The Context
Destination CQ BID was established amongst the business community in Cathedral Quarter & Smithfield in October 2016 with a focus on delivering specific improvements needed by local businesses and organisations throughout the area. The BID invests in and delivers projects to improve the local trading environment, drive down business costs and raise the area’s profile.
The Black Box is situated in the heart of Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter and is established as one of the principal arts and entertainment venues in the city; it acts as a home for live music, theatre, literature, comedy, film, visual art, live art, circus, cabaret and all points in between.
These partners have shared aims of promoting and supporting communities, including some of the most socially isolated and on the fringes of society. With this in mind, they wanted to find an innovative way to promote City Centre living, partnerships in the area, community cohesion and position the Cathedral Quarter as an inclusive, welcoming and accessible destination for all.
The Solution
These organisations came together in 2019 to develop the idea of The Green Room Living Room, an exciting project that is aimed at reaching the growing population of people living in the City Centre, working to combat urban isolation. Belfast City Centre has a growing residential population and the partners want to help establish and support a sense of community and belonging for people, by facilitating opportunities to socialise, form relationships, develop opportunities for employment and business development and feel connected to each other and the City. Their vision is to create a relaxed, accessible, neutral, welcoming city centre location.
This project uses funding from Arts & Business NI’s Investment Programme, and takes place from Sunday to Wednesday in the evenings from 5pm, including a range of low-key events such as film screenings, quizzes, comedy, live music, board game nights, talks/lectures and in-conversation-with style events. During COVID-19, The Green Room Living Room moved online.
The partnership with Black Box enables Destination CQ BID to promote the CQ area ‘Alive after 5’ message on quieter nights of the week as the majority of activity normally takes place Thurs-Sat. The collaborative project offers an alternative to eating and drinking, and promotes the city centre as an attractive area to live.
“Green Room Living Room was a great opportunity for the Business Improvement District to further expand its professional relationship with one of the City’s leading cultural venues.
The BID’s Business Support programme of ‘Lunchtime Learning’ stemmed from a pilot project developing from the Green Room into a regular weekly event now held in the Main Room venue and has proved a huge success. Thus to embark the Green Room Living Room allowed Black Box to pilot and reimagine access and inclusiveness to cultural space, it gave the BID a chance to understand how locals, visitors and consumers utilise the City Centre and specifically the weeknight evening economy.
For the Business Improvement District this was an opportunity to not only create footfall to a venue, but also address a wider range of issues for Black Box. These include social inclusiveness to those who use the City Centre, be they neighbouring communities on the City Centre outskirts, City Centre residents and those who are seeking affordable engaging content as a visitor.
We look forward to developing this product further with the Black Box over the coming months.”
Gareth Neill, BID Manager, Destination CQ BID
“The whole concept of the Green Room Living Room was to make the Green Room feel like a living room - a relaxed informal space where people can meet and chat and feel part of a community. Given the new current lockdown situation, we are flipping this idea and bringing a bit of the Green Room and Black Box into people’s actual living rooms! The first example of this revised programme was our 14th Birthday celebration where we commissioned artists and musicians to create a performance or piece of work from their lockdown environment (including Black Box Patron John Shuttleworth!). Each performance was brought together into a whole evening hosted by Stephen Beggs brought directly to your home. It was important for us to do this during this challenging time to continue to give the Black Box visibility and to celebrate and support the vibrant Black Box community, including seven freelance creative practitioners - a professional sector who are finding it especially difficult to get work at the moment. Going forward, we are completing the delivery of other Green Room Living Room events, adjusting the programme for an online environment and this will include a version of Conversations with Strangers, comedy events and activities including Urban Gardening.”
Rachael Campbell-Palmer, Director, The Black Box
