The Cinemagic International Film and Television Festival for Young People has launched the first of two festivals taking place in autumn 2012, with the unveiling of its fantasy, myths and legends-themed programme for under 12s.

The launch was marked with a preview screening of new stop-motion animation ParaNorman, written and co-directed by Chris Butler, who paid a special visit to ODEON Cinemas, Belfast for the film and also dropped in to Carr’s Glen Primary School for a Q&A session with young film fans.

The action-packed Cinemagic programme for young people aged under 12 will take place from October 5-19 in venues and cinemas across Belfast. A programme for 12-25-year-olds will follow in November 2012, and the festival season will culminate with a Gala Awards Ceremony in Belfast City Hall.

Previews and premieres, classics of world cinema, film and television workshops for schools and families, and filmmaking competitions to motivate, educate and inspire young people are just some of the events happening this year. Visit the Cinemagic website to browse the full programme of events.

'We are delighted to present our festival for under 12s this October in venues across Belfast and throughout Northern Ireland,' said Joan Burney-Keatings MBE, Cinemagic Chief Executive.

'Our family film programme in Odeon Cinemas has a vast range of films from around the world, many of which are special previews, and our comprehensive education programme, including workshops from BBFC, BAFTA and Aardman Animation will give young people an insight into various film and television disciplines.'

The Cinemagic October Festival Jury is open to young people aged 8-11 who are passionate about film watching and reviewing to join the Cinemagic team to watch and review all of the festival films in competition.

Jury members will announce the winning festival films at the Gala Awards Ceremony in Belfast City Hall on November 29. Email claire@cinemagic.org.uk to register for a place on the jury panel before September 27, 2012.

Cinemagic is also looking for short films made by young people under 12. All film genres are eligible – ­fact or fiction, comedy or drama, news programme or documentary – and entries should be under ten minutes long.

The themed ‘Giants of Northern Ireland' is a new category that filmmakers can enter this year. 'Giant Achievers', 'Giant Famous People' from Northern Ireland or 'Giant Iconic Landmarks' of Northern Ireland are examples that Cinemagic have provided for budding filmmakers. Email chris@cinemagic.org.uk to enter before October 26.

Cinemagic International Film and Television Festival for Young People is funded by Northern Ireland Screen supported by the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure, Belfast City Council, Northern Ireland Tourist Board and the Department of Social Development.

‘A work of galvanising, challenging power.’ ‘Mind-blowing.’ ‘A marvel of son et lumière, as ambitious and as heads-down, hair-prickingly exhilarating as modern dance gets.’

For once, the critics are unanimous. Hofesh Shechter’s Political Mother, first seen in 2010 and since toured to huge acclaim internationally, is a modern multi-media masterpiece, ‘the ultimate, cinematically immersive, ideas-driven fusion of dance show and rock gig', as one commentator put it.

The good news is that Shechter is Derry-Londonderry-bound, to re-create Political Mother as part of the City of Culture 2013 celebrations. This time round, however, there will be a few crucial differences. At the heart of these is Shechter’s desire to fully embed the two performances within the Derry-Londonderry community.

‘The really exciting thing,’ he says, ‘is that 20 out of the 30 musicians live on stage will be young Derry musicians.’

The process of identifying local talent has already begun, with auditions held in the Nerve Centre in Derry~Londonderry during September 2012. Shechter emphasises that what he’s offering is not work-experience style internships, unwaged skivvying for those seeking to beef up their musical CV a little. On the contrary – this is a serious employment opportunity, and it’s fully professional.

‘They are going to be paid for every second of the seven weeks they’re with us,’ Shechter comments. The aim, he adds, is simple. ‘To give them a sense of what is out there, what it is to be part of a huge show. The feeling of what it is to be part of something that is dance and music, and nothing else. No agendas, just being part of a really powerful performance which brings people together.’

And it doesn’t stop there. Shechter’s troupe of 16 professional dancers will also be working with young people from the Derry-Londonderry area, in a spin-off project significantly augmenting the value of Political Mother's visit to the city.

‘We are going to work with four groups of local young dancers for two weeks,’ he explains. ‘On the day of the first show people will be able to walk from one site in the city to another, and see pieces performed by the young dancers, inspired by Political Mother.’

Prior to a recent planning visit, Shechter had never actually been to Derry-Londonderry. The city made an immediate impression. ‘I found the place extremely interesting,’ he says. ‘It had quite an interesting effect on me.’

‘Interesting’? Is Shechter being gently diplomatic? He is, in the event, perfectly happy to explain himself further. ‘I got the impression that tension in the city is quite palpable,’ he admits. ‘Even something about the way the city is built. I got the feeling that people feel the city is still very much divided, something still very much happening in people’s heads.’

Shechter draws clear parallels with his birth-country Israel, where a period of traumatising military service was instrumental in shaping his haunted, powerful vision of how human beings seek to control and dominate one another, if necessary by use of sickening levels of violence and oppression.

‘I come from a divided city myself: Jerusalem. Even though Jerusalem is divided not in two, but into a lot of little particles! So that sense of tension was something I kind of recognise. I think young people’s lives in Derry are not simple. So I got very excited about the idea of doing something in Derry. Exactly because what I do in life is art – music and dance. And that’s something that actually defuses tension and separation.’

Despite the evangelical zeal with which he approaches the business of devising and staging his dance-works, and his genuine belief that art breaks down barriers and changes lives for the better, Shechter is adamant that he is not in Derry-Londonderry to preach to people, or offer easy solutions.

‘I don’t care much about politics,’ he says, feelingly. ‘We can talk about politics forever and we’ll never solve it. I’m not coming with agendas, I’m not giving lectures. There are no conclusions here, I’m simply bringing questions out. It's a perfect place to ask these questions.’

So why, then, is his greatest work entitled Political Mother?

