This is the Community Arts Edition of The Monthly - February 2026. We focus on community arts, community artists, facilitators and communities of artists, as well as the projects of Community Arts Partnership (CAP). We also focus on community arts organisations locally and internationally.
CAP was moving office during December and early January. The organisation has relocated to: 551-555 Lisburn Road, Belfast, BT9 7GQ and the space is now open for room bookings. You can ring
02890923493 and speak to Gordon if you want to book our larger meeting space or the smaller workshops spaces or email
Gor...@capartscentre.com.
Getting back to The Monthly, this issue we open with CAP's Sharing Songs, Unforgettable Voices project, the two year collaboration of two dementia inclusive community choirs, North and South of the border of the island of Ireland; the This is Me Choir in Larne, Co. Antrim (The Music Yard), and the Forget Me Nots, Co. Dublin. This was a Shared Island Project supported and funded by Creative Ireland and Fingal County Council.
We have a video presentation, produced by filmmaker Michael MacBroom, which charts the journey of the project’s participants and we have a post which includes a commemorative reflection on the project's achievements from CAP's CEO Conor Shields, and photographs from the gala recital at the Parliament Buildings, Stormont, which was the project's finale. The Monthly will produce an issue dedicated to the project shortly.
We highlight the upcoming Imagine! Belfast Festival of Politics and Ideas. We attended the launch of the festival and there's a link to the full programme and words from the festival team.
We discuss roots music, with slide guitar player Dermot Rooney. Dermot is not only a musician and performer of this style of music, he has been an advocate, an historian and a key figure in the promotion of roots music in Belfast and beyond. He discusses with The Monthly how he discovered blues and gospel music, how he developed his craft and how he continues to extend his knowledge both of playing, and of the history, of the music today.
We also discuss the Happy Together project with the Oh Yeah Music Centre's Music and Older People Manager, Paul Kane. The Happy Together project is a culmination of working with people experiencing Dementia at Newington Day Centre, in Belfast, over many years. This project works with carers and shows how music and song can aid in reducing marginalisation providing both a voice and a creative outlet for people who look after those with Dementia. Paul provides valuable insights into this often challenging work.
So, as always in The Monthly, Community Arts Edition, plenty of material to sift through from the world of community arts, from organisations to community artists working locally and internationally.
CAP is funded by The Arts Council of Northern Ireland, National Lottery Good Causes, Belfast City Council and
Halifax Foundation for Northern Ireland
