field Day Theatre. Stephen Rea is one of the city’s ‘cultural champions’ (along with the likes of Seamus Heaney, Phil Redmond and Nadine Coyle, to whom McCarthy gives her thanks.)

The Turner Prize has never been held outside England therefore its arrival in Derry will be “the equivalent of the Cannes Film festival coming to town.”

Legacy

The main thing McCarthy wants to see emanating from the City of Culture is for “people to see Derry/Londonderry differently.”
In the long term, she would like to see lasting jobs and better transport infrastructure.

The Executive’s pledge of up to £12.6 million from 2012 to 2014 is “ground-breaking and absolutely visionary.” Through its investment in Titanic Belfast, the MAC centre and the Giant’s Causeway, the Executive is ahead of other jurisdictions in funding creativity. McCarthy states: “Now the north west gets its moment in the sun.”

“I’m proud to be here at the minute and I haven’t said that during my life,” McCarthy reflects. “We are doing things that people lack the vision to do elsewhere.”