‘Even though the word “political” is in the title of the piece, perhaps sarcastically,’ he explains, ‘I don’t really deal with political issues. I deal with the social structures and human behaviour they give rise to. What really interests me is trying to reveal and bring up to the surface emotions that are developing in such situations of control. This is something I am personally obsessed with,’ he laughs. ‘I’m stuck with it!’

So what can Derry-Londonderry audiences expect from the finished product? The short answer is, a pretty full-on sensual experience. ‘The show is sort of overloading you with images,’ explains Shechter, ‘like a Clockwork Orange-type film.

‘It’s a sort of attack on the senses,’ he says, referring to what one critic has called the ‘strange, parallel universe of oppressed peoples and cultures’ explored in Political Mother, to a soundtrack ’played at the sort of volume that rearranges internal organs'.

Amid all the sound, fury, and visceral imagery, what effect is Shechter ultimately aiming at? ‘For me a beautiful feeling is actually how futile this all is,’ he muses. ‘It doesn’t matter. We’re stuck in that cycle together, and you take a step back and you look at it, and you say “My God, how stupid is all that?”. It sort of makes you feel good, in a weird way.’

The human body itself – dancing, feeling, suffering, expressing – is, for Shechter, central to any process seeking to move beyond conflict to peace and resolution. ‘To reveal and discover the simplicity of the body, the feeling that we all have of brotherhood,’ he reflects, ‘this is the feeling that I love to discover in the end of Political Mother.'

At the conclusion of the piece, he says, ‘You feel that everything just collapses, and what matters in the end is very, very simple human qualities we have, a feeling for what’s right and wrong. What matters is the connection between the people. I can’t wait to be there in Derry to do it.’

Political Mother will be performed at the newly refurbished Ebrington site in Derry~Londonderry on March 8-9, 2013.

Van Morrison, Kate Mosse, Buena Vista Social Club and Dara Ó Briain are just some of the internationally acclaimed artists set to appear at the 50th Ulster Bank Belfast Festival at Queen’s.

The full line-up for this year’s festival was revealed at a launch event in Belfast City Hall, which featured extracts from an exclusive Culture Northern Ireland video interview with poet Seamus Heaney, recalling his involvement with the festival in years gone by.

'[The Belfast Festival at Queen's] is central to Queen's mission,' remarks the Nobel Prize-winning poet and Queen's University graduate. 'To be a kind of centre that transmits values that are part of the civilised life... It's actually a ritual that says we value this kind of thing, so that's important.'

In partnership with Heritage Lottery Fund, the festival is coordinating a project entitled Belfast Festival Anthology, which will capture the key moments from the festival over the last five decades and present these via a website, an exhibition and a red plaque tour of key locations throughout the city.

The festival is asking members of the public – as well as artists and others who have been previously involved with the festival – to email festival anecdotes to belfastanthology@qub.ac.uk in the run up to the launch of the anthology website on October 10. 

Starting as a small campus based event in 1961, the festival has featured names such as Jimmy Hendrix, Michael Palin, Billy Connolly, Dizzie Gillespie, Kylie Minogue and Rowan Atkinson. The 2012 programme is similarly ecletic.

Running between October 19 and November 4, 2012, the 50th festival has been billed as a celebration for the entire city, featuring both home-grown and international artists, authors and performers taking part in 185 events across the city.

Encouraging everyone to get involved with the 50th celebrations, this year’s festival will include 60 free events, whilst two thirds of shows will cost less than £15. Speaking at the launch, festival director Shan McAnena looked forward to the festival opening.

'There is music in shopping centres, churches and museums, comedy at the heart of Queen’s University, theatre in offices, public baths and bars, and art in the open air. From hip-hop to opera, hunting for fairies to ghosts in the dark, from international super-stars to local heroes, we are proud to present to the city of Belfast the largest arts festival in Ireland.'

Theatrically, the 50th festival plays host to a number of firsts, such as the acclaimed National Theatre Company of Scotland’s production Enquirer, based on interviews with leading figures in the newspaper industry, whilst the Tron Theatre Company’s brilliant re-imagining of Joyce’s Ulysses will also make an Ireland debut at festival.

This year’s festival will also boast performances by leading soprano Lesley Garrett and others, and talks including appearances by Peter Hain, Jonathan Miller and Ian Rankin.

Showcasing the very best of local theatre talent, on stage in Belfast’s world-class theatre spaces will be a number of UK and world premieres including Paisley & Me by Belfast-born, Emmy Award-winning writer Ron Hutchinson at The Grand Opera House; Macbeth directed by Lynne Parker at The Lyric and The Huzzies at The Mac, a collaboration between Tinderbox Theatre Company and award-winning playwright Stacey Gregg.

Roisin McDonough, chief executive of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, said she recognised the vital role the festival played for the arts sector. 'As a platform for our local artists and performers the Belfast Festival at Queen’s has helped nurture the development of our rich emerging arts scene over the last five decades. We are delighted to have been a patron of this important festival throughout its rich and colourful history.'

Visit the Belfast Festival at Queen's website to browse the full programme, or call the Festival Box Office on 028 9097 1197.

Gone are the days when journalists relied on landlines and shorthand to interview subjects over the phone. Nowadays, with smart phones becoming ubiquitous, and providing you have decent network coverage, you can interview anyone, anywhere, at any time, without a pen or pad in sight.

So ten minutes before I'm due to interview someone else at Queen's University, I record my conversation with CultureTECH director Mark Nagurski in my car, email the mp3 file to my Gmail account to transcribe later, and delete it from my flash card to free up space should I bump into Justin Bieber in the interim.

Rather than demanding that I respect his privacy, Nagurski would be proud. 'Whether you come from a theatre background, a visual arts background, a music background or a gaming background, digital technology is, increasingly, how we create, distribute and consume content,' he agrees.

