A international virtual conference – RIOT : SLIGO 2021 – will take place on 23 & 24 March to look at how to re-imagine Sligo, other towns and small cities, using culture as a stimulus.

The Sligo Culture Team is now inviting ideas and comment from the general public through social media channels using #riotsligo, in advance of the conference. “Covid-19 has forced us all to re-examine how we live, and RIOT : SLIGO gives us the opportunity to do this as a collective, and to think creatively of how we want Sligo to be in the coming years, for individual, groups, business and for culture,” noted Donal Tinney, co-ordinator of Sligo Culture Team.

Cathaoirleach of Sligo County Council, Cllr Dara Mulvey, stated: “We look forward to the outcomes of this conference – a series of recommendations towards an inclusive and practical approach to re-imagining Sligo and other small towns through collaboration between their creative, cultural, society and economic resources.”

Tinney said that there’s an opportunity for new collaborations that will benefit all sectors of society. “RIOT : SLIGO will ask the hard questions about how values of culture, community and business can be mutually beneficial. We will curate conversations with a cross-section of experts and innovators from places and projects that have been transformed through ground-breaking collaborations.”

Contributors include Prof Arjo Klamer, expert in the Economics of Art and Culture, Helen Marriage, a visionary cultural city events curator, Rossella Tarantino from Italy, where her work with Matera’s 2019 Capital of Culture continues to attract more investment and visitors. 

Click here for further details about RIOT : SLIGO.