School Shows: Thursday, 25 & Friday, 26 April, 10am and 12pm
Booking is now open for school performances and public performances of Pegasus The Clothes Horse, which runs at the National Opera House. This play is suitable for young people aged 7-10
This new play by Wexford-based Alison Ní Mháirtín, brims with wonder and play. Irish language, music and mythology combine with puppetry, opera and some very silly socks to create an epic journey from a young girl’s own house to the National Opera House.
Applications are now open for the Level 9 Certificate in Arts & Wellbeing in MTU Crawford College of Art & Design. This is the first course of its kind in Ireland. The course is designed to offer professional development that guides you through the most up to date theories in Wellbeing and Positive Psychology. You will develop your own personal wellbeing at the start of the course, finishing with a resource toolkit of tried and tested arts and wellbeing activities and workshops, developed with your peers.
Completing this course has the added bonus of being an elective on the MA in Arts & Engagement in MTU Crawford, should you wish to continue your studies. Applications for the Certificate in Arts & Wellbeing and the MA in Arts & Engagement are now open through the Crawford and MTU websites.
This course is part-time over the duration of one year.
One Academic Year (Part-time. 1 day twice a month in person, 1 evening online every 2nd week)
Mónica Muñoz Dance presents FALL and FLOAT: A Dance show for schools in venues across Ireland recommended for children from age 4+.
With playful energy, impressive acrobatics, comic timing and a joyful soundscape, two dancers create a magical world through the clever manipulation of simple balloons. Their imagination seems to know no bounds- resulting in a hypnotic, funny and uplifting performance full of falling, throwing, catching, stumbling, floating… and sometimes maybe even a little bit of flying.
The tour takes place in May across selected venues throughout the country:
15 MayBackstage Theatre, Longford 16 MayNenagh Arts Centre, Co. Tipperary 21 MayCivic Theatre, Tallaght, Dublin 24 23 MayMermaid Arts Centre, Bray, Co. Wicklow 5 JuneSource Arts, Thurles, Co. Tipperary 8 June Dunamaise Arts Centre, Portlaoise *Family shows for Cruinniú na nÓg 12 JuneDraíocht Blanchardstown, Dublin 15. 13 JuneRiverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge, Co. Kildare
Schools and Teachers interested in attending should contact their local venue and book directly through their box office. Ticket prices vary, and teachers attend FREE with their classes.
Towards the end of our playschool year 2023 we had the pleasure of welcoming Kids’ Own associate artists Maree Hensey and Naomi Draper into our playspace, as our playschool took part in the Arts in Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School Age Childcare (SAC) Pilot. Embarking on a journey of creativity and learning together, we put the child’s experience at the centre.
Placing the child at the centre of practice requires a greater investment of energy from the adult. It is usually more stressful and certainly appears more chaotic and messy than putting the adult’s needs at the centre of practice.
In our space we try always to put the experience of the child at the centre of all we do – empowering for the child, exhausting for the adult! One of the many benefits of adopting a truly child-centred approach means that by the end of the year the group is very well defined, usually extremely confident, inclusive and cohesive with members confident, and comfortable within their own role and expectations. This can be beneficial when introducing new adults into the setting, allowing for the swift development of trust and rapport.
Strong leadership is important in ensuring that staff feel supported and secure in their role when new adults are introduced, especially staff are being asked to step away from their comfort zone into unfamiliar and unknown areas: e.g. “I’m rubbish at art…..I don’t know anything about art”. Thoughtful use of supportive, inclusive, non-threatening language can enhance and promote a feeling of mutual respect and encouragement, protecting positive outcomes for all of the adults involved.
We observed how the adults in the setting, both staff and artists, developed positive, supportive links, sharing the experience and learning that emerged through reflective practice: e.g. “I’ve noticed how ______ really loves working with charcoal….We should bring that resource into the playspace more often…..I really enjoyed working with the flowers, twigs, moss that we collected on the nature lane, I never thought of using them in that way before”.
Reflective practice should be a cornerstone of practice in the Early Years and is the hallmark of a high quality service – embracing new ways of doing things, seeking out and welcoming new challenges and reflecting upon this process empowers staff and encourages creative and innovative thinking.
The adult’s experience enhances the child’s experience.
Inviting the artists into our space elevated our practice and energised our thought processes, supporting our continued professional development.
Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership Deadline 3 April 2024
Kids’ Own, the current Arts in Education Portal Mangers, is seeking an experienced individual to assist with elements of the Arts in Education Portal programme in 2024. Reporting to the Arts in Education Portal Manager, and the CEO of Kids’ Own, the Portal Assistant will assist with key events and content development for the Portal. We invite applications from suitably qualified individuals for this fixed term contract for service.
Launched in 2015, the Arts in Education Portal is the key national digital resource of arts and education practice in Ireland. The ethos for the Portal is about building a community of practice within arts and creativity in education, and providing a space – both online and offline – where artists and teachers can be supported and inspired. It provides a platform through which good collaboration practice in arts-in-education and arts education will be supported, developed and enhanced.
The specifications of the contract are set out below.
Coordination of Portal events, particularly the Spring Regional Day, in Sligo in late Spring 2024 and the National Arts in Education Portal Day which will take place in Dublin in early November 2024. Event coordination will include pre-event planning, organising guest speakers, communications with ticket holders and management of all event logistics. Coordinating third-party suppliers, freelancers, videographers and designers to ensure on-time delivery of assets.
Developing social media content to promote the content of the Arts in Education Portal website and events, ensuring the delivery of effective, cohesive, and engaging brand messaging.
Assistance with the management of the Arts in Education Portal website, including updating content.
Assisting with the development of content for the AIE Portal, which could include travelling to different education settings to document arts in education projects.
The successful applicant will have:
A strong interest in arts in education and collaborative arts practice.
Experience in event coordination.
Experience with self-directed projects.
Strong digital skills, including experience using WordPress.
Proven track record in managing social media campaigns, across platforms including Facebook, Instagram, X, and LinkedIn.
Expertise in documenting creative projects.
Ability to travel when required for meetings, events etc. Full, clean driving license and access to own transport.
Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
Excellent organisational and time-management skills.
The ability to work well as part of a small team.
Desirable:
Experience in working with non-profit or charitable organisations.
How to apply:
Applicants should send a detailed CV, along with a cover letter outlining their interest in this piece of work, with reference to relevant experience, and any other relevant details.
Fee: there is a set fee of €12,000 for the delivery of these services. There will be additional funds available for travel and other expenses to be confirmed with the successful applicant(s).
Timeline: Timelines will be agreed with successful candidate, but candidates should note dates of Regional and National Day events are in May and November.
Deadline: Wednesday 3rd April
How to apply: please send a cover letter detailing your experience, approach, and interest in the role, along with a CV to ciara@kidsown.ie
Department of Education: BLAST Initiative
Application Deadline: 10th May 2024
Applications for BLAST are now open.
Minister for Education Norma Foley, TD, has invited primary, post-primary, special schools and YouthReach to apply for the BLAST – Bringing Live Arts to Students and Teachers – arts in education initiative 2024/25.
Minister Foley is delighted to confirm that BLAST will be running in 2024 for the fourth time. The 2024 programme will enable 425 new arts in education residencies in schools over the course of the year.
BLAST aims to provide pupils in schools all over the country, time and the space to work with a professional artist/creative practitioner on imaginative and joyful projects. BLAST is a key Department of Education initiative of the Creative Youth Plan 2023-2027 which aims to foster creativity in schools focus and to provide young people with opportunities to learn and develop the key skills and competencies of collaboration, critical thinking, problem-solving, and innovation.
Innovative BLAST residencies are designed and developed between the artist/creative practitioner, teacher, students and the school community under the coordination of the 21 full-time Education Support Centres Ireland (ESCI) network.
Minister Foley said: “I am extremely proud to announce the launch of BLAST 2024, which builds on the great success of the BLAST 2021, 2022 and 2023 Programme.”
BLAST Arts & Creativity in Education Residency 2024/2025 apply online here: LINK
Siamsa Tíre Theatre & Art Gallery
Dates: 24th April 2024 10am to 11:30am
School groups can join award-winning children’s author Jane Hayes, along with other authors and illustrators for a hands-on workshop designed specifically for young children.
As part of the Whole Wide World Bus Tour, Siamsa Tíre Theatre and Art Gallery are offering free workshops for children. This first-of-its-kind ‘Whole Wild World Bus Tour’ will bring children’s writers and illustrators to schools, libraries, bookshops and cultural venues all along the west coast of Ireland this April to host workshops, readings and artist events for school groups, library groups and families.
The children will work with the writers to create a brand-new story together while the illustrator produces artwork to accompany the children’s story. These illustrations will be projected onto a screen for everyone to see in real time while the artist draws. The audience can see their story come together as they view what their new characters and the world they are creating will look like.
Irish primary schools are invited to enter the 2024 FÍS Storyboard Storytelling competition. The FÍS Storyboard Storytelling Competition is open to all primary schools in the Republic of Ireland. Only storyboards created and produced by primary school pupils and their teacher(s) will be eligible, i.e., the storyboard must be the school’s own original work.
To enter schools should create a storyboard that is a visual interpretation of a story, a concept, a topic, a poem or nursery rhyme. Suggested themes are as follows but not limited to:
Everyday heroes, e.g. ‘a day-in-the-life of someone in your community who supports others
Staycation
Local History / Folklore
As Gaeilge
Curriculum relevant topic, e.g. environmental exploration, climate change, history, science, etc.
Time capsule, e.g. school of the future, letters to grandchildren, a snapshot of time
An adaptation of a traditional story / fairytale with a modern day twist
FÍS film making in schools – what would that be like in the future?
The pupils own original story
Judging Critera Highlights:
When reviewing storyboards submitted to the competition, judges will consider the following:
Excellence in visual interpretation of a story or concept or topic
Excellence in the use of artistic media e.g. a variety of art materials, copyright free images, etc.
Imagination and creativity
Curricular relevance
Support of pupils’ literacy skills development and enhanced learning
Use of different types of shots, i.e. close-ups, mid-shots, long-shots, etc. that help to convey the story
Evidence that the Storyboards could be developed in the future by the class or group into a FÍS film or stop-motion animation project for entry into the 19th Annual FÍS Film Awards competition 2024.
Kids’ Own have published two books by children and young people from the Roma and Traveller community Cork. They are offering complimentary copies of these books, together with the accompanying teacher learning resource, to schools and educators.
Explore the lives of Roma children with The Real Us. This publication shares their voices, experiences, and ambitions, challenging stereotypes and fostering empathy.
Discover insights from Traveller children with Grow Up Strong. Through narratives and artwork, this publication celebrates their experiences, highlighting the significance of their voices.
Developed by teachers, artists, and educators, the teacher resource supports the use of these books in classrooms. With a focus on fostering creativity and meaningful discussions, it aims to cultivate cultural understanding by centring children and young people’s experiences.
Tailored for upper primary and post-primary levels (Junior Cycle), these resources provide valuable perspectives and insights for your students’ educational journey.
Education Support Centres Ireland are offering a selection of CPD courses for teachers. Highlights of courses available are as follows:
Cork Education Support Centre
Course Title: Enriching Learning Through Play – The Power of Drama Games in your Classroom
Location: Online
Date: 10 April 2024
Level: Primary
Drama can sometimes feel like a strain for teachers! Join Debbie Cullinane for an enlightening, informative webinar, where you’ll delve into the magic of drama games for all ages and the positive impact they can have in your classroom. A huge bank of games & resources will be shared, along with practical ideas to seamlessly integrate drama games into your classroom.
Read more and register here: https://www.cesc.ie/primary-courses/3022-24-5938-spr-enriching-learning-through-play.html
Wexford Education Support Centre
Course Title: Senior Cycle Poetry
Location : Online
Date: 30 April 2024
Level: Post primary
Join facilitator Deidre Carroll in this CPD Course by Wexford Education Support Centre.
Looking at Language – What is required in a Comprehension exercise? Writing style – what is it? How to write an impactful piece. The composition – what to choose, what to write.
Course Title: Let’s Play
Location : Online
Date: 30 April 2024
Level: Primary and Post primary
Join multi-disciplinary artist Kajsa Kinsella for an exciting webinar titled “Let’s Play!” In this session, learn how to transform everyday objects into simple, cost-effective toys, games, and even musical instruments. Imagine the joy on your students’ faces as they learn to create, replicate, and share these fun projects, fostering a love for learning that lasts a lifetime.
This is a great opportunity to bring hands-on, interactive learning into your classroom.
Course Title: Sensory Arts for SEN
Location : Online
Date: 07 May 2024
Level: Primary, Special Education
Join Blackrock Education on this webinar where you will learn to create captivating educational, safe and sensory arts and crafts for and with SEN classes. Speaker Kajsa Kinsella will show you how to utilise everyday items to create educational material for children of different abilities, sensitivities and preferences.
Booking is now open for Catalyst International Film Festival’s Screening The Future Student Day. The event will include a full day of film for Second Level Students plus:
INTERACTIVE FILMMAKING MASTERCLASS
With Screenwriter & Director Laura O’Shea and Editor & Educator Phil Shanahan (plus Actor)
Venue: Engine – Innovate Limerick, Cecil Street, Limerick
Time: 9am and 11am
Duration: 1.5 hours
Price: €10 per student (€15 for Masterclass + Afternoon in The Belltable)
AN AFTERNOON OF FILM IN THE BELLTABLE!
Irish Shorts Taster Programme
Vote for your favourite Short
Meet the Industry Panel and Q+A
Nextgen perspectives shorts programme and award presentation
Venue: Belltable Theatre, 69 O’Connell Street, Limerick
Time: 1.15pm – 4pm with short interval
Price: €7 per student (€15 for Masterclass + Afternoon in The Belltable)
Artists, teachers, academics and arts education professionals… Would you like to be part of the Portal Spring Regional Day? The Arts in Education Portal Team are seeking submissions for presentations for the Portal Spring Regional Day 2024 with a focus on the North-West Region. This regional event will take place on Saturday 25th May in Sligo at Sligo Education Centre.
The event aims to connect teachers, artists, arts managers and anyone with an interest in art and creativity in education based in the counties around Sligo, Mayo, Donegal, Leitrim and Roscommon.
Practitioners can learn more about the Portal and what it offers, tell us about their work, connect with the community at regional level, share practice and find out what opportunities or events are available in their local area.
We are inviting proposals from organisations or individuals who are involved in arts and creative projects in education in the North-West, and who want to give inspiring presentations or workshops that can offer sharing of skills, practical approaches, new insights and critical thinking across the field, from a range of perspectives.
Do you have a presentation or workshop that you would like to be included in the programme for the Portal Spring Regional Day? If so, please complete your proposal via our online form from the link below. If you have any questions please get in touch by email to editor@artsineducation.ie.
Application Information:
The programme includes two project presentations with up to two presenters.
Two creative workshops with one facilitator will be selected.
All Speakers and Creative workshop facilitators must be based in the North-West Region (Donegal, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon and Sligo).
Towards the end of our playschool year in 2023 we had the pleasure of welcoming Kids’ Own associate artists Maree Hensey and Naomi Draper into our playspace, as our playschool took part in the Arts in Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School Age Childcare (SAC) Pilot. Embarking on a journey of creativity and learning together, we put the child’s experience at the centre.
By placing the experience for the child at the centre it, the experience, becomes relevant and meaningful for the child – they are empowered and the process better reflects the individual need of each child. For example, a more confident and socially independent child will prioritise their learning through identifying and initiating contact with the newcomers. She will explore what they have to offer, what their contribution is going to be and how she can use this to further her own learning. She will embrace the new experience, quickly and enthusiastically seeking out learning e.g. “What’s your name?….What’s in your basket?….Can I have a go?….I need that” etc. etc.
A more reserved child, on the other hand, may prefer to spend his time in an observational role, building up learning through spectating, watching others, as they develop relationships and build trust. Once this phase is completed he is ready to take a more active role within the group once they become certain of expectation, roles and the new dynamics which are emerging.
Children experience art and the creative process differently to adults. Mostly children are creative in nature, possessing abundant curiosity and motivation to explore, experiment and create. Children do this all of the time through constructive play, arts and craft, mark making, dramatic role-play, musical play and physical play. It is, in fact, impossible to stop children from creating – it is how they learn.
The introduction of the artists directed the children’s learning and we observed how the child’s experience was enhanced through the patient, child-centred and facilitative approach adopted and employed by the artists.
UNESCO
This guide invites teachers to harness the transformative power of the arts through the research-informed Arts for Transformative Education model. This thinking tool for teachers was developed by analysing data from more than 600 teachers across 39 countries in the UNESCO Associated Schools Network (ASPnet).
The guide presents and explains the Arts for Transformative Education model – a thinking tool for understanding, planning and supporting transformative arts learning experiences. It also describes a curated collection of arts learning activities and projects from across the globe that may serve as inspiration for arts learning experiences suited to your own context.
This publication provides:
12 ‘learning experience descriptions’ illustrating how the Arts for Transformative Education model works in real-world learning.
Cork County Council’s Library and Arts Service is seeking creative facilitators and musicians to work with them over the next two years.
This is an invitation for
Musicians who are interested in performing in community settings, including schools, libraries, care homes etc. as part of the Council’s Arts Activity Programme.
Arts Facilitators working in any medium, for example visual arts, literature, or crafts, interested in delivering workshops and co-creating once off and medium-term quality arts projects with people of all ages, as part of the Council’s Arts Activity Programme.
In 2022, the Arts Office established a panel of enthusiastic, experienced, and skilled arts facilitators in various arts disciplines. Selected panellists have worked in a range of different engagement settings throughout the county including National Play Day, Cruinniú na nÓg, library workshops, and arts and health projects.
Cork County Council’s Arts Office is now updating this panel for arts facilitators, also extending the call to musicians.
JCSP Libraries are running an exciting new photography challenge. This inclusive challenge can be enjoyed by students in post-primary JCSP/DEIS schools across all year groups. The aim is to support young people to develop their artistic practice, creativity, originality and self-expression through the medium of photography.
The main idea behind this initiative is to promote visual literacy and creative thinking. To take part, students are encouraged to take a daily photo inspired by daily prompt words throughout February. Students can snap photographs of people, places or things around them. The prompt list encourages students to study the world around them and to focus on visual features including texture, pattern, colour and shape. Extra resources on jcsplibraries.com will also allow students to make connections between photography and numeracy, learn new tips and tricks, and to develop their literacy with photography keywords. The challenge is very flexible: individual students, clubs or classes can participate.
The Challenge is open to students in all post-primary JCSP/DEIS schools and that winners will be selected in 3 categories:
1. Junior
2. TY and Senior
3. Special Needs
HOW TO ENTER:
This exciting new photography competition is open to students in 2nd Level JCSP and DEIS schools across Ireland.
There will be three prizes categories: Junior Cycle, Senior Cycle, Special Needs.
Each school can submit a maximum of 5 entries per category.
All entries must be the original work of the students.
All entries must be submitted via the school and using the official entry form. Students should not submit entries directly.
Send a digital file or make a scan of all of your student entries and send them to info@jcsplibraries.ie along with a copy of the entry form detailing your school and participating students’ details.
Dates: Thursday 29th February & Fri 1st March 2024
This month Barnstorm Theatre Company is proud to produce the first Curriculum Play Live for Junior Cert students. This gives an opportunity for students to contextualise course material by experiencing a full production of a play in their Junior Cert curriculum. This play is ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ by Oscar Wilde
This is a great opportunity for students to see the characters, themes, and language of the play in action, and to have fun while learning.
School performances take place on Thursday 29th Feb and Friday 1st March at 10:30am.
School group tickets are only €12 per person (teachers go free).
As part of Solstice Arts Centre’s Learning and Participation programme a number of workshops are available to primary schools connecting with their current and upcoming visual art exhibitions. The following workshops are aimed at Junior Infants to First Class and are free, however booking is essential.
Mapping the gallery spaces together through movement and drawing, let’s explore the artworks on display by artist Mark Garry as part of his exhibition to hold or to be held. Delicately constructed by hand, Mark’s work awakens the senses, arranging objects that cross the space and form relationships to each other. Using the four interconnected themes of Aistear: well-being; identity and belonging; communicating; exploring and thinking, create with paper and pastel to make a large collaborative piece of art. This workshop will also draw on cross-curricular links to colour, shape, and construction while extending children’s learning with visual and verbal stimulation. Further information on the workshop can be found here: https://solsticeartscentre.ie/event/fold
disAPPEAR
Fri 26 Apr 2024
9:30am & 11am (60 mins)
Where do shadows go? Why do they disappear? In this playful workshop, primary level pupils will explore light and time, creating imaginary scenes that will only remain in our memory. Or will they? Can we capture shadows, hold them and revisit them again?
Inspired by the artworks in our gallery created by artist Willie Doherty as part of his exhibition Remnant, we will combine reality with the imagined. Connecting through light, drawing and story, we will embrace elements of belonging and collaboration, unfolding possibilities through creative fun and making the imagined visible. Further information on the workshop can be found here: https://solsticeartscentre.ie/event/disappear
For all queries and bookings email Deirdre: deirdre.rogers@solsticeartscentre.ie
Department of Education
Deadline: 10th May 2024
The Department of Education is pleased to announce the opening of a new round of Creative Clusters for the two years commencing September 2024. The programme is open to primary and post-primary schools, including special schools, as well as YouthReach centres.
Up to €575,000 has been made available this year for Creative Clusters and this will enable up to 210 schools to come together across 42 clusters.
Each Creative Cluster will receive grant funding of €3,000 per school over a two-year period to implement their project 2024–2026.
3 schools would receive €9,000
5 schools would receive €15,000
In addition to financial support above each cluster will also receive:
A Creative Cluster Facilitator
Teacher Substitution to attend workshops and meetings
Eligible Schools – The following schools are welcome to apply to participate in Creative Clusters:
Schools that have not yet participated in Creative Clusters.
Schools that have not yet participated in Creative Schools and those who will complete Creative Schools Year 2 in the 2023/24 school year.
Schools that will complete Creative Clusters Year 2 in the 2023/24 school year. However, they must apply as part of a cluster who have not yet participated in the initiative. In this instance, it is required that this school applies to lead a cluster of schools that are new to the initiative.
The local Education Support Centre will have a key role in identifying and supporting a Creative Cluster for their local area. 42 Creative Clusters will be selected nationally – 2 per Education Support Centre.
In announcing this new round of Creative Clusters, Minister Foley said:
“This is a wonderful opportunity for schools to work together on a creative project of their choice. Schools are given complete freedom to design and develop their own project, with support from a local facilitator and their local education centre.”
Creative Clusters is an initiative of the Department of Education, led by and in partnership with the 21 full-time Education Centres (Education Support Centres Ireland – ESCI) and funded through the Schools Excellence Fund.
Deadline extended: 6 March 2024
The Arts in Education Portal editorial team are pleased to invite applications for a documentation award. Through the award, successful applicants will receive services to the value of €5,000 that will support them in the documentation of a current or upcoming project and a €500 stipend.
The purpose of the award is to support the development of documented outcomes from Arts in Education initiatives in Ireland, which can be shared with the arts in education community and give insights into different processes of engagement. This is part of the Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee’s commitment to supporting and recognising the value of documentation and reflection as key components within arts in education initiatives.
Two awards will be offered through this opportunity.
Outcomes of the documentation process will include: a project video, a project feature to be showcased on the Portal’s Projects/Partnerships, and the option of a critical essay, with a view to also presenting the work as part of the Arts in Education Portal National Day in 2024.
The process will involve meetings with the Portal Team and a schedule of up to 2 visits over the course of the project to capture video and photographic documentation and support reflective processes among participants. These visits and meetings can be conducted virtually if required.
The portal team will edit and produce a project video and will liaise closely with the project partners to develop the content for the project feature. The critical essay would be cited in the Portal’s Reading Room and is optional. The author and focus of the essay can be decided by the project organisers in collaboration with the Portal Team.
Criteria
To be considered for this opportunity, projects must:
Have started in Autumn 2023 and continue into 2024, or take place in 2024. Please note if selected, filming of engagement sessions will take place after 19th March 2024.
Have a minimum duration of 8 weeks.
Involve a professional artist working collaboratively within an educational setting (early years, primary or post-primary).
Be underpinned by a strong ethos of collaboration and a commitment to excellence. Focus on the creative process, with children having an active and collaborative role.
Additional criteria
Successful applicants will be asked to ensure that relevant permissions/consent have been sought for the documentation of participants.
Please ensure your application has been approved by all project partners prior to submission.
Deadline for submission is 5pm, Wednesday 6 March 2024.
Note: this article was amended on 29/02/24 to revise the deadline for submission from Friday 1 to Wednesday 6 March
International Teacher-Artist Partnership (I-TAP-PD) PD
Research reports from the International Teacher-Artist Partnership (I-TAP-PD) PD project were published in June 2023. The project focus was on enabling teachers and artists to jointly develop their understanding, expertise and creativity in ‘arts in education’ work with children and young people in education, community and arts settings. It is funded under the Erasmus+ KA2 Strategic Partnership for School Education initiative.
Consisting of a 5-day pre-service training course to prepare participants for their partnered engagement and a 20 hour in-situ residency in a primary school, the programme was piloted in four countries: Ireland, Serbia, Greece and the Netherlands.
I-TAP-PD focuses specifically on the partnership between a teacher and an artist, aiming to facilitate a strong foundation of relationship and inspiration before working together in the classroom. In co-creating this methodology a research group was organised to collect data about the impact of the programme and the residencies, and to monitor the development and finetuning of the training programme. The research team consists of representatives of each country.
Four residencies took place in Ireland during 2022, data from these, confirmed findings published internationally on TAP initiatives. In this case, sufficient allocation of time for residencies, whole school buy-in and political will and support were confirmed as the main enablers of TAP practices, whereas two residencies were hindered by a lack of support by school management. Key findings for the Irish research indicated that learning fell broadly into three categories: personal development, professional development and effective collaboration. The greatest areas of learning for teachers were in the collaborative sphere while artists reported significant personal development.
The research from each partner country is available to read on the I-TAP-PD website, including a short introduction and download link to each research reports from Ireland along with Greece, Serbia and the Netherlands. Read them all and explore how the programme and residencies were experienced and analysed within the different contexts.
Mother Tongues Festival
Dates: 16th-17th Feb
Mother Tongues Festival is the largest festival celebrating linguistic diversity through the arts in Ireland. Its mission is to showcase the country’s rich artistic and cultural tapestry, and connect people through the power of language. Most of the events are designed for families with children, this year there are two exciting events which explore the intersection of multilingualism and the arts.
Creativity and Multilingualism – Panel Discussion and Workshop
Mother Tongues Festival invites the public to join an engaging exploration of Creativity and Multilingualism at the County Library, Tallaght. The event, funded by Languages Connect and organised in collaboration with Trinity College’s School of Education, will feature a panel discussion and a workshop, and will be followed by a film screening.
The afternoons activities will commence with a presentation by Dr Francesca La Morgia, continue with the participatory workshop “Living Languages: Exploring mothertongues through body and voice”, led by Miriam Stewart and finish with a discussion panel among academics Jean-Rémi Lapaire, Claire Dunne and Iseult Ní Chonchúir.
“Go Beyond Language” Workshop on Multilingual Performance
Mother Tongues Festival continues its exploration of multilingualism with the “Go Beyond Language” workshop focused on multilingual performance. The workshop will take place at Rua Red, Tallaght, from 10 am to 6 pm.
This professional development programme aims to enhance participants’ skills in drama-based methodologies that foster language development, inclusion, and well-being. Facilitated by Teatro Multilingue coaches Flavio Marigliani and Marta Iacopini, the interdisciplinary workshop is open to all socially engaged arts practitioners interested in working in multilingual contexts.
This visual art workshop for teachers is inspired by the timeless story of the wooden puppet Pinocchio celebrating the 140th anniversary of the first publication.
Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio is one of the world’s best-loved children’s books, translated into over 280 languages and dialects, and the subject of countless films and television series.
Although Pinocchio’s story has been adapted into many media the focus of The Ark’s visual art programme is on the illustrated book, from vintage copies to modern interpretations and by various artists and illustrators.
You will be introduced to and experiment with different illustrative styles and creative solutions including pop-up book-making, collage and block printing. The aim is to create your own version of the story and produce your own Pinocchio booklet.
Attending this CPD will support you if you wish to bring your class to a workshop as part of The Ark’s Pinocchio programme later in the year, but will also stand alone and provide you with lots of ideas you can use in your own classroom.
Suitable for all levels of experience including beginners.
Children’s Books Ireland are delighted to announce the 2024 Junior Juries’ scheme – part of the KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards – is now open for registration! Junior Juries is a unique programme for schools, libraries and book clubs, designed to encourage reading for pleasure and appreciation for a wide variety of books for all ages.
Participating classes make their own selection of suitable titles from the KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards shortlist, which will be announced on 7th February online and at Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast. Each group will be provided with a specially designed digital resource pack so participants can engage with the chosen books by taking part in quizzes, debates, discussions, research projects, creative writing, and visual art activities which will enhance their reading experience. At the end of this process, each group is asked to collectively score the books they have read.
Registration is completely free, all groups will receive:
A digital resource pack
Bookmarks
Poster
As part of the Junior Juries scheme registered groups can apply for the following free opportunities*:
An online or in-person author or illustrator visit to your school March – April 2024
A visit from a KPMG volunteer on 21 March 2024
Copies of the shortlisted books
A chance to be part of a short online video about the Junior Juries
Attending the in-person awards ceremony on 22 May 2024
*These opportunities are limited and based on need. Applications for books or author/illustrator/volunteer visits will be given to those groups who show most need.
Registration for the Junior Juries is ongoing. However, if you’d like to apply for an author visit or visit from a KPMG volunteer please ensure to register your class no later than 1 March 2024.
The Arts Council of Ireland
Dates: 1st-29th Feb
The Arts Council is inviting all schools across Ireland to get involved in their first ever Creative February, a celebration of art and creativity in schools with a focus on fun, festivities, imagination and innovation. This initiative will run from the 1st to the 29th of February.
Creative February will recognise and affirm that our schools are truly creative places, filled with very creative people. From primary to secondary to alternative settings, all children and young people will be encouraged to MAKE, SEE, DO.
Make any style of art you choose – paint, draw, dance, knit, design, sculpt, code;
See art – visit a museum or gallery, attend a theatre or spoken word performances, dance shows, music gigs, or see architecture and local art in your town or city!
Do a creative project – as a team, as a class or as a school.
To help inspire, guide and motivate everyone taking part, the Arts Council will host a series of online workshops in collaboration with Monaghan Education Centre and Wexford Education Support Centre. These workshops will be divided: half will be catering for school staff and teachers, with the remainder dedicated to students.
The underlying theme for Creative February is Spring. Creation from new growth, the seeds of inspiration, this theme hopes to encourage students and school communities to reflect on where creativity begins in our lives, in every class, in every school and how it can grow and flourish.
Ongoing updates and details of webinars will appear across the Arts Council’s social media platforms and Creative February website.
Run by the Creative Schools team within the Arts Council, Creative February is open to every school in the country, and all are warmly invited to take part. A welcome pack, with posters and details has been distributed to each school across the country.
National Museum of Ireland
Dates: various
The National Museum of Ireland is delighted to launch its latest programme of guided tours, workshops and resources for primary schools for the spring term. Available from January 2024, all activities are offered free of charge and encompass all four Museum sites in Dublin and Co. Mayo.
Each site focuses on a different part of the National Collections with a school programme to reflect the collection on display at each location offering a diverse range of activities to complement the primary curriculum.
Highlights from each location:
GUIDED TOUR: A Taste of the Past – The History of Food and Drink – Collins Barracks, Dublin 7 – 3rd-6th Class
This interactive tour will give students a flavour of the wealth of artifacts on display in the Museum. They show the continuity and change of food preparation over time.
GUIDED TOUR: The Vikings in Ireland – Kildare Street – 3rd-6th Class
The Vikings in Ireland guided tour explores the three main activities of the Vikings – raiding, trading and settling – using the Museum’s unique collection of artifacts.</p
WORKSHOP: Engineers Week: Make a Town – Turlough Park, Castlebar, Co. Mayo – 5th & 6th Class
In this virtual session construct buildings, make roads and paths, cut, colour and create each building and put them into your town layout! Participants may like to decorate with Matchbox cars or figurines and can work from their classroom to expand, make further buildings and perhaps even a whole city with Makermeet!
GUIDED TOUR: Get Stuffed! – Merrion Street, Dublin 2 – Junior Infants-2nd Class
This session is new and specifically designed for junior primary audiences. Make some new friends as we visit the furry deer, feathery puffins, and scaly turtles on a guided tour led by a Museum Educator.
View the full schools programme for the National Museum of Ireland at:
The Arts Council has warmly welcomed the publication of a landmark report which shows the impact, reach and influence of the Creative Schools Programme. Creative Schools is led by the Arts Council in partnership with the Department of Education, the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and Creative Ireland.
The report by Dr Regina Murphy and Dr Eemer Eivers (Dublin City University) presents an evaluation of the first four years (2018-2022) of the initiative and provides information on the experiences of children and young people, teachers, educators, arts practitioners and artists. To date 971 schools, nearly a quarter of all schools in the country [~24%], have participated in the programme.
Participants in schools and centres, including children, students, teachers, principals, Creative Schools Coordinators and their supporting Creative Associates have been overwhelmingly positive in their overall attitudes towards the programme and in their reports of experience. 99% of participating schools said they would recommend the programme to other schools.
Schools from every county in Ireland have participated in the programme and all school types including 27 Youthreach Centres, have been well represented. The Creative Schools programme has successfully prioritised participation by DEIS Schools, small rural schools, Special Schools, Irish Language medium schools and Youthreach centres in response to interim findings from this report.
In many instances, changes to how students perceive their place in the school as well as improvements to the physical face of the school (e.g. an art installation or a student co-designed garden), can be directly attributed to the programme. The report also highlights that the Creative Schools initiative has been successful in promoting and infusing creativity in schools and drawing attention to the increasing importance of creativity in education.
Creative Schools has opened up a very broad range of experiences for students and pupils and each participating school has had a unique journey. The wide variety of activities undertaken by schools during their engagement in Creative Schools have included circus, architecture, heritage, music, comedy, literature, coding, traditional arts, science, horticulture, film, design, craft, drama, visual arts and dance.
The researchers Dr. Murphy and Dr. Eivers conclude:
“The overall Creative Schools initiative has transformed a very broad range of Irish schools in the Irish educational landscape more than any other initiative heretofore in placing learners in every county at the heart of the process, valuing and validating their perspectives and experiences, collaborating meaningfully with them while shifting the focus of arts education in particular from child-centred to child-led participatory practice.”
Maureen Kennelly, Arts Council Director said of the report:
“…By placing young people at the heart of decision making, we have been able to support schools to fully embrace the creative possibilities within their community and their locality…”
Catherine Martin TD, Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media said:
“Creative Schools, a key programme under the Creative Youth Plan, has gone from strength to strength since 2018, particularly in its reach to schools and those under the DEIS programme, in alternative settings and special schools. This report highlights positive impacts that Creative Schools has had on students and their school communities…”
Minister for Education, Norma Foley TD added:
“I welcome DCU’s Creative Schools report which highlights the success of the programme in putting the arts and creativity at the centre of education. It has given students the opportunity to develop creative projects on their own school grounds, to take part in workshops and performances and to visit galleries, theatres, heritage sites, cinemas, museums, libraries and local arts centres…”
Two Sixth Year students from Mungret Community College, Limerick who participated in the Creative Schools programme also gave their views about their experience.
Aaroh Jain: “I think Creative Schools had a profound impact on me, because it was a chance to exercise autonomy in our school, a platform to see if we could bring our own ideas to life.”
Eve Adedirann: “Creative Schools is a great way to explore interests you may have thought you never had.”
Fresh International Film Festival is accepting entries for Ireland’s Young Filmmaker of the Year 2024. Open to all young budding filmmakers and school groups, between 7 – 18 years of age, encouraging young people from Ireland and overseas to create, exhibit, and share films. Submissions are welcome across comedy, horror, drama, documentary, experimental, music video, animation.
The 28th annual Fresh International Film Festival will take place in April, showcasing hundreds of short films from Ireland’s future screen talent. A highlight of the festival is Ireland’s Young Filmmaker of the Year, an awards programme which acknowledges and celebrates the highest standards of youth filmmaking across three categories: Junior (7-12 years), Senior (13-18 years) and International (7-18 years). The awards include a prize fund, filmmaking equipment, mentoring sessions with creative professionals, and the opportunity for young people to have their work screened theatrically.
Dublin student Max Hendrickson (17) was named Ireland’s Young Filmmaker of the Year 2023 at the Fresh International Film Festival. His short animated film, The Tell-Tale Heart is a re-telling of Edgar Allan Poe’s famous short story and it scooped the top prize for the amazing young Director.
“I have been submitting to the Fresh International Film Festival since I was 12, and it has consistently provided the inspiration and motivation for me to keep making movies. It has been absolutely amazing to attend every year and meet other young filmmakers, and I urge all aspiring filmmakers to submit their work to Fresh”. – Max Hendrickson, Dublin; Ireland’s Young Filmmaker of the Year 2023.
Are you a school group who produced an original film work since January 2023? Closing date for entries is Friday, 1 February, 2024 and are welcomed in English (or English subtitles) and Irish.
This article was edited to amend the deadline date which was extended from 19 Jan to 1 Feb
The beginning of the year often signals the start of the funding cycle for artists and arts organisations, we have collated a number of upcoming webinars and sessions along with a selection grants of interest for artists working in the arts and creativity in education sector as well as school/education leaders.
Funding Opportunities from The Arts Council
The Arts Council is the national agency for funding, developing and promoting the arts in Ireland. They recently released the current schedule for funding opportunities for 2024. The full listing can be found here: https://www.artscouncil.ie/funding-opportunities-schedule/
For interest to school/education leaders and artists in the arts and creativity in education practice are a selection of relevant funding streams:
Creative Schools Initiative – opens 27th Feb, deadline 2nd May (open to Department of Education-recognised primary and post-primary schools and Youthreach centres)
Young People, Children and Education Residencies – opens 5th Mar, deadline 4th Apr (open to higher-education institutions that provide initial teacher education in partnership with an artist / arts organisation)
Date: Thursday 25th January 2024
VAI are hosting a webinar ‘An Artist’s Guide to Accessing Funding’ on Thursday 25th January at 11am via zoom with curator and critic Marianne O’Kane Boal. This event is supported by Clare, Limerick and Tipperary County Council Arts Offices.
The online session will consist of one 45 minute presentation that will take a closer look at all things ‘Funding and applications’ covering grants, bursaries, residencies, per cent for art commissions and project proposals. It is free to artists based in Counties Clare, Limerick and Tipperary and general admission is €10.
The Arts Council is also hosting a series of ‘Meet the Arts Council’ sessions in arts venues around the country in January/February.
These sessions are an opportunity to speak with Arts Council staff about funding opportunities and hear about what the Arts Council does.
Update: bookings have now closed for all events, but you are welcome to join the waiting list using the links below and the Arts Council will contact you if further places arise.
We are all starting to wind down for Christmas so it’s a good time to start thinking about any future TAP+ or Blast projects that may be on the horizon in the New Year. Maybe reach out to any partners that you may be working with in January or February, have a coffee or arrange a Zoom meeting for an initial meet and greet. It’ll just be great to have touched base before signing off this term.
How do you do your actual planning? Do you record on an app? Do you take notes old school in a diary? I do a combo of both. I use the Goodnotes app on my iPad and a bullet journal. For the bullet journal, I like to use a Leuchtturm 1917 notebook. I divide every double spread into a week and keep a double spread spare for listing monthly activities. I love how it’s flexible, I can draw or use pages at the back for longer notes. For detailed notes, I use my Goodnotes app. I highly recommend it if you have an iPad. You can hand write notes or type, record audio from lectures and you can insert images. When I’m working in a school, I would take photos then insert them into the notes to remind me of what happened that day. I use the 2 systems to keep me on track.
Maybe ask Santy for some new notebooks? Or an iPad if he’s very generous!
I recently worked in a secondary school, Colaiste Mhuire in Ballymote on a BLAST Residency. Both Oona McGrath and I spent a lot of time planning to maximise my time with the students and it really paid off. We decided to do a two day intensive session with the students. We had a coffee in August and then had a studio visit. Oona discussed what she wanted to get out of the residency, she really thought about what her students needed so that was brilliant. Once we figured out what we were going to do, we were able to make a detailed materials list. I recorded this in my bullet journal and then screen shot it into my Goodnotes app to have a permanent record of it. Everything from what print paper to how we were going to protect the tables in the art room. It was very specific and it really worked. We checked in with each other coming closer to November and then it was smooth sailing when I turned up into the class as everything was perfect. I had visited the room beforehand and we had planned how the room needed to be rearranged before we started. It just made everything so much easier to work on the day, everything was in place and the focus was on the students as it should be.
Have a peaceful, restful time on your break and a Happy New Year.
An Cumann Scoildrámaíochta
Dates: February – March 2024
An Cumann Scoildrámaíochta, which is under the patronage of the Department of Gaeltacht and Rural Affairs, organises schools drama festivals on a countrywide basis to promote Irish medium drama in schools at both primary and post-primary level.
The festivals are organised on a local, provincial and national basis. These festivals give young people from every part of the country the opportunity to be directly involved in all aspects of drama production. As well as being a hugely enjoyable experience, participation also helps to build self-confidence, self-esteem and an overall fluency in the Irish language. Part of the fun is the competition element with the standard rising year after year.
The programme begins with the local festivals which are usually held in February and early March each year, provincial festivals follow in March and the national festival is held in April.
There are separate competitions and divisions based on school level, the size of school, age groups, operas/musicals and for primary schools that are not Irish-medium or Gaeltacht schools.
A repository of scripts translated into Irish are available in pdf format to download from An Cumann Scoildrámaíochta website.
If you are a drama producer involved with primary or post-primary students or if you are a teacher who would like to try producing a play for the first time ever, this is your chance to take part.
If you are interested in taking part, contact the representative listed for the festival nearest you or send an e-mail to eolas@scoildramaiocht.ie.
The Arts Council recently announced that offers have been made to 141 schools and centres across Ireland who applied to be part of the Creative Schools initiative.
The Creative Schools initiative gives opportunities for children and young people to build their artistic and creative skills. Each of the 141 schools taking part will receive a grant and work with a professional Creative Associate who will support them to develop and implement their own bespoke Creative School Plan over a two-year period.
The 141 new Creative Schools comprise 97 primary schools, 25 post-primary schools, 4 special schools and 10 Youthreach centres. Joining the programme this year are five schools in Alternative Settings who cater for young people with severe emotional and behavioural challenges. St Paul’s YEP, Dublin; St Laurence O’Toole’s Special School, Dublin; Henrietta Street School, Dublin; St Kevin’s School, Cork; and St Augustine’s Special School, Limerick will join the programme and receive enhanced supports.
Catherine Martin TD, Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media said:
“I am thrilled to see the continued success of the Creative Schools initiative and warmly welcome the 141 new schools and centres. Since 2018, Creative Schools has been a testament to the pivotal role creativity plays for children and young people across Ireland; in their education and for their school communities. I hope that the Creative School initiative continues to flourish and empower our young people as these new schools and centres embark on the programme.”
Norma Foley TD, Minister for Education said:
“I am pleased to see that 141 new schools and centres are now joining the Creative Schools Programme. Creative Schools puts the arts and creativity at the heart of children’s and young people’s lives. Over 970 schools and Youthreach centres have been invited to participate since it was set up in 2018. We are increasingly embedding the arts into the education system, which includes the development of a new subject – Drama, Film and Theatre Studies – which will commence in schools in 2025.”
Maureen Kennelly, Director of the Arts Council, said:
“We extend a warm welcome to the 141 new schools joining Creative Schools. The demand nationwide is a testament to the programme’s impact, and we’re excited even more schools in Ireland are now part of this creative journey. Collaborating with our partners in the Department of Education, the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport, and Media, as well as Creative Ireland, we anticipate another school year filled with creativity, consultation, and exploration.”
Participation empowers children and young people to develop, implement and evaluate arts and creative activity throughout their schools and centres. Creativity stimulates additional ways of working and has a positive impact on children and young people’s learning, development and well-being.
National Council for Special Education
Deadline: Friday 12th January 2024, 5pm
The European Federation of Associations of Teachers of the Deaf (FEAPDA), National Council for Special Education (NCSE) and British Association of Teachers of Deaf Children and Young People (BATOD), with support from BATOD Northern Ireland, invite all interested parties (teachers, professionals, lecturers, researchers, developers and manufacturers of technical devices, service providers, service users, policy makers, students etc) to present their work at the 27th FEAPDA Congress.
Deaf children and young people form a diverse group with varying experiences of hearing loss but who are also affected by other aspects of their lives. Additional medical and/or educational needs, cultural and social backgrounds and every individual’s own life experience will influence their experience of deafness.
This year’s congress will explore the diversity of deaf learners in their many lives: implications for our knowledge and practice.
Papers and presentations may consider issues such as:
Meeting the needs of children who are deaf with additional needs;
Meeting the needs of children whose deafness is not their primary need;
The experience of deaf children from minority communities;
How deaf individuals experience and define their own identities
Abstracts for paper presentations (30 min), workshops/interactive presentations (60 min) and poster presentations are welcomed.
The Emma O’Kane Bursary is an award for independent artists who want to think beyond the boundaries of their art form and practice and to explore dance or a physical language in their work. It honours the exceptional ethos and artistic practice of artist Emma O’Kane who died in 2021.
The Emma O’Kane Bursary is open to artists working in any artform and at any stage in their career. Whatever your background, lived experience or artistic practice, if you have the curiosity to explore and integrate dance, movement or other forms of physical language in your work, the courage to push art form boundaries and to challenge norms and the ambition to be the best that you can be as an artist, we would love to hear from you.
Over the course of the year, successful bursary recipients will receive a six-week residency at the Atrium at 42 Fairview Strand, Dublin along with a stipend for the duration of the residency and a research and materials budget. There will also be opportunities to avail of bespoke mentorships sessions and to attend professional morning dance classes.
The Emma O’Kane Bursary was created by Anu Productions, CoisCéim Dance Theatre, Crash Ensemble, Dublin Dance Festival, Fishamble: The New Play Company, Pavilion Theatre, Project Arts Centre The Ark, Dublin and a number of independent professionals. It was set up with a Collaborative Capacity Building Award from the The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon in 2021 and is funded entirely by donation.
Léargas
Date: 18th January
Do you have ideas for an Erasmus+ project, but not sure where to start? Wondering how to promote inclusion in your Erasmus+ project?
Don’t miss this information session on 18th January for those working in primary and post-primary schools in Ireland and who are interested in learning about funding opportunities under Erasmus+. The event will be led by Inclusion and Impact Officer, Vasiliki Psarra, and will be a good opportunity to connect with other schools, share experiences and challenges and learn about additional supports.
This session will focus on the range of opportunities for pupils and staff in school education and the inclusions supports available. This session will cover pupil mobility, staff mobility, and how to apply. There will be time to answer any questions you may have.
After four long years without it, Waltons New School of Music and RTÉ lyric fm have announced the launch of the 2024 Waltons RTÉ lyric fm Music for Schools Competition!
Founded in 2012, the Music for Schools Competition is a non-profit national event celebrating and supporting music in Irish schools.
The Competition is open to all primary and post-primary schools in the Republic of Ireland, and hundreds of schools from all 26 counties have participated in previous years. Music groups of up to 40 members formed by schools will work together to produce a piece or song in response to this year’s Competition theme, Music Moves.
Groups can be made up of any combination of instrumentalists and singers that schools choose, and all music genres are welcome. (Past entries have included classical, Irish traditional, jazz, pop, rock, rap and folk). Schools are also encouraged to promote diversity and inclusiveness in their groups.
Twelve Finalist groups (six primary and six post-primary) will be selected to perform before their peers and a distinguished panel of adjudicators in the National Concert Hall on 8 April 2024. And at the end of the concert, the adjudicators will announce this year’s six winning groups (three primary and three post-primary), which will win awards totalling €7,000 worth of vouchers for musical instruments and equipment from Waltons Music to expand and enhance their schools’ music programmes. The entire concert will be streamed live by RTÉ lyric fm and can be watched from anywhere in Ireland or around the world.
The Music for Schools Competition offers schools the opportunity to think and work creatively with any combination of students, developing a creative and original musical project that has learning potential at every stage of the process.
Important Dates
Friday, 23 February 2024, 5 pm • Entry Deadline
Friday, 1 March • Announcement of Finalists on RTÉ lyric fm
Monday, 8 April • Finalists Concert, National Concert Hall
The diversity of the educational landscape is increasing; however, learners from disadvantaged backgrounds and those who experience discrimination or unequal treatment disproportionately underachieve in schools. Equality, equity and inclusion are fundamental principles of the European Union. They have also become key topics of the educational science discourse and a policy priority across Europe.
Promoting diversity and inclusion in schools in Europe report investigates existing national/top-level policies and measures that promote diversity and inclusion in school education in 39 European education systems including Ireland.
It focuses especially on learners who are most likely to experience disadvantage and/or discrimination in schools, including students from different migrant, ethnic and religious backgrounds, LGBTIQ+ students, girls/boys and students with special educational needs or disabilities. The report highlights existing targeted policy initiatives promoting the learners’ access to quality, inclusive, mainstream education.
It provides a comparative overview of policies and measures across 39 European education systems and presents many country examples, which showcase some of the most recent initiatives taken across Europe.
Eurydice is a network whose task is to explain how education systems are organised in Europe and how they work. They publish descriptions of national education systems, comparative studies devoted to specific topics, indicators and statistics in the field of education.
In Ireland, Léargas manage international and national exchange programmes in education, youth and community work, and vocational education and training. To find out more about iniatives and programme offered through Léargas, visit their School Education page here for more information: https://www.leargas.ie/explore-school-education-opportunities/
The Arts in Education Portal
“Do you know what I like about art..? Is – it’s messy You can do some things and it doesn’t turn out the way you think It turns out better than you thought it would be”
– a participant on the Follow Your Nose project, presented by artist Julie Forrester
On November 11th the eighth annual National Arts in Education Portal Day took place at at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick in partnership with the Department of Arts Education & Physical Education. The national portal day has grown in significance as one of the key events in the arts and education calendar in Ireland, and this year through a very a inspiring set of presentations and workshops addressed the special focus of ‘Seldom Heard Voices’ reflecting diversity and inclusion across school communities..
With over 70 artists, teachers and arts in education professionals in attendance, this year’s conference was jointly opened by Helen O’Donoghue from the Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee and Dr Gwen Moore of Mary Immaculate College. The day unfolded from there featuring a mix of lectures and workshops throughout the day providing insights into the breadth of practice across the sector. The keynote address was delivered by Dr Jill Goodwin, in a highly engaging talk entitled “Can you hear me? Creating space for listening – an artistic enquiry” delegates gained inspirational insights from Dr Goodwin’s practice working with children labelled as having profound and multiple learning disabilities, demystified many aspects of working in this space.
A set of resources that were referred to her in her presentation can be found at the end of this article.
The beautiful surrounds of Mary Immaculate College provided the space for a day filled with conversation, networking and connections. Thanks to all involved in making the day a huge success!
Cork County Council has announced details of its 2024 funding opportunities for the county’s arts sector. Cork County Council’s Library and Arts Service is inviting proposals for funding for arts projects, activities and events taking place in the Cork County administrative area in 2024 that may be eligible for funding under a range of grant assistance schemes available.
Schemes announced include the Arts Grants Scheme which will support arts organisations and the voluntary sector, a scheme to support artists to work in schools, support for developing arts projects through the Irish Language, and a set of bursary and residency opportunities for professional artists of all disciplines.
Announcing details of the funding, Mayor of the County of Cork, Cllr. Frank O’Flynn, said, “Cork County Council is proud to support the arts community on an annual basis through our grants scheme. The Arts are integral to our communities, our schools, and our citizens. As well as supporting artists and arts organisations, we support festivals, performances, exhibitions, and other publicly accessible cultural programmes throughout County Cork. I look forward to seeing the joy and creativity that will emerge from the many projects who are set to benefit next year.”
Cork County Council supports artists, schools, and arts and community organisations in the Cork County administrative area annually through the following grant assistance schemes:
ARTS GRANT SCHEME
The Cork County Council Arts Grant Scheme provides financial or other assistance to individuals and organisations engaged in the presentation and promotion of arts activities or events in Cork County.
The Arts Grant Scheme is open to new or established arts groups, artists, festivals or other groups wishing to undertake creative artistic activity in any artform in the Cork County Council administrative area.
ARTISTS IN SCHOOLS SCHEME
The Artists in Schools Scheme enables primary and post-primary students and teaching staff to work collaboratively with an artist working in any artform on a creative project.
All Department of Education and Skills-recognised primary and post-primary schools and Youthreach centres in Cork County are eligible to apply.
To remove barriers for participation, this year for the first time, Cork County Council will also accept video/audio applications through the online portal. The Arts Office will provide assistance to applicants where extra accessibility support may be required.
I realise that the work I’ve done so far with Arts in Education has not touched on the curriculum. So far in my experience, teachers are using the projects as some time out for students to relieve anxiety post Covid both in primary and secondary schools. I suppose this is reflective of what we are, what we all need as a society post-Covid.
Working on the TAP+ project with Our Lady of Mercy Primary School in Sligo with Niamh Middleton is such an example. Niamh had identified 11 students from first class up to sixth class who were struggling for one reason or another. There were children suffering from high levels of anxiety, trauma, poverty and we wanted to give these children something special, some time out and they were just so thrilled to have been chosen.
There were different needs and abilities in the group, and the children didn’t know each other at the start as it’s such a large school. We decided on a rough plan of doing taster sessions every week but we were letting them lead on what they liked doing best. Firstly we did tetra pak printmaking and it turns out their favourite bit was rolling the ink. If I had left the glass pallet there for two weeks and the children could’ve kept rolling the ink they would’ve been so happy! I love that you CANNOT predict what the children will gravitate towards. They were not that bothered about the actual printing and we didn’t push them, it was all about what was making them happy in the moment. They just loved mixing the colours and it was the lovely sticky sound it makes which I can appreciate!
One of the weeks we decided we would try pom pom making and the children absolutely LOVED it. They were helping each other out, making multi-coloured ones and giant ones. Niamh thought it would be great to spread the pom pom love throughout the school. I had talked about guerilla crocheting and how I had yarn bombed a tree in Sligo with 400 pom-poms and they were very interested in this. We picked a tree in the schoolyard that was looking a bit sad so we could decorate it with pom poms. We decided it would be great for the students to go back into their respective classrooms with me and share with their classmates what they had learnt and how to make pom-poms so that every child in the school could then contribute to this pom-pom tree.
In my own practice post-Covid, I have returned to textiles as a self-care tool and I make my own clothes, knit, crochet, and quilt. It’s so useful when I’m trying to work out a painting, I take a break, do a seam or knit a row. You are still thinking about the work but there’s something about having textiles in your hand that eases and clarifies things. It is a mindful activity, you can’t be scrolling or thinking about 1 million other things. So I can see why the children responded to it, the tactile quality, the bright colours. What’s not to like?
Solstice Arts Centre
School Gallery Tours using VTS
DATE : Tuesdays – Fridays, various times available during exhibitions.
Broaden creative thinking through oral and visual literacy by exploring works in the Solstice Art’s Centre gallery spaces.
Using Visual Thinking Strategies, this is an opportunity for students to investigate, analyse and reflect on multiple perspectives, and assist in the development of imaginative and innovative ideas. Using cross-curricular links and learning through art, these sessions support the Junior and Senior Cycle, placing students at the centre of the learning process. Upon visiting Solstice, Senior Cycle students will receive specific information that embraces the three strands – Research, Create and Respond (visual and written responses), with particular focus on Content Area 3: Today’s World of the New Appreciating Art
Encouraging peer-to-peer discussion, this is an opportunity for children and teachers to focus and reflect on multiple perspectives, enhancing engagement and enjoyment of learning through art. To conclude, learn about the artist and her work, inspiring you to create artworks back in the classroom.
Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) is an inquiry-based method of visual processing – looking, describing and discussing what we see in a work of art. It is about listening to others, responding and expanding thoughts and new possibilities revealed within group engagement. VTS improves oral and visual literacy, problem-solving and collaborative interactions among peers. Suitable for all ages, VTS tours are best with groups of 5 or more.
Date: Thursday 16th November 2023 Times: 10am & 11.30am
National Museum of Ireland invite schools to join a highlights tour of the ground floor Irish Room to learn about the museum and its displays of animals and fossils. Includes a close up inspection of some of the educational handling collections in the Wonder Cabinet e.g. real and replica furs, fossils and skulls. Join this special tour in Irish for Science Week! Discover the unique stories behind a selection of 3,000 animals and fossils on display. Students will see up-close zoological and geological examples of the natural world that have been on display since we opened our doors over 166 years ago.
Includes curriculum linked themes such as biodiversity, ecology, endangerment and extinction.
On completion of this live session students should be able to:
Identify wildlife and biodiversity of Ireland
Describe animal adaptations and their habitats
Explain local and global environmental issues, such as threats to species and habitats
Define conservation and outline actions that help protect biodiversity
Summarise the role of a science museum and how collections are preserved for display and scientific research
On the tour learn about:
How the giant Irish deer became extinct 10,500 years ago in Ireland
A seven metre long basking shark that was caught off the west coast of Ireland over 150 years ago
The ecology of different Irish sea birds and the threats the face
The Wonder Cabinet and see up close the different predators and prey on display, including the fossil jawbone of an Irish hyena!
Level: 3rd Class – 6th Class Duration: 45 mins Capacity: One class per session
Before your visit
Prepare the class for the tour. Give pupils an idea of what to expect to see or have a discussion about the Museum in advance of the visit.
Why not take a 3D virtual tour of the NMI – Natural History in the classroom with your students
Places are limited. To enquire about booking a facilitated visit for your class please complete this enquiry form.
After your visit
After the session, Teachers will be sent via email a number of fun follow-up learning activities in Irish for pupils to explore in the classroom.
Please note: The teacher will remain with the class throughout the duration of the tour.
Kerry County Museum
Date: Saturday November 11th until January 5th 2024.
Kerry Local Creative Youth Partnership (LCYP) at Kerry ETB has announced a unique exhibition opening at Kerry County Museum on Saturday 11th November at 2pm. Mixing Moments highlights the work through a project of the same name, which brought together one hundred and twelve younger and older Ukrainian, Irish, African-Irish, French, Indian-Irish and English families. Through a series of workshops and events, music, art and sound offered a structure for participants to meet, express pain, joy, and beauty in imaginative ways using art, drums and sound recordings. It was a chance for many communities of people to come together using creativity as the common ground, where mixing, meeting new people, making new friends was the order of the day.
Mixing Moments is an art and audio visual experience detailing a creative journey in 2023 that allowed friendships to form and integration to happen. Developed in collaboration with Áiseanna na hÓige Dingle, Killorglin FRC, Maine Valley FRC, Tralee International Resource Centre and South Kerry Development Partnership with support from Kerry County Museum. Mixing Moments brought together 112 remarkable individuals from diverse backgrounds, including younger and older members of Ukrainian, Irish, African-Irish, French, Indian-Irish, and English families together, fostering care and support of one another and serving as a reminder that it’s often the small things in life that provide us with meaning and comfort.
Mixing Moments was facilitated by a creative team of artists and arts professionals, including Martin Scharer and Teresa Galvin, musicians, David Fortune, visual artist and audio video expert Niall Foley. Funding was provided by Creative Ireland and the Department of Education, as well as through the International Protection Integration Fund at the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration, and Youth (DCEDIY).
OIDE Creativity have released various dates for their creative and engaging workshops for teachers this autumn and winter.
The courses include:
Unlocking Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice
Oide Creativity in collaboration with voice specialist Andrea Ainsworth, presents a one-day elective workshop, open to post-primary teachers from all subject disciplines.
This workshop offers participants an opportunity to:
focus on a prescribed Shakespeare play (junior cycle English)
experience practical, creative ways to lift Shakespeare’s language off the page and into action
reflect on how the workshop may support professional classroom practice and approaches to Classroom-Based Assessments (CBAs).
Get your World Turning With woodturner Willie Creighton
Oide Creativity and Oide Technology Subjects, in collaboration with woodturner Willie Creighton, present a one-day elective workshop, open to post-primary teachers from all subject disciplines.
This practical workshop offers participants an opportunity to:
experience exciting ways to create wood turned artefacts
discover the natural properties and aesthetics of wood through the craft
develop practical and creative approaches that may be used in classroom practice.
Page Turners
Oide Creativity, in collaboration with spoken word poet Erin Fornoff, author Sam Blake/Vanessa Fox O’ Loughlin and author Dave Rudden, presents a one-day series of workshops and a panel discussion, open to teachers from all subject disciplines.
These three writing workshops offer participants an opportunity to:
collaborate, share ideas, learn and reflect in a safe, supportive environment
learn practical, creative teaching methods
discuss writing tips, writing groups, and author visits.
Spaces are limited for each workshop. A waiting list will apply.
Minister for Education Norma Foley recently announced the latest updates to BLAST (Bringing Live Art to Students and Teachers) and Creative Clusters as part of the Creative Youth Plan 2023 – 2027. 425 schools have been selected to take part in the BLAST 2023 initiative and 40 new Creative Clusters were created.
The aim of the BLAST scheme is to give students in schools all over the country the opportunity to work with a professional artist on unique projects to be planned and developed between the artist, the teacher and the school under the co-ordination of the Education Support Centres Ireland ESCI network of 21 full-time education centres.
Announcing the creation of 425 new BLAST Arts in Education Residencies, Minister Foley said:
“The initiative will provide additional opportunities for schools to collaborate with established artists and creatives, supporting our children and young people to collaborate and engage in creative and critical thinking – all crucial skills for their futures… Each residency is worth €1,100 which is fully funded by the Department of Education and the local Education Centre will pay the Artist for a 20-hour residency which will be delivered throughout the academic year, commencing from September 2023. I look forward to seeing how these exciting artist in residency opportunities in schools develop over the coming year.”
With the creation of 40 new Creative Clusters, Minister Foley said:
“Now more than ever, it is important that our students are supported to develop their creativity and given flexibility to express themselves in a variety of exciting new ways. Today I am proud to announce the 140 schools that are coming together to form 40 new Creative Clusters. I look forward to seeing how these exciting projects develop over the coming two years. This year has once again seen a very significant level of interest from schools applying to participate in the 2023 Creative Clusters initiative across the country.
Each Creative Cluster will receive grant funding of €3,000 per school over a two-year period to implement their project in the 2023–2025 school years (e.g. a cluster of 3 schools would receive €9,000 over two years while a cluster of 5 schools would receive €15,000 over two years). Clusters will receive 50% of the total grant funding in Year 1, with the second 50% being provided in Year 2. In addition, but separate to the grant funding, all successful clusters are further supported with: A fully paid Creative Cluster Facilitator; paid Teacher Substitution to attend training and meetings; room hire, travel & subsistence.
This year, I was hired to do a project with Youthreach and MSLETB in Sewing and Sustainability in Sligo, Carrick on Shannon and Mohill. It was also designed as a few hours in the week to help ease anxiety in students post Covid. The students were studying catering, hairdressing, computers or LCA in the various centres.
We started off the six week project with the basics of the sewing machine, learning how to thread a machine and how to fix it if it stops working. We went on to cut out a basic pattern for a gender neutral top in curtain lining or fabric the students had at home. The students worked in groups of two and threes at a machine so everyone got a go. Some struggled with going from a 2 dimensional flat piece to a 3 dimensional garment but eventually got it when they saw the finished article. I love sharing my passion for me made clothes and by making your own clothes, you can make garments to fit every body shape.
I found a few challenges as the artist working in this context. There are new students starting not every week, but frequently and absenteeism is common so it became normal to have students at different levels at the project, which is tricky when you are trying to build on skills every week and to keep having to start again at the beginning.
I sometimes forget that a lot of young people are not used to working with their hands and it can take a while for students to get that hand eye coordination going. Basic instruction like threading a needle can be very frustrating for students in the beginning but when they persevere with it, they find it really rewarding and I know from the tutors when they walked into the room they couldn’t believe how quiet the class was, the students were completely engrossed in the task, it’s an extremely mindful pastime.
Riverbank Arts Centre
Secondary Schools – Monday 6th November, Monday 4th December 2023 at 10.30am
Primary Schools – 27th November, 11th December 2023 at 10.30am
Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge is the Kildare Partner of Fighting Words. They are hosting creative writing workshops for primary and secondary schools. Fighting Words workshops are always free of charge to the participating schools.
Their volunteer mentors work with the young writers to identify key elements of a story and help them write the first half of their story together as a group. The students work together to choose their characters and plot the group story sentence by sentence, editing as they go. In the second half of the workshop, students can opt to continue the group story or write a new story of their own.
These workshops will be conducted in Riverbank Arts Centre by an experienced Fighting Words Kildare coordinator, Pierina Campbell, and supported by 2-3 writing mentors from Riverbank’s Fighting Words team. The workshop will last 2 hours and they require that the teacher is present throughout.
Please contact Theresa 045 448327, or email boxoffice@riverbank.ie to book your workshop.
Cork International Film Festival
Locations: The Everyman Theatre – 13th to 17th November 2023, Gate Cinemas Midleton and Mallow – 20th to 24th November 2023, The Reel Cinema Ballincollig – 20th to 24th November 2023
Cork International Film Festival are presenting a diverse and exciting programme of films for young people as part of their Festival Schools Programme in November. Screenings include:
TY and Leaving Cert || Green Screen – Environmental Activism:
Fashion Reimagined
Special Event – Screening + Q&A with Special Guests || Everyman Theatre Only Becky Hutner || UK, USA || 2022 || 100 mins || TY and up || Documentary
Follow fashion designer Amy Powney on her journey from outsider to industry leader, as she sets out to create a transparent, ethical and sustainable collection, from the field to the finished garment. Exposing the complexity of the fashion industry’s supply chain, and addressing the urgent issue of global waste, this documentary highlights how the actions of one can influence an entire sector.
The screening will be followed by an open Q&A with special guests.
This event is sponsored by Future Planet.
Junior Cert French: The Little Gang (La Petite Bande)
Pierre Salvadori || France || 2022 || 106 mins || Drama ||French, Subtitled
Four young teens in rural France form a plan to stop the local factory polluting their local water supply and help raise awareness about climate change. The young gang turned activists want to carry out a late night attack on the factory, when things don’t go quite to plan. This French family comedy will have you routing for the mini climate activists despite their crimes.
Leaving Cert German: Run Lola Run (Lola Rennt)
Tom Tykwer || Germany || 1998 || 81 mins || Thriller || German, Subtitled
In celebration of the films’ 25th anniversary, we are bringing Run Lola Run back to the big screen for new audiences. Bursting on to the scene in 1998, Run Lola Run was an instant cult classic thanks to its innovative style and catchy soundtrack. The set-up is simple: Lola gets a phone call from her boyfriend Manni, who needs to deliver 100,000 Deutschmarks to a local gangster at noon, 20 minutes from now. Will she get the money in time? Or will her father, the police and barking dogs get in her way?
Junior and Senior Cycle French, Spanish and German language films are available. For the full programme and accompanying study guides, please visit https://corkfilmfest.org/schools-programme-2023/
Each student ticket is €7.00 (€6.50 DEIS school discount) accompanying teachers can attend free of charge.
To inquire about the screenings’ schedule and for bookings, please contact schools@corkfilmfest.org
Unveiling the 2023 National Arts in Education Portal Day Programme.
Ticket Booking Now Open!
We’re excited to be back with our 2023 conference taking place at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick on Saturday, 11 November 2023 in partnership with the Department of Arts Education & Physical Education. The event aims to bring together members of the arts in education and creative practice community from all across Ireland, to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired and continue interrogating best practice in the field.
The Programme will see a mix of presentations, smaller discussion-led sessions and creative workshops each addressing the special focus of ‘Seldom Heard Voices’ reflecting diversity and inclusion across school communities. As previously announced The Portal Team is delighted to welcome guest speaker, artist/researcher Dr. Jill Goodwin, highly respected for her practice working with children labelled as having profound and multiple learning disabilities, who will deliver the conference keynote address.
Ticket booking for the Arts in Education 2023 National Portal Day will open on 12th October.
This year’s conference is taking place at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick on Saturday, 11 November 2023 in partnership with the Department of Arts Education & Physical Education. The event aims to bring together members of the arts in education and creative practice community from all across Ireland, to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired and continue interrogating best practice in the field.
The Programme will see a mix of presentations, smaller discussion-led sessions and creative workshops each addressing the special focus of ‘Seldom Heard Voices’ reflecting diversity and inclusion across school communities.
As previously announced The Portal Team is delighted to welcome guest speaker, artist/researcher Dr Jill Goodwin, who will deliver the conference keynote address. Using personal examples from her experience in schools, her research and her art practice, Jill will consider the spaces – both physical and psychological – we provide and inhabit. Can we make space to dream, to listen, to be?
Sneak Peek at the 2023 National Arts in Education Portal Day Programme
Presentation & Discussion: Seen and Heard – Refracting responses of children to a school-based theatre workshop and arising implications for the Arts and Education sectors
Lecturer in Drama Education Dr Tríona Stokes and Creative Producer/Curator Hannah Mullan will reflect on the findings from an engaged research project featuring a consultation with key stakeholders, including children, about the extent to which they felt seen and heard in a pre-production school-based theatre workshop by Monkeyshine. They will invite audience consideration and discussion for artists, teachers and teacher-artist collaboration and partnership.
Creative Workshop:Reflective Data Visualisation – Using art-based reflections to encourage participants to promote an individual as well as a collective understanding of social injustices.
Visual Art Education lecturer Anne Marie Morrin from Mary Immaculate College will present an original methodology called ‘The Data Reflective Wall’.The focus of this workshop is (in)equality and will place the participants’ own understanding of inequality and social justice at the forefront of the learning experience, building a sense of empathy and collective responsibility into a teaching and learning experience.
Ticket bookings open at 12 noon, Thursday 12th October 2023. Tickets are free but pre booking is essential as capacity is limited.
Dates: Monday 16th October, 11.30am, Tuesday to Friday 20th October 10am and 12pm
Barnstorm Theatre Company in Kilkenny City will launch its latest world-premiere at the Watergate Theatre this October and invites schools to attend matinee performances.
Noah Barleywater Runs Away is the world premiere of a truly exciting theatre piece which has been adapted by internationally renowned playwright Mike Kenny from John Boyne’s novel of the same name.
The book explores the world of childhood and the adventures that we can all have there. Noah is running away from his problems, or at least that’s what he thinks, the day he takes the untrodden path through the forest. When he comes across a very unusual toyshop and meets the even more unusual toymaker, he’s not sure what to expect. But the toymaker has a story to tell, a story full of adventure, and wonder and broken promises. And Noah travels with him on a journey that will change his life for ever. This is a thought-provoking fable for our modern world from the author of the bestselling and critically acclaimed Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.
The Big Idea have created a full 14-week creative programme of learning resources for your Transition Year or Leaving Cert Applied students. Each teacher and tutor will receive a teaching pack to support in-class activities regardless of their school context. You will also join their B!G Teacher community with exclusive offers from their partners.
All resources are digitally formatted with two lessons per week. The adaptable format can be used for either a 40-minute class or a 1-hour class with teacher prompts and lesson plans included as well as built-in assessment structures and additional class materials.
Their national and international network of professional experts will share knowledge directly with your students, supporting them in their project development. Student teams will be matched with Big Idea industry Mentors giving them the opportunity to gain advice on next steps, ask questions to get students thinking, ask them things to consider or offer resources to explore.
There will be a free B!G Idea Learning Pack given to every student, which includes all the materials needed to engage in the programme.
In the first of a new guest blog series, artist Lorna Watkins talks about her thoughts and experiences on her TAP placement.
New Beginnings
Being an artist of any kind can be a lonely existence. I love my alone time, it’s necessary to do the work but other human exchange is needed from time to time. I need that human energy to feed into my work and to me. I had worked with adults on painting workshops before but had never really considered working with young people.
My studio work is cyclical, I tend to make more work during the winter than the summer as I’m a Mammy too, with kids off school it’s harder to to get to the studio every day.
In comes an email from Sligo Education Centre and I clicked on it. I don’t even remember signing up for it. They were offering the TAP+ CPD training. Truthfully I didn’t really know a whole lot about it but it sounded interesting. It turned out to be a week long of blissful discussion with other artists, theatre practitioners, composers and designers amongst passionate educators.
The exercises that we did during the course were fun, inventive, thought provoking and playful. As an artist once you complete the course you are given a TAP+ Residency with a Primary School. That year I got a TAP+ placement in the Our Lady of Mercy Primary School, Sligo paired with tutor Niamh Middleton. It was a wonderful experience and has energised my practice. As a result I have since worked on four BLAST projects, worked on several Youthreach projects and with the SMILY LGBTI group. All because I left myself open to the “what if?”
So artists out there. If you’ve ever wondered about Arts in Education, please go to your local Education Centre and enquire about the TAP+ CPD Summer Course.
The Portal Team is delighted to welcome guest speaker, artist/researcher Dr. Jill Goodwin, highly respected for her practice working with children labelled as having profound and multiple learning disabilities, who will deliver the conference keynote address.
Dr Jill Goodwin
Dr Jill Goodwin is a UK-based artist/researcher with a background in education. Her experience working with children labelled as having ‘profound and multiple learning disabilities’ has led her to seek and explore ways of sharing meaning without words, and she sees the arts as key to this process. Jill has recently worked as a consultant, mentor and trainer with arts and educational organisations, as well as with individual artists. She was Visiting Research Fellow with the ‘Centre for Research in Inclusion’ at the University of Southampton from 2020 – 2023, and Researcher-in-Residence with Oily Cart, a London-based sensory theatre company, from 2020 – 2022. Jill’s own art work privileges the sensory over the intellectual, making it innately inclusive.
The full line-up of the national day will be announced soonwhen ticket bookings will open online. This year’s event will again focus on ‘Seldom Heard Voices’ and will see a return to the usual mix of presentations, smaller discussion-led presentations and creative workshops addressing this theme.
These events bring together members of the arts in education community from all across Ireland, to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired, and continue interrogating best practice in the field.
Baboró have published their report and findings from their pilot LEAP programme. LEAP is a community-building project and artist development programme for creative individuals from underrepresented, ethnically diverse communities and/or migrant backgrounds curious about creating work for young audiences.
This report is an account of the development and implementation of Baboró’s LEAP as a pilot programme between December 2020-April 2022. The report examines the context of LEAP’s creation, what worked about this pilot programme, what could be improved for the future, and what learnings LEAP offers that are relevant to wider Irish and international theatre for young audiences’ communities.
This report also situates Baboró’s LEAP within post-2000s Irish arts policy focused on interculturalism and/or diversity and the wider international landscape of politics, policy and social change in the theatre for young audiences sector and beyond that immediately influenced the creation and implementation of this programme.
For a short executive summary of this report, and their learnings from the pilot LEAP programme, download the document below.
Burrenbeo Trust have announced the latest round of the National Heritage Keepers Programme which they launched with the help of Kinvara Tidy Towns and The Dolmen Centre, Kinvara. After working closely with 117 groups and schools over the past two years, the programme is now accepting expressions of interest for its highly anticipated third round. Burrenbeo Trust proudly partners with the Heritage Council in this transformative initiative.
The National Heritage Keepers Programme is a fantastic opportunity for schools and communities across Ireland. It empowers them to delve into their local built, natural, and cultural heritage and then provides funding to allow them to take action. This programme offers various learning formats, including in-person, online, and blended options, making it accessible to a wide range of participants.
In the previous year, 40 schools and communities participated in the programme, with the majority successfully completing local projects and actions. These actions included constructing ponds, developing heritage trails, hosting networking days, tree planting, creating booklets on local built heritage, and even organising historic photography exhibitions.
Mary Dillon, Heritage Keepers Co-ordinator, emphasised the programmes mission, stating, “Heritage Keepers aims to empower people to explore and discover their own local heritage, fostering pride, ownership, and ultimately responsibility towards both their community and environment. Through Heritage Keepers, schools and communities can play a huge part in protecting and promoting their local heritage and Place.“
The programme consists of five engaging two-hour workshops, followed by dedicated support while completing the funded action. It opens for expressions of interest on the 14th September, with options to begin this autumn or in the New Year. The programme is open to senior classes in primary schools and will be scheduled during school hours.
Learn more about this opportunity at an online information session scheduled for Thursday, September 28th, at 7.30pm. Visit heritagekeepers.ie for additional details and to complete a brief Expression of Interest form.
Arts in Education Portal
Deadline: Friday 15 September 2023
Artists, teachers, academics and arts education professionals….Do you want to be part of the eighth annual National Arts in Education Portal Day?
The National Arts in Education Portal Day will take place at Mary Immaculate College on Saturday, 11 November 2023 in partnership with the Department of Arts Education & Physical Education. The event aims to bring together members of the arts in education and creative practice community from all across Ireland, to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired and continue interrogating best practice in the field.
The Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee invites proposals from organisations or individuals who want to give dynamic and inspiring presentations or workshops that can offer sharing of skills, practical approaches, new insights and critical thinking across the field, from a range of perspectives.
This year, the Portal Day will continue the special focus of ‘Seldom Heard Voices’. The Committee particularly want to profile projects this year that reflect diversity and inclusion across school communities and represent all children.
Do you have a workshop or presentation that you would like to be included in the programme for this day? If so, please send us your proposal.
The deadline for submission of proposals is 5pm Friday 15th September 2023.
Creative Schools have launched a call out for Teacher Creative Associates. Scoileanna Ildánacha/Creative Schools is a flagship initiative of the Creative Ireland Programme to enable the creative potential of every child. Creative Schools is led by the Arts Council in partnership with the Department of Education.
It is expected that the Creative Associate will work in partnership with up to one school to develop expertise and approaches that will develop and sustain arts and creative practices in their schools. Creative Associates will draw on the range of opportunities within the school and wider community to stimulate and support creative practices as part of the school’s plan.
Creative Associates are educators with their own arts practice and a deep understanding of creativity and its potential to transform the lives of children and young people. They are dynamic agents for change uniquely placed to form sustainable partnerships between teachers, school staff, learners and other partners.
They are original thinkers who will match the needs of schools to creative opportunities in their locality. They can identify potential areas for improvement and will inspire, energise and drive schools forward in addressing these. Through this pioneering initiative, Creative Associates will have the chance to shape the place of the arts and creativity in Irish schools.