And these days, not only do they have an app for that (Recorder is a great one for hacks working against the clock), but for those who know very little about digital technology (and if you're reading this online article, you already know more than you think) they also have festivals like CultureTECH.

'Four days of tech, media and music', the ambitious festival will take over venues across the maiden city from August 29 to September 1, 2012. The message that Nagurski and his cohorts hope to put across is that, when it comes to digital technology, the only thing to fear is fear itself.

'We’re coming at this festival from that angle, saying that anyone can use digital technology as an all round tool to develop their business, or promote their product, for very little money. We're hoping to convey that information, and inspire people who wouldn't consider themselves to be techies, in an accessible, enoyable way.'

This year, CultureTECH features an interesting mix of keynote speakers – from Edinburgh Festival CEO Kath Maitland to director of the Barbican Sir Nicholas Kenyon – musical performances by Duke Special and The Japanese Popstars, secret cinema film screenings by the Nerve Centre, workshops from the likes of Blipfoto founder Joe Tree, and the SeedComp digital start-up competition for those keen on developing a company based in Derry~Londonderry.

Open to anyone aged over 18 and based in Derry~Londonderry, the competition was won in 2011 by Conor Moran for Mobile Report, a 'report generating app for surveying professionals'. This year the format has changed somewhat, but Nagurski believes that SeedComp is the event that 'will have the most lasting legacy'.

'There’s a real mix of applicants this year, some who are recent graduates in their early 20s and others who have been involved in various industries for most of their adult lives. There are people with out and out software ideas, a huge music contingent, and some animation and gaming companies. But what they have in common is that they’re all local people who want to have a go at starting their own business.

'It was a bit of a pilot programme in 2011, but we still attracted 30 entries. The overall winner has now raised over £100,000 in additional investment and will be launching shortly. So last year’s event was extremely successful, and it demonstrated that there is a lot of talent and innovation here in Derry.

'This year we’ve been a bit tighter on the shortlist. We brought it down to six projects, who will all pitch to a panel during the festival. The panel will decide the final three, who will each receive a £5,000 prize. Then the three winners will present again during the keynote session on Friday, and the audience gets to pick the overall winner, who will be awarded an extra £5,000.'

Nagurski encourages the audience on the day to 'get into the spirit' of the competition and pose the final three 'some difficult, relevant questions'. It's an interactive element to CultureTECH 2012 that Nagurski hopes to expand on when the festival returns during the 2013 UK City of Culture celebrations.

The winner of SeedComp will have plenty of friends and competitors to learn from. Nagurski is full of praise for the 'creative spirit' prevalent in Northern Ireland's second city, and credits Digital Derry – 'a collaboration between all the organisations involved, from the public sector, the arts and cultural sectors, and of course the private sector, the companies themselves,' as he puts it – with stimulating and fostering a digital sector in the city.

'In the last two years the digital sector in Derry has nearly doubled in size, in terms of the number of companies that are actually operating here,' adds Nagurski. 'Part of that is coming out of the creative industries, and part from the software industry. So we have music technology companies, digital theatre companies, children's publications that are using the iPad and animation rather than traditional forms of media.

'From the 700 delegates who are registered to attend CultureTECH this year, I’d say a good quarter if not a third are delegates from outside of Northern Ireland, whether that be the Republic, elsewhere in the UK or from North America. There’s definite interest in what’s going on here. We have two or three companies that are coming with a specific view of looking at the city as a possible place to invest in.'

In the meantime, Nagurski certainly has his arms – and his inbox – full.

'This year we have 70+ industry speakers. We have a games tournament. We have a dozen film screenings, and we’ve got 50 music acts performing as well. We want to make sure that the current format works. Providing that all pans out, then we’ll consider how we move forward in 2013.'

Visit the CultureTECH website for information on all events, and to book your festival tickets.

The team behind Derry-Londonderry’s Culture Tech festival have this week announced a £20,000 competition for digital startups, alongside a range of new speakers and acts for the August event.

Culture Tech, a four-day festival of digital culture, music and technology, will take place in the historic Walled City between August 29 and September 1, 2012, in the run up to the city’s tenure as UK City of Culture in 2013.

As part of the event, the organisers have launched SeedComp in search of the country’s best new digital business ideas. The competition is open to anyone interested in setting up a digital business in the city and features a first prize of £10,000 alongside two runner-up prizes of £5000 each.

A selected shortlist of entries will be invited to present to a judging panel of investors and entrepreneurs during the Culture Tech festival, with the three winners presenting live on-stage in front of an estimated 500 delegates, before collecting their awards.

Mark Nagurski from Digital Derry, organisers of the festival, explained: 'Culture Tech is a celebration of all things digital and entrepreneurship has become one of the defining factors of our digital culture. Last year’s SeedComp winners have gone on to secure major investment and we’re delighted to be able to make this exciting competition a key part of Culture Tech this year.

'Moreover, bringing it into the festival will create a unique opportunity for aspiring digital entrepreneurs to get their ideas in front of well-known industry professionals, keynote speakers, the media and the over 500 delegates we expect to welcome to the city for the event.'

The festival – which is being backed by Invest Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Screen, Seagate and urban regeneration company ILEX amongst others – will be announcing a major programme of music events, as well as its main keynote speakers, in early July.

Tickets are currently available online via the Culture Tech website with further information about SeedComp on the Digital Derry website.

Audiences NI, Northern Ireland Theatre Association and Theatre Forum joined forces in June 2012 to bring the first ever All-Ireland Arts Conference (#AIAC2012) to Belfast.

The two-day event at the Lyric Theatre saw those working in arts sectors north and south of the border come together to discuss how to forge new links, exchange ideas on best practice and network with contemporaries from across Ireland.

