BUILDING BLOCKS BELFAST: THE IMPACT OF GRASSROOTS FUNDING

Building Blocks was established in 2024 by Peter Fleming, Kris Marsden and Andy Skinner, following an identified need for grassroots education and networking needs. In Northern Ireland, there are not many specifically grassroots focused organisations providing songcamps, seminars and training that offer access to professional musicians to allow natural and realistic career, skills and network growth.

The Ivors Academy Trust supported Building Blocks Belfast’s first event in 2024 with a small grant covering event costs. At such a small cost, we were thrilled to see what a huge success it was, receiving 5/5 ratings for overall satisfaction and session content, and 4/5 rating for relevance to young creators' journeys. They were subsequently approached to host a second event as part of the prestigious sound of Belfast event and were awarded funding by IMRO, which the Ivors Academy Trust match funded.

The workshops are now in their third year running and have had over 80 songwriters come through. Many professional relationships have been created and one of the songs written in the sessions has been included in a Northern Ireland Music Prize nominated album, both raising the profile of the attendees and bringing them income from their music

This shows us that small, directly targeted grassroots funding where its needed most can have a resounding impact and create communities and connections that last. We hope to bring this ethos to future approaches to grassroots funding.

“Thanks to the incredible team at the Ivors Academy Trust, we were able to host a sold-out seminar that brought early career industry advice to grassroots musicians. It was a fantastic full day of collaboration and network building for artists across Ireland. The funding from the Ivors Trust gave us the opportunity us to take our ambitions to the next level and we couldn’t have done it without them”.

-Andy Skinner, Co-founder of Building Block Belfast and Member of The Ivors Academy Senate and Disability Council.