It is expected that up to 10 to 15 Teacher Creative Associates will be engaged to deliver services. Each associate will be partnered with one school within one the following regions:
Deadline for Schools Application: Friday 8th September
Baboró share a first look at the highlights of their upcoming 27th annual festival.
You’ll find an enchanting new show from beloved Irish companies Fidget Feet and Ceol Connected alongside world-class theatre for older children by renowned Australian company Slingsby. Also from Australia, an engaging visual art exhibition will invite Galway families to create and view their own photographic portraits in Galway Arts Centre.
“As we finalise plans for Baboró 2023, I am delighted to unveil three stunning festival highlights featuring aerial dance, theatre, live music and portrait photography – two of which come from as far away as Australia! The full programme of work from Belgium, England, Spain, The Netherlands, Australia and Ireland will be revealed in a few weeks,”said Aislinn Ó hEocha, Executive Artistic Director.
The full programme will include visual arts, music, dance, theatre, literature, creative workshops and adult events, as well as many more performances for all ages. The programme will be announced on Tuesday 5 September.
Our artists, Mitch Conlon and James Moran, lead with a loose, conversational archiving style, asking students to explore their local hang-out spots, local stories or folklore. They listened for nuggets of information as students described where young people hang out locally: the Cliffs in Lahinch… the Sulphur baths in Lisdoonvarna, the Lake in Inagh, or some more virtual meeting spaces. The artists focused on places where students could hang out and be alone with their friends, to just be.
My favourite quote in the early weeks of the project was when I asked students for real feedback on the process so far: they answered with a slightly bewildered ‘I don’t think they even know what the project is about!’ It summed it up. The gap between the prescriptive, fact-based academic tradition, the ‘just tell me what to learn’, ‘answer-in-the-back-of-the-book’ learning model that is the points based Leaving Cert, and what Keystone proposed: a nebulous, prompting, listening, chatting, exchanging of stories, a watching for crossovers, for sparks of connection to form. A waiting with slight discomfort and frustration for the ideas to take shape. The creative process in action. This collaborative, democratic outcome is not a mode of working that sits easily within the exam system. Discomfort. Impatience. Underwhelm? It took a while… A low-level dread of maybe being made to ‘do drama and be on film’ pervaded until students realised that they needn’t be in front of the camera at all. That there were roles they could elect to play in the process. A gently guided ‘it’s ok to feel slight discomfort’ approach!
The artists showed footage of the 1980’s underground punk scene in Belfast. An anarchic idea for these digital natives: a place where you could go and be anonymous and express yourself with abandon.
It saddened me that the students haven’t known a world before the omnipresent smart phone, listening, snapping, recording their every move. Before Google Maps, eircodes, data analytical tracking, the rise of AI and Chat GPT. (I thank God regularly for the 90’s!!)
How do you hang out, away from surveillance. How do you disconnect and connect to each other, or to nature? The irony of making a documentary art piece about this was not lost on us.
For me, one student’s phone footage of their pristine white runners carefully negotiating a puddle summed up the duality poignantly.
Our art class has a wonderful diversity of cultures with Irish, Spanish, Italian, Polish and Ukrainian students. Google Translate was a welcome support for the visiting artists! When students began sharing and comparing their respective Christmas and New Year’s traditions and customs it sparked a particularly joyous exchange. Similarities were noted. Things began to click.
Momentum gathered via shared words, snippets of sound recordings, video, photos of clifftop sunsets, waves, the roar of a match crowd, the crunch of pebbles. Abandoned spaces..
Students had a blast with Mitch and James playing sound wars!
The next task: how to communicate isolation, togetherness, a mood, a feeling, an idea? ‘Film studies’ became real. Figuring out their individual role in all this. Listening. Making decisions. Voicing their opinions. Respectful communication. Shared outcomes. Compromise.
Life lessons. Soft skills. Play. Discomfort. Purpose. Trusting the process, and surprise at and -hopefully- pride in their finished product.
Source Magazine
Date: Ongoing
Source Magazine has created a free online learning resource about photography, designed for the Senior Cycle. Its three interlinked strands of research, creativity and response aim to provide a context for students to develop critical and productive skills in photography.
They are written by Jesse Alexander, an experienced educationist in photography and contributor to Source. Each includes group discussion topics and suggested activities to help grasp their significance. They are illustrated with the work of some of the most celebrated photographers.
Portraiture & the Human Form: Portraiture has been an important part of art for centuries and photography has given the genre new opportunities. This essay looks at how portraiture photography compares and how it can reveal the private lives of its subjects, show their emotional states and personalities. We might see ourselves reflected in some!
Exterior & Interior Spaces: Many photographers concentrate on landscapes and cityscapes, along with interior spaces such as bedrooms, shared domestic spaces or parts of public buildings. They can make familiar places look strange and make the unfamiliar seem welcoming. After seeing many of the photographs included, we may see our own surroundings a little differently!
Documentary & Narrative The many forms of documentary photography often record everyday aspects of our lives, such as work or play, or it can be used to help professionals in many fields to do their work. For some, this is an opportunity to tell stories about how we live our lives. At times, this is an area where making art and documenting the world around us often cross over, making this, for many people, the most exciting area of photography to pursue or to look at!
Teachers can email research@source.ie to obtain a free digital subscription to Source, which includes access to the digital archive of the last 47 issues.
Deadline for applications: 16th August 2023 at 12pm
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, in partnership with Blackrock Education Centre, is looking for four experienced artists/creative practitioners to work with children and teachers in the classroom setting. They are also seeking two emerging artists/creative practitioners to join the programme. Applications are open to practitioners who work in any art form. The programme runs from October 2023 to May 2024.
The purpose of the programme is to partner a Creative Practitioner with a primary school class and teacher. They will explore creativity in the classroom together. A Creative Practitioner is a professional artist/facilitator with an art form background, for example; a dancer, a visual artist, a writer, or a musician.
The fees are €60 per hour for facilitation; with an additional €500 payment for research and €250 for blogging about the programme. Payments will also be available for coming to three scheduled meetings with all the artists and teachers during each project. Five meetings with the teacher outside of contact hours with the class will be paid for, if these are required (these can be phone meetings or in person).
The two emerging creative practitioners will be expected to work with a mentor who will support and assist their development. It is envisioned that this will be four sessions, two in the classroom and two outside.
To apply please email your application to mdavey@dlrcoco.ie with the subject line dlr Primary Arts
For my blog I have decided to discuss in detail one of my favourite days during the Keystone project. This was the sound designing session with Liam McCartan.
This was the explore and experiment stage of the project. Earlier in the week we were asked to record short clips of sounds that remind us of our themes of isolation, identity, privacy etc. These recordings were then sent to Liam, a sound producer. He arranged the audio clips in a wonderful piece of audio art.
We met with Liam digitally, through a zoom call. He introduced himself and let us listen to some of his previous pieces such as “Blue Morning”, and “Hold your Breath”. This gave us an insight into what the final piece could be like. We then listened to our piece, and Liam began combining it with other musical elements. He played around with different audio files, interchanging them, and adding audio effects. He also added different instruments such as guitar or keyboard to create harmonies out of the recorded clips. By doing all this he managed to enhance our recordings, making them sound more interesting. It brought out more emotion and so the themes became more obvious.
He explained the process very clearly. What I also really liked was at each stage he created a few options and allowed us to make decisions and vote on what we felt worked best. One of these decisions was to slow down a particular part. We felt this created a bigger and more dramatic atmosphere, or to layer a number of selected sounds to increase the intensity.
The piece was taking on a narrative. I could really hear the isolation feeling in some parts such as when the loud building of bird songs, the keyboard and other clips came to a climax, then everything stops and all we hear is the single beeping of the coffee machine. In other areas we agreed that the addition of the musical cords tied the sounds together, and gave it a familiar cinematic quality. A warm, joyful atmosphere was created which also reminded the group of times in our place – in our spot.
Overall the Keystone project was something I really enjoyed as I gained experiences in areas of art that I have never been involved in before. I gained a much broader insight into contemporary art and the different media that can be used. It took us away from the traditional idea of what art is and made us think a lot more about how to develop ideas.
The students of Coláiste Muire with teacher Aidan Power (left) during one of their engagement sessions with artist Mitch Conlon (centre-right) and James Moran (right), also pictured curator Fiona Gannon (centre-left). 2023 Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award, Keystone Project, Coláiste Muire, Ennis. Image Courtesy of Edel Doherty.
Ballet Ireland
Dates: 3rd – 7th July 2023
Ballet Ireland invite primary school teachers, educational professionals and artists to sign up for their CPD course: Ballet Ireland Teachers Week: Dance In Primary Schools. The course is approved by the Department of Education with 3 EPV days entitlement.
It takes place at DCU St. Patrick’s Campus, Drumcondra, in association with the School of Arts Education and Movement, DCU, 3rd-7th July 2023. The course provides participants with a secure understanding of how to teach dance, using simple, clear methods, easy steps and straightforward dance vocabulary.
Teachers are introduced to the fundamental aspects of dance education, including:
class structure
an understanding of anatomy in relation to dance
how music is used, composed, and selected for dance
how dance relates to drama and narrative
expression
The course presents an interdisciplinary approach to teaching dance, and explores the potential for integrated curricular learning. Each day comprises a gentle Pilates-based warm-up, demonstration/lecture workshops and timetabled periods of peer and self-assessment, discussion, and reflection.
The programme employs specialists in several complementary areas, providing workshops in dance, anatomy, music and mime. Participants are supported with comprehensive course notes and access to online video resources and dedicated musical content.
Optional follow up days are held during mid-term breaks in autumn and spring (at DanceHouse, Dublin) and ongoing support is available through closed social media groups.
The week will be led by Stephen Brennan, Education Officer at Ballet Ireland, supported by Hayley Cunningham, former Ballet Ireland dancer, Stott Pilates instructor, qualified ballet teacher and a member of the Ballet Ireland educational team.
Focused workshops will be led by Nolwenn Collett, composer and musician trained at the Paris Conservatoire, and specialist in dance accompaniment, and Deirdre McKenna, a Musculoskeletal & Dance Physiotherapist specialising in sports and dance training and injury prevention.
The Certificate in Arts and Wellbeing (Level 9, 20 credits) offers an introduction to key concepts in models of Wellbeing, with a focus on the arts. The course gives participants opportunities to explore arts and wellbeing activities in a personal and group dimension, supported by a reflective process.
This course will benefit teachers or artists looking to broaden the scope of their practice. The aim of the course is to equip participants with practical approaches to Arts and Wellbeing, which can be applied in a range of contexts.
Through a series of experiential workshops, participants will be offered the opportunity to explore practical ways of developing Arts based Wellbeing programmes. Through a series of lectures and guest speakers, participants will critically engage with a range of concepts and theories related to Arts in Health and Wellbeing.
The course duration is one academic year, part-time, one day twice a month in person, one evening online every second week. The fee for the course is €1700.
For enquiries, contact: Avril O’Brien, Department of Arts in Health and Education. Email: avril.obrien@mtu.ie
Four primary schools from across West Cork came together to participate in Bright Lines – Uillinn’s Spring education programme for primary schools. Bright Lines invited students to stretch how they see and interpret the world around them and weave together new stories.
The programme consisted of a tour and workshop at Uillinn with Public Engagement Artist Kate McElroy viewing the work of Sérgio Leitao ‘The Fallout’ which was then followed by visits in the students’ classrooms to develop their own collaborative collages exploring creativity and storytelling. Bright Lines invited students to be creative with their responses blending items from their everyday life with their imagination.
Altogether 100 students from 1st – 6th class worked on Bright lines. An exhibition of their work is currently on view until 1st July 2023.
Uillinn wish to thank students from Dromore NS, Scoil Mhuire NS, Schull, Scoil na mbuachaillí, Clonakilty and Gaelscoil Dr. Uí Shúilleabháin, Skibbereen for their excellent creative work and the teachers for taking part in the programme.
On Saturday 10 June between 10 AM – 1PM, children and young people are invited to take part in a drop in art activity at the centre where they too can add their artistic contributions to Bright Lines. This collaborative drawing art activity is part of the celebration of Crinniú na nÓg – A day of free creativity for children and young people.
The Portal Team are delighted to announce we have been documenting a third project as part of the Portal Documentation Awards: ‘Up, Up, Up’. This award was originally made in 2020 for an early years project at the Central Remedial Clinic School, Clontarf. We are very excited to be working with each recipient in the coming months to document their projects. These projects will be showcased on the portal as the documentation progresses.
Project Title: Up, Up, Up
’Up, Up, Up’ is an immersive experience for early years children with a physical disability and complex needs and is supported by the Exploring & Thinking Award, an initiative of the four Local Dublin Authorities and the Arts Council of Ireland. The project aims to provide early years children living with limited mobility and additional needs the opportunity to grab, stretch and reach into the forbidden cookie jar! Reaching, moving, creating sounds, mischief making and making marks are the tools we shall use together as we explore the dexterity of the body and creative mind whilst expanding the child’s physical literacy.
Every child has something to say and every child has their own way of saying it. Communication is through movement, mark making, sound generation, verbalising and vocalisations, the children initiate and together we extend their curiosity. They choose, in their own time, their learning. We choose, as a team, to value their choice and bounce it back and forth with them. Our interactions are careful and balanced. Our project needed to be multisensory, to appeal to all the needs of the children in the class. The project evolved because we wanted the children to be more actively involved in their learning. We wanted time to allow for this concentrated involvement, building on their existing interests and giving them the freedom to just be.
Over several weeks artist Helen Barry and Early Years Educator Audrey Fagan along with the team at the CRCS will create a developmental interactive experience for these early years children to engage together with their friends. The floor will be the canvas, it is what will support us, to lie, sit, roll or push against. Each element will be designed to support and enable a more equal engagement.
Artist: Helen Barry Helen Barry is a visual artist, inventor and classically trained dancer. She has over 35 years experience working creatively and playfully with the very young to the very old. This collaborative process is what drives her work, from the initial concept through to the design, making and sharing of the creative output with her co-creators and new audiences. Since 2010 Helen has specialised in co-creating with early years and children living with mild, moderate, profound and neurodiverse needs. The synergy created by using a cross-disciplinary approach provides a sensorium palette from which Helen draws from. Everything exists on the horizon; a perpetual visual and aural palatte of sensations, frequencies and movements through which we interpretate the world around us. Helen’s ambition is to design arts experiences that allow us to explore and discover our bodies’ receptors that will stimulate growth, wellbeing and an ability to focus and thrive. Helen has been awarded several bursaries and commissions for her work with early years children. The National Concert Hall continues to support her foray into music and sculpture.
Early Years Educator: Audrey Fagan Audrey Fagan is a primary school teacher who has been working in special education for over 25 years. Audrey works in the Central Remedial Clinic School, Clontarf, a school for children with physical disabilities and additional complex needs. Fourteen years ago, Audrey moved into the Preschool of the CRC, delivering a two-year cycle of early education embracing the Aistear framework, and incorporating elements of the Froebel, Reggio Emilia and Te Wháriki approaches. A kaleidoscope curriculum is in place to respond to the diverse needs and interests of the children. Audrey believes in creating a learning environment that allows all the children to be involved and included – inquiring, discovering and experiencing holistically at their level of ability. Audrey completed a self-study action research M. Ed from Maynooth University in 2021 exploring a slow pedagogy in the preschool. As part of her role as Assistant Principal, she is currently responsible for the development of multisensory experiences and a wellbeing policy in the CRC School. Working in special education, Audrey has reached out and developed important collaborative relationships with therapists, parents and artists from many disciplines – music, art and drama to consolidate and inform her love of the arts and to bring this learning to the children in preschool.
A Coláiste Muire Collective
I was instantly intrigued by the idea and inspiration behind the Keystone project. At its essence art should challenge our perceptions and viewpoints, provoke thought and discussion. By getting the students to focus on the local, and the everyday, they were challenged to reconsider their traditional concepts of what is worthy to be art. Moments in their own lives were investigated especially those centred around places they frequented around the town; their hang out spots.
These “spots”, these centres of interactions and events, often located in places unintended for that purpose; private places within shared spaces, offer teenagers a third space away from the restrictions and rules of home and school. A separate social dynamic for freedoms of expression and connectivity. Nevertheless, these places are normally frowned upon, considered loitering spots, adults tell youths to move on, to stop wasting time. The very idea that the artists wanted students to celebrate these places challenged their preconceptions of the value of these spots and in turn inspired further exploration.
The explorations brought us down a rabbit hole of new experiences where Mitch and James introduced the group to artistic influences such as the sound art of Mary Anne Amacher, and a documentary about protestors in Curraghinalt made by Emily MacFarland. Each piece inspired very much by the space they were captured in; the physical place and landscape told the story or was the story. This encouraged the students to go out and collect and gather content to tell theirs. They used sound recording, photography, written word and film. A multi-sensual catalogue of data was being built that would act as the primary source of a final realisation.
Our collective expanded further when the expertise of sound producer Liam McCartan and filmmaker Emily MacFarland were brought in to help build our content. Their choices, influenced by written reflections made by students, an interactive zoom call and on-site video shoot where students made creative inputs into all decision making. The experience of observing the layering and manipulation of individual sounds to produce a whole composition, along with the opportunity to use professional video production equipment was something I feel the students really enjoyed. Seeing how, as the project developed, the students’ immersion within the project increased was something that was very enjoyable for me. Evident in their reflections their initial writings were basic literal descriptions of the sessions, but as the project developed and the students allowed themselves to become more absorbed, their writings became more conceptual considerations. They contemplated how themes could be communicated within the content; a swinging zipline rope from the playground could suggest isolation, a grove of trees in the fair green symbolised privacy in a public space. Their thoughts were now of symbolism and metaphor, associations were being sought outside of their literal meaning. This I believe was one of the greatest successes of the project; the opening of the student’s minds and realisation that all the resources they need to create and solve are often right there in front of them, they just need to give themselves time to look and observe.
Earlier this month, teachers, artists and arts in education professionals gathered together in the beautiful surrounds of the MTU Crawford College of Art and Design across two of their city-centre sites – Sharman Crawford Street and No. 46 Grand Parade. For delegates this was an opportunity to share experience, gather new ideas and network with colleagues. This event, the seventh of our annual Portal Regional Days, showcased arts in education and creative practice in the South-West. Delegates travelled from Counties Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Clare, Waterford and even Dublin to hear presentations from Jane Hayes and Fiona Linnane, participate in a workshop led by Julie O’Hea and visit the partnership Arts in Education exhibition at Sample Studios.
The morning of sharing practice began with socially-engaged visual artist Jane Hayes delving into key moments from her artistic practice which focuses on work for and with Early Years. In her presentation, ‘The Voice of the Child in Creative Decision Making – the Early Years Context’ Jane spoke of career shaping experiences including residencies with Baboro International Arts Festival for Children in Galway, a project with Scoil Chroí Íosa and becoming a Creative Associate which opened up opportunities for conversation and formalised the voice of the child into her practice. Jane elaborated that her projects evolve as choices and connections are made by the children, encouraging them to think and explore materials independently from carefully considered provocations introduced influenced by Jane in the Reggio Emilio style.
The key thing is … to give adequate time and space for those ideas to evolve to allow the project to evolve … to allow the child to become the chief investigator in everything and the classroom almost becomes an artist’s studio for them.” – Jane Hayes
The morning continued with an interactive session from composer Fiona Linnane. Her presentation, ‘Tutti – Exploring pathways to inclusivity for music composition in the classroom’ focused on her experiences in classrooms delivering projects through initiatives such as TAP, Creative Schools and Artist in Schools residencies. She spoke of the challenge and importance of engaging all children regardless of their musical ability through an approach of “experimentation not expectation”. Calling on audience participation, Fiona demonstrated a number of practical exercises and shared her approaches in how to equip children with the skills to experiment.
“For me, it’s about empowering the children just to have that avenue of self-expression in music where even if they’re not the piano prodigy, that they can still express themselves through music and through sound.” – Fiona Linnane
In the afternoon, attendees moved to Number 45 Grand Parade to take part in a practical creative workshop with visual artist Julie O’Hea. In a fun and messy workshop, Julie along with assistant Amaia Ibarbia led a very hands-on creative session on the processes behind ink-making from natural ingredients and hapazome printing, providing participants with many creative ideas to bring back to the classroom.
Creative Workshop: ‘Pigments from Nature’ with artist Julie O’Hea
The day came to a close with a reception in the Lord Mayor’s Pavilion with a viewing of the Partnership exhibition with Sample Studios. On display were works from Jane Hayes, Fiona Linnane and Julie O’Hea showcasing their arts in education practices. The exhibition continues until Saturday 27th May.
Partnership exhibition with Sample Studios at the Lord Mayor’s Pavilion
Thank you to everyone who joined us on the day. For those who missed the mornings discussions, video recordings will be available to watch back online. Registration for viewing is available through the link here.
Teacher-Artist Partnership+ (TAP+) CPD
Call Out for Artists and Creative Practitioners
Application Deadline: Friday 23rd June 5pm
Teacher Artist Partnership + (TAP+) together with the Association of Local Authority Arts Officers are pleased to launch a Call Out for Artists/ Creative Practitioners to participate in the 2023 Face-to-Face TAP+ Programme.
TAP+ CPD Summer Course & Residency programme is open to Artists / Creative Practitioners (in all art forms / creative practices) who are committed to sharing creativity with children and teachers in primary and special schools.
To apply for TAP+ Summer Course and Residency please send expressions of interest to the Director of your local Education Support Centre (ESC): https://www.esci.ie/
Call Out for Teachers
Application Deadline: 26th June 2023
The Teacher Artist Partnership+ (TAP+) Summer Course explores partnership through arts and creativity in education in primary and special schools.
TAP+ trained teachers can apply to host a fully funded TAP+ artist/creative practitioner Residency in their school in 2023/2024.
TAP+ is a unique summer course that offers teachers the opportunity to explore professional learning through a partnership between teachers, artists, creative practitioners, and children. TAP+ aims to support creativity throughout the curriculum and focusing on wellbeing, literacy, and creative arts for all schools including DEIS.
FÍS have launched an open invitation to all Dept. of Education designated Irish primary schools to enter their films into the annual national FÍS Film Awards competition. There is no need to register in advance. To enter, primary schools across the country are asked to create an (up to) five-minute film on a subject of their choice.
Judging Criteria Highlights:
Imagination and creativity
Originality of the story
Curricular relevance (include details of subject/strand/strand unit where relevant)
Support of pupils’ literacy and/or numeracy skills development
Excellence in set design, costume design, film direction, film production, the use of sound, acting, cinematography, etc
Excellence in the art of storytelling
Excellence in the use of special techniques, e.g., animation or special effects
Excellence in visual interpretation of a story or concept
Shortlisted schools must be available to attend the FÍS Film Awards Ceremony, which takes place in the Helix Theatre, DCU Dublin. It is a large-scale national event with over 900 people in attendance, filmed and broadcast by students and staff from the National Film School, at the Institute of Art, Design & Technology (IADT). The awards ceremony is live- streamed via their website. Shortlisted schools must be available to attend the ceremony.
Creativity & Change is accepting applications for their 2023-2024 course, which begins in September. This part-time, 20 credit certificate at level 9 offers participants the opportunity to explore Global Citizenship Education, immersing themselves in arts-based practices that connect their heads, hearts and hands, to learn about and take action for global justice, while developing skills to nurture fellow changemakers.
What you can expect from the programme:
Participate in a transformative experience in global citizenship education
Examine your place in our interconnected, rapidly-changing and unequal world
Explore issues affecting the world and make connections between local and global
Reflect on the values, actions and behaviours of global citizens
Develop skills in facilitating meaningful dialogue, collaborative arts processes and transformative learning
Boost your creative confidence through participating in workshops including movement, theatre and street art
Put your learning and passion into practice to engage others on a journey of transformation and growth as global citizens
Build a toolkit of exercises to design and facilitate learning processes to nurture global citizenship
Apply Design Thinking to develop creative actions in imaginative learning environments
Connect your passions to take action for change
Recognise that small actions can have big impacts
Plug into a network of people passionate about creativity, learning and changemaking
Supported by Irish Aid, Department of Justice, the course will be of interest to artists, activists, youth & community educators, volunteers and all those who are interested in collaboration and the transformative power of art. They especially welcome applicants from minority groups facing barriers to accessing education, who can apply to avail of fully funded places under their Amplifying Voices scheme.
Duration: One weekend per month from September 2023 to May 2024
Location: Munster Technological University (MTU) Crawford College of Art and Design
Course fee: €680 (subsidised by funding from Irish Aid)
Baboró has announced the launch of their Strategic Plan for 2023-2027 highlighting their vision for the future, and their ambitions for the next five years.
“We are committed to making our festival and programmes more equitable. Baboró is building on our work in the community by bringing festival shows and workshops into schools throughout the city and county, touring to rural schools and community libraries, and unearthing new ways of reaching audiences that cannot reach us. We work directly with teachers and schools year-round on innovative arts in education projects in Galway city and county. We are building our community of families, schools, artists and local organisations so that everyone feels that they can belong at Baboró. We collaborate with our Children’s Panel to ensure the voice of the child is included in our work” – Barboró
Baboró’s Strategic Goals:
Every child is valued and welcome at Baboró. Baboró is working towards removing barriers facing children and artists and is committed to creating programmes where everyone feels welcomed, feels heard and is represented in their community. They commit to reflecting the diverse, multicultural Ireland of today in our artistic programmes.
Goal One:
Their annual Festival continues to be Baboró’s beating heart – a celebration of all their work and a gathering place for their community.
Goal Two:
Children in all their diversity and brilliance will be at the centre of their programmes and activities.
Goal Three:
Artists will be supported to make exciting, innovative work for children and young people.
Goal Four:
The environmental and biodiversity crisis will be reflected in the way they work and the stories they tell.
Goal Five:
Invest in their staff team and build a resilient organisation that reflects the breadth and quality of their work.
Join artist Jole Bortoli at The Ark for this hugely popular hands-on, creative course focusing on a visual arts approach to exploring narrative, literacy & other subjects.
The aim of the course is to enable participants to start the new school year with an enhanced toolbox of skills and knowledge, in order to effectively deliver the visual arts curriculum in the classroom. Participants will be engaged ‘hands-on’ throughout this course so learning will be through doing. Working in teams and individually, you will cover a range of curriculum strands including drawing, painting, print, 3D construction, fabric, and fibre.
A strong emphasis will be on building skills and confidence. The group will also explore how visual art can be used to engage with aspects of the English, SPHE, History and Maths curriculum, as well as to promote visual literacy approaches. School self-evaluation exercises will be incorporated as an integral part of the course. Time will also be given for individual reflection and learning and group discussion.
This course will appeal to teachers of all levels of experience and will be facilitated by the visual arts and education specialist and founder of Art to Heart, Jole Bortoli. This is a continuing professional development opportunity not to be missed!
Arts in Junior Cycle have an extensive range of elective courses available to book for post-primary School teachers. Please see a selection of the course available below.
Lights, Camera, Action! A film production workshop
Date:Wednesday 7th, Thursday 8th and Friday 9th June
Times: 10.30am – 4pm
Location: Kilkenny Education Centre
This Arts in Junior Cycle workshop with Young Irish Film Makers (YIFM) in Kilkenny Education Centre will provide participants with an opportunity to:
understand how camera tells a story and consider film as visual language
engage in the three phases of production from concept to realisation, including: story-boarding, scripting, devising shot lists, filming, editing and creating a final rough cut
learn techniques to support classroom engagement with film-making across a range of contexts, including free software and using smart phones to film
This in-person workshop is open to junior cycle teachers of all subjects and disciplines.
Figurative Oil Painting workshop
Dates: Monday 19th and Tuesday 20th June
Times: 10.30am – 3.30pm
Location: Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts (RHA), Dublin
This Arts in Junior Cycle workshop with visual artist Blaise Smith in the RHA will provide participants with an opportunity to:
explore basic technical and material skills to underpin a professional painting practice
examine how compositional tools such as the Golden Mean and the Rule of Thirds are utilsed in traditional and contemporary oil painting
use a limited palette to create layers and flesh tones
explore basic anatomical structure of the human figure
Open to junior cycle teachers of all subject disciplines.
Do Your Own Thing! A workshop to explore the creative process
Dates: Thursday 22nd and Friday 23rd June
Time: 10.30am – 4.00pm
Location: Irish Museum of Modern Art
Arts in Junior Cycle in partnership with visual artist threadstories and writer and poet Colm Keegan offer a two-day workshop in The Irish Museum of Modern Art.
In this hands-on and practical workshop, participants will:
engage in an open-ended exploration of word and image, using a variety of art-making materials and writing prompts
consider their own relationship to education, art and self-expression
gain insights into the creative processes of a visual artist and a writer
explore IMMA and use it as a source of inspiration
discuss possible approaches to a range of stimuli
collaborate in a safe, supportive and experiential environment
This year Cruinniú na nÓg will be on 10th June 2023 and will feature more than 500 free creative activities for children and young people throughout the country. Cruinniú na nÓg 2023 is a collaboration between, the Creative Ireland Programme, local authorities and RTÉ and is the only event of its kind in the world.
Announcing Cruinniú na nÓg 2023, Minister Martin said:
“Every year Cruinniú na nÓgbecomes more firmly embedded into the lives of young people all over Ireland. There’s a huge programme of free creative activities for 10th June that will really stretch the imaginative muscles of all young people. Cruinniú na nÓg 2023 is a wonderful opportunity for the young people of Ireland to show off a little, try a new creative activity, make new friends and connect with their communities. Every event is free.”
The Creative Ireland Programme and its strategic partners have developed a number of creative projects, all planned to go live on Saturday 10th June 2023. These include:
Irish Street Arts, Circus and Spectacle Network (ISACS) will host open days for young people who want to try their hand at circus skills and street spectacle at their dedicated venues in Cloughjordan, Cork, Dublin and Galway. For those that can’t be there on the day, there will be a full range of online tutorials available.
Rhyme Island – This year Creative Ireland is teaming up with The Kabin Studio to get every young person in Ireland rapping. In preparation the Rhyme Island team have been travelling the length and breadth of the country holding a series of online and in-person workshops which will culminate in a massive day of rap at 17th Century Elizabeth Fort in Cork.
This is Art 2023 –Creative Ireland and RTÉ’s wonderful art competition for young people has returned, and the winning entries will be announced on 10th June 2023 along with a national on-line digital gallery of all entries.
TG4 with support from the Gaeltacht division of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media will support ‘Our World’/ ‘Mo Dhomhan’several Cruinniú na nÓg projects groups which will include sand art projects.
Cruinniú na nÓg 2023 Ambassadors
This year, Creative Ireland have asked five wonderful young people to represent Cruinniú na nOg 2023 to inspire others with their creative energy and skills.
Caterina Chiu Paone (8)Last year Caterina triumphed in This is Art with her cat collage. Not only does Caterina make art but she loves Irish dancing, playing the guitar, writing and singing her own songs.
Sibéal de Spáinn (8) loves swimming, making art and recording radio shows. She made her first radio show in 2022 on Raidió Rí-Rá. Making art makes her feel great and that she is helping the world.
Jamie (the King) Forde (17) has been rapping at Knocknaheeny’s The Kabin in Cork since he was 10. With his friend MC Tiny (Darren Stewart) Jamie recorded ‘ Yeah Boy’ which they have performed in all over Cork, at Dublin Castle and on The Late, Late Toy Show.
Jodie Byrne (14) isa member of the Dublin Circus Club which she joined in 2022. In a relatively short period of time she was walking on stilts in the St Patrick’s Day parade. For Cruinniú na nÓg this year she will be at the Dublin Circus Club learning to spin plates.
Archie Evans (15) has been involved with the Dublin Circus Club for over a year and he loves it! Once a week he joins his friends in the club to learn everything from stilt walking to trapeze to juggling. Through circus he has met other circus teens from all over the country.
Consistent with the aims of the Government’s Shared Island initiative to deepen beneficial cooperation and connections across the island of Ireland, Cruinniú na nÓg 2023 will be programmed on an all-island basis with cross-community events connecting children and young people from both sides of the border, including via our partners in Circus Explored and Rhyme Island. This action is an integral part of the Shared Island dimension to the Creative Ireland Programme which focuses on harnessing the power of culture and creativity to inspire connections between people, communities and places.
RTÉ is supporting Cruinniú na nÓg with a nationwide campaign on television, radio, online and digital.
Application Deadline:Thursday 15 June 2023 at 5.30pm
Maximum Award: with €4,000
Applications are now open for the Creative Schools Initiative! All Department of Education-recognised primary and post-primary schools and Youthreach centres that have not already participated in a previous round of Creative Schools are eligible to apply.
Creative Schools supports primary and post-primary schools and Youthreach centres across Ireland to put arts and creativity at the heart of children’s and young people’s lives.
It supports schools/centres to provide opportunities for children and young people to build their artistic and creative skills, and to develop additional ways of working that reinforce the impact of creativity on their learning and wellbeing.
Schools and Youthreach centres that join the programme take part in a two-year guided journey to develop a Creative Schools Plan unique to their own school, and to put it into action. Children and young people’s involvement in planning, decision-making and reflection is central to the journey.
Participating schools/centres will be provided with a package of supports that includes working with a Creative Associate, training and networking to support them to create their Creative School Plan, as well as seed funding to begin to implement their Plan. Successful schools will receive €4,000 to implement their plans over the school years 2023–24 and 2024–25.
Application guidelines 2023
The application guidelines are available here. All applications to the Arts Council are made through the Arts Council’s online services system. To access the application form and make an application, please set up an organisation account for your school or Youthreach centre on the Arts Council’s online services system here.
Information clinics
Please join one of our online information clinics to find out more.
Monday 15 May 2023 at 16.00-17.00. Book tickets here.
Tuesday 16 May 2023 at 16.00-17.00. Book tickets here.
The Hunt Museum
Dates: Ongoing
Join The Hunt Museum for a range of options of tours and workshops in the museum, and online resources for learners of all ages including lesson plans, videos and activities.
Some highlights of the workshops include:
Primary:
Life in the Bronze Age
Duration: 60 minutes
This workshop encourages pupils to thematically explore the objects and practices of Ireland’s Bronze Age people. It enables them to investigate and use as evidence the Bronze Age collections on display in the Hunt Museum. The handling of replica prehistoric artefacts will provide additional opportunities for inquiry-led learning. Pupils also get to try out some simple prehistoric technologies. This workshop walks the students through the prehistoric timeline as they learn how technologies emerged and advanced from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age.
Animal Hunt Online Programme
Date: Watch video to your schedule
This 20 minute video workshop introduces Primary School students to animal based collections at the Hunt Museum. Students learn how artists throughout history have depicted animals in their art, and why certain animals are important to different cultures. Students will be introduced to the online research tools that will help them complete the Animal Hunt 3D online activity.
Post-Primary
800 Years of Fashion Workshop
Duration: 60mins
€3.50 euro per student. Teachers go free!
In this workshop, students will learn about clothing from eight different periods (between 1200 and 1920), and these societies. These resources, and objects in the permanent collection, will be used as historical evidence to better understand the evolution of fashion over time, and how these shifts in style relate to changes in society.
Creative Schools have invited every school in Ireland (primary, post-primary, special education schools and Youthreach centres) to celebrate the arts and creativity from 8 – 12 May, 2023. The theme this year “Creativity Lives Here” encourages school communities to pause and reflect on where creativity is evident in their lives, in every class, in every school and in the experience of every student. The week is a time to focus on celebrating this creativity, perhaps adding to the experiences of students in the form of events or workshops and providing a platform to show how creative each school can be.
If your school is already in the Creative Schools initiative, this week is a great time to celebrate your journey so far!
Previous years’ Celebrations included Online Celebrations highlighting work from a selection of Creative Schools and Creative Clusters initiatives since 2018, as well as workshops, interviews and features across a wide range of different artists and arts and cultural organisations. They invite you to watch these videos with your students to learn about school communities across the initiative as well as their creative approaches to learning and artistic responses to Covid 19. Schools highlighted are a representation of the over 460 schools who had participated in the Creative Schools initiative since 2018.
Inspired by Cartoon Saloon’s award winning animated movies The Secret of Kells, Songs of the Sea and WolfWalkers, this visual arts workshop invites Primary school classes from 1st to 6th to delve into the rich world of Irish folk tales.
During the workshop, each child will start by creating the setting for a personal narrative by painting the backdrop for this story, as background artists do in animation studios. They will then design a character of their own invention – perhaps a creature or animal they’d love to shape-shift into, to be in their skin and take on their abilities?
In keeping with folklore traditions, children will explore the magical and mythical world of Irish stories and legends, their characters, environments and possible artefacts to see what connections can be made with real historical events.
To fuel the children’s imagination, your class will start the session by visiting Cartoon Saloon’s WolfWalkers exhibition in The Ark gallery. This exhibition contains concept art, beautiful framed artworks and panels that illustrate WolfWalkers’ production stages and teamwork.
Creative Futures Academy at IADT invites you to join their upcoming webinar on creative uses for immersive technology.
Are you looking to explore how immersive technologies can be used to enhance learning and creativity? Join their upcoming webinar, Immersive Technologies Use Cases for Learning and Creativity.
Learn about the potential of these technologies and how they can be applied in education and creative activities. Their panel of experts will be showcasing their work in utilising immersive technologies. Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to gain insight into the latest trends and innovations in immersive tech! Register now for their webinar.
The Online eTwinning Schools Conference will take place from 24 to 26 May 2023. The first day of the conference (Wednesday 24 May) will be live streamed and open for anyone to join and engage with. No registration is needed.
The overall goal of the conference is to identify, highlight, share, promote, disseminate and further establish the practices of eTwinning Schools that focus on creativity and well-being.
During that first day, Arianna Sala of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) will present the keynote presentation “LifeComp: A European competence framework for better lives in our uncertain world”. LifeComp is the European framework for the personal, social and learning to learn key competence.
Days 2 and 3 will be closed only to eTwinning registered participants.
Mayo Education Centre invites teachers to a free arts session that will inspire them to experiment and be creative with a variety of materials to create both two and three dimensional artworks. Led by artist Jennifer Hickey “Making the Season Creative with Art” is a practical face to face session, which will encourage participants to explore art making processes using a variety of materials and will deliver an imaginative learning experience that teachers can bring back to the classroom.
Participants will work with a variety of materials including; clay, inks, paint, card and materials from nature.
It is aimed at teachers of all levels of experience and is suitable for teachers in junior and senior classes.
Learning outcomes
• Learn new and easy ways to incorporate natural materials into the classroom.
• Gain knowledge on contemporary artists who explore their environment and use natural materials in their work.
• Explore hands on craft processes that will promote wellbeing and encourage the classroom to respond, explore and interpret the season in a visual and creative way.
Arts in Junior Cycle are hosting a creative writing workshop for Teachers. Knights of the Borrowed Dark: Approaches to Story writing with award-winning author Dave Rudden.
Using his novel Knights of the Borrowed Dark – an indicative text for 1st year junior cycle English – Dave will share how he turns inspiration into a fully developed narrative. You will see the writing process from the inside and learn creative writing techniques you may wish to use in the classroom.
During this workshop participants will:
use the Knights of the Borrowed Dark as a starting point, learn how to, craft ideas into stories and develop sustainable writing practices
explore how to create and describe the characters and structure of a story
develop a plan to write a ‘draft zero’ of your own novel or short story
collaborate, share ideas, and reflect in a safe, supportive workshop space
experience practical and creative methodologies that can be used / put to use in professional classroom practice.
The Portal Team are delighted to announce the second of the two recipients of the 2023 Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award. We are very excited to be working with each recipient in the coming months to document their projects. These projects will be showcased on the portal as the documentation progresses.
SCEALTA
The BA in Early Childhood Education and Care programme at Atlantic Technological University ( ATU) Galway and Mayo campuses were delighted to be awarded an Artist in Residence funded by the Arts Council, to work with the students undertaking the BA in Early Childhood Education and Care programme.
The Arts project SCEALTA (Stories, Curiosity, Engagement, Active learning, Language, Theatre, Aistear) was devised as an extension of the Artist in Residence project. This project is based in Tuam Community Childcare Centre which is owned and managed by Western Traveller and Intercultural Development (WTID) group. The provocation for this project is the Community preschool School Bus. The preschool children in Tuam community preschool are collected each morning and return to their homes, families, and extended families after the preschool session on the school bus.
The second preschool which is part of this project Whiz Kids, is a private preschool. Going on a bus journey is a treat or an adventure for these children, usually associated with an outing. As part of the arts project, the children from Whiz Kids preschool travel on the bus to the Tuam Community Childcare Centre, where all of the children come together to actively participate in the project. The children’s social and cultural context is celebrated through this creative experience of stories, puppetry and theatre using the school bus to take children on real and imaginary journeys, sharing stories, songs, engaging in experiential learning through media, art, clay.
Early Years Educator: Louise O’Shaughnessy Louise O’Shaughnessy is the Manager at Tuam Community Childcare Centre, For Western Traveller Intercultural Development Group. Louise is also in year three of the BA in Early Childhood Education and Care at Atlantic Technological University Galway. Louise believes in the importance and value of supporting young children’s identity and belonging in the early years setting in partnership with parents and families.
Early Years Educator: Sandra Mills Sandra Mills is an Early Childhood Educator at Tuam Community Childcare Centre. Sandra is currently pursuing a Degree in Early Childhood Education and Care in Atlantic Technological University Galway. She has worked in the early years sector for over 12 years and is deeply committed in encouraging children to become self-directed learners and establishing a warm safe and welcoming early years environment.
Early Years Educator: Paula O’Reilly Paula O’Reilly is an Early Years Educator at Wiz Kidz preschool and afterschool service Tuam. Paula is in year three of the BA Early Childhood Education and Care at Atlantic Technological University Galway. She is passionate about play and recognises children’s right to play and playful early learning experiences which supports their curiosity, imagination and creativity.
Artist: Cliodhna Noonan Cliodhna Noonan is The Arts Council ATU Artist in Residence. Cliodhna is an early years arts creator, producer and programmer for creative arts events with children and families aged 0-6 years. Cliodhna writes, develops and performs her own work for young children age 0-6 years, she is a member of Smallsize EU network association and an active member of TYAI.
Irish Architecture Foundation (IAF)
Application Deadline: 9 June 2023 – 6 pm
The Irish Architecture Foundation has opened a call for schools to participate in their TY Architects in Schools Programme 2023/24.
Now entering into its 11th annual cycle, this Transition Year programme is creative, collaborative and participatory, providing an introduction to architecture and the design process for young people. There is no cost for your school to participate (apart from providing some art materials). An architect will facilitate hands-on design workshops in your school.
Dates, times and workshop duration will be arranged directly between the designated teacher / TY coordinator and the assigned architect.
Workshops must take place between 1 September 2023 and 22 March 2024.
There are two options for participation:
Option A: Full Programme
30 schools can participate in the full programme (12 hours of workshops per school, with an architect / architectural graduate).
Option B: Introductory Programme
40 additional schools can avail of introductory workshops (1 x 3 hour workshop per school, with an architect / architectural graduate).
In this CPD workshop for primary teachers, textile artist and educator Gabi McGrath will introduce participants to the art of felting and explore ways to bring their learning into their classroom.
A designer, craft teacher, maker and curator, Gabi will introduce her textile practice to participants and share a selection of projects that she has undertaken with schools.
You will then have the opportunity to experiment with fibres in this hands-on workshop, learning simple felting techniques and uncovering the expressive possibilities of the material. Through both 2D and 3D construction, you will explore shape, tone, texture and form.
Over the course of this two-hour workshop, Gabi will help you develop skills, techniques and processes that can be integrated into your lesson plans and adapted for students of all ages.
The Portal Team is delighted to announce the full programme for the Arts in Education Portal Spring Regional Day which takes place on Saturday 6th May in Cork City at MTU Crawford College of Art & Design in partnership with the Department of Arts in Health & Education and Department of Fine Art & Applied Art. We are also delighted to present, in collaboration with Sample-Studios in Cork, an exhibition of work from artists in the field of arts in education based in the South-West region. An exhibition viewing will be held at the Lord Mayor’s Pavilion to wrap up the day’s programme from 3:30pm; delegates are welcome to attend then or to visit the exhibition which will run until 27th May.
We invite teachers, artists, arts managers and anyone with an interest in arts in education in Cork, Kerry, Limerick and Tipperary to join us for these free events.
The programme for the day includes a series of presentations in the morning; artist Jane Hayeswill discuss the challenges and opportunities that go with balancing a studio practice with collaborative arts projects, and her mission to make both child-centred. Following this discussion, composer Fiona Linnanewill explore the activities which she has found to be the most effective in engaging students during her residencies through presentation, discussion and creative exercises.
In the afternoon join West Cork based visual artist artist Julie O’Hea for a creative workshop in ink making and hapa-zome pigment printing, this session promises to be messy, fun and informative.
How to Book
Tickets for the 2023 Portal Spring Regional Day are free but pre booking is essential as capacity is limited.
For those who can’t join us in person on the day, the morning talks and presentations will be available to watch back online following the conference. Registration for viewing is available through the link here: https://forms.gle/MF4NLWcRWq8t15nk8.
Please note: ISL Interpretation will be available at the venue and on the video recordings.
Schedule
10:00am — Registration & coffee at MTU CCAD, Sharman Crawford Street
10.15am — Welcome Address
10:30am — The Portal: a brief introduction by Edel Doherty, Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership (Portal Content Managers)
10:45am — Presentation ‘The Voice of the Child in Creative Decision-Making – The Early Years Context’ with Jane Hayes. Join early years artist Jane Hayes for an informal discussion about her socially engaged visual arts practice and her work with and for very young children.
11:30am — Presentation ‘Tutti – Exploring pathways to inclusivity for music composition in the classroom’ with Fiona Linnane. Composer Fiona Linnane will share her learnings, as an artist delivering schools residencies exploring music and sound, around what she has found to be the most inclusive approaches to music composition in the classroom.
12:15pm — Lunch & networking
1:15pm — Walk to MTU CCAD, Grand Parade
1:30pm – 3:00pm — Creative Workshop ‘Pigments from Nature’ with artist Julie O’Hea at MTU CCAD, Grand Parade. Visual artist Julie O’Hea will give a demonstration in ink making and hapa-zome pigment printing in a messy, fun and informative creative session.
– – – – – – – – –
3:30pm — Exhibition viewing and reception at Lord Mayor’s Pavilion
5:00pm — wrap up
Collaborative Arts in Education exhibition with Sample-Studios at the Lord Mayor’s Pavilion
The National Gallery of Ireland have released their spring programme for schools. Some highlights include:
ONSITE:
School Tour: Collection highlights (free)
Term Time. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays at 10am, 11am, 12pm and 1pm
Explore treasures of the national collection through engaging discussions with National Gallery expert guides on this free school tour. Focusing on dialogue, questioning, and creativity, this free tour will embolden students to look, respond, and form opinions. The tour will be tailored to the age and level of your group and is available in Irish, English or ISL.
The school tours are free but booking is essential. Book your tour here
Sketching Tour (€35)
Term Time. Thursdays at 12.30pm
Take a deeper look at the national collection on this sketching tour with an artist from the NGI’s guide panel. Use sketching to observe and respond to details and techniques. Your guide will select some key artworks to look at in depth on this tour. The tour will be tailored to the age and level of your group and is available in English.
Explore treasures of the national collection through engaging online discussions with one of their expert guides. Focusing on dialogue, questioning and creativity, the session will embolden students to look, respond and form opinions. The online session will be tailored to the age and level of your group and is available in Irish or English. You can choose from the following themes: Collection Highlights; Portraits; Irish Art; European Art.
Poetry Ireland is celebrating poetry in schools by offering this online collection of inspiring activities and ideas for teachers and children. Packed with poems and fun activities, this vibrant online resource encourages teachers, children and families nationwide to read, write, listen to, illustrate, perform, share – and above all enjoy
poetry.
The programme of events is now live on their website. This all-island celebration of poetry takes place on Thursday 27 April and the theme is ‘Message in a Bottle’.
They have more than 70 exciting events included in the programme encompassing Bangor, Belfast, Cork, Donegal, Drogheda, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, Kilkenny, Limerick, Mayo, New York, Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford, so far!
Department of Education: BLAST and Creative Clusters
Deadlines:
BLAST: 19th May 2023
Creative Clusters: 12th May 2023
The Minister for Education Norma Foley TD has invited primary and post-primary schools to apply for the arts in education initiative, Bringing Live Arts to Students and Teachers (BLAST) 2023 and Creative Clusters.
BLAST – Bringing Live Arts to Students and Teaches
BLAST will be running in 2023 for the third time. The 2023 programme will enable 425 new arts in education residencies in schools over the course of the year.
The aim of BLAST is to provide pupils in schools all over the country, time and the space to work with a professional artist on creative, imaginative and fun projects.
Each Creative Cluster will receive grant funding of €3,000 per school over a two-year period to implement their project in the 2023–2025 school years (e.g. a cluster of 3 schools would receive €9,000 over two years while a cluster of 5 schools would receive €15,000 over two years). Clusters will receive 50% of the total grant funding in Year 1, with the second 50% being provided in Year 2. In addition, but separate to the grant funding, all successful clusters are further supported with: A fully paid Creative Cluster Facilitator; paid Teacher Substitution to attend training and meetings; room hire, travel & subsistence.
Supported by The Arts Council Invitation to Collaboration Scheme and taking place throughout May and June, this exciting programme—Social Practice Toolkit: Children and Youth—is aimed at artists and arts workers who are keen to exchange knowledge and upskill in collaborative and participatory arts with children and young people.
The deadline for applications is midnight on Monday 10th April. Please contact sptoolkit2023@gmail.com with any queries.
The Portal Team are delighted to announce the first of the two recipients of the 2023 Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award. We are very excited to be working with each recipient in the coming months to document their projects. These projects will be showcased on the portal as the documentation progresses.
Project Title: ‘Keystone’
Keystone has been commissioned by Clare County Council to celebrate and mark 20 years of artist in schools programming by Clare Arts Office. The curatorial framework Art School directed and curated by Jennie Guy has been invited to deliver the project by artists Mitch Conlon and James Moran, with co-curator Fiona Gannon. The project has been taking place over the course of 2022 and 2023 in Coláiste Mhuire (Ennis) and Scoil Mhuire (Ennistymon) in Co. Clare, providing an opportunity for fifth year students to work with the artists to explore the significance of myth within local youth cultures.
The artists will work with the students to explore questions including: What are sites of mythological importance for teenagers in these two towns? Are these the same as those deemed important by the wider communities? And how do teenagers relate to the collective unconscious of their wider local communities?
Teacher: Mary Fahy
Mary Fahy is a visual artist from Galway and art teacher in Scoil Mhuire, Ennistymon since 2003. Commenting on the project she said: “Our 5th year art class are thrilled to be participating in this collaborative, socially engaged Artists in Schools project. It is an incredible opportunity for students to co-create art with professional artists in a supportive environment that centres their opinions and artistic voice.”
Teacher: Aidan Power
Aidan Power is an Art Teacher with Colaiste Muire, Ennis. On being part of the project he added: “We have a strong artistic tradition in music, performance and visual art which helps our students to nuture a sense of self while striving for academic success. Our 5th year art class will be taking part in this collaborative project which will develop their artistic skills in a new and exciting direction. The learned knowledge will go on to support future projects throughout their senior cycle art course.”
Artist: Mitch Conlon
Mitch Conlon is an artist originally from the West of Ireland currently based as a studio member within PS2, Belfast. He is a member of the Turner Prize winning group, Array Collective, a former director of Catalyst Arts, Belfast; was a co-director of online journal COLLECTED and Chairperson of Engage Studios, Galway.
Artist: James Moran
James Moran is an experimental comedian and theatre maker born and based in Dublin. Since 2014 he has written comedy shows for traditional and alternative venues; and he has also hosted several podcasts, including the leftist political Celtic Ligers and historical comedy Primordial Views.
About Art School
Art School is a collaborative project founded by Jennie Guy in 2014. Art School enables exchanges between contemporary artists and sites of education, creating opportunities for younger audiences to encounter and participate in the making and potential of art in society.
Creative Ireland
A new Creative Youth Plan for the period 2023-2027 was approved and launched by Government on Tuesday 28th March to further embed creativity into the centre of the lives of Ireland’s young people.
Building on the success of the first Creative Youth Plan 2017-2022, this new plan aims to provide everyone from birth to 24 years with more opportunities for creative engagement in every aspect of their lives. Across seven strategic objectives, the Creative Youth Plan will ensure children and young people retain a key voice in decision-making on its implementation and will prioritise those that are seldom heard and most at risk of disadvantage. Parents and caregivers, educators, artists, and creative practitioners will be supported to recognise the centrality and value of creativity to their lives.
The Creative Youth Plan 2023-2027 aims to enable the creative potential of children and young people, from birth to 24 years, prioritising those seldom heard and at risk of disadvantage
Under the new Creative Youth Plan, opportunities for creative engagement will reach tens of thousands of children and young people.
Children and young people to retain a key voice in decision-making on its implementation.
Impactful programmes such as the Local Creative Youth Partnerships, Cruinniú na nÓg, Creative Schools, Creative Clusters and BLAST to continue.
New €500,000 Creative Youth Nurture Fund to support pilot youth-led projects that prioritise seldom heard children and young people.
The launch was supported by a panel discussion between the Ministers and four young creatives with a music performance from Music Generation and a spoken word performance organised through Creative Schools.
Read more about the upcoming 5 years of Creative Youth here: https://artsineducation.ie/en/resource/creative-youth-plan-2023-2027/
Arts in Education Portal
Date: 27th April – 27 May
As part of this year’s Arts in Education Portal Spring Regional Day, we are delighted to be partnering with Sample-Studios in Cork city for a collaborative exhibition which will run for the month of May in their gallery at the Lord Mayor’s Pavillion. The exhibition will showcase work from artists in the field of arts and creativity in education based in the South-West region.
The exhibition will be launched as part of the 2023 Spring Regional Day which will take place on Saturday 6th May at MTU Crawford College of Art & Design in partnership with the Department of Arts in Health & Education, showcasing arts in education projects and creative practice in the South-West.
In November 2021, Sample-Studios Artistic Director, Aoibhie McCarthy and member and lead Education Programme tutor Kate McElroy presented to the National Arts in Education Portal Annual Conference about our Cork Creative Careers Programme and Cork Young Curators and Critics Programme. Through this connection as speakers, Sample-Studios and the Arts in Education Portal began a dialogue about the need to offer profile to arts educational practitioners in Munster, to stimulate knowledge sharing amongst peers and collaborations, as well as awareness amongst wider audiences about the important role of arts education and arts educators in the community.
Collaborating with Sample-Studios on an exhibition to complement the programme will present both this audience and a wider public audience with an opportunity to delve deeper into the creative practice shared on the day adding another layer of engagement. The exhibition is co-curated by the Arts in Education Portal team with Sample-Studios and invites keynote speakers and presenters at the Portal Regional Day to exhibit documentation and artwork from best practice examples of their own work. An opening reception for delegates will be held as part of the Regional Day programme.
Arts in Junior Cycle and the Abbey Theatre are delighted to present Tartuffe: Text to Performance. Open to teachers from all subject disciplines, Tartuffe: Text to Performance consists of an in-person workshop, a performance of Tartuffe and a follow-up online workshop.
In a new adaptation by Frank McGuinness, Molière’s 17th century classic has been updated to an Irish setting and will embrace the comedy’s humour and farce in which the villainous Tartuffe shocks and enthrals with his deceptive powers.
A key part of Tartuffe: Text to Performance includes attending a performance of the Abbey Theatre’s production of Tartuffe, directed by Abbey Theatre artistic director, Caitríona McLaughlin.
Tartuffe: Text to Performance offers opportunities to:
explore how a play in performance communicates its message to an audience.
collaborate, share ideas and reflect in a safe, supportive environment.
experience practical and creative methodologies that may be used in professional classroom practice.
As Tartuffe is an Abbey Theatre touring production, Tartuffe: Text to Performance is being they offered in Donegal and Cork.
Participants will register for ONE of these locations.
DONEGAL :
Saturday 6th May 2023:
Workshop: 10.30am – 1:00pm, Perfomance: 2:30pm
An Grianán Theatre, Letterkenny
Monday 8th May 2023:
Online Workshop: 6:00pm – 7:00pm
CORK :
Saturday 13th May 2023:
Workshop 10.30am – 1:00pm
Cork Education Support Centre
Performance 2.30pm
Cork Opera House
Monday 15th May 2023:
Online Workshop: 6:00pm – 7:00pm
Spaces are limited to a maximum of 20 participants for each workshop venue. A waiting list will apply. Register on www.artsinjuniorcycle.ie
CLOSING DATES FOR REGISTRATIONS: Friday 28 April at 4.30pm (Donegal) and Friday 5 May (Cork) or prior to these dates if the workshops have reached capacity.
The Ark
Dates: Thursday 18th May and Friday 19th May
An exciting new dance piece for children aged 4+ inspired by Aesop’s Fables, presented by The Ark, Dublin Dance Festival and Arts & Disability Ireland.
From acclaimed international choreographer, Marc Brew, The Race entwines three of Aesop’s Fables to create a fun, interactive and colourful world of animals, puppets, theatre and movement.
Cheer with the cast of animals as the Tortoise and the Hare set off for the finish line, join the Grasshopper in gazing with fascination as the Ants collect food for the winter ahead, and root for the little Mouse as she faces down the mighty Lion! Watch as their journeys unfold through beautiful movement and dance, and share in the lessons they learn along the way.
The Race will make its World Premiere as part of Dublin Dance Festival 2023. Presented by a cast of disabled and non-disabled dance artists, all performances have been created to offer an inclusive audience experience. The show is relaxed in nature and welcomes children who are neurodiverse.
School Day Performances Previews – Thursday 18th May, 10.15am & 12.15pm and Friday 19th May, 10.15am
Fri 19 May, 12.15pm
Schools’ Tickets: €6.50 (€5 Early Bird** if booked by 21 April). Teachers go free.
Creative Ireland have released their 2022 progress report A Creative Future, highlighting their initiatives throughout the year, including progress made under the Creative Youth Plan. Published in December 2017, the aims of the Creative Youth Plan are to give every child practical access to tuition, experience and participation in art, music, drama and coding by 2022.
Catherine Martin TD, Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, was delighted to announce the project will be extended until 2027.
Under the project 185 new schools and Youthreach facilities joined the Creative Schools programme. This includes the addition of four schools in alternative settings which will receive enhanced supports: Oberstown Children Detention Campus School; Ballydowd High Support Special School; Crannog Nua Special School, Portrane; and St Canice’s Special School, Limerick.
Other highlights include :
153 new schools joined 42 Creative Clusters around the country.
629 new school artist residencies were awarded under BLAST (Bringing Live Arts to Students and Teachers) for the 2022/2023 school year
Creative Schools is delighted to announce an exciting opportunity for artists, creative practitioners and individuals working in organisations in the arts and cultural sector.
The Arts Council wish to engage between 100 and 120 Creative Associates to work in up to 400 schools across the Republic of Ireland. Creative Associates are artists or creative practitioners with a deep understanding of creativity and its potential to transform the lives of children and young people. They are key to the success of the Creative Schools initiative. Individuals or organisations that wish to nominate an individual may apply for this opportunity.
Applications must be completed and submitted by 12 mid-day on Tuesday 18 April 2023.
Department of Education
The Minister for Education Norma Foley recently launched the new Primary Curriculum Framework for all primary and special schools.
The Primary Curriculum Framework will shape the work of all primary and special schools for the coming years. This is the first curriculum framework for primary education in Ireland. Under the framework, schools will have a dedicated structure underpinning learning, teaching and assessment.
The Primary Curriculum Framework is designed to cater for all primary and special schools and sets out the vision and principles for a redeveloped, modern curriculum.
The framework also introduces key competencies for children’s learning, setting out the main features and components for the full redevelopment of the primary school curriculum, detailing curriculum areas and subjects; and suggested time allocations. It introduces and expands aspects of learning including STEM Education, Modern Foreign Languages and a broader Arts education.
The Primary Curriculum Framework was developed by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) over a six-year period and draws on an extensive body of national and international research, working with a network of 60 primary schools, post-primary schools and preschools nationally, engaging closely with education partners and wider stakeholders, and conducting extensive consultation, including with primary school-aged children.
The Primary Curriculum Framework emphasises the importance of curriculum integration, inclusive practice, inquiry-based learning and playful pedagogy. The framework will guide the development of the specifications for each of the curriculum areas that will be introduced in the coming years.
The Safer Internet Day Awards are back and this year a special new category has been added for budding creatives.
NEW: Art Competition with special guest judge; Irish artist – Maser. Be in with a chance to have your work exhibited in a gallery! Simply design a poster under the Safer Internet Day theme Respect and Empathy Online.
Entries will be judged by International Irish Artist Maser.
Open to Primary and Post-Primary Schools.
Closing date March 31st.
Categories for Primary:
1st and 2nd Class | 3rd and 4th Class | 5th and 6th Class
Categories for Post-Primary:
1st and 2nd Year | Transition Year | 5th and 6th Year
How to submit your entry:
Post your entry to: Webwise / PDST Technology in Education, Innovation House DCU Alpha, Old Finglas Rd, Dublin 11, D11 KXN4
Include the following information: Name, school, teacher’s contact details, category you are entering, and a brief description of the poster.
Baboró are inviting applications from multidisciplinary artists with experience working with children for Creating Space, a two-year collaborative project with a Galway primary school that will begin this summer and conclude in 2025.
This is an opportunity for experienced multidisciplinary and performing artists who are passionate about the positive impact the creative arts can make on young lives. The selected artist will design and deliver a plan for creative classroom engagements and activities which will take place from autumn 2023 until spring 2025.
If you would like to find out more about Creating Space, you can join Baboró for an online information session via Zoom on Tuesday 21 March at 3pm. RSVP to receive the Zoom link here: https://forms.gle/aCZk1KuYQYW3STkF6
FÍS Film Awards 2023
Cappawhite National School in Tipperary have been crowned winners of ‘FÍS Film of the Year’ at the FÍS Film Awards 2023, which have taken place at The Helix, DCU, Dublin.
The movie, entitled ‘The Christmas Truce of 1914’ recounts the fabled ceasefire between British and German soldiers on the Western Front during World War I. It also scooped the Outstanding Cinematography prize. The FÍS Film Awards 2023 recognises the creative talents of primary school children across Ireland.
The Awards, hosted by RTE’s Sinead Kennedy, is a collaboration between the Institute of Art, Design and Technologyand the Professional Development Service for Teachers It was devised as a grassroots initiative to nurture Ireland’s future moviemaking talent by encouraging them to devise, develop, produce, and submit their short films for consideration in a range of categories. The event was co-produced by students of IADT’s National Film School and streamed live on the official FÍS website.
Some other 2023 winners include :
Lackamore NS, Tipperary – Outstanding Achievement in Filmmaking – Adaptation – Na Trí Mhuc
Carrig N.S, Offaly – Award for Best Comedy – The Villains
Strawberry Hill NS, Cork – Outstanding Achievement in Filmmaking – Production Design – The Normans
Gaelscoil Riabhach, Galway – An Scannán Is Fearr as Gaeilge – Fáilte go dtí An Córas Díleá
Commenting on this year’s awards, FÍS Manager from The Institute of Art, Design & Technology, Bernadette Meagher said: “The judges had a tough task at this year’s event, the standard and ambition of the entries was so high, not to mention the creativity. We congratulate every one of the children involved, along with their teachers, on their well-deserved awards……”
National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA)
Deadline: 31st March, 5pm
NCCA is seeking the views of a range of parties, including education stakeholders, practising teachers and students who are interested in contributing to this Early Insights Review. There are several ways to participate in the consultation:
Via an Online Survey
Make a written submission, using our template, Visual Art Written Submission” in the subject line.
Register to attend a regional focus group:
Dublin: Ashling Hotel – 21st March Limerick: Strand Hotel – 14th March Galway city: Harbour Hotel – 28th March
These focus groups will take place during the day from 10:30am – 1:00pm. Places are limited and registration remains open until one week in advance of each focus group.
This review process will close on Friday, 31st March at 5pm.
The National Museum of Ireland (NMI) is inviting schools and teachers across Ireland to spring into culture and heritage with a new programme of tours, activities and resources for onsite and online engagement.
The museum has just launched a diverse range of events across four public sites in Dublin and Mayo. Activities include virtual tours, guided tours, self-guided visits, workshops, classroom resources, video resources, wordsearches, arts and crafts and more.
The curriculum-linked programme aims to spark curiosity, stimulate discussion and encourage cultural and heritage engagement through our national collections.
All schools visits are free but must be booked in advance as capacity is limited and varies from site to site.
Learn some basic map reading and navigation skills and complete an orienteering course around the grounds of the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life at Turlough Park in Co Mayo. Booking is required.
Use these curriculum-linked activity sheets and video resource to learn more about Ice Age Ireland. In this museum activity, find out about Ice Age Ireland, learn about fossils and the different kinds of animals that lived on your doorstep thousands of years ago.
The Portal Team is delighted to invite teachers, artists and anyone with an interest in arts and creativity in education to save the date and join us for the 2023 Portal Spring Regional Day. This year’s event will take place on Saturday, 6th May at MTU Crawford College of Art & Design in partnership with the Department of Arts in Health & Education, showcasing arts in education projects and creative practice in the South-West.
We invite regional audiences to connect with us during a series of events, where practitioners can learn more about the Portal and what it offers, tell us about their work, connect with the community at regional level, share practice and find out what opportunities or events are available in their local area. We welcome teachers, artists, arts managers and anyone with an interest in arts in education to join us for this free event.
For those who can’t join us in person on the day we will be recording the main talks and presentations which be available to watch back online following the event.
Stay tuned for the full schedule and booking details which will be announced in the coming weeks. Pre-booking will be essential.
Call for Applications: Writers in Schools Scheme
Deadline: ongoing
The Writers in Schools Scheme part-funds visits by writers and storytellers to primary and post-primary schools throughout the island of Ireland. This scheme is co-funded by the Arts Council in the Republic of Ireland and administered by Poetry Ireland.
Applications are open on an ongoing basis from poets, novelists, storytellers, teen fiction writers, children’s writers, playwrights and screenwriters to join the Writers in Schools directory.
Over the past 22 years, the scheme has given more than 500,000 children the chance to work closely with writers in the classroom. A comprehensive professional development and support programme for successful applicants is delivered by Poetry Ireland before they are enlisted to the directory of writers.
Prospective applicants can find out more information on the scheme, including eligibility criteria and the online application form from the following link:
The Catalyst International Film Festival will host the 4th edition of the festival in Limerick from 30th March to 1st April 2023, presenting a film programme that celebrates diverse stories and storytellers currently under-represented on screen and behind the camera.
After a hugely successful schools’ screening last year and taking on board feedback from teachers they have expanded their schools programme for 2023 and are very excited to share their plans and officially open bookings! This is a great opportunity for young people to experience filmmaking from the ground up and find out if a career in film is for them.
In 2023, IMMA will present an exhibition spanning 20 years of Sarah Pierce’s practice, to the present. IMMA is seeking expressions of interest from Transition Year students to participate in a day-long project with the artist in April/May (date to be confirmed). Students will participate in the presentation of the artwork The Square. The Square uses Bertolt Brecht’s Lehrstück – or learning play – as a starting point for developing a new work with students. In this experimental “play without a script” the students are the authors, cast and audience. The performance takes place during the time of the exhibition in the gallery space, as the performers interact and migrate around and among the visitors. There are no characters, no plot or other narrative devices. This is a roaming set of memorised chants and gestures that speak quite abstractly to ideas of learning and gathering, and what it means to act, make and be together.
A new exhibition of digital and photographic works created by learners at Leitrim Youthreach opened in The Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon on Friday, February 3.
Visual arts, painting and photography are some of the creative modules taught at Leitrim Youthreach based in Mohill. The exhibition is on view in The Jury Room Café until 31st March.
The artworks, created for the project Envision, blend digital art and photography techniques. Each artist directed the theme and technique to suit their individual vision. Some of the techniques used include digital drawing, long exposure, blended exposure, and digital/physical assemblage. The students were supported in creating their artworks by their art teacher David Smith.
This project has been kindly supported by the Local Creative Youth Partnership and The Dock Arts Centre.
Branar are inviting applications for the Digital Arts Flag programme for schools. This is a whole school initiative to promote and reward arts engagement in schools. Schools are chosen each year to engage in the initiative through a series of workshops presented online.
Open to schools across Ireland, 10 bespoke workshops across 5 different artforms have been created by Branar Artists for junior and senior classes to do in the comfort of their classrooms.
Each class will receive:
A link to the video workshops (5 for junior classes, 5 for senior classes)
An Educational Resource Pack to accompany each workshop
Public Engagement Artist Kate McElroy invites primary school teachers to take part in a tour and workshop at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre.
This will include:
– An exhibition tour of The Most Recent Forever an exhibition by Brian Fay
– A visit to an artist’s studio to see the process of making
– An art workshop exploring creativity – No art experience necessary
– A small take home ‘goody bag’ of materials
The aim of this tour and workshop is to help facilitate effective strategies for teaching art in the classroom through looking, talking and making. Kate will guide teachers through a tour of the artworks and a workshop, modelling methods that can effectively be incorporated into Art lessons in the classroom.
The tour and workshop will take and hour and a half, break included, Tea and coffee provided.
This consultation invites artists, early years educators and all early learning and care stakeholders to use and explore these draft principles and test their validity in practice.
While the draft principles were conceived from an early learning and care perspective the Department also wish to explore their relevance and the ways in which they may be adapted to better support engagement with the arts in school-age childcare. All school age childcare stakeholders are invited also to use and test these draft principles.
Findings from this consultation will inform the finalised publication of the principles, the development of practice resource materials and accompanying CPD training.
Read the discussion paper ‘ Facilitating the Arts in Early Learning and Care: Towards Best Practice Principles’ and share your comments and suggestions here.
Solstice Arts Centre
11th February – 31st March 2023
Solstice Arts Centre have a number of events in their spring programme for schools, teachers and artists.
Primary School Gallery Tours using Visual Thinking Strategies
Look, listen and respond to artworks by Sinéad Ní Mhaonaigh in her current exhibition ‘Deep Mapping: Unseen Landscapes ‘. Encouraging peer-to-peer discussion, this is an opportunity for children and teachers to focus and reflect on multiple perspectives, enhancing engagement and enjoyment of learning through art. To conclude, learn about the artist and her work, inspiring you to create artworks back in the classroom!
Secondary School Gallery Tours using Visual Thinking Strategies
Broaden creative thinking through oral and visual literacy by exploring works in our current exhibition by Irish artist Sinéad Ní Mhaonaigh . Using Visual Thinking Strategies, this is an opportunity for students to investigate, analyse and reflect on multiple perspectives, and assist in the development of imaginative and innovative ideas. Using cross-curricular links and learning through art, these sessions support the Junior and Senior Cycle, placing students at the centre of the learning process. Upon visiting Solstice, Senior Cycle students will receive specific information that embraces the three strands – Research, Create and Respond (visual and written responses), with particular focus on Content Area 3: Today’s World of the New Appreciating Art Visual Studies for Leaving Certificate curriculum.
For all queries and bookings email Deirdre: deirdre.rogers@solsticeartscentre.ie
Arts Council of Ireland
Creative Schools Week 2023
The Creative Schools Team at The Arts Council is delighted to invite your school to join Creative Schools Week 2023 which will run from the 8 – 12 May. Creative Schools Week is a celebration of creativity in schools within curricular subjects or in separate projects and activities.
The theme for Creative Schools Week 2023 is ‘Creativity Lives Here! / Tá Beocht na Cruthaitheachta Anseo!’. The theme encourages school communities to pause and reflect on where creativity is evident in our lives, in every class, in every school and in the experience of every student.
There will be a Teacher Drop-In informational session on 8 March 4:30pm-5:30pm via Zoom. If you are a teacher interested in participating in Creative Schools Week 2023, please join us by registering for the session here: https://buytickets.at/creativeschools/858237.
Creative Schools 2023 online information clinics
The Creative Schools team is running a series of online information clinics in March for teachers and Principals in schools and Youthreach centres who are curious about joining the Creative Schools programme in autumn 2023. The team will explain the programme and how to apply, and there will be plenty of time for questions.
Clinics take place online on 20, 21 and 22 March at 16.00-17.00.Further information and the link to book your place is available here.
This article was updated March 2nd 2023 to add details of the Teacher Drop-in session for Creative Schools Week.
FÍS Film Project
The FÍS Film Project Teacher Resources support teachers to introduce live-action and stop motion animation filmmaking into the Primary Classroom with interactive lessons, teacher perspectives and technical guides.
The online FÍS Teacher Resources are well designed individual lesson plans which can be used in isolation or as a complete course. The course outlines all the skills and activities involved in making a film with the emphasis being on the children being the creators/doers, and the teacher as the facilitator of the learning.
FÍS helps develop active learning, creative thinking, language, imagination, collaborative learning and problem-solving skills, as well as giving children hands-on experience of using technology as part of the filmmaking process. For children this project provides them with an outlet to express themselves and showcase their talents in an educational but non-academic way which can do wonders for children’s confidence and attitude towards learning.
The FÍS Film Project is an initiative of the Department of Education in a collaborative partnership between the Institute of Art, Design & Technology’s FÍS Office and the Professional Development Service for Teachers (Technology in Education Dept.) The project started during the 1999/2000 school year. The FÍS methodology supports teachers to introduce film making in a cross-curricular way into their primary school classroom. After a successful 3-year pilot, the project was mainstreamed and the annual national FÍS Film Awards Competition was also launched and remains a highly successful outcome of the FÍS Film Project to this day.
To access the FÍS Teacher Resources, please visit https://fisfilmproject.ie/teacher-resources/
You will also details about the annual FÍS Film Awards Competition and videos of the shortlisted national finalists.
A selection of some national and local funding opportunities for professional artists working in arts and creativity in education with open deadlines in February and March 2023.
Arts Council of Ireland
Applications are currently open for funding from the Arts Council of Ireland, including Agility Awards and Bursary Awards in a number of art forms.
The Young People, Children and Education Bursary Award supports the professional development of artists by enabling them to spend time developing their practice. The award is specifically focussed on helping artists to improve their capacity to develop or present high-quality arts experiences with or for children and young people. It is open to individual artists and practitioners working in a creative capacity in any artform, including arts facilitators, curators or programmers. Deadline: 5:30pm, 9 February 2023 More info:https://www.artscouncil.ie/Funds/Young-People,-Children,-and-Education-Bursary-Award/
The Agility Award aims to support individual professional freelance artists and arts workers at any stage in their careers to develop their practice, their work, or their skills. Deadline: 5.30pm, 9th February 2023 More info:https://www.artscouncil.ie/Funds/Agility-Award-2023/
Fingal County Council
Fingal County Council is delighted to announce the 2023 Artists’ Support Scheme. This strand of funding allows professional artists to avail of up to €5,000 of an award towards travel and professional development opportunities, a residency, or towards the development of work. Deadline: 4pm, February 24, 2023 More info:http://fingalarts.ie/news/fingal-artists-support-scheme-2023
Galway Arts Office
Galway County Arts Office invites applications from individual artists to develop their arts practice and artistic career under their Artist Support Scheme. The scheme is open to professional artists residing in County Galway at all stages of their career, working in any artform and context. Deadline: 4pm, February 13, 2023 More info: https://www.galway.ie/en/services/arts/funding/bursary/
Laoise Arts Office
Laois County Council has announced details of grants and opportunities to support the development and presentation of creative and artistic projects in the county in 2023. Through the Artists in Schools Scheme 2023, grants are available for artists’ residencies in schools, to include all art forms. This scheme gives primary and post primary schools the opportunity to select and work with professional artists and explore new arts media. Deadline: 5pm, 17th February 2023 More info: https://laois.ie/departments/arts/grants-schemes/artists-in-schools-scheme/
Limerick City and County Council
Limerick City and County Council offers grant funding to amateur, community or voluntary groups, or organisations, and individual arts practitioners, which in the opinion of the authority, will stimulate public interest in the arts, promote the knowledge, appreciation and practice of the arts or assist in improving the standards of the arts. Deadline: 4pm, 22 February 2023 More info: https://www.limerick.ie/council/services/community-and-leisure/culture-and-arts/funding-schemes-and-bursaries/limerick-0
Mayo Arts Office
The Mayo Artist Bursary Award is now open for applications. The Artist Bursary Award aims to support the work of professional artists, working in any artform, at all stages of their career, currently resident in Mayo. Deadline: 5pm, March 16th, 2023 More info: https://www.mayo.ie/arts/funding/mayoartistbursary
Wicklow Arts Office
This year Wicklow County Council Arts Office are currently accepting applications under their Artist Award Scheme 2023. The scheme assists professional artists in the development of artistic practice by enabling them to explore meaningful ways to make work, test out innovative thinking and grow new ideas. The award supports professional practising artists to develop or realise a particular body of work or to undertake professional development. Deadline: 4pm, February 27, 2023 More info: https://www.wicklow.ie/Living/Services/Arts-Heritage-Archives/Arts/Funding-Support-Opportunities/Arts-Act-Funding
All information is correct at the time of publishing.
National Gallery of Ireland
Thursday, 9 Feb 2023, 6pm
Find out more about the National Gallery’s Teachers & Schools programme and network with colleagues over a glass of wine.
Jennie Taylor, curator of the Zurich Young Portrait Prize, and artist Grainne Moloney Minehan will lead a tour of the exhibition and discussion on supporting students entering the prize.
Explore My Primary School is at the Museum, our special project with 4th class students from John Scottus National School, the latest school in residence.
National Gallery of Ireland Teacher Network Facebook Group
This online group is an active place for collaboration, peer learning and idea exchange. Meet teachers from across Ireland and beyond, and help shape the National Gallery’s schools programme, connect here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/NationalGalleryIRLTeacherNetwork/.
Schools Programme
The National Gallery offer onsite and online experiences for schools including guided tours and online sessions. Schools can also arrange to visit the Gallery as a self-guided group. Full details on their current programme can be viewed from the following link:
Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media Catherine Martin, has today announced funding of €300,000 for Minding Creative Minds as part of the Safe to Create Programme. This brings the Department’s overall allocation for the Safe to Create Programme to €782,000. Minding Creative Minds is Ireland’s (32 county and Irish overseas) first 24/7 mental health and wellbeing support programme for the Irish Creative community delivered in association with Spectrum Life.
With the launch of the Safe to Create Programme last October, Minding Creative Minds announced an enhancement of its service to include specialist trauma and abuse counselling care. This service enables crucial support for anyone who has experienced trauma or sexual abuse and ensures that they can access immediate support and up to 12 free counselling sessions from a trauma counsellor immediately.