'We have taken the decision to work with our partner organisations on this year’s conference in order to offer the very best speakers and panellists to our members in order to create debate,' said Audiences NI chief executive Steven Hadley, 'as well as provoke new thoughts and inspire new possibilities for arts organisations across Ireland.

'We are also furthering our commitment to providing relevant and valuable training to all our members by working on programming a Digital Day later in the year which will look at a number of digital issues such as new ways of using technology to engage with audiences at every level. Further details of this will be released in the coming months.'

The All-Ireland Arts Conference was curated by Maureen Kennelly, who programmed a packed schedule of talks, discussions and workshops. The conference featured national and international speakers delivering inspiring keynote speeches, as well as offering practical advice to those working in the arts.

Speakers included Ben Cameron (Doris Duke Foundation), Farooq Chaudry (Akram Khan Company) and Helen Marriage (Artichoke).

Northern Ireland could have thriving cultural quarters that could rival Covent Garden and Temple Bar if the right support is given to the creative industries, University of Ulster academics told a Stormont Committee today.

A delegation from the University urged the Northern Ireland Assembly's Culture, Arts and Leisure to push the Stormont Executive to develop an economic strategy for the creative industries that identified global as well as local market opportunities.

Professor Ian Montgomery, Dean of the Faculty of Art, Design and the Built Environment told MLAs: 'The creative industries generate £0.5 billion in Northern Ireland and are a larger employer than agriculture.

'This presents a major foundation and opportunity to develop employment, promote skills, and attract international investment and visitors as a creative and cultural destination. The ability of creative individuals to generate their own income is a significant advantage within the knowledge economy and, as such, presents a substantially lower risk than others which are dependent on complex networks which often behave erratically in changeable economic conditions.

'The creative industries offer potential to investors (animation and post-production), to tourism (galleries and museums), to regeneration (innovative architecture and urban design projects), to the community (employment in the sector), and industry (developing capacity and capability). Much of this can be successfully developed through effective partnerships between government, the higher education sector and creative industries stakeholders.

'With areas like the Cathedral Quarter and Titanic Quarter in Belfast, there is an opportunity to develop a creative ecosystem to rival Temple Bar and Covent Garden that embraces the cafe and restaurant culture and offers visitors the opportunity to go to galleries, theatres and spend money on art, designed artefacts, experiences, and to contribute to the commercial growth of the sector. However, there needs to be the proper financial support and infrastructure if the creative industries are to reach their full potential.'

Professor Montgomery observed while there was huge interest amongst young people in the creative industries in Northern Ireland, the supply chain of designers, finance and manufacturing was woefully underdeveloped.

There was also a lack of funding for continuing professional development due to lack of funding for sustained postgraduate study at masters level. Even in creative industries regarded as economically-relevant, short-course funding to develop skills was extremely difficult to secure and did not exist in discipline-specific skills in the applied arts and design.

Opportunities for young creative people to engage with their industry through internships were also virtually impossible to secure.

'The creative industries sector in Northern Ireland suffers from lack of transparent policy and, being spread across a range of support departments, does not have a cohesive policy,' he told the committee.

'For example, Design Wales is a highly effective vehicle which champions the development of the Welsh design industries. Although Northern Ireland is punching above its weight in design production most output is generated for the local market and it lacks the international ambition and business collateral to effectively sell itself beyond the UK and Ireland.'

Professor Montgomery also said business skills were underdeveloped among those in the creative industries and they would benefit from appropriate and sustained business mentoring.

Dr Colm Murphy, Head of the University of Ulster's School of Media, Film and Journalism, told the committee Northern Ireland had the potential to be a global leader in niche areas of the creative industries but the sector needed a strategy and the resources to grasp these opportunities.

'Northern Ireland is strategically located in the middle time zone in the world between the world's two biggest markets, North America and the energing markets of China and India,' he said.

'Technology allows these markets to be served from Northern Ireland if there is the correct investment in language and cultural skills and international selling expertise. We need policy plans which will forecast the major areas of growth in the creative industries in the next 10 to 15 years, so we can position Northern Ireland to take advantage of them.

'The Confucius Institute at the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland's only Confucius Institute, offers the potential to develop direct links with China through our partner, Zhejiang University of Media and Communication, which is the second largest media university in the country.

'China is forecast to be the world's largest media market by 2020. This partnership can help Chinese creative media companies looking for a gateway into EU markets and indigenous creative media companies looking to develop into the Chinese market by developing contacts through staff and student placements, extended business visits and strategic networking.'

The committee were also addressed by Professor Greg Lloyd, Head of the School of the Built Environment and Tim Brundle, Director of Innovation.

For further information contact: Audrey Watson, Department of Communication and Development, University of Ulster, Jordanstown, Tel: 028 9036 6178.

As part of the run up to the Derry~Londonderry’s term as UK City of Culture in 2013, the city today announced that it will host a major new festival of digital culture this summer

Culture Tech is billed as a four-day festival of digital culture and technologies and will take place from August 29 to September 1 within Derry~Londonderry's historic walled city centre. The festival promises an eclectic mix of film screenings, digital arts installations, live music performances, public workshops and a major games tournament.

Mark Nagurski from Digital Derry, principal organisers of the festival, explained: 'Digital technology has become a part of all of our lives in everything from the way we work to the games we play. In the run up to the City of Culture year we wanted to host an event that celebrated the way that technology is helping to shape exciting new projects in culture and the arts. We’re bringing in speakers, acts and artists from all over the globe but there’ll also be a strong emphasis on exciting projects being developed right here in Northern Ireland. We hope it’s an event that everyone can come and enjoy and we expect to have over 10,000 people taking part over the four days.'

The festival will include an industry conference expected to attract over 500 delegates and also a showcase event, co-sponsored by Invest Northern Ireland, where local companies can present their projects.

