Arts, Business & the Social Economy

A networking event to help aspiring and existing social entrepreneurs bridge the gap between creativity and enterprise while maintaining a focus on social value.

Come to the R-Space Gallery in Lisburn and find out how to build a social business in the arts sector. Hear from established social enterprises representing richly diverse areas of the arts, including music, fine arts and Arabic culture.

Register here

Speakers:

• Brona Whittaker has been working in the cultural sector in Northern Ireland for almost twenty years and is currently Head of Arts at Arts & Business NI. She manages A&B NI’s Arts Membership programme including design and delivery of fundraising training and advice surgeries and the events programme. Brona also manages the Investment Programme which is designed to encourage inspirational, sustainable partnerships between businesses and the arts organisations they sponsor.

• Alan Clarke is chair of the R-Space visual arts & crafts gallery located in the Linen Rooms in the centre of Lisburn. Together with the other board members and staff, Alan aims to increase access, understanding and enjoyment of contemporary visual arts, crafts, design and other related arts activities. R-Space collaborates with a diverse range of artists and designers working in different media, providing audiences from a wide range of educational, social and cultural backgrounds with different points of access to the arts.

• Alison Gordon is co-founder of Open House Festival. Open House was established in Belfast in 1999 and moved to Bangor in 2013 where the team has big plans to create a permanent arts venue in the old courthouse building on Bangor's seafront. Alison is committed to the he aim of using arts events to regenerate the local economy, create positive social impact, and help create a shared cultural identity in post-Troubles NI.

The event is part of the SuNSE programme - the Support Network for Social Entrepreneurs - which aims to support new social enterprise ideas, as well as existing social enterprises, in the Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council area.