Building Capacity for the Cultural Industries: Towards a Shared-Island Approach for Dance and Theatre

This report presents the findings from a research project entitled, Building Capacity for Cultural Industries: Towards a Shared-Island Approach, which took place from December 2021 – November 2022. The project explored the extent of what is currently shared (resources, finances, networks) across the island of Ireland within the professional dance and theatre sector and what might enable or hinder the development of shared-island ties.Funded by the Irish Research Council’s (IRC) New Foundations Scheme 2021, under the Shared Island Initiative Strand (8) supported by the Shared Island Unit (SIU) in the Department of the Taoiseach, this report is the final output of a project that brought together new and existing academic and sector-based research to understand how all-island relations within the professional, publicly-subsidised performing arts of dance and theatre may be nurtured. The project was led by Dr Victoria Durrer (University College Dublin) in partnership with Dr Aoife McGrath (Queen’s University Belfast), and representatives from Theatre & Dance Northern Ireland, Arts Council Northern Ireland, Dance Ireland and Dylan Quinn Dance Theatre. Cavan County Council Arts Office, British Council Ireland and Arts Council Ireland / An Chomhairle Ealaíon are core research participants with Dr Emma McAlister supporting the work as Research Assistant. All of these individuals are referred to in this document as the Core Research Group. The professional, publicly-subsidised performing arts of dance and theatre are an interconnected ‘cultural industry’ on the island of Ireland. Very little documentation is available regarding the extent of these relationships, how this interconnection functions and with what impact. This lack of understanding limits how to consider strengthening, and also nurturing, these industries collectively and within the two jurisdictions of Northern Ireland (NI) and Ireland (IRL) in a post-Brexit and post- pandemic context. As a result, strategic development of the cooperative and competitive elements of Irish regional cultural industry development has been hampered. This absence is further concerning, especially as Brexit and the pandemic have posed strategic challenges to the livelihoods of a highly mobile cultural workforce and regional competition in cultural tourism. In this report, rather than focusing on SIU’s acknowledgement of the role of the arts, and dance and theatre, as ‘good work’ or a service for the endeavour of a ‘Shared Island’, we are concerned with the administrative systems, functions and operations of dance and theatre as an underpinning infrastructure of this endeavour. To date, public policies have largely neglected the labour of theatre and dance professionals, their aligned ways of working, their engagement with audiences, and the collaborative formal and informal working networks across Ireland.