Martin Adair, acting Head of Creative Industries at Invest NI, commented: 'Northern Ireland’s vibrant creative industries sector is hugely important to the Northern Ireland economy which has ambitious, world-class companies operating across the full spectrum of industries, from film and TV to digital media including gaming, animation and music.'

'The Culture Tech festival will be an important opportunity to showcase this talent and help to maximise the export potential of these business as well as position Northern Ireland competitively among international investors.'

Brian Burns from festival sponsors Seagate said: 'The creative industries, particularly games and music, are a hugely important growth area for Seagate. As digital content, such as music, video, photos and games, becomes more integrated into everyday life, the idea of static data storage is becoming obsolete. Today, people want to access, share and secure digital content using dynamic storage solutions that give them the freedom to do business, and to create and interact at any time and anywhere. Seagate is in the business of delivering the advanced digital storage solutions that meet these needs. We've also been in Derry for nearly 20 years and have a long-standing association with the creative industries here. With that in mind, we're enormously excited to be associated with what will undoubtedly be a fantastic event.'

Many of the festival events are open to the public and free to attend and the organisers expect it to be a big draw for families. Tickets for the conference, screenings and music events start at just £49 for all four days and are available online at www.culturetech.co where you’ll also find details of the festival programme.

Newly-commissioned play White Star of the North goes on tour to Wales this week (April 24 – May 5) after finishing a packed three-week run at the Naughton Studio of the Lyric.

Starring fresh new talent, Andrew Simpson (Notes on a Scandal) and Roisin Gallagher (Dockers), the cast from Northern Ireland takes to the stage at the renowned Clwyd Theatr Cymru, in Mold as part of its 2012 Celtic Festival. It is one of three of the best new plays from Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales which were selected to take part in the celebration of new writing from the Celtic nations.

Belfast playwright Rosemary Jenkinson was commissioned by the Belfast Titanic Company in association with the Lyric Theatre and with funds provided by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

Rosemary said: 'White Star of the North is inspired by the society, the politics, the industry, the people and the public mores of Belfast in 1912. I'll be fascinated to know what Welsh audiences make of the play and especially Home Rule politics, as national independence has always been of great interest to Wales.'

Lyric Artistic Director Richard Croxford said: 'It is obviously very important for the Lyric to ensure that as many of its productions as possible transfer to a wider audience following the initial run in Belfast. It helps us not only to promote the Lyric, but also to showcase our creative local talent on national and international stages.'

Further north in Birkenhead, a younger audience will get a chance to see pupils from Dundonald Primary School perform the Titanic play ‘She was alright when she left us’ when it is live-streamed on 2 May to Bidston Avenue School.

Written by Belfast actor Dan Gordon, the play was commissioned by the Ulster-Scots Agency in association with the Lyric Theatre and is part of a successful series of children’s plays called Pat & Plain.

The Lyric’s Creative Learning team has helped 40 schools across Northern Ireland produce plays from the Pat & Plain range in recent years. This, the last in a series of plays, deals with the lives of the people who commissioned and built RMS Titanic, bringing its association with Belfast alive for children.

The Titanic is of special interest to pupils at Bidston Avenue school in Birkenhead, near Liverpool because Bruce Ismay came from the area. The chairman of White Star Line, which owned the Titanic, gained notoriety and derision because of the disaster and especially as he survived the shipwreck.

Philip Crawford, the Lyric’s Creative Learning Co-ordinator, said: 'An audience of over 10,000 has watched the Pat & Plain plays in Northern Ireland over the past four years. The live-stream affords a terrific opportunity for the work to be seen by people across the world, including the children of Bidston Avenue, who will be working on the play when they visit Belfast in June.'

Libraries NI and Pin.Up Events, a Belfast fashion collective, will combine style, music and design with bookish charm by staging a free show at Belfast Central Library!

This groundbreaking Fashion and Music Extravaganza event will see Central Library stage a new season catwalk show, live music and pop-up market on Friday 30 March.

The event is being held as part of Creativity Month celebrations, which is an initiative devised by the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure to inspire new ideas, new collaborations and a new economy.

Anna-Marie Henderson, Pin.Up Events commented,
'It’s an absolute thrill to be running this event at Central Library! Pin.Up Events is all about collaboration and innovation in fashion and music. We aim to create a platform for up-and-coming talent who might not have a presence locally. The opportunity to stage this event in Belfast Central Library adds a whole new dimension to the experience.'

'In this Google age, we forget about the wealth of information and knowledge our libraries have to offer and their role as a hub of community activity. This Pin.Up Event aims to remind people that Central Library is a vibrant and intriguing building which has a valid place at the centre of our cultural and artistic lives.'

'Set to the live soundtrack of the Sons of Robert Mitchum, one of Belfast's most unique bands, and showcasing some incredible local designers, it’s going to be an unmissable evening.'

Adrienne Adair, Business Manager, Libraries NI added,
'Libraries NI recognises the importance of the creative industries sector to the economy and its potential to generate long-lasting economic benefits for Northern Ireland and we delighted to host Pin.Up at Central Library as part of Creativity Month, which this year has a theme of ‘creative connections’.'

'We hope that free events like these will appeal to people of all ages and encourage them to call into a local library and celebrate this free month-long programme of events.'

Doors open at 6.30pm, with the show commencing at 7.15pm. Entry is free, based on a first come, first served basis – so you’re advised to arrive early! An after party will continue in The Hudson, Gresham Street.

To find out more, visit www.librariesni.org.uk or you can contact Belfast Central Library on telephone number 028 9050 9167 or email centrallending.belb@librariesniorg.uk

For details of all Creativity Month events, go to www.creativityni.org/creativity-month.

Culture Company 2013 has joined forces with Culture Northern Ireland to launch a competition to design the official City of Culture 2013 mascot, as part of the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure's Creativity Month.

