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.
Three’s Theatre Company is a young dynamic company which creates ‘choice theatre’, putting the audience at the heart of everything they do. Many of their performances have been site specific and many have been in places where theatre is unexpected and new. Each show is based on the true stories of the people represented, and each show is researched, developed and performed by young, local and often new talent.
As part of their wider work within the community, Destination CQ planned to launch a new environmental strategy in 2020. The BID needed a unique and compelling way to communicate the strategy and its messages to local audiences...
The Solution
2019 saw Three’s Theatre Company & Destination CQ BID’s first collaboration, driven by environmental and sustainability awareness.
To help launch their new environmental strategy, the BID secured funding from Arts & Business NI’s Investment Programme, and committed to supporting Three’s Theatre Company’s Christmas show, Rewilding Winter Cabaret. The experimental theatrical experience took place in Writer’s Square, in the centre of the CQ area, and was a circus night with a difference; the performances shone a spotlight on sustainability, with acts including Drag Queens with biodegradable glitter, comedy burlesque dancers with organic cotton and upcycled outfits, aerial acts, juggling, acrobatics and Leonie Pony as MC. The evening of entertainment had a sustainability themed undertone, showing the audience that we need to make a difference and we need to do something now.
Three’s Theatre Company also facilitated three sustainability workshops at Destination CQ BID’s Lunchtime Learning Sessions in the Black Box. The sessions looked at topics including how one can live plastic free in Belfast, what steps businesses can take to be more environmentally engaged and so forth. A pop-up Eco Fayre showed CQ businesses what alternatives are available and how supporting local, small business and individual artists can deliver creative solutions to living a more earth-conscious life.
Attendance figures for the Rewilding Winter Cabaret were encouraging, and anecdotal feedback from audience members and attendees at subsequent workshops revealed that the new partnership with Three’s Theatre enabled Destination CQ BID to effectively communicate it’s work to core audience segments in a way that really resonated and motivated them to care and take action to be more environmentally responsible.
“Destination CQ was delighted to team up with Threes Theatre Company for Rewilding Winter Cabaret. The partnership delivered a number of goals aligned with the Business Improvement District (BID) business plan and it was great to receive this exciting proposal for utilising our CQ Events Fund from Threes Theatre Company.
The unique approach taken not only delivered an innovative creative project, but will encourage further important conversation moving forward on issues around sustainability and environmental awareness for the small business community in Cathedral Quarter and Smithfield. We are excited to continue this relationship moving forward with Three’s Theatre Company and build on the messaging and practical elements for SMEs to deliver and upskill the green agenda for the area.”
Gareth Neill, BID Manager, Destination CQ BID
“The support from Destination CQ BID was brilliant. It was the first time we were able to receive such an investment from a company and it really helped us bring this production to life. Rewilding Winter Cabaret is perhaps the biggest show in terms of audience capacity that we have taken on yet, and having the BID believe in us instilled a beautiful sense of pride and determination, and we are so thankful for the additional funding support from Arts & Business NI to take the relationship a step further. The Investment Programme is a brilliant starting point for reaching out to companies and helps build a relationship. We are a younger company that is trying to make theatre in a new landscape, when traditional funding avenues seem to be closed to us, this type of investment is crucial to our growth as a company and our art- the entire project was sexy and sustainable, what more could we have wanted?”
Anna Leckey, Three’s Theatre Company