Minding Creative Minds offers a range of other in-house services to the Irish Creative Sector which includes a comprehensive Career and Mentoring service incorporating all creative art forms and a monthly peer support meeting which offers support, advice and resources to the Irish Creative Community.
The Minding Creative Minds programme includes access to a number of additional services to help users overcome various practical issues they may face including:
Advice on practical, day-to-day issues that cause anxiety and stress.
Legal Assistance
Financial Assistance & Consumer Assistance
Career Guidance & Life Coaching
Support for non-Irish nationals & their families
Mediation Services
Announcing the funding, Minister Martin commented:
“The Safe to Create Programme which I launched in October of last year, is built on the stark findings of The Speak Up: A Call for Change Report. The Speak Up report included key findings that the majority of those surveyed had experienced (70%) or witnessed (53%) harmful behavior. Minding Creative Minds is working closely with the Irish Theatre Institute, is an integral part of the Safe to Create Programme and is helping to lead the way to improving the damaging norms in the arts sector for the benefit of all arts workers.”
Children’s Books Ireland will host their first virtual artists’ coffee morning of 2023 on Tuesday, 24th January. This is part of a recurring series of informal yet informative gatherings on Zoom where artists creating work for children and young adults can hang out, learn from experts about something pertinent to their work and meet others in their creative area.
At this free coffee morning, hear from Executive Librarian with Kildare Library & Arts Service Amye Quigley. In what promises to be a practical and informative session, Amye will give an overview of programming strands within Kildare Library & Arts Services, detail what she looks for in a facilitator or artist and outline their funding, invoicing and accounts procedure.
If you would like to attend please email aoife@childrensbooksireland.ie by 5pm on Monday 23rd January.
The Minister for Education Norma Foley recently announced the awarding of BLAST residencies to 629 schools in 2022-2023, the second year of the BLAST (Bringing Live Arts to Students and Teachers) programme. Minister Foley also welcomed the creation of an additional 21 Creative Clusters for 2022-2024, comprising a further 77 primary and post-primary schools. This doubles the number of participating schools and clusters this year, up from 21 clusters announced already in September 2022, in response to the demand from schools.
The BLAST programme has seen a significant increase in residencies from the 489 primary and post-primary schools that took part in the programme in its first year and demonstrates the strong interest and engagement from schools in working with creative professionals through this programme.
Minister Foley said:
“Creative thinking and creative expression benefit our students both by providing opportunities for learning and through enhancing wellbeing. Engaging in creative projects enables children and young people to express themselves, provides them with opportunities for connection and collaboration, and gives them the space to explore new ideas and learn new skills.”
School Clusters in this year include, for example, one cluster of schools that cater for students with autism, which aims to create tactile and interactive outdoor play areas, and another cluster of primary schools working together to create a shared interest and knowledge of coding. Such varied themes reflect the local experience and unique perspectives of each cluster, and demonstrate how students can benefit from creative engagement in multiple ways.
The Minister has also welcomed the publication of the research and evaluation report, Creative Clusters: A Collaborative Approach to Cultivating Creativity in Schools. This report, commissioned by the department, provides a valuable assessment of the strengths of the programme and contains recommendations to further strengthen the design, delivery and reach of Creative Clusters.
To read the full statement from the Department of Education, visit: https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/8a543-minister-foley-welcomes-hundreds-of-additional-schools-to-creative-clusters-and-blast-arts-programme/
Cork ETB
Cork ETB recently launched their Arts in Education Strategy 2022-2026. The Strategy outlines the importance of the arts and provides a framework for arts education and the promotion of the arts and supporting their implementation throughout Cork ETB.
Minister for Education, Norma Foley attended Nano Nagle Place in Cork City on Friday 2nd December where she launched Cork ETB’s Arts in Education Strategy 2022-2026.
The Arts in Education Strategy outlines the importance of the arts and provides a framework for arts education and the promotion of the arts and supporting their implementation throughout all of Cork ETB’s primary, post primary and further education and training facilities.
The implementation plan includes the following five key points and their respective objectives:
Awareness: develop and create a space for the Arts in all its forms
Inclusivity: to promote and deploy Arts Education as a valuable tool for promoting social inclusion, community engagement, well-being and fostering lifelong learning
Partnership: develop existing relationships while nurturing the development of new partnerships and joint ventures
Value: to foster and promote creativity by encouraging schools and centre’s to give parity of esteem to creative subjects
Quality: provision of appropriate supports and resources to provide for quality teaching and learning in the Arts
Speaking at the launch, Minister Foley praised Cork ETB for their efforts to enable better integration and promotion of the arts in their education entities.
She said: “It was a joy for me to be invited to launch the Cork Education and Training Board’s Arts in Education Strategy 2022 – 2026. I strongly believe that inclusive access to the arts can nurture, inspire and innovate all our students and young learners. The Arts in Education Strategy today clearly identifies Cork ETB’s commitment to the arts and provides a framework for the way forward for all stakeholders. It was a pleasure to officially launch this milestone strategy in the presence of such vibrant performers and talented musicians.”
Baboró recorded three talks during the 2022 festival discussing early years arts education, sectoral sustainability and artist development, which they have now made available for streaming.
The Baboró podcast is available to listen on Spotify or Apple.
Opening Doors
In this discussion, a roundtable of makers, educators and thinkers explored models of practice to aid artists in the creation of work for very young audiences in early years education and crèche settings.
The panel featured Gaëtane Reginster (Théâtre de la Guimbarde, Belgium), Marc Mac Lochlainn (Branar, Ireland) and Dr. Rita Melia (Atlantic Technological University, Ireland). Chaired by Marianne Kennedy (University of Galway, Ireland).
Towards Sustainability
In partnership with Branar’s Meitheal Initiative, this panel discussion explored models of practice which support the sustainable development of career paths for independent artists making work for young audiences.
The panel featured Tony Reekie (Catherine Wheels, Scotland), Kate Cross (The Egg, England), Dan Colley and Matt Smyth (Creators of ‘The Man with Enormous Wings’ and formerly Collapsing Horse, Ireland), Emer McGowan (Draíocht, Ireland). Chaired by Linda Geraghty (Branar/Meitheal, Ireland).
Meitheal is a pilot creative support initiative committed to the development and presentation of performing arts for young audiences across Ireland. Devised by Branar, funded by the Arts Council.
Reflecting on LEAP
The participants and stakeholders of Baboró’s LEAP artist support programme discussed the pilot project’s development and execution.
The panel featured Rachel Baltz (Baboró, Ireland), Alexandra Craciun (LEAP Participant, Romania and Ireland), Fernanda Ferrari (LEAP Participant, Brazil and Ireland), Justyna Cwojdzińska (LEAP Participant, Poland and Ireland), Ionia Ní Chróinín (Moonfish, Ireland) Jo Cummins (Moonfish, Ireland) and Maeve Stone (Cracking Light Productions, Ireland). Chaired by Dr. Charlotte McIvor (Drama and Theatre Studies, University of Galway, Ireland).
The Creative Ireland South Dublin programme wishes to commission an Early Years Irish Language artwork. This commission will be delivered in collaboration with children from Naíonra Chrónáin located on the grounds of Áras Chrónáin in Clondalkin.
The expectations of the commission are:
Early Years children (0-6years) will be engaged with the creation process of the work and their voice will lead the way
Close collaboration with the teachers at Naíonra Chrónáin to create artwork that could be a model for other Early Years facilities, while remaining feasible for the space of the Naíonra.
The duration of the commission will be discussed with the awarded creative (s) but likely duration is one year.
Objectives
Develop process to work with young children in project creation
Create a model for other educators and practitioners to work in Early Years Arts and Irish Language
Create a participant-led piece of work
Award Amount
The commission is for €30,000 inclusive of VAT
Timeline
Applications closing date 5pm 20th January 2023
Assessment will take place week of the 23rd January 2023
Award Notification first week of February
Applications
For more detailed information on the application process and to submit an application, please visit: https://www.sdcc.ie/en/services/sport-and-recreation/arts/creative-ireland/
Irish Film Institute School Programme 2022/23
The Irish Film Institute is delighted to offer a brand new programme of films selected for students across primary and post-primary levels, available in-cinema at IFI Dublin or regional venue and online through IFI@Schools. This year includes exciting collaborations with the Irish National Opera, IMMA, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland/BAI and An Chomhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta & Gaelscolaíochta/COGG.
IFI@Schools supplements the in-cinema programme, offering further ways of incorporating film into your teaching, including rewatching key scenes or choosing from a wider range of content for other subjects such as history, geography, music, art, Gaeilge, English and more.
Screenings for the French language selection include Mes Fréres et moi (My Brothers and I) and King in partnership with the Ambassade De France en Irelande. Screenings for the German language selection includes Der Pfad (The Path) and Klammer in partnership with GEOTHE Institut.
Artists, teachers, academics and arts education professionals… Would you like to be part of the Portal Spring Regional Day? The Arts in Education Portal Team are seeking submissions for presentations for the Portal Spring Regional Day 2023 with a focus on the South-West Region. This regional event will take place in Cork City on 6th May 2023.
The event aims to connect teachers, artists, arts managers and anyone with an interest in art and creativity in education based in Cork, Kerry, Limerick and Tipperary. Practitioners can learn more about the Portal and what it offers, tell us about their work, connect with the community at regional level, share practice and find out what opportunities or events are available in their local area.
We are inviting proposals from organisations or individuals who are involved in arts and creative projects in education in the South-West, and who want to give inspiring presentations or workshops that can offer sharing of skills, practical approaches, new insights and critical thinking across the field, from a range of perspectives.
The 2023 event will also include an accompanying exhibition in partnership with Sample Studios at their gallery in the Lord Mayor’s Pavilion, Fitzgerald Park. The exhibition will be an opportunity for artists from successful proposals to exhibit their own work. The exhibition will run from 27th April to 27th May.
Do you have a presentation that you would like to be included in the programme for the Portal Spring Regional Day? If so, please download our Proposal form from the link below. If you have any questions please get in touch by email to editor@artsineducation.ie.
Further Information
The programme includes two project presentations with up to two presenters.
The Arts in Education Portal editorial team are pleased to invite applications for a documentation award. Through the award, successful applicants will receive services to the value of €5,000 that will support them in the documentation of a current or upcoming project and a €500 stipend.
The purpose of the award is to support the development of documented outcomes from Arts in Education initiatives in Ireland, which can be shared with the arts in the education community and give insights into different processes of engagement. This is part of the Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee’s commitment to supporting and recognising the value of documentation and reflection as key components within arts in education initiatives.
Two awards will be offered through this opportunity.
Outcomes of the documentation process will include: a project video, a project feature to be showcased on the Portal’s Projects/Partnerships, and the option of a critical essay, with a view to also presenting the work as part of the Arts in Education Portal National Day in 2023.
The process will involve meetings with the Portal Team and a schedule of up to 2 visits over the course of the project to capture video and photographic documentation and support reflective processes among participants. These visits and meetings can be conducted virtually if required. The portal team will work closely with the recipients to ensure all restrictions and protocols in terms of COVID-19 are adhered to during the process to ensure safety for all involved.
The portal team will edit and produce a project video and will liaise closely with the project partners to develop the content for the project feature. The critical essay would be cited in the Portal’s Reading Room and is optional. The author and focus of the essay can be decided by the project organisers in collaboration with the Portal Team.
Criteria
To be considered for this opportunity, projects must:
Have started in Autumn 2022 and continue into 2023, or take place in 2023. Please note if selected, filming of engagement sessions will take place after 20th March 2023.
Have a minimum duration of 8 weeks.
Involve a professional artist working collaboratively within an educational setting (early years, primary or post-primary).
Be underpinned by a strong ethos of collaboration and a commitment to excellence. Focus on the creative process, with children having an active and collaborative role
Additional criteria
Successful applicants will be asked to ensure that relevant permissions/consent have been sought for the documentation of participants.
Please ensure your application has been approved by all project partners prior to submission.
Deadline for submission is 5pm, Friday 24 February 2023.
The Big Idea
The multi-award winning free creative programme The Big Idea has been designed to empower students with the 21st century skills they need. Developed by educational and industry experts, students will have the opportunity to gain transferable skills to support them in tackling the problems they might face.
The Big Idea consists of a full 12-week creative programme of learning resources for Transition Year students, LCA students or Youthreach students. Joining The Big Idea programme provides teachers with a teaching pack to support in-class activities regardless of their school context.
As the facilitators of the programme, teachers are supported every step of the way. All resources are digitally formatted with two lessons per week. The adaptable format can be used for either a 40-minute class or a 1-hour class with teacher prompts and lesson plans included. With built-in assessment structures and additional class materials.
A nationwide network of professional experts share knowledge directly with your students, supporting them in their project development. The team at The Big Idea match student teams with their industry Mentors giving them the opportunity to gain advice on next steps, ask questions to get students thinking, ask them things to consider or offer resources to explore.
For participating students, they are provided with the materials needed to engage in the programme from – a LEGO pack for systems thinking exercises, a sketch book to capture brainstorming and reflection, all the stationary needed to engage in lessons and activities, and some other surprises.
The programme is open to teachers from all subject areas and runs between January to May.
Registration is now open for new schools to join the programme, for further information on the initiative and apply, please visit: https://thebigidea.ie/teachers/
The film is based on a beloved 1948 fantastical children’s novel by Ruth Stilies Gannett about Elmer Elevator, a boy who runs away from home to rescue Boris, a captive baby dragon trapped on a wild island.
The exhibition combines the expertise of Butler Gallery’s exhibition team with Cartoon Saloons worldwide reach and distinctive style to develop an immersive, sensory and child-centred exhibition experience that will captivate audiences of all ages.
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Learning and Public Engagement Programme:
As with previous collaborations with Cartoon Saloon, Butler Gallery will deliver an extensive programme of public engagement for children and adults that will include themes such as children’s resilience and problem solving, addressing mental health issues while coping with a crisis, and celebrating the films art and artists. Learning and Public Engagement events will include: tailored inclusive activities for children and young people; interactive visits for schools and groups that encourage creativity through hands-on making; a talk series and masterclasses with Cartoon Saloon animators, editors and directors; and an animator-in-residence programme.
To book an interactive visit for your school* contact Butler Gallery at: learning@butlergallery.ie or +353 (0)56 7761106
*Bookings for groups of over 5 is essential.
The exhibition is also complemented by the screening of The Making of My Father’s Dragon which is on view in the Digital Gallery (duration 5 mins 24 secs)
Fighting Words in partnership with DCU Institute of Education, has launched Creativity and Creative Writing in Education, an online course to equip educators with the methodologies, evidence and resources to build your understanding of the importance and benefits of creativity for learners, and to strengthen your confidence and interest in creative engagement and creative writing.
Presented in six 40-minute sessions, the course focuses on the Fighting Words creative writing model as an approach, looking at the associated development of communication skills, critical thinking, self-efficacy and resilience in the young people.
Enrolment is open on an ongoing basis; participants can complete the course in their own time and a certificate of completion is provided from Fighting Words.
Collaboration between Fighting Words and the DCU Institute of Education started in the early days of Fighting Words and has only grown and expanded over the years. In 2018, the relationship evolved to a formal partnership between Fighting Words and Institute of Education, funded by the Department of Education. The purpose of the collaboration is to progress creative writing and creative engagement in education through teacher education and research.
Carlow Arts Festival & VISUAL Carlow
Deadline: 6th January, 2023, 5pm
Carlow Arts Festival, in partnership with VISUAL Carlow, are seeking a Creative Director to lead on the co-creation of the Carlow Carnival of Collective Joy in 2023. The Creative Director will work in collaboration with a choreographer and children aged between 8-12 years from across Carlow County to design and deliver this project. The role will be supported by the creative teams at both Carlow Arts Festival and VISUAL Carlow.
In 2022 we delivered our first Carnival of Collective Joy and are delighted to bring this tradition into our 2023 festival programme. The Creative Director will lead on the design, planning and facilitation of the creative aspects of this project, delivering workshops that inspire creativity and curiosity across four schools over 12 weeks from March to June 2023. The Carnival will be presented as part of Carlow Arts Festival programme on Saturday the 10th June.
Experience
The candidate will be required to have a wide level of experience and a track-record in workshop facilitation, design and making for spectacle and installation events with children and young people.
Resource Supporting Content Area 3: Today’s World – Senior Cycle New Appreciating Art Visual Studies
Using cross-curricular links, and learning through art, this resource supports students completing their Junior and Senior Cycle studies. Designed to assist teachers and students in how to assess and evaluate an exhibition in the Solstice Arts Centre gallery, it includes:
Background information on Solstice Arts Centre and its functions;
The technical and curatorial requirements of the exhibition including display, layout, lighting, and the gallery’s role in interpreting an exhibition for visitors.
An in-depth look at the current exhibition SURVEYOR 2022 and three of the artworks
Assisting Senior Cycle students to investigate, analyse and reflect on multiple perspectives, this information embraces the three strands – Research, Create and Respond, with particular focus on Unit 14 in Content Area 3: Today’s World of the New Appreciating Art Visual Studies for Leaving Certificate curriculum.
To help students understand and analyse the work of other artists and assist in their development of imaginative and innovative ideas, students and teachers are encouraged to combine this resource with –
Solstice Gallery is open Tuesday-Saturday 11am-4pm.
This exhibition runs until 21 Dec 2022.
For more information or to make a booking please contact Deirdre Rogers, Solstice Visual Arts Facilitation & Public Engagement Coordinator deirdre.rogers@solsticeartsccentre.ie
The conference was officially opened by John Walsh, Head of School, TU Dublin School of Art and Design, and later in the day John facilitated a tour of part of the East Quad campus giving delegates a look at the state-of-the-art facilities available to students.
With a special focus placed on ‘Seldom Heard Voices’, the day then unfolded out to the usual mix of presentations, smaller discussion-led presentations and creative workshops addressing this theme. The National Day also served as an opportunity for colleagues from the International Teacher-Artist Partnership (I-TAP-PD) PD Project to explore and share emerging learnings through two multiplier sessions within the Erasmus+ KA2 Initiative 2020-2023.
Image Credit: keynote speaker Dame Evelyn Glennie in conversation with Mark O’Brien, Executive Director The Abbey. Photograph by Cían Flynn, lookalive.ie
This years keynote took the form of an in conversation between guest speaker, the percussionist and solo performer Dame Evelyn Glennie who sat down with Mark O’Brien, Executive Director of The Abbey Theatre. In a highly engaging exchange lasting just under an hour, the pair delved into Dame Evelyn’s introduction to music in primary school, her hearing loss, the idea of success and how residual hearing and improvisation were important components in her career development.
In the plenery session that followed Dame Evelyn spoke about the importance of listening.
“I think listening is the glue to being human, to be honest”
“If we can cultivate this feeling of being listened to, and really what does this mean, listening doesn’t mean that we’re interacting with sound. It’s interacting with a presence that we’re in.”
The 2022 National Portal Day was also an opportunity for the Portal Editorial Committee to share it’s new strategic plan ‘A Community of Practice: A five-year strategy for the Arts in Education Portal,
Ireland’s national resource for arts and creativity in education. Officially launched by Dr. Katie Sweeney, Portal Chair and National Director for the Integration of the Arts in Education (DE), copies of which were available to delegates on the day and will be embedded into the Portal website as a living and accessible document in the coming months.
Image Credit: St. Agnes Teenage Chamber Orchestra with conductor Jimmy Kavanagh. Photograph by Cían Flynn, lookalive.ie
A day which saw the arts in education community convene to share, learn, talk, be inspired and interrogate best practice in the field came to a close with a heartwarming performance from St. Agnes Teenage Chamber Orchestra led by conductor Jimmy Kavanagh.
We would like to thank all our guest speakers, artists and all who joined us to engage in the conversation.
Stay tuned for our round up video which will follow soon!
A selection of the main talks and presentations are available to watch back online. Registration for viewing this series is available through the link here.
Image credit: 2022 National Arts in Education Portal Day. Photographer Cían Flynn (lookalive.ie)
The International Teacher-Artist Partnership (I-TAP-PD)
The International Teacher-Artist Partnership (I-TAP-PD) podcast series ‘Tapping into Creativity’ shares stories about the magic that happens when creativity, art, and education meet. Stories about creative learning from diverse European projects in schools and beyond. Stories about what happens when artists work with young people. Hosted by Linda Rosink and Manja Eland of Stichting Kopa, they talk to teachers, artists, scientists, policy makers and children about the importance of creative education. Listen to the show if you’re looking for inspiration for your own practice.
Season 2 launched on 5th November featuring guest speaker Tania Banotti, Director of Creative Ireland. It will run for eight episodes with the final episode airing on 20th December. The programme focuses on enabling teachers and artists to jointly develop their understanding, expertise and creativity in ‘arts in education’ work with children and young people in education, community and arts settings.
The guest speakers this season include:
Tania Banotti – 5th November
Georgina Kakoudaki – 8th November
Sanja Krsmanović Tasić – 11th November
Jolanda Schouten – 22nd November
Klaas Dijkstra – 29th November
Jane O’Hanlon – 6th December
Miranda Siemelink – 13th December
Paul Collard – 20th December
You can listen and subscribe to the full series via Captivate: https://tappingintocreativity.captivate.fm/ or your favourite podcasts platform including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music.
International Teacher-Artist Partnership (I-TAP-PD) PD is funded under the Erasmus+ KA2 Initiative 2020 – 2023 and is a partnership between Tralee Education Centre (Ireland), Centre for drama in education and art (CEDEUM) (Serbia), Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network (TENet-GR) (Greece) and Stichting Kopa (Netherlands)
Arts Council announces 186 new schools will join its Creative Schools initiative
The Arts Council recently announced that offers have been made to 186 schools and centres across Ireland who applied to be part of the Creative Schools initiative. The very high level of applications to be part of this 2-year process reflects the importance that schools and Youthreach centres put on creativity and their ambition to celebrate and put creative thinking at the very heart of what they do.
Speaking at the announcement Director of the Arts Council Maureen Kennelly said: “We warmly welcome our new cohort of 186 schools to Creative Schools. We are delighted that demand for the programme is so strong across the country and we are thrilled to say that by this stage of the programme, 20% of schools in Ireland have connected with us. Working with our partners in the Department of Education, the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and Creative Ireland, we are looking forward to another school year full of creativity, consultation and exploration”.
Minister for Education Norma Foley TD said “I am delighted to welcome the 186 schools that are coming together to join the Creative Schools initiative 2022. I would like to welcome these new schools into this exciting initiative, and I look forward to seeing how these creative, colourful and captivating projects develop over the coming two years. Through Creative Schools the Department of Education supports critical thinking, cognitive and emotional wellbeing, encouraging a creative environment, without boundaries within the educational space.”
Also speaking, Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media Catherine Martin TD said “I would like to congratulate the 186 schools and Youthreach centres that have successfully applied to become a Creative School and now have the opportunity to embark on a two-year journey to place creativity at the heart of their school communities. With the addition of this new cohort, 1 in 5 schools in Ireland will have experienced Creative Schools since the programme commenced in 2018 and this year sees an increase in the diversity of settings in receipt of support. This is a testament to its impact and the strength of the partnership between the Art Council, the Department of Education and the all-of-government Creative Ireland Programme.”
The Creative Schools Initiative is designed to provide opportunities for children and young people to build their artistic and creative skills, each school taking part receives a grant and works with a professional Creative Associate who supports them to develop and implement their own bespoke Creative School Plan. Participation empowers children and young people to develop, implement and evaluate arts and creative activity throughout their schools/centres and stimulate additional ways of working which reinforce the impact of creativity on children and young people’s learning, development and well-being.
Creative Schools received applications from counties throughout the country to be part of the initiative and they were assessed on how Creative Schools would benefit learning and development in the school and how children and young people would play a central role in leading the process.
The programme was established in 2018 and more than 650 schools have been invited to participate to date. With this latest round of offers it means that 1 in 5 schools in Ireland will have / will be taking part in the Creative Schools initiative. Recipients range from large schools in major cities to smaller schools on islands including Inisboffin, Achill, Inis Oírr and Inis Meain. Creativity truly lives everywhere.
This year 131 more primary schools, 35 more post primary schools, 11 Special Schools and 5 Youthreach centres have been sent offers to join. Also joining the programme this year are four schools in Alternative Settings who cater for young people with severe emotional and behavioral challenges. Oberstown Children Detention Campus School, Co. Dublin, Ballydowd High Support Special School, Dublin 20, Crannóg Nua Special School, Portrane, Co. Dublin and St Canice’s Special School, Limerick will join the programme and receive enhanced supports.
Schools who have been taking part to date have explored creativity in all its forms and embraced how it can be celebrated in so many ways. From baking to creating and designing gardens, from photography to performance, from working with other community groups to transforming areas of their own schools, the impact of Creative Schools can be seen around the country.
Riverbank Arts Centre
Riverbank Arts Centre are delighted to offer events for Primary and Secondary Schools over the coming months. These include live theatre, comedy, IFI School Screenings and more.
Riverbank Arts Centre is a multi-disciplinary venue in Newbridge, County Kildare, with a dedicated children’s gallery and programming of high quality theatre and workshops for younger audiences, Riverbank is also committed to promoting early engagement with and access to the arts.
Primary Schools
This season Riverbank Arts Centre are delighted to offer shows that travel to your school, highlights include:
UP CLOSE On 17 & 18 November
UP CLOSE is an energetic dance piece where two strangers meet, connect and celebrate their new friendship. A 25 min performance, followed by a 15-minute Q&A and 15-minute movement workshop. Recommended capacity is up to two classes. For 1st to 4th Class.
Exhibition: FIBRE Felted by Artist Tamzen Lundy 12 November – 23 December. Workshop in your classroom: 13th December (Suitable for 1st Class – 6th Class.)
FIBRE Felted introduces young people to the wonders and possibilities of felt making, the oldest textile making process in the world. The woollen textiles in FIBRE Felted are playful and experimental, the only tools required to create them are the artist’s hands. Riverbank Arts Centre offer guided tours and activity sheets for all those who attend.
Tours/Workshop can be booked with Theresa at boxoffice@riverbank.ie
Secondary Schools
Highlights from the programme for post-primary schools include:
Exhibition: Dētrīmentum by artist Katie Whyte 12 November – 22 December
A Latin word meaning harm, loss, or damage,
Dētrīmentum is an exploration of the journey of an object from an intact historical/archival
piece, to an object that has fallen into disrepair and out of the collective memory. This installation focuses on presenting hidden and lost historical narratives in photographic form.
Guided tours and an education pack aimed at senior cycle students are available.
WhistleBlast Quartet Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky Tuesday 22 November, 12pm.
This unique performance of Mussorgsky’s wonderful symphony Pictures at an Exhibition, musically arranged by the quartet’s own Dr. Kenneth Edge, is accompanied by a multimedia video of paintings relating to each movement. An
accessible performance especially created to inspire young main stream and special-needs secondary school students and anyone to enjoy a gripping, dramatic masterpiece through live music performance and visual art.
Please contact Theresa on boxoffice@riverbank.ie or call 045 448327 to book an event or exhibition tour.
The Hunt Museum, Limerick Museum, Limerick City Gallery of Art
The Three Muses: Clay Through The Ages
Level: Primary schools, 3rd & 4th Class
This is the newest offering from ‘The Three Muses‘ Joint Education Programme comprising of the Hunt Museum, Limerick Museum and Limerick City Gallery of Art. There are three strands to this programme including a Digital Teachers Pack, an online game and an onsite primary school workshop programme. The 27th Oct will see the launch of this suite of resources.
Digital Teachers Pack: This resource is available from https://www.huntmuseum.com/schools/the-three-muses/ and focuses on four ceramic objects from the above cultural institutions. It was developed in conjunction with Ann McBride, an award winning local ceramic artist. It provides clay based lesson plans and a wealth of related video based resources to support classroom based teaching and learning on these objects.
Online Game: This free online game is available at the link below. Truffes, the treasure hunting Piggy, navigates the streets of Old Limerick collecting treasures and artifacts. Each level reveals a ceramic object from the above cultural institutions. Look and listen closely for evidence of a city rich in cultural heritage. Play game here: https://www.huntmuseum.com/schools-resources/play-the-three-muses-online-games/
Onsite Primary School Workshop: This workshop, for 3rd and 4th classes, facilitates engagement and exploration of ceramic objects from the above cultural institutions. This interactive Three Muses workshop offers pupils the chance to travel through space and time focusing on ceramic objects from the Hunt Museum, Limerick Museum and Limerick City Gallery of Art. Their exploration begins in the Bronze Age and concludes with examples of contemporary ceramics. Pupils will learn about techniques and processes used to make clay objects and how these have changed over time.
For further information and booking for onsite workshops, email / call: una@huntmuseum.com / 061490089
Ireland’s National School Photography Awards (INSPA)
National Winners Announced
Theme: Me, Myself, and I
INSPA has extended their congratulations to every school who participated in the 2021/22 National School Photography Awards. The national winner is Matthew Asiedu-Appiah from Lucan CNS, who submitted the photo entitled ‘Instruments’ into the Senior Category of the awards. The winner of the Junior Category is Sophie Mai Woulfe from Kilcummin N.S. with her entry ‘The Pizzeria’.
INSPA is the national children’s photography competition and Positive Primaries Programme which is open to all primary schools in the Republic of Ireland. Throughout the 2021/22 school year, young creatives from around the country were encouraged to embed Creative Wellbeing into their school community while exploring the theme: Me, Myself, and I.
The awards are having a massive impact in classrooms and homes across Ireland as they provide an inclusive model for children of all backgrounds and abilities to get involved. Through photography, INSPA introduces creative well-being into the lives of primary school communities while building a future generation of people who are confident, resilient, connected, kind and ready.
The awards are free and offer a range of fantastic prizes alongside the schools Positive Primaries Flag. These include getaways to the Amber Springs Resort for principals, teachers, pupils and families, Instax cameras for winners and schools, framed photographs, certificates, and school photo fundraising days at your school. All entries are judged by a national panel of experts and over 500 primary schools have already registered their accounts and taken their first Step of their Positive Primaries Journey.
The awards will open again for entries in September 2023.
For further information on INSPA and their Positive Primaries programme, visit www.inspa.ie.
Voices & Choices
TAP training is fundamentally about partnership but the voice and needs of the child has always been central to its residencies. The first TAP residency I engaged in with artist Claire Halpin in 2014 centred around this premise. Documented on this Portal, it describes how through strategic questioning, guided conversation, real and virtual museum visits and exploration of materials, the children determined their own focus, process and product. As longstanding practitioners, Claire and I knew how to tailor experiences and scaffold the learning so that the children were not overwhelmed by choice.
Because faced with limitless choices, children often flounder. ‘I don’t know what to do!’ is commonly heard and needs an appropriate response. Sometimes this might be offering an open-ended programme where considerable time is dedicated to discussion, experimentation and reflection, focused on the arts with other curricular areas being developed by default. Other times, a residency programme might be anchored to enquiries in other curricular areas; the enquiry being the jump-off point for an in-depth arts-led exploration of a selected topic. While both approaches are valid, the latter integrates the arts fully into curriculum, utilises arts-based approaches in the everyday classroom. promoting holistic, inclusive learning. Yet, disappointingly, I have witnessed some members of the AiE community disparage this approach on the grounds that the children may not have elected, for example, to explore their class novel through dance or ponder the plight of our bee population through visual arts and poetry.
The hallmark of all authentic arts practice is that there is always more than one valid response. Likewise, responses to ‘the voice of the child’ can take many forms. Different children have different voices. Some may not know how to voice their needs or desires while other voices might dominate. I have learned through my considerable experiences in education and the arts that a range of approaches are needed. Some suit certain contexts while others need alternatives. The more approaches we are open to adopting, the more appropriate and nuanced our responses to children’s voices will be.
Both children’s voices and needs are worthy considerations when planning a residency. Skilled facilitators know this. Not only do they listen to words, they hear silences, observe body language, assess needs, provide relevant opportunities and scaffold learning appropriately; be that through open-ended arts-focused residencies where children’s leads are followed or through residencies that embed arts practices in curriculum to facilitate the learning and extend modes of expression for all participating children.
For the child who might struggle with literacy, being able to grasp meaning and embody learning through choreographing the class novel’s plot is transformative. I believe, if sought, his voice would be ones of relief and gratitude, relief to have found a new mode of learning and a voice in dance and gratitude for the opportunity to experience literacy through another artform, an experience the class might never have considered, if left solely to their own devices.
The Arts Council’s Creative Schools Initiative
Deadline: 12 noon 10 November 2022
Creative Schools is delighted to announce an exciting opportunity for artists, creative practitioners and individuals working in organisations in the arts and cultural sector.
Creative Associate Services for 10 Locations
The Arts Council wishes to engage 14 CAs to work in up to 32 schools across 10 counties (Cavan, Donegal, Kerry, Limerick, Louth, Mayo, Meath, Monaghan, Tipperary and Waterford) for up to one year. Individuals or organisations that wish to nominate an individual may apply.
Completed applications should be emailed to creativeassociates@artscouncil.ie by 12.00 hours (local time) on Thursday 10 November, 2022 with ‘Application: CA Services for 10 Locations’ in the subject line of the email.
For this year’s programme we are delighted to be joined by colleagues from the I-TAP-PD project for two multiplier sessions who will explore and share emerging learning within the Erasmus+ KA2 Initiative 2020-2023. The Programme will also see the launch of the Arts in Education Portal Strategic Plan: 2023 – 2027 along with the usual mix of presentations, smaller discussion-led sessions and creative workshops each addressing the theme of ‘Seldom Heard Voices’.
As previously announced The Portal Team are excited to welcome guest speaker Dame Evelyn Glennie, solo percussionist and composer who will join the conference for a special in conversation with Mark O’Brien, Executive Director of the Abbey Theatre.
Tickets for the 2022 National Arts in Education Portal Day are free but pre booking is essential as capacity is limited. Booking this year is slightly different with a two step process.
Step 1: Book your ticket for the day – Open Now here
Step 2: Ticket holders will then be invited to pre-select parallel sessions for the day – via email invitation on Wednesday, 19 October. Please note some sessions have limited capacity in particular creative workshops. Please note some sessions have limited capacity in particular creative workshops.
For those who can’t join us in person on the day we will have a selection of the main talks and presentations available to watch back online following the conference. Registration for viewing is available through the link here.
The 2022 National Arts in Education Portal Day will take place on Saturday, 5 November at East Quad, TU Dublin, in partnership with TU Dublin School of Art and Design and the Conservatoire of Music and Drama, and the Erasmus+ International Teacher-Artist Partnership (I-TAP-PD) PD Project.
The full line-up of this year’s programme will be announced at 12 noon,Wednesday, 5 October when ticket booking will open online. Before that we wanted to give you a sneak peek of what you can expect at this year’s in-person conference. The day will have a special focus on ‘Seldom Heard Voices’, with the programme profiling projects that represent children from diverse communities and children who are seldom heard.
First Look at the 2022 National Arts in Education Portal Day Programme
Discussion-led Presentation: Cuinne an Ghiorria / The Hare’s Nook
Join artist Zoë Uí Fhaoláin Green, writer Emer Fallon and educator Darach Ó Murchú with artist Manuela Dei Grandi as they discuss learnings from ‘Cúinne an Ghiorria (The Hare’s Nook)’, a bilingual primary school programme designed to nurture a sense of stewardship and joyful connection between pupils and their environment.
Creative Workshop: Exploring Creative Solutions to Climate Change through the Arts Using a STEAM Approach
In this experiential workshop, Environmental Artist and Educator Evelyn Sorohan will invite participants to investigate how the arts can be harnessed to explore environmental issues such as Climate Change. Participants will be inspired to collaboratively problem solve, create and invent in response to three climate themes leaving with skills and ideas that they can use in their practice.
Online Viewing: For those who can’t join us in person on the day we will have a selection of the main talks and presentations available to watch back online following the conference. Registration for viewing will be required.
Ticket bookings open at 12 noon, Wednesday 5 October 2022. Tickets are free but pre booking is essential as capacity is limited. Once ticket booking is confirmed attendees will be asked to preselect their parallel sessions choices for the day.
The Minister for Education Norma Foley today announced the creation of 21 new 2022 Creative Clusters comprising 78 schools. Creative Clusters is an initiative taking place as part of Creative Ireland and under the Schools Excellence Fund. The Department of Education’s budget for Creative Clusters in 2022 is €595,000.
Under this scheme to support schools to build capacity in creativity, schools in each cluster will enjoy access to a specialist facilitator, artist or creative expertise in whatever their chosen area of interest or theme might be. These resources will help the schools to build a project of learning and activities tailor-made for their students. As part of this funding allocation, a cluster may receive up to €15,000 funding to help bring their plans and ideas to fruition in 2022-2024.
Minister Foley said:
“Creative Clusters is an excellent initiative that supports students to develop their creativity, learn to adapt and collaborate and provides them with real opportunities to express themselves in a variety of exciting new ways.
“Today I am delighted to announce the 78 schools that are coming together to form 21 new Creative Clusters. I would like to welcome these new schools into this Schools Excellence Fund initiative, and I look forward to seeing how these exciting projects develop over the coming two years. This is a wonderful opportunity for schools to work together on a project of their choice. Schools are given complete freedom to design and develop their own project, with support from a local facilitator and their local education centre.
“This year has once again seen a very significant level of interest from schools applying to participate in the 2022 Creative Clusters initiative across the country. In the five rounds from 2018 to 2022, a total number of 1,276 schools have applied to participate in Creative Clusters, with 375 schools shortlisted and invited to participate. I hope that this exciting initiative will help schools to further enhance creativity in their classrooms.
Arts in Junior Cycle provide teachers at second-level with the opportunity to engage in elective learner-centred teacher professional learning (TPL) experiences. The vision of Arts in Junior Cycle is for all Junior Cycle teachers to value, enjoy and be enriched by the arts and to see the arts as integral to learning. The Arts in Junior Cycle team co-design and develop learner-centred TPLs in collaboration with a range of artists, creative practitioners and arts organisations.
This month we are delighted to offer the following:
Style and Purpose in partnership with Poetry Ireland
Writing our Place in partnership with Fighting Words and Graffiti Theatre Company, Cork
In the News in partnership with Newsbrands Ireland
Introduction to Screenprinting with Elena Santos ‘Just Art It’, Galway
A call out for expressions of interest for an Artistic Performance community of practice
A call out for expressions of interest for aDesignCIRCLE community of practice
These TPLs aim to inspire, support and empower teachers and to embody the principles and key skills which underpin the Framework for Junior Cycle 2015. All TPLs are open to teachers from all subject disciplines.
For more information and to register for upcoming workshops and communities of practice, visit www.artsinjuniorcycle.ie. New workshops are added weekly!
It’s the AiE Regional Portal Day. I’m in Kildare. The theme of the morning’s discussion; ‘The Voice of the Child’. Serendipitous! I’ve being reflecting on voices recently, both in my arts practice and in my role as an art facilitator.
Prior to my studies at NCAD and my engagement in TAP, I practiced art on a superficial level, drawing my world without mining it. I ended up profoundly disillusioned. It was only when I began to dig deeper in an attempt to map my inner narrative that I began to hear my own voices, not least those of the child and adolescent I was, and effectively, still am. At times, these were difficult voices to attend to; a cacophonous chorus whose ignored realities generated high-tides of anxiety, shame and grief. I’m no swimmer but swimming through them was the only way to calmer waters. So, I dived; art practice as my life-jacket.
This has been game-changing, transforming both my work and my facilitation of artists, teachers and children. In reengaging with my buried voices, I’m hearing more clearly the voices those I work alongside. I’ve learned that being in authentic communication with my inner child has expanded the register and sensitivity of my communication with others, alerted me to nuances my adult sensibility might not otherwise detect and enabled me to respond from a place of recognition, understanding and empathy. It has also rekindled my spirit of spontaneity, playfulness and fun; characteristic of both childhood and creativity.
I believe we can only truly hear the voices of others when we have embraced our own. So, in discussing the importance of the voice of the child, let’s expand that concept to consider the child’s voice in the hearts of the adults who work with them. We all need to remember and own what it was like to be that child. For while listening to a child’s voice is an act of attendance and hearing it is an act of acknowledgement, identifying with it is an act of acceptance and validation. And this is the first meaningful step towards giving the child the appropriate agency and support to express the truths of their experiences and engage confidently with their imaginations.
Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership are delighted to announce the publication of ‘A-Z: Alphabet of Actions’ which outlines the findings from a pilot project that explored literacy with young children. This project investigated how children of different ages and stages of literacy interacted with the materials.
This project was developed as a pilot early-years intervention, putting arts and creativity at the centre of early childhood learning and development. Funded by ESB Energy for Generations, the project evolved in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2020 and 2021, the early stages of the project took place during strict lockdowns and were designed to facilitate parent-child interactions. The project modelled a way of working that supported young children to manipulate and play openly with materials and connected them with their parents and other children through verbal and non-verbal communication.
Artist, Naomi Draper, designed a material environment that allowed for different ‘layers’ of entry to accommodate children at a very early stage of literacy, as well as those in primary education with more developed literacy. This project investigated how children of different ages and stages of literacy interacted with the materials.
The Sligo Country Childcare Committee and Children & Young People’s Service Committee (CYPSC) were delighted to be involved with the A-Z programme. The results highlighted by the parent and child’s voices have demonstrated the importance of that parent/carer interaction.
If you would like to receive a copy of “A-Z Alphabet of Actions: Findings from a pilot early years initiative”, please send your name and address to info@kidsown.ie
The Portal Team are delighted to welcome guest speakers, solo percussionist and composer Dame Evelyn Glennie for a special in conversation talk with Mark O’Brien, Executive Director of The Abbey Theatre.
Dame Evelyn Glennie
Dame Evelyn Glennie is the first person in history to create and sustain a full-time career as a solo percussionist, performing worldwide with the greatest orchestras and artists. Evelyn has commissioned over 200 new works for solo percussion and has recorded over 40 CDs. She regularly provides masterclasses and consultations to inspire the next generation of musicians.
Evelyn was awarded an OBE in 1993 and has over 100 international awards to date, including 2 GRAMMY’s, the Polar Music Prize and the Companion of Honour. She was appointed as the first female President of Help Musicians, and since 2021 she has been Chancellor of Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Scotland.
Evelyn is the curator for The Evelyn Glennie Collection which includes in excess of 3,500 percussion instruments. The film ‘Touch the Sound’, TED Talk and her book ‘Listen World!’are key testimonies to her unique and innovative approach to sound-creation. Through her mission to Teach the World to Listen she aims to improve communication and social cohesion by encouraging everyone to discover new ways of listening in order to inspire, to create, to engage and to empower.
Watch Dame Evelyn Glennie’s TED Talk, How to truly listen, below
Mark O’Brien
Mark O’Brien, Executive Director of The Abbey Theatre has had over 25 years’ experience in the theatre and wider culture sectors, as a leader, facilitator, actor, sound designer, administrator, and theatre director. He has also led, directed, and developed work in the youth theatre sector, and with Team Educational Theatre Company.
Mark was previously Director of axis arts centre Ballymun. Over ten years, he developed axis into an organisation and space of local, national and international renown, that created, facilitated and produced new and significant work, across theatre, arts development and engagement contexts. Under his leadership, axis became an artistic and cultural hub for both artists and the public. His driving force was to achieve a shared vision of excellence through inclusion.
The full line-up of the national day will be announced on Wednesday 5th October when ticket booking will open online. This year’s event will have a special focus on ‘Seldom Heard Voices’ and will see a return to the usual mix of presentations, smaller discussion-led presentations and creative workshops addressing this theme.
These events bring together members of the arts in education community from all across Ireland, to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired, and continue interrogating best practice in the field.
The National Museum of Ireland (NMI) is delighted to invite teachers and students across the country to reconnect with culture over the coming school term with an in-person visit to one of its sites.
The Museum has launched its autumn/winter 2022 programme of tours, events and activities, which educators can use to get up close to history, spark curiosity, encourage learning, and promote enjoyment of culture.
Much of the NMI’s school programme was offered virtually over the past two years due to pandemic restrictions. Many schools enjoyed engaging with the Museum online so there will also still be elements of the programme available to access directly from the classroom.
This tour at the Museum of Decorative Arts & History, Collins Barracks is available at primary and post primary level, focuses on the people involved in World War One and how the war impacted their lives.
A mix of traditional and contemporary stories linked to artefacts in the National Folklife Collection at the Museum of Country Life, Turlough Park with some of Ireland’s premier traditional storytellers, in collaboration with Poetry Ireland. Available online and onsite for primary and post-primary levels.
An onsite tour at the Museum of Archaeology, Merrion Street specifically designed to cover key objects that appear on the History of Art Leaving Certificate specification and traces the development of art in Ireland from the Neolithic to the 12th century.
The Ark are delighted to announced their full Autumn programme for early years, schools and teachers, a jam packed programme including theatre, music shows, exhibitions and workshops. Below is a selection of some of the highlights taking place:
Dates: 4 & 10 December Age Range: Early Years 2 – 4 years
Artist Jane Groves explores the textures of a frozen landscape through storytelling, creative play and imagination in this Early Years visual arts workshop.
Discover the magic of winter in the much-loved winter music show, Tracks in the Snow by The Henry Girls. Schools can enjoy free access this Winter, the show links in with the Listening and Responding strand units of the Music curriculum. A free downloadable classroom pack is also available online at ark.ie/events/view/ondemand-tracks-in-the-snow-the-henry-girls-2
The full season can be viewed at ark.ie, booking is now open for all events via the simple schools booking form on each event page.
Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA)
Dates: 24 September, 1 October, 12 & 19 November 2022, 21 & 28 January 2023
Enjoy a Saturday morning on IMMA’s historic site, the Royal Hospital Kilmainham; experience exhibitions and creative processes in the museum studios.
The Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) are delighted to welcome Primary School teachers to a new series of in-person CPD workshops exploring links to the visual art curriculum. Led by IMMA’s Assistant Curator, Mark Maguire and teacher, Eibhlin Campbell in this series of art workshops participants will explore links to the visual art curriculum, including “slow looking” practices in the galleries, displaying artwork (curation) and developing language talking about art.
Two practical workshops will be led by artists and educator Fiona Harrington in the IMMA studios in November, exploring fabric and fibre materials and processes. Fiona is interested in combining traditional processes with imagination and encouraging both children and adults to reconnect with creativity by exploring new materials, ideas, and techniques.
The purpose of these workshops is to restart in-person workshops in IMMA’s galleries and studios, emphasizing first-hand experience of artworks as well as studio-based, artist-led engagement with creative processes and art materials, and partnership between teachers and artists.
Duration: One/two day(s) per month, September to January. Dates: 24 September, 1 October, 12 and 19 November 2022, 21 and 28 January 2023 Times: 10:00am – 12:30pm No. of participants: 15
This workshop series is Free but booking essential. For more information or to book, email mark.maguire@imma.ie
From November 2020 to June 2021, George Higgs was The Dock Composer in Residence at Scoil Mhuire, Carrick on Shannon for the project ‘Songs of Ourselves’, exploring communal song forms – e.g., work songs, anthems, canons, and call and response – with the ultimate aim of creating a new composition. Based on his earlier investigations into multisensory composition (The Sense Ensemble, 2017), George asked the students to think of a song not only as sound, but as a participatory activity for all the senses. Students were encouraged to invent gestures to accompany the performance of each song and draw pictures to reflect on the various themes. A Song Scrapbook was amassed from all the sessions, featuring the finished multisensory lyric ‘The Dream of the Knockabock’.
‘The Dream of the Knockabock’ was performed at The Dock in early June, 2022 by the Scoil Mhuire Choir and the Millennium Choir. The song was a twelve-minute ‘mobile composition for multisensory voices’ created was a rich pageant of sound, movement and was a spatial performance to remember.
It was a special event for all involved and a great achievement.
View the performance below
View here the Documentation Award Series Discussion ‘Songs of Ourselves’ with composer George Higgs, teacher Noelle Igoe and The Dock’s Visual Arts and Education Manager, Laura Mahon as part of the 2021 National Arts in Education Portal Virtual Conference.
The Creativity and Change programme & MTU Crawford College of Art & Design
Creativity & Change at MTU Crawford College of Art & Design, Cork City, is presently recruiting for their September course intake. This part-time, 20 credit certificate at level 9 is about creativity and its power to ignite empathy, passion and learning about our interconnected and interdependent world. Supported by Irish Aid, Department of Justice, the course supports learners to imagine more humane, just and viable ways to be and to connect with how we think, live, and act in the world.
This course explores how we can utilise the arts to live as connected global citizens, becoming part of the changes we want to see. It will be of interest to artists, activists, youth and community educators, volunteers and all those who are interested in collaboration and the transformative power of art.
Amplifying Voices Scholarships:
The core of Creativity & Change’s work is to explore and address inequality and injustice, which becomes minimised without the perspectives and experiences of a diverse participant group. Creativity & Change are consistently seeking to improve the accessibility of their programme and endeavour to provide opportunities to people who may have faced barriers to accessing education in Ireland, such as those from minority groups. We are pleased to have support from MTU to offer a number of funded places on the course for those who may not have otherwise been in a position to apply.
Duration: One weekend per month from September to May
May 6th 2022. I visit a school in Cavan. My role; a ‘critical friend’ in an Action Research capacity on behalf of our International-Teacher-Artist Partnership (I-TAP-PD) PD Programme. I sit, observing, relishing what unfolds: An artist and teacher in near-perfect synchronicity, finishing each other’s sentence. I’m unable to tell one from the other. Digging further, I discovered that the teacher had taught the art skill to the artist in her kitchen and the artist prepared self-assessment booklets so students could track their learning. They have, in essence, exchanged roles and I’m witnessing my own audacious claim in action. “There’s an artist and a teacher in all of us.” But it’s really no surprise.
Vygotsky’s theories, cornerstones of modern curricula, hold that children learn primarily by observing and engaging in activities, guided by those more experienced, skilled or knowledgeable. Adults, whether parents, family members, neighbours, carers, coaches or community leaders provide the majority of this tuition, outside of formal education. As social beings who nurture our young, teaching is a critical human enterprise. We all teach, at some juncture, whether actively, passively, under contract or by default. It’s the impulse that spurs some graduates to choose teaching careers and prompts many artists to become involved in education, run workshops or engage apprentices.
Correspondingly, the compulsion to create is innate. Our capacity to imagine what does not exist is a cognitive strength that supports human advancement. To access and give form to creative thought, we engage in playfully explorative behaviours like acting, dancing, music-making, story-making, hypothesising, illustrating, constructing, concocting and crafting. These ‘creative’ practices are the fora for working through and testing our ideas. And creativity can manifest in many areas of practice; from book-binding to baking, from constructing mathematical theory to music-making.
One of Teacher-Artist Partnership (TAP) unique features is its potential to develop both competences in participants, the educator and the creator, waking the ‘other’ in those who stay engaged. This has supported me immensely in declaring my own identities and I trust my narrative will encourage others to recognise that the many hats they wear in life are equally worthy of recognition and validation.
A Question of Identity
September 2006: Circumstances forced me to abandon full-time art practice and accept a job-share teaching post. My ambiguous attitude to this turnabout and maverick methodologies prompted one of my charges to ask if I was a ‘real teacher’? Parents made more subtle enquiries. The school caretaker presumed I was an SNA.
Back practicing art full-time, I entered a school as the BLAST-assigned artist. The principal showed me around. Once our presence on the corridor was detected, a rumour raced from classroom to classroom; ‘There’s an inspector in the school!’
These narratives are anecdotal evidence of a professional identity dilemma I’ve wrestled with for decades. Artist or educator? Inhabiting this professional twilight zone had altered the lens through which I perceive labels like ‘teacher’ and ‘artist’; what it means to be either, both or to be more than the sum of these two entities.
Professional identity matters but it’s contextual. A singular definition casts us in two-dimensional stereotype, ignoring the richness of our many and evolving roles, cumulative experiences, skills and knowledge. I faced this dilemma on entering the Teacher-Artist Partnership programme in 2014. With an Education Centre network nomination, I was obliged to enlist as a teacher but yearned to sign the artist’s register. On introducing myself to the group, I claimed my artist identity, the only teacher to do so. After all, my teacher-self existed so my artist-self could be; the teacher supporting the artist, the artist sustaining the teacher.
Owning my dual identity felt bold but until did, I would never walk into a school as an artist. I’ve learned much on this journey, not least that there are many teachers in and beyond TAP who feel similarly. Some TAP-trained teachers are graduates of art/arts colleges. Others are skilled arts practitioners. Moreover, several TAP artists are former teachers and more possess intuitive teaching abilities, relishing engagement with children. August’s blog will further explore concepts of ‘teacher’ and ‘artist’, and the guiding and creative impulses we all possess. Meantime, for those reading, conscious of echoes of ‘the other drum’ in the recesses of their hearts, take comfort. There’s a teacher and an artist in all of us!
Mother Tongues
Language Explorers facilitator training and work opportunity.
Do you have experience developing/delivering creative experiences to children? Or are you an artist? Are you fluent in another language other than English? Are you passionate about making a difference?
Mother Tongues‘ is currently training individuals to enter a paid panel of facilitators to draw from when delivering workshops across the country as part of their flagship programme ‘Language Explorers’.
Mother Tongues’ envision a society that embraces different cultures and languages. Their mission is to curate multilingual creative experiences where artists and communities connect across languages and cultures. Language Explorers is Mother Tongues’ flagship programme for children aged 3 to 6. Language Explorers provides a child-centred, interactive and engaging experience for all children – monolingual, bilingual and plurilingual.
Who should register?
Developed to be equal parts practical and inspirational, this new training is designed for artists or creative people with a passion for working with children and who have experience in developing and/or delivering creative experiences to children.
Training
This training combines online and in-person elements. It will run over 8 weeks with an estimated overall time commitment of 40 hours. Self-directed learning is an important element of this training.
Mother Tongues is an equal opportunity employer.
We encourage applications from individuals of a variety of backgrounds and levels of experience.
Music Generation & Arts Council of Ireland
Deadline: 5 August 2022
The Music Generation National Development Office invites quotations, from consultants, researchers or organisations, for the completion of an evaluation of the Music Generation – Arts Council partnership. It is anticipated that the evaluation will identify learnings from the partnership and will provide recommendations for the future. The evaluation will assist Music Generation in its planning and development for the future and will assist the Arts Council in planning future potential partnerships and investments in this sector.
Queries
All queries will be responded to by email only.
Please email all queries to: info@musicgeneration.ie where they will be forwarded to the relevant person for clarification.
The latest date for receipt of queries is Friday 29th July 2022.
Closing Date
The closing date for receipt of tender submissions is 17:00 (Dublin time) on Friday 5th August 2022.
Music Generation is Ireland’s National Music Education Programme that transforms the lives of children and young people through access to high-quality, subsidised performance music education. Initiated by Music Network, Music Generation is co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education, and Local Music Education Partnerships (LMEPs) and is supported by the Arts Council as a programme partner.
The Arts Council /An Chomhairle Ealaíon is the Irish government agency for developing the arts. The Arts Council works in partnership with artists, arts organisations, public policy makers and others to build a central place for the arts in Irish life. The Arts Council is guided by its Strategy “Making Great Art Work”.
For further information on the Arts Council, please visit www.artscouncil.ie
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council
Deadline: 15 August 2022
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, in partnership with Blackrock Education Centre, is looking for six creative practitioners in a variety of artforms to work with children and teachers in the classroom setting. The main purpose of the programme is to facilitate a professional Creative Practitioner to collaborate with a primary school class and teacher to explore creativity in the classroom setting through various artforms.
Overview of dlr’s Primary Arts Programme
dlr’s Primary Arts Programme was initiated in 1994. dlr Arts Office has partnered with Blackrock Education Centre since 2008 to deliver the countywide programme. dlR Arts Office recognise the importance of life-long learning and the positive impact that early intervention may have in addressing education inequality. Through the partnership with Blackrock Education Centre, dlr Arts Office works to ensure that children have access to cultural education regardless of circumstances. The main purpose of the programme is to facilitate a professional Creative Practitioner to collaborate with a primary school class and teacher to explore creativity in the classroom setting through various art forms. A Creative Practitioner is a professional facilitator with an artform background, for example, a Dancer, a Visual Artist, a Writer or a Musician.
The timeline for engagement of the creative practitioners is October 2022 – May 2023. Upon agreement between both parties, this may be extended from October 2023 – May 2024.
Arts in Education Portal Deadline: Friday 26 August 2022
Artists, teachers, academics and arts education professionals… Do you want to be part of the seventh annual National Arts in Education Portal Day?
The National Arts in Education Portal Day will take place at TU Dublin, School of Art and Design on Saturday, 5 November 2022 in partnership with the School of Art and Design (formerly the School of Creative Arts) and the Erasmus+ International Teacher-Artist Partnership (I-TAP-PD) PD Project. The event aims to bring together members of the arts in education and creative practise community from all across Ireland, to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired and continue interrogating best practice in the field.
The Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee invites proposals from organisations or individuals who want to give dynamic and inspiring presentations or workshops that can offer sharing of skills, practical approaches, new insights and critical thinking across the field, from a range of perspectives.
This year, the Portal Day will have a special focus on ‘Seldom Heard Voices’. The Committee particularly want to profile projects this year that represent children from diverse communities and children who are seldom heard.
The Portal Editorial Committee are delighted to also partner this year with the Erasmus+ International Teacher-Artist Partnership (I-TAP-PD) PD Project, an exciting trans-European project which focuses on enabling teachers and artists to jointly develop their understanding, expertise and creativity in ‘arts in education’ work with children and young people in education, community and arts settings. The Erasmus+ I-TAP-PD multiplier event at the National Portal Day will share outcomes and learning from the programme to date.
Do you have a workshop or presentation that you would like to be included in the programme for this day? If so, please send us your proposal.
The deadline for submission of proposals has been extended to 5pm Friday 26 August 2022.
The Portal team have had an exciting few months on the road visiting the recipients of the 2022 Portal Documentation Awards.
‘Music Makes Me Happy’ Creative Cluster
In May and early June we visited three Limerick based schools who have been collaborating as part of a Creative Cluster Project under the theme ‘Music Makes Me Happy’. The focus of the two year project has been to create more opportunities for the pupils of all three schools to experience music; to learn an instrument, listen to live music, perform and explore music through creative collaboration.
In this, the second year of the project the students and teachers from all three schools have been continuing to collaborate with local musician Mike Hogan in learning the ukulele. On our visit to St Patrick’s Boys National School, the 5th class pupils and their class teacher Mr Murray shared with us some of the songs they have been working on for a group performance at the end of the school year.
Ukulele Player at St Brigid’s National School – ‘Music Makes Me Happy’ Creative Cluster Project
In St Brigid’s National School and St Patrick’s Girls National School the students have been delving deeper in their exploration of the cluster theme through the BLAST initiative. On our visit to St. Patrick’s Girls NS we met visual artist Chelsea Canavan who has been collaborating with the 5th class students and their class teacher Ms Farrell in the creation of a large scale artwork that will become part of the school’s new building. Taking inspiration from music the pupils have been designing patterns based on the honeycomb shape and fretwork patterns found on the end of a concertina instrument. During our visit the children were creating prints using stamps they had made, exploring different shapes and combinations.
At St Brigid’s NS, class teacher Ms Nihill and the 5th class pupils have been collaborating with composer Fiona Linnane in the c0-creation of a musical composition inspired by the cluster theme. During our visit the class were writing lyrics to add to melodies they had created and were starting to put the elements of the song together. For the song the children used a combination of instruments including the ukulele’s the class had been using for their sessions with Mike Hogan.
‘Finding the Common Thread’ International Teacher Artist Partnership Project
St Kilian’s National School, County Cavan is situated in a state-of-the-art school where its beautiful design makes you feel like you are outdoors when indoors, surrounded by nature wherever you look. This influence of nature was evident when visiting Breeda’s classroom. Artist Vera McEvoy, class teacher Breeda Kenny and the students have been exploring a local bog using art, textiles and many other means.
On the first day of our visit, the children were developing lace pieces based on flowers found in the bog. Each child had created an intricate sewn piece which re-imagined tiny plants which they discovered on trips to the bog. It was amazing to see how engrossed the children were in their needle work. The intimate nature of the work seemed to draw out different conversations amongst the children, giving them time and space to think and talk in an unstructured way.
Exploring the bog – ‘Finding the Common Thread’ International Teacher Artist Partnership Project – St Kilian’s National School, County Cavan
On the second day, we had a magical visit to the bog. Vera and the students set up a clothes line where they pegged on their lace pieces, letting them flutter in the wind. We were introduced to the various plants that had inspired their lace works – and were amazed by how tiny but complex they were. The students performed a song, using their voices and bodies to create ripples across the bog.
Over the summer months the Portal team will be working on editing the documentation footage captured during the school visits. We look forward to sharing the Documentation video’s for both project’s in the Autumn. Stay tuned!
Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership Deadline 13 July 2022
Kids’ Own, the current Arts in Education Portal Mangers are delighted to invite applications for the role of Project Manager for the Arts in Education Portal (part-time).
Reporting to the Kids’ Own CEO, the Project Manager will work very closely with other members of the Kids’ Own team and the Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee to manage the Arts In Education Portal. Kids’ Own are the current managers of the Arts in Education Portal on behalf of the Portal Editorial Committee.
This is a very exciting opportunity for a dynamic community-minded individual with excellent digital skills and event management skills combined to lead the management of the Arts in Education Portal as it enters into a new phase of strategic development.
The specifications of the role are set out below.
Key Responsibilities
The Project Manager for the Arts in Education Portal will be responsible for managing all aspects of the Arts in Education Portal, including but not limited to:
Ongoing management of all aspects of the Arts in Education Portal website including regular content updates of project features, guest blogs, critical essays, videos, and resources.
Liaise with, and report regularly to, the Portal Editorial Committee; and attend and lead quarterly meetings.
Liaison with the Portal web developers to ensure the site is fully maintained and up to date with the latest software.
Implementation of AiE Portal Digital Marketing Strategy, including web, SEO/SEM, email marketing, social media and digital advertising.
Manage content across all platforms including email and social media in collaboration with Kids’ Own’s Digital Marketing Officer.
Managing metrics such as Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools.
Leading on website and social media channel optimisation for SEO as well as usability.
Providing editorial, creative and technical support to team members and content contributors.
Measuring, reporting and recommending on the performance of all activities both online and off.
Creating and implementing editorial calendars in collaboration with content contributors.
Delivering effective, cohesive, and engaging brand messaging.
Development of and implantation of aspects of the annual Portal Commissioning Plan.
Coordination of all Portal events, particularly the annual National Arts in Education Portal Day and Spring Regional Day, including pre-event planning, audience engagement, organising guest speakers and management of all event logistics.
Collaborating with the broader Kids’ Own team to ensure that the AiE Portal activities and content aligns with the ethos and remit of the Portal.
Briefing and managing third-party suppliers, freelancers, videographers and designers to ensure on-time delivery of assets.
Manage project budgets, in collaboration with the Creative Director and Finance Officer.
The successful applicant will have:
A third level qualification in the field of journalism, communications, marketing or equivalent experience.
A minimum of 4 years’ experience in a digital marketing with a portfolio of visual and written content.\
An excellent understanding of the Arts in Education sector and collaborative arts practice.
High-level, versatile writing abilities with strong attention to detail and editorial experience.
Proficiency in designing, managing and delivering broad, multi-angle projects.
Proven track record in creating and publishing online and offline content.
Proficiency with popular content management systems.
Adept at SEO best practices.
In-depth knowledge of various social media platforms, best practices, and website analytics.
Experience in event management ideally both online and offline.
Desirable:
Experience in working with non-profit or charitable organisations.
Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
Excellent organisational and time-management skills.
The ability to work well as part of a small team.
Highly creative with excellent analytical abilities.
Ability to travel when required for meetings, events etc. Full drivers licence preferable.
Terms of contract:
This is a part-time post (3 days p/week). An initial contract of 9 months will be offered, subject to extension. There will be a probationary period of 6 weeks.
Arts In Health & Education, MTU Crawford College of Art & Design are presently recruiting for their September course intake across the department. Choose from a number of innovative post-graduate, level 9 courses centred around the power of the Arts in supporting wellbeing, personal development and changemaking.
All courses take place at the CCAD Grand Parade campus in Cork City.
Arts & Engagement is a new two-year, part-time, 90 credit MA programme combining a number of CCAD’s Special Purpose Awards. Through research, reflection, group and practical work, participants will explore different ways of learning, investigating the transformational power of the arts in personal and societal activation or regulation through a broad scope of contemporary methodologies.
Through elective modules in year one, opportunities will be provided to broaden skill sets through Socially Engaged Theatre, Eco-Arts Practice or Art Therapy. In the second year, opportunity will be given for students to develop their ongoing arts practice informed by, and in relation to, one of two strands of engagement – Health & Wellbeing or Global Citizenship Education.
Creativity & Change is a part-time, 20 credit certificate at level 9 about creativity and its power to ignite empathy, passion and learning about our interconnected and interdependent world. Supported by Irish Aid, Department of Justice, it is about imagining more humane, just and viable ways to live in the world and to connect with how we think, live, and act in the world. This course explores how we can utilise the arts to live as connected global citizens, becoming part of the changes we want to see. It will be of interest to artists, activists, youth & community educators, volunteers and all those who are interested in collaboration and the transformative power of art.
This programme is offered as an elective within the MA Arts and Engagement. Participants on the course who are not already taking it as an elective within the MA can apply and progress to the MA Arts & Engagement, with 20 credits of the programme already completed.
Amplifying Voices Scholarships: We have a number of funded places available for those who have faced barriers to education in Ireland. See more information on the course application page.
Arts & Wellbeing is a new part-time. 20 credit Certificate at level 9. The course will be delivered through lectures and experiential workshops and provide participants with theory and approaches to arts and wellbeing that could be applied in a range of different contexts, making it attractive to teachers, therapists, arts in health practitioners, youth and community workers or artists looking to broaden the scope of their practice.
This programme is offered as an elective within the MA Arts and Engagement. Participants on the course who are not already taking it as an elective within the MA can apply and progress to the MA Arts & Engagement, with 20 credits of the programme already completed.
Eco Arts Practice is a 10 credit, level 9 certificate. Through experiential learning, this course provides an opportunity to explore Eco Arts Practice theory and application within a group setting. The aim of the course is to provide participants with approaches to Eco Art Practice that could be applied in a range of different contexts, making it attractive to teachers, therapists, youth and community workers or artists looking to broaden the scope of their practice. Participants will explore nature and the environment within an art context, from ethical use of materials, to eco literacy through to the natural environment as a classroom, a therapeutic space and a material that can be worked with.
This programme is offered as an elective within the MA Arts and Engagement. Participants on the course who are not already taking it as an elective within the MA can apply and progress to the MA Arts & Engagement, with 10 credits of the programme already completed.
Crooked House Theatre Company are delighted to invite applications from youth work organisations and schools in County Kildare to participate in a new drama and film making project ‘Adúntas’. Providing eight free programmes for young people, the project will focus on maintaining wellbeing and developing emotional resilience after COVID-19.
Through ‘Adúntas’ eight young people will also receive training in youth drama facilitation.
“We recognise the importance of allowing our young people to process the experience of Covid-19 in their own way and at their own pace”, Oguzhan Sahin, Outreach Manager with Crooked House.
This project is funded by the RTE Toy Show Appeal Grants for 2022 by the Community Foundation for Ireland. for more information about the RTE Toy Show Appeal go to www.rte.ie/eile/toy-show-appeal/.
About Crooked House Theatre Company
Crooked House is a theatre-making organisation established in 1993 in Newbridge in County Kildare, Ireland. We make theatre with, for and by young people from the ages of 11 to 24. Participation in all our activities is free and open to anyone. Young people can join our weekly workshops in Newbridge anytime. Visit www.kildareyouththeatre.com to find workshops for your age group. Our work is inspired by tolerance, equality, social justice, compassion, and empathy. We aim to create theatre that is ambitious, challenging, aesthetically engaging, and relevant to our audiences.
This month in Branar we are focusing on preparing for the live presentation of YOU’LL SEE…
In previous blogs, we have spoken about creating the film based on our adaptation of Ulysses for children and now, the next phase is for us to create a live theatre version.
We are back in the rehearsal room and must make some adjustments to the piece with the knowledge that we will have a live audience in front of us. In the film version, we were able to use the camera to dictate exactly what the audience would see through framing. However, with the live version, we have to consider the pacing, the clarity of the delivery and the visuals of the piece from the audience’s point of view. We also need to add elements such as lighting and sound cues, and everything that makes theatre different from other forms of presentation. This is challenging to do, but this is the art form we are most experienced in.
We have new members of the team now. Michael joins us as our technician and Debbie as our stage manager. The work becomes about supporting the performance and ensuring that what the audience sees is excellent every time. Helen Gregg who adapted the text with me is the performer and she now has to consider the audience as they watch the piece and ensure that they are following what she’s doing as well as being entertained by the piece.
The live performance will be longer than the film as we allow for pauses, moments to linger a little and hopefully laughter. We work on ensuring that the narrative makes sense by itself. We work on the pace to ensure that the audience has something interesting to follow at all times, whether that is the soundscape, the visuals, or Helen’s performance.
As I write this, we are preparing to present the show for the first time at the Cork Midsummer Festival for an audience of children and their adults. We are excited, nervous, and hopeful that all of our work over the past few months will pay off and that the audience will enjoy the fruits of our labor. We hope that they will leave entertained and knowing a little bit more about Ulysses, written 100 years ago by James Joyce.
The Ark Dates: 15 – 19 August
Join the team at The Ark, Dublin and artist Jole Bortoli for this hugely popular hands-on, creative course focusing on a visual arts approach to exploring narrative, literacy and other subjects.
This is a five-day Department of Education EPV-approved summer course for teachers. Suitable for all levels of experience.
The aim of the course is to enable participants to start the new school year with an enhanced toolbox of skills and knowledge, in order to effectively deliver the visual arts curriculum in the classroom. Participants will be engaged ‘hands-on’ throughout this course so learning will be through doing. Working in teams and individually, you will cover a range of curriculum strands including drawing, painting, print, 3D construction, fabric, and fibre.
A strong emphasis will be on building skills and confidence. The group will also explore how visual art can be used to engage with aspects of the English, SPHE, History and Maths curriculum, as well as to promote visual literacy approaches. School self-evaluation exercises will be incorporated as an integral part of the course. Time will also be given for individual reflection and learning and group discussion.
This course will appeal to teachers of all levels of experience and will be facilitated by the visual arts and education specialist and founder of Art to Heart, Jole Bortoli. This is a continuing professional development opportunity not to be missed!
Tickets: €100/€90 (For ArkEd Members)
Dates & Time: Five day course, 15-19 August at 10am-3pm (with breaks) each day
In Association with the School of Arts, Education & Movement, DCU
The Ballet Ireland CPD course for Primary School Teachers and Education Professionals provides participants with a secure understanding of how to teach dance, using simple, clear methods, easy steps and straightforward dance vocabularies.
Teachers are introduced to the fundamental aspects of dance education, including:
Class structure
An understanding of anatomy in relation to dance
How music is used, composed, and selected for dance
How dance relates to drama and narrative expression
The course is based on workshop programmes which have been in operation since 2005, developed in collaboration with ten national schools in the greater Dublin area. All material covered in the summer course is suitable for primary school children of all ages, and for children with diverse abilities and experiences.
The Ballet Ireland educational approach for primary school teachers offers an interdisciplinary approach to teaching dance, music, and drama, and emphasises the potential for integrating curricular learning through dance.
The initial course is a week in length; each day comprises 2 two-hour workshops and an additional session, up to an hour, for discussion and feedback with the participants, totalling 25 hours. The programme employs specialists in several complementary areas, providing workshops in dance, anatomy, music, and mime.
Participants are supported with comprehensive course notes and access to specialised musical content online. Optional follow up days are held during midterm breaks in autumn and spring (at DanceHouse, Dublin), and ongoing support is available through closed social media groups.
“It helped me to understand the benefits dance can offer a child’s whole development, in terms of physical development, gross and fine motor skills, overall co-ordination, concentration and memory skills and social-emotional development. Dance can hugely benefit a child holistically and understanding this made me feel more confident that teaching dance wasn’t simply a ‘fun’ or frivolous’ treat lesson for a class, but a worthwhile endeavour”
The week will be led by Stephen Brennan, Education Officer at Ballet Ireland, supported by Hayley Cunningham, former Ballet Ireland dancer, Stott Pilates instructor, qualified ballet teacher and a member of the Ballet Ireland educational team.
Focused workshops will be led by Nolwenn Collett, composer and musician trained at the Paris Conservatoire, and specialist in dance accompaniment, and Deirdre McKenna, a Musculoskeletal & Dance Physiotherapist specialising in sports and dance training and injury prevention.
Creative Schools is delighted to announce two exciting opportunities for artists, creative practitioners and individuals working in organisations in the arts and cultural sector.
1. Creative Associate Services for Alternative Settings
Creative Schools seeks to engage up to four Creative Associates, with relevant experience, to support the delivery of a project for schools in alternative settings from autumn 2022 for up to two years. This project will focus on schools from particular types of educational contexts that have not yet participated in the Creative Schools initiative.
2. Creative Associate Services
Creative Schools seeks to engage a number of Creative Associates, with relevant experience, to work with schools in Mayo from autumn 2022 for up to one year.
Individuals or organisations that wish to nominate an individual may apply for these opportunities by 12.00 hours (local time) on Thursday 7, July, 2022.
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children Deadline: 29 July 2022
Baboró is looking for children who will be starting 4th class in September 2022 to join their Children’s Panel to ensure their voices are included in their planning and decision making.
The Children’s Panel will play an important role in shaping Baboró’s work to make all children feel welcome, heard and represented at Baboró and in our community. The children will be guided through their experience of the festival and creative workshops throughout the year by Baboró artist in residence, Maisie Lee. Their perspectives and voice will inform how they present their annual festival and year round work with schools and communities.
Members of the Children’s Panel will attend their festival in October where they will watch performances and visit exhibitions; together meet artists and performers and learn about their creative process; meet the people who create the festival and share their ideas with them; workshop and express their opinions and perspectives of their festival experience.
Members will also meet once a month to take part in workshops and arts activities, attend creative events, meet new friends and have fun!
Branar and the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI) Date: Bloomsday Thursday, 16 June 2022
MoLI is asking young people from 2nd to 6th class to tell us all about a day in their life, this Bloomsday, on Thursday, 16 June. And teachers, it’s a schoolday – so they need your help!
As a follow-on activity from watching Branar’s wonderful You’ll See… film, we want to capture the diversity of lived experiences of young people from around the island of Ireland and put their voice and perspective at the heart of this day.
This is a simple and fun exercise that links imagination and biography, giving us a sense of what their days are like. Schools from across the country are taking part, and the submissions will be presented as an online archive later this year.
The closing date for submissions is Friday, 8 July 2022.
Earlier this month, teachers, artists and arts in eduction professionals gathered together – in-person and on-online – at the beautiful surroundings of the Kildare Education Support Centre. This was an opportunity to share experience, gather new ideas and network with colleagues. This event, the sixth of our annual Portal Regional Days, showcased arts in education and creative practice in the Mid-East. This year’s gathering was particularly special as it was the first in-person event in two years and provided a wonderful opportunity to catchup with members of the community, some of whom had only met virtually.
The morning of sharing practice began with visual artist Penelope Monaghan in conversation with Deirdre Rogers, Visual Arts Learning & Engagement Coordinator at the Solstice Arts Centre who shared their experience and learnings from the BLAST project with Stackallen National School, Co. Meath. As part of the presentation, Deirdre brought the audience on a Visual Thinking Strategy (VTS) journey of the painting ‘Three Space Unfolding’ by Lesley-Ann O’Connell, sharing a taste of how she uses VTS techniques in exhibition visits with schools.
“That’s so true, for me art and creative activities if you want to call it a subject is the only subject that can teach every other subject”, Deirdre Rogers
The morning continued with a thought-provoking panel discussion chaired by teacher and Teacher–Artist Partnership (TAP) Lead Facilitator Jennifer Buggie with speakers Michelle Furlong, Portal Committee member and Creative Schools Manager with the Arts Council of Ireland; Dr Triona Stokes from the Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education, Maynooth University and Mark Ball, Theatre-maker and Artistic Director of Super Paua. The panel explored the question ‘How do we ensure the voice of the child is heard?’. They shared insights into how, in their own practices, they consider the child’s voice and other practical ways to open opportunities for the child’s voice in the classroom or during a creative engagement.
Do we other children by calling them children? That old concept of not being fully a person in terms of traditional forms of education. But I really do think by using those terms ‘young people’, young people who are fully themselves… as Caitríona Ní Chullota used to say always, they are fully themselves in every moment of their existence. – Jennifer Buggie
In the afternoon, attendees where invited to take part in practical creative workshops. Photographer Brian Cregan shared some practical tools and tips on using smartphone’s and tablet’s for photography with in-person attendees. They explored how smartphones and tablets can be a key tool in documenting creative engagement.
Creative Workshop: ‘Smartphone and Tablet Photography Skills’ with photographer Brian Cregan
Online, artist Helen Flanaghan invited participants to explore their own connections to land, place and nature and to consider – what we stand to lose in the context of the climate crisis in the creative workshop titled ‘What is left and what left to lose?’. Through discussion, participants were invited on a journey of co-creation creating a piece collaborative writing which was then burnt in a fire pit at the end of the session.
Creative Workshop: What is left and what left to lose? with artist and writer Helen Flanaghan
“Lets try it and lets fail beautifully together”, Mark Ball, Artistic Director Super Paua
Thank you to everyone who joined us on the day. For those who missed the mornings discussions the live stream is available to watch back on the Portal’s Vimeo Channel here.
My Bloomsday
Schools engagement project
This month at Branar, we have been focusing our attention on the engagement element of ‘You’ll see…’, our adaptation of Ulysses by James Joyce, for children age 7+. This engagement from children was at the forefront of the creation of You’ll See. Ulysses tells the story of one day in one city and this inspired us to ask the children of Ireland to tell us the story of one day in their lives.
We have been working in conjunction with our colleagues in the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI) in Dublin to devise an engagement program that will allow children to respond to the video while also sharing their thoughts on what it’s like to be a child in 2022, 100 years after Ulysses was published.
We have a created a response template pack that is loosely based on some of the main questions or thoughts that are in the key episodes of Ulysses. The template pack consists of six prompts for the children to respond to. These prompts were created by Branar and MoLI after examining the school curriculum and deciding what prompts would allow the children who respond to be as creative as possible in their answers. The children are asked to respond to these prompts in their own way, be it through creative writing, or drawing images in response to the prompt questions. Our hopes are that it will be a creative process that gives us an insight into the life of children in 2022. The children will be able to engage with these packs as a class activity facilitated by the teacher after they’ve watched the You’ll See… video.
