Our Way
Our Way
We have developed and are delivering an infrastructure that not only puts people at the centre of our work but also helps them to really engage and connect with their city. We have identified five goals and a series of methodologies and actions by which we will work to achieve this.
Working with, through and for people in Dublin we will ENGAGE, EXPERIMENT, LEARN, SHARE, EMBED to connect people across the city through culture and conversation
Engage
Engaging with the people of Dublin is at the heart of everything we do. All our programmes come from year-round conversations with the people of Dublin, putting them front and centre.
We want everyone in Dublin to find, access, and benefit from a wide range of cultural experiences. We want to build ways for people to see and make culture in their place, with people they know.
To achieve this, we will:
- Listen to people, learning about and responding to what matters to them.
- Invite people - in a personal, open and genuine way - to connect, culturally and creatively, with their place and their city.
- Generate the conditions for people to access culture more easily and confidently.
- Make cultural projects together with people, based on their stories, wishes, and experiences
Experiment
We are a test-bed for cultural ideas: we make and nurture new things. We know we don’t know best: we are open to ideas coming from anywhere. We are not afraid of the unfamiliar.
We want to try new things to build deeper cultural and social experiences.
To achieve this, we will:
- Create opportunities for individuals and communities to try out their own ideas.
- Initiate new projects, programmes, and properties that make Dublin a more vibrant cultural place.
- Test new methods, models and approaches to culture and society.
- Partner with our peers to think bigger, expand horizons and grow the city’s cultural ecosystem.
Learn
We are a learning organisation. We seek out and inject the best thinking available into our work to ensure its relevance and quality.
We want to explore and discover, with others, to continually improve what we do. We want to understand, support and strengthen the city’s cultural and community sectors to expand their impact and legacy.
To achieve this, we will:
- Consult widely and appropriately in the development of our programmes.
- Access skills, knowledge, and good practice to make everything we do the best it can be.
- Record our work and methods to evaluate outcomes, build sustainability and inform future work.
- Activate learning opportunities and invest in training to continually improve our impact.
Share
We value people, culture, and place equally. We recognise that everyone is already involved in culture in their own way.
We want to activate more and different ways for people to be culturally engaged. We want to protect, share and add to the cultural story of the city.
To achieve this, we will:
- Make visible the city’s cultural buildings, organisations, and networks as well as our own work.
- Make it easier for all who live in, work in and visit the city to access culture safely and in comfort.
- Pass on our research, case studies and learning to contribute to national and international discussions.
- Celebrate the people of the city and their many stories.
Embed
We develop projects with a view to having a multiplier effect and a real legacy for those involved. We seek to seed and nurture initiatives and applaud when they are absorbed into community life.
We want to integrate culture and cultural choices into everyday life. We aspire to strengthen Dublin’s reputation as a thriving, connected, culturally vibrant capital city.
To achieve this, we will:
- Open up pathways for people to develop and expand their cultural habits.
- Cultivate our relationships with agencies, venues, and organisations working in the city.
- Advocate for culture as essential to the city’s development and reputation.
- Build on the values and ways of working of Dublin’s Culture Connects to enrich culture in the city for everyone.