The competition launched today (Thursday, March 15) and will be run through the new online creative hub CreativityNI. It is open to anyone who thinks their design is worthy of becoming the official mascot for Derry~Londonderry’s year as the inaugural UK City of Culture.

The mascot will become a symbol of City of Culture 2013, and will be showcased at events, on promotional material and on merchandise products that will go on sale throughout 2013. The winner of the competition will also be given Apple products to the value of £3,000.

Culture Company is looking for a mascot that is an imaginary character, animal or person, is original, is easy to recognise as the official mascot for City of Culture, is appealing to their target audience and incorporates their brand colours (pink, yellow and red) in some way.

The entries will be shortlisted and a winner selected by an expert judging panel that will include: Declan McGonagle, Culture Company 2013 board member and director at the National Art College Dublin; David Lewis, director of Culture Northern Ireland; David Campbell, artist-in-residence at the Verbal Arts Centre; Kieran Harrigan, design and publications officer at Derry City Council; and Maoliosa Boyle, manager of Void Art Gallery.

Culture Minister Carál Ní Chuilín welcomed the launch of the mascot competition. 'City of Culture 2013 will be a catalyst for creativity and innovation across our region and beyond. It will inspire people to think differently, to think creatively and to look to the possibilities of the future. The winning mascot design will capture this hope and energy and showcase our creativity to the world.'

Chair of the judging panel, Declan McGonagle, added: 'This is a great opportunity for someone to become part of the legacy of the first ever City of Culture by having their design go down in the history books as the official mascot.

'Our year in 2013 will show the world what a great city Derry~Londonderry is, and we will use our mascot to communicate this as well. Our panel look forward to welcoming entries from all across the UK and Ireland and unveiling our mascot as part of our highlight programme launch at the beginning of May.'

David Lewis, director at Culture Northern Ireland, commented: 'Culture Northern Ireland is delighted to be involved with the design a mascot competition for City of Culture 2013. This is an exciting opportunity for designers and artists to get involved with the City of Culture in Derry~Londonderry.

'Mascots always play a significant role in engaging with audiences and inspiring them to participate in activity. I look forward to seeing some creative designs.'

Entries will be accepted until 5pm on April 12, 2012. Further competition details and the online application form are available at www.creativityni.org/mascot and www.facebook.com/cityofculture2013.

Culture Minister Carál Ní Chuilín has launched Creativity Month - a celebration of creativity and the Creative Industries in the north of Ireland.

A series of events and workshops will take place throughout March on the theme of ‘Creative Connections’. The aim is to stimulate new thinking and new collaborations to help creative people, creative ideas and creative businesses to emerge and flourish.

The Minister said: 'Our society faces challenges in the economy, education, health, social inclusion, and the environment. Creativity involves connecting things not previously connected. This can include people, organisations, businesses and ideas. These creative connections can stimulate new ways of tackling these problems and finding innovative solutions.'

The Minister unveiled a website, www.creativityni.org, which will list relevant events and evolve into an online hub for creativity across the region. The resource has been developed by Culture NI and the Culture Company behind the Derry~Londonderry City of Culture in 2013.

Shona McCarthy, Chief Executive of Culture Company 2013 Ltd, said: 'City of Culture 2013 will be a catalyst for the entire region. It will demonstrate the power of arts and culture to inspire new thinking, drive regeneration and showcase our strengths and creativity to the world. As we countdown to 2013, this on-line resource will begin to share ideas and make creative connections that will deliver lasting impact across the region.'

The Minister added: 'Creativity will play a key role in rebuilding and rebalancing our economy. Our Creative Industries are a vibrant, innovative and growing part of our economy, and are increasingly being recognised as a positive economic force. In the past few days we have seen Oscar success with Belfast director Terry George deservedly winning the best live action short prize.'

'The impact of the Creative Industries can also be seen across a wide range of sectors from tourism to manufacturing. There are examples all around us in advertising, architecture, art, crafts, design, film, music and digital technologies.'

'Creativity Month is about building momentum around creativity and the Creative Industries and inspiring people and organisations to think differently, to think creatively and to look to the possibilities of the future.'

Click here for more information on Creativity Month and the full event programme.

Between March 9th and March 17th , Northern Ireland’s creative industries are taking centre stage at what is arguably the biggest creative industries showcase event in the world – SXSW in Austin Texas. SXSW 2012 is expected to be bigger than ever with up to 30,000 international delegates attending the Film, Interactive and Music conferences and festivals.

The previous SXSW conferences and festival events have involved appearances by Tony Bennett, Pete Townsend, Johnny Cash, Neil Young, Elvis Costello, Snow Patrol and Willie Nelson, to mention just a few.

Outside the convention centre, the SXSW Music Festival features over 1800 musical performers on over 75 stages throughout the city.

SXSW remains the key US showcasing, deal striking, networking and media forum for the international media industry, and attendance at the event remains a key priority for all of those interested in the business of media and creativity.

This year will see the largest delegation from Northern Ireland attend the event under the collective brand of NI@SXSW, representing Northern Ireland Music, Interactive and Film business attending SXSW 2012.

This creative industries trade mission is made up of over 40 local music, interactive and film companies, with successful showcasing bands Cashier No 9, And So I Watch You From Afar, General Fiasco and The Wonder Villains.

NI@SXSW is supported by Belfast City Council, Digital Derry, Invest NI and the Department of Culture Arts and Leisure.

Who/what/where/when/why is the Belfast Children's Festival?

The festival runs every year, lasts about eight days and takes place in around 14 different locations. This year the festival runs from March 9-16. We have live theatre and dance performances, exhibitions, workshops, readings and more. Behind the scenes is Young at Art, the not-for-profit company set up to run the festival.

We’ve been working on this year’s programme since 2010, sorting out events, choosing artists, building relationships with venues, schools and youth organisations. Over 200 professional artists are involved from Northern Ireland and elsewhere, and around 12,000 children and adults are expected to come along to something (or a lots of things).