What is really exciting about this process is that the documents the children will create will be collected by the MoLI Museum and archived over the Summer. We decided that the archive should be created in a way that encourages engagement from children all over Ireland. We aim to do this by using technologies used by children on a daily basis to host the archived materials. This should hopefully allow children from all over the country to engage with each other’s responses.
Creative Schools Deadline: 17.30, 16 June 2022
The Arts Council are delighted to announce that applications have opened for schools to apply for the Creative Schools 2022/ 2023 programme.
Creative Schools 2022 welcomes applications from schools and Youthreach centres across the country who would like to join the programme. The deadline has been extended to 17.30, 16 June 2022.
The purpose of Scoileanna Ildánacha/Creative Schools is to support schools and Youthreach centres to put the arts and creativity at the heart of children’s and young people’s lives. Participating schools/centres will take part in a guided journey over two years to develop a Creative Schools Plan unique to each school, and begin to implement it. Key supports offered by this award include up to nine days per year of expert support and advice from a Creative Associate assigned to each school/centre, and a €4,000 grant towards activities and projects arising.
All applications to the Arts Council are made through the Arts Council’s online services system. Schools and Youthreach centres interested in applying to Scoileanna Ildánacha/Creative Schools 2022 can register an account on the Arts Council’s online services system here.
All Department of Education-recognised primary and post-primary schools and Youthreach centres that have not already participated in a previous round of Creative Schools are invited to apply.
Online information clinics for schools and Youthreach centres about how to apply for Creative Schools 2022
The Arts Council will be holding online information clinics in May about the Creative Schools programme and how to apply for 2022. The clinics are for representatives of Primary and Post Primary Schools, Special Schools and Youthreach Centres who are interested in participating in Scoileanna Ildánacha/Creative Schools for the academic years 2022/2023 and 2023/2024.
The online information clinics will take place as follows:
Wednesday 18 May 2022 at 16.00-17.00 – English language – Book a ticket here
Thursday 19 May 2022 at 16.00-17.00 – Irish language – Book a ticket here
The application deadline for Creative Schools has been extended to 17.30 on 16 June 2022. The reason for the new deadline is to facilitate schools at this busy time to complete their applications successfully.
BLAST Arts-in-Education Residencies Deadline: 30 September 2022
Minister for Education Norma Foley invites primary and post-primary schools to apply for the arts-in-education initiative, BLAST 2022.
Minister Foley is delighted to confirm that BLAST – Bringing Live Arts to Students and Teachers – will be running in 2022 for the second time. The 2022 programme will enable over 400 new arts-in-education residencies in schools over the course of the year.
The aim of BLAST is to provide pupils in schools all over the country with the time and the space to work with a professional artist on creative, imaginative and fun projects.
These innovative classes are designed and developed between the artist, teacher and the school under the coordination of the Education Support Centres in Ireland (ESCI) network of 21 full-time education support centres.
Minister Foley said:
“I am extremely proud to announce launch BLAST 2022, which builds on the great success of the BLAST 2021 Programme.
“When I launched BLAST last year, I had hoped that it would open up the minds and the hearts of our children by providing new and creative collaborative experiences and opportunities for our children and young people and for our schools. The evidence over the past year has shown that school communities have embraced BLAST beyond our expectations.
“In 2021, BLAST enabled over 480 new arts in education residencies in over 480 schools, ensuring over 12,000 students could benefit from this experience along with teachers and schools. Some of the trained artists available to schools covered topics such as multimedia, fine art, mosaics, stained glass sculpture/animation and performance art.
“BLAST has shown that school is a fantastic environment for children to have new and different experiences, to make new friends, to be creative and importantly to have fun while learning.
“I am delighted also to launch today the new BLAST logo, following a nationwide competition. The winning logo was chosen by a panel of judges including Louis Walsh, and Brenda Dermody of TU Dublin.
“The winning entry is both creative and practical, and does an incredible job of bringing different aspects of the alerts to life, in line with the spirit of BLAST. Well done to Lily Fleming from sixth class in Bunscoil Rinn An Chabhlaigh, Rushbrooke, Cobh, Co Cork.
“Lily will receive a go-pro camera, and their logo has now been adopted as the official logo for the BLAST programme. I hope they enjoy seeing it proudly adorn all BLAST activity in future!”
The winning entry was selected from over 1,411 entries from primary and post-primary schools all over Ireland. 5 runners-up were highly commended by the judges for their entries. All entrants will receive a BLAST certificate.
The runners-up were:
Tayla–Jae Morcombe, Mercy Mounthawk Secondary School, Mouthhawk, Tralee, Co Kerry
Louise Corry Galvin, St. Joseph’s secondary school, Spanish Point, Co Clare
Szymon Krzyzanowski, Wexford CBS, Thomas St, Co Wexford
Grace Hilliard, Coláiste Eoin, Hacketstown, Co Carlow
Julia Bartecka, Holy Family Secondary School, Newbridge Co Kildare
Applications will open on 25 May 2022. The closing date is 30 September 2022.
This initiative will be supported by the ESCI education centre network, Teacher Artist Partnership CPD programme, Arts in Junior Cycle, NAPD Creative Engagement Programme and the Arts in Education Portal.
The Ark are excited to present this really popular engaging arts summer course focusing on the two curriculum areas of Drama and Music.
This is a five day Department of Education and Skills and EPV-approved summer course for teachers.
Working with two outstanding creative practitioners, you will enjoy a week of experiential learning and development. Your confidence and skills in both music and drama will increase through highly participative and inspiring course content.
Using themes drawn from SPHE, English and other subjects, participants will explore a variety of imaginative approaches to integrated curriculum delivery. Teachers of all levels of experience will be able to fully engage in this rich week of professional development.
Course content and highlights will include:
Developing confidence and skills to deliver all aspects of the primary school music and drama curricula
Using music and drama to imaginatively respond to themes and concepts in other subjects
Working in teams and individually to bring themes to life through a range of creative approaches
Vocal development: both musical and dramatic voice use
Imaginative approaches to literacy and empathy, using both music and drama
Applying creative, reflective and evaluative practices used by musicians and theatre practitioners to teachers’ individual professional practices and to school self-evaluation.
Cost – €100/€90 (For ArkEd Members)
Dates & Times – Five day course, 4-8 June @ 10am – 3pm (with breaks) each day
Taking place on Saturday, 11th June, young people can enjoy 450+ free creative events across the country.
Catherine Martin TD, Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, has announced details of Cruinniú na nÓg 2022, a day of free creative activity for young people.
At the launch of Cruinniú na nÓg 2022 at Killruddery House and Gardens in County Wicklow, Minister Martin said:
“Since 2018, Cruinniú na nÓg has become a key date in Ireland’s cultural calendar. It has provided wonderful opportunities for Ireland’s 1.2 million children and young people to try something new like circus skills, animation, perform at live music gigs, explore contemporary dance, showcase new work through youth theatre and so much more. All events are free.
This year the Cruinniú na nÓg team are delighted that most of the events will be live and in person. Alongside the events planned by strategic partners – Dance Ireland, Garageland, Irish Street Arts, Circus and Spectacle Network (ISACS), Nenagh Children’s Film Festival, Youth Theatre Ireland and the Historic Houses of Ireland – the programme has more than 450 events programmed by local authorities in venues around the country. The Cruinniú na nÓg team are so thrilled that the restrictions of the last two years are behind us and that this year everyone can join together to be creative, express themselves and have fun.
Going live Saturday 11th June 2022
The Creative Ireland Programme and its strategic partners have developed a number of creative projects, all planned to go live on Saturday 11th June 2022.
This exciting spread of events include:
Pop-Up Dance is a Dance Ireland project which aims to connect with young people who want to dance. There will be twelve pop-up performances around the country, developed by local youth dance companies to reflect their own communities and experiences.
Garageland is back! And this year they are going live with concerts in Dublin, Meath, Donegal, Waterford, Tipperary, Kerry, Wicklow, Cavan and Monaghan. Running alongside these live concerts will be Galaxyz, a dedicated online TV channel which will live stream the concerts, screen pre-recorded performances and host industry chats.
Irish Street Arts, Circus and Spectacle Network (ISACS) will host open days for young people who want to try their hand at circus skills and street spectacle at their dedicated venues in Cloughjordan, Cork, Dublin and Galway. For those that can’t be there on the day, there will be a full range of online tutorials available and 5,000 juggling balls will be given away so that young people can develop their circus skills at home.
Historic Houses of Ireland invites everyone to four of their gorgeous properties. Activities will include aerial acrobatics at Killruddery House and Gardens in Wicklow and a forest school a Kilmokea House in Wexford. Birr Castle will focus on astronomy and biodiversity and Enniscoe in Mayo will have a full programme of events in their historic gardens.
Nenagh Children’s Film Festival will run from 10-12 June with Crúinniu na nÓg at the heart of it. In an exciting development, the festival will collaborate with Foróige, Digital Animation Production TUS and the National Talent Academy for Animation to encourage young people to create and participate.
Highlights will include screenings of a commissioned animation dedicated to young audiences and 10 film shorts created in participating schools.
Youth Theatre Ireland will host introductory theatre workshops throughout the country.
This is Art 2022: Creative Ireland and RTÉ’s wonderful art competition for young people has returned, and the winning entries will be announced on 11th June 2022.
TG4 with support from the Gaeltacht division of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, will produce Cruthaím 33 which will champion the talents of 33 children and young people from every county in the country as well as a representative of our young diaspora. Also included in the programme will be four films made by transition year students from Gaelscoileanna around the country.
Teacher-Artist Partnership (TAP) Dates: 4 July – 8 July 2022
Teacher-Artist Partnership (TAP) Programme invites teachers to register for their Face-to-Face CPD this summer. The Teacher Artist Partnership Residency programme 2022 – 2023 will be available to eight participating schools in all 21 full-time Education Support Centres. Only schools whose teachers participated in the summer course 2022 will be eligible for a residency.
The Teacher-Artist Partnership (TAP) CPD and Residency Programme is a unique Department of Education led initiative for supporting and enhancing arts and creativity in education in primary schools. It is funded and supported under the Creative Ireland Programme – Creative Youth. The initiative includes CPD Summer Courses and subsequent funded Artist in Residency opportunities in which TAP trained teachers and artists and the children work together in partnership during the following academic year. For more on TAP see: edcentretralee.ie/27-teacher-artist-partnership.html
Dates: 4 July – 8 July 2022
Register on your local full-time Education Support Centre’s website. Find your local Education Support Centre here: esci.ie/
Barnstorm Theatre Company Dates: 10am & 12pm, 25 May – 10 June 2022
Barnstorm Theatre Company are delighted to invite primary schools in Kilkenny to Swansong. This performance is a heartfelt and comic exploration of a once in a lifetime encounter between two strangers. This new play for audiences aged 9+ by Shane O’Reilly playfully and sensitively engages with the mythical notion of the swansong; a final gesture or performance.
Schools attending a performance can book two workshops in their school, a session on visual literacy in advance of the performance and a second workshop on critical analysis in the days following their visit to the theatre. There is limited availability and will be provided on a ‘first-come’ basis. A resource pack will be provided to participating teachers. The pack will provide a focus for exploration and discussion of themes raised through the play. There is a special school group ticket rate of €10 with teachers attending for free.
This video resource explores 4 different questions: Why is the Teacher-Artist relationship important, why is it important to document your projects, what is the value of the arts in the classroom and lastly, what does a child-led process look like? The four videos feature the Teacher – Artist pairs who participated in the TAP Special Initiative Project which took place over 2021.
These videos form part of a wider programme facilitated by Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership. Participants took part in a 5-session online documentation training programme. These in-depth workshops covered topics such as what is creative documentation, digital tools for creative collaboration and documentation, documenting as part of your process, presenting your creative self and work and lastly, editing and curating your work.
The Teacher-Artist pairs also took part in 6 mentoring sessions, choosing a mentor that best suited their project from a curated panel. During these mentoring sessions, the pairs got the chance to delve deep into their practice together, offering a space for reflection. The final element of the Special Initiative will consist of a digital publication sharing the learnings of this documentation training programme.
The Teacher-Artist Partnership (TAP) CPD and Residency Programme is a unique Department of Education led initiative for supporting and enhancing arts and creativity in education in primary schools. It is funded and supported under the Creative Ireland Programme – Creative Youth. The initiative includes CPD Summer Courses and subsequent funded Artist in Residency opportunities in which TAP trained teachers and artists and the children work together in partnership during the following academic year. For more on TAP see: edcentretralee.ie/27-teacher-artist-partnership.html
TAP Face-to-Face 2022 runs from Monday 4th July – Friday 8th July. The Teacher Artist Partnership Residency programme 2022 – 2023 will be available to eight participating schools in all 21 full-time Education Support Centres. Only schools whose teachers participated in the summer course 2022 will be eligible for a residency.
Register on your local full-time Education Support Centre’s website. See link to find your local Education Support Centre https://esci.ie/
Ulysses, Ulysses 2.2
This month in Branar we have been working on adapting Ulysses by James Joyce for children aged 7 to 12. This is a challenging project, but equally rewarding as we get to engage with the amazing text that Joyce wrote 100 years ago. We had to explore ways in which we could adapt that text to make it interesting and suitable for younger audiences.
The MOLI museum, Landmark Productions and ANU Productions created a yearlong celebration of the 100th anniversary of the printing of Ulysses, Ulysses 2.2. They commissioned 18 contemporary artists to respond to various episodes of the book using different art forms.
Obviously, Ulysses wasn’t written for young audiences and there is a lot of content, plots and subplots that are not really suitable for children. But there’s also a lot of magic in it, in its content, language and in the story, one city in one day, the 16th of June 1904.
We made the decision to follow Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom, (the main characters) on their journey through the city during this summer’s day. They are two very different characters; one is sad mostly and thinks in poetry the other happier and thinks in short sharp thoughts. This allows the audience to clearly identify them as we travel through the day switching from character to character.
After reading the book I decided on the images that would best represent the action for each of the episodes, then working alongside my colleague and friend Maeve Clancy, paper artist, we decided on what those images would look like, and Maeve created a pop-up book version of Ulysses. The pop-ups are animated by performer Helen Gregg, who worked with me in the adaptation of the piece.
The pop-up book allows us to create new scenes quickly but also adds an element of magic and an element of surprise that will allow the children to really engage with the story and with the people within that story. There are 39 pop up images and two for each of the of the episodes, none of the pop ups work in the same way so there’s loads of visual content for the children to follow.
The text of the story is delivered brilliantly by Helen Gregg. Michael Chang, our composer, created a score that would complement all these elements. Adrian ferry, sound designer added a sound to the world and together with James Ryan who filmed it and we have created a film version of this pop-up story that will be available to schools nationwide they will be able to watch it and engage with the story and ultimately understand that Ulysses is a story about many many different characters in one city in one day.
The show is an invitation is to children two created their own story of their day on the 16th of June 1922 Bloomsday. All of these stories will be gathered by the MOLI museum and then they will be archived and the children will be able to access their stories online later in this year.
Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership Deadline: 3 May 2022
Kids’ Own are seeking to appoint an Operations Manager and Project Manager to join their team in Sligo. See details below:
Operations Manager
Kids’ Own is now seeking to appoint an Operations Manager to support the smooth running of all of our operational activities.
Job Description: Reporting directly to the CEO, the Operations Manager’s duties will include, but not be limited to, the following:
Governance Code compliance: Monitoring and supporting updates to, and implementation of, policies and procedures, in line with Charities Governance Code.
Company Secretary duties.
Management and monitoring of operational risk.
Responsible for data storage and management of all company databases.
Top-level administrative and filing duties.
Management of company calendar.
HR supports: Overseeing updates to the company staff handbook, filing of staff contracts and organising relevant training for staff members and associate artists.
Building oversight and maintenance.
Managing stock: Responsible for book storage, postage of book orders and other dissemination initiatives.
Publishing duties: Registering ISBNs, recording titles with Nielsen, sourcing print quotes—in collaboration with CD/CEO.
Some accountancy supports, where required.
Support company development, where required.
Terms: This is a part-time post, 3.5 days p/week. Fixed-term contract of one year, with a view to extension.
Kids’ Own has an exciting opportunity for an experienced individual to lead on the ongoing delivery of our collaborative initiatives with children and young people.
The Project Manager will report to the CEO and will work closely with our small team to support the delivery of our strategic aims through our projects and programmes with children and young people.
Key Responsibilities The project manager’s duties will include, but not be limited to:
Plan and manage a diverse range of projects on an ongoing basis, in line with Kids’ Own strategic objectives.\
Co-ordinate and oversee all practical elements of project management, including:Scheduling planning and review meetings.
Appointing and contracting artists.
Working with partners to identify participant groups; or open recruitment.
Organising project details: dates, venue, materials and documentation methods.
Organising launch events for published outputs.
Issuing consent forms to participants in line with Kids’ Own’s Child Protection Policy.
Ensuring safeguarding procedures are strictly adhered to.
Responsibility for evaluation, and processing of outputs.
Draw on expertise and knowledge to support decision-making in relation to projects.
Work collaboratively with project artists, teachers and partners to ensure the smooth and timely running of projects.
Develop and maintain effective relationships with key partners and funders.
Support grant-writing for project income and submit activity reports to funders.
Manage project budgets, in collaboration with the Creative Director and Finance Officer.
Support marketing and publicity activities related to specific projects.
Terms: This is a part-time post, 3 days p/week. Fixed-term contract of one year, with a view to extension.
Applications:
Candidates are requested to send a detailed CV and cover letter to:
Jo Holmwood, Creative Director of Kids’ Own, jo@kidsown.ie by Tuesday 3rd May at 5pm.
Class Dance! Dates: 24 & 31 May, 7 & 14 June
Gain skills and confidence in putting dance ideas into practice with the children you work with. Join this new series of online workshops hosted by dance artist and teacher, Lisa Cliffe.
‘Class Dance’ is an online creative professional development programme for primary teachers and practitioners of all forms of dance working with children from ages 6 to 12. Together, participants will explore and share ways of engaging children creatively in dance. Perhaps you have an idea you would like to develop or you are looking for new inspiration? The four sessions are your opportunity to move, gain skills, celebrate creativity through dance and connect with your peers across the country. Working in small groups, participants will discover new approaches and build confidence in planning and delivering creative tasks and dance sessions.
The series is devised and facilitated by experienced dance artist and qualified primary school teacher Lisa Cliffe. Participants need to commit to all four online sessions, 7pm to 8:45pm on Tuesdays: 24th & 31st May, and 7th & 14th June. The closing date for registration of interest is May 19. Please note that places are limited. The research and development of this series of workshops has been funded through the Arts Council of Ireland.
Calling all primary & preschool teachers! Join The Ark team for a cup of tea and learn more about their classroom resources and our Summer CPD courses.
The Ark are delighted to be able to welcome you back! This will be an informative and relaxed chat with like-minded teachers and the Ark team. There will be a short presentation by The Ark team highlighting the classroom packs and resources available which have been designed to complement the primary school curriculum. You will also get to hear about their exciting Teacher CPD Summer Courses on offer in-person at The Ark this year.
You’ll have plenty of time to chat and catch up with colleagues and The Ark team.
This event is free to attend but we do ask that you register your attendance.
Solstice Arts Centre Dates: Thursday 26 May, 9:30am – 11am or 11:30am – 1pm
Solstice Arts Centre invites 1st – 6th class primary school students to this hands-on workshop which will focus on the contrasting painted artworks in their current exhibition ‘Golden Fleece: 21 Years’. Artist Claire Halpin will begin with a Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) tour of the gallery to engage students in peer-to-peer conversation on the multiple perspectives and themes explored by the exhibiting artists. Students will then have the opportunity to respond and engage in a range of artistic and creative techniques, including 2d and 3d drawing, layering and collage.
This multimedia approach to image making will be inspired by the aspects of everyday urban and domestic environments depicted in the works of Kathy Tynan, the controlled brushwork and cropping of his subject matter seen in Marcel Vidal’s triptych, the atmospheric paintings by Paul Hallahan, focusing on how we relate and interact with nature or the subtle depictions based on gender, class, and identity within Irish history in an artwork by artist Jennifer Trouton.
Curricular links made during this workshop will include oral and visual literacy, visual art appreciation, drawing, collage, colour, history, SESE, SPHE as well as problem solving and collaboration.
Dates: Thursday 26 May, 9:30am – 11am or 11:30am – 1pm
National Museum of Ireland – Country Life Dates: 1 May to 30 June 2022
The Irish Architecture Foundation and the National Museum of Ireland invite you to Architects in Schools Exhibition. This is a national exhibition created by Transition Year students, teachers and architects responding to themes of Community, Sustainability and Home.
This exhibition features 2D drawings and 3D models and were made in workshops by young people, in collaboration with architects and teachers. The exhibits are displayed in different locations throughout the Museum. An exhibition map is available to guide you on this exhibition trail. There are a number of objects in the Irish Folklife collection that link to the exhibition themes so keep an eye out for them!
The National Museum of Ireland is facilitating Student Response Workshops in response to the Architects in Schools Exhibition. These school visits are an opportunity for students participating in Architects in Schools to meet each other and share their views and ideas. As part of their visit, they will participate in a workshop facilitated by an architect.
Solstice Arts Centre invites schools to explore artworks from over 40 artists and craftspeople in their current exhibition, ‘Golden Fleece: 21 Years’, using Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) to expand students’ thoughts on ‘what’s going on in these artworks’. Guided by Deirdre, our learning and engagement coordinator, students will be encouraged to engage in peer to peer discussion, and have the opportunity to focus and reflect on multiple perspectives, enhancing their engagement and enjoyment of learning through art. To conclude, students will learn about the artist or craftsperson who created the works, and may even be inspired to create artworks of their own!
Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) is a research-based teaching methodology VTS encourages oral and visual literacy, problem solving and positive collaborative interactions among peers. Based on the work of cognitive psychologist, Abigail Housen and veteran museum educator Philip Yenawine, VTS supports learner-centred thinking and feeling when looking at art objects.
Date & Time: Continues throughout the exhibition until 4 June 2022, various dates available (duration: 60 mins)
Ages: Primary 2nd – 6th class & Post Primary (all ages)
Celebrate the beauty of Spring through this interactive dance workshop with The Ark’s John Coolahan Early Years Artist in Residence Monica Muñoz.
Meet Blossom, she is delighted that finally spring has arrived. Join her in a sensory movement adventure around a spring day: Hopping, skipping around flowers, leaping and jumping over rivers, meeting caterpillars and butterflies and touching the most perfect sky!
This delightful interactive dance workshop invites little ones and their grown-ups to enjoy imagining and moving together. So if you’re a parent, grandparent, uncle, aunty, godparent or carer, come along with a 2 to 4 year old and join in the fun.
Dept of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media Deadline: 12 May 2022
The Dept of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media has launched a new and pioneering pilot scheme to support artists and creative arts workers. The Basic Income for the Arts pilot scheme will examine, over a 3 year period, the impact of a basic income on artists and creative arts workers. Payments of €325 per week will be made to 2,000 eligible artists and creative arts workers who will be selected at random and invited to take part.
The overarching objective of the scheme is to address the earnings instability that can be associated with the intermittent, periodic, and often project-based nature of work in the arts. The scheme will research the impact on artists and creative arts workers creative practice of providing the security of a basic income, thereby reducing income precarity.
Its intention is to research the impact a basic income would have on artists and creatives work patterns by providing the opportunity to focus on their practice, and to minimise the loss of skills from the arts as a result of the pandemic and to contribute to the sectors gradual regrowth post pandemic.
The delivery of the pilot is a key priority for Minister Catherine Martin, Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, to underpin the recovery in the arts and culture sector and provide much needed certainty to the artists and creatives who choose to avail of the pilot scheme.
The pilot scheme will be open to eligible artists and creative arts sector workers.
The Portal Team are delighted to announce the second of the two recipients of the 2022 Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award. We are very excited to be working with each recipient in the coming months to document their projects. These projects will be showcased on the portal as the documentation progresses.
About the recipients…. Project title: ‘Finding the Common Thread’ International Teacher Artist Partnership Project
This project “Finding the Common Thread” is an International Teacher Artist Partnership (I-TAP) residency project between teacher Breeda Kenny and visual artist Vera McEvoy in collaboration with the 6th class pupils of St Kilian’s National School, Mullagh, Co Cavan.
This project will integrate aspects of the SESE Curriculum with the Arts Curriculum. This will be done by developing an innovative way of combining the pupils learning about the local bog environment with learning traditional lace making. This project will reinforce the work covered in the Primary Curriculum in the areas of English, Science, History and Geography. The processes that will be employed will include looking at the heritage of lace-making in the area and learning the particular stitches and techniques synonymous with Carrickmacross Lace. The pupils will be afforded opportunities to design patterns for their lace pieces based on their visit to the bog and their exploration of flora and fauna in this unique environment. Kinaesthetic and enquiry-based approaches will be used throughout the project to encourage critical thinking and innovation but more importantly to develop the pupils’ own individual creativity. The voice of the child will be paramount throughout the project.
The Portal Documentation Award will be an exciting opportunity for the pupils to create a record of their learning journey within the Arts curriculum through the creation of “Bog Books” incorporating sample lace pieces and the pupils own reflections on the process.
Artist: Vera McEvoy
Vera McEvoy is a Kildare based visual artist, educator and graduate of the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. Vera is a multidisciplinary artist working in collaborative and participatory art projects. She aspires to encourage more creativity in all ages, providing opportunities to explore, experiment and create using various art processes, techniques and materials. She is a lecturer in Visual Art Education, Froebel Dept. of Primary and Early Childhood Education, Maynooth University. Since 2019 she has been a member of the Helium Artist panel and a Creative Associate with the Creative Schools programme.
‘My partnership with Breeda has been of great benefit to my professional practice and development and to me personally. I am excited as I look forward to expanding our partnership as part of the Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award,’ Vera. See more of Vera’s work at www.veramcevoy.com
Teacher: Breeda Kenny
Breeda Kenny is Deputy Principal in St Kilian’s N.S., Mullagh, Co.Cavan. She currently teaches 6th Class. She is a graduate from Mary Immaculate College of Education. Breeda has always been interested in the arts, in particular Music. She has been responsible for the delivery of summer courses in this area in Monaghan Education Centre in the past. She has worked with Vera McEvoy since 2016 on the Teacher – Artist Partnership (TAP) course.
Breeda completed a M.Sc in Education and Training in DCU in 2013. The title of her dissertation was “How can I demonstrate the importance of the Creative Arts in my practice as a primary school teacher through the medium of video?” As part of her role as Deputy Principal, she is currently responsible for the development of the creative arts in St Kilian’s.
Arts in Education Portal
Date: Saturday, 7th May 2022
The Arts in Education Portal’s regional tour continues this spring with our first in-person event in 2 years! On Saturday, 7th May join us and our hosts at Kildare Education Support Centre for a series of discussions and creative workshops sharing experience and best practice from the sector in the Mid-East.
The programme for the day includes a presentation with artist Penelope Monaghan and Deirdre Rogers, Visual Arts Learning & Engagement Coordinator at Solstice Arts Centre sharing their experience on the recent BLAST project with Stackallen National School, Co.Meath, along with a panel discussion chaired by Jennifer Buggie, Teacher and Teacher-Artist Partnership (TAP) Lead Facilitator exploring the question ‘How do we ensure the voice of the child is heard?’ with panel speakers Dr Triona Stokes from the Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education, Maynooth University; Michelle Furlong, Portal Committee member and Creative Schools Manager with the Arts Council of Ireland and Mark Ball, Theatre-maker and Artistic Director of Super Paua.
In the afternoon join Kildare based photographer Brian Cregan for a hands-on practical session to explore composition, framing, apps and editing techniques to learn and improve photography skills using smartphones and tablets.
The morning discussions will be live streamed to ensure accessibility for those who cannot travel to the event in-person. In the afternoon for those joining us online a virtual creative workshop ‘What is left and what left to lose?’ will explore the Ardee Bog in County Louth and connections to land, place and nature with artist and writer Helen Flanagan on zoom.
Please note: ISL Interpretation will be available at the venue and online.
11:00am — Project Presentation ‘Creative Connections’: Visual Artist, Penelope Monaghan in conversation with Deirdre Rogers, Visual Arts Learning & Engagement Coordinator Solstice Arts Centre sharing their experience on the recent BLAST project with Stackallen National School, Co.Meath
11:45am— Panel Discussion: Dr Triona Stokes, Educator and Drama Practitioner with the Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education , Maynooth University; Michelle Furlong, Teacher and Creative Schools Manager with the Arts Council of Ireland; and theatre-maker, Mark Ball Artistic Director of Super Paua in conversation with Chair Jennifer Buggie, Teacher and Teacher-Artist Partnership Lead Facilitator.
1:00.pm — Q & A: whole panel of presenters
1:15pm —Lunch & networking
2.00pm — Hands-On Creative Workshops
In-person Creative Workshop: ‘Smartphone and Tablet Photography Skills’with photographer Brian Cregan
Virtual Creative Workshop: ‘What is left and what left to lose?’ with artist and writer Helen Flanagan. Separate booking is required for this workshop as capacity is limited – Book here.
Backstage Theatre Date: 11am & 1pm, Friday 20 May 2022
Backstage Theatre invites primary schools to Lúminaria, a theatre show for ages 6+. With an array of wonderful characters played by three amazing actors, colourful puppets and original music, Lúminaria brings the audience on a whimsical journey into the unknown.
There is an emergency in the village of Lúminaria and only Lúna can save them. Join Lúna on an adventure into the sky as she tries to find the light to protect her mother and the villagers from darkness. As Lúna faces her deepest fears, we learn about courage, love and finding light in the darkest of moments.
Writer Fionnuala Gygax & Director Maisie Lee carried out a number of workshops with two local Longford schools in Lúminaria’s development stage, incorporating the childrens’ feedback into this imaginative show.
Hawk’s Well Theatre Dates: Monday 25 or Tuesday 26 April 2022
Hawk’s Well Theatre is bringing Super Paua to Sligo to deliver three different in-person workshops in local primary and secondary schools. Super Paua is an Irish artist-led collective whose workshop programmes encourage young people to question what they know and how they’ve come to know it, creating space for them to harness their creative ideas and to come together to connect in a new way.
There are three workshops: ARTificial; Is Peace Possible? Zine Workshop; and Getting Lost- Ag Dul Ar Strae – Multilingual/Super Paua Stories Workshops.
ARTificial
This art and science workshop explores artificial intelligence, machine learning and fake news. Using practical, creative, and discussion based activities, Super Paua explore with the young people the impacts that technology and fake news have, and could have on our world and future.
Is Peace Possible? Zine Workshop
In 1957, Kathleen Lonsdale wrote her book Is Peace Possible? Kathleen was a pioneering chemist, crystallographer and activist who was extremely aware of the social and political impacts science can have. In this zine workshop, participants will develop your artistic and storytelling skills to create your own zines based on the question Lonsdale poses in the title of her book. What would peace look like to you? What do young people, scientists, artists and citizens need to engage with to make peace a possibility?
Getting Lost- Ag Dul Ar Strae
In this workshop, you will be playing with idioms and proverbs to create stories together, and to celebrate different languages (Irish, English and the other languages in your class!). Participants will use drama, images and conversation to create imaginative stories from unique poetic phrases in our native languages, chosen by the children. This workshop is based on Lara ar Strae from Scéalta Super Paua, a bilingual podcast for children.
We are delighted to be celebrating our 21st year of making work for children this year. We have the great privilege as arts to be allowed to create arts experiences for young citizens aged 0- 12 years. This privilege comes with a great responsibility also, because the day we meet a new audience member could be their first ever experience of the arts and it also could be their last.
Therefore, we must ensure that each and every artistic encounter we have with children is excellent, because we believe every child should have the best childhood possible and that excellent art made especially for them should be part of it.
We insist on calling our audience young citizen because as citizens they have the same rights as adults and therefore are entitled to every opportunity that an adult is entitled to.
“State parties shall respect and promote the right of the child to participate fully in cultural and artistic life and shall encourage the provision of appropriate and equal opportunities for cultural, artistic, recreational and leisure activity.”
The importance of arts and culture for children cannot be understated and it is this belief that is the core of what we do at Branar.
We love stories, and we promise to create stories that children can enjoy. Branar was founded 2 April 2001, with the aim of creating arts experiences for children so that they and their imagination may thrive. Over the years, we have created over 22 shows, working with an ensemble of exceptional artists and creative partners including The Ark, Baboró, NIE (England), Starcatchers (Scotland), and many leading Irish arts centres and festivals.
This year we have also launched Meitheal, our new support initiative for artists creating work for young audiences across the performing arts disciplines. With this initiative, we aim to help independent artists create exciting new work for young audiences.
Over the next few blog posts, we will be giving some behind the scenes sneak peaks into one of the projects the team will be working on in the coming months.
The Portal Team are delighted to announce the first of the two recipients of the 2022 Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award. We are very excited to be working with each recipient in the coming months to document their projects. These projects will be showcased on the portal as the documentation progresses.
About the recipients…. Project Title: ‘Music Makes Me Happy’ BLAST Project
This project began as a Creative Clusters Project between St Brigid’s National School, St Patrick’s Girls National School and St Patrick’s Boys National School in Limerick.
As part of the project, we engaged with the school self- Evaluation process and identified music as an area for improvement in all three schools in the cluster. We agreed that we would like to create more opportunities for our pupils to learn an instrument, listen to live music and perform. We connected with local musical groups such as Comhaltas, The BUG’s ukulele group, St John’s Brass and Reed Band and local musicians. We designed a programme of work for the year to include opportunities for the children to learn ukulele, tin whistle whilst also bringing live musicians to our schools. We also set up after school ukulele clubs for both pupils and staff. This was led by Robert Moloney, a teacher in St Brigid’s National School.
We worked collaboratively to identify a theme for the project. The overarching theme of the project is ‘Music Makes me Happy’. The focus of the project is on participation and enabling as many children as possible to actively engage with the project. Pupils were involved in the early stages of planning through our Student Council.
Pupil voice will be key to the BLAST project. This will be achieved in very real terms with pupils in 5th class composing a Music Makes Me Happy inspired anthem in conjunction with Fiona Linnane, our BLAST composer. A staff ukulele group has also been established between the cluster to ensure the longevity of the project can be sustained through teacher CPD. Wellbeing has been an added bonus with staff being inspired by the project and creating an overall sense of excitement and fun.
Creative Cluster Artists
The Creative Cluster project currently engages with two musicians namely Paula O’Regan, a connection made through Comhaltas and Mike Hogan, a connection made through The BUGS ukulele group. These musicians visit the three schools weekly to teach tin whistle and ukulele.
BLAST Artist: Fiona Linnane
Composer Fiona Linnane will be working with St Brigid’s National School as the association BLAST artist.
Fiona Linnane is a composer based in County Limerick. Fiona is a Teacher – Artist Partnership Programme trained Lead Artist and has been involved in Artist in Schools schemes for almost 20 years. Her workshops are enthusiastic, energetic and fun and aim to give students a new perspective on sound, music and composition.
Fiona was awarded the Limerick City and County Council Individual Arts Bursary in 2018 and 2019, for work in the field of opera and Art song. She is a recipient of the Arts Council of Ireland Music Bursary Award 2020 and has been commissioned by Opera Workshop supported by the Arts Council of Ireland Commissions Award 2020.
Fiona will be working on the composition aspect of the music curriculum with the pupils in Mrs Sinead Nihill’s 5th class to create a ‘Music Makes Me Happy’ inspired anthem. All of the pupils will be incorporated into the composition process in various ways including our ukulele and tin whistle classes as well as our Peace Proms group.
Teacher: Avril Cross
Avril Crosse is a primary school teacher in St Brigid’s National School, Singland, Limerick. She graduated from Mary Immaculate College in 2013 after completing a Bachelor or Education with a specialism in Gaeilge and has recently completed a Masters of Education in Educational Leadership and Management. Avril has always been interested in the creative arts and bringing learning to life; she tries to incorporate fun and playful learning experiences in the classroom including that of music. Avril is part of the staff ukulele group and can play the tin whistle and piano.
BLAST Artist: Chelsea Canavan
Chelsea Canavan is a Limerick based multidisciplinary artist interested in exploring ecological and naturalised belonging. Looking at invasive and naturalised plants as a way to challenge constructed narratives around globalised society within landscapes and nationalism. Chelsea received the Arts Council Agility Award 2021 to explore a practice drawn from kinships with invasive species through hyper-connected thinking similar to that of Anna Tsing, Timothy Morton, and Deleuze and Guarttari’s ‘Rhizome’ theory.
Chelsea is also involved in the Creative Schools Programme, Teacher-Artist Partnership Programme and BLAST Schools’ Project.
Chelsea Canavan will be working with St Patrick’s GNS as their associated BLAST artist.
Teacher & Creative Coordinator: Evelyn Hartigan
Evelyn Hartigan has been a teacher in a primary school setting since 1999. She has a keen interest in the Arts, and feels that exposing children to art in its many genres is a very important part of the curriculum. Currently teaching in SET and use various art forms weekly as a source of well-being for children with additional needs. Evelyn completed the Teacher-Artist Partnership project in 2019 which involved working with an artist where 2nd class learned all about the Ilen ship and signal flags. They designed and created their own flags, one which made it to a school in Madeira and another hangs in Limerick City Hall. Evelyn am currently involved in coordinating on both Creative Cluster and Blast projects at St Patrick’s Girls National School.
Teacher: Clare Farrell
Clare Farrell is the current fifth class teacher and Deputy Principal in St. Patrick’s Girls National School in Limerick. Clare have been teaching there since she graduated in 1999. She have always been interested in Art and using all strands of the art curriculum to enhance and promote, not only, creative thinking and expression in each student but also a love and appreciation for art in the world around us. “Allowing students to experience area of the curriculum permits opportunities for pride in their work, not limited by how well or not they can draw, write, or even complete mathematical equations. Art also allows the students exposure to personal expression and choice in a way that no other subject really does. Freedom of expression of personal choice and acceptance of difference of opinion is activity encouraged and developed in the looking and responding aspect of the curriculum. Having a real artist in the classroom encouraging and inspiring their ideas and work is an opportunity that cannot be underestimated”.
Highlanes Gallery Dates: April – Nov 2022
Highlanes Gallery are offering both primary and post-primary school programmes running from April – November 2022 that engage your students with art & ideas.
The primary school programme involves 4 free sessions where teachers will explore art with your class, looking, thinking and making, focusing on Highlanes’ current exhibitions.
Facilitated by artist Claire Halpin, you and your class will visit Highlanes Gallery in-person in Session 1 to view the exhibition where Claire will use Visual Thinking Strategies methodology to activate reflection and discussion. Session 2 and 3 are practical and involve Claire visiting your classroom where you and your class group will work with ideas and materials liked with the exhibition. Session 4 concludes with a reflection and discussion session back in the gallery and with the other class groups (2) who will also have taken part in the programme.
Recent Acquisitions (Summer)
Wed 11th May Gallery Visit
Wed 18th May Classroom Session
Wed 25th May Classroom Session
Wed 1st June Gallery Feedback Session
Brian Fay – The Most Recent Forever (Winter)
Wed 12th Oct Gallery Visit
Wed 19th Oct Classroom Session
Wed 26th Oct Classroom Session
Wed 9th Nov Gallery Feedback Session
Also on offer are post-primary guided tours of Highlanes’ current exhibition ‘We are here’. This exhibition which was co-curated by a group of artist-art teachers and lecturers continues until 16th April. The guided tours will focus on the Leaving Cert Curriculum and/or other approaches that are of interest to your students.
Dates: April – Nov 2022
Both programmes plus materials are free to teachers and their students. To book your place, or get more information, please email Simon Colfer at info@highlanes.ie
RTÉ and Creative Ireland Programme Deadline: 1 May 2022
Calling all artists of all abilities – This Is Art! Competition is back. RTÉ and Creative Ireland Programme are inviting artists aged 18 and under who live anywhere on the island of Ireland to create and submit an original piece of visual art with the theme ‘This Is Extraordinary’.
Snap or scan a digital version of the artwork and upload it, together with a brief artist statement, to an online art gallery where it will be shown for for generations to come.
There are five categories: Age 7 and under, age 8 – 11, age 12 – 15, age 16 – 18 and a group category. A prize fund of more than €10,000 will be awarded across the different categories for further education and art related vouchers. The competition aims to promote artistic practice among young people and encourage and support creativity, originality and self-expression. All visual art disciplines are welcomed.
Explore how to use your creativity and inspire young audiences with dance artist Takeshi Matsumoto. The Ark and Dublin Dance Festival present a dance workshop for professionals interested in working with young audiences.
Join Takeshi Matsumoto for a workshop exploring a multi-disciplinary practice in working with and making performances for children and young audiences.
Combining contemporary dance, somatics, meditation and dance movement therapy practice, participants are invited to reconnect with their own senses, creativity and playfulness through dancing, drawing, reflecting and sharing.
This workshop is suitable for professional dancers and dance students interested in creating work for young audiences.
National Gallery of Ireland Date: 4-5pm, 11 May 2022
National Gallery of Ireland invites teachers to an online CPD for Teachers: Mindfulness & Art. Join Maria Broderick, gallery tour guide and primary-school teacher, for a practical workshop that will equip you with tools and ideas for including mindfulness in the classroom.
The session will support teachers using the National Gallery of Ireland’s schools resource Art & Mindfulness, and will include peer learning via group work to enable you to develop cross-curricular creative strategies.
This is an online event via Zoom. A link will be sent via email to all ticketholders before the event. Booking closes an hour before the event is scheduled to begin.
The Minister for Education Norma Foley TD invites primary and post-primary schools across Ireland to apply for Creative Clusters, an initiative taking place as part of Creative Ireland and under the Schools Excellence Fund. The Department of Education’s budget for Creative Clusters in 2022 is €595,000.
Under this scheme to support schools to build capacity in creativity, schools in each cluster will enjoy access to a specialist facilitator, artist or creative expertise in whatever their chosen area of interest or theme might be. These resources will help the schools to build a project of learning and activities tailor-made for their students. As part of this funding allocation, a cluster may receive up to €15,000 funding to help bring their plans and ideas to fruition in 2022-2024.
Minister Foley said:
“This is a wonderful opportunity for schools to work together on a project of their choice. Schools are given complete freedom to design and develop their own project, with support from a local facilitator and their local education centre. I hope that this exciting initiative will help schools to further enhance creativity in their classrooms. It is important that our children are enabled to express themselves and learn to adapt and collaborate. ‘Creative Clusters’ gives students of all ages the opportunity to develop these essential skills, enjoy and explore artistic and creative expression.”
To date, the Creative Clusters initiative has seen schools around the country work together to develop creative projects and collaborate on new ideas based on their local experience and unique perspective. The Schools Excellence Fund of the Department of Education sets out to encourage and recognise excellence and innovation in our schools. This initiative will help deliver on the Creative Youth pillar of Creative Ireland, which sets out a commitment that every child in Ireland has practical access to tuition, experience and participation in music, drama, arts and coding.
Application Deadline: 13 May 2022
Each Creative Cluster will receive grant funding of €3,000 per school over a two-year period to implement their project in the 2022–2024 school years (e.g. a cluster of 3 schools would receive €9,000 over two years while a cluster of 5 schools would receive €15,000 over two years). Clusters will receive 50% of the total grant funding in Year 1, with the second 50% being provided in Year 2. In addition, but separate to the grant funding, all successful clusters are further supported with: A fully paid Creative Cluster Facilitator; paid Teacher Substitution to attend training and meetings; room hire, travel & subsistence.
Schools can apply as part of a cluster which may be an existing network of schools.
A school nearing the end of year 2 of an existing Creative Cluster can reapply to be in a new cluster where the other schools in the new cluster have not participated before.
Schools nearing the end of 2 years with Creative Schools are eligible to apply.
The local Teacher Education Support Centre will have a key role in identifying and supporting a Creative Cluster for their local area.
A total of 21 Creative Clusters will be selected nationally – One successful Creative Cluster per Education Support Centre.
Applications should be sent to the local full-time Teacher Education Support Centre (list at Appendix 1 of Guidelines document on DoE website) or use this link Appendix 1.
Creative Clusters is an initiative of the Department of Education, led by and in partnership with the 21 full-time Teacher Education Centres (Education Support Centres Ireland – ESCI) and funded through the Schools Excellence Fund.
Cork City Libraries and Ó Bhéal Date: Wednesday 4 May 2022
Cork City Libraries and Ó Bhéal are delighted to announce the 18th edition of The Unfinished Book of Poetry (2022) features new poetry from transition-year writers representing five Cork schools. This edition will be launched at Cork City Library, Grand Parade, at 12pm, Wednesday 4th May 2022. All are welcome to attend and listen to these young writers read from their work.
Each year these student writers undergo a series of workshops led by established poets, over nine sessions. The workshops take place between November and March and the book is then launched by the Lord Mayor of Cork each year.
Since 2005 over thirty writers have provided workshops for Transition Year students from over twenty Cork schools, with almost 700 young writers find their way into print. Ó Bhéal has been curating the project since 2012. To find out more about this project, see www.obheal.ie/blog/the-unfinished-book-of-poetry/
The Arts Council’s Creative Schools Initiative Date: 9 – 13 May, 2022
Where does wondering happen in schools? When do students explore ‘What if’ questions? How is inspiration and imagination expressed? Creativity is developing and flourishing in all school environments. The Arts Council of Ireland is delighted to announce Creative Schools Week. This week provides a space in the calendar to recognise schools as centres of creativity, highlight those areas where creativity is at work, and give students an opportunity to share their creative exploits.
‘Creativity Lives Here’ is the theme for this year’s celebration. It presents an opportunity for school communities to pause and reflect on where creativity is evident in every class, in every department and in the experience of every student. The week is a time to focus on celebrating this creativity, perhaps adding to the experiences of students in the form of events or workshops and providing a platform to show how creativity lives in each school.
The Creative Schools online programmes from the 2021 celebration provide a great snapshot of creative activities and events in a variety of school settings and age groups. These episodes are available to watch on www.artscouncil.ie/creative-schools/celebration-2021/
Date: 9 – 13 May, 2022
Creative Schools Week is open to every school. Schools will receive a brochure with lots of ideas and ways to become involved in the celebration. Creative Schools will send some updates in the weeks leading up to May 9th with further ideas for activities and information about how your schools can celebrate. To further information or to get involved, please contact creativeschools@artscouncil.ie
The Ark Date: 12 March 2022
The Ark are delighted to announce this CPD workshop for teachers, were you will learn a range of easy, accessible skills which delve into the world of fabrics, textiles and the ways in which you can bring your learning into your classroom.
During this workshop, experienced arts educator and artist Carrie Lynam will discuss the building blocks needed for the delivery of the Fabric & Fibre and Construction strands of the visual arts curriculum. This workshop focuses on understanding the materials and tools needed for success and learning techniques that transfer to a busy classroom.
Often within the hustle and bustle of the classroom, the design process and preparation can become overlooked and focus can often lie on the finished products. This workshop will allow you to take the time to rediscover the importance of design research, experimentation and the creative process.
Attendees will explore the design process, discussing research, gathering stimuli, ideas for open ended experimentation with materials and the planning stages of creating an artwork. In this hands-on workshop participants will create their own unique samples to support in-classroom delivery.
Arts in Education Portal Events Date: Saturday, 7th May 2022
The Portal Team is delighted to invite teachers, artists and anyone with an interest in arts in education to save the date and join us for our first in-person event in two years! The Portal Spring Regional Day will take place on Saturday, 7th May 2022 at the Kildare Education Support Centre, showcasing arts in education projects and creative practice in the Mid-East.
We invite regional audiences to connect with us during a series of events, where practitioners can learn more about the Portal and what it offers, tell us about their work, connect with the community at regional level, share practice and find out what opportunities or events are available in their local area. We welcome teachers, artists, arts managers and anyone with an interest in arts in education to join us for this free event.
This event will be live streamed to ensure accessibility and an online creative workshop will be available for our audience joining online.
Stay tuned for the full schedule and booking details which will be announced in the coming weeks. Pre booking will be essential for both in-person and online attendance.
Graffiti Theatre Company Online workshop
Graffiti Theatre Company are delighted to present The Voyage, a new interactive theatre workshop for Primary classes (8+) and their teachers. This participatory well-being workshop offers an opportunity to reflect on the year gone by, and equips students and teachers with skills they may need for future change and transition.
Designed and developed by Graffiti’s Creative Learning team in consultation with educational psychotherapist Marie Delaney, The Voyage offers:
A pre-workshop discussion with a Creative Learning Team Member
Resource activities in preparation for the workshop
An interactive workshop for the class group, delivered online by Graffiti Theatre Creative Learning facilitators
Follow up resources for additional teacher-lead workshops
This workshop has been designed during Covid restrictions to address some of the anxiety and well being issues faced by young people associated with the pandemic. This workshop has been designed to be delivered virtually, and will continue to be offered online when restrictions are lifted.
To celebrate 25 years of World Book Day on March 3rd, Draíocht invites primary schools to this fun workshop which brings books to life.
Using themes of well-loved and known fairy-tales as a starting point, these workshops introduce students to the wonderful world of books through imaginative storytelling and fun collective group games. The workshops will explore ways of engaging the imagination, of thinking creatively, seeing, listening and expressing yourself through theatre games. Pupils will work together towards a common goal of creating a short performance based on stories they already know and giving them the opportunity to experience the creation of something from nothing!
The programme is offered on a first come first served basis and is restricted to schools within the Dublin 15 area. Cost per day €120. All materials are provided. Subject to artist availability, this subsidised workshop price is limited to two days per school.
Dates: 1-31 March 2022
Workshops can take place from 1-31 March 2022 on a date of your choosing. Closing date for Bookings is 11 March 2022. For further details please see www.draiocht.ie/whats-on/bringing-books-to-life
National Print Museum Ongoing
The National Print Museum offer a fun and interactive Mini Printer and Storytelling Workshop for pre-school/early Montessori groups. These workshops are most suitable for children aged from 3 – 5 years old.
The workshop takes place in the Museum’s Education Area, which is prepared for the children before their arrival. Children first join a storyteller who, using props and involving the children throughout, will read a fun and engaging story from the Museum’s Junior Library. The aim is that all stories are linked in some way to printing, books, museums or libraries.
Once the storytelling session is complete, children will don a mini apron and using crayons and ink stampers decorate their very own printer’s hat. Children are free to move around the Education Area to choose the items with which to decorate their hat. Once complete children become qualified mini printers!
How to book
The workshop is 45 minutes in duration and can accommodate up to 24 children. There must be a minimum of 10 children in the group and the National Print Museum require at least 1 adult per 4 children visiting. The cost per child is €2.00 and all leaders/ teachers go free. To make a booking for a pre-school visit please see www.nationalprintmuseum.ie/education/schools/preschool/ or contact the Education Officer education@nationalprintmuseum.ie.
Minister Martin announces government decision to extend Creative Ireland, the culture and wellbeing programme that transforms people, places and communities through creativity. Committed to the vision that everyone should have the chance to realise their creative potential to the full, the innovative all-of-government culture and wellbeing programme will be extended, in principle, for five more years until 2027.
In 2017, Creative Ireland was launched as an all-of-government culture and wellbeing programme committed to the vision that every person should have the opportunity to realise their full creative potential. Established as a legacy initiative of the Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme, it is the only programme of its kind in the world.
The founding vision of the programme is that creativity must be at the heart of public policy and that participation in cultural and creative activity promotes the wellbeing of the individual, the community and the nation at large. Creative Ireland collaborates across government and with arts, community and voluntary organisations to deploy creativity as a strategy for wellbeing, social cohesion and economic success.
Alongside its very successful Creative Youth initiative, the programme’s Creative Communities partnership with the 31 local authorities, and their delivery of over 5,700 creative projects to date, has been key to enabling community-led nationwide engagement.
Minister Martin said:
“I warmly welcome the Government’s decision to implement the all-of-government Creative Ireland Programme for another five years, and to work with me in the coming months to develop its framework. This programme has been innovative and effective in delivering the opportunity for people to explore their creative potential. Key initiatives such as Cruinniú na nÓg and Creative Schools have become embedded in the country’s cultural infrastructure. New projects that respond to contemporary social issues such as climate action and loneliness have emerged. With the support of my Cabinet colleagues, I look forward to developing a Creative Ireland Programme that will continue to enhance people’s lives in the coming years.”
The Government’s decision in principle will be for the Creative Ireland Programme to continue for a further five years, encompassing the period 2023-2027, and to focus on the following areas:
I. Creative Youth;
II. Creative Communities;
III. Creative Industries;
IV. Creative Health and Wellbeing; and
V. Creative Climate Action and Sustainability.
It is anticipated that a final framework of Clár Éire Ildánach/Creative Ireland Programme 2023-2027 will be brought to Government for its final agreement in Autumn 2022 prior to its publication, launch and implementation on an all-of-government basis.
Mayo County Council Arts Service & Kids’ Own Publishing Primary school resource
A Splash of Blue is a Schools Exhibition and classroom resource available on loan from Mayo County Council Arts Service to primary schools in County Mayo. The artworks in the exhibition are part of the Mayo County Council Collection and are by artists from or living in Mayo, or who had an exhibition in the county.
A Splash of Blue is an initiative of Mayo County Council Arts Service in collaboration with Kids’ Own Publishing and was developed to make the collection accessible to schools and show children how to explore artworks through looking, thinking, talking and responding in creative ways such as art, writing, music and more.
The collection and accompanying resource A Splash of Blue is available now to tour to schools in County Mayo. This booklet is jam packed with children’s thoughts and ideas on how to engage with the artworks in a fun way while they are at your school. So now you can become a creative explorer too and use this booklet to support you on your journey of discovery of the Schools Exhibition.
If you would like your school to become a creative explorer and to use ‘A Splash of Blue’ to support you on your journey of discovery of the Schools Exhibition, simply email mayoarts@mayococo.ie or call 09490 64666 to arrange a tour of the collection to your school.
Solstice Arts Centre Dates: 10:00 – 11:30 & 13:00-14:30, 16 February 2022
Solstice Arts Centre invites 1st – 6th class students to a guided tour and creative workshop using their latest exhibition ‘There is a forest in my backyard but my house is built from trees grown far away’ as a starting point.
Seeing architecture as a collaboration between humans and the environment, as co-organisms, WE ARE HERE will question if the structures we build can mimic how bees form their hives, a tree generates rings with each year, or a forest continually regenerates itself as a home for other organisms. Can a building be alive, breathing, growing, responsive, rather than something static and monumental? And what could this mean for the wellbeing of the people who use them and the wellbeing of our planet?
Following a tour of the exhibition, artist Anne Cradden will lead students through processes of experimentation with raw wood and plant products such as branches and twigs, as well as materials processed from wood and plants such as cardboard, paper, pulp forms, charcoal, MDF, wood chips and hessian. Thinking of building as a continually ongoing process rather than something with a predefined start and a final product, students will see what forms make-up their ideas before considering how humans can best use these structures. This workshop will touch on a broad range of cross-curricular topics including design, construction, mathematics, language, literacy, SESE, sustainability and co-operation.
Dates: 10:00 – 11:30 & 13:00-14:30, 16 February 2022
Creativity and Change, Crawford College of Art & Design Various dates
Creativity and Change Deep Dives are an opportunity for inspirational, intensive and in depth creative engagement over two days. Delivered by facilitators with specific expertise and experience, the programme is designed around the identified gaps and expressed interests of practitioners. Each creative workshop is a deep dive into a specific method that can be used to explore change-making, global citizenship and social justice.
These masterclasses explore a wide range of creative methods of storytelling, visual communication, podcasting, street art, drama and more. Masterclasses include:
1. The Story of Self with Clare Mulvany: Craft a compelling leadership story for social change
Sat 12th and Sun 13th of March
Cost €60
2. Visual Facilitation for Global Citizenship Education with Eimear Mc Nally
Sat 26th and Sun 27th March
Cost €60
3. Art + Activism = Artivism with Helen O Keeffe & Claire Coughlan
Sat 2nd and Sun 3rd April
Cost €60
4. Podcasting with Ainle ó Cairealláin from Rebel Matters Podcast
Sat 9th and Sun 10th April
Cost €60
5. Theatre of the Oppressed & Forum Theatre with Julian Boal
(Yes! That Boal!)
Friday 22nd, Saturday 23rd & Sunday 24th April
Cost €150
Tipperary County Council Arts Office Deadline: Friday 18 February 2022
Applications are now open for Tipperary Arts Office‘s Artist in Primary School Scheme 2022. The scheme provides funding to a professional artist of any discipline to work in a school for 50 hours on a project designed collaboratively between the school and the artist. The scheme provides opportunities for children to access and to engage with an artist and the language of creativity at an early age; and for schools and teachers to work collaboratively across curriculum areas.
Projects funded in 2022 must take place within the following timeframes: March – June 2022 or September–December 2022. This scheme is open to applications from all primary schools in Tipperary. Please note that schools that have been successful in their application for the scheme in 2020 and 2021 are ineligible to apply under the 2022 scheme. Artists must be Garda Vetted by the Arts Office before projects can commence.
The scheme is open to art projects in all art forms including visual arts, music, dance, drama, literature, film, photography, architecture and new media.
Now it’s your turn! Here is a new toolkit to get you started
I am sure that by now, after reading previous blogs, you are ready to embark on a multilingual journey!
In this last blog I would like to share with you some practical tools and ideas that you can use and adapt to your environment.
Multilingualism in your day to day practice
If you are interested in shifting towards a multilingual approach, you will find many ideas for whole school approaches in One school, Many Languages, an interactive repository of resources, from blogs, to lesson plans, videos and podcasts, as well as articles based on the latest research and best practice from around Europe.
As we approach International Mother Language Day, we can all get creative and imagine new ways to celebrate multilingualism with our children and our community. International Mother Language Day is a celebration marked by UNESCO on 21st February to highlight the importance of cultural and linguistic diversity for sustainable societies to foster tolerance and respect for others. All over Ireland, people are now getting ready to mark the day on 21st February, and using this toolkit you can get involved too!
Here is a list of ideas shared by teachers on how to create a special celebration around multilingualism. Of course, these can work any time of the year, and you could turn some of these into regular events!
A storytelling session where parents/grandparents tell stories in their mother tongue
A podcast showcasing everyone’s language
A blog to highlight the importance of International Mother Language Day
An activity to reflect on words that are difficult to pronounce or on the pronunciation of names
An activity around idioms or metaphors from around the world
A child-led survey of languages spoken in the school
Translating school signage in all the languages of the children
A multilingual mural with words in many languages
A video or written piece where children tell a story about their language, where it comes from, facts and figure
I hope that these blogs have brought you to think in a new way about languages and multilingualism!
Read the previous blogs in this commissioned series by Dr Francesca La Morgia here.
Chester Beatty
Online resource
The Chester Beatty Learning and Education Department has collaborated with the Junior Cycle Religious Education Team and co-produced a number of learning resources for the RE curriculum, using artworks from their multi-faith collections as a starting point.
Teachers of the Junior Cycle RE curriculum attended an onsite CPD in March 2020 exploring how to work with the Chester Beatty multi-faith collections. Participants learned about key faiths with an object based handling session (OBL) looking at every day faith-based objects.
The Chester Beatty launched an updated website in December 2021. It features a new School’s page chesterbeatty.ie/learning/schools-page/ including a tailor-made section for the Junior Cycle Religious Education Curriculum. Teachers and students can learn about various aspects of the new curriculum through the incredible Islamic, East Asian and European collections with particular focus on key areas including developing knowledge, understanding, skills, attitudes and values to enable young people to come to an understanding of religion and its relevance to life, relationships, society and the wider world. The course is built around three interconnecting strands: Expressing Beliefs, Exploring Questions and Living our Values.
The Playhouse Deadline: 5pm, Thursday 3 February 2022
The Playhouse is seeking an Education Officer. The Education Officer will work with the Head of Engagement and the wider Engagement Team to support learning and participation work in formal and informal settings and in the organisation’s role as an Open College Network Centre.
This is a part time role (2.5 days per week) in which you will help to ensure that The Playhouse develop pathways for people of all ages and abilities to engage in creative learning and participation.
The ideal candidate will be someone passionate about the value of education and motivated by engaging people in the learning that matters to them. You will understand and believe in a cultural democracy, in the value of the arts as part of our everyday lives and as a force for good in the world.
The National Gallery of Ireland Deadline: 18 February 2022
Following a successful programme in 2021, the National Gallery of Ireland is delighted to bring art to classrooms across the country again this year with Your Gallery at School, an innovative education initiative.
Your Gallery at Schoolaims to break down the barriers that prevent engagement with the arts through holistic programming that ensures children transition to adulthood equipped with the life-changing benefits of art. They also aim to build in students a sense of ownership of their National Gallery so they have a positive place to turn to in adulthood. Engagement occurs in three key strands: learning through and about art, wellbeing, and creative careers.
Over the course of 2022–23, they will work with schools who would not usually be able to visit the Gallery. Participating schools will be selected via an open application process.
Selected schools will not have visited the Gallery in the past three years and will be from one or more of three key groups:
DEIS schools to address socio-economic barriers to accessing culture.
Boys’ schools to address the gender barrier to accessing culture.
Schools geographically far away (over 2 hours away from Dublin) to address the geographic barrier to accessing culture.
There will be two windows of opportunity for primary and post-primary schools to apply, giving schools the option to choose what time of year suits them best to take part:
Round 1 applications accepted 24 January–18 February 2022 (workshops take place March–October 2022)
Round 2 applications accepted 29 August–15 September 2022 (workshops take place November 2022–June 2023)
The deadline to apply for Round 1 is 18 February 2022.
Or contact Catherine O’Donnell on 087 6436310 or codonnell@ngi.ie
Bell Table Date: 12pm, 23 February 2022
Bell Table invites primary schools to ‘Science Magic Show’. Triple award-winning Irish comedian & scientist, Donal Vaughan, brings his hugely popular science and comedy show to Belltable this February. In Science Magic Show, using only things you find around the house, Donal will perform amazing tricks to show how magical science can be. Want to see a potato rocket launcher? Or conjure dragons breath? How about a vomiting unicorn? Of course you do.
Ticket price per student is €8. Book your school via box office only.
Ireland’s National School Photography Awards Deadline: 12am, 9 May 2022
The INSPA’s are once again open to all Primary Schools in the Republic of Ireland. INSPA is a national children’s photography competition and Positive Primaries Programme which introduces Creative Well-being into the lives of primary schools by engaging with the magic and art of photography.
This year’s theme ‘Me, Myself, and I’ is looking for images that explore ‘Self-Portraits’ in new and imaginative ways. Therefore, INSPA reminds schools that a ‘Self-Portrait’ is not necessarily a ‘Selfie’ and can incorporate many different things such as, objects, activities, and environments.
To help you along the way, INSPA have developed a 5 step Positive Primaries Programme which includes a series of free Creative Wellbeing Activities, all designed by professional artists and qualified mental health first-aiders. These will help you integrate the camera into your school-day and allow the children to explore Creative Wellbeing in their own unique ways. Once you activate your school account, you will be able to upload your school activities, share ideas and engage with other Positive Primaries as they prepare to enter the awards.
The INSPA’s are having a massive impact in classrooms nationwide, helping to boost the well-being of students by simply integrating the camera into your school day. Participating in the awards helps your students increase their Confidence, Resilience, Connection, Kindness and Readiness. It also gives a platform for teachers to creatively explore their wider curriculum, allowing students from all backgrounds to actively engage with subjects in new and exciting ways.
This year, the awards are offering a range of fantastic prizes for the whole school community including; Weekend breaks away to the Amber Springs Resort Hotel, free Instax cameras and printers, Positive Portrait fundraising days, certificates and of course your schools Positive Primaries Flag. All entries will be judged by a national panel including Joe McKeown (INTO President), Enda Bowe (Photographer for Normal People and winner of the Zurich Portrait Prize), Brian O’Doherty (IPPN President), Fiona Foreman (Author and Teacher-Trainer), Majella McAllister (CEO The Museum of Childhood), and Richard Carr (Artist and Founder of INSPA).
Deadline: 12am, 9 May 2022
For more information and to register, see www.inspa.ie
Linenhall Arts Centre Date: 10:15am, Tuesday 22 February 2022
Linenhall Arts Centre invites your school to ‘Wire, Strings & Other Things’. This music performance encourages you to always be curious. To listen, respond to and communicate through the sounds, music and stories that are all around you – wherever you are and whoever you are with.
Meet Ed, Andrea and James, three totally different people with one thing in common – they are crazy about music and sound. Anything can happen as they find each other and start to invent music together. What stories will they share when, with your help, they explore the magic and mystery of how to compose, perform and improvise?
Perfect for all primary school classes, Wires, Strings and Other Things links in with the Listening and Responding strand units of the Music curriculum. It fosters a sense of excellence in and appreciation of new music. Through storytelling and composing, this show encourages an awareness and sensitivity to the inter-related elements of music and musical understanding. Experiencing this live music performance means children will see and hear outstanding musicians performing brand new music on a range of instruments including the viola, bass clarinet and improvised musical instruments made from a variety of objects.
Solstice Arts Centre are proud to present A-do-le-TA! This highly imaginative piece shows a day in the life of two friends. Joy and Sky are in a world where everything is possible – a tent can be a crab, an umbrella can be a cloud and the moon can sing! Through play, two friends overcome differences and together imagine, create and expand their reality and yours.
Enjoy a screening of the show in your classroom and continue the fun with their colourful and interactive AdoleTA! Play Packs. Each child/teacher will receive their own Play Pack with a link to a short video to watch after the show, where artist Selma Daniel demonstrates some of the fun activities for you to do. The activities include cutting out, sticking, movement and slow dance, all encouraging children to use their fine and gross motor skills.
The performance is based on the importance of play, especially free play during early childhood. It explores the fine line between the contemporary life, where electronic play has a huge role, and the natural instinctive play deep-rooted in human nature. Although digital media and technology have benefits, excessive use of electronic media can have a negative impact on wellbeing and mental health.
Dublin City Council & RHA Gallery Deadline: 12pm, 28 January 2022
Dublin City Council, in collaboration with and curated by RHA Gallery, invites submissions for its 3rd Visual Arts Exhibition Commission to be created for children, schools and families, which will be located in an exhibition room in Ballyfermot Library for 8-12 weeks in the Autumn of 2022. Dublin City Creative Hubs initiative, in collaboration with RHA, seeks to commission an engaging Visual Arts Exhibition for children that will stimulate both their curiosity and imagination and meets the following:
1. Provide children (both within and outside of school contexts) with a quality experience of Visual Arts.
2. Take cognisance of the library setting and the location of Ballyfermot.
3. Be appropriately cognisant of the needs, interests, real or imaginative lives of the target age group attending the Visual Arts Exhibition. (The age group identified can be jointly agreed between the Arts Office and the commission recipient(s) but must be under 12 years of age.
4. Be innovative in its approach and utilise the resources of its surroundings to deliver a quality artistic experience to its audience.
5. As part of the award, the successful candidate(s) will be expected to contribute to and help inform an engaging exhibition education and learning programme.
The Visual Art Exhibition Commission Award of €8500 is for research and delivery of commissioned works for exhibition. Technical support for installation will be provided by the RHA Gallery. A separate budget will be allocated for the associated education and learning programme that will take place with Primary School Children and family audiences across the 8 week term of the exhibition. This may involve additional artists as facilitators.
Mother Tongues Date: 10-12:30, Friday 28 January 2022
Mother Tongues is offering an interactive online course ‘Bridging Language Barriers and Building Connection’. In this masterclass, participants will learn about linguistically and culturally responsive strategies that will help them to bridge language barriers and build connections in their work. During the session, participants will get to draft their own language strategy. This course is designed for individuals working in organisations that provide Artistic and Cultural experiences to the public.
Some of the topics covered will include:
– Understanding the types of language and communication barriers and challenges
– Identifying and addressing relevant language and communication barriers
– Building your own inclusive language and communication action plan
Date: 10-12:30, Friday 28 January 2022
About the training:
The course is delivered via Zoom. Participants will take part in group discussions and will be guided through the steps to build their inclusive language and communication plan. All participants receive a certificate of attendance. Cost: €150.
The Hunt Museum are looking for a self-motivated, collaborative and efficient individual to take on the role of Public Engagement Coordinator for the ‘The Three Muses’ Joint Education programme. They will be required to consolidate, innovate and grow the reach and impact of this visual arts programme which engages primary school aged children from across Limerick with collections at the Hunt Museum, Limerick Museum and Limerick City Gallery of Art.
Are you excited by the unlimited potential the pooling of these collections offers for curriculum linked and creative learning with children? If you have excellent project management, facilitation and administration skills and enjoy working in a busy and creative environment, this role might well suit you. This contract is full time and for two years (subject to funding).
The Public Engagement Coordinator role has three key areas of responsibility:
Programme development and coordination including developing new curriculum linked resources (digital and non-digital), coordination and facilitation of blended learning opportunities with Limerick schools.
Partnership Management, including all related administration.
Promotion of the programme, its resources and results including the preparation and circulation of online publicity materials and networking in the community.
The successful candidate will work across the three partner institutions and with primary schools from across Limerick. A priority area is engaging new schools who have not previously participated in the programme. Given the ongoing challenges presented by Covid 19, the successful candidate will be required to find new ways to deliver online and digital engagement with schools. On this basis, applications from those with excellent IT skills and some knowledge of gamification for learning and open-source learning are particularly welcomed.
The Arts in Education Portal editorial team are pleased to invite applications for a documentation award. Through the award, successful applicants will receive services to the value of €5,000 that will support them in the documentation of a current or upcoming project and a €500 stipend.
The purpose of the award is to support the development of documented outcomes from Arts in Education initiatives in Ireland, which can be shared with the arts in education community and give insights into different processes of engagement. This is part of the Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee’s commitment to supporting and recognising the value of documentation and reflection as a key component within arts in education initiatives.
Two awards will be offered through this opportunity.
Outcomes of the documentation process will include: a project video, a project feature to be showcased on the Portal’s Projects/Partnerships, and the option of a critical essay, with a view to also presenting the work as part of the Arts in Education Portal National Day in 2022.
The process will involve meetings with the Portal Team and a schedule of up to 3 visits over the course of the project to capture video and photographic documentation and support reflective processes among participants. These visits and meetings can be conducted virtually if required. The portal team will work closely with the recipients to ensure all restrictions and protocols in terms of COVID 19 are adhered to during the process to ensure safety for all involved.
The portal team will edit and produce a project video, and will liaise closely with the project partners to develop the content for the project feature. The critical essay would be sited in the Portal’s Reading Room, and is optional. The author and focus of the essay can be decided by the project organisers in collaboration with the Portal Team.
Criteria
To be considered for this opportunity, projects must:
Have started in autumn 2021 and continuing into 2022, or taking place in 2022. Please note if selected filming of engagement sessions will take place after 21st March 2022.
Have a minimum duration of 8 weeks.
Involve a professional artist working collaboratively within an educational setting (early years, primary or post-primary).
Be underpinned by a strong ethos of collaboration and a commitment to excellence. Focus on the creative process, with children having an active and collaborative role
Additional criteria
Successful applicants will be asked to ensure that relevant permissions/consent have been sought for documentation of participants.
Please ensure your application has been approved by all project partners prior to submission.
How to make a submission:
Background on who you are; your professional practice and your ethos or approach towards Arts in Education.
An overview of the project – who is involved, how did the collaboration come about, what processes or approaches will take place, what is the aim or focus of the process?
A statement of interest, explaining why documentation supports would be of value to this project.
Building and touring the Interactive Museum of Languages for Young Audiences
There is a widespread belief that multilingualism is rare or special and that the norm is speaking only one language. This is far from true. There are more people in the world who speak more than one language than there are monolinguals.
It is often difficult to explain what it is like to have a language inside your mind that is “speaking to you”, that wants to emerge, but that has to stay silent. For years bilingual children in schools have silenced one of their languages (or more) to focus on the language of instruction, and this is something that will speak to Irish speakers all over the country.
This is what made me want to create a visual representation of multiple languages, which are normally invisible and intangible, but are present in our lives.
While this idea of creating a physical piece to increase visibility of languages and act as a starting point for discussion had been floating in my mind for a long time, but it was only a commission from South Dublin County Council Arts Office for Cruinniú na nOg that sparked my interest in pursuing it further. At the time there were several restrictions associated with Covid19, so a touring museum of languages seemed to be the right way to reach children in schools at a time of severe restrictions.
Creating IMLYA
The artist who was ready for the challenge was Tomasz Madajczak, who understood immediately the scope of the project and the potential impact it could have on all children.
Tomasz named his creation IMLYA, the Interactive Museum of Languages for Young Audiences.
Here you can hear Tomasz sharing a message for the children who are about to explore the museum.
In this video Tomasz talks about the different components of the museum.
Touring IMLYA
The museum started touring in May 2021 and has so far reached thousands of children in different parts of Ireland who have engaged with it in their own school, library or arts centre.
Through a collaboration with Wexford library, IMLYA recently visited children in schools across Wexford county and through the skilled facilitation of artist Fernanda Ferrari children created fantastic multilingual books that were then displayed in Wexford library and exhibited for all children, families and other visitors to enjoy. There is something quite magical about IMLYA, and children are immediately drawn to it, they want to touch it and play with it. There is also a very deep connection that children see in some of the pieces, as they remind them of their parents’ languages, of writing systems they see when they visit their family abroad, of sounds that “sound like home”. As an adult, I also am drawn to IMLYA and I see something new every time I look. There is a video of Tomasz himself telling a story in Polish, a poem by film-maker Jijo Sebastian in Malayalam, a fairytale told by artist Fernanda Ferrari in Brazilian Portuguese… so many people have contributed their knowledge, expertise, words and sounds, that IMLYA carries a very special meaning to me and my hope is that it will continue to inspire children around Ireland to be curious about languages and cultures.
Art Movements is a newly commissioned performance by Inma Pavon that will premiere as part of the First Fortnight Festival. The performance will invite an online audience to participate wherever they may be. If you are sitting in your office, at the kitchen table or in your bedroom, you too can join the artists and students from University College Cork in this unique event. A set of instructions, information on the project and further details on the event will be emailed to all participants.
In Autumn 2021, the Glucksman art museum in UCC invited university students to participate in a project that would result in the commissioning of a new artwork for the University Art Collection. The project saw students work with artist Inma Pavon over a series of workshops designed to explore mental health. Together they creatively examined aspects of wellbeing, recovery, awareness, and the challenges facing people today. The workshops included discussions, talks, field trips and practical movement and creative sessions enabling different conversations to emerge. These conversations and the content of the workshops have influenced the artist to create a performance titled Art Movements which will be premiered as part of the First Fortnight Festival in 2022.
The performance will be accompanied by the creation of a set of photographs and film documentation which will be accessioned into the university art collection before being disseminated widely to facilitate further discussions amongst the university community, and wider national and international audiences.
The Irish Film Institute launches its comprehensive 2021/2022 IFI Schools’ Programme. This year’s programme offers screenings in cinema and also online, on the platform IFI@Schools. Choose from brand new titles for Modern Foreign Languages, prescribed English titles, Irish films, and much more!
The ever-popular Modern Foreign Languages strand, encompassing French, German and Spanish are an invaluable way of promoting language and culture. Included in the 2021/2022 German selection is films Cleo, Zu weit Weg, Das freiwillige Jahr, and Nachtwald which are presented in partnership with the Goethe-Institut Irland. Screenings for the French language selection includes Petit Pays, Gagarine, Man Up!, and Fahim in partnership with the French Cultural Service.
If you can’t get to IFI or one of our partner venues, you can stream the majority of the films on the Schools’ Programme 2021-22 on IFI@Schools. For more information about the streaming platform go to ifi.ie/learn/ifischools-about.
Calling creators from underrepresented communities who have passion and curiosity for making theatre for young audiences! Applications open now for LEAP!
LEAP is a four day, paid workshop and community-building project open for creatives from underrepresented, ethnically diverse communities or migrant backgrounds. Facilitated by Moonfish Theatre practitioners, the workshop will encourage participants to share and exchange artistic and creative techniques and tools. Participants will play physical theatre and devising games and explore how to create stories using puppetry, multiple languages, music, and movement.
In partnership with Moonfish Theatre and NUI Galway, the LEAP workshop is a pilot programme and part of Baboró’s EDI strategy aiming to strengthen diversity, equity, and inclusion in the TYA sector.
Join The Ark’s Team for a special January virtual coffee morning focusing on artists’ wellbeing, in partnership with First Fortnight.
At this dark time of year, if you are an artist interested in working with children, grab yourself a soothing hot drink and pop into this relaxed online get-together for informal chats and an opportunity to meet other like-minded artists as well as some of The Ark and First Fortnight teams.
Though life is opening up and live arts are slowly returning, challenges undoubtedly remain. These online coffee mornings have proved supportive for many artists around the country to stay connected over the past while. So The Ark is staying online in order to continue to give artists a chance to connect and meet with others regardless of their location.
The team welcome all artists, whether you are new to work with children or just curious, as well as those of you with more experience working with this unique audience.
Selma Daniel is the guest speaker at this artist’s coffee morning. Selma is an Associate Dance Artist with Solstice Arts Centre and has over 20 years’ experience in dance performance, choreography and education.
This is a free event but advance registration is required.
Taking inspiration from The Ark’s Winter Light exhibition and music show Tracks in the Snow, children will celebrate the magic of winter light and the variety of elements that are part of the natural world during this season.
In wintertime, light takes on a different more intriguing dimension. With frost glittering on trees and gardens, with ice forming beautiful designs on water and the moon creating magical shadows on a white landscape our imagination soars and stories unfold. There is so much to look forward to!
This workshop for primary school 1st – 6th classes is based on a simple 3D activity aimed at creating a shadow scene using a selection of white paper. Children can work on an individual piece or in pairs.
Artist Jole Bortoli will introduce the workshop through the projection of a sample of images on the theme of winter art and narrative for the children to work from and create their own artwork.
Curricular Links
This workshop links with the construction strand and drawing strand of the curriculum, allowing children to create imaginative and complex 3D structures from paper. They will explore shape, tone, line and form as they use paper in different ways to manipulate light and shadow.
Earlier in November, over the course of seven days, more than 250 artists, teachers, and arts in education professionals attended our sixth annual National Arts in Education Portal Day, which this year moved online with a series of virtual events.
Over the seven days, the arts in education community came together to share, learn, talk, be inspired and interrogate best practice in the field. We would like to thank all our guest speakers, artists and all who joined us to engage in the conversation.
