The Ark Annual Report 2023

At The Ark we believe in the arts for EVERY child. Following the publication of our 2023 Annual Report, we're celebrating the achievements of the past year.

You can take a look at some of The Ark's highlights from 2023 below, or download the complete Annual Report and Audited Financial Statements for 2023 online here.

Download the The Ark's Annual Report 2023

2023 in Numbers

The Ark Children's Council

In 2023, we worked to ensure a diversity of voices in the council and in the autumn we welcomed our largest group to date. Throughout the year, members of the Children’s Council provided invaluable insight into our programme and activities, and their voices have been central of a number of key projects.

These included:

Co-curating the Right Here Right Now! festival programme.
Speaking to artists and arts workers at the Right Here Right Now Symposium on Child Co-Creation in Performance.
Collating responses to our SPEAK UP, SPEAK OUT! call out and selecting those to be featured on Irish Rail posters.
Presenting a works–in–progress showcase, Still Loading..., and giving their feedback to showcasing artists in the development of their work.
Shaping the programme and promotion of BIG BANG Dublin! and acting as Festival Ambassadors.
Providing feedback on all new Ark productions.
Informing the development of The Ark Strategy 2024-2028.

As always, the children’s contributions and perspectives have been invaluable to our work and we would like to say a heartfelt thank you to our 2023 Council members for their passion, time, commitment and most of all for sharing their point of view throughout the year.

Thank you Torin, Eve, Libby, Lily, Louis, Naima, Panav, Ryan, Samuel, Anna, Abbie, Aine, Glen, Malachy, Mia, Noah, Nina, Síle, Sachet (2022-2023), Molly, Aoife, Isla, Linnea, Nawaal, Cameron, Maddie, Alannah, Aoibheann, Louis, Tiernan, Rosa, Sam, Aisling, Emilie, Oona, Meredith, Lily, Nadine, Frank, Vincent, Amelia, Myles, Eve, Robbie, Jude, Liam, Sam, Penny, Alba, Arjun, Grace, Teddy, Ali, Ben, Finn, India, Sofia, Samyukta, Hezu, Nala & Naiph (2023-2024).

Find out more about The Ark Children's Council

The Impact of The Ark – Right Here Right Now!

Right Here Right Now! is The Ark’s Festival of Children celebrating children’s rights: the right to play, to engage in cultural activities and the right to be heard. Co-curated by members of The Ark Children’s Council, this entirely free festival took place over three days in February and featured visual art, music, dance, theatre, a symposium on child co- creation for artists and our flagship event – the Children’s Rally!

The Right Here Right Now Rally saw over 500 children gather in Meeting House Square to rally for their rights. School groups and speakers prepared for the rally by taking part in workshops with the Ombudsman for Children to learn about their rights, in speechwriting and in visual art to create their own speeches, flags and banners for the event. Following inspiring short speeches from 34 children, the event culminated with a live performance of What Will You Say? by Elaine Mai and MayKay, featuring The SuperTones children’s choir.

What Will You Say? was commissioned by The 7 Ark to be our rally song, inspired by children who responded to our SPEAK UP, SPEAK VENUES OUT! national call out, asking children to tell us what they thought about their rights and what issues were most important to them. With support from Irish Rail, we were also able to run a nationwide poster campaign showcasing a selection of these submissions to share children’s words in railway stations and carriages across the country.

With the support of Art:2023, a Decade of Centenaries collaboration from the Arts Council and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, we were also able to facilitate further online workshops with school children in remote areas and create a free Rally Where You Are activity pack to help groups organise their own event in their locality. Right Here Right Now! festival was funded by The Toy Show Appeal at The Community Foundation for Ireland and supported by RTÉ Supporting the Arts.

Download The Ark's 2023 Annual Report in full

Chair's Foreword

The Ark continues to be widely recognised for putting children’s rights to art and culture at the centre of its policies and programmes. And what a significant and wonderful year 2023 has been at The Ark.

169,527 children and adults attended or engaged with The Ark events or activities, with 33,680 attending live performances, events
or workshops, not only at The Ark, but also in schools and libraries. 24,258 watched streamed performances, predominantly in schools. Exhibited artworks were seen in Dublin City Libraries by 110,032 people. 79% of our events were free of charge, thus removing a key barrier to children’s participation.

We produced 3 World Premieres. Based on the novel by Roddy Doyle and written and composed by Fionn Foley, The Giggler Treatment opened to full houses and amassed an extensive waiting list of school groups once sold out. As part of the BIG BANG Dublin! music festival, we premiered Songs from the Soil composed by Lauren Kinsella. A MOVE Commission, The Race by Marc Brew was our third premiere, co-commissioned by The

Ark, Dublin Dance Festival and Arts & Disability Ireland to engage a disabled choreographer to create a new, accessible dance production for children. With support from the Department of Rural and Community Development, we streamed it to children nationwide.

We had the return of Right Here Right Now!, a free three-day festival of art, theatre, music and dance co-curated by children, and concluding with a raucous Children’s Rally where children’s rights were celebrated.

We delivered free arts activity as part of Dublin City Council’s Creative Hubs programme in Ballyfermot, Cabra, Coolock, and Central Library, Dublin. Digital activity extended to a national digital programme. Live from The Ark continued for schools, families and Broadband Connection Points around the country for free. In early 2023, we brought together Irish & International artists at the Right Here Right Now Symposium on Child & Adult Co-Creation. Full details of our 2023 programme can be found on page 35.

Without core funding, The Ark would not be in a position to deliver its programmes and enable
its reach to children of all backgrounds and circumstances. For this we gratefully acknowledge the support received from our principal funders the Arts Council, the Department of Education, and Dublin City Council. We are also grateful to our many individual and company donors and funders, both financial and in kind, who enable us to extend our reach so that children can access The Ark who would not otherwise benefit therefrom, such as those with disabilities, in DEIS schools, Emergency Accommodation and Direct Provision. With these donations, we have devised innovative participation projects for children. Our Ark Access for Schools Programme benefited 15 DEIS schools.

I wish to take this opportunity to recognise the professionalism, expertise, passion and dedication of our Director/CEO, Aideen Howard, and General Manager, Al Russell, and to thank the entire team at The Ark for generating such positive and memorable creative experiences for every child.

Lastly, I wish to commend our volunteer Board members who made a significant contribution throughout 2023. In addition to our Board, Committee and Working Group commitments, a considerable amount of time was spent developing The Ark’s new Strategy for 2024- 2028. Further, we enhanced existing governance areas including the development of a Risk Management Policy to complement our Risk Register, and making decisions to commence work on Cyber and Sustainability Policies. We developed Terms of Reference for the Board ensuring clear demarcation of the functions reserved for the Board and those delegated to the Executive. In late 2023, we made the decision to commence development of a Crisis Plan to ensure The Ark is well prepared for every eventuality both internal and external.

With the right resources, we can do even more to enable children’s access to art and culture as is their right.
Carol Fawsitt

Chair

The Ark Strategy Statement 2024-2028

Hear our Voice! Instructions on how to listen to children