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Setting Up A Community Project

© Jo Murphy

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'The Multicultural Arts Officer provides a link between arts practitioners, communities and funding bodies as well as access to resources for information sharing.'

"My role in setting up to do the community project was not so much difficult as time consuming. There was lots of planning, lots of phone calls to clarify issues and gather support both from the community and the government officials. I had to quickly locate possible venues, get permission, explore the nature of restrictions and determine who the participants and potential partners would be."

It was also necessary for the purposes of empowerment and seeking out funding to identify who would benefit from being involved in the process. This catchement of community involvement included local schools, neighbourhood centres, churches and of course the local population who could become involved in the learning process by watching the ongoing progress as it happened in the park.

Getting Organised

Taking a well drawn up plan around to local merchants and businesses was essential to gain support. The support often comes in the form of goods, promotional action and sometimes cash. It is easier to gain this assistance when benefits to the donor are spelled out. Acknowledgement of the sponsorship might come in the form of the donor's name on a plaque placed at the site of the project, reference to their business or organisation on a relevant website, or perhaps a mention in a local newsletter and within the context of a news paper story. Largely the benefit to the generous organisation is that their contribution is recognised and appreciation is shown. This will foster good will within the community and establish a productive reciprocal relationship for further projects and negotiations.

Community Partnerships

The New Farm Mural Project is an example of this friendly relationship emerging through negotiation. Our community group was lucky as the Council manager of parks at the time had been to Gaul Park in Spain and was a great fan of Gaudi. He had visions of tiled edifices all over the park and was happy to go out of his way to assist by making sure we could access the site even when it was closed to public vehicles. We also had a great response from David Jones (a department store with 162 years of