Club awards Paul Harris Fellowship to David Boyd
In recognition of his outstanding commitment to the community, President Ronnie presented a Paul Harris Fellowship to David Boyd Director/Founder Beat Carnival, one of Belfast's flagship arts companies.
The citation noted that David's passion has been the development of carnival arts and his vision derives from his commitment to, and understanding of, the worldwide carnival arts movement. In 1993 he set up Belfast Carnival's forerunner - The Beat Initiative - to create and produce innovative, large-scale, celebratory arts programmes, in collaboration with carnival arts companies around Britain, Ireland and in Europe; organise and direct performances; train and develop artists and encourage community participation and ambition.
He has worked tirelessly to encourage communities in Belfast and beyond to find a neutral way (no orange or green!) of celebrating culture in shared public spaces. He has been brought into the Lord Mayor and St Patrick's Day Parades and has seen success in the latter with it achieving a 50:50 audience within 3 years. He has encouraged communities to move away from traditional parades and to embrace the Carnival culture which is prevalent in Europe and Brazil.
Now celebrating its 21st year Beat Carnival operates from its new headquarters in Millfield which is a safe, neutral space for ideas, arts activities and the carnival community and creates an arts centre of excellence with an international profile - all their floats and spectacular headdresses are created and manufactured in NI and stored there. Ironically David's unique contribution to Carnival Arts is better understood and respected outside of Northern Ireland than it is at home!
Accepting the Fellowship, David Boyd thanked the Club for the accolade bestowed on him, stating that he was very appreciative of the recognition of his work, especially in this 21st Anniversary year. He noted that when he started in a YMCA building on the Albertbridge Road he wanted to set up an infrastructure which would not only involve communities but also keep artistic people in Belfast. He pointed out that Carnival is not a natural word or part of the culture in Belfast and therefore it works; it is not seen as belonging to 'either' side and features dancing not marching drumming. His emphasis is on promoting quality art and the involvement of community groups.
Looking forwards he noted that the future challenge was what should be the next step and had queried if a Carnival was now outdated after 21 years. However he felt that the recent flags dispute indicated there is still a need for the focus of a large scale participatory activity in the city centre with a connection with local culture – a big celebration for everyone. He queried whether Rotary might have a role with the Club engaging people involved in the Life of the City.