Connections, the value of community and relationships, critical thinking and the importance of children and young people being comfortable to make mistakes were all key threads in all discussions across the week. Our keynote speaker professor Adele Diamond, Canada Research Chair Professor of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience at UBC in Vancouver noted;
“The different parts of the human being are fundamentally interrelated. Each part (cognitive, spiritual, social, emotional and physical) is affected by and affects the others. The best and most efficient way to foster any one of those is probably to foster all.”
Sound Walk by Patricia Moriarty craeted as part of the creative workshop ‘Exploring the Sound Walk’ from composer Fiona Linnane
Composer Fiona Linnane facilitated a workshop entitled “Exploring the Sound Walk”. Here is the collaborative audio piece created by participants during the workshop.
‘Two Ducks’ by Kathleen. Stop Motion Animation crated as part of the creative workshop ‘Imagine, Play, Shoot’ with artist Ana Colomer.
For those who missed the discussions they will be available to watch back until the end of December on the Arts in Education Portal Facebook page.
Reflections on International Teacher-Artist Partnership (I-TAP-PD) – Presentation Slides
Creative Workshop: When Reality Ends, Imagination Begins – Reference Document
Fís Film Project
Best COVID Movie, most powerful Irish language production and more announced at 16th annual FÍS Film Awards.
IRELAND: Lockdown, Irish language movies, outstanding contributions and achievements in filmmaking have been recognised at this year’s FÍS Film Awards. The renowned event which celebrates the moviemaking abilities of primary school students took place virtually earlier this month (19th November). Pupils from across the country tuned in to the online ceremony which was hosted by RTE’s Sinead Kennedy.
Guest of Honour, Minister for Education, Norma Foley, TD spoke at the awards filmed at the Institute of Art, Design & Technology’s (IADT) National Film School, Dún Laoghaire. Hosted jointly by IADT’s FÍS Office in collaboration with the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST TiE). This year’s event was hosted virtually due to COVID, with the ceremony broadcast via www.fisfilmproject.ie. The Aileen MacKeogh Film of the Year Award 2021 went to film titled ‘Son of the Grabber’ made by pupils from St. Hugh’s National School. The County Leitrim 54 pupil, 3 teacher school also received the award for Best Direction for their Irish folklore film. A story, from their parish of Ballinaglera, is about a journey taken in the dead of night and the events surrounding it. It was a unanimous decision by the judging panel to award film of the year to Son of the Grabber.
Some other 2021 winners included:
Gardiner Street Primary School, Dublin – Outstanding Achievement in Filmmaking – Storytelling (Letters from Manresa)
St. Gerard’s Junior School, Co.Wicklow – Award for Best Junior Film (The Party Crasher)
Gaelscoil Shlí, Laois – An Scannán Is Fearr as (Simon & An Sneachta)
Scoil Padraig Naofa Cregmore National School, Co.Galway – Award for Best Covid-19 Film (Covid 19 – 2020 A year of change)
Scoil Riabhach – Award for Curriculum Relevant Films – Science (An Croí)
Shortlisted films throughout Ireland battled it out for the contest with the judging panel shortlisting just 18 films. Counties represented across the award-winning films include Limerick, Donegal, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, Laois, Leitrim, Waterford, Cork, Sligo, Wicklow, Kildare and Tipperary. This year saw a variety of awards up for grabs with accolades for Outstanding Achievement in Film Making for: Costume Design, Sound Track, Adaptation, Special Effects, Best Newcomer, Best Junior, as well as awards for curriculum relevant films that included subject areas such as History, Science and COVID-19. A unique montage of all the award-winning films can be viewed HERE. Each film can be viewed in full at the website fisfilmproject.ie.
The awards ceremony showcased the successes of the FÍS Film Awards project which exposed primary school students and teachers to all aspects of the film-making process. The concept behind FÍS is to help children not only develop essential communication and team working skills, but technological skills to assist them in a digitally driven world. It also aids teachers in developing children’s problem solving and investigative minds and is aligned with the Government’s digital strategy for schools.
This year marked 21 years since the inception of the highly successful FÍS project. To commemorate the occasion, the judging panel introduced a special merit award, to be presented to a school that demonstrated deep learning, imagination, creativity, tenacity and commitment in light of the challenges faced by all schools, pupils and teachers due to the pandemic. The FÍS Film Project 21st Anniversary Special Merit Award went to county Galway school, Scoil Eanna, Ballaun. The school also received the award for Outstanding Achievement in Filmmaking Award for Cinematography for their film ‘Hidden’.
The Ark Dates: 10.15am & 11.45am, 7 & 14 December 2021
The Ark invites you to two Early Years workshops this December.
Little Bird 10.15am & 11.45am, 7 December
In this workshop you’ll hear the tale of a hungry little Robin who needs your help. Learn how to make a special bird feeder for Robin and his friends to hang in your garden or window box. Further details and booking information here
Shadowlands 10.15am & 11.45am, 14 December 2021
Join artist Jane Groves and play in the light and the dark and all the shadows in between. Learn how to make a lantern to light your way. Create bright shiny stars to join our lonely star, and make the night sky dazzle and twinkle all night. Further details and booking information here.
Tickets cost €11.50/€9.50 per child with 20% off for members. These workshops are suitable for 2 – 4 year olds.
National Gallery of Ireland Date: 4pm, 2 February 2022
National Gallery of Ireland are delighted to announced their new online CPD workshop for teachers. Join Jennie Taylor, curator of the Zurich Young Portrait Prize, and Catherine O’Donnell, Education Officer, for a practical workshop, equipping you with tools and ideas for including portraiture in the classroom. The session will support teachers using their schools resource What is a Portrait?, and will include peer learning via group work to enable you to develop cross-curricular creative strategies.
Please note that this is an online CPD workshop via Zoom.
Watergate Theatre Dates: 12pm, 2 December & 7pm, 3 December
‘A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings’ is Gabriel García Márquez’s darkly comic tale, brought to the stage in the Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny. Suitable for children aged 8+, the Watergate Theatre are offering special rates for school audiences.
In a kitchen, in a theatre, two storytellers and their audience find something remarkable — a very old man with enormous wings. The wise neighbour woman tells us he’s an angel. The priest says he’s an imposter. Pilgrims flock to see him, hoping to be healed by him, hoping for a gawp. They leave with something different than what they expected.
Adapted from Gabriel García Márquez’s ‘Un señor muy viejo con unas alas enormes’, Dan Colley and Riverbank Arts Centre bring this classic piece of magical realism to the stage in search of its beautiful, strange, emotional richness.
Exploiting the creative potential of multilingualism
It is widely accepted that if you express yourself through art there is no “right way”, because art is about exploring all creative possibilities, and not necessarily by following a set path. When it comes to language, our unique and incredibly creative form of human expression, we are often brought to believe that the right way is the one that is “conventional” and that we can master this art only by following rules in a very strict way.
In this blog I would like to dispel the myth that in order to engage with languages we need to be experts, and share some reflections based on the ‘Language Explorers’ initiative.
Language is power
As Frantz Fanon stated in Black Skin, White Masks, “A man who has a language consequently possesses the world expressed and implied by that language. What we are getting at becomes plain: mastery of language affords remarkable power.”
Language has always been the repository of cultural traditions, behaviours and beliefs passed down from generation to generation. Most importantly, language has an influence on how we think, how we behave, socialise and reason. Language is power because when we feel that we are not understood, we feel powerless. When we see that our mother tongue is considered less valuable than other languages, we feel inferior.
Language is power because if you possess the linguistic skills of those who have power you are privileged, if you don’t you face discrimination. So how do we shift and revisit this power dynamic?
Who is the expert in the room?
I created ‘Language Explorers‘ to offer children a space to listen to each other’s language stories, to examine the neighbourhood they live in and get to know about languages, sounds and linguistic differences. If I am working with a new group of children, I can’t tell if someone is an Irish speaker and whether the same person can also speak Polish until we get to have that conversation. So, my first step is always based on an initial conversation open to everyone in the group. This often starts with me learning to say each name correctly, a small effort which has always paid off, both with children and parents. The workshops in class vary: we use interactive games, art-making, singing, storytelling, story writing, and more.
The biggest challenge in this work lies in accepting that I don’t know much about other languages, and I have no power to decide what is right or wrong. As described by Phil McCarthy and Annie Asgard in this video, for multilingualism to thrive we need to let children be the experts, and by led by them.
A resource I use is the Mother Tongues podcasts, which carry us straight into the world of multilingual families and offer many points of discussion and reflection. Being in English, they are accessible to all, but they also allow for a short immersion in another language and culture, and the scenarios described will be very familiar to many children. It is quite astonishing to see the reaction of the children when different languages are used or heard in the classroom, and I think this is summed up really clearly in Soraya Sobrevía’s article on her experience.
When talking to older children, I enjoy using George the Poet’s poem Mother Tongue because it goes straight to the heart of the challenge that many young people face. The children’s creative responses to this poem have led us to tears multiple times!
Most of our creative work can become multilingual if we allow languages to emerge from silence. There is no ideal lesson plan, because this is mainly a shift in approach. The task of the person facilitating this work is to accept to be in a state of “not knowing the right answer”, and to make a clear statement that welcomes all languages. It might seem obvious or redundant, but since children are normally not offered this opportunity and sometimes not allowed to use all of their language skills outside of their home, this needs to be a clear statement of intent.
You will need to say that your space welcomes all languages, and to show in your own personal way that you are keen to have multilingual poems and songs, that you would like a bilingual dialogue in your next play, that you will regularly offer a creative space where no language is excluded or marginalised, and where English is not your only priority.
Once you create a space for every language to be unleashed and used as a powerful creative tool, you will notice that children will do the rest, and the change you have brought about will be long lasting.
VISUAL Carlow Dates: October 2021 – January 2022
The VISUAL Carlow invites primary, post-primary and third-level students to The Corona, an animated documentary film, interactive exhibition and series of guided workshops through the gallery, sharing the experiences of young people in their own voices during lockdown.
The Corona foregrounds the experiences of young people aged 3 – 24 in their own voices. The film shows the experience of lockdown from the perspective of children in early years settings, primary schools, afterschool care, young people from Comhairle na nÓg, early school leavers, third level students and children and young people with disabilities.
Schools can book facilitated, guided workshops through the galleries to view The Corona films, engage in facilitated conversation about their experience of the COVID-19 pandemic and contribute their drawings and reflections to the archive of children’s experiences of the pandemic.
If cost is an issue for your school please contact learning@visualcarlow.ie Schools can also come to the gallery any time during opening hours and do a self-guided free visit to the exhibition. Self-guided tours are free but must be booked through boxoffice@visualcarlow.ie or by calling 059 917 2400.
Fighting Words invite submissions from post-primary students for its annual Fighting Words supplement in The Irish Times. They are looking for short pieces of fiction on any theme – as Béarla agus as Gaeilge. Young people may submit one prose submission or two poems for consideration. The maximum word count is 1,500 words.
Fighting Words aim is to help children and young people, and adults who did not have this opportunity as children, to discover and harness the power of their own imaginations and creative writing skills. It is about using the creative practice of writing and storytelling to strengthen children and teenagers – from a wide range of backgrounds – to be resilient, creative and successful shapers of their own lives.
Every year, Fighting Words publishes a magazine of exciting new writing by young people from all over Ireland. While the magazine will be predominantly short fiction, if anyone is working on monologues, scripts, poems, comics etc. they are welcome to be submitted, as are extracts from longer pieces. All work submitted will be considered.
Solstice Arts Centre Dates: Various times and dates available
Solstice Arts Centre invites schools to explore 3 artworks in their Surveyor exhibition from the comfort of their own classroom. Their learning and engagement coordinator Deirdre Rogers, will use Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) to expand students thoughts on ‘what’s going on in these artworks’. Encouraging peer to peer discussion, this is an opportunity for students to focus and reflect on multiple perspectives, enhancing engagement and enjoyment of learning through art. Students will learn about the artists who created the works explored in their VTS discussion, and may even be inspired to create artworks of their own!
These online school tours are free of charge. They are suitable for students from 2nd – 6th class and students of all ages at post-primary level. The tour and conversations can take place during an in-person visit to the gallery or over Zoom. Good classroom internet access is required if you prefer to attend through Zoom.
Dates: Various times and dates available, please enquire with you preferred date & time.
Poetry Ireland Deadline: 5:30pm Friday 31 December 2021
Poetry Ireland are inviting applications from primary and post-primary schools for their Writers in Schools scheme this Autumn 2021. The Writers in Schools scheme part-funds visits by writers and storytellers to primary and post-primary schools in the Republic of Ireland (funded by The Arts Council) and Northern Ireland (funded by Arts Council Northern Ireland).
Writers in Schools visits are available with a range of artists including poets, novelists, storytellers, teen fiction writers, children’s writers and screenwriters. In-person visits are consist of 2–2.5 hours with a selected writer, which can be divided into shorter sessions for different class group. For the duration of the Covid-19 restrictions, Writers in Schools will also be supporting virtual visits by writers. These virtual visits will be one hour in duration and can be split into a maximum of 2 sessions.
Poetry Ireland recommend that schools submit their application as early as possible, as they generally operate on a first-come-first-served basis and unfortunately cannot accommodate every request.
The 6th annual National Arts in Education Portal Day 2021 is a virtual conference from 15 – 21 November. The National Arts in Education Portal Virtual Conference will welcome hundreds of professionals from across the arts, education, arts in education and creative sector, who will attend various online events to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired and interrogate best practice in the field.
The event represents an important landmark in the calendar for educationalists and arts and creativity in education sector professionals with a shared interest in quality and access to best practice arts provision for children and young people. This year the National Arts in Education Portal Day has once again moved online to ensure accessibly for all audience members as per government guidelines.
The Arts in Education Portal – an initiative of the Arts in Education Charter, a cross-governmental policy launched in early 2013 – is the key national digital resource of arts in education and creative practice in Ireland. This annual event is an extension of the Arts in Education Portal with specially commissioned activities and events that are funded by the Department of Education and supported by the Creative Ireland Programme. This is also part of a wider programme of national initiatives that have been developed as a result of the Arts in Education Charter and form part of the Creative Ireland, Creative Youth Pillar I programme, which was launched by Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar T.D. in December 2017.
There will be a broad range of Creative Workshops delivered by artists and creators, Ana Colomer, Fiona Linnane, Daithí Ó Murchú, Sarah Fitzgibbon and Joanna Parkes. These workshops aim to support artists and teachers to explore new ideas, approaches and techniques to support their own professional development through creative practice. The virtual conference will culminate in a closing event with curator, artist, writer and educator Jennie Guy, who will share her reflections on the week’s events and discussions.
The 2021 National Arts in Education Portal Virtual Conference has been organised by the Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee, who oversee the content management of the Portal on an ongoing basis, in collaboration with the current editors, Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership.
Please note: ISL Interpretation and live captioning will be available for all publicly broadcast events on zoom only booking in advance is required. artsineducationportal.eventbrite.com
Cork International Film Festival Dates: 8 – 11 November 2021
Cork International Film Festival presents five excellent films in this year’s Schools Programme. These specially selected titles are aimed at Leaving Cert students of French, German and Spanish. Presented in association with the Irish Film Institute Education Department, these films will be screened at the Gate Cinemas in Cork, Midleton and Mallow from 8 – 11 November.
Leaving Cert French titles include Gagarine by Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh, suitable for ages 12 and over; and Petit Pays by Eric Barbier, suitable for ages 15 and over. Leaving Cert German titles include Nachtwald by Andre Hörmann, suitable for ages 15 and over; and Cleo by Erik Schmitt for ages 13 and over. For Leaving Cert Spanish students, the Festival will screen Los Lobos by Samuel Kishi, a Mexican film suitable for ages 12 and over. Tickets are €6 per student and accompanying teachers go free.
Using The Ark’s Winter Light exhibition as inspiration, artist Liselott Olofsson will lead the group on an exploration of the season of winter through the use of visual arts.
This hands-on workshop delivered live through Zoom will encourage teachers to use art as a tool with their class to investigate, learn and discover seasonal changes in nature during wintertime, giving them tools and techniques to recreate a lesson back in the classroom.
The workshop will focus on the drawing, colour and construction strand of the curriculum, creating a 3D wintry diorama scene that reflects the winter activity of woodland plants and animals.
This is an event aimed at primary school teachers or other educators at the primary level.
The Ark invites you to their early years workshop ‘Fallen Forest’ with artist Jane Groves. In the Fallen Forest all the trees have lost their leaves and the branches are bare. But nature is only sleeping: little seeds and big roots are buried deep down within the earth, resting through the cold winter so they’re ready to emerge in spring. Come explore the Fallen Forest with your grown up, discover all the colours and patterns of the forest. Make marks and curious designs with the fallen leaves, create your own squiggly roots and come dig for hidden seed treasure!
Artist Jane Groves loves to connect people, places, and landscapes and specialises in working with young people, inspired by her own observations of nature and informed in part by many children’s lack of interaction with and vocabulary about the natural world.
Tickets cost €11.50/€9.50 per child with 20% off for members. This workshop is suitable for 2 – 4 year olds.
When my first child started primary school I was very surprised to be invited alongside all the other parents to spend 15 minutes every week in the class to read together in small groups. It was the first time I walked into a classroom of 4 and 5 year olds where more than 10 different languages were spoken. Each parent was very comfortable speaking to their children in Urdu, Arabic, Chinese, French and Italian, and all the children were quickly accustomed to this immersive sound experience.
For years I studied the development of language in the early years, visited homes to test and assess children, but only when I saw my own children growing up in their dual Italian and Irish cultural and linguistic identity I realised the important role the school community would play in developing their confidence in who they are.
This sparked my interest in developing Mother Tongues with the goal of supporting parents and teachers in making the most of the linguistic and cultural diversity that is already present in our children’s lives. Culturally responsive teaching means making an active choice to leverage each child’s cultural capital to benefit everyone’s learning experience. It shifts the populistic narrative of cultural diversity as a challenge and turns children and families into funds of knowledge, with their lived experiences becoming an integral part of the curriculum and informing the teacher’s approach.
As in the classroom, I think a shift in the conversations and approaches to cultural diversity needs to change in our society, with a stronger emphasis on each individual’s lived experiences as unique and valuable in creating the common space we share.
This is why the work of Mother Tongues takes so many forms in order to enact change inside and outside of the classroom.
In this series of blogs I will take you through some key projects developed by Mother Tongues to achieve our mission and vision, to examine how arts in education can be instrumental in building a culturally responsive environment.
Music Generation Deadline: 12 noon, 8 November 2021
Kilkenny and Carlow Education and Training Board (KCETB) invite applications for the position of Music Generation Development Officer in Kilkenny. This post is a five year fixed term contract. As the lead partner for Kilkenny Local Music Education Partnership, KCETB seeks to employ a Music Generation Development Officer to implement its plans for the provision of performance music education for children and young people in Co. Kilkenny.
Branar Téatar do Pháistí Dates: 29 November – 10 December 2021
Branar, in association with Town Hall Theatre, are delighted to present a new film version of their acclaimed production of How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers. Partnering with 24 venues across Ireland, all schools will have the opportunity to experience this unique and well-loved story.
Based on the beloved book, this film will be available to stream to classrooms throughout the country for a limited period. Schools can book to receive access to the filmed production for a full week and receive access to a dedicated online educational resource pack for pre- and post-engagement.
This adaptation combines an original score by Colm Mac Con Iomaire, puppetry by Grace Kiely and Neasa Ní Chuanaigh, directed by Marc Mac Lochlainn with design by Maeve Clancy. Branar’s signature storytelling creates a show which reminds us all to follow our dreams.
Are you an experienced art in education practitioner with good knowledge of the primary school curriculum and established skills and expertise in ceramics and clay? If yes, you really should check out this exciting opportunity.
The Three Muses Joint Education Programme, which comprises the Hunt Museum, Limerick Museum and Limerick City Gallery of Art, are looking for suitably qualified and experienced individuals or teams to design, trial and evaluate teaching resources for the Clay Through the Ages digital teachers pack which they will also deliver. Teaching resources include lesson plans on Clay Through the Ages objects/artworks and instructional videos which will assist teachers to plan and deliver clay based creative activities in the classroom inspired by Clay Through the Ages collections.
Clay Through the Ages is a new primary schools workshop programme currently being developed by The Three Muses. It will be offered to local schools next year. The digital teachers pack is an important component of this programme because it will be used by teachers to prepare their pupils for participation in the workshop but also to extend its learning potential. In addition, the digital teachers pack should also work as a standalone resource for teachers who are not able to bring their pupils to this workshop but want to deliver a scheme of learning on clay.
“I am delighted to welcome a further 188 schools as our latest Creative Schools – the largest intake of schools in a single year since the establishment of the programme in 2018. This increased intake of schools, in line with the commitment made in the Programme for Government to expand the initiative, will enable even greater numbers of our youngest citizens to discover and develop new skills and talents that enhance their development and growth, and add to the richness of their overall learning experience through increased engagement with cultural creativity.”
Announcing the creation of 21 new Creative Clusters, Minister Foley said:
“Now more than ever, it is important that our students are supported to develop their creativity and given flexibility to express themselves in a variety of exciting new ways. Today I am delighted to announce the 81 schools that are coming together to form 21 new Creative Clusters. I would like to welcome these new schools into this Schools Excellence Fund initiative, and I look forward to seeing how these exciting projects develop over the coming two years. This year has seen a very significant level of interest from schools applying to participate in the 2021 Creative Clusters initiative across the country. I am hoping to increase the number of Creative Clusters in the 2022 intake.
“In addition, the new BLAST initiative I announced earlier this year will also provide opportunities for schools to collaborate with established artists, supporting our children and young people to collaborate and engage in creative and critical thinking – all crucial skills for their futures. Applications for BLAST closed recently and I look forward to finalising the details of this exciting programme in the coming weeks.”
“The Arts Council is thrilled to welcome the wide range of schools and Youthreach centres across the country that are joining the Creative Schools programme for the period 2021-2023. These schools will participate in a guided journey to establish a Creative Schools Plan bespoke to each and every one of them. This creative and democratic process gives primacy to children and young people’s voices in creativity planning in their schools. It supports teachers in their work to embed creativity in the curriculum, and facilitates schools and centres to develop vibrant relationships with the arts and cultural sectors. This will help sustain artistic and creative practice for schools beyond their participation in the programme, and will help ensure that artistic expression is in abundance for years to come throughout the country.”
In addition to Creative Schools and Creative Clusters, the Creative Ireland Programme continues to support a wide range of both school- and community-based initiatives to enable greater participation by children and young people in all forms of creative activities.
Minister Martin added:
“Our ongoing commitment to Creative Schools and Creative Clusters has meant that in just three years almost 1,000 schools have been given the opportunity to engage with arts, culture and creativity in new ways, helping to enrich the learning experience of thousands of children and young people. Together with our continued investment in an array of community-based initiatives and projects, made possible by the Creative Ireland Programme, young people are being provided with evermore opportunities to engage in creative activities – not only as a support to their learning and development, but also for the sheer enjoyment and hopefully to develop a lifelong love of arts, culture and creativity.”
Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership Deadline: 5pm Monday 1 November 2021
Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership seeks an experienced individual to lead on the delivery of their collaborative projects with children from late November 2021 to mid–June 2022. They are a national children’s arts organisation and publishing house, whose mission is to create opportunities for children to collaborate with artists, and to publish and promote the artwork and insights that emerge from these encounters.
The Project Manager will have a base at the office of Kids’ Own Sligo town, but will work both remotely and on-site. Some travel may be required as part of this role. The Project Manager will report to the CEO, and will work closely with our small team to support the delivery of our strategic aims. The role is a full-time post, based on a fixed-term contract to cover maternity leave.
Salary is pro-rata, based on an annual remuneration of €32,000.
Imagine Arts Festival Dates: 15 – 24 October 2021 Imagine Arts Festival is a unique celebration of the arts in Waterford City. Now in its 20th year Imagine features live performances, exhibitions and interactive performances for people of all ages, including dance, film, visual art, theatre, spoken word and literature, as well as classical, contemporary and traditional music.
Below are some highlights for children and young people:
Theatre: The Little Robber Girl
18 – 22 October
A limited audio drama series for children with accompanying posted pack, written and directed by Deirdre Dwyer. The school’s ticket includes a digital teacher’s pack with curriculum-related activities. Join Mattie, her little dog Arthur, and her new friend Finn as they go in search of Mattie’s missing Mammy…and return with much more than buried treasure. Let the listening adventure begin!
School’s Ticket – €50 (limited edition; includes a digital teacher’s pack with curriculum-related activities)
Multimedia art: Creative Cluster exhibition 15 – 24 October
Under the theme of ‘Horizons’, five Post-Primary Schools in Waterford, supported by Creative Ireland, have come together to form an innovative ‘creative cluster’ aimed at student participation in the arts. This exhibition will feature creative writing, photography and visual art from the Transition Year students of 2020/2021 of Abbey Community College, Ardscoil na Mara, De La Salle College, Our Lady of Mercy School and St Angela’s Secondary School.
Workshops: Body Percussion workshop for 8 – 10 year olds 23 October
Join Karen from Mini Musos in this FUN and engaging body percussion workshop that uses the body as the instrument to create interesting and creative sounds, through pulse and rhythmic coordination. The workshop will engage memory & sequencing skills as well as promote the use of music as a means of encouraging well-being especially in todays ‘new’ world. By the end of the session the children should be able to perform a short body percussive piece for their friends and families!
Leaflings with Niamh Sharkey and Owen Churcher
24 October
A Field Guide to Leaflings, a family event with former Laureate no nÓg Niamh Sharkey and Owen Churcher. Welcome to the world of Leaflings, the secret guardians of the trees. Among the branches and roots of some of our planet’s most important inhabitants, live the leaflings. These tiny creatures protect trees and help manage their interactions, their cycles and tell their stories.
Bualadh Bos Children’s Festival Dates: 3 – 16 October 2021
Limerick’s only arts festival dedicated to children, all on your doorstep!
Lime Tree Theatre, Belltable are delighted to announce the return of their annual Bualadh Bos Children’s Festival this October. From the 3rd to the 16th of October an exciting programme of live and online events will be presented for families and schools.
The team hope the festival will bring some joy after a very difficult year for children and families. The programme offers a wide variety of events for all age groups, from our smallest citizens right through to our older primary school children.
One of the highlights this year is the Family Day at Belltable on Saturday 9th October to encourage family audiences back into the venue in a safe manner. Best-selling children’s author Dave Rudden will kick off the day with a 40 minute talk, it will no doubt fire up the creative juices of every child attending. Families can also pick up a Modernist Trail map by OpenHouse Limerick and explore the city with fresh eyes for an hour or two. The Bualadh Bos Human Library “drop-in” event will take place in the Belltable Hub throughout the afternoon. Children of all age groups are invited to come with questions about music, dance, writing and illustrations for four professional artists working in these areas every day. Cartoon Saloon’s screening of Wolfwalkers will complete a fantastic family day out. The Belltable Café will feed and water everyone with an appetizing family-friendly menu throughout the day so everyone can stay in the building for the full immersive arts experience.
Outside of the Family Day the festival presents a gorgeous theatre show by Barnstorm Theatre Company Alice and the Wolf, Riverbank Arts Centre presents A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings for families.
For schools they present Glór’s The Wild Atlantic Tales in Belltable and also host streamed events into schools with Music Generation’s Messin’ In The Musical Metaverse, White: The Film and Potato Needs a Bath. One streamed family show to watch out for is Hansel and Gretel complete with songs from Frozen and The Greatest Showman by Verdant Productions. This show is great fun and can be enjoyed from the comfort of your own couch. For the real smallies there is a beautiful show by Anna Newell called I AM BABA and the Bualadh Bos On Tour programme presents a show by Manchán Mangan called Arán agus Im for 5th & 6th class pupils. There is guaranteed something for everyone.
Despite ongoing challenges due to the pandemic the festival team has rallied to present the best possible programme this October. They hope families and schools in Limerick city and county will engage and join in the fun. In order for children to engage all we need is you. The team encourage all grown-ups to have a look at the programme here and book in advance due to limited capacities for many events.
Irish Architecture Foundation Dates: 15 – 17 October 2021
Open House Dublin returns from 15-17 October with an exciting mix of over 100 FREE events happening across the city and online! This year the IAF are delighted to bring Open House back on-site, with limited building tours making a triumphant comeback! See the city from a new perspective with Open House outdoor tours by boat, bus or bike! The digital programme allows fans of Open House to bring their festival home, with films, virtual tours, live streamed events, the Open House Journal and Open House Junior events all available to enjoy from the comfort of home.
The Open House Junior programme includes workshops and activities both in person and online for junior enthusiasts. Highlights include:
Architrek: A colourful series of specially designed architecture activity sheets for families, full of observation games, sketching and quizzes that guide you along selected routes around Dublin and Dun Loaghaire.
Building Stories: A competition to build a 3D model of your favourite building! This is a nationwide competition designed for families with children aged 5-12. Entries accepted until 30th October.
Digital Design Challenge: Use your creativity and digital skills to design your very own ‘Social Space’. This is a nationwide design competition for children and young people aged 7-18. Entries accepted until 30th October.
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children Dates: 4 – 17 October 2021
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children are delighted to launch their Digital Delegate Pass. With a Digital Delegate Pass you will have access to a variety of talks and online work created by some of the finest makers of children’s art and theatre and a series of talks with artists, sector and academic leaders. For their 25th festival, Baboró will be celebrating the rights of the child with a strand of events and performances dedicated to giving children a platform for their voice to be heard, a space for expression and, of course, a festival experience to be enjoyed with family and friends.
For the duration of the festival, Digital Delegates will have access to:
Six Digital Talks
Exploring ‘Mapping’: a map on the aesthetics of performing arts for early years
Bringing the Rights of the Child into View
Reflecting on RISE and Looking Towards Galway 2020 Legacy
Music Generation Deadline: 5pm Tuesday 5 October 2021
Music Generation is seeking to recruit a Quality Support & Development Manager as it builds towards its aim of nationwide expansion by 2022. This is an exciting job opportunity for a skilled professional with expertise in and a demonstrable track record of delivering results and achievement in music, education development and management. Reporting to the Head of Quality, Support and Development, the successful candidate will join a growing team focused on providing strategic support for the implementation of its Quality Strategy with its network of Local Music Education Partnerships.
Music Generation is Ireland’s National Music Education Programme which helps children and young people access performance music education in their local area. Music Generation has been successfully established in 25 cities and counties in Ireland. It has created some 67,000 opportunities for children and young people to engage in music tuition annually.
This position will be offered initially as an 18 month fixed-term contract commencing in January 2022. The Music Generation National Development Office is located in Dublin city centre; this job may be performed onsite or through a hybrid working arrangement.
We went outside straight away to do some artwork. Tunde gave us a clipboard with two sheets of paper and explained what to do. Firstly we had to draw a bird’s eye view map of the school yard. Secondly we worked in pairs to use a view finder to find an interesting spot to draw. This was tricky as if you were holding the view finder you had to be still, our yard is quite big so it was hard to choose which area to map.
While we were outside, the portal filming crew called us in pairs to a quiet area to do an interview. We were asked questions like
“What was your favourite part?”
“What do you think art is?”
“What was hard about the artwork?”
“Can you tell us about Tunde?”
The interview’s were fun to do but at first it was a little awkward. It was our first time being interviewed so we were a little nervous but we really enjoyed talking about all the work we did this year.
Plaster
We collected materials outside to use to make prints. We collected things like sticks, leaves, flowers, feathers, twigs, grass ETC to put in. We mixed flour, hot water and cold water to make a plaster mixture. We all had a turn stirring the mixture. We poured the mixture into containers. We placed the materials we gathered outside into the containers and we left them to dry. We wanted this plaster to set and go hard so we could use it as a plate for printing, however, when we came back to class after the weekend, our plaster had stunk up the whole class. Unfortunately our plaster had not worked. We think we may have overfilled the containers or maybe used too much liquid. They never hardened and we couldn’t use them. If we were to try this again, next time we could; make the mixture differently and pour less into the containers, or use clay or plaster of paris instead.
Bridges
Our task was to make a bridge that connected or combined something in nature with something man-made. We were given a few materials to construct our bridges with – blue paper, skewers, straws and masking tape. We worked in small groups to make our bridges. We found it tricky to find a place to make our bridge as we had to find somewhere outside that had nature and man-made items. We enjoyed this activity as the materials were easy to use and we enjoyed being out in the sunshine working with our friends.
Recording our reflections
In class, we made a scrapbook to talk about the lessons we did with Tunde and Ms. Hourigan. We stuck in pictures from our lessons, art we made during our virtual, we wrote recounts about our sessions and we were able to write our thoughts and feelings about art in here also.
By Artur, Sochi, Katie and Renata
St. Mary’s Secondary School, Ballina, Co. Mayo Deadline: 19 November 2021
St. Mary’s Secondary School, Ballina, Co. Mayo, invites proposals for the commission of an Artwork / Artworks to be funded under the Per Cent for Art Scheme in connection with their new school building. Artists / Architects / Designers are invited to tender for the project in a two-stage process.
Proposals are welcome from both individuals and collectives, and from those working across a range of disciplines and a broad scope of creative approaches. The school are interested in physical artwork(s) that integrate into and enhance the public spaces of the school, within the building and / or on the extensive exterior grounds. They welcome proposals that have an interactive and / or engaging element and that are vibrant and innovative in design / approach. They envisage that within the budget, a public art project that results in one or multiple physical artworks may be commissioned by an individual or a collective.
Budget
The value of the commission is €43,500 including VAT and taxes.
Stage One Deadline
Friday November 19th 2021 at 12:00pm
Brief
This is a two-stage open competition. Proposals will be short-listed for development in Stage Two. A fee of €300 will be paid to short-listed artists for further development of their proposal. Please read the brief for further details about the commission, location and school community. The brief, site maps, and a virtual tour of the new building are available on the school website: stmarysballina.ie/Page/New-School-Development/372/Index.html
Site Visit
Wednesday October 13th 2021 at 2:30pm. Places will be limited. Please book your place by Friday October 8th at 12:00pm by contacting the Curator, Yvonne Cullivan, at percentforart@stmarysballina.ie
Deadline for Queries
Friday November 12th 2021 at 12:00pm. All queries should be directed to the Curator.
The National Gallery of Ireland Date: Wednesday 24 November 2021, 4 – 5.30pm
The National Gallery of Ireland is delighted to announce a Teachers’ CPD workshop in photography. Join photographer Brian Cregan and Education Officer Catherine O’Donnell for a practical workshop, equipping you with tools and ideas for photography in the classroom. The session will support teachers using their schools resource Medium, Materiality and Magic: Photography at the Gallery. It will also include peer learning via group work to enable you to develop cross-curricular creative strategies.
The National Gallery of Ireland’s Teachers’ CPD programme is designed to support teaching and learning through and about art, via collaborative networking.
The National Gallery of Ireland Deadline: 5pm, 17 Sept 2021
National Gallery of Ireland is thrilled to announce Your Gallery at School, along with the return of lots of new programmes, resources and opportunities, including the return of onsite school visits, digital sessions and teacher CPD. They are inviting post-primary schools to apply to participate in Your Gallery at School, a new holistic outreach programme that brings the Gallery directly to schools. This project builds on the success of the Gallery’s established schools programme and develops new content and partnerships outside of the Gallery walls.
Your Gallery at School aims to break down the barriers that prevent engagement with the arts through holistic programming that ensures children transition to adulthood equipped with the life-changing benefits of art. It also aims to build in students a sense of ownership of the Gallery, giving they a positive place to turn to in adulthood. Engagement occurs in three key strands: learning through and about art, wellbeing, and creative careers.
How to apply
Download and complete the short application form and email it to tours@ngi.ie. Please note that only schools who have not visited the National Gallery of Ireland in the past three years are eligible to apply. They will let you know if your application has been successful by Monday 4 October.
Crawford College of Art & Design Deadline extended
The Arts in Group Facilitation Certificate (Level 8, 10 credits) at Crawford College of Art & Design focuses on the practical skills of planning and running creative workshops with groups in a range of non—formal contexts. Participants learn these skills through experiential learning processes, taking part in visual arts, drama, dance and music workshops and reflecting on the experience. The focus is on acknowledging the individual within learning, recognising the importance of play and the need for learning to be engaging. There is a strong emphasis on engaging with diversity and learning to adapt a range of arts approaches to meet the varying needs within a group.
The programme will be delivered through blended learning, involving face to face experiential learning and online learning. The face to face learning is being designed to maximise the potential of creative learning in outdoor environments. Crawford College of Art & Design are adapting to Covid—19 restriction and see the potential of learning in outdoor environments for participants in the programme and for those participants may work with in the future. They are inviting participants to join them with a bicycle to access outdoor learning environments.
The course will provide skills face to face in working in physical workshops, classes, centres as well as facilitation creative engagement online.
The sixteenth edition of Culture Night will take place on Friday 17 September 2021. Culture Night / Oíche Chultúir celebrates all that makes up the richness and diversity of culture in Ireland today, connecting people to cultural activities locally and nationally and aims to open up pathways to ongoing engagement. Doors are opened late and special and unique events are specifically programmed at participating locations. All activities are free of charge, thanks to the continued support of the Arts Council and Local Authorities across the island of Ireland.
Here are a selection of family friendly events taking place for Culture Night:
Cork: Pitch’d Circus and Street Arts Festival
Time: 6pm – 10pm
The event is a space for friends to catch up, stand awestruck at acrobats flipping and tumbling, or even a place to scratch your head at some silly walkabout characters. Features pop-up performances of Tumble Circus’ “Cycle Circus” and Tom Campbell’s “Rubbish Performance”.
Dublin Interactive Museum of Languages for Children
Time: 4pm – 8pm
Visit Mother Tongues’ touring Interactive Museum of Languages for Young Audiences in Rua Red. Since 2017, Mother Languages has promoted multilingualism in Ireland. Through artwork, sculptures, and spaces, the exhibit creatively encourages children to interact with different letters and alphabets across languages. This fun, immersive experience promotes both creativity and linguistic/cultural diversity.
Online Sundown Circus
Event Times: 7.30, 9.30, 10.30
Erebidae Circus preforms an intimate and enchanting circus show with Irish mythology, original music, fire dancing and aerial circus spectacle. They will have three special online performances about three ancient fires: The Fire of the Hearth, The Fire of the Forge, and The Fire of Inspiration.
Zoom Book Clinic with Children’s Books Ireland and Hodges Figgis
Time: 4pm – 6pm
Are you a young reader? Looking for a new series to delve into? Feeling uninspired by your bookshelves at home? Then pop into the virtual Children’s Books Ireland Book Clinic with Hodges Figgis! Chat to the Book Doctor, consult on your favourite reads and leave with a prescription for your next book, as well as a 10% off book voucher.
Live Online Workshop for Teens: Kabuki Actors
Time: 6pm – 7pm
Inspired by the Kabuki theatre, join the Chester Beatty Library and create your very own puppet dressed to dance and entertain. Bring your theatrical creature to life with glamorous costume and heavy make-up of the Kabuki world.
Date: Friday 17 September 2021
See culturenight.ie for more information on events and activities in your local area.
We are delighted to announce the dates of the sixth annual National Arts in Education Portal Day. This year, it will be moving online with a series of virtual events taking place over a week in November – Monday 15th to Sunday 21st.
The Portal Team are excited to welcome guest speaker Professor Adele Diamond, Canada Research Chair Professor of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience at The University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Professor Adele Diamond will open the conference on Monday 15th November.
Adele Diamond is the Canada Research Chair Professor of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience at UBC in Vancouver.
Professor Diamond’s specialty is executive functions (e.g., self-control, problem-solving, mentally playing with ideas, thinking outside the box). She offers a markedly different perspective from traditional medical practice in hypothesizing that treating physical health, without also addressing social and emotional health is less efficient or effective. Adele offers a markedly different perspective from mainstream education in hypothesizing that focusing exclusively on training cognitive skills is less efficient, and ultimately less successful, than also addressing emotional, social, spiritual, and physical needs. She has championed the roles of music, dance, storytelling, and play in improving executive functions and academic and mental health outcomes. When not working, Adele loves to be with her 4-year-old granddaughter and to hike, play tennis, and especially dance.
View Dr. Diamond’s TEDx talk on the power of Executive Function and its impact on learning below:
The full line-up of the conference will be announced shortly. It includes a series of ‘in-conversation’ sessions with artists, teachers and practitioners from across the sector, bringing discussion and critical thinking to a range of topics. It also features series of online processed based creative workshops and a closing event.
These events bring together members of the arts in education community from all across Ireland, to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired, and continue interrogating best practice in the field.
Full programme details for the day will be announced shortly. For enquiries please contact events@artsineducation.ie.
Cork County Library and Arts Service Deadline: Midnight 29 August 2021
Cork County Library and Arts Service is inviting visual artists, designers and craftspeople to apply for role of facilitators for Frameworks, its 2021 – 2022 Art Collection in Schools Scheme. Six primary schools across County Cork will be participating in the scheme.
The purpose of Frameworks is to:
Make visual art available for primary school children to view and engage with in their own schools.
Foster a sense of appreciation and understanding for visual art.
Support the primary school curriculum.
Provide the school with the opportunity to engage with a visual artist, designer or craftsperson.
Cork County Council has a substantial collection of visual art. This civic collection includes works in various media including, painting, drawing, print, photography, video and small scale 3—dimensional work. These artworks were created by emerging and established artists, many of who are living and working in Cork county.
Facilitators will engage with a primary school class for four 2-hour sessions, working with five artworks from the Cork County Collection as their starting point. The artworks will be installed in schools for the academic year 2021— 2022. The art facilitators will create and deliver an engagement plan specific to the artworks and context of the class. This plan should take into consideration the age of the class and other contexts such as geographic, historic or environmental factors.
Deadline: Midnight 29 August 2021
Artists will be paid a fee for these engagements, plus travel costs. A materials budget will be made available to each participating
school.
The Ark and Dublin Theatre Festival Dates: 1 – 10 October, 2021
The Ark and Dublin Theatre Festival present a new show by The Ark Artist-in-Residence, Shaun Dunne. This children’s theatre piece offers a window into one child’s experience of the first lockdown of 2020.
Kyla is throwing a party on her street. Not just any party. It’s a graduation ceremony. It’ll be mad to see the kids from her old class again after so long. Summer 2020 was literally endless.
Now that they’re all in first year, Kyla wants to get the old gang back together. She’s made caps, she has gowns, and she’s even prepared a speech. But there’s one visitor she’s not expecting…
As Kyla attempts to mark an important milestone in her young life, can she and her mother learn to understand each other and bridge the divide left by lockdown?
Informed by collaborative work with The Ark Children’s Council and featuring choreography by the multi-award winning Junk Ensemble, What Did I Miss? is a story of both childhood and parenthood, about growing up, no matter what age you are.
Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership Deadline: Friday 3 September, 2021
Kids’ Own is seeking an Education Advisor to develop and expand their links with teachers, schools, and academics in teaching and learning over a nine-month period from October 2021. The Education Advisor is a brand new fixed-term role that aims to support Kids’ Own by building new audiences through outreach to schools. The Advisor will also build on the increased interest of teachers, academics, and educational bodies in their work. They will develop new connections with all of the above to ensure Kids’ Own’s work remains linked with sectoral developments.
The Education Advisor will primarily:
1) build links between Kids’ Own and schools, teachers, and teacher training colleges
2) conduct focus groups to understand the links between our books and the current and incoming primary school curriculum
3) make connections with governmental educational bodies
4) advocate for the use of Kids’ Own books within the classroom to demonstrate the value of greater representation of children’s voices and lived experience within the curriculum and the books children encounter in school.
Qualifications and experience needed:
A strong interest in arts in education
A qualification in education or equivalent experience
Up-to-date knowledge of primary education in Ireland
Experience of working with schools, teachers, and primary school student groups
Experience with self-directed projects
Full, clean driving license and access to own transport
Interest in and strong commitment to advocating for children’s voices and rights. Previous experience in this area would be desirable.
Deadline: Friday 3rd September, 2021
To apply, please send a detailed cover letter expressing your interest and suitability for the role, along with a CV to staff@kidsown.ie. Please include a document that outlines ideas you have for how you may approach this role. This should include a breakdown of costings according to the fee that is being offered. There is a set fee of €10,000 offered for this role to take place between October 2021 and July 2022. This is primarily to cover the Education Advisor’s fee, but must also cover any other anticipated expenses, e.g. travel costs, materials etc.
The Dublin Fringe Festival takes place this September with live events in venues across Dublin and online nationwide. Their programme features an outdoor visual art in Dublin 8 and secret locations city-wide, as well as live open-air performances at Dublin Castle and Grand Canal Dock. They will be hosting music and comedy gigs back in beloved venues. Whilst bringing cutting edge interdisciplinary performances to stages in The Abbey Theatre, Project Arts Centre, Smock Alley, Chapel Royal and Draíocht Blanchardstown – as well as events online.
Some of the highlights for children and young people include:
Dublin 8, Yer Lookin’ Great 11-26 September Free
Emmalene Blake is an internationally recognised street artist based in Dublin. This September, she will create a new mural on Swift’s Alley, inspired by the ideas of children from that neighbourhood. Cities change and grow to suit the people who live in them. The artist asked children from local schools to tell her what makes Dublin 8 great. Children also shared the positive changes in the area that have made life better for them and their friends.
The Veiled Ones Dates: 7pm on 10, 11, 12 & 13 Sept; 4pm on 10 & 13 Sept; 12 noon on 11 & 12 Sept Tickets: €12/€8
Junk Ensemble present a dance theatre production for young audiences. This show explores witches, transformations and the powerful relationship between a grandparent and grandchild. The audience are invited on an intriguing journey through intricately designed rooms with a cast of internationally acclaimed dancers, young performers and live musicians.
We looked at different types of leaves common to Ireland on the board. We chose a leaf we liked and drew it on a card. We had to make sure that they were bigger than our hand.
We stuck foam and corrugated cardboard onto our leaf. We had to make sure that none of the pieces were touching as we wanted mosaic design. This leaf would become a plate for printing. We used a screw to dot texture onto our leaves by leaving marks in the foam.
We used view finders to find an interesting view in our nature booklets. We drew what we seen in our view finder on to a piece of card and we enlarged it. After this Tunde called us up one by one to choose materials to stick onto our picture. Some of the materials used were wool, foam, string, piece of a woolly jumper, thread, netted paper, hessian, lace, matchsticks, grease proof paper and many other things. Next we used PVA glue to stick our materials to the plate.
Printing
Our first printing session happened during our first day filming for the Arts in Education Portal as a part of the documentation award. We were very nervous at first but we soon grew confidence and we can’t wait to see ourselves on the video! Here’s what we did!
We used acetate, a roller, red yellow and blue block print ink to make orange on our acetate. We rolled the ink onto the leaf. We got another sheet of paper and placed it on the leaf plate. We gently rubbed the back of the paper in a circular motion to make sure the print transferred. We carefully removed the page and then ta-dah! Like magic, the print has appeared on the page.
We repeated this three times on white, green, and blue paper. We repeated this process using yellow and blue ink on our second plate (nature plate) to make two more prints. We hung our prints on a clothes line in the classroom to draw. It took our prints around a week to dry and our plates are still inky a month later.
We drew a leaf onto green or yellow paper and cut it out. We folded the leaf into quarters and we cut out three triangles on each edge. We opened our leaf to find a diamond pattern inside. We used blu tack to stick our leaves onto a massive, long piece of card. We used pouches made from hessian, cloth and thread, bubble wrap and Styrofoam sponges to create prints on the card using block ink.
Everyone in the class worked on this piece together. This was our teacher’s favourite piece that we made because everyone worked together. We left our piece to dry over the weekend, and when it was dry we removed it the leaves and we were amazed to discover the blank spaces they had left behind.
We really enjoyed using the printing ink and rollers. We liked the way we were able to use plates that we had made ourselves in previous sessions. It was great to have lots of artwork made from the same plate. We enjoyed removing the page from the plate as it was very satisfying to watch the ink appearing on the page.
By Seán, Pippa, Tyra and Ryan
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children October 4 — 17, 2021
For their 25th Arts Festival for Children, Baboró will be celebrating the rights of the child, inspired by the UN Convention on the Rights of The Child. The arts festival will have strands of events and performances dedicated to giving children a platform for their voice to be heard, a space for expression and, of course, a festival experience to be enjoyed with family and friends.
Two Baboró commissions, a co-commission and a touring exhibition, will be central to these celebrations and part of the festival programme in October. The full programme and box office will be announced at the end of August.
Artists, teachers, academics and arts education professionals… Do you want to be part of the sixth annual National Arts in Education Portal Day Conference?
The sixth National Arts in Education Portal Day will move online again this year with a series of virtual events taking place across a week in November. The conference aims to bring together members of the arts in education and creative practice community from all across Ireland, to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired and continue interrogating best practice in the field.
The Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee invites proposals from organisations or individuals who want to share practical approaches, new skills, new insights, open conversation and offer critical thinking from across the field.
This year, the Portal Committee is looking for the following:
‘In Conversation’ Series
Submissions for ‘in conversation’ style online sessions. We invite proposals that seek to explore or interrogate particular aspects of arts-in-education practice and/or that unpick common terminologies through a practice-based lens:
i.e. What do we really mean when we talk about ‘collaboration’?
How do we measure or understand ‘high-quality’?
What does listening to, or giving a platform to, the child’s voice really mean?
What does a child-led process look like?
Where does arts-in-education practice fall short? Who is left behind?
Proposals should clearly demonstrate an innovative approach to online delivery, ideally with dynamic presentation methods which stimulate audience conversation. Please note the committee will be selecting two ‘in conversation’ sessions for the conference.
Creative Workshop Series
Submissions for the facilitation of two online creative workshops over two days (one per day). The workshops should be focused and process-based, aiming to support both artists and teachers to explore new ideas, approaches or techniques to support their own professional development through creative practice.
The workshops will take place over a weekend (Saturday & Sunday) with the delivery of two 90 minute sessions with the same group of participants.
Creative Workshop ‘Sensing to Action’ with artist Kate Wilson as part of the 2020 National Arts in Education Portal Day Virtual Conference
Would like to be included in the programme for this day? If so, please send us your proposal.
Please ensure your proposal includes the following:
Detailed background on presenters and professional experience in the sector;
Some visual examples of work (no more than 5) relevant to the proposal;
Outline of why you think this presentation/workshop is important to bring to the arts-in-education community.
Practical details of how the presentation/workshop will be delivered in the online context.
The Committee will prioritise submissions from people from diverse communities, including but not limited to people of colour, those from ethnic minority backgrounds, migrant communities and those with disabilities.
The deadline for submission of proposals is 5pm Friday 27th August 2021.
National Portal Day Virtual Conference Proposal Form 2021
Crawford College of Art and Design
Extending the artist’s practice, grounding it in a social context. Looking at engagement through the intersection between the senses, society and the arts.
Crawford College of Art and Design CIT are delighted to announce a new Masters in Arts and Engagement. A 2 year part time course that prepares graduates to develop a professional practice in arts rich engagement with individual, group, and broader societal contexts. Participants on this Masters programme will develop an understanding of the role of the arts within learning, changemaking and the development of culture.
Employment Opportunities:
Arts in Health/Social Care programmes
Arts programming Production Manager/Developer
Outreach Education programmes
Artist Engaged in Community Issues
Professional Artist
Gallery/Museum Education
Youth work
Community Education
Second Chance Learning
Community Development Officer
MA Arts and Engagement
The course will run part-time, one day a week, plus 2 day block monthly for elective module. Applications are welcomed from graduates of arts (visual arts/theatre or music) or social sciences interested in:
Developing their own arts practice in relation to others
Developing arts-based processes to incorporate into existing work place
Developing arts engagement facilitation skills
This Masters programme builds on a number of existing Special Purpose Awards all centred on learning through expressive meaning-making: Arts based facilitation training, creativity and change-making and art therapy. These programmes educate through and activate different modes of communication, promote learning through experiential and reflective practice, and engage with other perspectives and diverse intelligences.
Participants on the Masters will develop an understanding of the role of the arts within learning and engagement and will develop the skills to apply this to a range of contexts. Core modules over the two-year programme relate to the arts in engaged practices which recognise neurodiversity, equality, social justice, power and autonomy. Through research, reflection, group and practical work participants will explore different ways of learning, investigating the transformational power of the arts in personal and societal regulation through a broad scope of contemporary methodologies.
Through elective modules in year one, opportunities will be provided to broaden skill sets through Socially Engaged Theatre, Eco-Arts Practice or Art Therapy. In the second year, opportunity will be given for students to develop their ongoing arts practice informed by, and in relation to, one of two strands of engagement – Health & Wellbeing or Global Citizenship.
Duration: Part time over two years (1 day a week + 2-day block monthly for elective module) Course Fee: EU Applicants: €6,000
The Glucksman has released a series of online art toolkits suitable for primary and secondary students. Organised around key themes, their free art toolkits enable you to explore works in the UCC Art Collection. Whether you are an educator, activist, student or individual art lover, these online toolkits are full of ideas and information to support you and your community.
The toolkits focus on the work of Irish artists Fiona Kelly, Deirdre Breen and The Project Twins. Fiona Kelly’s work has a strong environmental interest and
focuses on ideas of urban sprawl and its impact on the Irish landscape and its traditions. Deirdre Breen is a printmaker and designer who makes screen
prints characterized by flat abstract motifs and geometric compositions. The Project Twins, a Cork based collaborative art duo, create bold and playful graphics which explore ideas of absurdity, identity and the mundane.
Based in Cork, The Glucksman is a leading museum nationally and internationally for creative learning and access to the visual arts. For more information about the toolkit, get email education@glucksman.org.
Ireland’s National School Photography Awards Finalist Mini Expo now online
Ireland’s National School Photography Awards (INSPA) are delighted to launch their Finalist Mini-Expo online. The theme for this year’s National School Photography Awards was Accessible Places | Safer Spaces. A national panel of judges have made the selections from a wide range of entries from primary schools around Ireland. The exhibition is open until October 2021 at INSPA’s online gallery.
The INSPA team would like to take this opportunity to congratulate every primary school who participated in the 2020/21 National School Photography Awards. Through photography, INSPA introduces creative wellbeing into the lives of primary schools, while building a future generation of people who are confident, resilient, connected, kind and ready. This programme provides an inclusive model for children of all backgrounds and abilities to get involved.
The awards are free and offer a range of fantastic prizes including experiences at the Amber Springs Hotel for principals, teachers, pupils and families, cameras for winners and schools, framed photographs, certificates, photo fundraising days and national recognition as a Positive Primary School. To date, INSPA has seen over 450 primary schools register and take their first step on their Positive Primaries Journey.
If your school would like to begin its own journey and participate in the 2021/22 awards, you can register your school at the INSPA website.
The Ark Dates: 5 Aug 2021, 14 Aug 2021 and more
The Ark, Dublin are hosting a series of art workshops for Early Years this summer.
Workshop 1: Box Baby
Thursday 5 August, 10.15am. €10/€8.50* per child.
In this early years workshop, little ones and their grown-ups can explore, make and play together using old cardboard boxes and packaging to create something new.
Workshop 2: Natural Creators of Magical Sounds
Saturday 14 August, 10.15am. €10/€8.50* per child.
This Early Years workshop will focus on ‘found sounds’ made from everyday stuff you can find around the house and outside in nature. The workshop invites little ones’ natural openness and curiosity through a series of delightful composing, improvising, listening and play activities.
Dates: 5 Aug 2021, 14 Aug 2021 and more
For more information or to book these Early Years art workshops, see ark.ie/events. For safety reasons, a parent or grown-up should be present in the room throughout the session, and if necessary be available to assist your child.
The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon Deadline: 5:30pm, 19 August 2021
The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon has opened applications for their Young People, Children and Education Project Award 2022 (YPCE). The purpose of the YPCE Project Award is to support artists to develop and deliver ambitious and original projects with and for children and young people. Projects may be interdisciplinary or focused on a specific artform. The maximum award is for €80,000.
This award has four strands. You should choose the strand that is most suitable for your project proposal. You may only apply to one strand:
Strand 1: Early Childhood Project Award – Ambitious and original projects that engage children aged 0–6 in the arts.
Strand 2: Childhood Project Award – Ambitious and original projects that engage children aged 7–12 in the arts.
Strand 3: Transitions Project Award – Ambitious and original projects that enable children and young people to engage in the arts. This may involve transitioning into or out of secondary education, between Junior and Senior Cycle (Transition Year), or into further education or the field of work.
Strand 4: Connections Project Award – Projects that connect young artists and recent graduates aged 18+ with established arts organisations and arts infrastructure in Ireland.
The Centre for Continuing Education in Art and Design at NCAD (CEAD)
The Centre for Continuing Education in Art and Design at NCAD provides opportunities for part time study leading to a qualification at University Certificate (NFQL7) and Higher Diploma (NFQL8). Each of the certificate programmes carries 30 ects. On completion students can progress to the two year part-time Higher Diploma in Art to achieve a further 90 ects and will be eligible to apply for Advanced Entry to up to the final year of the NCAD full-time undergraduate BA programme in Fine Art, Design or Visual Culture.
CEAD offers credit and non-credit options for adults who choose to study part-time. In an era of lifelong learning, CEAD aims to provide a diverse programme of courses, which offer flexible, quality learning opportunities, that enable access, and support progression and transfer for students who wish to further their visual arts education. Applicants to an accredited course must be 23 years or over.
You can choose from a range of part time evening University Certificate programmes:
VAP Certificate A/C modules
The University Certificate in Visual Arts Practice offers flexibility and variety and can be completed in 1 – 3 years. Alternatively individual modules may be taken in a non-credit (audit) capacity. Applications opening soon.
D+VI Certificate
The University Certificate in Drawing and Visual Investigation signals a departure in the provision of visual arts education and the role of CEAD in creating opportunities for lifelong learning. This one year programme is for mature students who are interested in participating in a challenging learning opportunity in visual arts education.
P+DI Certificate
The University Certificate in Photography and Digital Imaging is a one year part-time programme offering students an opportunity to extend their visual vocabulary and explore the creative possibilities of photography within contemporary visual art and design practice. Applications now open.
CEAD- Higher Diploma in Art
The two year part-time Higher Diploma in Art provides mature students interested in establishing a personal direction in their art practice an opportunity to attend a flexible programme leading, on completion, students will be eligible to apply for Advanced Entry to up to the final year of the NCAD full-time undergraduate BA programme in Fine Art, Design or Visual Culture.
Are you a creative young person who loves drama, music, dance or art? If you are going into 4th or 5th Class in September then this could be right up your street!
The Ark Children’s Council is a dynamic and enriching year long experience exploring active citizenship through engagement with the arts as well as amplifying the voice of the child within The Ark, making sure that your voices are included in The Ark’s decision making.
Applications are now open for children who would like to join The Children’s Council 2021/2022. This Council term will run from October 2021 until June 2022 with at least one key event per month where attendance will be required. Sessions will commence remotely via Zoom in October with in-person sessions at The Ark in Temple Bar from November 2022 onwards, subject to government guidelines.
Please note that The Ark Children’s Council is strictly for children who will be going into 4th or 5th class in September 2021.
Applications should be submitted by 5pm on Friday 6 August 2021.
Irish Architecture Foundation (IAF) Deadline: Friday, 6 August 2021
The Irish Architecture Foundation invites applications from architects and architectural graduates to participate in the 2021/22 Architects in Schools initiative. Starting in September 2021, it is a great opportunity to gain CPD points while sharing your knowledge of architecture with young people and teachers in a fun and engaging way.
You will work directly with students in their school, supporting them as they learn how to explore, research, design and communicate their ideas about architecture and the built environment. You will also collaborate with students and teachers to select work for the annual Architects in Schools exhibition in the Museum of Country Life, Mayo, in May 2022.
There are two programme options for schools. Architects can work across a combination of these options if working with a number of schools:
Programme A: (Full)
20 hours work in total (8 hours preparation, 12 hours delivery) for a fee of €1000 (incl. VAT), on a schedule agreed between you and your assigned school.
Programme B: (Introductory)
4 hours work in total (1 hour preparation, 3 hours delivery) for a fee of €200 (incl. VAT), on a schedule agreed between you and your assigned school.
If you have good communication skills and are looking for exciting ways to expand your practice, we would love to hear from you!
On our first face to face session with our artist, we had a discussion about nature and mainly the bog. We learned about sphagnum moss. Sphagnum moss is good for the environment as it gives us oxygen. From this discussion on our project became focused on nature
Tunde gave us a booklet which we would add to throughout the project. In this booklet, we drew our favourite nature place or thing. Many of the children drew woods, forests, trees, rivers, campsites and waterfalls. In this session we encountered our first difficulty by not being allowed to use rubbers. This was tricky as if you made a mistake you couldn’t rub out, so you would have to draw over it or turn it into something different.
After we drew our nature places, we wrote 3 words to describe this nature place.
We had a discussion about nature in danger. Sadly we were able to think of lots of places and things in nature which were in danger or in trouble.
Some of our ideas were:
Deforestation: cutting down trees.
Overfishing: which is exactly like its name.
Pollution: which is when you litter in the environment.
Forest fires: especially the recent Australian forest fires
Hunting animals for food and sports
We drew a picture of nature in danger in our booklet. We then chose and wrote three words describing our drawings.
We made nature in danger posters. We used our persuasive writing skills to try and convince people to save our nature places and things.
We liked making our nature booklets as we got to choose what we drew. It was fun to colour and draw in the booklets.
Post by Caoimhe, Igor and Fabian
Coole Music & Arts Until 26th July 2021
Coole Music & Arts have launched the Carolan’s Rambles Sound Walk, a unique geolocated audio experience along the banks of the Gort River Walk. This audio experience is the creative outcome of Coole Music and Arts’ music school, where musician Sinead Hayes worked with children and teens via Zoom. In this project, the participants explored the life of Turlough Carolan – a composer and musician who preformed across Connaught, Clare and south Ulster in the 1700s – creating artwork, stories, poems and original music compositions over the past three months.
The free ‘Geo-located Sound Walk’ is the first one in Ireland to use this newly launched sonic maps software, is available until 26th July 2021 along the River Walk in Gort (entrance beside Aldi). Bring headphones and a smart phone and hold your camera over the QR code on the Carolan’s Rambles poster or download the App through www.coole-music.com.
Dublin City Council Arts Service Throughout summer 2021
Over seven weeks of Summer, Dublin City Arts Office and Libraries are delighted to present Inside Out – a feast of free online and outdoor workshops and performances for children and families. Events are free but booking is required through Eventbrite.
Summer Programme includes:
Underwater Moves: Early Years Dance workshops with Monica Munoz
Dates: 27th July, 28th July or 29th July, 10.15 – 10.45 or 11.45 – 12.15
The Storybook Treasure Trail: Performance based, interactive, outdoor family friendly adventure with the Gaiety School of Acting
Dates: 24th July, 7th August, 14th August, 11-11.45am, 12.45-1.30pm or 2.30-3.15pm
CuriousB: A pop-up festival site that you and your family will dream up, design and play in with ReCreate.
Dates: 4th August, 11th August, 10.15 – 11.00 & 12:00 – 12: 45
Events are free but booking is required. Capacity is limited to ensure that this is a good experience for children. To book workshops, see here: www.dublincity.ie/events.
The beginning…
Our project started in March during lockdown. We met our artist Tunde for the first time online. We did two sessions on video call on Google Classroom. Tunde showed us examples of her work and we came up with some ideas of what we might like to do in our project.
We completed our first art task at home. We drew a map of a place when we were at home. Some children drew real maps and some drew imaginary maps. Some ideas include : A map of school, A fairytale map, Memory map of a holiday in Czech, Inside a house, Japan, France, A layout of a ship.
When we got back to school we continued our project in person. We looked at real maps of counties, towns, places, countries. We looked at different symbols on the maps and tried to figure out what they represented. We listed all of our findings on the board.
We drew a map showing our journeys from home to school. We taped a long strip of white paper to our desk. The paper was cash register roll normally used for receipts. We had to draw everything we saw on our way to school. We choose three colours and we only coloured the things on the map which contained those colours. We recorded the sounds that we heard on our journey to school on our map by drawing symbols. We did the same thing for our other senses, what we smelled, touched and tasted.
We enjoyed using lots and lots of long receipt paper. We loved adding our senses to the map as this was something we had not done before. We found this tricky at the beginning because we had to try and remember what we experienced each time but we figured it out.
Post By Noelle, Megan and Linards
Centre for Continuing Education Dates: 19 July – 9 August
The Centre for Continuing Education at NCAD offers a range of short summer courses in art and design for adults and school leavers (16+) who want to explore their creative potential, learn new skills, or develop an on-going practice.
Summer courses are at different levels; there are introductory courses suitable for beginners, or for those considering returning to or progressing within higher education. If you want to learn something new you can choose beginners courses, and if you have established an arts practice and want to continue to expand and explore your options you can choose advanced courses.
Portfolio preparation courses are suitable for students considering applying to third level undergraduate art and design courses and wish to complete a portfolio in preparation.
Where students are interested in applying to the accredited part-time autumn options or want to progress within art and design they can consider taking one or more summer workshops as a way of developing skills and knowledge in a subject area.
Places on summer short courses are allocated on a first come first served basis. If a course is over-subscribed it is possible to join a wait list for cancellations.
National Museum of Ireland Deadline: 30th July 2021
The Education Department of the National Museum of Ireland is looking for artists working in visual arts, design, drama, film, storytelling, architecture, craft and/or other arts disciplines with experience of designing and delivering workshops to meet the learning styles and needs of a range of audiences, including adults, schools and intergenerational groups such as families.
While currently prioritising online engagement programmes, the National Museum of Ireland are inviting facilitators who are interested in creating both online content and in facilitating onsite programmes. Those eligible will have experience in the delivery of digital-based content in a virtual capacity and should be comfortable operating digital based equipment and programmes.
Facilitators and artists who register their interest in working with the Museum may be invited to work with them, at one or more of its four sites, and/or to create one or more short videos or participate in the Museum’s public engagement programmes through live online or onsite workshops or talks.
Despite the fact that scientific developments permeate and enrich the lives of young people on a daily, or even hourly basis, studies across Europe are identifying pockets of this demographic that are struggling to relate to and engage with the science curriculum in the classroom. According to Science Foundation Ireland’s 2015 Science Barometer report, young women from less affluent backgrounds are less inclined to identify with science education at second level. This has a direct impact on the number of students from this demographic advancing to third level and ultimately working within the field.
Drilling down further into the statistics, researchers have found that young women from a cultural minority background or who identify as LGBTQIAP+ are even less likely to develop a positive scientific identity, meaning a far reduced number of people from these societal groups tend to aspire to careers in science.
With the aim to address these gaps in science engagement, The Gaiety School of Acting has teamed up with partners from Ireland, Finland, Poland and Holland to investigate ways in which performance, and specifically comedy improvisation, can be utilised by science educators to impact on their students in a new and dynamic way. The three year I-Stem project, supported by the Erasmus Plus fund, began on September 1st 2020.
In its first publication ‘Creative Methods in Science Teaching – Ways Forward!’ an e-book resource for teachers, STEM subjects are related to arts. Use of arts in education tell us something about society: our educational systems and its angles of entry are creating the scientists of tomorrow. The combination of arts and science gives us a better starting point to develop our full potential which is needed when creating something new.
This publication presents research and best practices of using arts as a means of improving pedagogy and classroom practice in STEM education. In these pages “STEAM” represents STEM plus the arts–humanities, language arts, dance, drama, music, visual arts, design and new media. It draws on theoretical understandings of arts in STEM disciplines to illustrate how researchers and practitioners are using creative initiatives to promote inclusive teaching approaches.
The e-book is aimed at post-primary school teachers who are currently using arts within their teaching practice or have an interest in doing so in the future. Examples of STEAM teaching in Poland, the Netherlands, Ireland and Finland are given. It is not intended to provide a fully comprehensive exploration of all aspects of arts in STEM disciplines. The I-Stem Project acknowledges the necessary limitations of this resource, but trusts that it will serve its purpose of guiding you through the main relevant concepts, and that it will give you insights and inspiration for your teaching.
Music Generation Clare Deadline: 12noon, 9 July 2021
Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board invites applications for the five year, fixed-term position of Music Generation Development Officer in Co Clare. The Music Generation Development Officer will be responsible for managing a programme of performance music education on behalf of County Clare Local Music Education Partnership.
The successful candidate will have a broad understanding of the diversity of effective, contemporary approaches across the diversity of performance music education – and will have the skills and experience to develop a programme that responds to the specific needs of children and young people.
Music Generation Clare is part of Music Generation – Ireland’s national music education programme, which is co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education and Local Music Education Partnerships.
Deadline: 12noon, 9th July 2021
Application form and full job description are available at www.lcetb.ie/mgce/ Completed application forms should be emailed to recruitment@lcetb.ie. Please indicate in the subject line of your e-mail “Ref Number 21/12″.
Visual Artists’ Ireland Dates: Ongoing
VAI is updating their research into the real impact and experience of the Artists’ Payments Guidelines. They have created a carefully edited questionnaire to capture the information that they need to continue their advocacy work in that area. They want to know about artists working at all levels of experience, and especially to know about artists who may not have generated an income from their practice during 2019 or 2020.
They are also asking organisations questions about their experience of the Guidelines and looking at their realities. They believe that it is important to get both sides of the story, and to understand those who have effectively implemented payment policies as well as those who have yet to do so, as well as the barriers that they may experience in their efforts to support artists.
Visual Artists Ireland is the Representative body for professional visual artists in Ireland.
This July, a group of aspiring composers age 15-18 will have the opportunity to work remotely with professional composers and singers to create their own Choral Postcards—short pieces of music written for four-part choir, in a joint project with Chamber Choir Ireland and the Contemporary Music Centre.
All sessions will be held via Zoom and it is free to participate.
To apply, please send the following to education@chamberchoirireland.com:
1. Any examples of music you’ve written, either for choir or any other instrument/combination of instruments
2. A note outlining your reasons for applying
3. A recommendation from your school music teacher, instrumental/vocal teacher, or choir conductor, outlining your capacity to be involved in a choral composition project with Chamber Choir Ireland
Applications now open for the September intake of Creativity & Change ’21/’22
Creativity & Change’s accredited, Special Purpose Award programme, targets educators, change-makers, activists, artists, youth and community workers, adult educators, volunteers and anyone who is interested in how creative engagement can nurture global citizenship and empathic action around local and global justice themes.
Based at Crawford College of Art & Design, Cork, Creativity & Change is about creativity and its power to ignite empathy, passion and learning about our interconnected and interdependent world. It is about imagining more humane, just and viable ways to live and to connect with how we think, live, and act in the world. This course explores how we can live as connected global citizens becoming part of the changes we want to see.
In 2020/21, Creativity & Change have developed a new pop-up mobile classroom initiative. They have a new cargo e-bike to carry materials and participants are asked to bring bicycles where possible and they travel together to different locations around Cork City and surrounds, applying learning and creatively responding to the outdoor environment. Allowances are made for participants with mobility difficulties.
The course fee is €680. This is a subsidised fee that is made possible by the support of a grant from Irish Aid’s Development Education unit. Places on this programme are offered to suitable applicants on a rolling basis and will close once they reach maximum participant number.
It is advised to apply for the programme as early as possible to avoid disappointment.
Amplifying Voices Scholarships: Creativity & Change are consistently seeking to improve the accessibility of our programme and would love to provide opportunities to those who may have previously experienced barriers to accessing post—graduate education, such as members of minority groups, those in the Direct Provision system, or Travellers. They are now offering a number of free places on the course to those who may not have otherwise been in a position to apply. To apply for a scholarship, see www.creativityandchange.ie/amplifying-voices-scholarships/
BLAST Arts-in-Education Residencies Deadline: 30 September 2021
Arts in Education Residency Initiative in Primary and Post-primary Schools
The Department of Education has developed a new innovative Arts-in-Education BLAST Residency Programme in 2021, which will enable up to 400 new Arts-in-Education Residencies in schools each year.
This initiative aims to support the integration of the principles and key skills outlined in the Arts in Education Charter and the Creative Ireland Programme (2017-2022), Pillar 1 Creative Youth.
The aim of this scheme is to give pupils in schools all over the country the opportunity to work with a professional artist on unique projects, to be originated and planned between the artist, the teacher and the school, under the coordination of the Education Support Centres Ireland ESCI’s network of 21 full-time education centres. This initiative supports children and young people for the future, where skills like the ability to connect and collaborate with others, engage in creative and critical thinking and practice inclusivity at every level, will be paramount to peace, stability, sustainable economic growth and equality.
What is proposed is a unique streamlined process whereby schools apply for an artist on the Online Register of Approved Artists, who are already trained for the new BLAST Arts-in-Education Residency Programme, managed by the local education centre. The education centre will also pay the artist which will further remove the administrative burden on teachers and schools.
How this BLAST Residency initiative will work
The Education Centre:
While the programme will be nationally coordinated by the Arts in Education administrative base located at the Education Centre Tralee, schools will apply for a BLAST Arts-in-Education Residency to the full-time education centre in their area, based on the Online Register of Approved Artists. The Register of Approved Artists in each education centre will be arranged by artist and discipline, include relevant required and approved training experience, examples of previous work and examples of relevant or related experience in an educational and community context.
In excess of 300 artists are currently trained and registered on the Online Register of Approved Artists, managed by the education centre network nationally. All artists will have submitted their Child Safeguarding Best Practice Policy (to include Child Safeguarding Statement) and their Certificate of completion of the Children First Training module to the education centre.
What is proposed is a unique streamlined process when schools apply for an artist under the new BLAST Arts-in-Education Residency Programme. The education centre will also arrange for payment of the artist, which will further remove the administrative burden on teachers and schools.
Garda vetting:
Garda vetting for artists for successful school applications will be organised with the individual artist by the education centre in collaboration with the school. Schools may separately (if they wish) request the artist to apply for Garda vetting specifically to work in their school.
The Artists:
Artists from any artistic discipline, who have been trained in partnership working with schools, will be registered with each of the 21 full-time ESCI centres. Artistic disciplines include visual arts, crafts, music, dance, drama, literature and film. Creative disciplines will be expanded as the residency programme develops over the next number of years.
The artists on the Register of Approved Artists will have been previously trained and have engaged in school residencies under the Teacher-Artist Partnership CPD and Residency initiative or the Arts in Junior Cycle Programme which are both approved and led by the Department of Education.
The School:
The schools must be in the catchment of the local full-time education centre. Schools may submit only one application. Schools should make their own selection of artists on the Approved Register, based on CVs/examples of recent work, training and recommendations. Inclusion of artists on the Approved Register is based on training in the education centre (TAP) in addition to suitability/artistic qualification and has taken place in advance to ensure the selected artist satisfies school policies in relation to engagement of external personnel.
Once a school is approved for the scheme, the school has a commitment to the artist, who will have earmarked that time for the project and could potentially turn down other work at the times scheduled to work with the school.
This initiative encourages:
schools, primary and post-primary, that have not recently had an opportunity to participate in such creative initiatives, to apply
schools supporting inclusion and enhanced arts-in-education engagement with students from disadvantaged backgrounds and students with special educational needs to apply
schools that have a track record in teacher-artist partnership working in the classroom and school to apply
a whole-school commitment to the project, but it is not a requirement that all classes work with the artist
projects should have regard to the relevant school curricula where appropriate and have a focus on process
BLAST Arts-in-Education Residency funding:
The artist’s fee is €1,000 per residency. This is funded by the Department of Education via each education centre. The education centre will pay the artist in accordance with agreed guidelines after the artist and teacher/school evaluations have been submitted and received. In certain instances, this may include the payment of two instalments of €500 with agreement.
The artist will be funded for 20 contact hours, including 6 hours planning/development/review time. Participating schools must pay for materials associated with the project and also for documentation of the project through photographs, for example, and any other costs involved including insurance costs. Funded residencies can be delivered throughout the academic year commencing in September in the year the residency was approved.
Schools must acknowledge the Department of Education and the local education centre in all publicity relating to the project.
Successful applications:
Successful schools will be required to sign a short contract with their local education centre accepting the terms of the BLAST Arts-in-Education Residency Programme prior to the commencement of the residency. Successful residencies should not be started until official written notification to proceed has been received from the education centre and once Garda vetting has been completed and this has been communicated to the school.
It is a specific condition of this residency programme that a teacher works closely and collaborates with the artist to plan the learning experience and is present at all times with the artist while working with students in the school and to enhance further teacher-artist partnership. Schools will be responsible for ensuring the residency complies with Public Health advice relevant at the time of the project.
Evaluation:
The education centre will put in place the necessary evaluation for Arts-in-Education Residencies. This will include a school visit, completion and return of the Teacher/School Feedback Form and the Artist Feedback Form. The second instalment of the artist fee will be paid following the submission of the final reports.
Any images submitted by the school either in reports or on completing the project may be used to promote the scheme through print and other media including social media. It is therefore important that the schools have permission for the use of such images, noting in the consent forms that they will be used for this purpose, and only send images to the education centre once parental consent has been obtained.
Guidelines for application
A note on COVID-19 related Public Health Guidance: Schools should base proposals on the best public health advice and guidance available at the time of application.
a written proposal for the project indicating the aims of the project, the theme, materials, processes, anticipated outcomes, deliverability, number of contact hours and number of classes and pupils that will participate in the project
Please also indicate the planned time-frame schedule and planned method of documentation for the project.
The proposal should demonstrate a whole school commitment to the project. (This does not mean that all children must participate in the project rather that the whole school should be supportive and flexible in facilitating the project).
Applications will open on 4 June 2021. The closing date is 30 September 2021.
This initiative will be supported by the ESCI education centre network, Teacher Artist Partnership CPD programme, Arts in Junior Cycle, NAPD Creative Engagement Programme and the Arts in Education Portal.
The panel will include Blaithin Quinn (Irish Architecture Foundation), Muhammad Achour (Places of ARcture), Frank Monahan (Architecture at the Edge) and students and teachers from Holy Faith and Synge Street secondary schools in Dublin, Ireland, and focus on imaginary public realm projects as part of the Irish Architecture Foundation’s ‘Architects in Schools‘ initiative 2021.
In their collaborative work with the students, Muhammad and Frank focused on care, co-creation, pride, citizen engagement and ownership in the design of public space. How we care for our public realm is always relevant, even more so now as we adapt to life in a post-pandemic world.
‘Architects in Schools’ is supported by the Arts Council of Ireland, Department of Education and Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
Irish Architecture Foundation Dates: 15 – 30 June 2021
Registration is open for IAF’s International Summer School, a series of live, virtual seminars and workshops exploring the relationship between architecture and media. The Summer School will explore how architecture as culture is mediated, communicated, disseminated, represented, experienced and consumed through the diverse media of filmmaking, podcasting and critical writing.
