Tell us your wildest dreams

We’re looking for people working in the arts, culture and heritage – artists, performers and arts administrators alike – to share with us their wildest dreams. We’re not referring to the wacky dreams that have populated our subconscious since the start of the lockdown, but to the vision and aspirations you hold for the future of the sector in Northern Ireland.

We’ve heard many inspiring voices over the years, whether on social media or in conversations and meetings, but there may also be ones we haven’t come across yet. We want to give you a platform where you could express your wishes and hopes but also the challenges our community may encounter to achieve prosperity and stability (especially during this time as we all try to survive the crisis).

What do we want?

• A blog written by someone working in the arts, culture or heritage in NI.
• Your blog should not be longer than 3 pages (approximately 1,300 words).
• There is no specific structure requirement – you’re free to lay down your thoughts as you’d like.

Some examples to focus around our topic

We were first inspired by Mark Robinson’s blog (Mark also happened to be part of the May Leadership Series hosted by Arts & Business NI) and it made us think of the following questions:

• What are your dreams for the arts, culture and heritage?
• What needs to change?
• Should we re-define the value of culture to succeed as a sector?
• How can society benefit from a healthy and sustainable art ecosystem?
• Did the lockdown encourage your organisation to reimagine how it engages with audiences or broadened who you think your audiences are or could be?
• Although the sector as a whole is lacking financial resources, what can be done with what we already have?

Patrick J O’Reilly from Tinderbox Theatre Company is our first guest and you can read his blog, The invitation to not know, to get an idea of what we’re looking for and give you some inspiration.

When is it for?

There is no deadline. We are looking for thought-provoking blogs that we’ll be publishing over the next 6 months.

Is it paid?

Of course! Once your idea is approved and your blog is ready to go, we’ll send a fee of £100 to you for your time and effort.

Feeling inspired? Here’s how to submit your idea:

Please send your topic to Maurane maurane@wewillthrive.co.uk

The Dreams Guest Blogs series is funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland's Organisations Emergency Fund.