January tends to be a slower month for events, so it’s a good time to reflect on what we achieved last year and look ahead to what’s next for the co-op.
Although we were founded in 2023, 2024 was our first real active year, working together on events with our partners and generally helping our members out wherever we could.
Some events you might have made it to that our members organized / funded include:
- Palestine fundraiser in Abhainn
- The Conncert
- Culture Night in the Arts Center
- theNCF expo a.k.a. BFF opening as well a colab for the closing event of the festival in the Arts Center
- The made-up orchestra at BFF
- Palestine Poetry Event and Art Show
- Commonage Art Show
- Punx Christmas Party
Other Milestones from 2024 included:
- We officially formed theNCF CLG, an appropriate and necessary legal structure for a non-profit group like ours.
- We found a home on Pearse St. thanks to Mayo County Council.
- We successfully applied for funding from a range of sources, including the Arts Council, Mayo County Council, and Foras na Gaeilge, on behalf of our members.
- We became the first Irish member of the ENCC (European Network for Cultural Centres).
- We hosted our first ever 'home' events: exhibitions, readings, live music, djs, and a coffee meetup (well technically we did that one in the Library opposite our doors).
- Grew to 180 members.
Some 2025 To-dos:
- Building Improvements: If you're handy and you want to help shape the space, please get in touch. We've got some practical needs but also creating the physical aesthetic is something we'd encourage our members to get involved in if they have the skills!
- Equipment and Furniture: We've an ambition to provide a house p.a. and lights with some donations already promised viz. musical equipment. If you have anything we could use let us know.
- Studio & Practice Spaces: We understand there's a major demand. We plan to approach Mayo County Council for the vacant downstairs lot to accommodate this. This will also solve another issue we have at the moment regarding accessibility.
- AGM: Annual General Meeting needs to happen this year. Agenda will be circulated well in advance.
- Funding: We'll be asking for a voluntary contribution from members of 20 euro in February. The contribution will help towards our running costs (estimated at between 3-4k p.a.) that are currently being covered by loans and one-off donations. We will also apply for local and national grant aid, where available.
- Events: Lots of plans and proposals including:
- Artist residency (in collaboration with the Ballina Fringe Festival)
- Regular live music and DJs (also in collaboration with the Punx)
- Youth events in the space (we intend to apply for the Cruinniú na nÓg grant so if you have any experience with the grant or working with young people come forward)
- Regular day meetups (facilitated by Carmel and Serena)
Participation :
If you're new to the group and want to get involved, the first thing I would advise you to do is to understand the ethos of co-operation and our stated goals. Check out the website for more on that https://thencf.art
The ICA website https://ica.coop also sets out the identity, values and principles of the international co-operative movement - "self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, and solidarity...honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others.*"
As we are a member of the ENCC it's also worth understanding the shared ethos they promote amongst their members https://encc.eu/
There's no set format for participation, you can join or found an ad-hoc group (musicians, visual artists are already doing this), propose individual projects, apply for funding through the co-op or just show up at an event and hang-out with us.
Thanks again to everyone who participated directly as performers / exhibitors / organizers and volunteers this year. I don't have a number of active volunteers over the whole year but it was a lot - I'm going to say at least 40 people helped out directly in one way or another. We wouldn't have made it this far with out all your contributions.
Seo.