Events are suitable for post-primary school pupils.
Tuesday 22nd & Friday 25th June – Architecture and Podcasts
Monday 28th & Wednesday 30th June – Architecture and Writing
Attendees can look forward to an exciting lineup of speakers and workshop facilitators including:
Emmett Scanlon (IRL), Matthew Blunderfield (UK), Grace La (USA), Inga Saffron (USA), Mimi Zeiger (USA), Tom Ravenscroft (UK) & Shane O’Toole (IRL).
Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership
Deadline: 5pm, 21 June 2021
Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership are seeking 8 professional artists and writers (4 artists and 4 writers) to join their panel specifically for collaborative book-making and publishing projects with children and young people. Are you an artist or writer with a strong professional practice who is interested in exploring collaborative ways of working with children and young people? Would you like join a panel of experts who will lead on developing new publications for Kids’ Own with groups of children and young people?
Having developed an approach to collaborative publishing with children and young people over two decades, they are inviting applications from people who would like to participate in a 2-day funded training programme and subsequently be part of a panel, from which artist–teacher pairs will be selected to work on future projects.
Kids’ Own invite applications from all over the island of Ireland, and especially welcome applications from diverse communities that are reflective of the communities of children they work with, and of artistic and cultural life in Ireland.
Music Generation Development Officer (Limerick County)
Ref number: 21/11
A Music Generation Development Officer will be appointed by Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board and will be responsible for managing a programme of performance music education on behalf of Limerick County Local Music Education Partnership.
The successful candidate will have a broad understanding of the diversity of effective, contemporary approaches across the diversity of performance music education; and will have the skills and experience to develop a programme that responds to the specific needs of young people in disadvantaged communities.
Music Generation Limerick County is part of Music Generation – Ireland’s national music education programme, which is co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education, and Local Music Education Partnerships.
Application form and full particulars are available here. Completed application forms should be returned BY EMAIL ONLY to recruitment@lcetb.ie not later than 12 noon, Tuesday 22 June 2021.
Please indicate in the subject line of your e-mail “Ref Number 21 /11”. Late applications or CVs will not be considered. It is the responsibility of the candidates to ensure that the application form is received at the stated address before the stated deadline. Canvassing will disqualify. Garda Vetting will apply.
Based on the volume of applications received short-listing may apply. Short-listing will take place on the basis of the information provided in the application form. Depending on the qualifications and experience of applicants, short-listing thresholds may be significantly higher than the minimum standards set out.
Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board is an equal opportunities employer.
Earlier this month (May) Catherine Martin TD, Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, announced details of Cruinniú na nÓg 2021, a day of free creative activity for children and young people under the age of 18. Cruinniú na nÓg 2021 is a collaboration between the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, the Creative Ireland Programme, local authorities and RTÉ and is the only event of its kind in the world.
Announcing Cruinniú na nÓg 2021, Minister Martin said:
“Over the past 3 years Cruinniú na nÓg has become a key date in Ireland’s cultural calendar. It provides opportunities for Ireland’s 1.2 million children and young people to be inquisitive, innovative and to fulfil an inner creative talent. The emphasis is always on participation and trying something new like knitting, drumming, stop-start animation, contemporary dance and so much more. All events are free and are accessible online.
This time last year we were forced to bring all our Cruinniú na nÓg events online, yet it proved to be our most successful Cruinniú to date with hundreds of thousands of young people from around the world joining us in our national day of youth creativity. This year we hope to replicate the same level of international excitement with new and exciting projects.”
Building on the success of 2020, hundreds of events have already been planned by Creative Ireland Culture and Creativity teams in local authorities around the country. These teams are key to the successful delivery of Cruinniú na nÓg as their events are planned to respond to the needs of local children and young people. This year we will see events such as Circus Factory in Carraigaline in Cork, a live interactive workshop on Upcycled Clothes in Louth and Dublin Zoo are inviting young people to explore the wonderful world of animals without backbones!
In light of the public health restrictions that are currently in force, the Creative Ireland Programme and its partners have developed a number of creative, cultural and engaging “calls to action” which children, young people and their families can create in their own homes and gardens on Saturday 12th June.
These include:
Knitting Across the Nation: Airfield Estate in Dundrum will send out 400 wool packs to young knitters around the country. These packs will contain wool from Airfield’s own flock of Jacob’s sheep are designed to foster a long term love of craft making, sustainability and creativity in young Irish people.
Nenagh Children’s Film Festival: Working with Cartoon Saloon’s Grainne Fordham, children and young people will learn new film making and the latest in stop-motion animation skills in a series of on-line workshops. Children and young people are also invited to this year’s festival for free which will feature the work of young Irish film makers.
Garageland is a music project that gives young Irish bands an opportunity to step out of their bedrooms and onto Garageland Youth TV, a dedicated online TV channel designed to give young musicians the same opportunities as their older peers. Garageland is proudly supported by RTÉ 2XM.
Let’s Dance is a Dance Ireland project which aims to support youth dance companies around the country, and connect with hard to reach groups who want to find out more about dance in Ireland. An experienced creative team, including a professional choreographer, a digital producer and a dedicated coordinator will be in place to provide a full suite of online resources all aimed at connecting more young people with dance.
Imagine-Orchestra is presented by the world-famous Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM) who want to create a world record for the biggest online youth orchestra. No formal musical instruments or training required! Imagine-Orchestra will also provide children with access to digital resources that explore the creation of music and sound, through instruments, the body, and items around the home.
Céilí in the Kitchen: A céilí in the kitchen can happen anywhere in the world and embrace all cultures and traditions. Following on from the success of last year’s céilí, Áirc Damhsa will deliver a series of Meitheal Workshops – connecting young people, youth groups and schools to take part in a set programme across the 4 weeks leading up to Cruinniú na nÓg.
Beat Your Drum: Working with drummer Brian Fleming, the Glór Arts Centre and the Creative Ireland Programme and the Department of Foreign Affairs will deliver an international drumming programme that will start in Ireland on the bodhrán and travel the globe utilising the indigenous drums of Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe.
TG4, with support from the Gaeltacht division of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, will produce a unique series of Irish language projects including small tailor made features about the Cruinniú na nÓg 2021 national projects, Cruthaím 33 will champion the talents of 33 children and young people from every county in the country as well as a representative of our young diaspora and the day itself will be marked by a TikTok Debs fairy tale from the award winning writer Philip Doherty.
Online supports and resources are provided by the Creative Ireland Programme in partnership with the Airfield Trust, Nenagh Children’s Film Festival, Garageland, Dance Ireland, Royal Irish Academy of Music, Áirc Damhsa, Glór and RTÉ to enable children and young people to unleash their creativity.
Further details and resources are now available from the Creative Ireland website and RTÉ platforms see www.creativeireland.gov.ie and www.rte.ie.
In addition, local authorities will also be hosting a range of cultural and creative activities and online events for Cruinniú na nÓg – full details will also be available at www.cruinniu.creativeireland.gov.ie.
The Ark Booking closes 1st July 2021
The Ark, Dublin are delighted to present a number of creative courses for teachers this summer:
The Magic of Everyday Materials in the Early Years Classroom Date: 5–9 July 2021
The Ark and Dublin West Education Centre are delighted to present an innovative new week-long online course for teachers working with children in the Early Years.
This hands-on, creative course focuses on a visual arts approach to working with very young children, supporting participants to develop and enhance their confidence and skills to deliver process and play-based art experiences. This year, due to ongoing public health restrictions, this face-to-face course will take place live online using Zoom video conferencing.
This is a five day Department of Education EPV-approved summer course for teachers.
Creative Music & Drama in the Classroom Dates: 5 – 9 Jul 2021
We are excited to present this established and popular engaging arts summer course focusing on the two curriculum areas of Drama and Music. This year, due to ongoing public health restrictions, this face-to-face course will take place live online using Zoom video conferencing.
This is a five day Department of Education EPV-approved summer course for teachers.
Bringing Science Alive in the Classroom through Drama Dates: 12–16 Jul 2021
Now in its third year, we are excited to present a five-day arts-science summer course led by scientist and theatre-maker Dr. Niamh Shaw. This year, due to ongoing public health restrictions, this face-to-face course will take place live online using Zoom video conferencing.
This is a five day Department of Education EPV-approved summer course for teachers.
A Visual Arts Approach in the Classroom Dates: 12 – 16 Jul 2021
Always hugely popular with teachers, we are delighted to be presenting this course once more. This hands-on, creative course focuses on a visual arts approach to exploring narrative, literacy & other subjects. This year, due to ongoing public health restrictions, this face-to-face course will take place live online using Zoom video conferencing.
This is a five-day Department of Education EPV-approved summer course for teachers.
The unforeseen adventures that were created by being forced to re-invent, re-imagine, to find ways to re-connect with our audiences at this time of distance and disconnection had a profound impact on me.
It became clear that, for some of our audience, taking shows directly to where they are, taking the flexibility of the shows to a whole new level was what really worked for them.
So this year, inspired by that adventure and that discovery, I’m making a new show called SWEET DREAMS ARE MADE OF THIS that can play anywhere. A garden, around a hospital bed, outside a school, in a hospice – wherever makes most sense of our audience. It’ll be a tiny intimate show with just two performers, a gentle magical soundtrack and two gorgeous costumes created by leading Irish fashion designer, Rebecca Marsden who works with responsive wearable tech fashion – costumes that light up with the connection we make with our audience, costumes that transform an ordinary space into an extraordinary moment. The development is funded by Wicklow Arts Office and will happen this July and September in creative consultation with St Catherine’s School, County Wicklow families and with St Catherine’s Hospice, hopefully leading to a longer tour next year to my national Network For Extraordinary Audiences.
And right now, we’re on week 3 of an 8 week tour of GROOVE – a chilled out 70’s inspired happening for children and young people with complex needs, full of immersive video and live harmony singing. In masks of course.
It’s a wonderful co-incidence that for GROOVE (conceived in 2019 so well pre-pandemic) that there’s such an overwhelming visual element – even with one side of the tent missing in order to allow sufficient ventilation – the combination of the immersive video art and the live singing to a hypnotic soundtrack is so rich and all around that it has an energy and a presence that, whilst not replacing the usual tactile offers that we might make, has a welcome viscerality.
I’ve been describing GROOVE as a happening – I remember reading the definition of a 60’s/70’s happening – in broad terms it’s about an environment being created and then what happens is totally dependent on who comes and what they bring. That’s the space and the adventure that I wanted to create with my audience for GROOVE.
I hardly dare hope that we’ll make it through all of the 8 weeks all over the country. I’m grateful for each day and for the incredible welcome that the schools have given and are continuing to give us in what must be the hardest year they’ve ever had. They truly are extraordinary audiences.
Throughout these last 18 months, the power of human connection has continued to be my lodestar and it, and my audiences, keeps me putting one foot in front of the other as we move forward as best we can.
The Portal Team are delighted to announce the second recipient of the 2021 Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award. We are very excited to be working with each recipient in the coming months to document their projects. These projects will be showcased on the portal as the documentation progresses.
About the recipients….
Project Title: Songs of Ourselves
Songs of Ourselves is a participative song programme led by The Dock Composer in Residence, George Higgs with Scoil Mhuire, Carrick on Shannon, Co. Leitrim.
Songs of Ourselves will explore the nature of communal song forms and result in the composition of a new song. The song’s composition will involve using words, music and gestures to make a multi-sensory composition that will be showcased in a digital song scrapbook. The song scrapbook will reflect the diversity in the school’s makeup, with well over half the students originating from countries such as Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Serbia and India. The song’s lyrics will therefore have a rich, multi-lingual character.
The Dock
The Dock is a flagship arts centre in the North West of Ireland offering an annual programme of contemporary visual art, performances, residencies and workshops in three beautiful gallery spaces, residency spaces and an intimate performance space. This programme is augmented by arts education and outreach projects that provide people of all ages and interests the opportunity to engage with contemporary arts practice.
Teacher: Noelle Igoe
Noelle has a degree is in Early Childhood Education from DIT and a postgraduate diploma in primary education from Brunel University in London. She taught in the UK for 3 years and is teaching in Ireland nearly 10 years. At present Noelle is teaching 4th class in Scoil Mhuire Carrick on Shannon, Co. Leitrim.
Being a primary school teacher, Noelle (Igoe) has always been interested in teaching the visual arts with a specific interest in art and music education. She enjoys using a cross curricular approach to education. The children in her class have really benefitted from tours and workshop at The Dock. The Dock is a great local resource for the school, Scoil Mhuire. The children have also worked with some artists/musicians in conjunction with the Creative Ireland initiative.
Teacher: Orla Kenny
Trained in St. Pat’s in Dublin and is currently teaching 6th in Scoil Mhuire, Carrick on Shannon, Co. Leitrim.
As a primary teacher, Orla (Kenny) has always been interested and involved in arts education, particularly music. Aspiring to provide a broader and richer experience for pupils in the area of visual arts, she has developed links with local arts theatre, The Dock, initially through musical collaboration, followed by workshops in visual arts and participation in the Creative Schools initiative. This included also gallery visits for both staff and pupils of Scoil Mhuire, Carrick-on-Shannon. Involvement with the arts in education has enriched her teaching experience, and has enabled both professional and personal development.
Composer, George Higgs George Higgs is a composer and an Artist in Residence at The Dock in 2021. His approach to arts in education focusses on a balanced collaboration between artist and student: encouraging each to listen to the other as all skilled musicians should. George’s work comprises opera, film music, songs, chamber work, experimental electronics and music for instruments of his own making.
Museum of Literature Ireland
New online visual arts education resource for primary school students.
The Museum of Literature Ireland are launching MoLI in the Classroom: a free, interactive, virtual, 40-50 minute workshop for 3rd to 6th class primary school students from across Ireland. It takes place over Zoom and is delivered directly into classrooms around Ireland. Teachers can book online with their live calendar. Their aim is to make the workshops fun and stimulating for all children, whatever their abilities.
All students need to participate is paper, pen/pencil and some colouring pencils, crayons or markers. Students can write, draw or doodle their responses according to their learning style. Students will see and hear all about the museum and will get to watch a special behind-the-scenes TikTok video. They will be encouraged to explore their own creativity through a range of individual and group work, fun word and drama games and creative writing exercises.
Teachers will not need to cover any topics in advance. After the online workshop, teachers can continue to encourage creativity in the classroom with their engaging follow-on activities, which include an opportunity to win a writer visit to a school and an iPad.
Irish Architecture Foundation Deadline: 6pm, June 4 2021
The IAF are delighted to announce that applications are now open for schools to take part in the 2021/22 cycle of Architects in Schools programme. The programme is entering into its 9th cycle, and the IAF will be collaborating with the National Museum of Ireland (Museum of Country Life, Mayo) for the annual exhibition of student work in May 2022.
An architect will facilitate hands-on design workshops in your school. Dates, times and workshop duration will be arranged between the designated teacher / TY coordinator and the assigned architect. Workshops must take place between 1 September 2021 and 4 March 2022. All architects will be fully Garda Vetted and will sign our Child Protection Policy. There is no cost for schools to participate (apart from providing some art materials).
There are two options for participation: Option A: Full Programme
30 schools can participate in the full programme
20 hours with an architect / architectural graduate, consisting of 12 hours of workshops & 8 hours of preparation time for the architect Option B: Introductory Programme
A new strand introduced in 2020/21, up to 40 schools can avail of introductory workshops
1 x 3 hour workshop per school, with an architect / architectural graduate
Cork County Council Arts Service Deadline: 3pm, Thursday 10th June 2021
Cork County Council’s Arts Service is inviting schools to participate in a new classroom based arts in education programme that will be facilitated by a professional artist. Four schools in County Cork will be invited to become temporary custodians of Cork’s County Art Collection.
Cork County Council has a substantial collection of visual art. This civic collection includes works in various media including, painting, drawing, print, photography, video and small scale 3-dimensional work created by emerging and established artists, many of who are living and working in Cork County. This collection is owned by the people of Cork and as such it is the policy of Cork County Council to make this collection as widely available to the public as possible. It is in this context that they have developed a schools education programme that will enable young people to gain knowledge and engage creatively with work from the collection in a managed programme in the classroom. They will have an opportunity to create a collaborative artwork with an artist, using the artworks as a springboard for creativity.
The programme is funded by Creative Ireland and will be provided free of charge to all schools.
Deadline: 3pm, Thursday 10th June 2021
Applications should be made via email to grace.mitchell@corkcoco.ie no later than Thursday 10th June 2021 at 3pm. Queries can be made to Grace Mitchell, Creative Ireland Projects Coordinator, 021 4346210 or grace.mitchell@corkcoco.ie.
St. Paul’s N.S. Dooradoyle, Limerick Deadline: 12pm, 25 June 2021
St. Paul’s N.S. Dooradoyle, Limerick invites submissions from artists for its Per Cent for Art commission of €35,000. This commission is open to all visual artists working in all art forms including but not limited to painting, print, sculpture, digital and new media art, sound art, street art, socially engaged and participatory art.
It is hoped that the selected commission will emphasise and prioritise the current pupils and create a meaningful experience for them. This may be achieved by involving the pupils in a participatory project or in the making of an artwork, or by creating an interactive artwork or area for pupils to engage with. In addition to any participatory elements, the commissioners would like a tangible and enduring element from which future generations of pupils will also benefit. They are open to the form this may take, it could be a physical artwork, a film, involve digital technology, a book, activity area or a workshop plan.
Kildare County Council Arts Service and St. Mary’s Boys’ National School Deadline: 12pm, 11 June 2021
Kildare County Council Arts Service and St. Mary’s Boys’ National School, Maynooth invites submissions for their Per Cent For Art commission of €49,000. The commission may include Artists in Residence programmes, commissioning of artwork (temporary and permanent) across all art forms including digital media, and may include collaborative work practice. Applications that consider the physical school environment (the buildings and grounds, indoor and outdoor) as well as applications that directly engage the school community are welcome.
Artists should submit their CV, expression of interest and samples of work to percentforart@maynoothbns.ie. All queries relating to the Per Cent for Art commission should be directed to Lucina Russell, Arts Officer, Tel: 045-448328; Mob: 0872399212; Email lrussell@kildarecoco.ie.
The Spirit of Eileen Gray lives on at Brownswood House Date: May 19 2021
The birthplace of Wexford born Eileen Gray, the pioneering modern architect, designer and artist, continues to be witness to the effects of her creative force.
This webinar, coming live from Gray’s place of birth in Brownswood House, Enniscorthy – now home to Meánscoil Gharman- marks the completion of an ambitious Creative Ireland and Creative Schools programme, in which transition year students worked with architect Ben Mullen on a project exploring the work and legacy of Eileen Gray. Over the school year the students studied this pioneering designer’s work, then designed, and created by hand, outdoor furniture for the grounds of their school campus.
The webinar will be free and open to the public, it will be hosted by art historian Karla Sánchez and will feature prominent guests Dr. Jennifer Goff, curator of the Eileen Gray collection of the National Museum of Ireland, and Eilis O’Connell, internationally renowned Irish sculptor, whom along with a selected group of students, will uncover some of the many design processes Eileen Gray followed and those which she has inspired in others.
This programme, funded by Wexford County Council’s Creative Ireland Programme and supported through Creative Schools and Creative Associate Laura Ni Fhlaibhín, sees the collaboration between the Irish Architecture Foundation, the Art Department of Wexford County Council and Meánscoil Gharman. It arose out of a shared interest in developing the legacy of Eileen Gray in County Wexford.
Architect Benjamin Mullen, of the Irish Architecture Foundation, who led the workshops with the students, commented:
“…the project set out to see past the formidable legacy of Eileen Gray and attempt to interpret her engagement with design itself as an activity in its own accord, and as a form of agency in the world. (…) Design is a type of behaviour and an instrument for imagining a future that does not yet exist. One of the project’s key aims was to provide this autonomy for the students to make what they imagined would represent their own experience of our world.”
This project would not have been possible without the vision of Laura Ní Fhlaibhín, the Creative Associate responsible for reuniting all the bodies involved:
“The Legacy of Eileen Gray is advanced through this project, bringing her ground-breaking approach and innovation to its ethos and overall aims. It has been so exciting and rewarding to develop this, from initial meetings and brainstorming in the Meánscoil Gharman art room, to a fully realised project that activates both the creative impulses of Eileen Gray and the ethos of the Creative Schools programme.”
The documentary “I do shuí le Eileen Gray – Sitting with Eileen Gray”, produced by Terence White, chronicles the process that the students went through to carry out their concept. Such documentary will also be shown during the Seminar.
Commenting on the programme, Wexford Creative Ireland Co-Ordinator Eileen Morrissey stated,
“The Creative Ireland programme aims to bring creativity and culture to the heart of the community in County Wexford. Through this seminar, we hope to shine a light on the world-renowned Wexford born architect Eileen Gray. We also hope to showcase too the results of an excellent creative project with the students of Meánscoil Garman. I would encourage members of the public to join the online seminar to delve into the fascinating world of the pioneering architect and designer who was born in Co Wexford.”
Event Details:
Date: Wednesday, 19 May 2021 Time: 11.00am – 13.00 pm
Members of the public interested in joining the webinar will be able to register here:
For further information about the seminar please contact Karla Sánchez (087 7842503, karlasanchez@yahoo.com)
Offaly County Council Arts Office Deadline: 4pm, 2 June, 2021
Offaly County Council Arts Office invites professional artists, individual or collaboratively, to submit proposals for the delivery of a new Youth Arts Project for the cohort of 13 to 25 year olds within Offaly. The commission is open to submissions from all art disciplines including visual arts, film, animation, digital arts, performing arts, literature or sound art. The commission can concentrate on one art form or a range of art forms but must demonstrate a youth led ethos. It is vital that consideration is given to the times we are in and how engagement with young people can take place within a socially distanced world.
A fully inclusive fee of €15,000.00 to include all travel, materials, VAT will be made payable in three instalments:
1. €5000.00 on signing of contract with agreement on a submitted project outlining clear timelines, delivery and process.
2. €5000.00 mid way into the project
3. €5000.00 on completion of the project
There need not be a specific outcome, (i.e. piece of art, performance), rather the process and engagement with the Young People in Offaly should be central to the project and be inspired by their wants and needs. If there is an outcome, consideration should be given on how same could be showcased.
We would envisage the project as being easily accessible, have a wide reach and attract young people that are not necessarily involved in Arts.
The programme includes a specialist week-long online training on 1st – 7th July 2021 with a training allowance of €150 per day over the initial 5-day training week (€750 in total); and a guarantee of a paid, in-school-residency with a local primary school (Fee €900, plus €100 travel) to carry out a 20-hour project (14 contact hours plus 6 preparation hours) in partnership with your teacher partner throughout the 2021/2022 academic year.
Artists can apply to be part of the scheme via expressions of interest to Thérése Gamble, Director, Drumcondra Education Centre at director@ecdrumcondra.ie. Expressions of interest should be in the form of a letter of max 600 words, accompanied by a CV or short bio with links to images or samples of relevant work.
Deadline: 5pm 21st May 2021
For more information view the poster below
Callout for Artists: Teacher-Artist Partnership (TAP) CPD 2021
Creative Clusters Deadline: 14 May 2021
The Department of Education are pleased to announce the opening of a new round of Creative Clusters. The deadline for receipt of applications is Friday 14th May 2021.
Each Creative Cluster will receive grant funding of €3,000 per school over a two-year period to implement their project in the 2021–2023 school years (e.g. a cluster of 3 schools would receive €9,000 over two years while a cluster of 5 schools would receive €15,000 over two years). Clusters will receive 50% of the total grant funding in Year 1, with the second 50% being provided in Year 2. In addition, but separate to the grant funding, all successful clusters are further supported with: A fully paid Creative Cluster Facilitator; paid Teacher Substitution to attend training and meetings; room hire, travel & subsistence.
– Schools can apply as part of a cluster which may be an existing network of schools.
– A school nearing the end of year 2 of an existing Creative Cluster can reapply to be in a new cluster where the other schools in the new cluster have not participated before.
– Schools nearing the end of 2 years with Creative Schools are eligible to apply.
– The local Teacher Education Support Centre will have a key role in identifying and supporting a Creative Cluster for their local area.
– A total of 21 Creative Clusters will be selected nationally – One successful Creative Cluster per Education Centre.
Any queries, please contact your local Education Centre or email Arts in Education Administration mairevieux@edcentretralee.ie.
Creative Clusters is an initiative of the Department of Education, led by and in partnership with the 21 full-time Teacher Education Centres (Education Support Centres Ireland – ESCI) and funded through the Schools Excellence Fund.
The Portal Team are delighted to announce the first of the two recipients of the 2021 Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award. We are very excited to be working with each recipient in the coming months to document their projects. These projects will be showcased on the portal as the documentation progresses.
About the recipients….
Project Title:‘Place’ Teacher Artist Partnership Project
This project is a Teacher – Artist Partnership (TAP) residency project between teacher Alyson Hourigan and visual artist Tunde Toth in collaboration with the 3rd class pupils of Scoil Mhichil Naofa, in Athy, Co. Kildare with support from the Kilkenny Education Centre.
The overarching theme for the project is ‘Place’: we will explore natural and built environments, locality, home and belonging through a range of artistic processes both for individual and collective making. The thematic approach to the project will see many curriculum areas feed into the work the children will complete. Some activities the children will be interacting with include: creative ‘deep’ mapping, drawing, walking and collecting, book making, poetry, storytelling and creating materials and fibres. The focus of the project is on participation and enabling the children to actively guide their project and the choices and voices are listened too. The project is a hybrid of face-to-face and online sessions.
This project began in March 2021 when the children completed some online sessions with Artist Tunde Toth from their own homes via Google Classroom. . The Portal Documentation Award will allow the children to create a record of their own efforts and successes within the Arts curriculum and engage in reflective practice. This award will also give the children a voice within the Arts community and allow them to share their creativity with a much wider audience.
Artist: Tunde Toth
Tunde Toth is an artist, educator, arts advisor and researcher. Tunde has been involved with Arts in Education in Ireland since 2006 when she joined the Education Panel at Butler Gallery in Kilkenny City. She is an active member of the Creative Practitioners Panel at Dún Laoighaire Arts Office and Dún Laoighaire Libraries. She devises and delivers the Art Projects in Primary Schools programme in Co. Waterford in partnership with Waterford Arts Office. This year she will be undertaking a Teacher Artist Partnership with Scoil Mhichil Naofa Primary School, Athy.
Teacher: Alyson Hourigan
Alyson Hourigan is a primary school teacher in Scoil Mhichil Naofa, Athy, co. Kildare. She graduated from Mary Immaculate College in 2016 after completing a Bachelor of Education with a specialism in Special Educational Needs. Alyson has always been interested in the Arts, particularly Music, having been a member of Presentation Secondary School choir in Kilkenny and training in classical singing, completing the Royal Irish Academy of Music singing exams. Alyson has always put a huge emphasis on Arts Education in her teaching and completed a TAP summer course in 2020 with Kilkenny Education Centre.
Creative Hubs are an initiative of Dublin City Arts Office and Libraries, that sustain high quality arts experiences for children, schools and families to access in their Library and locality, through partnership and engagement.
In co-creating this programme, in each of our three Creative Hubs Libraries – Coolock, Cabra and Ballyfermot – artists create new opportunities for children to engage with the arts through:
The Arts Council’s Creative Schools Initiative Date: 10 – 14 May 2021
Creative Schools Week is a celebration of creativity in schools which includes both In-School Celebrations and Online Celebrations. It is organised by the Creative Schools initiative which supports schools and Youthreach centres to put the arts and creativity at the heart of children’s and young people’s lives. The week is an opportunity to share, showcase, and connect all the exciting creative work that is being undertaken across schools.
Following a consultation process with children and young people the theme for CSW is Brave New Future, celebrating our children and young people’s courage in the face of a tough year, and looking forward towards a bright future.
In-school Celebrations:
All schools and centres across the country can generate and host their own celebration events. These events are a great way to involve and empower young people in the processes of presenting their creative journeys. To help schools/centres organise events, Creative Schools have provided Celebration Packs, full of ideas about creating their own in-school Creative Schools Week.
Online Celebrations:
Tune in to www.artscouncil.ie/creative-schools/celebration-2021/ on the 12-14 May (from 12pm daily) as we will be; highlighting work from a selection of Creative Schools, as well as workshops, interviews and features across a wide range of different artists and arts and cultural organisations. It is a great opportunity to learn about school communities across the initiative as well as their creative approaches to learning and artistic responses to Covid 19. Schools highlighted are a representation of the over 460 schools who have participated in the Creative Schools initiative since 2018 and were selected following a competitive process open to those participants.
Follow #CreativeSchools to see the creative events that schools are sharing on their social media.
Creative Schools is a flagship initiative of the Creative Ireland Programme to enable the creative potential of every child. Creative Schools is led by the Arts Council in partnership with the Department of Education and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
The initiative is also informed by the Arts Council’s ten-year strategy (2016–25) Making Great Art Work: Leading the Development of the Arts in Ireland.
This initiative provides opportunities for children and young people to build their artistic and creative skills; to communicate, collaborate, stimulate their imaginations, be inventive, and to harness their curiosity. More information on how to apply to be a Creative School is available at www.artscouncil.ie/creative-schools/schools-opportunities/.
The Arts Council’s Creative Schools Initiative Deadline: 12 noon, 19 May 2021
The Arts Council of Ireland is seeking to engage the services of a suitably qualified Programme Director for the Creative Schools Initiative.
Scoileanna Ildánacha/Creative Schools is a flagship initiative of the Creative Ireland Programme to enable the creative potential of every child. Creative Schools is led by the Arts Council in partnership with the Department of Education and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
The initiative is also informed by the Arts Council’s ten-year strategy (2016–25) Making Great Art Work: Leading the Development of the Arts in Ireland.
This initiative provides opportunities for children and young people to build their artistic and creative skills; to communicate, collaborate, stimulate their imaginations, be inventive, and to harness their curiosity.
The Arts Council of Ireland currently has an exciting opportunity at Assistant Principal grade for a Programme Director – Creative Schools.
The Programme Director will be engaged on a full-time basis for a 3 year FTC to lead and manage the Creative Schools programme and team. They will be responsible for strategy, policy, project planning and delivery, human resources and contract management, to ensure the effective delivery of the programme.
The closing date for receipt of applications is 12.00 noon, Wednesday 19 May, 2021.
First Cut! Youth Film Festival Dates: 17 April – 9 May 2021
First Cut! Youth Film Festival returns for its 12th year showcasing new films by young filmmakers. Running from 17 April – 9 May 2021, offers an imaginative, thought-provoking and entertaining programme for young people aged 12-24yrs. Audiences from all over Ireland, and from abroad, are invited to join them virtually for a completely free programme of events including: Open call short film and feature film screenings, workshops, panel discussions with some of the leading filmmakers in Ireland, a host of special guest appearances and more.
Workshops include: Puppetry for Film and Television Workshop, Stormtroopers SFX Workshop and more.
The Glucksman Date: Saturday May 22nd, 10:30-11:30am or 12-1pm
The Glucksman presents Natural Creators: Exploring and Creating Soundscapes with composer Karen Power. These free, interactive workshops focus on early years listening, composing and improvising sound. Using found sounds from our natural and constructed environment, these workshops encourage children’s natural openness and curiosity through a series of guided composing, improving, listening and play activities.
Natural Creators workshops are built on slowly integrating sound into children’s everyday lives. This program is designed in an open and improvised manner facilitating every child to engage in the process with their own unique approach to creating sound.
Creative Schools Deadline: 17:30, Thursday 10 June 2021
Scoileanna Ildánacha/Creative Schools are delighted to announce an exciting opportunity for schools/centres to apply to participate in the initiative. Schools/centres may apply from 6 April and the deadline is 17:30, Thursday 10 June 2021.
The Creative Schools initiative supports schools/centres to put the arts and creativity at the heart of children’s and young people’s lives. This initiative provides opportunities for children and young people to build their artistic and creative skills; to communicate, collaborate, stimulate their imaginations, be inventive, and to harness their curiosity. It will empower children and young people to develop, implement and evaluate arts and creative activity throughout their schools/centres and stimulate additional ways of working that reinforce the impact of creativity on children and young people’s learning, development and well-being.
Participating schools/centres will be provided with a package of supports that includes working with a Creative Associate, training and networking to support them to create their Creative School Plan, as well as seed funding to begin to implement their Plan.
Creative Associates will respond to each school/centre’s development priorities and needs in order to support them to deepen the arts and creative opportunities for children and young people. They will use their practical experience, to develop partnerships and mechanisms that enable sustained relationships between schools/centres and the arts and cultural sectors.
All Department of Education and Skills-recognised primary and post-primary schools and Youthreach centres who have not already participated in a previous round of Creative Schools are eligible to apply.
Deadline: 17:30, Thursday 10 June 2021
Further information on the Creative Schools application process will be available online shortly. Applications must be submitted online and schools are encouraged to register well in advance of the deadline: https://onlineservices.artscouncil.ie/Register.aspx
The Ark
Deadline: 5pm May 4th, 2021
The Ark is now seeking expressions of interest in the provision of Creative Hub project coordination services on a freelance contract basis to coordinate the delivery of their new strand of programming as part of the DCC Children’s Art in Libraries Creative Hubs. This is an exciting opportunity for someone who demonstrates an affinity for the values of The Ark, a talent for delivering multi-disciplinary arts programmes for children, and an ability to connect and collaborate with multiple partners to deliver both artistic and locally relevant aims.
This opportunity provides the right individual the chance to work with The Ark to deliver an exciting new programme for children in a community context working with key partners within the cultural sector for children in Dublin.
New online visual arts education resource for primary and secondary school students.
TULCA is a festival celebrating contemporary visual art, that takes place annually in November across Galway City and County with a programme of multi-venue exhibitions and events. TULCA Education Programme is a unique programme that focuses on looking at and responding to visual art. It is about reaching out and engaging with schools and the wider community to create an increased awareness and a shared understanding of the Visual Arts. The programme engages a process of slow looking, reflection and response.
TULCA’s Education Programme is designed to continue this process of critical thinking by creating a space for dialogue and learning exchange. It draws on individual personal experience and acknowledges that we all have our own set of visual codes, value systems, likes and dislikes.
The online arts education resource caters for primary and secondary school students and uses a mixture of creative activities and videos to explore contemporary visual art.
The next chapter of my theatre adventures last summer was a re-imagining (or in fact three different re-imaginings) of my show SING ME TO THE SEA – created in 2018, SING ME TO THE SEA is a blissful watery adventure for children & young people with complex needs full of harmony singing, tiny waterfalls, shiny globes and rainbow fish that was created to be performed in hydropools with 3 performers and three audience members, each with an adult companion – with everyone in the water! [https://www.annanewell.ie/work/sing-me-to-the-sea/}
I’ve always said that the heart of my work is that it is flexible, that it is responsive, that it is nuanced moment by moment by our audience. And in Summer 2020, I had to really walk the walk with that one and take that flexibility and responsiveness to a whole new level.
So, with huge support (and flexibility!) from our funders and venue partners, we created a dry-land at-home version of the show. And we hired a campervan. For three weeks in August 2020, we drove around Dublin, Meath, Carlow and Wicklow, taking the show directly to families in their own gardens and driveways. We sang in the rain, we were stared at by milkmen, curious neighbour children gathered – and we were given the extraordinary opportunity to connect with our audiences where they were.
Later in the summer, we took this dry-land version to Baboró International Festival and performed the show in the magical setting of the gardens of the Ardilaun Hotel. And although they were only a few weeks into what must have been the hardest term of their lives, the special schools came in their droves – not only did we sell out the schools’ performances but we had to add more!
And, then, astonishingly, the wonderful pool staff at St Gabriel’s School & Centre called us up and said they’d like to give it a go. So, singing in masks and visors and working within AquaPhysio Guidelines, we were back in the water.
The unforseen adventures that were created by being forced to re-invent, re-imagine, to find ways to re-connect with our audiences at this time of distance and disconnection had a profound impact on me.
And it inspired a whole new show for 2021. More of that in my final blog…
Pallas Projects
Pallas Projects have produced an online resource ‘Art @ Home’ for teachers and primary school students.
This year to coincide with Pallas Projects Online Periodical Review X Exhibition, they have teamed up with artist and education curator Liliane Puthod to create an activity pack for students to do at home or in school. Each of the four activities are relevant to all ages, and relate to a work in their online exhibition.
Pallas Projects/Studios is a not-for-profit artist-run organisation dedicated to the facilitation of artistic production and discourse, via the provision of affordable artists studios in Dublin’s city centre, and curated exhibitions. Pallas Projects is dedicated to the making and showing of visual art to our peers as well as a wide and diverse audience: via exhibitions, talks and tours.
On demand audio stream theatre for young audiences 8+ for families or schools.
This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing by Finegan Kruckemeyer, is presented by The Everyman and Graffiti Theatre Company as part of Play It by Ear, a programme of shows performed on The Everyman stage, and available as an audio stream.
Triplet sisters are left in the forest by their woodcutter father. From this fairytale beginning, three resolutions are made – one sister will walk one way, one the other, and the third will stay right where she is. Twenty years later, having circumnavigated the globe, and fought Vikings, and crossed oceans, and tamed wilds, and achieved greatness, the three meet again, as women.
Fun and accessible resources will be available on Graffiti’s website for teachers and parents to support children’s enjoyment of the episodes. These resources – which will be available for the audio stream live date – will include creative prompts and activities to give children a deeper engagement with the piece.
Price: On Demand Audio Stream Family €12 | Schools €65
Age recommendation: 8+, recommended for young audiences and their families
The Source Arts Centre is hosting a series of online workshops until June as part of their ‘Y’ Arts Programme. The ‘Y’ Arts Programme encourages young people aged between 13 and 18 to create new works of art using a task and challenge based approach. The programme aims to encourage an understanding of contemporary art and avant-garde art.
Workshop : Dream Like Maya Deren 12pm-1pm, 24th April 2021
Maya Deren was a Ukrainian-born American experimental filmmaker in the 1940s and 1950s. In this workshop, participants will look at her most famous film ‘Meshes Of The Afternoon’ and examine how dream states or the subconscious are depicted in art.
Dublin and Dun Laoghaire Education and Training Board (DDLETB) invites applications for the position of Music Generation Development Officer (Fingal). They will be responsible for managing a programme of performance music education on behalf of Fingal Local Music Education Partnership. This is a five-year fixed term contract.
The successful candidate will have a broad understanding of the diversity of effective, contemporary approaches across the diversity of performance music education – and will have the skills and experience to develop a programme that responds to the specific needs of young people in disadvantaged communities.
Music Generation is Ireland’s National Music Education Programme that gives children and young people access to high-quality, subsidised performance music education. Initiated by Music Network, Music Generation is co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education and Local Music Education Partnerships.
Music Generation invites individual or groups of professional musicians to tender to lead and develop distinct Communities of Practice with musicians that deliver Music Generation programmes; and to lead, develop and create new work for children and young people with musicians involved in Music Generation Communities of Practice.
Music Generation is Ireland’s National Music Education Programme that gives children and young people access to high-quality, subsidised performance music education. Initiated by Music Network, Music Generation is co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education and Local Music Education Partnerships.
Last week over 100 artists, teachers and arts in education professionals joined us live for the annual Portal Spring Regional Event Series which this year showcased arts in education and creative practise in the Mid-West.
Portal Regional Events have been an opportunity to connect with the community at regional level, to share practice and to find out what initiatives are available in the local area. In these challenging times it’s now more than ever important to stay connected and be inspired.
The first in our series of discussions opened on Monday (22nd March) with one of the 2020 Portal Documentation Award recipients, the Teacher-Artist Partnership (TAP) Project ‘The Lonely Traveller’. Teacher Jacintha Mullins and composer Fiona Linnane brought us on the journey of their collaboration with the pupils of Mid-West School for the Deaf, Limerick.
On Wednesday Adam Stoneman, former Public Engagement Coordinator of ‘The Three Muses’ Programme (now part of the Engagement & Learning Team at IMMA) and The Hunt Museum’s Education Coordinator, Hannah Bloom took us on a dive into Mozilla Hubs an open source VR space. Adam and Hannah shared how they utilised the digital platform to creatively collaborate with school groups to explore the museum’s collection. The discussion was also joined by artist Jo-Anne Hine who shared her perspective of using Mozilla Hubs while working with primary school pupils as part of the project ‘ABC of The Three Muses’.
On Friday and Saturday participants joined artist Éilís Murphy of Folded Leaf for a hands-on creative bookmaking session ‘Stories Unfolding’ were participants where invited to experiment with various materials and book-making techniques. Below is some feedback from participants:
“I loved it because it was both intuitive and reflective, achieving very surprising results in a short space of time.”
“This was great, a practical project that can be applied to my own practice or to future workshops.”
Image credit: Work created by Marie Brett during ‘Stories Unfolding’ .
To close the programme on Saturday (27th March) composer Fiona Linnane explored sound and the nature of listening in a the creative session ‘Éisteacht/Listen’. Participants in this playful exploration were invited to take a sound walk and explore how we interpret sound in our daily lives and how we can become more active listeners. Below is some feedback from participants:
“Using the act of listening to ‘slow-down’, to come into a sense of being and mindful practice. I’ve already embedded active listening into my own daily walks since the workshop, as a practice of self-care”.
“It was a joy to attend this workshop. I particularly enjoyed how each activity was designed to be accessible and transfer easily either to a classroom, a community setting or working with children and young people…. Tuning in to the environment around me, deepened my focus”.
Sound Walk Recording – Julie Forrester ‘Rain Zipper Birdsong’ created as part of ‘Éisteacht/Listen’.
Thank you to everyone who joined us across the week. For those who missed the discussions they will be available to watch back until the end of December on the Arts in Education Portal Facebook page or click on the direct video links listed below.
“A great platform to meet, pool expertise and help. It encourages discussion and sharing”.
Creative Schools is forming a panel of Creative Associate Regional Coordinators across the country. It is envisaged that the Arts Council will engage the services of 8 Regional Coordinators. Both individuals and organisations (who nominate a particular representative) may apply to provide these services.
The main tasks of the Creative Associate regional coordinators are:
– Work closely with the Arts Council’s Creative Schools’ team to support and assist in coordinating the work of the Creative Associates at a regional level.
– Liaise with and support up to twenty Creative Associates and their assigned schools across each region.
– Be required to carry out services for around seventy days per annum, with a minimum of one day per week between the months of September to June.
Deadline for applications: Friday 2nd April, 2021
For more information, see www.etenders.gov.ie/ (select Arts Council in ‘authority’ field of an advanced search on etenders).
Creativity & Change Programme
Dates: April – May 2021
Short deep-dives into the methods and mindsets of the Creativity & Change programme.
Deep Dive Training (formally masterclasses): action-focused workshops to unleash your imagination and creativity. Leading to a collective day of creative hopeful action across the country at our Paste-Up Blitz.
This Spring-Summer training programme is centred around the idea of the “Awesome Solution”. This concept is based on research conducted at the COP21 conference about the impact of art on audience engagement and perceptions of the world’s big problems.
Researchers found that:
Artwork that presents an awesome solution to a problem was the most effective at engaging the audience and inspiring them to change their attitudes to take action on a local or global justice issue.
The workshop series offers a deep-dive into the idea of the awesome solution, exploring the concept across a range of disciplines, methodologies, and facilitators, bringing you through a variety of processes that can be adapted and integrated into your own work. Exploring development education topics and global and social justice means covering complex issues, discussing interconnected systemic BIG world problems, things that often feel outside of our control can be overwhelming.
How can we use the arts to inspire hope, to nurture that longing for the brighter future we all know is possible and engage our communities in action?
Are you an educator, youth worker, artist, activist, advocate looking for a new inspiration? Join us to:
Create meaningful spaces online to engage groups in awesome solution based projects that can go on to inspire others to take action for change
Work with the entire Creativity & Change team
Learn skills to tap into the creative potential of groups, be culturally engaging, and contribute to imagining a new and better future for humankind
The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible.
Where: Zoom and online
Who: These workshops are for anyone working in a non-formal learning context with others- youth workers, community workers, artists, activists, educators, dreamers, changemakers.
Commitment to all the workshops is essential
There are five different options for participants to join this workshop series. These five “streams” will run simultaneously from April 10th until May 22nd. All groups will be invited to take part in a national “paste-up” day to bring their ideas into public space. To view the five options and register go to www.creativityandchange.ie/non-accredited-training-previously-masterclasses/
Each group will experience the same workshop flow:
Please contact us if you are unwaged or have financial constraints or with any other questions at: claire.coughlan@cit.ie
The National Museum of Ireland (NMI)
The National Museum of Ireland (NMI) has launched its spring/summer 2021 programme of online workshops, activities and resources for schools.
The Museum is inviting schools all over Ireland to enjoy, engage and learn with culture in the classroom this spring and beyond.
From the Crazy Life of Crows to pop-up talks on the Easter Rising, the spring/summer programme explores a diverse range of topics and themes, all inspired by the National Collections across four Museum sites in Dublin and Mayo.
The NMI usually welcomes some 90,000 primary and post primary students on classroom visits each year. Due to COVID-19 public health advice, the Museum has now moved its schools programme online with imaginative workshops, virtual tours and classroom activities, delivering meaningful learning experiences for students.
Some highlights from the spring/summer programme include a family tree workshop with the NMI – Country Life; a virtual tour about the 1916 Rising from the NMI – Decorative Arts & History; an Ogham Code challenge from the NMI – Archaeology; and special virtual classroom sessions exploring extinction with the NMI – Natural History.
In 2019 (which now feels like a decade ago), I made a new show for early years audiences called BigKidLittleKid. It’s a wordless physical theatre piece for ages 3-6 years about the complicated world of sibling rivalry. It opened at The Ark for Dublin Theatre Festival and toured to the Mermaid, the Civic and Draiocht.
Through the summer of 2020, I grew surer and surer about my commitment to finding a way to keep a live connection with my very particular audiences.
During what had become my weekly check-in with my wee brother, he was talking about some guy somewhere in England who’d dressed up as Spiderman and spidey-ed his way through his local streets to the utter delight of the children forced to stay at home in these first shut-in weeks of the first lockdown.
I’ve always been interested in making the ordinary extraordinary and believe that if you can literally change the landscape, you make visible the possibility of change and of hope.
So I hatched a plan.
Thanks to the Ready Steady Show programme run by my main producing partner the Civic, a wee pot of money was found to create a PopUp Play version of BigKidLittleKid which we played on a tennis court outside a summer camp, in a massive hall inside another summer camp and outside a nursery.
My favourite picture of the whole summer was the picture of the one pod sitting watching the extraordinary adventure that unfolded in their tiny playground with the second pod who weren’t allowed to share the same space as them, determinedly pressing their noses against the window intently watching the entire show.
For us as artists, being out there with our audiences again, hearing that very particular laughter of children delighted with a new story, a new connection, was extraordinary. Our hearts soared and I’d be lying if I said we didn’t shed a tear or two of hard-won joy and hope.
Lismore Castle Arts Online exhibition
Artifice is an annual exhibition by Lismore Castle Arts which presents works of art created by transition year students from across County Waterford. This year’s theme is “Land Art”, based on Lismore Castle Arts’ main exhibition for 2021 “Light and Language” centred around the work of Nancy Holt, a significant figure in the Land Art movement. Students were invited to explore their relationship with the environment and to express their experience of the lockdown, environmentalism and personal identity.
Over 130 students took part in Artifice 2021, creating new artworks using a variety of media including photography, film, sculpture and painting. The five schools participating in Artifice 2021 are Meánscoil San Nioclás (An Rinn), Ard Scoil na nDéise (Dungarvan), Ardscoil na Mara (Tramore), St. Augustine’s College (Dungarvan) and Blackwater Community School (Lismore).
Children in Galway are dancing, leaping and learning with local and international artists this spring, thanks to the RISE programme from Baboró International Arts Festival for Children in partnership with Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture. This March children aged 8 to 13 years are taking on starring roles in two “RISE” projects, combining parkour, circus skills, performance art, sport and more. Making the most of digital opportunities to connect across the globe, the young people are participating at school and at home.
Projects include:
St. Pats Lockdown Olympics: A whacky series of four weekly videos, accompanied by props delivered to students’ homes, to guide them through the creation of their own spectacularly zany sports.
The Streets Are Ours: A collaborative project to create a promenade performance by Galway children combining parkour, contemporary dance and circus skills. The dance performance will be recorded in April and shared with the public as soon as safely possible.
The Veiled Ones: The final element of the RISE programme will be The Veiled Ones, a new dance theatre production highlighting the powerful relationship between grandparents and grandchildren, created by renowned Irish company Junk Ensemble.
This immersive work, currently in development.
In Conversation with Junk Ensemble & kabinet k
On April 23, Baboró will host the digital event, ‘In Conversation with Junk Ensemble & kabinet k’, exploring both companies’ development processes in making work with and for children, and the challenges to creating dance in a global pandemic.
The Creative Ireland Programme has announced details of the Creative Youth Conference 2021. The conference – Creativity: the connection to our future, now – will be hosted online and will comprise three separate events in April and May discussing questions surrounding provision of opportunities for creative engagement by young people both within the school and their community.
As part of a wider deliberation on the Creative Youth Plan – which was published in December 2017 – the Conference is an opportunity for stakeholders to reflect on progress to date and input their views concerning the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
The conference will commence with Creative Youth in the Education System, which will take place on Tuesday 13 April, from 12:30 to 2pm. This will be followed by on Thursday 15 April (also from 12:30 to 2pm) by Creative Youth in the Community.
These two events will feature contributions from a range of people involved in Creatives Youth initiatives – such as the Creative Schools programme and the Local Creative Youth Partnerships – and provide an insight into the roll-out of the Creative Youth Plan to date.
These events will also feed into a high-level conference to be held on Thursday 13 May from 12 noon to 2pm.
This event, which will be opened by the Taoiseach, and will also include contributions from the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin, the Minister for Education, Norma Foley and the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’ Gorman.
The main conference will also feature two panel discussions with contributions from a national and international guests including Andreas Schleicher (OECD), Michelle Cullen (Accenture), Arlene Forster (National Council for Curriculum and Assessment), Bo Stjerne Thomsen (The LEGO Foundation), author Roddy Doyle, Helene Hugel (Helium Arts) and Prof Linda Doyle (TCD).
The Portal Team are delighted to invite teachers, artists, arts managers and anyone with an interest in arts in education to connect with us online for the 2021 Portal Spring Regional Event Series from the 22nd to 28th March 2021.
The programme features a series of sessions sharing experience and best practise from the sector in the Mid-West. It includes a discussion on Monday, 22nd March with the 2020 Portal Documentation Award recipients teacher Jacintha Mullins and composer Fiona Linnane. Jacintha and Fiona will share insights from their experience on the project ‘The Lonely Traveller’, a collaboration with pupils at the Mid-West School for the Deaf, Limerick.
On Wednesday 24th we’re delighted to welcome The Hunt Museum’s Public Engagement Coordinator, Adam Stoneman and Education Officer, Hannah Bloom who will share their experience of how the museum engaged with schools using a virtual collaboration platform.
On Friday 26th and Saturday 27th, artist Éilís Murphy invites participants to two hands-on creative bookmaking sessions. Participants will be introduced to collage and bookmaking techniques, experimenting with various materials, textures and surfaces in this process-led workshop.
Monday 22nd March, 4pm —Discussion: ‘The Lonely Traveller’, a discussion and documentation launch event with teacher Jacintha Mullins and composer Fiona Linnane – Book Tickets here
Wednesday 24th March, 7pm —Presentation: ‘Virtual Workshops & Curation Using Mozilla Hubs’, with Public Engagement Coordinator, Adam Stoneman and Education Officer, Hannah Bloom of The Hunt Museum – Book Tickets here
Friday 26th, 7pm & Saturday 27th, 11am – A Hands-on Creative Workshop: ‘Stories Unfolding’ with bookmaker and artist, Éilís Murphy – Places for this session are now fully booked– Waiting List Registration
Saturday 27th, 11am – A Hands-on Creative Workshop: ‘Éisteacht/Listen’, with composer Fiona Linnane – Places for this session are fully now booked – Waiting List Registration
Please note:
The sessions on Monday and Wednesday will also be broadcast on Facebook Live, however to take part in the discussion on Zoom Live ticket booking is required.
The Creative Sessions on Friday and Saturday have limited capacity. Please note the ticket release date, we advise booking early to avoid disappointment. Materials for these sessions will be posted directly to participants, so home addresses will need to be shared with the portal editor and artist.
Architecture at the Edge a new outreach project in collaboration with Matt + Fiona is looking for creative and engaging architects, artists and designers to participate in Design Lab 2021 / a space for belonging.
Join this exciting initiative to empower the next generation to develop their ideas for the future of the local area.
Through Design Lab, you will enable them to develop ideas for a ‘Space for Belonging’ – with AATE and MATT+FIONA’s support. The initiative will involve training, facilitating creative workshops and joining an ambitious ‘Proto-Build’. Starting in April 2021 and culminating with the ‘Proto-Build’ in Autunm 2021, Design Lab is a great opportunity to share your knowledge and creativity with young people and teachers in a fun and engaging way.
If you have good communication skills and are looking for exciting ways to expand your practice, AATE would love to hear from you!
Deadline for applications is Monday 08 March at 12noon.
Ennis Book Club Festival invites post-primary school students and teachers in County Clare to a series of online workshops scheduled as part of their wider book club festival taking place from 2 – 7 March.
The workshops include:
Fighting Words Creative Writing Workshop, Tues 2 March, 10am-12 noon or 1.45pm-3.45pm
Songwriting and Music Production Workshop with Music Generation Clare, Wed 3 March, 9.30am-12pm or 1.30pm-4pm
Secondary School Audience with author Louise O’Neill, Thurs 4 March, 10am-11am or 2.10pm-3.10pm
Louise O’Neill in conversation with Sarah Moore Fitzgerald, 5 March, 11.30am
The LAB Gallery, Dublin City Arts Office Dates: Wednesdays 4-6pm, 3, 10, 24 March & 14, 21, 28 April
The Practice of Looking is a six-week, online course to learn about Visual Thinking Strategies and its use in Dublin, and to practice its facilitation. It was born out of the growing interest in the adoption of Visual Thinking Strategies at the LAB Gallery and in the partnerships and networks that have evolved around it. The LAB Gallery, Dublin City Arts Office, The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) and VTS Neighbourhood Schools are partnering to host an online course that offers the opportunity to learn from trained VTS coaches in the existing network. The course will have a strong focus on facilitation practice and reflection. You will receive a certificate of attendance after completion of the course.
Please note that to participate to the course, you need to:
Be available for all sessions.
Be a practicing teacher / educator / artist / museum guide.
The IAF have produced an online resource ‘DIYStudio’ for teachers and secondary school students.
DIYStudio introduces you to architecture and is perfect for secondary schools students who might be curious about the process of design. Follow the five stages – Explore, Research, Design, Present, Reflect to design your own architectural space, learning and experimenting along the way. All you need to get started is internet access, paper and a pencil.
Students can start and finish anytime, DIYStudio is an ongoing project.
The Ark invites you to ‘Creativity in the Online Classroom Made Easy’ CPD workshop for teachers, where you will learn a range of easy, accessible skills to help you bring creativity into your online teaching. Find out how easy it can be to breathe imagination into an online class, inspiring both your students and yourself. The ideas shared will be useful for both teaching online and when you are back in the classroom.
Perhaps you are overwhelmed with the technical aspects of moving your teaching online, or feeling frustrated with the limitations and struggling to make your online lessons creative and engaging. Or perhaps you are simply looking for some fresh inspiration for ideas that can work well in the online space. Join the Ark for this morning of inspiration and art-making to help you address these challenges, led by artist Duffy Mooney-Sheppard who has been leading online classes for children for the past year.
During this session you will gain valuable time to explore various tools available on Zoom to develop, hone and gain confidence in digital art lessons. Ideas shared will be adaptable and transferrable to other online platforms you may be using also. The possibilities in virtual learning spaces are wide and we are all learning! We will ask questions, share challenges, try things out and build our knowledge as a group.
Children’s Books Ireland and Poetry Ireland are working in partnership to host a series of capacity-building webinars for artists who are delivering online programmes to children and young people. The webinars are free to attend and places are limited. Children’s Books Ireland and Poetry Ireland are committed to supporting artists in the development of their practice and their working conditions.
23rd Feb: Child Protection and Safeguarding Webinar
24th Feb: Cybersafety when working with Children Webinar
I remember really vividly where I was on 12th March 2020. I was visiting the cast at the end of their 3rd week of a 10 week tour of my show for babies ‘I AM BABA’ and our tiny gorgeous tent was set up in a rather grand hotel ballroom in Trim. We came out of the third show to the news of the announcement of lockdown. We threw the set and costumes back in my storage facility without masses of care – as we knew it was only going to be a couple of weeks.
I know.
For the next 2 months, I was lost, desperately trying to think what to do and how to do it.
And then I worked out that it wasn’t about the what or the how but rather about the why.
When creating ‘BLISS’, the first show I made specifically for audiences of children with complex needs, I was doing some creative consultation in a classroom and over the course of these few days these children revealed to me what I think theatre is – one human being connecting with another. That’s it. And that my job is to create the optimum conditions for that connection.
And for my audiences, the optimum conditions overwhelmingly are that it’s a live experience.
The work has always had at its very heart the live responsive connection and an inherent and crucial ability to nuance and change from moment to moment. And I realised what I had to do was to take this built-in flexibility to a whole new level…
Thanks to the incredible support of funders, venues, audiences and artists and more than a little bit of luck, I managed to tour work live for 8 weeks in the summer, autumn and winter of 2020.
And in my next couple of blogs, I’ll tell you the how and the what.
Deadline Extended: Friday 26th March 2021
The Arts in Education Portal editorial team are pleased to invite applications for a documentation award. Through the award, successful applicants will receive services to the value of €5,000 that will support them in the documentation of a current or upcoming project and a €500 stipend.
The purpose of the award is to support the development of documented outcomes from Arts in Education initiatives in Ireland, which can be shared with the arts in education community and give insights into different processes of engagement. This is part of the Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee’s commitment to supporting and recognising the value of documentation and reflection as a key component within arts in education initiatives.
With many Arts in Education initiatives moving to online engagement in 2020 and that continuing into 2021 the Portal Editorial Committee want to ensure that while the community is adjusting to this form of engagement that the Portal continues to offer support and assisting the community in sharing learnings through this time.
Two awards will be offered through this opportunity.
Outcomes of the documentation process will include: a project video, a project feature to be showcased on the Portal’s Projects/Partnerships, and the option of a critical essay, with a view to also presenting the work as part of the Arts in Education Portal National Day in 2021.
The process will involve meetings with the Portal Team and a schedule of 3 visits over the course of the project to capture video and photographic documentation and support reflective processes among participants. These visits and meetings can be conducted virtually. The portal team will work closely with the recipients to ensure all restrictions and protocols in terms of COVID 19 are adhered to during the process to ensure safety for all involved.
The portal team will edit and produce a project video, and will liaise closely with the project partners to develop the content for the project feature. The critical essay would be sited in the Portal’s Reading Room, and is optional. The author and focus of the essay can be decided by the project organisers in collaboration with the Portal Team.
Criteria
To be considered for this opportunity, projects must:
Have started in autumn 2020 and continuing into 2021, or taking place in 2021 (flexibility will be give to project start dates due to current school closures).
Have a minimum duration of 8 weeks.
Involve a professional artist working collaboratively within an educational setting (early years, primary or post-primary).
Be underpinned by a strong ethos of collaboration and a commitment to excellence. Focus on the creative process, with children having an active and collaborative role
Additional criteria
Successful applicants will be asked to ensure that relevant permissions/consent have been sought for documentation of participants.
Please ensure your application has been approved by all project partners prior to submission.
How to make a submission:
Background on who you are; your professional practice and your ethos or approach towards Arts in Education.
An overview of the project – who is involved, how did the collaboration come about, what processes or approaches will take place, what is the aim or focus of the process?
A statement of interest, explaining why documentation supports would be of value to this project.
Would you and your class like to participate in an online workshop with VISUAL Carlow’s Curator of Learning, Clare Breen?
Clare will bring your class on a virtual walk through this season’s exhibitions, broadcast live from inside their closed gallery. After the tour she will lead an art activity that can be completed with simple materials children can find at home or in school.
These workshops are suitable for primary school groups from 1st to 6th class. Book your place for an online workshop in February and March, workshops are free but places are limited!
The Arts in Education Portal Team are delighted to announce that the 2021 Portal Spring Regional Event Series will take place online during the week of March 22nd, showcasing arts in education projects and creative practice in the Mid-West.
The series aims to connect regional audiences with the Portal. Practitioners can learn more about the Portal and what it offers, tell us about their work, connect with the community, share practice and find out what opportunities or events are available in the region. We welcome teachers, artists, arts managers and anyone with an interest in arts in education to join us for this free series of online events which will include online discussions and creative workshops.
Stay tuned for the full schedule to be announced in February.
A selection of some of the fantastic digital arts in education activities and programmes available for children and young people which support learning at home.
To support teachers delivering arts-based learning to children remotely while they are home due to the COVID-19 restrictions, The Ark have a variety of classroom and at-home activity packs relating to different areas of the curriculum, as well as a selection of recorded shows available to stream for your class privately.
Join The Glucksman online for on daily live art sessions and creative activities you can do at home. A team of facilitators delivers daily art classes and discover a range of art making skills and techniques. These free online sessions will keep children engaged as they learn about drawing, painting, constructing and printmaking using basic art and household materials.
With your family, you can explore specially selected artworks from the IMMA Collection online and their temporary Exhibition Programme, as well as suggested starting points for creative activities related to those artworks. These free online resources cover themes such as abstract painting, collage, land art and more.
Stay connected with the National Gallery of Ireland online, with lots of different ways to engage with their collection – virtual tours, videos, podcasts, downloadable resources, activities for children, online workshops, blogposts, and much more.
Eleven Irish artists reveal what inspires them and how they make their art in a free video series designed for use in the classroom.
The Dock Arts Centre in Carrick on Shannon and The Lab Gallery in Dublin have worked together to produce an online resource for teachers and arts educators. This resource is ideal for use in a classroom or online educational setting and features artists speaking directly about themselves and the art making process. View the online resource here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/8094850
As well as connecting young people with some of the rich ideas that inform our visual culture and offering them a unique insight into the arts practices, methods and motivations of practicing artists the series also affords the artists a unique opportunity to speak directly to and connect with young audiences.
In the interviews the artists reveal their reasons for making art, describe the methods they use to make their work but most importantly reveal what is means to them to be an artist and how they transform their desire to create and communicate into the work they produce. The diversity of their individual backgrounds and experiences is reflected in the work each artist makes. They draw inspiration from many sources; the books they read as children, the films they have watched, conversations they have had, the environments that they have lived in and places they have visited.
The artists are Sinéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Eve O’ Callaghan, Jamie Cross, Ellen Duffy, Kate Murphy, Atoosa Pour Hosseini, Gemma Browne, Anna Maria Healy, Austin Ivers, Louise Manifold and Jackie McKenna.
The video series is a starting point to mediate conversations with young people about their own creativity, ideas and inspirations, the videos may also be used as an inspiration for teachers and educators to devise workshop and other practical activities for their classes.
Chester Beatty launched an Intercultural museum programme for primary and post-primary schools offering students and their teachers the opportunity to explore world cultures in an Irish museum. Participants are encouraged to engage with Chester Beatty’s Islamic, East Asian and European collections through a variety of activities including guided tours, self-guided visits, online learning resources and access to the extensive image gallery.
Intercultural dialogue and learning plays a key role in the museum’s mission and fosters dialogue with the communities represented in Chester Beatty’s unique collections. These collections offer wonderful learning opportunities and support a number of key curricular areas from art history to world faiths. A range of free teaching resources are available to support self-guided visits and inspire activities back at school.
This report includes the background to the intercultural school’s project and includes definitions on intercultural dialogue and relevant policies, strategies and projects in both the formal education, arts and cultural sectors; the development of the intercultural school’s programme; analysis of current practices and methodologies; programme development including the training of volunteer guides, Continuous Professional Development of teachers; and pilot tours and evaluation.
Schools have full access to Chester Beatty’s remarkable treasures through the website www.chesterbeatty.ie thus allowing students and teachers to experience the Chester Beatty from the school desk or from home. In addition, the CB’s new Digital Museum Guide app offers audio tours in 13 languages, virtual 3D walkthroughs of the museum, online browsing of the Chester Beatty’s world-renowned treasures, and a news section to highlight our extensive programme of events and activities.
For more details about the Chester Beatty Learning and Education Department please contact educationservices@cbl.ie
Baboró International Arts Festival, Graffiti Theatre and TYA Ireland
Deadline: Monday 8 February 2021
Callout for a 6-month playwriting programme led by Finegan Kruckemeyer for established and emerging playwrights based in Ireland who are interested in writing for young audiences.
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children, Graffiti Theatre and TYA Ireland are excited to collaborate with International TYA Playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer to host a new playwriting programme for writers and theatre makers in Ireland who are interested in writing plays for young audiences.
At a time when the world and its distances are both larger and smaller than ever before, a collaboration will occur, spanning half a globe, and half a year, and driven by that most exciting of provocations – to forge something from nothing.
Beginning with a blank page, eight Irish authors will respond to writing aids and impositions both as they explore theatre for young audiences – what makes a TYA play, and what TYA play they wish to make.
But more important than the audience, shall be the idea. And in writing work solemn and silly, foreign and known, as vast as an ocean and as small as a boat which may rock upon it, eight individual voices shall be celebrated, and their plays play out to their ends.
Who is this for?
This opportunity is open to both established and emerging playwrights, residing in Ireland, interested in writing plays for young audiences. Applications are encouraged from artists with a disability, those from minority ethnic communities and those who feel their voices are not commonly represented. There are eight places available on the programme.
Irish language writers are welcome to participate in this project through the medium of Irish. Support and translation will be provided to facilitate a bilingual writing journey with Fin. Samples of writing in Irish can be included in the application.
Cuirimid fáilte roimh scríbhneoirí le Gaeilge páirt a ghlacadh sa togra seo as Gaeilge. Cuirfear tacaíocht agus aistriúcháin ar fáil chun an turas scríbhneoireachta dátheangach le Fin a éascú. Is féidir samplaí Gaeilge a bheith mar chuid den iarratas.
Deadline for Applications is Monday 8 February 2021
NYCI commissioned UCC to carry out an independent mapping of youth arts provision in youth work settings in Ireland. Join NYCI at the virtual launch of the research to find out:
What is the nature and scope of youth arts provision in youth work settings in Ireland
What challenges do youth workers, youth arts practitioners and youth organisations encounter in providing opportunities for young people to engage in youth arts
What are the key recommendations from the research
Why Attend?
Hear from a panel of expert speakers.
Learn more about the shift at policy level and significant financial investment needed in order to advance meaningful and sustainable youth arts provision in Ireland, and concrete recommendations to help achieve this.
Get your copy of the research report.
Who Should Attend
Youth work managers, youth workers, youth arts practitioners, ETB youth officers, arts officers and anyone working with young people, academics in the field of youth studies, youth work students, policy makers, stakeholders from relevant government departments.
Who You’ll Hear From Eileen Hogan, University College Cork
Eileen Hogan is a Lecturer in the School of Applied Social Studies, University College Cork. She is Course Director of the Masters in Youth Arts and Sports Education, which won the grad Ireland/HEA award for Best Postgraduate Course (Arts and Humanities) in 2017. Eileen is also Deputy Director of the Postgraduate Diploma in Youth Work.
Through these roles, she is involved in the professional development of youth workers and youth arts practitioners and has strong connections with youth work organisations. Eileen is also a member of the Board of Directors at Youth Work Ireland Cork. She is also Chairperson of the IndieCork Film and Music Festival, which is a volunteer-led organisation that supports youth arts as an element of its broader cultural programme.
NYCI have a an exciting panel lined up to join Dr Hogan in reacting to and dissecting the research and what it means for your work.
RTÉ and Creative Ireland Programme have come together in partnership to create This Is Art! – a celebration of visual art through the creation of an exciting new online art competition aimed at young people across the island of Ireland.
The competition aims to promote artistic practice among young people and encourage and support creativity, originality and self-expression. Applicants can enter individually or they can enter as part of a group and all visual art disciplines are welcomed. The competition is open for anyone 18yrs and under.
All of the artwork will be included in a digital gallery and considered for the This Is Art! 2021 Grand Prix Award.
The National Gallery of Ireland invites schools to apply to participate in Your Gallery at School, a new holistic outreach programme that brings the National Gallery of Ireland directly to schools.
Over the course of 2021, The National Gallery of Ireland will work with six primary schools that wouldn’t usually be able to visit the Gallery, to create a tailored programme of activities for their students.
Participating schools will be selected via an open application process. Selected schools will not have visited the Gallery in the past three years and will be from one or more of three key groups:
DEIS schools to address socio-economic barriers to accessing culture.
Boys’ schools to address the gender barrier to accessing culture.
Schools geographically far away (over 2 hours away from Dublin) to address the geographic barrier to accessing culture.
The closing date: Friday 5 February 2021
Your Gallery at School aims to break down the barriers that prevent engagement with the arts through holistic programming that ensures children transition to adulthood equipped with the life-changing benefits of art.
The Irish Film Institute today (1st December) launches its comprehensive 2020/2021 IFI Schools’ Programme. For the first time, the programme will be available to view nationwide online on the Institute’s brand-new IFI@Schools
platform at www.ifischools.ie. Films to feature as part of this year’s offering include Greta Gerwig’s Oscar-nominated Little Women, Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade, Neasa Hardiman’s Sea Fever, and three films from Cartoon Saloon, Kilkenny’s beloved animation studio.
The entire programme is available to view for schools through an annual subscription for either the Primary or Post-Primary programmes. With the generous support of the Arts Council Capacity Building Grant, the IFI has been able to heavily subsidise costs so that an annual Primary subscription costs €100, and annual Post-Primary subscription costs €250.
Each subscription allows 10 teachers per school to watch 10 screenings each. Unlike booking student groups for
cinema screenings, the subscription allows the teacher a greater degree of flexibility as to when material is viewed in the classroom and will encourage increased media literacy across a wide range of ages.
The ever-popular Modern Foreign Languages strand, encompassing French, German and Spanish, presents five Irish premieres. Eagerly awaited by teachers and students alike, the films are an invaluable way of promoting language and culture. Included in the 2020/21 Spanish selection is Berlinale prize winner Wolves and classroom drama One For All. French students will enjoy teen comedy-drama Man Up! for Senior Cycle, while Junior Cycle drama Fahim, The Little Chess Prince rides on the coattails of The Queen’s Gambit, and focuses on a young Bangladeshi immigrant who discovers he has a gift for playing chess. The German choices this year are Ulrich Köhler and Henner Winckler’s A Voluntary Year (Das freiwillige Jahr) for Senior Cycle, and Sarah Winkenstette’s Too Far Away (Zu Weit Weg) for Junior Cycle.
Speaking about the launch of the platform, IFI Director Ross Keane said, ‘The advent of IFI@Schools is a truly transformational moment for IFI Education, bringing our hugely popular and successful schools programme directly into classrooms all around Ireland. While Covid-19 has presented huge challenges for arts organisations, it has also made us all examine what we do and how we can continue to engage with our audiences in new and innovative ways. We are therefore delighted to offer this exciting new online platform to schoolchildren nationwide, marking the beginning of a new era for IFI Education’.
Head of IFI Education Alicia McGivern commented, ‘While school trips to cinemas and arts venues may be on hold for the moment, the appetite for quality arts engagement remains undiminished. IFI@Schools offers teachers the opportunity to bring film content directly into the classroom in a smart, affordable and accessible way. We’re very excited to bring the magic of cinema into schools and to continue to foster a love of film in students during these unprecedented times.’
Arts Council Head of Film and Architecture Fionnuala Sweeney added, ‘The Arts Council is delighted to have funded the development of the IFI@schools platform. At a time when cinema doors are closed, this dedicated new platform will bring the world of film into classrooms all over Ireland so that children and young people can continue to collectively experience, explore and enjoy film.’
For English this year, Senior Cycle students can look forward to Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence in Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bone, and Paddy Breathnach’s acclaimed drama Rosie, starring Sarah Greene and Moe Dunford. For Junior Cycle, there’s a hugely entertaining and thought-provoking slate of films including Taika Waititi’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople, The Peanut Butter Falcon starring Shia LaBoeuf, Ken Wardrop’s touching Irish documentary His & Hers, and Saudi Arabian comingof-age drama Wadjda.
IFI is delighted to present a particularly strong line-up of Irish films, and as part of our ongoing commitment to support Irish filmmakers, IFI has confirmed a number of special guests to speak as part of this year’s online programme, including Oscar-nominated animators Nora Twomey and Tomm Moore, documentarians Brendan J Byrne and Ross Whitaker, and Vivarium director Lorcan Finnegan.
Other films available for Senior Cycle include documentaries In the Name of Peace: John Hume in America, Bobby Sands: 66 Days, Iris, Risteard O’Domhnaill’s Atlantic and The Pipe, and drama Black ’47. Transition Year students will be treated to environmental and socio-political documentaries Now, Spaceship Earth, Gaza, Push and 3½ Minutes, Ten Bullets. Art and Geography students will delight in the anime film Weathering With You, while sporting documentaries Katie and Climbing Blind look at the physical and mental hurdles sportspeople overcome to achieve their goals. A special Inclusion and Diversity section for Transition Year Wellbeing/SPHE includes Sundance winner Clemency, powerful civil rights drama Selma, and the funny and tender LGBT+ drama Love, Simon.
This year’s Primary programme features a fantastic range of titles for younger pupils including the charming Little Women with Saoirse Ronan and Emma Watson, Irish drama A Shine of Rainbows, plus animations Minuscule, Dreambuilders, and the Cartoon Saloon trio of Song of the Sea, The Secret of Kells and The Breadwinner.
Finally, the IFI is delighted to announce the 2021 edition of its hugely successful Careers in Film Day events next March, in association with the Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival. IFI will also run special events in association with Screen Skills Ireland, which will allow students to engage directly with filmmakers and their craft; these Q&A and ‘First Steps’ events will be held in January.
For more details and to download a full IFI Education 2020/2021 Programme, please visit www.ifi.ie/learn. For more information and booking, please contact Richard or Amy at schools@irishfilm.ie.
Irish primary schools are invited to enter the FÍS Storyboard Storytelling competition, a one-off Covid-19 special initiative open to all primary schools in the Republic of Ireland.
The FÍS Storyboard Storytelling competition provides an opportunity for pupils to visually interpret a story or concept or curriculum topic, use artistic media and different types of shots to convey that story in an imaginative and creative way.
A full brief, judging criteria and how to enter this exciting competition is available at www.fisfilmproject.ie. The brief provides suggested themes and topics, storyboard presentation tips, judging criteria and general competition guidelines for teachers.
Check out the supporting video tutorial ‘How to use storyboards to storytell’.
Entries will be categorised on the basis of class age / level and prizes will be awarded across a variety of categories.
The Young People, Children, and Education Bursary Award supports individual professional artists working with, and producing work for, children and young people across a range of artforms. The purpose of the award is to support professional artists to develop their art practice.
A recording of a webinar session about the YPCE Bursary Award is available for all potential applicants at the link below.
The Arts Council encourages you to view the full 1.5 hour session or move to the time codes of particular interest. If you have questions that are not covered in the webinar session, please contact ypce@artscouncil.ie.
Please make sure to read the Guidelines in full.
Closing date: 17:30, Thursday 28 January 2021
Maximum awarded: €20,000
Apply from 15 December 2020
Earlier this month over two weekends 480 artists, teachers and arts in education professionals attended our fifth annual National Arts in Education Portal Day which this year moved online with a series of virtual events.
Over the two weekends the arts in education community came together to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired and interrogate best practice in the field. Although this year we couldn’t meet in person we were overwhelmed with the response and level of engagement. We would like to thank all our guest speakers, artists and all who joined us to engage in the conversation.
Speaking at the event Roundtable Chair Professor Gary Granville said, “We talk about this concept of community, of practice and practitioners but in a very real sense I think what the Charter has facilitated and what the Arts in Education Portal provides is an opportunity to make real that notion of community”.
Video of digital artwork created by artist Julie Forrester as part of the creative workshop ‘A Dive into Digital Art’ with illustrator Wayne O’Connor.
Due to popular demand the Portal Team is delighted to announce details of our Online Creative Workshops Winter Programme taking place this December. This series of hands-on creative sessions aims to support artists and teachers to explore new ideas, approaches and techniques to support their own professional development through creative practice.
We’re delighted to confirm that illustrator Wayne O’Connor and interdisciplinary artist Kate Wilson will be joining us again to facilitate another series of ‘A Dive into Digital Art’ and ‘Sensing into Action’. Digital Artist John D’Arcy will also be facilitating a new workshop entitled ‘You’re Muted’.
Each workshop involves two ninety minute closed zoom sessions taking place over two days. Booking a ticket for these workshops will automatically reserve your place at both creative sessions. Participants must attend both sessions. Ticket bookings will open at 12 noon Wednesday, 2nd December 2020. These workshops have limited capacity so make sure to book your place early!
Please note: Tickets for both ‘A Dive into Digital Art’ and ‘Sensing into Action’ will be offered to those on the waiting list from the November sessions first.
Sensing to Action
Dates: 7pm, Friday 11 & 11am, Saturday 12 December
Kate Wilson has a fine art degree from Slade School of Art and MA with Independent Dance; her practice is both interdisciplinary and collaborative. Sensing to Action offers practical and theoretical insight into creative movement and holistic approaches to dance and theatre practices in the classroom.
A Dive into Digital Art Dates: 11am, Saturday 12 & 12pm Sunday 13 December
Wayne O’Connor is an illustrator, storyteller, writer and arts educator. Using free digital drt software, participants will be introduced to the basics of using digital software to draw and paint. Participants will need to download the free Autodesk Sketchbook art software.
This session is now fully booked but please click through the link below to add your details to the waiting list.
You’re Muted Dates: 3pm, Saturday 12 & Sunday 13 December
Digital artist and researcher John D’Arcy invites participants to explore the problems and potentials of creative engagement online. This workshop contains a mixture of interactive activities that test the limits of online video conferencing, helping to reflect on the nature of online connectivity, communication and creativity.
Solstice Arts Centre are delighted to announce two new online resource packs for schools to accompany the exhibition ‘New Era – Exploring Climate Change’.