How long have you worked as director of the festival?

I took over in late 2003 when the company was going through some big changes. My first festival was in 2004 and we’ve grown ever since. Eight festivals in, I feel like I’m only getting started. For Young at Art, putting the festival on each year is about drawing together quality events to give a spark of creativity in children’s lives.

Too often, children can be the afterthought when seasons of events are put together, or people think the standards don’t need to be so high. In my view, they need to be even higher as children lack any of the politeness of adults if they’re not engaged by a show or a workshop. I think children can have very sophisticated ways of looking at things but sometimes they lack the vocabulary to express their opinion.

We guess you get to travel around other festivals to watch acts and find inspiration for the BCF programme? Which international festivals would you recommend?

It isn't always necessary to travel far to get great work to present at the festival, because we balance our international programme with working with some of our great indigenous artists, companies like Replay Theatre Company and Cahoots NI.

I'm just back from the biennial festival in Nuremberg, Germany called Panoptikum. It lasts around five days and is a huge focus both for the city of Nuremberg and the professional theatre industry across Germany and Europe. We'll be delighted to have the company that run it, Theater Mummpitz, in Belfast this year with their adaptation of Joan of Arc, The Terrific Adventures of Brave Johanna Woodsword.

I’m also a regular visitor to the Baboró Festival in Galway (October) and the Imaginate Festival in Edinburgh (May), both of which offer amazing programmes. Often when I travel, there is a kind of horse trading involved where I deliver a talk or act as a judge. In April 2011, I travelled to Spain’s largest puppet festival, Fira Titelles de Lleida, as an international judge.

Is the BCF a festival for children only, or is there something for the child in all of us?

I think some of what we present is more exciting and contemporary than anything else you’ll see this year. Adults can attend any of the performances and are welcomed (they may have to sit behind children but being taller is a fact of growing up).

As I see it, we start our lives with unlimited ambition and creativity and growing up can be a process of losing those assets, if we let it. Coming to one of our events is a great way to reanimate that latent imagination and recapture a sense of possibility with the world.

As a child, what piece of art – a book, film, piece of music, painting – did you love the most?

As a kid, I was an incurable romantic and grew up in a very creative household. I was into ballet in a big way right into my teens and dreamed about being at Sadler's Wells. I loved books. Ursula le Guin’s The Wizard of Earthsea was a personal favourite. I was also taken to the theatre a lot.

I think my favourite thing changed on a daily basis, but I have a very clear memory of being taken to the Crawford Gallery in Cork where I grew up and seeing Harry Clarke’s stained glass and wanting to look at it for hours. It’s something I keep going back to.

What did you dislike the most?

I hated panto. I still do.

If you could invite three fictional characters to enjoy a pre-festival luncheon, who would they be and why?

I’m about to put on a festival for 12,000 people. What’s luncheon?

Will television have a detrimental effect on the artists of tomorrow?

I don’t think television is bad, but I think bad television is damaging. The collective experience of watching television together has changed. We used to watch the big Christmas film, now we constantly tweet through Masterchef. But children, whether they become artists or not, need good television. Like anything that is well produced, it can be stimulating and provocative.

What may be interesting is whether future generations become so inured to television that they gravitate back to the live experience, physically being present for something, making something, experiencing entertainment with other people. I think there is probably some evidence that this may happen.

If you could set the curriculum for a year, what would you teach in English literature, art and drama?

I wouldn’t be interested in making a few tweaks to those subjects. I would restructure school life so that it was compulsory for all schools to provide quality tuition in art, music and drama for all children, from nursery through to A-level as free, state-provided activity.

I would borrow from the education systems in France, Denmark and Norway, where there are state-funded schemes that provide arts coordinators for schools who then work together with programming budgets and trained teams of facilitators. 

Obviously this is all down to funding. My magic wand would be able to it all, but I genuinely think that we need wholesale change in society here where creativity and the embracing of imaginative intelligence is considered as important as knowledge acquisition. Einstein said, 'Imagination is more important than knowledge'.

What are your personal highlights from this year's festival?

The hot ticket is Big Ears, a special two-day residency in the Sonic Arts Research Centre at Queen’s University, Belfast’s best-kept secret. Kids taking part will work with emerging composers from all over the UK using some of the world’s most sophisticated digital equipment to create their own sonic masterpiece. The price includes tickets for parents to go to a special performance at the end of the weekend.

The dance and percussion piece Traverse by the Arcosm Company from France is a must see – it’s like STOMP with real style. It’ll be the UK premiere and I suspect this show will be travelling round the world within the year. If you’re a dance fan, you should go. If you’re not, you should go. If your child likes bashing kitchen cupboards – you have got to be there!

And the premiere I can’t wait to see is Marianne Dreams by Moira Buffini, which will open at the Lyric Theatre on March 13. Produced by Replay Theatre Company, it’s a dream/nightmare story using animation and live performance. 

How can people get involved?

Put the dates in your diary to pop down to our free events and drop-in events. If you fancy getting even more involved, book into one of our talks programmes or apply to be a volunteer (we’re still accepting applications, but only just).

If you are moved by our enthusiasm and commitment, have access to funds (yours or someone else’s), donate something or sponsor us to keep the work going. We charge just 10% of the full cost of our work in ticket sales, so every penny helps.

Marcus Patton is a true Renaissance man. Architect, accomplished viola player, watercolourist, and, judging by his new book The Bedside Book of Dormers and Other Delights, an architectural anorak.

The premise is not promising. A pictorial guide to architectural details in Ulster? Hundreds of photographs of windows, doors, roofs, walls, the eponymous dormers… Yawn. Far from dull, the book is, in fact, a delight. I would go further. It does what all great books do – it makes the reader look at the world, or at least our built environment, in a whole new light.

