HISTORY

Common Ground was founded in 1998 as an arts development agency in the Canal Communities area. The inspiration for setting up Common Ground came from research commissioned by the Canal Communities Partnership; 20 -20 Vision - which explored the potential role of arts and culture in urban community regeneration. The Canal Communities area spans Inchicore, Rialto and Bluebell. This is the geographical area within which Common Ground bases its work. In 1999 Common Ground was established as a company limited by guarantee and in 2000 acquired charitable status.

In the beginning with only one worker and the support and vision of a number of individuals with experience of arts and community development at local and national level, Common Ground set about developing a way of working that engaged with the community and supported artists with an interest in locating their practice in that community.

In the early years Common Ground concentrated on building relationships with local groups and partners in order to respond to local needs. Common Ground experimented with processes that included: setting up community based artist’s residencies; arts training, capacity building with youth leaders and community workers; mentoring opportunities for artists. The results of the work were considered, by those involved, to be enormously positive and to contribute to an overall body of work in the area that empowers local people to find their voices and use them to shape the future social and economic development of the community.