New Era is an exhibition featuring four Irish visual artists Rachel Doolin, Siobhán McDonald, Martina O’Brien and Méadhbh O’Connor whose work explores different aspects of climate change in the natural world. The exhibition includes new and recent art works by these artist/activists and advocates for both local and global climate change.
Resource Packs:
Look Draw Think Respond – Primary Schools
This fun learning resource, originally designed to be completed in the gallery is now accompanied by a virtual 360° tour of the exhibition New Era, with links and additional information on each of the four artists on our website at solsticeartscentre.ie/ event/new-era-exploring- climate-change.
This resource embraces many subjects across the curriculum including art, geography, SPSE, science and literacy and a personalised tour and virtual creative activities can be arranged for individual classrooms.
Solstice Secondary Resource New Era – Post-Primary Schools
This learning resource is designed to assist Leaving Certificate students and teachers interested in opting for the gallery question on the History & Appreciation of Art paper.
It can be used in conjunction with the virtual 360° tour of the exhibition New Era. with links and additional information on each of the four exhibiting artists on our website at https://solsticeartscentre.ie/ event/new-era-exploring- climate-change for a comprehensive response to this or similar exam question.
Solstice Arts Centre can also arrange a Zoom meeting with any class group to give them further insight into the show and information on the artists involved.
From hieroglyphics to harvest knots…the National Museum of Ireland launches a new programme of online events, activities and resources for teachers to bring the Museum to the classroom.
Each year, the NMI welcomes some 90,000 primary and post primary students to its four Museum sites in Dublin and Mayo, providing engaging, hands-on, curriculum linked and creative learning opportunities that underpin classroom teaching.
This year, due to COVID-19 guidelines, the NMI has had to rethink how schools, teachers and their students can engage and learn with the national collections and, in response, has developed a range of virtual programmes to be used in the classroom. The first strand of the new programme is available now including arts in education activities.
The new schools programme 2020/2021 blends live online sessions with Museum educators, and a range of pre-recorded video and printable resources available from the Museum’s website.
In place of Leaving Certificate Art History Tours, Museum educators have developed a presentation containing high-resolution images of the artefacts on display at the Museum that are linked to the Leaving Certificate Art History curriculum. The presentation can be used by teachers as an in-class resource and the notes pages can be used by students as a revision tool.
Explore a range of art and design activities suitable for primary students and art at post primary junior cycle, through short videos and downloadable activity sheets. Students can take a design challenge inspired by Eileen Gray, make their own musical instrument, design and build a Thaumatrope or build their own bird helmet inspired by a Samurai costume.
Join storyteller Fiona Dowling on the grounds of the NMI – Country Life at Turlough Park, Co. Mayo, to hear some nature based stories and some intriguing tales connected to our fairy trail ‘Of Fairies and Fairy Folk’.
Application form and further details are available at: msletb.ie
Closing Date: 12.00 noon, 8 December 2020
Late applications will not be accepted.
Please note that applications must be made through the MSL ETB website. Any queries should be directed to employment@msletb.ie.
Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim Education and Training Board is an equal opportunities employer. Canvassing will disqualify. Shortlisting may apply. Late applications will not be accepted. Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim Education and Training Board is registered as a Data Controller.
The four Dublin Local Authorities (Fingal County Council, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, South Dublin County Council and Dublin City Council) are delighted to invite submissions for: Exploring & Thinking Bursary Award 2020.
The Bursary Award will support individual professional artists to develop their artistic practice working with and/or producing work for early childhood arts. It is open to individual professional artists who wish to develop their practice in early childhood arts, artists practicing in all artforms, artists resident in Ireland.
Bursary range: €500 – €5,000
The closing date: 5pm, 11th December 2020
Exploring and Thinking is a collaborative framework for early childhood arts in the Dublin region. It came about in 2016 when the four Dublin Local Authorities partnered for the first time to collectively consider early childhood arts provision in the Dublin region.
The 5th annual National Arts in Education Portal Day 2020 has adapted the annual event into a virtual conference over two weekends this November. The National Arts in Education Portal Virtual Conference will welcome hundreds of professionals from across the arts, education, arts in education and creative sector, who will attend various online events to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired and interrogate best practice in the field.
The event represents an important landmark in the calendar for educationalists and arts and creativity in education sector professionals with a shared interest in quality and access to best practice arts provision for children and young people. This year the National Arts in Education Portal Day has to move online as per government guidelines.
There will also be a broad range of Creative Sessions delivered by artists and creators, Joe Caslin, Wayne O’Connor, Melatu-Uche Okorie and Kate Wilson. These workshops aim to share practical skills and approaches. The virtual conference will culminate with a panel of professionals and practitioners from across the arts in education, education and creative sectors in conversation with Chair Professor Gary Granville, exploring the current landscape of arts in education in Ireland and beyond.
Thursday October 29th saw the launch of a new publication ‘Curriculum: Contemporary Art Goes to School’ edited by Dublin-based curator and writer Jennie Guy and published by Intellect Books.
Curriculum explores the intersection of contemporary artistic practice and school education in the 21st century.
At the heart of Curriculum is Art School, an independent curatorial framework founded by Jennie Guy in 2014. Operating throughout Ireland, Art School establishes interfaces between contemporary art and schools as sites of education, inviting students and artists to work collaboratively to question how the conventions of learning – as typically encountered in schools – might be extended or reimagined.
It takes place as a series of workshops, residencies, exhibitions and new writing that explore how contemporary artists can intervene within systems of education in order to inspire and expand might also help to fracture and revise.
Curriculum features contributions by: Clare Butcher, Gerard Byrne (Foreword), Juan Canela, Helen Carey, Daniela Cascella, Fiona Gannon, Jennie Guy, Andrew Hunt, Hannah Jickling & Helen Reed, Alissa Kleist, Rowan Lear, Peter Maybury, Annemarie Ní Churreáin, Nathan O’Donnell, Sofia Olascoaga & Priscila Fernandes, Matt Packer and Sjoerd Westbroek.
The book explores Art School projects by artists: Sven Anderson, John Beattie, Sarah Browne, Karl Burke, Rhona Byrne, Ella de Búrca, Vanessa Donoso Lopez, Priscila Fernandes, Hannah Fitz, Jane Fogarty, Kevin Gaffney, Adam Gibney, Fiona Hallinan, Elaine Leader, Maria McKinney, Mark O’Kelly, Sarah Pierce and Naomi Sex.
This publication was funded by the Arts Council of Ireland and the Arts Office of Wicklow County Council.
CURRICULUM: Contemporary Art Goes to School
Ireland’s National School Photography Awards
Deadline extended: 31 May 2021
INSPA 2020/21 sees the fourth open call for Ireland’s prestigious National School Photography Awards [INSPA]. INSPA is a national children’s photography competition and Positive Primaries Programme which introduces Creative Well-being into the lives of primary schools and their communities by engaging with the magic and art of photography.
This year’s theme ‘Accessible Places | Safer Spaces’ is run in association with the Children’s Rights Alliance and is looking for images that focus on giving a voice to children in their new and changing environments. Therefore, we are calling on students and teachers in primary level education, to once again, get creative and integrate the camera into their school day. To begin your Positive Primaries Journey and participate in the awards you must register your school at www.inspa.ie
The INSPA’s are having a massive impact in classrooms across Ireland, helping to boost the well-being of students by simply integrating the camera into your school day. Participating in the awards helps your students increase their Confidence, Resilience, Connection, Kindness and Readiness. It also gives a platform for teachers to creatively explore their wider curriculum, allowing students from all backgrounds to actively engage with subjects in new and exciting ways.
Once you activate your school account, you will be able to upload your school activities, share ideas and engage with other Positive Primaries as they prepare to enter the awards. You will also be able to access our free and easy-to-follow Creative Well-being Activities. These will help you integrate the camera into your school-day and allow the children to lead the way.
This year, the awards are offering a range of fantastic prizes for the whole school community including; Weekend breaks away to the Amber Springs Resort Hotel, free Instax cameras and printers, Positive Portrait fundraising days, certificates and of course your schools Positive Primaries Flag. All entries will be judged by a national panel including Mary Magner (INTO President), Colm O’Gorman (Director: Amnesty International Ireland), Damian White (IPPN President), Karla Sánchez (Curator, Art Historian & Educator), Áine Lynch (CEO of National Parents Council Primary), and Richard Carr (Artist & Partnerships Manager for INSPA).
In whatever way you choose to respond to this year’s theme, be creative, take lots of photos and most importantly have fun. We look forward to seeing all your schools’ entries and all those positive changes you are making in your school. If you think your school could become one of Ireland’s next Positive Primaries, register as soon as possible at; www.inspa.ie
For further information and to apply to go www.inspa.ie.
The Ark
Available until 31 December
Explore the importance of all creatures small and large in this video drama workshop from The Ark for ages 2-4 with their grown-ups led by Early Years Artist in Residency Joanna Parkes.
Mouse may be small and shy, but does that mean he can’t help the lion? Let’s see!
Using the Aesop’s Fable of The Mouse and The Lion as a starting point, pack your make-believe backpacks, set off to find the proud lion and see where your imaginations can take you.
If you like, you can bring a few things with you:
A cushion
A small bag or backpack
A soft toy (any favourite cuddly animal will do)
Wear an adventurer’s hat of any kind if you want!
Combining drama, story and play, this video workshop invites little ones and their grown-ups to enjoy imagining together. So if you’re a parent, grandparent, uncle, aunty, godparent or carer, join in with a 2 to 4 year old to discover, explore and create together in this delightful workshop adventure.
Recommended:
A clear floor area of about 4 paces square – free of movable furniture and any trip hazards.
Children and adults should wear comfortable clothes and shoes.
For ages 2-4 and their grown-ups
Video duration: Approx. 15 mins, plus pauses for you to pretend and play in your own time at home
Growing during Closing
October, falling leaves and creeping numbers. It was a month of growing in a season of closing. My colleague Ciara Heffernan led our school approach to Creative Clusters within our theme, Connecting and Reconnecting. This creative collaboration between Cluster Schools is an exciting new dimension to our arts programme. The extension of the Creative Schools programme with Associate Gabi McGrath has enabled us to develop creative partnerships with artists from a range of different disciplines. Early Years Music Specialist Nuala Kelly returned to complete a partnership with Mrs. Cushen and Ms. Heffernan, while a range of classes from Junior Infants to 2nd Class will work with multidisciplinary fine artist Francesca Hutchinson, dancer and visual artist Kate Wilson and storyteller Thomas McCarthy. It is a privilege to work with and support artists in the current climate.
Teacher Artist Partnership would like to wish all our summer course participants well as they engage in their TAP residency and we look forward to sharing in the work. Our Design Tutor Team are extremely proud of the work and achievements of our National TAP Coordinator Dr. Katie Sweeney, Tralee Education Centre Director, Terry O Sullivan and Administrator Máire Vieux in securing Erasmus + funding to develop our programme on a European level with partner countries Serbia, Austria, Netherlands and Greece. Within this initiative our Design Team have been working on a series of mini-creative moments called Take Ten with TAP which we look forward to sharing with you soon…watch this space!
Thank you, Portal, for this space to share. Thank you, reader, for reading.
The Ark
Date: 7 November Saturday
This half-day visual art CPD workshop for teachers with The Ark which will focus on skills, techniques and processes teachers can integrate into their lesson plans and easily adapt to all ages.
Every season has its own beauty and winter is certainly not lacking. It may not display the soft pastel tones of spring, the bright and bold splashes of summer or the fiery range of autumn’s colours, but the winter season has its own very individual palette.
Through the theme of winter, artist Jole Bortoli will lead the group on an exploration of the visual art curriculum through hands on activities which will be completed in real time via zoom. Together, the group will examine the many manifestations of winter in the diverse environments and habitats found in Ireland. Looking at how various visual artists have interpreted this theme, participants will create their very own artwork, giving them the tools to approach a winter-themed art workshop with children in the classroom.
Each participant will be asked to gather simple materials and tools that they should easily find around the house. They will also be sent a small art pack by post with any speciality materials that they will need during the workshop.
Date: 10.30am-12.30pm, 7 November Saturday
Tickets: €15 (€13.50 for ArkEd Members)
Booking closes at midnight on Thursday 29 October to allow adequate time for your art pack to be posted to you. Postage of the art pack is available within the Republic of Ireland only.
The Portal Team are delighted to announce the guest speakers for the fifth annual National Arts in Education Portal Conference which this year moves online with a series of virtual events taking place over two weekends in November – Friday 6th, Saturday 7th, Sunday 8th and Friday 13th, Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th.
This year the programme features a series of three keynote sessions, each exploring and interrogating specific areas of focus to open discussion on these important questions. We are delighted to welcome the following speakers:
Friday, 6th November – 7pm Writer Kit de Waal, visual artist Leanne McDonagh and lecturer Aoife Titley
Writer Kit de Waal and visual artist Leanne McDonagh in conversation with Aoife Titley, lecturer in Development and Intercultural Education (DICE) at the Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education, Maynooth University discussing cultural diversity in the arts.
Saturday, 7th November – 11am Maureen Kennelly, Arts Council Director
Maureen Kennelly, Director of the Arts Council of Ireland will be joined in conversation with a co-presenter (TBC) to explore the challenges of achieving reach and depth. Are they mutually exclusive? What are the hallmarks of quality and can they be attained in large scale programming.
Saturday, 14th November – 3pm Teacher Jennifer Buggie and digital artist John D’Arcy
Teacher and TAP lead facilitator Jennifer Buggie will be joined in conversation with digital artist and lecturer John D’Arcy to explore what role technology can play in supporting and enhancing creative practice.
The full line-up which will be announced in October includes a broad range of practical creative workshops and skills sharing as well roundtable discussion exploring the current landscape of arts in education.
We look forward to welcoming members of the arts in education community from all across Ireland and internationally, to share, learn, talk, get inspired, and continue interrogating best practice in the field.
Full programme details for the events will be announced shortly. For enquiries please contact events@artsineducation.ie
Irish Film Institute – IFI@Schools
Stream new films into your school with a brand new film platform from the IFI@Schools, launching in October.
With school trips on hold and very different learning situations arising in schools across the country, the Irish Film Institute (IFI) is launching an online streaming platform, offering films to support a whole range of subjects and interest areas.
In return for a one-off annual fee to cover film rights, your school can access the complete catalogue, using an easy, user-friendly teacher pass.
This years Open House Dublin from the Irish Architecture Foundation is set to take place on the weekend of 8 – 11 October. This year’s event will differ from previous years with a strong focus on online and digital events.
Open House Junior is a programme of workshops and activities for children and young people, with highlights including a Digital Design Challenge, and virtual workshops hosted by the Chester Beatty Library, Irish Museum of Modern Art, National Gallery of Ireland, Fighting Words and others.
With self-guided family ‘Architreks’ and ‘Make your own’ building templates from O’Mahony Pike Architects.
The Baboró team are delighted to announce their 2020 Delegate Programme which this year has moved online. They look forward to continuing to create opportunities to share insights and make new connections at home and abroad.
This year Baboró is a partner in ‘Talking TYA 2020’, a 3-day virtual conference that will bring artists and scholars from across Ireland and the world to discuss participation in theatre for young audiences. Baboró are also partnering with Culture Ireland, TYAI and NUI Galway.
Baboró’s online discussion series will give opportunities to meet some of the artists taking part in the festival. To register for delegate events listed below go to www.baboro.ie/festival/programme/event-type/foradults.
Baboró Insights
Wed 7 Oct at 13.00
Making regional connections: Pathways to production artists meet presenters (By Invitation)
Mon 12 oct | 12.00
Diversifying performance for young audiences
Wed 14 oct | 14.00
Talking TYA 2020
Thu 8 – Sat 10 Oct
Lime Tree Theatre | Belltable
Dates: October 2020
Limerick’s Lime Tree Theatre | Belltable team are proud to present a superb programme of events for their annual Bualadh Bos Children’s Festival this October.
Every child deserves access to the performing arts. As always, the aim of the festival is to ensure we continue to inspire children and their families by the safest and most creative means possible.
To achieve this in 2020, the programme has both live and online shows, creative workshops and even a family mystery trail around the Georgian quarter of the city. Plenty for all our small citizens to interact with.
Our schools programme is completely online, this will ensure schools in Limerick and the mid-west region can access our festival programme without travel costs as a barrier.
Louise Donlon, Director of Lime Tree Theatre|Belltable said “We are so glad to be able to announce this year’s Bualadh Bos festival as there were times during the past 5 months when our hopes for it seemed to be dashed.
“We have put a lot of thought into how we can continue and have been so heartened to see that performers and audiences alike are so keen to take part. The wonders of digital technology allow us to present our school’s programme online.
“Indeed, the advantage of online programming means that every school in Limerick can access the wonderful work being created – there are no barriers to all the children in the city and county enjoying the best that is on offer.
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Arts Council, Limerick City & County Council and the JP McManus Foundation, without whose help and support none of this would have been possible.”
Our festival highlights include Michael Ford and Bairbre Ni Chaoimh’s beautiful show The Wilde Garden Adventure, the opening show of the festival on Sunday Oct 4th in Belltable. The show is based on two famous Oscar Wilde books The Happy Prince and The Selfish Giant.
We are thrilled Emma Martin’s Birdboy will tour to the Lime Tree Theatre on Wednesday Oct 7th. This engaging family show premiered earlier this month in the Dublin Fringe Festival to fantastic reviews. We feel so lucky that they tour to Limerick first and then go to 4 other venues in the country.
Cahoots NI have spent the summer converted units in a Belfast shopping centre into various magical rooms for a real live virtual experience with their new show The University of Wonder and Imagination.
Music Generation Limerick presents a new programme of interactive livestreams for schools featuring award-winning Limerick actor Myles Breen, the amazing rapper Denise Chaila, trad star Zoe Conway, guitarist and singer Sean O’Meara and classical violinist with the ICO Diane Daly.
Also, Branar Téatar have an online puppet workshop, Children’s Books Ireland go online with their book clinics for all book worms, Jean McGlynn gets creative with Halloween ideas, there is something for every child this year, now all we need is you to ensure they can join us and have some fun!
It’s lovely to do something with our hands, other than sanitise.
Returning to school felt different this year and the children were wonderful. They marched down hallways leaving parents at the gate, washed hands and met the new school measures with their best efforts to work together and keep each other safe. Our school leadership did everything in their power to make children, staff and parents feel as safe and comfortable as possible in school during these uncertain times.
However, and undeniably, Covid 19 has disrupted the familiar flow of school rhythms by adding its own disjointed systems of distancing, washing and vigilance. But the primary focus of our work remains as it has always been, to meet the deepest needs of the children in our care through education and with love. From lower numbers of referrals to Tusla, to a decline in educational attainment for some children, school closures have had a detrimental effect. In my reopening, arts-based learning and the role of embodiment has been crucial to connecting mind, body, and spirit in the classroom. This is especially relevant in Infants, where the teacher’s physical proximity and comfort of touch has been severely limited.
Teaching is about listening, to the body and the words. This September, children have been communicating. From a child who needs to run at full tilt for an entire PE lesson, to a quiet daily request “Teacher, will you read us a story?”. Though I always do, the request is about reassurance and meeting a need. In the absence of a hug or handhold, I have looked to the arts to affirm the place of comfort, grounding, and reassurance. We have used music, dance, visual arts, yoga, stories and meditation, concentrating on the sensory nature of experiences, objects and materials. Twisting, cutting, playing, pasting, moving and focusing, it has been lovely to do something with our hands other than sanitise.
Irish Film Institute
Deadline: 5pm, 12th October
The Irish Film Institute wishes to appoint two Education Officers to contribute to and develop its education programme both onsite and online.
Key Responsibilities for the roles include:
Programme and deliver IFI Education events onsite and online within agreed budgets and in accordance with IFI strategy, curriculum requirements & national arts and education policies
Contribute to the development and delivery of the IFI@Schools platform and promote its take up within schools
Initiate and respond to changes in school learning environments, creating new ways to promote film across curricula
Manage schools physical tours to IFI covering all aspects including administration, costing, operational and safeguarding
Contribute to delivery of IFI Film Clubs project
Contribute to IFI Education digital & online content & IFI Education’s publicity materials for website and social media
Work collaboratively on all education activities as required, with Head of Education
Explore possibilities for out of school engagement with IFI, children and young people
Coordinate TY Work Experience placements and summer volunteering
Provide talks, introductions, supporting materials as required
Contribute to all aspects of IFI Education and wider IFI culture through a growing commitment to film, young people and education
Applicants should forward a cover letter and CV by email to Alicia McGivern, IFI Head of Education, at amcgivern@irishfilm.ie, or by post to Irish Film Institute, 6 Eustace Street, Dublin 2.
Closing date for applications is 17.00 on Monday, October 12th.
The Irish Museums Association (IMA)
Deadline: midnight, 6 October 2020
The Irish Museums Association (IMA) invites teachers to assist them in supporting your work by completing a short survey and enter their raffle to win an Echo Dot (3rd Gen.) smart speaker with Alexa.
As we all adapt to new ways of working, learning and socialising, the museum sector across Ireland is increasing efforts to not only continue to support schools in the delivery of learning but also develop and pilot new resources and services.
Your participation in this survey is extremely important. It will inform and guide the association and its members, allowing them to deliver programmes that complement your work and are both educational and enjoyable.
From your responses, an anonymised report with recommendations will be produced and circulated to museums and stakeholders.
We are delighted to announce the dates of the fifth annual National Arts in Education Portal Day which this year will be moving online with a series of virtual events taking place over two weekends in November – Friday 6th, Saturday 7th, Sunday 8th and Friday 13th, Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th.
The full line-up which will be announced shortly includes a series of keynote sessions from artists, teachers and practitioners from across the sector bringing discussion and critical thinking to a range of topics. The programme will include a series of online processed based creative workshops and a roundtable event.
These events bring together members of the arts in education community from all across Ireland, to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired, and continue interrogating best practice in the field.
Full programme details for the day will be announced shortly. For enquiries please contact events@artsineducation.ie
Draíocht & Fingal Arts Office
Deadline: 5pm, 18th September 2020
Fingal Arts Office, in collaboration with Draíocht, is delighted to announce an Open Call for HOMEGROUND: Art, People, Place, Identity, five new Research and Development (with mentoring) Awards for artists working in socially engaged and collaborative practice and/or artists working with children and young people.
The call is open to artists from all disciplines across the visual and performing arts.
The artists will demonstrably be either:
(a) currently involved in socially engaged, collaborative project or a project with/for children and young people in Dublin 15 or the wider Fingal county
OR
(b) have the idea, the capacity and the existing relationships to initiate a socially engaged, collaborative project or a project with children and young people in Dublin 15 or the wider Fingal county .
The Award will support the research and development of a pertinent project with attendant mentoring support. The Award does not cover the realisation of a project at this point. In undertaking the researching and development of a project at this point, its realisation may however be envisaged for a gallery, theatre or site-specific space in Dublin 15/Fingal. Subject to resources, Fingal Art Office and/or Draíocht may consider future support for the realisation of one or more of the projects developed through a HOMEGROUND Award.
There are five Research and Development Awards (with mentoring). One award of which will be available specifically for an artist from a minority ethnic or migrant background.
The timeframe of the HOMEGROUND Award is November 2020 – April 2021.
“I believe that two lines of poetry can save a life”, Paula Meehan
As a teenager my wonderful English teacher Ms. Meade guided us with heart and skill through the Leaving Certificate poetry curriculum. In subsequent college years, the melancholy, timeless glory of John Keats poems gave solace, comfort, and a lexicon of poetic potential to my growing adult mind and experience. In fact, his anthology became a strange amalgam of thoughts, diary, and scrap book throughout my college years.
Just before Laois went into lockdown, I had the deep, nostalgic pleasure of returning to a house on the coast built by a dear friend’s Grandfather. While standing in his beautifully eclectic functional cobbled kitchen, I listened to a John Bowman interview with John Hume, where he spoke of influential teachers in his young adult life and their impact on the man he became. My friend’s Grandpa passed away in my 3rd year at university. On return home to Stradbally, I found my Keats anthology and there with “On the Sea” was a dedication to Mr. Rafter, a man who shared his home and life perspective with a granddaughter’s friend. It was a powerful blend of comforting memory and poetry. The power and confluence of memory and art.
It packed a punch, because in June I had a miscarriage. Denise Blake, my TAP colleague, and friend introduced me to Paula Meehan’s a most wonderful phrase; “I believe that two lines of poetry can save a life” (www.irelandchairofpoetry.org; www.deniseblake.com). I never really thought poetry was for me, I certainly never expected to write a blog about it, but in June nothing else would fit. It helped. All the learning, loving, yearning, and feeling given by the poetry of others heaved my pain on to the page. John Keats never had a miscarriage, but he knew about loss. The poetry of others gives a window to their soul and a template to the lived human experience that sustains through sharing.
When we, teachers, artists, and humans, give arts-experiences and heartfelt connections, we can never know or ever fully document the possibility and power of that exchange. So, this blog stands in defence of, and to champion the unknowable outcome of arts education to a life being lived.
Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership
Calling young people in Sligo/Leitrim with an interest in LGBTQI+ issues…
Do you want to be part of a new art and writing project that explores gender and sexuality?
Do you want to stimulate dialogue and capture the imagination of your local community through the creation of strong messages and powerful imagery?
Kids’ Own in partnership with SMILY – offers an exciting creative process in summer/autumn 2020 with a writer, artist and graphic designer that will support you to have a voice and influence on the issues that matter to you.
Weekly workshops will take place in Sligo.
This programme is FREE and open to young people aged 13–18.
No previous art or writing experience is necessary.
For further information and to sign up go to www.kidsown.ie.
Youth Theatre Ireland is pleased to announce two grant schemes to offer assistance to Youth Theatres in these challenging times, with the generous support of the Creative Ireland Programme. The first, “Include YT – COVID Relief Inclusion Grant”, is available to affiliated theatres and the second “Join In – Youth Theatre Inclusion Grant” is available to developing Youth Theatres.
The Include YT grant will provide a maximum of €3,000 to help affiliated theatres to increase young people’s access to youth theatre and address exclusion on social or disability grounds. Emerging from Covid-19, youth theatres’ capacity to include new members may be severely challenged as they face additional costs and extended workshop programmes in order to comply with public health measures and social distancing guidelines. This grant is designed to help youth theatres keep social inclusion at the heart of their practice by resourcing approximately 6 youth theatres to engage with young people who have difficulty accessing youth theatre on social or disability grounds.
During these extraordinary times, this once-off grant is designed to support youth theatre inclusion initiatives in the Sept – Dec term 2020 and will assist with many measures including bursaries to cover membership fees for young people whose families are facing challenging circumstances, resources or additional staff to support the participation of members with disabilities or additional needs. The total fund available to youth theatres through this scheme is €18,000.
The “Join In – Youth Theatre Inclusion Grant” will provide a maximum of €3,000 to developing youth theatres operating in areas of social deprivation, to help increase young people’s access to youth theatre. During these extraordinary times, this once-off grant is designed to support the development of new youth theatres that are addressing social exclusion and that aim to affiliate in 2020. The total fund available to youth theatres through this scheme is €15,000.
Rhona Dunnett, Acting Director of Youth Theatre Ireland said, “Youth Theatre Ireland is delighted to be working with the Creative Ireland Programme to offer these once-off grants to youth theatres. Like many sectors, youth theatre is facing difficult financial circumstances in 2020 and these grants will support youth theatres to keep inclusion at the heart of their practice and increase young people’s access to youth theatre in socially disadvantaged areas. In these challenging times, young people need youth theatre more than ever to help them feel connected and give them a safe, creative space to express themselves and their ideas.”.
Deadline for applications is 5pm on Monday, September 14th 2020.
The Ark in collaboration with Dublin Fringe Festival
Dates: 5 – 20 September 2020
Take a rain walk accompanied by the voices of children from across Ireland and the UK in The Ark’s first ever collaboration with Dublin Fringe Festival.
With their guidance, the rainfall will become your own private theatre, a space in which to observe, imagine and play.
Because The Ark’s team are no better at predicting when it might rain than you are, everything you need to experience the show is contained within a little box that will be delivered to you when you purchase a ticket. Keep it safe until the weather turns.
Then, whether in a drizzle or a deluge, alone or with friends or family, the team invite you to step outside, feel the rain on your face, and think about your place in a world that is changing so swiftly around you.
As a leader in child participation practice, The Ark is excited to join forces with artists Andy Field and Beckie Darlington, whose imaginative performance projects are all about enabling children to interact with adults and voice their feelings about the world they live in and how they would like it to change for the better.
Now, with support from The Ark, Norfolk & Norwich Festival and The Place, London, Andy and Beckie will collaborate with children from across Ireland and the UK, setting challenges that involve thinking, imagining, writing and recording their voices. The results will be combined to create an audio track that will guide you on your interactive walk in the rain as part of Dublin Fringe Festival 2020: Pilot Light Edition.
Recommended for families with children aged 6+ and grown-ups of all ages
The organisers of Baboró International Arts Festival for Children are delighted to confirm that the 24th annual festival will take place this October. The festival’s innovative programme for 2020 will bring live performances, creative artistic experiences, visual art installations and interactive digital experiences to theatres, classrooms and homes over an extended period of two weeks, with Bell X1 frontman Paul Noonan’s new family show The Electric Kazoo announced one of the highlight live events. Full programme details will be revealed in early September.
Galway-based Baboró is Ireland’s flagship international arts festival devoted exclusively to young audiences, their families and schools, enabling them to experience the transformative power of the creative arts. The festival will be an opportunity for families to celebrate together, to find creative expression for the upheaval of the past few months and most importantly, to have fun. At its heart will be a recognition of how much has been sacrificed by children and families in recent months and the promotion of kindness to self and to others.
Festival organisers, artists and partner venues have been working together passionately to imagine and co-create innovative ways to deliver meaningful artistic experiences to children and their families.
Aislinn Ó hEocha, the festival’s Executive Artistic Director, says, “So much has been asked of children this year and we want to take a moment to celebrate them through this festival. We have been separated from our friends, teachers, coaches and extended families but yet have found new ways to come together while staying apart. Many of us have found a new appreciation for the people and places close to us and I hope this year’s programme will offer a chance for celebration and expression. The festival will be an opportunity to celebrate the togetherness that has been lost and found in this challenging time. We can’t wait to meet our audiences and share the joy of Baboró once again.”
The festival is delighted to announce that the 2020 programme will include a brand new live music gig for families of all ages, Paul Noonan Presents: The Electric Kazoo, commissioned by the TRACKS Network of Dublin Fringe Festival, Cork Midsummer Festival and Baboró International Arts Festival for Children. Noonan developed online concerts during his own lockdown at home in Dublin, supported by his own children and a legion of big and small fans who tuned in online from all around the world. Tickets for the Electric Kazoo and Baboró’s full programme will be available when the programme is released in early September.
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children will launch its programme in early September, when tickets will go on sale. For the latest programme announcements follow Baboró on social media, subscribe to their newsletter or go to www.baboro.ie.
For Schools: Please sign up to Baboró’s newsletter for updates on school dates here – bit.ly/baboronews.
The Hunt Museum, Limerick Museum and Limerick City Gallery of Art (LCGA)
Deadline: 12 noon, 27 August 2020
The Hunt Museum, Limerick Museum and Limerick City Gallery of Art (LCGA), through its joint arts in education programme, ‘The Three Muses’, wishes to appoint an artist/facilitator with an established track record in the development and delivery of multi-disciplinary and interactive art workshops for primary school children. The artist will design a series of workshops in which participants will engage with and creatively respond to the three permanent collections, using the alphabet as a conceptual frame. Given the uncertainty around schooling arrangements in the months ahead, we encourage candidates to explore alternative online and digital forms of engagement, in the event that physical workshops are not possible.
The Three Muses: Exploring Art and Identity’, is an innovative programme for primary schools, launched in November 2019, which aims to increase access, ownership and enjoyment of the collections of The Hunt Museum, Limerick Museum and LCGA, with a focus on modern and contemporary art. The Three Muses programme is supported by Limerick City and County Council and Friends of the Hunt Museum. ‘ABC of the Three Muses’ is sponsored by Affinity Credit Union.
Mermaid Arts Centre, The Civic & Riverbank Arts Centre
August 2020
Due to tour to hydropools this July and September, this magical watery adventure is now scheduled to tour in August in collaboration with Mermaid Arts Centre, The Civic and Riverbank Arts Centre. Rather than cancel the tour, Anna Newell Theatre Adventures and the partner venues were determined to bring high quality live art experiences to this very particular audience and so the ‘dry land’ ‘at-home’ version was invented. The “at-home” version is specifically for children/young people with PMLD.
Taking the responsiveness of the show to a whole new level, this re-imagined ‘dry land’ version will be performed in the gardens/drives/outside the windows of homes of families of children with complex needs. Still full of ethereal live harmony singing and gorgeous costumes (created by award-winning composer David Goodall and renowned costume designer Susan Scott), reflective silver balls, rainbow fish and water moving through colanders like waterfalls will all happen at an appropriate distance from our audience members, with their accompanying adults mirroring the action to add the up-close sensory element.
A process of a virtual pre-visit will take place to ensure that each different private ‘at-home’ adventure is magical, calm and, of course, safe.
Anna Newell is a Bray-based theatremaker who has been making theatre adventures for many different audiences since 1989. She was the first Irish-based theatremaker to create theatre designed especially for children and young people with PMLD and her work for Early Years audiences has been seen on 6 continents and off-Broadway.
Contact your nearest partner venue for booking details – click on the relevant link below:
SING ME TO THE SEA is co-produced by The Civic, Tallaght and funded by the venues, Wicklow County Council and Sunbeam Trust with additional funding from Arts Council of Ireland
Becoming and Understanding Through Partnership…Teachers, Artists, Children
“Art is a fundamental human enterprise…In making art we make ourselves. In understanding art, we understand ourselves”
(Council of National Cultural Institutions, 2006)
A few years ago, Jane O’Hanlon from Poetry Ireland shared the quote above at a Teacher-Artist Partnership planning meeting. It nestled into my soul and over years bore unexpected fruit in unanticipated times. March 2020 was both unexpected and unanticipated.
As a Primary Teacher in Holy Family Junior School, Portlaoise I had been enjoying the roll-out of our 2nd year with Creative Schools, planning a Teacher-Artist Partnership (TAP) Residency with Senior School and visual artist Caroline Conway and asking the Arts in Education Portal if I might blog the process.
Then…global pandemic.
Teaching and learning shoved online, Dojo launched, and Teams formed. Some school relationships wound tighter while others were jettisoned into the unknown…uncontactable, yet still loved and worried about. In the connected isolation of primary teaching in a pandemic, during the seismic refocusing of the Black Lives Movement, the personal and professional values that are lived through teaching felt more important that ever. In this context our TAP Design Team began to rewrite our summer training programme for delivery online.
TAP Online 2020 was controversial for us to commit to as a concept. We strive for a deeply creative, reflective and connecting style of professional learning that hinges on face-to-face interaction. Where we lost this in-room exchange for artists and teachers, we gained a most incredible, technicolour window into the creativity, emotionality, and deep-commitment of teaching professionals to working in artistic partnership with and for the children they teach. The artist-teacher partnerships of TAP 2020/21 will be led by our community to process pain, heal hearts, and build new identities through creativity, connection and love-in-the-arts for the children of Ireland.
“School should foster an environment that allows children access to explore their identity in the sanctuary of ART – I aim to do this in my classroom.” James O’Donnell TAP Participant 2020
The Creativity and Change programme & CIT Crawford College of Art
Application Deadline: 18 August 2020
The Creativity & Change programme targets change-makers, educators, activists, artists, community workers, adult education tutors, youth workers, volunteers and anyone who is interested how creative engagement can nurture global citizenship and empathic action around local and global justice themes.
Amplifying Voices Scholarships
During the unprecedented time of Covid 19, the Creativity & Change team have had to radically rethink how they engage their learners, as the educational work they do is so embedded in a heart connection with others. They don’t yet know what restrictions and guidelines will be in place for the next academic year, but they know that when it is any way possible for learners to engage safely in shared spaces, that’s where they want to be. The team are excited to share that they have acquired funding to purchase a mobile studio classroom, transported on a cargo e-bike so that they can facilitate learning spaces on the move and outdoors. So, much of next year’s course will be on wheels!
They are also excited to share the news of their new Amplifying Voices scholarships. The core of Creativity & Change’s work is to explore and address global justice and they value the perspectives and experiences of a diverse participant group when doing so. They are consistently seeking to improve the accessibility of the programme and would love to provide opportunities to those who may have previously experienced barriers to accessing post-graduate education, such as those in the Direct Provision system, or Travellers. The Creativity & Change team are now in a position to offer a number of free places on their course to those who may not have otherwise been in a position to apply. Application is via the CIT website, Amplifying Voices should be cited in the title of your application statement.
What is Creativity & Change?
The CIT-accredited award is two 10 credit modules combined within a level 9 Special Purpose Award. It ordinarily takes place one weekend a month from September to May in the new campus of the Crawford College of Art & Design in Cork City Centre, but much of the 2020/2021 will take place outdoors around Cork City centre and suburbs, and online.
The first module is an experiential module where you will engage in a wide range of hand on creative processes including visual arts, creative writing and theatre. You will engage in a wide range of global justice topics and reflect on your own identity as a global citizen and on the process of transformative learning. In the second module, you will put learning into practice in designing learning experiences for a range of contexts.
The course fee is heavily subsidised by Irish Aid. Application deadline is 18th August. Please note that places may be offered on a rolling basis, so early application is still advised.
This summer, enjoy a range of delightful online events and experiences in visual art, drama and dance, inspired by creatures big and small, meek and mighty! Through new online workshops, video tutorials, at-home activities and inspiring experiences, children will be encouraged to look closely, listen, imagine and make!
A selection of events are listed below:
Flap, Glide and Soar like a Bird: Online Visual Art Workshop
Date: 17 July, 11am & 2pm
Ages 5 – 12
Under Water Moves: Online Early Years Dance Workshops
Date: 17 July, 10:15am & 11:45am
Ages 2 – 4
Animal Transformations: Online Visual Art Workshops
Dates: 31 July & 7 August, 11am & 2pm
Ages: 5 – 12
Forest of Fun: Online Early Years Dance Workshops
Date: 7 August, 10:15am & 11:45am
Ages 2 – 4
Beautiful Beasts: Early Years Visual Art Adventures
Date: Running until 12 August 2020
Ages: 2 – 4
The Arts in Group Facilitation Certificate (level 8, 10 credits) focuses on the practical skills of planning and running creative workshops with groups in a range of non-formal contexts. Participants learn these skills through experiential learning processes, taking part in visual arts, drama, dance and music workshops and reflecting on the experience. The focus is on acknowledging the individual within learning, recognizing the importance of play and the need for learning to be engaging. There is a strong emphasis on engaging with diversity and learning to adapt a range of arts approaches to meet the varying needs within a group. The course will provide skills face to face in working in physical workshops, classes, centres as well as facilitation creative engagement online.
What will you be doing?
Exploring ways of working with the Arts through experiential workshops where you will experience firsthand approaches and techniques. Peer working will enhance your learning – exploring planning, design and evaluating working with groups. We are adapting to Covid-19 restriction and see the potential of learning in outdoor environments for participants in the programme and for those participants may work with in the future.
We are inviting participants to join us with a bicycle to access outdoor learning environments. The course will provide skills face to face in working in physical workshops, classes, centres as well as facilitation creative engagement online. The programme will be delivered through blended learning, involving face to face experiential learning and online learning. The face to face learning is being designed to maximise the potential of creative learning in outdoor environments.
Why do this course?
Learn approaches to group work that take the emphasis off words and place it on finding your own unique voice within the group through a range of possible arts-based media
Develop your creative skills to work with groups
Develop and promote confidence and sense of belonging in a group
Learn fresh ways to inspire learners in formal and informal learning
Develop practical resources and training to work with a wide variety of groups in community, in more specialised settings and in online spaces
Who is it for?
Of particular interest to those interested in;
Art Facilitator
Arts in Community Practice
Arts in Social Care
Arts in Education
Arts in Health
Applications are recorded on a rolling basis and will close once the course is full so early applications are advised. The course will start in early October 2020.
Over three days as part of the the first virtual Portal Regional Series last month teachers, artists and sector professionals joined visual artist Maree Hensey in an invitation to explore, question, feel and enquire using a variety of materials during a ‘collective making’ creative process entitled I AM IN THIS.
We share some of the responses from participants:
An emotional release…..Very moving….
It was so nourishing,
a very beautiful intimate, very considered, session… so very exciting and freeing.
I felt like a child playing with new things! It all began with the arrival of a tempting package which came with strict instructions – must not be opened until we are all ‘together’. We Zoomed for an hour. Opening the package revealed a small selection of simple materials – some bright white tissue paper and straws, paper clips and an envelope of white feathers.
We explored the idea ‘I AM IN THIS’. Minimal instruction : tear the paper; carry the feathers outside, let them off on the breeze; except one; create a cocoon for it and a place to secure it. Bring it outside.
Soon I got caught up in the making, aware that there were others there but not concerned about them, a quietness set in as I got on with my own ideas and imagination taking me off! Reflecting on the sense that although we are all in this together each of us is responding in our own personal way.
This year the Arts in Education Portal celebrates its five year anniversary, as part of these celebrations the Portal Team have been undertaking an exercise to assess how well the Arts in Education Portal is working. Strategic Development Resources (SDR), an independent market research consultancy, has been commissioned to assist us with this work.
We would like to thank everyone who assisted us in the first step of this research by completing our audience survey and sharing your views on the Portal’s content and how it might be improved. View the summary report from this survey here – Arts in Education Survey Summary Report 2020
Following on from that survey, the Portal team is now seeking a small number of participants for additional qualitative work through the Portal Audience Forum. This work will comprise a questionnaire which will take 30-45 minutes of your time to complete (with written answers rather than multiple choice), followed by your attendance at a Zoom focus group which will last approximately 90 minutes.
As a token of our thanks for your help with this research, we are offering participants a fee of up to €100. If you’d like to be considered for this research, please click here and complete the registration questions.
A new multi-platform project presented by branar for children of all ages up to 6 years
Tales of teddies, moments of magic, comforting cuddles and worlds of wonder are celebrated in an exciting new collection of poems and nursery rhymes for young children.
Pop Up Poetry for Lil’ Peeps is a new multi-platform project presented by Branar for children of all ages up to 6 years. Irish writers and artists Inni-k, Mary Murphy, Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin and Liz Weir have created new poems and nursery rhymes in Irish and English for this unique project. Audiences can enjoy this work online through vivid audio recordings and new animations by artist Maeve Clancy.
Originally commissioned by the Galway County Council, Creative Ireland Programme led by the Arts Office in partnership with Galway City Council and Roscommon County Council’s Creative Ireland programmes, in association with Children’s Books Ireland and Poetry Ireland.
Originally presented as part of the Criunniú na nÓg 2020 programme.
The Creative Schools team has developed an online support for learners and their families during school closures – Creative Schools TV.
CSTV will bring the work of the Creative Associates right into homes while attendance at our schools is limited by the ongoing COVID-19 situation.
Creative Associates are artists, creative practitioners and educators with an understanding of the arts and creativity and its potential to transform the lives of children and young people.
Each week a different Creative Associate will introduce a new lesson on YouTube. Lessons will explore an area of creativity, from photography, to dance, to drama, to music – depending on the speciality of the Creative Associate.
And Creative Schools want children and young people to share their creativity with them and show them what they’ve learned from each lesson. They can share their creative work to the Creative Schools team using a CSTV Submission Form available at www.artscouncil.ie/CSTV/.
Each week show off all the creativity inspired by last week’s lesson! You can view all the episodes of CSTV on the Arts Council’s YouTube channel. Further supports will be developed in the coming weeks and shared on CSTV.
Teacher Artist Partnership (TAP) Online CPD Summer Course is an arts-in-education initiative where Artists and Teachers train to work in partnership. This programme can lead to opportunities for a TAP trained teacher to host a fully funded TAP artist residency in his or her school in coming academic year.
This Creative Youth, Department of Education and Skills led Primary initiative is a highly innovative, creative and participant-responsive programme that promotes professional learning towards partnership.
TAP Online maximises engagement through a broad range of on and offline activities. Learning activities include practical, multidisciplinary arts experiences through multimedia interactives, video instruction, collaborative posting boards and discussion forums and reflective practices. Tutors, teachers and artists provide responsive feedback and encourage collaborators to reflect on personal and professional development through the co-creation of learning. TAP’s core focus is the development of creative partnership between teachers and artists. Join us in learning together.
Course Dates:
6 -10 July 2020
Register to take part by 3pm, 3 July 2020
Please use the following links to access the TAP Online Summer Course:
Follow the Teacher Artist Partnership initiative on Twitter @TeacherArtistP1pm
Online collaborations, TAP’s new online course and ‘busting the myth of the solo artist’
I have been very lucky over the past weeks to have the company of two exceptional dancers, joining me virtually as part of my ongoing research, looping embodied movement and drawing practices. I have been surprised at the level of connection that is felt in these sessions despite the lack of real physical presence and the dodgy internet connections!
Taking time with discussions and reflections along with the moving, writing and drawing are essential parts of the research and perhaps it is this multiplicity of audio and visual modes that has helped to bridge the virtual gap.
Having this research alongside the Magnetise Project, ‘A call for Home’ has been mutually beneficial, with many cross overs emerging. The shift in dynamic from group to one to one has also brought important insights for my virtual platform collaborative practice.
Now that the last of the 360 cameral equipment for the project has finally arrived it is great to be at the stage of exploring this new potential for our collected video works and live interactions.
The last couple of weeks have also been busy ones for the TAP (Teacher Artist Partnership) design team. In particular, for the two members who took the helm and within a very short timeframe have created a fantastic online version of the TAP CPD summer course. Next week we will run the course in its online format for the first time. We are looking forward to the live aspects and forums, and to interacting and assisting participants on their journey through the modules. As part of the course I will host a live dance session mid week and was delighted have the opportunity recently to create a short video with one of my long term collaborators, artist Isolde Carmody. The video is a reflection on arts and diversity and will be featured in the course. Embracing diversity in arts and education, understanding the inherent collaborative nature of practice, and in Isolde’s words ‘busting the myth of the solo artist’, all feel as vital as ever to keep to the fore, in todays wider sociopolitical context.
Art is Life by Kate Wilson and Isolde Carmody
“Curious Minds” is a series of booklets with lessons for primary school teachers created by professional Visual Artists.
This free digital resource offers more than 16 projects, with 43 lessons in total, divided into five books: one with the foundation; and four with projects for every season (most projects or lessons can be used any time of the year). It also includes various “warm-up” and awareness exercises (including “gymnastics for the brain”).
The content focuses on four main themes: belonging, identity, consumerism, and the environment. It is organised in such a way that allows for flexibility. Most lessons are suitable for a diverse range of ages, from 1st to 6th classes. There are projects of short, medium and long duration (from 1 to 8 lessons). The design of the books will allow anyone to print each project by lesson or in its entirety.
Karla and Els share an interest in multi-disciplinary and holistic education, and invited a group of creatives to collaborate in this endeavor: Clare Breen (who also did the illustrations), Laura Ní Fhlaibhín, Orla Bates, David Begley and Colm O’Neill (graphic designer).
Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board (KWETB) are delighted to invite applications from suitably qualified persons for the following:
Musician Educators
Suitably qualified persons to be placed on a panel for part-time Musician Educators for the following Music Generation Kildare Programmes:
Instrumental Music Programme – including, but not only, traditional Irish instruments, strings, brass, woodwind, guitar, percussion, songwriting, composition, band facilitation, conducting and music technology.
Singing Programme – vocal/choral and/or instrumental musicians with experience relevant to vocal music-making in group contexts.
Early Years Programme – vocal/choral and/or instrumental musicians with experience relevant to working with the under-7s.
Closing date for receipt of completed application forms for both positions is: 12.00 noon, Friday 19th June 2020
Kildare has been selected for participation in Music Generation – Ireland’s National Music Education Programme- that transforms the lives of children and young people through access to high quality performance music education in their locality. Initiated by Music Network, Music Generation is co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education and Skills and Local Music Education Partnerships.
The INSPA team would like to congratulate every school who participated in the 2019/20 National School Photography Awards. The national winner is Dominika Ilecko from Stepaside ETNS who submitted the photo entitled Two Chairs into the Senior Category of the awards. The winner of the Junior Category is Jack Kelly Sharkey from Courtnacuddy NS with his entry Old Phone Box Library.
Dominika Ilecko, Two Chairs, Stepaside ETNS, Senior Category
INSPA is the national children’s photography competition and online academy which is open to all primary schools in the Republic of Ireland. This year, young creatives from around the country were encouraged to engage with digital technologies and the creative process to explore the theme; Second Life.
The awards are having a massive impact in classrooms and homes across Ireland as they provide an inclusive model for children of all backgrounds and abilities to get involved. Through photography, INSPA introduces creative well-being into the lives of primary school students while building a future generation of people who are confident, resilient, connected, kind and ready.
The awards are free and offer a range of fantastic prizes including trips and stays at the Amber Springs Resort for principals, teachers, pupils and families, cameras for winners and schools, framed photographs, certificates and national recognition as a Positive Primary School. All entries are judged by a national panel of experts and over 300 primary schools have already registered their accounts.
We would like to take this opportunity, once again, to congratulate Dominika from Stepaside ETNS and Jack from Courtnacuddy NS on their recent successes and we look forward to working with all finalist schools when they re-open in September.
If your school would like to begin its Positive Primary Journey and participate in the 2020/21 awards, you can register your school at the INSPA website – www.inspa.ie
Arts in Education Portal
Over 130 artists, teachers and arts in education professionals joined us live across the week for the first virtual Portal Regional Series which showcased arts in education and creative practise in the South East.
Key themes that arose from the discussion were the importance of partnerships, relationships and adaptability; how these values have allowed the project to organically develop and strengthen over its thirteen years.
We were delighted to be joined in the discussion by Wexford Arts Office Liz Burns, Elizabeth Whyte Executive Director/CEO of Wexford Arts Centre and Visual Art Curator Catherine Bowe who spoke about the value of evaluation. How listening and building on the feedback from the children, artists and teachers involved has allowed the project to organically grow and adapt year on year.
Karla also introduced us to ‘Curious Minds’ a resource pack for teachers which was developed this year by Karla and artist Els Dietvorst with the aim of disseminating the learning from the project. Curious Minds will be launched as part of Cruinniú na nÓg in June with a local launch in September.
In Tuesdays session artist, educator and researcher Tunde Toth led us in a presentation exploring co-ownership and participation within a classroom setting, where we truly value children’s questions, responses and doubts.
Tunde introduced us to the idea of taking creative risks and the importance of creating a space where children can make decisions and voice their opinions.
IMMA invites children, young people and their families to join them every week on their social channels for #ExploreratHome.
While IMMA is closed the Explorer at Home art activities are available for children and adults to do and make at home. IMMA’s team share a new art activity every Wednesday afternoon on their social channels. You will find specially selected artworks, inspired by the IMMA Collection Online and IMMA’s temporary Exhibition Programme, as starting points for creative activities.
IMMA invites you to share your creations with them online by tagging IMMA and using the hashtag #ExploreratHome so you can see your work on IMMA’s website.
Recognising the struggle so many parents are currently facing as they broach the mountainous task of home schooling their children during the Coronavirus restrictions, the Gaiety School of Acting has released a series of comprehensive and fun lesson plans to inject a little creativity and some POSITIVE drama to your household.
With 34 years experience in drama training, the Gaiety School of Acting teaches over 2000 children across their Young Gaiety schools in Bray, Malahide and Temple Bar annually, in a range of classes from Parent and Toddler Drama to Musical Theatre Company, Acting for Camera to an eclectic offering of seasonal camps.
Our Home Drama Resources have been developed by the GSA’s education team, and in addition to creative drama, provide a selection of science, craft and film-making activities for you and your children to explore a variety of themes, have fun, and escape from reality!
Every Thursday a new resource is released with the following themes already available on the website: The Lion King, Harry Potter, Roald Dahl, Monsters from the Movies, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.
Theatre Lovett are delighted to announce Teddy Talks; a series of clinics for theatre practitioners with a focus on Theatre for Young Audiences.
Led by Muireann Ahern, Joint Artistic Director of Theatre Lovett, along with invited guests, these sessions will cover:
Pitfalls and pratfalls: Lessons learned.
Who’s who? Cast, creatives and crew – now what to do!
Developing relationships with venues, festivals and programmers.
Touring and budgeting.
Children as performers.
Age pitch.
Taking responsibility for your team and your young audiences.
Child Protection Policy.
Theatre in the time of COVID – discussion
Discussion and feedback.
Any questions left unanswered – ask now!
To Apply: Please send your C.V. or biog with a note outlining why you are interested in registering for Teddy Talks to muireann@theatrelovett.com.
Next Course Dates:
Late June/July 2020 (exact dates and times TBC depending on slots available due to demand). These clinics will be conducted online due to COVID-19.
Cruinniú na nÓg 2020 is Ireland’s national day of free creative activities for children and young people under the age of 18. Over the past 2 years Cruinniú na nÓg has become a key point in the calendar for children and young people to try something creative, develop an appetite for discovery and acquire new skill, 2020 will be no different.
In light of ongoing public health restrictions the Creative Ireland Programme are inviting young people to celebrate our culture and creativity and to take part in a virtual Cruinniú on Saturday 13th June.
There is an amazing array of 300 + events that will be happening in the run up to and on the day itself, all of which can be accessed on cruinniu.creativeireland.gov.ie.
There are a number of creative “calls to action” which young people – indeed entire families – can create in their own homes and gardens.
Céilí in the Kitchen – A collective call to action for young people and their families to create a Céilí in their kitchen for Cruinniú, with Áirc Damhsa, who will guide us through the Irish tradition of these communal social events that take place in houses.
On the 13th of June you won’t have to leave the house to join a Céilí, you can have one right there in your own home. All you have to do is push back the kitchen table, put the chairs against the wall and you’re good to go. Creative Ireland with the help of choreographer Edwina Guckian, singer Cathy Jordan, musician Thomas Johnston and storyteller Mikel Murfi are putting together weekly video workshops from May 18th that will make sure you have all you need for a great night of traditional music, song, dance and storytelling.
Let’s Go Fly a Kite – A collective call to action for children, young people and their families to make and fly a kite for Cruinniú.
The Design and Crafts Council Ireland have joined forces with Creative Ireland to design a kite that anyone can make at home. All you need is some sticks, some newspaper, some string and a whole lot of imagination. Why not decorate in your county colours, or decorate it with pictures of your favourite pop star? From the 15th May, a series of webinars and videos will guide you and your family through fun ways to make a kite.
Create a Video Game App – If you could click your fingers and create a video game app, what would it be? A racing game or a coin collector? A target game or a platform? The choice is endless and it’s time for you to decide.
In addition, local authorities will also be hosting a range of cultural and creative activities and online events for Cruinniú na nÓg – full details of the 300+ events available on the special Cruinniú website cruinniu. creativeireland.gov.ie/events/
Irish Architecture Foundation
Deadline: Friday 19 June 2020
The Irish Architecture Foundation are delighted to announce that applications are open for the 2020/21 Architects in Schools programme.
The Architects in Schools initiative for Transition Year students places architects and architectural graduates in schools across Ireland. Students learn how to research, design and communicate architectural ideas, always reimagining the spaces around them and sometimes even affecting change in their local built environment.
Check out Architect Frank Monahan’s guest blog series here on the Portal about his experience on the initiative.
The Creative School Team is delighted to announce an opportunity for schools and Youthreach centres to be part of the next phase of Scoileanna Ildánacha / Creative Schools.
Creative Schools aims to put the arts and creativity at the heart of children’s and young people’s lives and this year 150 new schools/centres will join the programme. Participating schools will work alongside a Creative Associate who will help them to develop their own Creative Schools plan to understand, develop and celebrate the arts and creativity in their school. Schools will be awarded a once-off grant of €4,000 (in total) to implement their plans over the two school years 2020–21 and 2021–22.
The deadline for submitting applications is 25 June 2020. The window for submitting applications opens on 18 February.
Have Your Say! A Survey on Music Education Opportunities for Children and Young People in Fingal.
Fingal County Council, in partnership with the Dublin and Dún Laoghaire Education and Training Board, invite you to complete a survey that will help us understand your views regarding access to performance music education for children and young people in the county.
This research will support a submission to Music Generation, the national performance music education programme, to extend and enrich the partners’ commitment to children & young people in Fingal.
This step taken by the partners emphasises the importance of retaining support for arts and education initiatives now and in the times ahead as we build connections with one another and ignite hope and inspiration.
Your views are important to this process and will enable the partners to develop and deliver music education programmes that suit the needs of those aged 0 – 18 years, now and into the future.
Should you require assistance or alternative mechanisms to complete a survey please email Fingal County Council’s Youth & Education Officer julie.clarke@fingal.ie
Be in with a chance to win!
Children and Young People are invited to enter a draw to win a gift voucher for one of Fingal’s Arts Centres – Draíocht and the Séamus Ennis Arts Centre, upon survey completion. See information within Children &Young People survey link.
Deadline for survey submission: Thursday 30th of April 2020.
FÍS Film Project
Home Movies Anyone? Let’s Have Some Fun While Learning At Home!
FÍS Film Project would like learners to use the current COVID-19 social distancing policy as an opportunity to learn film-making skills for making really cool home movies!
Their new blog series #MakeFilmsAtHome is aimed at children and their families who might like to try their hand at making a stop motion animation or short live action film during the stay home phase and beyond.
With two separate blog postings per day. 1 for animation and 1 for live-action film-making. Presented in a simple easy to use format, with sample films made by Irish primary school children for the FÍS (film in schools) project and are accompanied by short video tutorials made by undergrad students at the National Film School in IADT.
Film-making is a fun, creative, imaginative and educational process and FÍS hope that families will find the tips and tools provided useful. They are encouraging parents / guardians a child or children who make a film to upload to you tube, vimeo, instagram or similar platform to share.
All you need is a mobile phone or tablet device and lots of imagination!
The Ark are delighted to announce details of The Ark @ Home, a selection of at-home activities and experiences that provide opportunities for children aged 2-12 to discover and love the arts in their own homes.
Sadly, like so many other arts organisations, The Ark has been forced to close our doors and cancel a number of programmes due to take place over the coming month due to the current COVID-19 crisis. But while our building may remain shut for the time being, The Ark @ Home will offer children daily opportunities to explore and discover the arts in their own homes over the next few weeks.
Speaking about The Ark @ Home, The Ark’s Director Aideen Howard said, “At The Ark, we believe in every child’s right to art and culture. Generally, this means visits to our beautiful building in Temple Bar to see shows, exhibitions and concerts, or to take part in our hands-on workshops. Now though, while our audience of children, parents and teachers are all at home, we want to share the work of some of our brilliant Ark artists online. The Ark @ Home is a way for children who are home from school to connect with some of those performances and workshops. Check out ark.ie and The Ark Twitter, Facebook and Instagram pages for more information.”
Each day, different creative content and resources will be made available on ark.ie. Enjoy a taste of some of the programmes which have been cancelled including Fly Me To The Moon, BIG BANG Dublin! and more. You might like to kick back and watch a filmed performance of theatre for children, or get up and make some moves to an archived music performance. You might get creative with a hands-on worksheet or let your imagination soar as you dream up worlds far away. From activity sheets to streams of live performances, The Ark invites children right across the country to take part.
Each Thursday, a different videoed performance of a show commissioned and presented by The Ark will be available to stream online, including acclaimed theatre productions such as The Haircut! by Wayne Jordan & Tom Lane and Peat by Kate Heffernan, as well as wonderful musical experiences such as the magical Tracks in the Snow featuring The Henry Girls.
The Ark is delighted, in this way, to continue offering children exciting creative opportunities across the arts, and to celebrate the work of some of the amazing artists that we have worked with, commissioned and continue to support through these very challenging times.
Uillinn Connect – A new programme from Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre responding to the current global situation. The programme seeks to find new ways to connect artworks, artists and the public. Focusing on the Uillinn’s regular programme and also creating new ones that reach out to everyone keeping safe at home.
A selection of activities for children and young people below:
Uillinn Connect – Daily Art Activity
Posted daily on Uillinn’s Facebook event, follow this link
An online connecting activity for primary school-age children and their parents, every morning at 11am from Monday to Friday with Public Engagement Assistant Kate McElroy and intern Stella Gilfert (now interning remotely from Germany).
Taking inspiration from Uillinn’s primary schools exhibition Connecting, Gabhann Dunne’s exhibition Committed to Falling and William Bock’s exhibition Land Walks Land Talks Land Marks, we are sharing a daily art activity for families to create at home.
‘We don’t stop playing because we grow old, We grow old because we stop playing’
George Bernard Shaw
Use the hastag: #UillinnConnect on social media or email photographs of your work to info@westcorkartscentre.com so we can connect the work together! The team will compile all the images at the end for an online exhibition of the work! Shared on social media and archived on the web here.
Uillinn Connect: Play on words, Play onwards
Wednesday Art Club artists have devised a wonderful way to keep the programme running with a postal project designed with each child in mind. Artists Pól Ó Colmáin and Marie Cullen have prepared a special envelope for each child containing a unique poem written for the child by the artists; a selection of art materials; and a letter from Pól and Marie inviting the children to make a visual response to the poem.
The children are asked to return their artwork in the stamped, addressed envelope provided to Pól and Maire, who will then compile a limited edition book with a copy for each child.
Here’s the first verse of one of the poems to give you an flavour:
The Little Earwig
There was a little earwig, I think his name was Liam,
but it didn’t really matter, ‘cos he’d answer just the same.
He lived in the back garden shed in a cosy little house,
a ball of leaves and twigs that he shared with a wood louse.
He loved to go spelunking in each tunnel, cave and hole,
exploring every hollow stem when he was on patrol.
And then, he’d head back homewards and, as cosy as you please,
he’d tell of his adventures and his discoveries.
Uillinn Connect: And We’ll All Fly Together
Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre’s Curiosity project connecting pre-school children with the residents and staff of West Cork Community Hospitals during COVID-19. Sarah Ruttle along with Uillinn’s Programme Manager: Education and Community and Arts for Heath Coordinator Justine Foster, devised a project to connect children with the community hospitals. See here for more information on this project.
The Hunt Museum are delighted to bring you The Three Muses Activity Pack, a learning resource inspired by the collections of The Hunt Museum, Limerick Museum and Limerick City Gallery of Art.
It is bursting with open-ended, creative activities which support Visual Art, History and English curricula, and comes in a full colour version for screens and a reduced colour version for printing at home. Explore and learn from Limerick’s museums without leaving your house – all you need is a pencil, paper and your brilliant imagination!
The Three Muses is a learning programme designed to increase access, ownership and enjoyment of three Limerick museums, with a focus on modern and contemporary visual art. The programme includes workshops and learning resources like this. Watch a short video on the programme here.
The Three Muses programme is supported by Limerick City and County Council and Friends of the Hunt Museum. This Activity Pack is sponsored by Unity Credit Union.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Frank is an Irish designer /cultural producer with an interest in film, the arts & architecture. His professional practice includes the design of buildings, & set design for film/television production. He holds a BA in Architecture, 2008 and a Professional Diploma in Architecture, 2012 both from London Metropolitan University. Prior to this he recieved a B.Des. in Production Design for Film/Television, from IADT. This background has informed his approach to practice, which is collaborative, interdisciplinary and site specific.Interested in the critical potential of design he established Architecture at the Edge in 2017, for which he devised and curated the events programme. He produced an outdoor installation, ‘Ghost Chapel’ for Galway International Arts Festival 2018 in collaboration with the Bartlett School of Architecture.
Growing our Connections – Blog 4
Having taught the National Architects in Schools Initiative for the past three years I find it can still be quite a daunting task when faced with a new group of students.
Many of the students don’t understand the value of their built environment because they have never seen the benefits it can offer them.
It’s difficult for students to learn without experiencing connections as to the concepts we teach them. This can be achieved through providing both context and relevance. Without that connection there is no interest, and interest always precedes meaningful and authentic learning. So it’s essential that we are making strong learning connections to help them develop the thinking habits they need to succeed.
Schools are comprised of the people in the community. Coming from outside it’s important to understand the community your students are a part of. Mountbellew is a quiet rural market town 45km from Galway on the N63 to Roscommon. Once the home of the Grattan-Bellew family, famous Galway parliamentarians during the 18th and 19th centuries. The former demesne is now a delightful wooded area of forest walks and picnic areas, filled with interesting historical items.
Upon my first visit to Mountbellew, whilst seeking out a connection to the place, I was drawn down an inviting avenue of beech trees where I was immediately taken by the sight of a 7m high wall, the enclosure to an extensive eighteenth century Walled Garden which was once part of the large Bellew estate. For a century and a half this walled garden was used in the manner of all such Victorian/Edwardian gardens, although simply because of its size, more than household fruit and vegetables were probably grown.
I learned that the long term aim of the local heritage group here is to rejuvenate, conserve and develop the 18th century walled garden. Developing this existing heritage resource will provide a new amenity for the area. It will also complement other local heritage and recreation assets helping attract visitors to the area stimulating rural tourism.
From the outset I knew it was important to set a clear and engaging agenda with the students and so by way of introduction find something in their common experiences to which the lesson can be attached. Here in the walled garden is a space to explore, walk, discover and feel inspired by all it has to offer; a reminder that as times change natures story goes on. To function as a place to grow food, for pleasure and wellbeing.
Before we launched into making any propositions it was important to give time to the students and allow them articulate their ideas. Topics were selected for the students to share in groups. Investigation into the history and functions of various types of garden generated one starting point for beginning transformational change such as should its use be as a kitchen garden distinct from a decorative one. The many ways we experience gardens were discussed. The pleasure garden, the kitchen garden, the memorial garden and/or as a place to re-connect with nature. A presentation by the local heritage group committee members was followed the following week with a guided site visit.
In speculating on its potential one of the students reminded us that the parents of Anna Kriegel had planted a white cherry blossom at her favorite spot and unveiled a bench which bears an inscription with her name. Another then talked of the seat under a tree at the Mountbellew walled garden which ladies once sat how they might propose to do the same. The sense of a connection to place and how that can relate to our own experience of the world underpinned the project. This is about learning how everything is interconnected and interdependent. Understanding the relationship between things can help people see and understand their community in different ways. That association with people and place is fundamental.
Students learn by exposure to real life examples and their experiences and observations of these examples greatly accelerates their learning. Part of this task required the students to ‘Look Locally’ i.e. Find clear links between the lessons and the things that are transpiring in the local community, and even get them actively involved with community individuals. It’s about teaching and learning that is focused on student centered inquiry.
A second field trip was organized, with a group assigned to conduct an on-site survey which would inform the task of making of a 1:100 site model.
Making the model allowed the re-imaging of the walled garden to take shape. The resulting design links a series of new public spaces/ rooms and reuses an existing building as a community hub / cafe to give purpose and a variety of gathering places to the center of garden.
The aim here was to create space for every young person to be at the center of co-designing their own future, community spaces, projects and campaigns. To give voice of the student and allow them give that voice back to their community.
In working with the students like this I hope that it will stimulate them to become actively involved and engaged in shaping their local built environments and landscapes. Place-based education promotes learning that is rooted in what is local—the unique history, environment, culture, economy, literature, and art of a particular place—and it promotes a place-specific, sustainable approach to living, working and playing in our 21st century rural communities. The main objective is to attract interest and support from the community at large and to help re-educate ourselves about the importance of sustainable and healthy living.
Young people need a space where they can be unafraid to explore. As a result, the sense of place created by a village’s cultural heritage links directly to a community’s sense of identity, which can ultimately enhance people’s overall sense of being and belonging and quality of life. The walled garden at Mountbellew offers this. They need to live it, grow with it, tend to it. For them, it can be a space of hope and promise: if we put in the right effort and intention just about growing our connection to nature, it is essentially growing our connection to each other.
Due to the current COVID situation this call has been places on hold. We will be announcing further details in the coming weeks.
Artists, teachers, academics and arts education professionals… Do you want to be part of the fifth annual National Arts in Education Portal Day?
The fifth National Arts in Education Portal Day will take place in Limerick this Autumn. The event aims to bring together members of the arts in education and creative practise community from all across Ireland, to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired and continue interrogating best practice in the field.
The Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee invites proposals from organisations or individuals who want to give dynamic and inspiring presentations or workshops that can offer sharing of skills, practical approaches, new insights and critical thinking across the field, from a range of perspectives.
This year, the Portal Day will have a special focus on ‘access and inclusion in arts in education and creative practise’. The Committee therefore will particularly welcome applications which respond to this theme.
Do you have a workshop or presentation that you would like to be included in the programme for this day? If so, please send us your proposal.
The deadline for submission of proposals has been extended to 5pm Friday 22nd May 2020.
CoisCéim is heading inside for the coming months and they’ve got some lively new moves to share with you. From performance and participation projects to curated online classes let’s dance to keep our spirits up, stay in shape and reflect on the positive change our strange new world may bring.
Highlights for children and young people include:
Sofa Cinema Series:
Kicking off next week (2 April) and featuring exclusive online private screenings from the CoisCéim archives starting with…
The Wolf and Peter | Live at the Sydney Opera House 2 April | 10am & 4pm
David Bolger’s award-winning work for children and their families was filmed in Sydney and streamed live to 21 schools in New South Wales in July 2017.
BROADREACH | CREATIVE STEPS 28 April – 02 May 4pm & 9pm
A selection of short films from the BROADREACH archive of Creative Steps Youth Dance Theatre and a preview of LANDSCAPE, the latest Creative Steps Project led by Laura Macken.
Online Workshops for Children aged 6 – 10:
CoisCéim are developing a short online series of interactive dance workshops for children aged 6-10 based on DANCE YOUR OWN DANCE that runs in parallel with David Bolger’s Francis Footwork – for more information please contact philippa@coisceim.com.
For further information and to view the full schedule of digital activities go to coisceim.com/digitaldances/
The Portal Team are delighted to announce the second recipient of the 2020 Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award. We are very excited to be working with each recipient in the coming months to document their projects. These projects will be showcased on the portal as the documentation progresses.
About the recipients….
Project title: Crossing the Line
‘Crossing The Line’ is a year long collaboration between 9 early years children, artist Helen Barry, Lead Educator Audrey Fagan and the multi-practice team made up of special needs assistants, therapists and medical staff who support the children attending Pre-School One in the Central Remedial Clinic School. Their collaboration began in October 2019 and together they have been exploring, playing, experimenting, learning and creating through an experiential and multi-sensory programme of creative engagements that responds to the individual and group cognitive, emotional, developmental and medical needs of the children. They are creating enabling opportunities to build the children’s imagination, language and ability to think creatively. The programme’s enquiry will explore the perpetual visual and aural palette of sensations and frequencies through which we interpret the world around us. Helen’s position as artist-in-residence in the CRCS is being supported through her YPCE Bursary, awarded by The Arts Council in 2019 and is also supported by the National Concert Hall.
The ‘line’ we refer to in our title ‘Crossing the line’, is the physical mid-line of the body that needs to be crossed, e.g. the right arm crossing over in the left area of the body and vice versa, this is essential for the development of using both sides of the body together. We are there to grow and support each child to reach their full potential. We are there to give freedom to their investigation. As much as the artist brings the creative know how to this collaboration she too is learning a deeper understanding of the physical and cognitive developmental aims whilst observing the pedagogical practice that enable how these goals can be supported and achieved.
A few words from the artist Helen Barry
Creativity may require the dexterity of the fingertips but it is with every pore of their body that the early years child absorbs, explores and responds to the world around them. Through play they learn and if learning is work, work is play! Why then do some of us continue to learn this way and others take a different direction. My methodology and approach to working with early years children is governed by my preferred learning style; I am a kinaesthetic learner and the early years child is my idea co-creator. We don’t just need to touch it, we need to be in it, outside of it, hear it, wear it and be it to truly understand what it is we are doing or even just thinking about doing. Nothing is impossible there is little separation between the physical and the imaginary.
My belief that children bring with them their own narrative underpins the approach to my collaborative practice. The work evolves through a process of exploring shredding, questioning and observing the children at work. First I observe, I play and I listen to both the children and the adults in this environment. My methodology relies on the knowledge and observations of early years educators, specialists and parents with whom I engage. It is only then that I offer a multi-sensory and multi-disciplinary palette of interactive engagements, tools, sounds and textures that supports the exploration and development of their narrative. It is the children’s responses to the aesthetic and aural palette that I bring that drives the direction of the collaboration and shapes my response back in the studio.
‘I may not be able to hear you, but I can still be listening’.
Hearing impeared Visual/sound artist Alison O’Daniel USA.
My current artist-in-residence with the CRCS is supported through a YPCE Bursary awarded by the Arts Council in 2019. Alison’s words are a driving force to what my ambition is for this YPCE Bursary*. Her work challenges us to look at the worlds of others not from a ‘loss’ or ‘lack’ of sound, sight or motor or cognitive skills considered ‘important’ or ‘normal’ but from the position that everything exists on the horizon; a perpetual visual and aural palette of sensations and frequencies through which we interpret the world around us. This exploration began in early October 2019 and as we play together and create together we shall discover, learn, reflect and be open to where the journey takes us. To date I am having a wonderful time engaging, playing and observing the responses of the children and their relationships with each other. I am astounded by how young the children are yet so acutely aware of their empathy and the care they give to each other. Sometimes it seems that what is emanating from their emotional bond has an actual physical presence that should I reach out I may be able to touch it.
*My ambition is to design and create works that stem from the textured language informed through researching and expanding my understanding of what exists on these horizons through two new residencies, one with the Central Remedial Clinic School (CRCS) primary school facility and the second with the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Unit of Stepaside Educate Together Primary School. ‘Crossing the Line’ involves the CRCS and will focus on the collaborative process in the school and hopefully share elements of what happens during the response time in the studio.
I am a visual artist and a trained dancer. My collaborative work with early years children is intrinsic to my practice. I have over 35 years experience through creativity and play with small babies to older people in residential homes. My work draws from the nuances and disciplines of various art forms through collaborations and interactions with other arts practitioners, e.g. Jessica Kennedy of Junk Ensemble, Alex Petcu of Crash Ensemble. My work stems from the audience it is aimed at yet my ambition is to ensure that this work remains sustainable within the same critical and aesthetic platforms of professional arts spheres.
Children have a natural disposition to wonder, to be curious, to pose questions, to experiment, to suggest, to invent and to explain. The child with additional needs is no different. I trained as a National School teacher and began working in the area of special needs in 1996. I taught all the age groups and it wasn’t until I began teaching the early years students of my school that I really found my purpose. I have immersed myself into their world of learning, exploring and discovery. I have read books to inform my methodologies and children’s learning styles. I have googled the internet for inspiration and like-minded individuals in the fields of education and the Arts. To play and work with children with complex needs, fundamentally, beginning and sustaining positive relationships is the basis for all their learning. Relationships between them and you, between each other and between their parents and you! Building relationships involves creating “an environment in which children feel secure and confident enough to take risks, to explore, to take part in challenging experiences, and to direct and co-direct their own learning” (NCCA, 2009 p.28)
I attended ‘Space Invaders – International Early Years Arts Festival in Farmleigh Estate back in June 2014. I attended as many of the workshops I could and one of them, was Helen Barry’s workshop. To this day I use the many wonderful and intriguing ideas she passionately encouraged us to engage with – threading lengths of wool with various coloured pieces of foam and paper/pasta and then creating a dome-like overhead structure with them, building with boxes and insulating foam piping, decorating clear umbrellas with stickers and/or paint and/or scarves, tracing our body shapes onto coloured paper and sticking these along clear cellophane in the outdoors! Needless to say, I returned home a very happy teacher, discovering like-minded creators who worked with younger audiences to open and ignite their minds through multi-sensory experiences. Since then, I have attended many workshops/seminars/training for the early years, each time asking more questions, making more discoveries, implementing many ideas and adapting them to the special educational needs of the children I am fortunate to work and play with every day.
In September, 2018 I thought of re-connecting with Helen, having read about her project ‘sculptunes’. I learned of ‘The Kaleidoscopic Child’, Helen’s new project and one that would suit the children in the school. Last February 2019, Helen arrived at our School and within an hour had created an amazing, colourful, interactive piece. Many classes, ranging in age from 3 to 12, with multiple disabilities enjoyed and interacted with Helen and her performance. Comments from teachers and SNAs afterwards included – ‘I didn’t know if the children would stay focused for long but they did! There was just enough looking and observing and then they (the children) got to explore’
‘Brilliant! Thought Helen was lovely with the children. She didn’t rush them when they were looking or touching or just listening’
‘There was something for every child – Lewis wanted to figure out how the tubes made sounds with the pump and then Conor was so happy listening to the drum that sounded like the sea. Milly loved the shiny mermaid material and Molly could have beat the dome-shaped metal drum for ages!’
Our children have a primary physical disability but many have multiple disabilities, including ASD, ADHD, emotional and behavioural and a visual or hearing impairment. Engaging with the children requires a multi-sensory approach so each child can participate,explore and enjoy at their pace and level of ability. It is about creating an enabling environment, one that enables all to play and create.
“Relationships are at the heart of early learning and development” (NCCA 2009 p. 27) Creating a rich, learning environment, giving time and space to the children and reminding the adults of ‘being in the moment’, sitting, waiting, being still to catch the glint in the eye, a flash of a smile as a child processes, absorbs, reacts and responds to the creative experience. Teaching children with complex needs requires an holistic, creative approach, all their senses need to be engaged and a trusting reciprocal relationship with their educators enables all involved to be open to this. This is the essence of what we hope to document.
The documentary award will provide us with the potential to show how children living with profound and complex needs are, as with all children, need and want to play, to learn, to engage, to explore, to create, to communicate, to belong, to make and have friends, to be happy and secure. They are, as all children are, mischievous, eager, curious, playful and reckless, have selective hearing and are full of devilment! We as the adults, are there to offer the space and freedom, the creative environment to cross the line.
A Call for Home
Magnetise 2020 and collaborative practice in lockdown
In these unnerving times of isolation, connecting through collaborative projects will be an important life line for many artists. And although at times worries may override our ability to work at our best, the possibility to be together, to keep working, inspiring each other and reflecting together may well turn out to be even more important than pasta and toilet roll!
I have spent some time in the last few days considering the possibilities and challenges in this new climate for some of my ongoing projects. As an artist who has continued to embrace the sensorily rich materiality of charcoal and fabric and paint, has veered a little shy of technology and whose performance practice often involves contact dance forms, I find myself looking squarely at the important role online technology will now take going forward. An example is the Magnetise Project. This project, which was selected for both local and national awards last year, has to date centred around week long residencies and workshop periods where the internationally based artists and local community groups have collaborated in a combination of professional development and community based practice. We are delighted to have secured the funding to continue the work this year and build on the existing relationships and themes. The project investigates the potential of renewed attention to gravity, through somatic movement, sound and drawing practices as a means deepening our connections to landscape.