Now as I drive along the roads of Limavady and County Londonderry, I peer curiously at chimney pots, farm gates, weathercocks, window guards, porches, and date stones, marvelling at the sheer variety of architectural stuff that is still, despite our pathological love affair with the new build bungalow, all around us.

Patton, according to the book’s preface, realised this more than 30 years ago, when he returned to Northern Ireland after some years living in Scotland, and embarked on his photographic odyssey. ‘I was pleased to recognize architectural details that I had missed elsewhere, and often delighted by other things I had never noticed before.’

From an Arts & Crafts house in Dungannon to a granite chimney in Seaforde, the bell on the lodge of the People’s Park in Ballymena to decorative Victorian tiles at Bellarena railway station, Patton has photographed and commented on a vast array of architectural styles and ornamental offerings.

Even the Nerve Centre in Derry~Londonderry gets in on the act, with ‘the magnificent lettering and startlingly cheerful colour scheme’ of Café Nervosa warranting a mention.

Patton is certainly not a snob, joyfully detailing the ‘hedge sparrows [of architecture] that we take for granted but which visitors to Ireland can find surprisingly exotic’.

The photographs are accompanied by little gems of information and much wry commentary. The tone is set with the book’s frontispiece, a Patton watercolour of Dungannon Police Station reputedly designed for use in the Khyber Pass in India, until the plans were misplaced by a civil servant in Dublin. Local legend has it that the Khyber Pass is decorated by an Ulster Police Station…

‘Even ivy can get out of hand,’ Patton writes of a house in Derry. ‘And when you can’t see out of the second floor windows it is time to call a gardener.’

On McKnight’s outfitters in Kilkeel: ‘In a fishing port a draper has to offer not just balls of wool for the women but also seamen’s outfits to replace those lost or shrunk at sea.’

Few of the buildings are identified and only located by nearest town and county, which turns the book into a fun I-Spy. I once considered buying the house in Hilden with the Moorish windows, for example, and speculate just where is that art nouveau column in Magherafelt?

Contemplate the humble bollard. You never have? Neither had I, yet here is a ship’s cannon half buried in the ground, muzzle upwards, in Hill Street, Belfast. And a unique bollard with a clenched fist clutching a baton, lurking somewhere in the streets of Limavady.

There’s plenty of other weird and wonderful stuff – model houses, bootscrapers, postboxes, and topiary. Moscow Joe McKinley, the naïve artist from Carnlough, gets his own page. Little remains of McKinley’s house (and therefore work), demolished on his death in 2003. Indeed, many of the buildings featured in the book no longer exist.

‘For the most permanent of the arts, architecture is remarkably transient,’ Patton writes. ‘The basic structure of a building may survive a long time but brick gets repointed, glass gets broken, slates slip, timber rots and even stone decays.’

Never mind our wanton vandalism and gung-ho planning laws. Patton likens plastic windows, which have wiped out many of our indigenous window types, as the ‘grey squirrel of the architectural ecosystem’.

These buildings and architectural details, once common now rare, and so often carelessly destroyed, are the very fabric of our past, a tangible living heritage. Taken as a whole they ‘have a flavour that you can recognize as Ulster, as distinctive as potato farls, and our towns and villages would be the poorer without their cheerful presence’.

Patton’s marvellous book manages somehow to be both celebration and lament.

The Bedside Book of Dormers and Other Delights is out now, published by the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society.

Northern Ireland used to be home to linen mills and ship building. Today, those traditional ‘heavy’ industries have been replaced by creative industries as a prime source of competitive strength.

The creative industries in Northern Ireland employ around 31,000 people and generate £737 million annually. In order to encourage local businesses to tap into this economic shift, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland has set up funds to help local business transform their creative ideas into commercial successes.

The Creative Industries Innovation Fund – run by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, with funding from the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure, and supported by Northern Ireland Screen and Digital Circle – provides assistance to companies working in craft, design, software, publishing, film and music at critical times in their business and product development.

The fund, which is currently open for applications, will give priority to companies committed to developing export-focused activity, cross-sector collaboration and businesses that can harness the innovative and entrepreneurial potential of the region’s cultural and arts sectors. Digital content projects from all sections of the creative industries are also encouraged to apply.

ACNI has funded the development of Northern Ireland’s creative industries since 2008. Roisin McDonough, ACNI chief executive, explained the importance of the initiative. 'Investment in our creative industries is generating economic returns and there is a potential to capitalise on the many opportunities that presents.

'CIFF is providing seed funding to plug skills gaps and encourage growth within this important sector. We already have the resources and talent, and if we continue to support local companies in developing their ideas, Northern Ireland will be much better equipped to compete at the forefront of the global market.'

Through the programme, creative enterprises are also afforded the opportunity to be partnered by the Institute of Directors for business mentoring support, and there are many examples of worth while projects that have already received funding.

My Tour Talk, for example (pictured above), was awarded a grant of £10,000 in November 2011. It is developing a new audio Titanic Walking Tour app. The app will bring the Titanic Trail to life for visitors to the city, linking key locations from Belfast City Hall to the Thompson Graving Dock.

The importance of the creative industries is recognised within the new Programme for Government. Arts Minister Carál Ní Chuilín, said: 'The creative industries can help to rebuild and rebalance our economy. The Executive realises the importance of promoting innovation and creativity and aims to support 200 projects over 2011-15 through CIFF.

'Ireland’s arts and cultural heritage is known throughout the world. These are strategic assets for our region, which can inspire the development of creative content, products, services, and experiences capable of competing in global markets. The creative industries can also enhance the development of other sectors such as tourism and assist and contribute to local regeneration particularly in areas that experience multiple deprivation.'

The Creative Industries Innovation Fund guidelines and application form can be accessed here. To see more artists who benefited from the Creative Industries Innovation Fund, visit CultureNorthernIreland's YouTube playlist.