Intercultural Arts Strategy

Part of Oral Answers to Questions – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 2:45 pm on 28 May 2012.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Carál Ní Chuilín Carál Ní Chuilín Sinn Féin 2:45, 28 May 2012

I absolutely do agree. Even this morning, in the Long Gallery, there was a Services Industrial Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU) event, and a group representing north and west Belfast called Artability. Through the promotion and facilitation of the arts, they offer facilities for people with disabilities who come from what has been known as both sides of the community, and have done so for a long time.

I have also seen the work of Draw Down the Walls in my North Belfast constituency, where people have used the arts at interfaces to talk about some of the very challenging issues that adults sometimes cannot bring themselves to discuss. I have also seen the role of the arts, through the media of drama and play at St Mary’s recently around the Ulster covenant, and I have seen the power that that medium has in fostering and developing better relations. I am looking forward to supporting the work that we have done thus far in developing and supporting further work to meet those aims.