Following years of experimentation and refinement of our working model, our non-profit charity Camden Quay Community Arts Centre opened a 34,000 square feet multi-discipline creative facility in Cork, Ireland. For 8 years the facility was a ground-breaking success.

 

The idea was not new. Lots of other facilities already provided low-cost space for emerging creative talent in different disciplines including studios for painters, rehearsal space and recording studios for musicians, dark rooms for photographers, dance studios, film-making and stage facilities for emerging actors, writers, directors and MUAs, etc.

 

What made us different is that we grouped all of these and more disciplines together on one campus, and provided free or low-cost technical assistance to help them to earn income from their talents by mounting exhibitions of their work, performing in gigs with professional stage, lighting, sound and recording equipment, backed up with professional standard band management, gig promotion, ticketing, photography, merch, security, the full package.

 

We repeated this approach with creative people in several fields, capturing the attention of the people of Cork who came to appreciate and support our emerging artists. It was financially sustainable because we operated on a minimal budget, and we had a large number of volunteers including the artists and performers themselves.

 

Crucially, we fitted out and equipped large dedicated spaces within our buildings to provide high quality attractive theatre, exhibition, performance and workshop spaces where the public paid to attend the events we hosted. These public events doubled as a service to the people of Cork, and as a launch pad for our resident artists and performers. We even managed to become financially sustainable through it all by benefiting from the double supports of free premises, and the commitment of a large number of volunteer staff.

 

What made our approach such a success was that the co-location of so many talents under roof fostered many collaborative relationships between creative people who came from different disciplines, even involving family members of resident artists who had diverse skills to bring to projects. An example of a collaboration is one occasion where MUAs, bodypainting artists, photographers, videographers and dancers came together to help produce a music video for a singer-songwriter. As well as practical collabs such as this, many artists had the support of other creatives in the building to inspire them when they hit a dry patch.

 

Our growth was also made possible through the generosity of four property owners who allowed us the use of their vacant buildings in the city centre while they had no immediate plans for them. When each owner came back looking for their buildings, the work of dismantling, packing, conserving and moving all our equipment and materials into storage was immense, using a lot of volunteers’ time and energy. When we found a suitable alternative building, the task of cleaning, adapting and painting the new space plus moving all our fixtures, fittings and equipment took longer and longer as we usually moved into a larger space.

 

Even though this work was exhausting, and sometimes taking months to complete, while we were between homes we managed to keep our services going by making use of temporary and pop-up spaces around the city. Continuing in this way is no longer possible for us because the task of moving at more or less regular intervals has become too difficult, and in any case we seem to have out-grown the spaces available. The only logical option is to find our own permanent base.

 

Starting in 2017 we approached institutions in the city whose large unused buildings were falling into disrepair, with a proposal that we would take over their properties on a long lease, and we would commit to repair and maintain those buildings at our own expense. None of the institutions agreed, although all were sympathetic. We faced a choice between calling it a day, giving up on our dream, or setting out on a long term project to buy our own city centre building complex.

 

We chose the latter, and in 2022 we set out to raise 6 million Euro, the capital needed to buy and adapt a 44,000 square feet building complex, which would be large enough to allow us to continue our work in the city centre.

 

We have an experienced and talented board of directors but we do not have the skills set to raise money on this scale. We need technical assistance from people who have experience in multi-million fund raising projects for a non-profit charity. We are asking for expressions of interest from skilled fundraisers who are willing to volunteer their time to guide us to write our next chapter. If you think you can help us achieve this, we want to hear from you. We are at camdenpalacehotel@gmail.com

 

Best wishes, David McCarthy, Chairperson