At the end of 2019 we began developing the next phase, ‘Magnetise, a call for home’. This title, (increasingly poignant in the current climate), reflects an interest to explore the connections not just between ourselves and landscape but relationships between land and identity, and the idea of being at ‘at home’; in our body, our community and environment. The six dance artists collaborate with participants from two of the community groups this year, (three adult performers who are wheelchair users and three youth dancers) towards the creation of a joint performance. For now all work will happen remotely and a final performance space may take the form of a split screen video rather than theatre. We will explore the potential of zoom for discussion and workshop facilitation and the website for sharing and reflecting. We will also explore the use of VR sets and cameras for live streamed and filmed work, combining layering and real time interaction.
For now keeping connected in meaningful and creative ways feels as important as ever, as does deepening connections with home and land. Magnetise, like other projects, will, I hope offer a frame to keep a group together and to keep collaboratively making. To read more about Magnetise visit www.undercurrentdancefilmtheatre.com/magnetise
The Glucksman
Join The Glucksman online for creative activities you can do at home.
The Glucksman may be closed but the team will be online during gallery opening hours to help you to get creative at home.
Every day, they will share new art activities on their website, and facebook, instagram and twitter accounts. With video tutorials on their YouTube channel.
Share your images and they will post them to their online galleries.
If you’re looking for some creative ideas for educational activities (primary level) at home during the school closure then check out some of The Ark’s classroom activities & resource packs. These have been have created to accompany some of The Ark’s programmes, including their ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ season which has been curtailed due to the current closure.
Lots of them work even without having seen the show or exhibitions so do take a look – they are available to download for free and use at the link below:
This is a unique opportunity for directors, dancers, choreographers and performance artists seeking to develop their practice in this area.
This two day workshop, on 12 & 13 June, will be facilitated by Joke Laureyns and Kwint Manshoven, Co-Directors of kabinet k. Kabinet k is a Belgian dance company which creates work with and for children. The company has toured all over the world with their performances and workshops for professionals and for children.
The artistic language of kabinet k has a playful, energetic, yet subtle power. Joke and Kwint will share an insight into their dance vocabulary which is demonstrated in their world-renowned production of ‘Horses’ (view the production trailer here). This practical movement workshop is a playful encounter between the choreographers and the participants, revealing some aspects of how they work with different generations on stage and how a work like Horses was created. It’s about dance in its purest and most essential form: the articulation of a moving body.
kabinet k will challenge the participants to go deeper into their image of childhood and question and develop their own practice.
This workshop will suit professional dancers, choreographers, directors, theatre makers and dance/performance teachers with an interest in producing or participating in theatre made for and with young audiences.
Workshop Dates: June 12 & 13, 2020. Application Deadline: 5pm, Friday, April 3
Update: Due to the current COVID-19 situation this event has now been postponed until Saturday 16th May 2020
The Arts in Education Portal’s regional tour continues with a stop at VISUAL, Carlow on Saturday, March 28th, 10.30am to 3pm. Tickets are free but must be booked ahead on Eventbrite here.
Following on from successful events at the Glucksman in Cork, the LexIcon in Dún Laoghaire in 2018 and the Leitrim Sculpture Centre in 2019, the Carlow Regional Day is planned to be an informal day of sharing experience and best practice from the sector. The programme includes a presentation with curator Karla Sanchez and artist Els Dietvorst discussing their experience on the Living Arts Project, along with an exploration of collective ownership and participation in Primary Schools with artist Tunde Toth.
11:00am — Introduction: VISUAL: Artist Clare Breen
11:15am—The Portal: a brief introduction Emma Kavanagh, Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership (Portal Content Managers)
11:30am—Presentation: The Living Arts Project, a discussion with curator Karla Sanchez and artist Els Dietvorst
12:15pm—Presentation: ‘Danger Art’ Collective Authorship, Shared Ownership and Participation in Arts Projects in Primary Schools with artist Tunde Toth,
Medium, Materiality and Magic: Photography at the National Gallery of Ireland is suitable for both primary and post-primary schools. It provides an introduction to photography, exploring key works in the Gallery’s growing photography collection, along with ideas for students to create their own photographs.
The resource is accompanied by a video tutorial providing an easy step-by-step guide of how to make a photogram. Some of the Gallery’s most popular resources are now also available in Irish: Tuiscint ar Thaispeántas; Céard é Portráid; & Tírdhreacha in Ealaín na hÉireann.
Kids’ Own is really proud to be celebrating thirteen years of their virtual arts in education project, Virtually There, with a large-scale exhibition and special launch event at Belfast Children’s Festival.
On Saturday 7th March 2020, a new exhibition will open in Belfast to showcase work developed by children, artists and teachers over the past three years. Funded for eleven years by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation since 2016, Virtually There was developed by Kids’ Own with a pioneering approach whereby artists connected virtually from their studios with children in the classroom.
Kids’ Own has partnered with Belfast Children’s Festival, Young at Art and University of Ulster to develop this exciting exhibition for public audiences, which runs from 6th-28th March.
A special exhibition opening event takes place at the Ulster University Belfast Campus on Saturday 7th March, 1pm-3.30pm. This event will include the launch of Open Space: An action research report from the Virtually There project by Dr Bryonie Reid. It will be launched by Dr Ali FitzGibbon, Lecturer in Creative and Cultural Industries Management, Queen’s University Belfast.
There will also be a panel discussion entitled What does collaboration really mean? This discussion will be chaired by Mark O’Brien, director of axis, Ballymun, in conversation with artists and teachers who participated in the project.
Date & Time
Saturday, 7 March 2020. 1pm – 3.30pm
Venue
Belfast College of Art, York Street, Belfast
Refreshments will be provided. Please RSVP to info@kidsown.ie
The Portal Team are delighted to announce the first recipient of the 2020 Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award. We are very excited to be working with each recipient in the coming months to document their projects. These projects will be showcased on the portal as the documentation progresses.
About the recipients….
Project title: The Lonely Traveller (Brenda’s Voyage)
The Lonely Traveller began as a Teacher Artist Partnership (TAP) between teacher Jacintha Mullins and composer Fiona Linnane in collaboration with pupils at the Mid-West School for the Deaf, Limerick, with support from Dr. Carmel O’Doherty director of Limerick Education Centre. The initial aim of the project was simple; make the primary music curriculum more accessible to deaf pupils and explore paths of engagement with music for profoundly deaf children.
The Lonely Traveller is an ongoing project which has grown both legs and wings since its inception. The project drew inspiration from the Immram tradition and, in particular, The Brendan Voyage (however the children gave the story a 21st century update by renaming the main protagonist Brenda).
During this project Brenda, the lonely traveller, has explored the length and breadth of the music curriculum. She has wandered along a cross-curricular path through Music, History, English, Irish Sign language, Science, SPHE, Maths, Drama, ICT and Visual art. She has reached out to both world-famous artists (Dame Evelyn Glennie) and local artists (Puppeteer Emma Fisher) alike. She has challenged teachers to walk behind while she takes the children by the hand and brings them on exciting adventure into the world of creativity. She has given us valuable insight into the amazing creative abilities of children with SEN and shown us how to explore the potential and possibilities that exist in the field of arts in education.
Brenda will take the lead role in a short film which will be written, directed and produced by the children of the middle and upper primary classes at the Mid-West School for the Deaf. Our short film will encompass original song writing, soundscapes, vocal and musical performance as well a shadow puppetry. We will also be introducing the children in our school to digital filming, video editing and sound engineering.
Teacher: Jacintha Mullins
Jacintha qualified from the Limerick School of Art and Design with a degree in Fine Art. She went on to complete a Master of Arts in Interactive Media after which she qualified as a primary school teacher and completed specialised training and qualification as a teacher of the deaf. Jacintha currently teaches children aged 8-12 years at the Mid-West School for the Deaf in Limerick.
As a teacher of children with a wide variety of hearing impairments and special needs Jacintha is constantly employing her artistic skills to deliver the curriculum in a way that is active, engaging and relevant to the children in her classes. Jacintha understands the importance that the visual environment holds for deaf children. She is also acutely aware of the need that these children have to find ways in which they can express themselves.
Jacintha endeavours to provide an arts rich approach to teaching and learning at the Mid-West School for the Deaf in Limerick. In 2019 she undertook the TAP summer course and trained as a TAP facilitator later that same summer. She will be delivering CPD to teachers on the TAP summer course in July 2020 and is also currently working as a creative associate within the creative schools initiative.
Artist: Fiona Linnane
Fiona Linnane is a composer based in County Limerick. Fiona has been working with Primary schools for over 15 years including projects under the Artist in Schools schemes for Tipperary, Clare and Limerick Arts Offices. In 2020 she was appointed to the Heritage Council’s Panel of Specialists for the Heritage in Schools scheme. Her workshops are enthusiastic, energetic and fun while aiming to give students a new perspective on sound, music and composition.
Fiona is very active in community music and is widely sought after for commissions and to lead projects. In 2013 Fiona was appointed composer in residence for Bells Across The Burren, an Arts Council of Ireland Artist in the Community project, which included an exhibition and music trail at the Burren College of Art and commissions for locals music groups.
Fiona was awarded the Limerick City and County Council Individual Arts Bursary in 2018, and again in 2019, for work in the field of opera and Art song. Current projects include development of an opera inspired by No.2 Pery Square, Limerick in collaboration with Opera Workshop and funded by the Arts Council of Ireland.
Diversity and Every Duck is Different
In October last year I was invited to attend the Europe in Perspective conference in Dortmund with Dr Katie Sweeny and the TAP (Teacher Artist Partnership) design team.
Teacher-Artist Partnership CPD focuses on enabling teachers and artists to jointly develop their understanding, expertise and creativity in ‘arts in education’ work with children and young people. The initiative was developed under the Arts in Education Charter and has run since 2015 and is now delivered each year first week of July in Education Centers under the Creative Ireland Programme. To date in excess of 1,000 teachers and Artists have been trained under TAP CPD in Ireland. There is now a big interest at EU and international level on Teacher-Artist partnership as a model for enhancing Arts education in Schools.
The conference in Dortmund, ‘Every Duck is Different, Challenging our perspectives on Europe and Culture’ was the final conference/ training in the Transnational Training on Diversity and Cultural Learning.
This conference was developed to explore how diversity can be addressed by arts and education practitioners. The two days were packed with thought provoking group activities and presentations from speakers including Dr Ipek Demir and Szilvia Németh. Two young activist groups, Europe Fiction and Polotics of Hope, had been invited to close the conference. The fresh perspective, intelligence and passion of their interventions added an incredible further dimension.
I’ve been thinking about how I address diversity in my own practice. Cultural diversity is increasingly part of the rich fabric of our communities and schools, and it is important to keep checking in with established frameworks and methods, being conscious of the need to be flexible in this context. Diversity is about recognising that ‘every duck is different’. That we support each other to grow through recognition of the strength of our individuality, and our ability to think critically and independently. To fully enjoy difference, finding interest and inspiration in this so that we can move towards a world where not just cultural, but also intellectual and physical difference is truly supported and celebrated.
It was great to bring some of the learning and inspiration from the conference to the TAP lead facilitators up skilling day in February. Many of the lead partners have a new residency this year which is a fantastic opportunity to keep bringing the theory in to practice.
An exciting development for TAP since the conference is the creation of international dimension to TAP, (ITAP). Building on relationships with new partners from the conference, we are in the process of developing a European programme of shared practice and exchange.
Solstice Arts Centre
Date: 7 March 2020
Primary school teachers, artists and those working within the classroom are invited to a one day CPD at Solstice Arts Centre, Navan to experience the potential of the gallery as an educational resource for the primary school curriculum and how this can be applied to the classroom context.
Exploring ‘You are Made of Stardust’, Solstice’s current exhibition by George Bolster participants will engage in a responsive workshop led by professional artist/educator Jane Fogarty. Supporting and enhancing artistic skills through discussions on art and a hands-on printmaking workshop. This CPD is suitable for those working with all primary class years and has links to the print and drawing modules from the visual arts curriculum.
€25 including lunch in Solstice café, places are limited.
10am – 3:30 pm, no prior art experience necessary.
Early Years Arts & Play Education workshops, delivered by Artists/Educators, Rachel Doolin and George Hannover. CIT Crawford College of Art & Design, Grand Parade Campus, Cork.
This series of CPD Masterclasses at CIT Crawford College of Art & Design will focus on early years experiential and creative play methodologies, with each workshop exploring a different material theme such as: LIGHT Play, PAPER Play, CARDBOARD Play and POP UP Play. ‘Simplicity’ and ‘wonder in the ordinary’ are at the very core of this holistic series of workshops. Artists will guide, offer ideas and materials to inspire and ignite curiosity in a fun and relaxed atmosphere. Participants will be encouraged to activate their imaginations and to explore ‘ways to play’ that encourage and embrace spontaneity, open-ended exploration and unpredictable impulses!
Barnstorm Theatre Company is delighted to present its new production of ‘Alice and the Wolf’ by Tom Swift.
Alice spends virtually all her time in Wolf Wood. You know, the world’s deepest, darkest online game. Why not? Her dad isn’t around, her mother’s gone to Canada to meet a lumberjack and her best friend’s dumped her for a YouTube star.
But what happens when the people you meet online come looking for you in real life? Who can you trust, and who is the Big Bad Wolf? This re-telling of the Little Red Riding Hood story is a digital fairy tale that’s deliciously funny and full of dangerously dark twists.
Workshop
For County Kilkenny schools attending the play, we offer two in-school workshops:
A pre-show session using the poster image and model-box of the set to explore the children’s expectations of the upcoming theatre experience;
A post-show session using a critical response method that encourages the children to articulate their experience of the production. (Comprehension & Oral Language Development)
These sessions are optional and capacity is limited, therefore they will be offered on a first come, first served basis.
Teachers’ Resources
A resource pack will be provided to participating teachers. Linked to the SPHE syllabus, the pack will provide a focus for exploration and discussion of themes raised through the play.
The Arts Council will shortly begin the tender process for a panel of Creative Associates to support the delivery of the Creative Schools programme for the academic year 2020-21 onwards.
The Contract Notice, 2020 application forms and all relevant documents will be available to download from 13th February 2020 on www.etenders.gov.ie/
The Arts Council of Ireland will tender for a panel of Creative Associates to support the delivery of Creative Schools/ Scoileanna Ildánacha for the academic year 2020-21 onwards. The Arts council will publish relevant tender documents in February 2020.
This is an exciting opportunity for artists, creative practitioners and individuals working in organisations in the arts and cultural sector.
Creative Schools is a flagship initiative of the Creative Ireland Programme to enable the creative potential of every child. Creative Schools is led by the Arts Council in partnership with the Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.
Further information about the programme and the work of Creative Associates can also be found here www.artscouncil.ie/ creative-schools/, including information Booklets and FAQs.
Uillinn WestCork Arts Centre
Date: 11 – 20 February
Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre invites toddler groups, playschools, junior and senior infants to a guided experience of Art in Action. An interactive exhibition where artists have used images, objects, actions to communicate with their surrounding world.
An interactive, multimedia exhibition for children with work by Basia Bańda + Tomasz Relewicz, Ewa Bone + Ewa Kozubal, Tomasz Madajczak, Krzysztof Matuszak, Aleksandra Ska and Hubert Wińczyk. Curated by Bartosz Nowak in collaboration with MOS: Municipal Art Centre, Gorzów Wielkopolsk, Poland. http://www.mosart.pl/ wystawy-2019/detail,nID,6164
This exhibition is a meeting of children and artists. The eight visual artists included in the exhibition have created interactive artworks that involve children in the co-creation of the works presented in the gallery. Encouraging children to participate in their construction and reconstruction allows them to experience artistic processes in action.
The exhibition and accompanying events are focused on enabling children to develop creativity, self-confidence and curiosity, explore the world, to communicate and to think critically, demonstrating that art is primarily a way of experiencing and building mutual relations with the environment, other people and oneself
Your group can book a guided experience led by one of the exhibiting artists Tomasz Madajczak. Group bookings are free of charge and can be made by telephone on 028 22090 or email info@westcorkartscentre.com
EVA International
EVA International is delighted to announce the release of free copies of Better Words, for primary school libraries nationwide. It is a new book that offers an introduction to contemporary art and culture through the eyes of 8 – 12 year olds.
It features new artistic terms, words and word-forms, that describe many aspects of contemporary art today, all of which were invented by children through a workshop process that took place across 5 schools in County Limerick, in Spring 2019.
Organised into thematic sections, Better Words offers an introduction to key themes in contemporary art practice today, while also reflecting the cultural curiosity, creative energy and humourous irreverence of the participating school children.
Published by EVA International the book features contributions by acclaimed author Kevin Barry and notes on the workshop process by curator Maeve Mulrennan.
Please contact Eimear Redmond (Better Words Programme Coordinator) at eimear@eva.ie, to redeem a free copy of Better Words for your school library.
Please note that a small nominal fee of €3 for post and package will apply, one copy per school while stocks last.
This event, aimed at Senior Cycle second-level students aged 15 to 18, is an opportunity for students to hear from a whole variety of film industry practitioners, to learn about their work, how they got there and what advice they might give to young people starting out. Whether it’s the craft side of the industry, working in front of the camera or behind, as well as other areas such as production or casting, there will be something for every interest.
A number of third-level institutions will also be on hand to offer guidance on the day.
Last year’s guests included director Lenny Abrahamson, producer Ed Guiney, costume designer Consolata Boyle and DOP Cathal Watters.
The Arts in Education Portal Team are delighted to announce that the 2020 Spring Regional Day will take place in VISUAL Carlow on Saturday, March 28th 2020 from 10.30am to 3pm.
We invite regional audiences to connect with us during a series of events, where practitioners can learn more about the Portal and what it offers, tell us about their work, connect with the community at regional level, share practice and find out what opportunities or events are available in their local area. We welcome teachers, artists, arts managers and anyone with an interest in arts in education to join us for this free event.
Stay tuned for the full schedule to be announced in February.
The Grow from Seeds project intends to provide a programme designed to foster intercultural dialogue in Primary Schools recognising European Parliament priorities to address anti-social behaviour through social cohesion and inclusion, active citizenship and the empowerment and participation of pupils. The methodology used to deliver this education programme adopts multiple strands of Creative Drama, storytelling and performing arts which are proven to be highly motivating, multi-sensory and active learning tools. The Grow from Seeds project engages partners from Ireland, Germany and France, and is supported by Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership.
Teachers, policy makers, researchers, artists, drama practitioners and academics are invited to attend the International Conference in Intercultural Education for Primary Schools to explore new ways of understanding Intercultural Education in Primary Schools and the use of the creative arts as a tool to foster intercultural dialogue in primary schools..
Keynote Address
The conference event will include a keynote talk from Joe Little, RTÉ Religious and Social Affairs correspondent. The event will also showcase the work from the Grow from Seeds project as well as presentations and contributions from practitioners and educators through a panel discussion.
Sruth na Teanga: an adventure through the story of the Irish Language
As part of Galway 2020, Branar Téatar do Pháistí’sSruth na Teanga is an epic and unique immersive theatre show that imaginatively tells the story of the evolution and life of the language. Branar will transform the terminal building of the old Galway Airport for a walk-through performance in which one class group of thirty pupils will enter at a time. Experience a true sense of adventure with cinematic levels of detail as you travel through four worlds experiencing live performance, puppetry, music, design and beautiful imagery. The children’s journey will culminate with an opportunity to explore a response room that will enhance and deepen their engagement with the show.
Branar’s world-class brand of storytelling will enchant audiences aged 8-plus and adults alike.
As the fun of the festive season fades and the new year sets in, this early years drama workshop for little ones aged 2-4 will explore how to cope when things go wrong. Part of First Fortnight festival and led by The Ark’s Early Years Artist in Residence, Joanna Parkes.
Oh dear! Elliott the Dragon is having a bad day. It’s a cold, snowy day and he’s fed up. Everything’s going wrong and he doesn’t know what to do. He says he’s going to give up and not try anymore but… maybe we can help him? Maybe we encourage him to try again? Maybe we can help him bounce back?
Join in to discover, explore and find out if you can help Elliott figure out how to be resilient in this delightful workshop adventure.
Combining drama, story, play and props, this interactive drama workshop invites little ones and their grown-ups to enjoy imagining together. So if you’re a parent, grandparent, uncle, aunty, godparent or carer, come along with a 2 to 4 year old and join in the fun.
The Arts in Education Portal editorial team are pleased to invite applications for a documentation award. Through the award, successful applicants will receive services to the value of €5,000 that will support them in the documentation of a current or upcoming project and a €500 stipend.
The purpose of the award is to support the development of documented outcomes from Arts in Education initiatives in Ireland, which can be shared with the arts in education community and give insights into different processes of engagement. This is part of the Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee’s commitment to supporting and recognising the value of documentation and reflection as a key component within arts in education initiatives.
Two awards will be offered through this opportunity.
Outcomes of the documentation process will include: a project video, a project feature to be showcased on the Portal’s Projects/Partnerships, and the option of a critical essay, with a view to also presenting the work as part of the Arts in Education Portal National Day in 2020.
The process will involve meetings with the Portal Team and a schedule of 3 site visits over the course of the project to capture video and photographic documentation and support reflective processes among participants. The portal team will edit and produce a project video, and will liaise closely with the project partners to develop the content for the project feature. The critical essay would be sited in the Portal’s Reading Room, and is optional. The author and focus of the essay can be decided by the project organisers in collaboration with the Portal Team.
Criteria
To be considered for this opportunity, projects must:
Have started in autumn 2019 and continuing into Spring 2020, or be due to start in Feb 2020.
Have a minimum duration of 8 weeks.
Involve a professional artist working collaboratively within an educational setting (early years, primary or post-primary).
Be underpinned by a strong ethos of collaboration and a commitment to excellence. Focus on the creative process, with children having an active and collaborative role
Additional criteria
Successful applicants will be asked to ensure that relevant permissions/consent have been sought for documentation of participants.
Please ensure your application has been approved by all project partners prior to submission.
How to make a submission:
Background on who you are; your professional practice and your ethos or approach towards Arts in Education.
An overview of the project – who is involved, how did the collaboration come about, what processes or approaches will take place, what is the aim or focus of the process?
A statement of interest, explaining why documentation supports would be of value to this project.
On November 9th the fourth annual National Arts in Education Portal Day took place at the Institute for Lifecourse and Society (ILAS), National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) in partnership with ILAS and Babóro. The national portal day is building momentum as a very significant event in the arts and education calendar in Ireland, and this year the portal day coincided with the Creative Schools week-long celebration of arts and creativity in schools.
With over 150 artists, teachers and arts in education professionals in attendance with 20 workshops and lectures across the day by a range of presenters from the sector. An opening address from Professor Pat Dolan and inspirational insights from our guest speaker Professor Bill Lucas exploring the importance of creativity in schools. Thanks to all involved in making day a huge success!
Speaking at the event, Minister Kyne said, “This annual event presents a wonderful opportunity for teachers and other creative practitioners to come together to explore the area of arts in education. The Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, along with the Department of Education and Skills, are working together to promote creativity among our children and young people”.
To view Professor Bill Lucas’s presentation from the Portal Day click below:
School bookings open from 21 November for spring and summer terms 2020
The Hunt Museum, Limerick Museum and Limerick City Gallery of Art are delighted to invite primary schools to take part in ‘The Three Muses: exploring art and identity’ programme.
Through this innovative visual arts programme for primary schools, pupils from schools across Limerick will engage with modern and contemporary visual art from the collections of three Limerick museums. Through workshops and activities participants will develop their confidence and understanding in visual art, while exploring the theme of identity.
The programme also includes one-off events such as children-led tours of the collections, training sessions for teachers and a summer showcase.
This programme is underpinned by Visual Thinking Strategies and links with Arts Education, History and SPHE curricula, giving participants an opportunity to connect in a relevant way with three Limerick museums and to generate an understanding and appreciation of the importance of visual art.
This programme is supported by Limerick City & County Council and Friends of The Hunt Museum.
School bookings from 21 November for spring and summer terms 2020.
In advance of the Irish Film Institute’s (IFI) annual Careers in Screen Day, 2020, IFI Education, in partnership with Screen Skills Ireland, is offering a First Steps morning event, to introduce participants to the world of short filmmaking, through presentations from three flourishing filmmaking companies.
Presenting samples of their work and talking about their paths into the industry, guest speakers from Paper Panther Productions, Tailored Films and Failsafe Films, will each discuss their own career and answer participants’ questions relating to their work and their roles in the industry. The event is ideally suited to young people who are exploring different career options, perhaps considering third level courses in film, media or TV, or keen to learn from Irish filmmakers about working in the thriving screen industries.
Admission costs €5 per person and tickets are strictly limited. Suitable for ages 15-18. Event will last approx. 75 mins.
Escape into space in this fantastic interactive theatrical adventure for ages 3-5 from Little Bigtop in association with The Civic.
Moon Woke Me Up Nine times
It was still 4am
So I built a rocket with my friends
And went on a journey that never ends
Come up and away with us. Come and play with us.
You are invited to come and build a rocket that will BLAST OFF and take us on a magical adventure. Once inside their homemade rocket children are treated to a magical shadow show as they journey to the moon! Come with us all the way, up there, into outer space!
I wonder if it smells of cheese?
I wonder if it will make me sneeze?
Let’s find out!
Inspired by a Haiku of the same title by Basho Matsuo, Moon Woke Me Up is an interactive theatrical adventure to space for ages 3-5, using a wonderful blend of performance and interactive drama, construction play and sensory explorations.
The Glucksman is delighted to invite you to the ‘The Classroom Museum’ exhibition.
The Classroom Museum enables schoolchildren in rural Ireland to participate in an imaginative programme of creative learning based around contemporary artworks from the UCC art collection. In Autumn 2019, with the support of Kerry County Council and Creative Ireland, the Glucksman brought the Classroom Museum initiative to Caherdaniel NS and Portmagee NS in South West Kerry.
Through the short-term loan of artworks and collaborative activities, the children and their teachers had the opportunity to interact with artworks by Irish contemporary artists Dara McGrath and Fiona Kelly.
The Classroom Museum is built around the value of providing children with an opportunity to engage with works of art in a personal and continuous way. The initiative facilitates the loan of artworks into the classroom space, and includes a visit by the artist to the school, a collaborative art project by the children and an exhibition of this work in the Glucksman.
The students from Caherdaniel and Portmagee will visit the Glucksman in January 2020 to see their artworks on display. The exhibition is open to the public and runs until January 26th.
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown (dlr) County Council invite applications for the position of: Music Generation Development Officer
A Music Generation Development Officer will be appointed by dlr County Council and will be responsible for managing an extensive performance music education programme on behalf of dlr Local Music Education Partnership.
Music Generation dlr is part of Music Generation – Ireland’s National Music Education Programme, which is co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education and Skills and Local Music Education Partnerships.
Temporary five year fixed term contract (Salary range: €47,588 – €58,157 per annum)
Application forms and full particulars are available online at – www.dlrcoco.ie
Based on the volume of applications received short-listing may apply. Short-listing will take place on the basis of the information provided in the application form. Depending on the qualifications and experience of applicants, short-listing thresholds may be significantly higher than the minimum standards set out.
dlr County Council is an equal opportunities employer.
Deadline: 4pm, Thursday 28 November 2019 (Late applications will not be accepted)
Job reference: 008488
“Observation is more than one thing – we use our eyes to analyse an image, and we also use thinking, and our senses and emotions to interpret what we are seeing” – Erasmus+ Permission to Wonder
A Conversation with Primary School Teacher, Jane Malone
For this fourth and final blog about Erasmus+ Permission to Wonder, it is timely for me to reflect on some of our learnings from the VTS training pathway for educators. Over 150 educators, from classroom and museum settings, were supported to access the VTS training pathway with VTS/USA. This happened, through a partnership approach that allowed a range of partners across local, national and European to fund a unique training programme.
The research evaluation framework for Erasmus+ Permission to Wonder will capture the ‘impact’ of the VTS training pathway on educators training and practicing VTS in schools and museums across. Findings will be presented by VTS Nederland at our Erasmus+ Permission to Wonder Conference on 21 April 2020 in Dublin Castle.
Between now and then, we are considering what is next for our work with VTS. What are the existing mainstream teacher and artist training pathways that could offer support to the VTS training pathway? How do we hold on to the value of peer to peer learning across a the mixed cohort of educators – artist, art educators, secondary (art) teacher and primary school classroom teachers? How do we support mixed groupings of trainees to continue to access enjoyable and deep VTS learning experiences about art, learning, classroom and community where every individual voice is valued and heard?
The cross-disciplinary potential for VTS is striking. Art is the starting point and the transferrable skills for the trained VTS educator and for the participating group become more and more obvious with regular practice. For me, the most obvious win for VTS practice is within the primary school or early years classroom. In these classrooms, multiple subject areas sit alongside each other, but objectives for building patterns of learning, thinking and communicating are overarching priorities. This is approach to learning is more and more mirrored in the modern workplace. Artists, lawyers, farmers, employees and entrepreneurs across all disciplines must show flexibility in their thinking and their approach to running their business/getting their product out there/meeting their client needs. Problem solving and team communication skills are key in order to do that. Teams must use their observational skills and thinking skills in tandem with a bigger picture approach which is supported by being open to differing points of view, to allow for benefit from other people’s experience along with their own.
Below, Jane Malone, a primary school teacher from St Catherine’s NS, Donore Avenue, talks about how VTS has strengthened her practice in facilitating students’ learning; how this practice is a tool for communication skills, such as deep listening and respectful discussion; how it is a tool for opening students up to their own thinking processes to support how they learn, access knowledge and problem solve; how this practice can transfer from art, to maths, to science to SPHE, to oral language development, to project development.
What do you find VTS brings to your practice as a primary teacher?
In a primary school classroom of today, we are facilitators of learning, more so than the traditional idea of teachers. VTS definitely highlighted to me the skill of being a facilitator. You facilitate the thinking skills you want them to have or the writing skills you want them, but where they take it is theirs, as long as it’s appropriate.
I find our VTS sessions are a great tool for demonstrating and practising active listening. When someone is making their observation, and when I’m paraphrasing back, they are all listening. Their hand isn’t up with their point, it’s a shared listening experience where they can see what the speaker is seeing. That has really helped in terms of general classroom management, but also for turn taking in terms of respectful conversation. This is something that can’t be explicitly taught. At the same time, it permeates all the other lessons, because we all get so used to the process.
I also find our VTS sessions very inclusive, because it’s not about ability, it’s about the picture or the piece of art that you were looking at, and ‘my opinion’ is not the rightopinion, it may vary very differently to what ‘your opinion’ is. It’s accessing art on all levels for all children of all abilities, not just for the ‘arty’ children or the people who like that piece of art. It takes how art used to be untouchable, it was in galleries, behind frames, it’s opening it up to multiple possible interpretations.
For me, VTS impacts all the curriculum areas, particularly the language elements and the social and emotional aspect of things as well. I use it with ‘Number Talks’, and with anything I’m doing in SESE where I’m facilitating project-based learning and they’re determining where they’re going to take the project. VTS fits well in particular, with the New Language Curriculum, with Irish and English, and how it describes the role of paraphrasing the students comment, that no comment is incorrect, but the paraphrase back is the teaching and learning moment. The children are becoming more aware of how I am teaching them, more familiar with the paraphrasing process, and this gives them the confidence to make the comment, in a language lesson, without worrying about being right or wrong.
What have you noticed happening in your work in the classroom with VTS?
The group I have this year is sixth class. I had them in fourth class, when I started practicing VTS in the classroom. So this year, when I do VTS with the children, I begin a session by talking with them about the broad concept of thinkingthat happens when we do VTS – ‘what is observing?’ We talk about using our eyes, and the role of listening. We go deeper with an art image and talk about how we use our senses to observe, and also how our emotional response informs our thinking.
I began this year’s science curriculum with an exercise where we took a roll of Sellotape and passed it around the room. Each child had to make an observational comment about it, as it was passed from person to person. The reason why I blended VTS with this exercise, is because in VTS with art images, you are naturally talking about story, setting, materials, bringing in previous experience and knowledge. So, in this Sellotape exercise, I was really conscious that it can push them to build more sophisticated language for what they are describing. I keep my paraphrasing conditional and label the thinking processes so that the children can recognise that their thinking processes can transfer from the VTS exercise we do with art, to this exercise, which is more about introducing scientific language for observation. It’s a really successful exercise because you can hear them talking about texture of the Sellotape, using language to describe it based on their senses, describing it’s shape based on their knowledge of maths, making metacognitive statements that are bringing information from other bodies of knowledge.
I see that this is how I am going to bring my VTS practice forward. In the classroom, I’m trying to create an atmosphere of STEAM versus STEM. VTS is one of the methodologies that supports me to do this. I use mind maps and Elklan (a process to meet the speech, language and communication needs of children) with topics where we build vocabulary and language. I find VTS coming into play more for the more technical curriculum subject areas such as the literacy skills of breaking down a language, looking at and attempting maths problem solving, and also for science.
How important do you think that silence at the beginning to observe is?
Very. But we do that in another form in our ‘number talks’ as well, so you put up your number sentence and then you literally wait. It’s very hard when you’re initially doing it as a teacher, to wait long enough, standing in silence is quite difficult. Because we had been doing it in ‘number talks’, I was then able to marry it, so I give them quite a bit of time. It does occur to me each time I do it “I wonder how long everybody else gives?” Sherry Parrish is the number talks guru, so if you watched one of her videos you’d understand the similarities. It’s “how would you do this?”, “how did you come to your conclusions?”, “now, tell the rest of the class how you got that answer or why you went that way” or “what does everybody else think of the way X did that sum?”. So again, it’s similar a similar process of supporting thinking and social learning.
Can you recall a favourite VTS Image Discussion?
One of my favourite VTS sessions was when I was practicing on the Permission to Wonder training in Helsinki. I was looking at the image for the first time and not sure where it would go with the group. There were many different interpretations of the image from individuals and so I had to really concentrate on my paraphrasing. It showed me that my paraphrasing was really working well for me, I was hearing as I was speaking. It was really challenging, but there seemed to be a flow. I remember this as I learned so much from it.
Another one that sticks out in my mind, with sixth class last year, they kept on trying to identify the images as being staged. ‘Oh this has been deliberately set up as though it was in the 1960s and it was deliberately provocative because….’ – they were really cynical about the image and it felt like there was an inflexibility of their engagement with it. They were more about creating the backstory about why the artist did it, than observing what it was in front of them. I found that really interesting.
One other one, was a picture of a woman in a subway surrounded by a lot of men. She is to the foreground, and one of the children that has anxiety identified it as her experiencing great anxiety and nobody around her knowing it. So that kind of projecting their own emotional states onto the images we are looking at, I find that really interesting.
It sounds like for you, in a VTS image discussion you are observing the ‘thinking’ going on – either your own thinking or the students thinking?
It definitely would be part of my practice as a teacher. We are here to teach skills, in particular to understand that there are thinking processes and to help them to figure out how to support these processes for themselves in the future. So they can access the facts. Who remembers all the rivers and mountains of Ireland, it’s more about how you going about researching that information and your thinking process around researching the question that’s important.
How did Erasmus+ Permission to Wonder support you to develop your VTS practice?
It greatly supported me to put aside my learning and experience and become open to a new way of engaging with languages. I found that really interesting as languages are ‘my thing’. I have a degree in French and Italian, English and Gaeilge are my favourite subjects to teach, and I love grammar, so it was fascinating to me how I struggled with the VTS questions at first. They felt so American and strange to me but when I saw the huge body of research behind them and experienced firsthand how effective they were in keeping a rein in on the facilitator’s natural bias, I was completely converted. It was also really comforting to work with such experienced artists and art professionals and see how my lack of experience did not impede my ability to facilitate a VTS session. Finally, it was an exhausting but really wonderful experience on a personal level. I really feel I grew as an individual and my love of learning was reignited. So thank you to all involved.
The Four Dublin Local Authorities
Deadline: 5pm, 4 November 2019
The four Dublin Local Authorities invite submissions for: Exploring & Thinking Bursary Award 2019.
The Exploring & Thinking Bursary Award will support individual professional artists to develop their artistic practice working with and/or producing work for early childhood arts. This award is open to individual professional artists who wish to develop their practice in early childhood arts, artists practicing in all artforms, artists resident in Ireland.
Bursary range: €200 – €10,000
The closing date: 4th of November 2019
Exploring and Thinking is a collaborative framework for early childhood arts in the Dublin region. It came about in 2016 when the four Dublin Local Authorities – Fingal County Council, Dublin City Council, South Dublin County Council and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, partnered for the first time to collectively consider early childhood arts provision in the Dublin region.
Please find the Application Guidelines & Criteria in the attached document.
Download the Application Guidelines & Criteria here
For further information and queries contact Orla Scannell, Arts Officer, South Dublin County Council, E: oscannell@sdublincoco.ie
Waltons Music for Schools Competition
Entry Deadline: 24 January 2020
Founded in 2012, the Waltons Music for Schools Competition is a non-profit national event celebrating and supporting music in Irish schools. The Music for Schools Competition is produced by Waltons New School of Music and generously supported by RTÉ lyric fm. All primary and post-primary schools in the Republic of Ireland are eligible to enter the Competition, and schools from all 26 counties have participated.
Each year’s Competition culminates in a gala Finalists Concert, in which twelve Finalist school music groups (six primary and six post-primary) perform before their peers and two distinguished adjudicators. At the end of the Finalists Concert, the adjudicators announce six winning primary and post-primary schools, which receive awards totalling €7,000 worth of vouchers for musical instruments and equipment from Waltons Music Ireland, including two First Prizes of €2,000 vouchers.
The Process
Schools create an ensemble piece or song, based on the year’s Competition theme, and performed by an instrumental, vocal or mixed group from the school (maximum 40 performers). The piece or song can be performed by any combination of singers or instrumentalists you choose. This year’s theme comes from Hans Christian Andersen, ‘Where words fail, music speaks’.
Schools submit an online entry form and send a video of the group’s performance as well as a jpeg photograph of the group.
The initial entries are judged by a team of first-round adjudicators, and twelve Finalist groups (six primary and six post-primary) are selected.
The Finalists are announced by Liz Nolan on RTÉ lyric fm.
Groups not selected as Finalists but displaying real merit are designated as either Commended or Highly Commended, and certificates are produced for the schools and all student performers.
The twelve Finalist groups perform in a gala Finalists Concert at the National Concert Hall, at the end of which the six winning schools are announced.
The Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI) are excited to offer a free primary school creative programme ‘Shut your eyes and see’ to Irish primary school teachers and students in 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th class. Workshops explore Irish literature, past and present, hoping to inspire the next generation to read, write, and unlock their creative potential in whatever form it takes.
Developed in collaboration with students from our learning partner schools, teachers, educators, administrators and librarians, our programme is designed with different learning styles in mind.
We offer a two-hour experience in MoLI from 10am–12pm, during term time. Teachers and students participate in a creative workshop and a tour of our exhibition space and gardens.
Connecting to our exhibitions and gardens, and reflecting elements of the school curriculum, workshops seek to develop critical thinking and research skills as well as visual, verbal and information literacy.
When booking, primary school teachers can choose from one of three workshops:
Artist Jane Fogarty will introduce primary school teachers to Estuary – an exhibition of artworks from Fingal County Council’s Municipal Art Collection, as a starting point for generating ideas for use with students back in the classroom.
Teachers will be supported to enhance their artistic skills and expand their approach to teaching in the classroom by exploring the potential of the gallery context as an educational resource for the primary school curriculum. There will be an emphasis on looking and responding to contemporary artworks, group discussion, and identifying curriculum links.
This event is Free to attend. Lunch will be included.
There are limited places available. Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis.
About Estuary, Sept 12th – Nov 16th at Draíocht
Fingal County Council presents this significant exhibition to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the council and its Municipal Art Collection. Curated by Una Sealy (RHA), James English (RHA), Joshua Sex and Sanja Todorović, the selected artworks represent an evolving collection of painting, print, photography, literature and sculptural work by some of Ireland’s most prolific artists. There is a strong theme of nature flowing through much of the selected works chosen by the curators specifically with Fingal’s landscape in mind. We hope that you enjoy the exhibition and participation in the public engagement programme. www.fingalarts.ie
Embrace the wonders of the wind in this fun drama workshop for little ones aged 2-4, led by The Ark’s Early Years Artist in Residence, Joanna Parkes.
It’s a whirly, swirly, windy day and the Wind Wizards are busy at work. Not everyone likes the wind though, as it whips up fallen leaves and tousles their hair. Can the wind wizards help people see how wonderful the wind can be?
Join in to explore, imagine and discover your own secret love for the whistle and whoosh of the whispering wind.
Combining drama, story, play and props, this interactive drama workshop invites little ones and their grown-ups to enjoy imagining together. So if you’re a parent, grandparent, uncle, aunty, godparent or carer, come along with a 2 to 4 year old and join in the fun.
Update: Minister Kyne T.D. to attend 4th annual National Arts in Education Portal Day
The Portal team are delighted to announce that the fourth annual National Arts in Education Portal Day will be attended by Seán Kyne TD, Government Chief Whip and Minister of State the Irish Language, the Gaeltacht and the Islands.
We are pleased to announce our full programme of presentations and workshops for the National Arts in Education Portal Day 2019. The programme was selected following a call for submissions in summer 2019 and reflects a broad range of projects, approaches and art forms from within the arts and education sectors; both practical and theoretical.
The day will culminate in a special performance by members of Symphonic Waves Youth Orchestra with group leader and soloist Mary Duggan.
The Ark invites schools to the world premiere of a brand new show by Wayne Jordan and Tom Lane for Ages 8+.
Labhraidh Loingseach has a secret. He wears his hair long and he has it cut only once a year. Once a year on the same night in the same place and in the same style. But never by the same barber.
The Haircut is a cautionary tale with a live musical soundtrack. The Haircut is a fairytale remixed and retold.
The Haircut is a play about secrets and about creativity stifled. About fighting for what you believe in and standing up to power.
About music and magic and hair.
Set in a magical modern day Ireland, The Haircut is a new commission written by Wayne Jordan, delivered with ineffable charm by bright new talent Thommas Kane Byrne and accompanied by Tom Lane’s vibrant score played by three outstanding musicians.
Classroom Activity Pack
A new Classroom Activity Pack is available for teachers is available to download to accompany the production. Created by Joanna Parkes and Anita Mahon – renowned specialist facilitators for educational drama and music programmes – the pack uses the show’s rich themes and ideas as a starting point for a range of engaging classroom activities and is a useful resource to teachers, whether or not they have seen the performance.
The Irish Forest School Association (IFSA) was founded in 2016 and is engaged in the promotion and development of the Forest School (FS) movement in Ireland. We bring Forest School practitioners together to inspire inclusive, playful learning for all, in nature. We want to build resilience and relationships, through our connection with each other, and the natural world, while inspiring creativity and supporting wellbeing. More information can be found on our website www.irishforestschoolassociation.ie.
This final blog post is from Joan Whelan, the Chairperson of the Irish Forest School Association. She reflects on the opportunities within Forest School for adults to reaffirm their own creativity in their approach to teaching, drawing on her experience of introducing Forest School to the primary school where she was principal and on her current PhD research on the distinctiveness of Forest School as a pedagogical approach.
“Lie down, lie down, that way is best” – Blog 4
Participating in a Forest School (FS) session recently with a group of senior infants, I had one of those ‘light-bulb’ moments that happen every now and again and give pause for thought. Our eyes had been drawn towards the tree canopy by the fleeting sight of a grey squirrel bounding up the trunk of a scots pine.
‘Lie down, lie down,’ urged one of the children in a commanding but quiet voice. ‘That way is best’.
And we did. We lay down. Three 6-year olds and myself, flat out on the damp slightly muddy floor of a small and not very loved corner of woodland in Dublin city. And there was quiet, as we searched the tree canopy for the elusive squirrel, for perhaps a minute. Later that same day, having made charcoals from the leftover embers of the fire, a child asked to finger paint stripes on my face…and I had no hesitation. The experience remained with me.
I realised that in 36 years of teaching, I had never fully encountered this kind of immersive, embodied, child-initiated experience that felt very powerful and right. And I thought myself progressive and innovative as a teacher. What made this possible? Was it being in nature? Was it being suitably attired? Was it the small group? Was it the opportunities for child-led activity? Was it the leadership of the FS leader? Was it the safety that the session provided to explore and to ‘be’? Was it all of these?
It seems to me that a very profound opportunity exists for adults to reflect on their practice through participation in FS. We cannot promote creativity in children without being open to making new connections for meaning as adults. FS gives us permission to take a step aside, unlocking a more playful approach to learning which in turn promotes curiosity, exploration and innovative cross curricular connections that surely comprise the possibility for deep and creative connection and meaning making across the curriculum. FS seems to enable us to move from being teachers and pupils to being learners together.
In the context of the Arts in Education, FS provides a foundational, cross curricular pedagogical approach. The woodland provides the tools to enable risks to be taken safely, curiosity to be satisfied and boundaries to be tested. The transformative nature of this kind of learning for wellbeing, creativity and innovation is not easily accessible elsewhere in formal learning contexts. In an era of increasing focus on outcomes, rather than process, FS can help re-position children and adults, not the curriculum, at the core of deeper learning in the primary school. FS pedagogy can help to promote a deeper understanding of the relationship between the human world and the natural world, a theoretical thread that can be traced back to Rousseau, who regarded a connection to nature as fundamental to optimal human functioning. However, FS must be approached within a theory of change perspective. In other words, the importance of school communities articulating a vision for their pedagogical approach, based on their educational purpose, is non-negotiable.
And when was the last time you placed your hands in wet mud?
The Ark
Dates: 4 & 5 October 2019
Get cosy for the autumn in this early years drama workshop for little ones aged 2-4 led by The Ark’s Early Years Artist in Residence, Joanna Parkes.
Autumn is here, leaves are falling and the animals in the woods are preparing for their long winter sleep. But Howie Hedgehog is not ready. He has no food supplies and no shelter to sleep in. He will need some help from the wood elves to collect food and build himself a warm and cosy den.
Join in to discover, explore and find out if you can help Howie build his den in this delightful workshop adventure.
Combining drama, story, play and props, this interactive drama workshop invites little ones and their grown-ups to enjoy imagining together. So if you’re a parent, grandparent, uncle, aunty, godparent or carer, come along with a 2 to 4 year old and join in the fun.
We are delighted to announce the guest speakers for the fourth annual National Arts in Education Portal Day on November 9th at The Institute for Lifecourse and Society (ILAS), National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) in partnership with ILAS and Baboró. Our day begins with a welcome from Professor Pat Dolan, UNESCO Chair for Children Youth and Civic Engagement, and Director of the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre and Dr. Katie Sweeney – National Director for the Integration of the Arts, Department of Education and Skills (DES).
We welcome guest speaker Professor Bill Lucus, Director of the Centre for Real-World Learning and Professor of Learning at the University of Winchester. The full line-up which will be announced shortly includes a broad range of practical workshops and skills sharing as well as theoretical and critical thinking in the area from artists, teachers and practitioners from across the sector.
This event brings together members of the arts in education community from all across Ireland, to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired, and continue interrogating best practice in the field.
Full programme details for the day will be announced shortly. For enquiries please contact events@artsineducation.ie
Professor Patrick Dolan, UNESCO Chair for Children Youth and Civic Engagement, and Director of the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre at The Institute for Lifecourse and Society (ILAS), NUI Galway
Professor Pat Dolan holds the prestigious UNESCO Chair in Children, Youth and Civic Engagement, the first to be awarded in the Republic of Ireland. The UNESCO Chair delivers a comprehensive programme of work towards the objective of promoting civic engagement and leadership skills among children and youth. The programme is built around core strands of research, teaching, policy and good practice and is underpinned by a range of national and international collaborations. Prof. Dolan is also joint founder and Director of the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre at the National University of Ireland, Galway. He has worked as a practitioner and academic for over 30 years. Prof Dolan has completed an extensive body of research on children youth and family issues including longitudinal research on adolescents, their perceived mental health, resilience and social support networks and has published in a wide range of international academic publications. His major research interests are Civic Engagement in Children and Youth, Family Support, Youth Mentoring Models, Empathy, Resilience and Social Networks. Prof. Dolan has also extensive practice and policy experience, both nationally and internationally.
Dr, Katie Sweeney, National Director for the Integration of the Arts, Department of Education and Skills (DES)
National Director for the Integration of the Arts in Education (DES) – appointed by Minister for Education and Skills Ruaraí Quinn T.D. in 2013. Previously Katie has worked as a Research Scientist, Senior Lecturer in Dublin City University, Dublin Institute of Technology, Karolinska Institute of Health Sciences Stockholm in Sweden. She was a former Head of GMIT @Castlebar, CEO of Mayo VEC and CEO of Mayo Sligo and Leitrim Education and Training Board.
Professor Bill Lucas, Director of the Centre for Real-World Learning and Professor of Learning at the University of Winchester
Bill is a member of the academic team on the Durham Commission on Creativity in Education, adviser to the OECD’s Centre for Educational Research and Innovation, chair of Eton’s research and innovation centre, a patron of Pegasus Theatre in Oxford and a member of the LEGO Foundation’s advisory board.
In 2017 Bill was appointed co-chair of the strategic advisory group for the new PISA 2021 Test of Creative Thinking. Bill is currently advising the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority on the implementation of critical and creative thinking and has worked extensively across Australia.
A prolific writer, Bill has authored more than 100 books and research reports. With Ellen Spencer he has recently explored how key dispositions for learning can best be cultivated in Teaching Creative Thinking: developing learners who have fresh ideas and think critically.
His acclaimed critique in 2015 of education systems, Educating Ruby: what our children really need to learn, written with Guy Claxton, asks challenging questions about the future of schools. Zest for Learning: Developing curious learners who relish real-world challenges, to be published in Autumn 2019, continues this theme.
Launch of archive to preserve Arts in Education content and showcase the work of creative organisations in Ireland
The Minister for Education and Skills Joe McHugh T.D. on Monday September 23rd announced the opening of a new free-to-access online archive to showcase creative activity of teachers, artists, researchers and others.
The Arts and Culture in Education Research Repository (ACERR) will be open to people working in education and the public, allowing them an insight into the inspirational ideas being developed for schools.
Some of the work available in the archive includes an essay from the UCC School of Digital Humanities on using Minecraft as a tool for creative engagement in the classroom and a project on using rap music as a creative method in research with children and young people.
The repository also details the experiences of Lisa Cahill, a dance artist in residence at Maynooth University in 2016. The repository has allowed for videos of Lisa’s work to be recorded and uploaded for the public to view.
It is hoped the archive will be expanded as teachers, schools, arts and cultural researchers, academics, colleges and universities and artists offer resources including video, music, dance, drama and art.
The repository will also help to overcome traditional barriers to publication for arts and creative practitioners.
Making the announcement, Minister McHugh said: “This Government is doing huge work to put creativity to the fore of a child’s education and development, not least with the 300 schools in the Creative Ireland programme or the growth of Music Generation.
“The new archive will grow over time and help to cement the great work already being done every day in our classrooms as well as giving researchers and parents and others an insight into how we can inspire the next generation.”
The ACERR has been developed as part of the Creative Ireland Programme and has been supported by the Dormant Accounts Funds.
Are you an artist with an interest in creating work with or for children?
The Ark invites you to pop in for a welcoming cup of coffee or tea and meet with other like-minded artists.
Suitable for artists new to work with children and those with more experience with this unique audience, this event will be very relaxed – and there may even be cake!
There will be time to chat to other artists as well as some of The Ark team.
No booking required. Just turn up – the kettle will be on!
INSPA 2019/20 sees the third open call for Ireland’s prestigious National School Photography Awards [INSPA]. INSPA is a national children’s photography competition which is open to all primary schools located in the Republic of Ireland. This year, the awards are brought to you by the INSPA team in partnership with ReCreate.ie, FujiFilm Instax Camera’s and the Amber Springs Resort Hotel.
The awards aim to encourage young creatives in primary level education to engage with both digital technology and the creative process to create striking visual images. They will inspire and ignite passion in students, increase engagement with digital arts within primary level education while at the same time educating students about the importance of the creative process.
The awards are offering a range of fantastic prizes for finalists, winners and their schools including; Free entry to the Amber Springs Easter Train Experience for the overall winner and their classmates, FujiFilm INSTAX cameras for winners and their schools, a year’s membership for the winning school to ReCreate’s ‘Warehouse of Wonders’, a two night stay in the Amber Springs for the Principal of the winning school, a one night stay in the Amber Springs for the teacher of the winning class, INSPA certificates, framed photographs and an #INSPAsmiles School Photography Fundraising Day in aid of the 2019/20 charity theme partner; ReCreate.ie
This year’s theme is titled ‘Second Life’ which asks both teachers and their students to integrate the camera into the school-day, allowing their students explore their classrooms, corridors and schoolyards. We are specifically looking for fun images that focus on the wonders of waste while utilising the creative techniques of photography to transform spaces/places or give a new lease of life to familiar objects/things.
All entries will be judged by a national panel including Cristín Leach (Art Critic: The Sunday Times Ireland), Feargal Brougham (INTO President), Cathy Baxter (Manager: Green Schools), Páiric Clerkin (CEO of IPPN), Anya von Gosseln (Curator & Co-Founder of Kamera8 Gallery), Ángel Luis González Fernández (CEO Photo Ireland Foundation), Mandy O’Neill (Visual Artist) and Richard Carr (Artist & Partnerships Manager for INSPA).
If you think your school has Ireland’s next top creative, all you have to do is register your school at the INSPA website – www.inspa.ie. The deadline for entries is midnight on Tuesday 21st January 2020. However, make sure you register your school asap to give yourself time to activate your school account and upload your students’ entries.
Join curators, academics and artists as we explore the new Glucksman digital toolkit for educators. In this masterclass, teachers will investigate ways to engage their students in artistic processes that creatively encounter, explore and understand our responsibility towards the environment.
Current issues of education and communication of climate change and sustainability are complex, multi-faceted and potentially overwhelming unless the problems can be scaled down and re-framed. This masterclass focuses on peatlands, an important part of our biodiversity and an example of ways that individual and collective effort can be valuable for climate action.
The Ark are delighted to invite Primary School educators to join dance educator Emma O’Kane for this enjoyable CPD course that to deepen and expand the understanding of Dance within the P.E. curriculum with an emphasis on creativity. In a relaxed and playful atmosphere teachers will be provided with the necessary tools to deliver dance activity with confidence for all ages and classes. The course will demystify dance for teachers and focus on the exploration, creation and performance of dance through easy exercises and manageable approaches.
Working within an integrative approach the course will explore how dance can also support learning across the curriculum in relation to SPHE, English and other subjects.
Suitable for all levels of confidence. No experience necessary.
Music Generation is delighted to announce that Paula Phelan has been appointed as Head of Quality, Support and Development within the National Development Office. In this new senior role, Paula will drive the implementation of a new national Music Generation Quality Framework, support the planned growth of the national network of Local Music Education Partnerships (LMEPs), and lead on professional development and learning programmes and initiatives for Music Generation over the coming years.
Paula brings a breadth of experience to the role, spanning the worlds of arts and corporate management, music education leadership and practice. Most recently she held the position of LMEP Support Manager at the Music Generation National Development Office. From 2013-2018 she was Programme Director for Music Generation Carlow. In addition to her extensive work with Music Generation, she was previously General Manager of the Irish Baroque Orchestra, a Post-Primary Teacher, Freelance Musician Educator and General Manager of Belvedere Youth Service.
A native of Kildare, Paula completed her undergraduate BAmus degree in NUI Maynooth. She holds an MA Baroque Performance Practice from Queens University Belfast, an MA in Arts Administration and Cultural Policy from University College Dublin, a Postgraduate Diploma in Education from NUI Maynooth and a Postgraduate Diploma in Early Childhood Music from Birmingham City University.
Kilkenny and Carlow Education and Training Board wishes to recruit and place on a panel suitably qualified and experienced part-time musicians/music tutors to deliver the following Music Generation Kilkenny programmes:
Small group tuition in vocal (including choral) or instrumental learning (any music genre)
Large-group tuition (vocal and/or instrumental) in early years and primary school settings
Ensemble (instrumental/vocal), band facilitation, mentoring in any genre of music, including, where applicable, song-writing/creative composition, music technology etc.
Musicians/music tutors will work with children and young people in group/classroom contexts and may work on one or more programmes at any given time. A willingness to deliver programmes in more than one location in County Kilkenny would be desirable.
The closing date for receipt of applications is: 12 noon, Friday 27th September 2019
Late applications will not be considered.
Provisional interview date: Week commencing 7th October 2019
For further information and application forms go to www.kcetb.ie
“We Are Mirrors” – Erasmus+ Permission to Wonder
A Conversation with Visual Artist, Kathryn Maguire
Visual Thinking Strategies is a research based method, founded on the doctoral work of Abigail Housen(Co-Founder of VTS) and her research on aesthetic development. Housen’s research focused on the question – ‘What Happens Cognitively When You Look at a Work of Art?’ Her methodologydevised an ‘Aesthetic Development Interview’ to understand how a spectrum of differentviewers understand and interpret the same artwork. With this data,and drawing on constructivist learning theories, in particular Lev Vygotsky and Jean Piaget, she designed a stage theoryfor aesthetic development. Her stage theory tracked common features of five stages. According to Housen, each stage is inherently important. No stage can be rushed or bypassed. Growth occurs with repeated and regular exposure to viewing art. In her collaboration with Philip Yenawine and MOMA, New York, Housen’sresearch identified that the majority of visitors attending the museum and its programmes were stage 1 & 2 viewers. Stage 1 & 2 viewersjudge an artwork is based on what they know and like, their observations may appear idiosyncratic and imaginative, and they have their own sense of what is realistic and this standard is often applied to determine value. Stage 1&2, as aesthetic learners, are storytellers. Storytelling is a universal means of making meaning. Meaning making requires critical thinking, personal reflection, the consideration of multiple possibilities, communication and respectful debate.
Part of the challenge for me was unlearning earlier teaching practices. I had to…learn a new paradigm, one that put people ahead of art, one that focused on enabling not just engaging people. I had to step back from what I thought people should learn, to create a teaching/learning method that would help them realize their full potential at any given moment. – Philip Yenawine
Professional visual artists, that have trained in Visual Thinking Strategies with us, tell us that VTS can offer them a useful framework to critically appraise their own artwork in development. It is a tool that can inform their understanding of a diversity of interpretations that audiences will bring to the artwork. This can be a valuable input into an artwork’s development before it arrives into the gallery or public space. Visual artists that have trained with us, and been implementing VTS as part of their practice, specifically in schools, report that the neutrality and rigour of the VTS method is their biggest challenge. For me, this is completely understandable. When you love art and have dedicated your life to its study and practice, you want to share all your knowledge and skills with your audience. The visual artists we work with are very generous and committed to sharing with their audiences. However, the time and appropriate support to do this is usually very limited.
Within schools, there may only be one shot – the one class visit to a gallery in a year. Or a school or artist might get support for a suite of sessions or a medium-term residency. Following Housen’s theory, we can propose that more consistent and supported time for art and artists to work with students allows greater opportunity for embedding aesthetic growth and learning. In addition to the time limitation, there are very few training opportunities for artists in understanding pedagogy, curriculum and developmental stages of children and young people according to age, ability and cultural tradition. Therefore, the skill of facilitating meaning making with visual art and children and young people, for many artists, is based on their own process of discovery and how discovery emerges in their practice.
Kathryn Maguire’s practice is inspired by science, history and the social world. She works in the field of socially engaged art, therefore, contrary to making an artwork in isolation, she develops artwork with a community in a way that honours both her areas of inspiration and a community’s vested interest in their neighbourhood. Kathryn has effective collaboration skills that allow space for experts and knowledge from varied backgrounds and sources to inform the development of her work. She is a sculptor, and in particular, specialises in social sculpture. She uses mirrors regularly in her work and understands the value of using mirrors as a reflective tool, that can work equally well in the gallery/museum and also outside, in nature. An example of this is Kathryn’s artwork is ‘Us’ Again – a floating mirrored shed, created in 2013, in collaboration with the Men’s Shed Group based in Rialto’s St Andrew’s Community Centre as part of Maguire’s residency at 468, Common Ground.
Image of ‘Us’ Again -Kathryn Maguire
The shed, made completely of mirrors, journeyed along the Grand Canal, Dublin, to celebrate the impact the waterway has had on labour and leisure in Rialto and as demonstration and reflection on community and commonality. Kathryn’s mirrored shed informs her practice today, as she continues to investigate what is the common between us and our environment.
What do you find VTS brings to your practice as an artist?
As an artist, I feel like an investigative journalist in some ways. I gather knowledge and information and transfer it into an artwork. VTS is a powerful tool for me, as a learner. I’m constantly learning so VTS allows for my knowledge to be fluid. It is really important to me, in my life, and as an artist, that there is more than one answer. Facilitating VTS allows me time to listen to the different ideas coming from each person, to stay neutral, and not buy into one opinion or another. It is really important to stay listening to all the different facets of the conversation. We all come with so much ancestral knowledge. Perhaps allowing time and space for different perspectives, hopefully we can find our way to some common ground. This is what ultimately keeps me motivated – the search for our commonality. It’s why I still work with mirrors – we are mirrors. As an artist, I feel now is an important time. Artists have an incredible opportunity to look more closely, then take that knowledge and make it into an artwork and then take that artwork and go to the audience – it’s a gentle, fluid, domino effect.
What have you noticed happening in your work with schools and galleries in VTS image discussions?
I am currently Artist in Residence with Rathfarnham Educate Together National School (RETNS). I recently did a VTS facilitated discussion the school’s 5th class children at The LAB Gallery and Anita Groener’s incredible exhibition ‘The Past is a Foreign Country’. I observed that the children were highly environmentally aware and were able to articulate very clearly their understanding that if our environment is not harmonious, then that is not good for us either. They mirrored, for me, my own thinking that we are all part of the same ecosystem. This is an emotionally charged exhibition, exploring migration and the migrant crisis in Syria. I didn’t have to tell the children what the work was about. I didn’t have to give them a script. The script was inside them already. It just needed a gentle prise open. VTS allowed us time, and slowing down, deep looking, being comfortable in the silence. There is so much chatter, phone or screen time in our lives that just listening and communicating with each other is an amazing thing. This amazing thing happens when we communicate in a VTS session and I’m still not sure what the ‘thing’ is. This ‘thing’ is what Permission to Wonder has given to me as a person and as an artist.
Can you recall a favourite VTS Image Discussion?
I have been testing the VTS Image Curriculum and the Permission to Wonder images for the project image bank. I have been practicing VTS with test images in Scoil Mhuire, Marino and St Vincents BNS.
Some feedback on the VTS sessions with Kathryn from the 3rd class boys of Scoil Mhuire, Marino, gathered from teacher, Jennifer Gormley
‘It was very enjoyable and I liked that it wasn’t just based on one artist. I liked the way we got asked to say what we thought of the picture.’
‘It was really nice and I liked the way it was arranged, like the questions we were asked.’
‘It was really fun. I liked looking at the pictures and telling what I thought of them.’
‘I thought the paintings were really good and it was fun answering questions.’
Another memorable experience was a Wonder Club session with a Patrick Scott artwork in The Hugh Lane Gallery. The discussion went from a very religious metaphorical discussion into a more polarised religious and political debate. This was surprising as the beautiful abstract painting was a vehicle for adults to vocalise knowledge, and equally prejudices, that the group and I had to negotiate. Perhaps most valuable with adults, you get to access people’s wealth of knowledge due to their lived life.
** Wonder Club is monthly VTS sessions for adults that take place in Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane and The LAB Gallery
How did Erasmus+ Permission to Wonder support you to develop your VTS practice?
I would describe VTS practice like muscle that needs to be exercised. In Permission to Wonder, the trust within the group of educators, and the care within the partner group was really special. There was a silent strength in this support that was very nurturing for me to help me push me out of my comfort zone and become more confident in how I facilitate a VTS session. The logistical supports that were put in place for me were really important. Financial access to the training in Europe and then also being supported to practice at home in the schools and galleries allowed me to build this confidence. On foot of it, opportunities for me to work with galleries and schools have been increasing. In the past year, I’ve been really lucky to work with The LAB Gallery, The Hugh Lane Gallery, IMMA, The Butler Gallery, Kilkenny and all have been very supportive of me using VTS as a strand of my sessions with school groups. I use VTS at the beginning of my sessions almost as a way to bring students into a space where they will absorb the artists’ intentions by osmosis and then the session will evolve from there. I usually do a VTS session, followed by an observational drawing, followed by more formal object making in the education room. I find that the students, when they are sketching after the VTS image discussion, are not copying each other, they are more confident in how their own ideas are coming out of the artwork.
What would you like to work on next in your VTS practice?
The most important thing that I feel I need to work with most is staying neutral. I think that art can bring up a lot of stuff for people, very strong opinions are aired, a lot of debate and also emotional responses. I have to be careful to manage my own assumptions about why somebody might make a particular remark. I have to remember, that it’s okay if a group member does not want to contribute or may pull back or be quiet in the discussion. The strength of the silence may indicate that there may be a reason why somebody remains silent, something may be triggered for that person within the image or the discussion. There is learning in discomfort, but also learning to keep in mind safety and care for the group, and also keep in mind self care for me. I will always talk to a teacher at the outset of a session to find out if I need to be mindful of a member of a group. It’s that communication that needs to happen between us as educators – between teacher and artist – in order that the viewer is allowed to be silent or to be heard, depending on their need.
I would envision that I would like to push my VTS practice further. To move my VTS facilitation outside of art, into other areas such as science, history, mathematics. That I can move it out of the artworld and into other areas of education. I think VTS sits in the artworld but also has the flexibility and ability to move beyond the artworld.
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children
Dates: 14 – 20 October 2019
Baboró are delighted to announce that their Schools Box Office is now open for this year’s festival, which takes place in Galway 14-20 October. To plan your school visit take a look at the dedicated schools section of their website to find everything you need to make your booking request.
How to Begin
You should receive a Festival Programme in the post this week (an online version will be launched 2 September).
Decide which performance, literature or free event you would like your class to attend.
Consider ‘Making a Day of It’ by combining a show or literature event with one of our free Creative Connections sessions or a free Visual Art guided tour. These must also be requested on the online booking form (limited availability).
Complete the Online Schools Booking Request Form by Wednesday 11 September. You will be asked for your top-3 preferences, or you can have the Baboró team select a show for your group to attend. Please complete one form per group.
Recommended performances and events have been identified as suitable for groups or schools with additional needs. Baboró have developed an information pack to accompany these shows, which includes information about the venues, access, and what to expect during the performances regarding light, sound, etc. You can find this pack and more helpful information online on the Baboró website (www.baboro.ie )from 2 September.
Ticket & Subsidy Information
Performance ticket prices: €6.50 per child & €5.50 per child for registered DEIS schools.
Literature Event ticket prices: €5 per child.
Creative Connections sessions: Free.
Visual Art guided tours: Free.
Free Teacher/SNA Tickets: 1 per 10 children. Preschools – 1 per 5 children. Additional Needs – as required.
Bus Subsidy Scheme: Claim back some of your bus hire costs after the festival. You will receive further details about this with your booking confirmation.
Important Dates Wednesday 11 September: First Round Booking Deadline.
Requests after this date are considered, however, likelihood of attending one of your top 3 preferences is greatly reduced.
Week of Monday 23 September: Notification of Allocation.
Schools will be notified of their allocation with a Baboró schedule, invoice, and a pre-engagement pack including venue information via email. Please do not call for information on your booking before this date, as it takes one week to complete the allocations for all schools.
Wednesday 9 October: Payment Due in Full.
Cash is not accepted. Payment methods will be outlined with notification of your allocation. Bookings are not considered complete and confirmed until full payment has been received.
For school enquires or further information please contact Kirsty on 091 562642 or email schools@baboro.ie.
Louth and Meath Education and Training Board
Deadline: 12 noon, Friday 13 September 2019
Louth and Meath ETB is now inviting applications for the position of Music Generation Development Officer, Meath.
Post Reference Number: C218
A Music Generation Development Officer will be appointed by Louth and Meath ETB and will be responsible for managing an extensive performance music education programme on behalf of the Meath Local Music Education Partnership.
Five year, fixed-term contract (€46,771 – €57,157)
Application form, job description and person specification and other details available from – www.etbjobs.ie
Closing date for receipt of completed application forms is: 12 noon, Friday 13th September 2019
Late and/or incomplete applications will not be accepted.
Based on the volume of applications received short-listing may apply. Short-listing will take place on the basis of the information provided in the application form. Depending on the qualifications and experience of applicants, short-listing thresholds may be significantly higher than the minimum standards set out.
Louth and Meath ETB is an equal opportunities employer.
Practicing professional artists are invited to apply for a residency opportunity at DCU Institute of Education for the academic year 2019-2020. Applications are welcome from individual artists who work in an interdisciplinary form, or from an ensemble of artists. The closing date is Wednesday September 4th 2019 at 5pm.
The residency is hosted by DCU Institute of Education’s School of Arts Education and Movement. This opportunity is one of a number of artist residencies supported by the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon in the context of Initial Teacher Education. Each residency aims to:
Provide future teachers with opportunities to engage meaningfully with the arts as part of their initial teacher education;
Support future teachers to develop the skills and confidence to facilitate meaningful arts experiences for their students, and to champion the arts in schools;
Provide opportunities for artists to develop their skills and experience in education settings, and to develop their artistic work in a collaborative and supportive environment.
Save the date! Join the team at the National Gallery of Ireland for a day of inspirational talks, activities and practical advice to get you thinking about what a creative career might mean for you!
Meet gallery staff members and learn about careers in areas such as curatorial, conservation and education. Special guests from other creative fields will also talk about their work and how they got to where they are today.
Suitable for post-primary students (4th Year – 6th Year).
More details to follow, and tickets available from September.
Contact codonnell@ngi.ie for more information.
National Gallery of Ireland
Dates: Thursday 10 October 2019, 4pm – 6pm
The National Gallery of Ireland work with all teachers – to encourage confidence and agency in using art as a tool for learning. To support this they collaborate with DES and teaching practitioners to run accredited CPD courses, study days and conferences, and provide a wide variety of resources online.
Join Catherine O’Donnell, Education Officer for Teachers, Schools & Youth, for an evening exploring three very different exhibitions: Bauhaus 100: The Print Portfolios, Sorolla: Spanish Master of Light, The Zurich Portrait Prize, and The Zurich Young Portrait Prize 2019.
Learn more about their current schools programme, how you can utilise the Gallery’s collections and exhibitions for cross-curricular learning, and network with colleagues. Attendees can avail of a free ticket to a lecture about Sorolla by Christopher Riopelle, Neil Westreich Curator of Post-1800 Paintings, the National Gallery, London.
This event is free, but booking is required. To book, follow this link or contact education@ngi.ie
Reflecting on the first year of Creative Schools
Alongside the workshops that we held during May and June, the Creative Schools Teacher committee had come up with a Menu of Activities to accompany the workshops. The Children’s Panel also came together to add their suggestions for the Menu. This Menu was designed to be a list of easy classroom activities that the teachers could engage in at times and days of their choosing, to compliment activities that they may have been thinking of doing anyway. All of the activities were based on our theme of Food, Cooking and Nature. Some of the activities included links to Food Science websites; inviting parents into classroom to engage in cooking activities; ideas for nature based art; healthy shared lunches and forest and beach picnics. A copy of this Menu was delivered to each classroom for a four week period and all teachers were encouraged to engage with the programme.
During the last week of term, we invited our children’s panel to come and give us some feedback on the programme and how it was for them. Yvonne laid out big sheets of paper and had specific questions to provide information she was looking for. This proved a very fruitful if not a humbling experience. Each classroom and each class level had experienced varying levels of engagement with the programme, depending on each classes packed schedule. Therefore, the children all had varying feedback. As we all know children to be, the feedback was honest, and some of it wasn’t all that flattering!
As a whole jigsaw piece, the Creative Schools programme was successful in its aims and objectives for this year. But when you break the jigsaw into individual pieces, it didn’t feel that that success had filtered down to all of the children in all of the classes. This was disappointing for both myself and Yvonne, as there had been a huge investment in the programme all year. It’s all about the children at the end of the day, and if the children didn’t benefit, well then there were questions to be asked. Myself and Yvonne had a good chat about it all, and agreed that if we had decided to focus in on one class grouping for example, and showered all of our Creative Schools programme on just those children then undoubtedly the feedback may have been different, but that is not what we chose to do. Instead, we needed to focus on the whole completed jigsaw, celebrate the success and look ahead to how we can build on it next year.
We intend our focus next year to switch to teachers professional development in creative practices. We see a great opportunity next year to spend our time researching cross curricular creative practices, as we feel that in order for maximum children to benefit from the Creative Schools Programme, we need to up skill our own practices and thus all children will benefit. We feel very excited about this new aspect to the programme and we are looking forward to continuing this creative journey next year
Dublin City Council Arts Service
Closing date for receipts of tenders: 12 noon, Friday September 6th
Dublin City Arts Service has just announced an opportunity to tender for multi-party framework for Programming & Coordination of Children’s Art in Libraries.
Dublin City Arts Service is working to increase opportunities for children and young people to access quality arts experiences through partnerships with city departments and complementary arts and cultural organisations. The Children’s Art in Libraries Programme (CAL) seeks to provide innovative high quality arts experiences for children of all ages. Since 2010, the CAL Programme – an initiative of the Dublin City Arts Office – has worked in partnership with Dublin City Public Libraries to deliver innovative programming for children across a broad range of art forms.
In more recent years the CAL Programme began to develop its Creative Hub initiative. Creative Hubs seek to sustain high quality arts experiences for children, schools and families, enabling access in their library and locality through the development of enhanced educational, community and cultural partnership. In 2017 CAL began to develop its first Creative Hub in Ballyfermot Library this has been followed by a second Hub in Cabra Library in 2019.
Interested parties can find the e-tender notice on www.etenders.gov.ie , tender reference: RTF ID 155564
Tipperary County Council Arts Service
Dates: Ongoing
Tipperary County Council Arts Service offers schools in Tipperary the opportunity to borrow and display an exhibition of thirty-two contemporary prints by Irish artists. The prints from twenty two artists include works by Cecil King, Alice Hanratty, Patrick Hickey, Gene Lambert, Suzannah O’Reilly and Des McMahon. Print mediums include monoprint, relief print, etching, silkscreen, lithograph, collograph, and dry point. An informative exhibition catalogue for educational purposes is included with the print exhibition.
A one-day printmaking workshop in the school is also available as part of this opportunity. The prints are specially packed for easy handling and transport.
Teachers and schools can arrange to borrow the exhibition by contacting the Tipperary Arts Office by phone at 0761 06 5000 or by email at artsoffice@tipperarycoco.ie.
Deadline Extended: 5pm Friday 9th August 2019
Artists, teachers, academics and arts education professionals….Do you want to be part of the fourth annual National Arts in Education Portal Day?
The National Arts in Education Portal Day will take place at The Institute for Lifecourse and Society (ILAS), National University of Ireland Galway(NUIG) on Saturday 9th November in partnership with ILAS and Baboró. The event aims to bring together members of the arts in education and creative practice community from all across Ireland, to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired, and continue interrogating best practice in the field.
We are inviting proposals from organisations or individuals who want to give dynamic and inspiring presentations or workshops that can offer sharing of skills, practical approaches, new insights and critical thinking across the field, from a range of perspectives.
Do you have a workshop or presentation that you would like to be included in the programme for this day? If so, please send us your proposal.
Deadline for submission of proposals has been extended to 5pm Friday 9th August 2019.
Ciara has a PhD in English from Maynooth University. She has worked as researcher on the National Collection of Children’s Books (TCD) and “Gender Identity: Child Readers and Library Collections” at the Centre for Children’s Literature and Culture, DCU. She has taught English in various universities and currently works at Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership as Administrative and Development Officer.
Blog 4 – On Practising Creativity and Change
The second half of the Creativity and Change course focused on “application to practice” – on applying the forms and modes of creative engagement we had experienced and worked with in the first half of the course. Over numerous weekends, we practiced creativity across a variety of forms. In small teams, we co-facilitated creative workshops to critically focus on important local and global justice issues with our peers. We created a 60 foot piece of street art – participating in the entire process from beginning to end. We planned and designed a number of creative street actions to engage the public in Cork city in support of Climate Case Ireland.
A core part of the Creativity and Change course is its focus on connecting learning that occurs through the head, hand, and heart – through reflection and critical thinking, through doing, making and taking action, and through affective learning and creating connections. Each weekend, each activity, actively engaged all three modes of learning. Not only did we practice the application of creativity and creative processes to encourage a critical reflection and action to change on global justice issues, we also built a community, a collective, however temporary, within which these experiences became all the more meaningful.
This head, hand, and heart model is not just something to apply to just certain learning experiences, but something that can inform so many areas of our lives, our learning, our teaching, our living. This too, like creativity, is something to practice each day and to continually build on.
Now, perhaps more than ever, it seems like the time to take action in our world, to resist retreating into apathy. The scale and persistence of the global justice issues that we face can make taking action seem like an impossible task. What the Creativity and Change course encourages is a sense that this continually coming back to these issues need not feel futile, or as evidence that things do not change despite our best efforts. That instead, circling back to social justice issues in new, creative, and diverse ways, is also something to live, and to make part of our lives.
Blog 4 – Reflect and Refine
My first year working as a Creative Associate on the Creative Schools Programme with my three allocated schools has ended. Nothing feels finished however; it feels as if we are just starting. While creative activities took place in each school as a direct result of the consultation process, I view this years work as research and development and I won’t be surprised if year two feels like more R&D. The consultation process in each case was very thorough and the conversations with the coordinators and, less frequent but equally important, with management, were robust and wide-reaching. Through evaluation with a selection of children from each school, for the most part, they report having both enjoyed and learned from their participation in the programme so far.
In my mind, the role of the Creative Associate is to assist in embedding creative approaches to teaching and learning (one could say to thinking and being) within the school environment. Reflecting on this, it would be easy to be disappointed with the years work, it falls far short of achieving that aim. There were small disappointments; not all teachers participated in the organised activities, not all children made the connection between the opinions they put forward in the consultation process and the resulting activities that they participated in, some of the planned activities didn’t materialise, some people didn’t enjoy the activities. There were larger logistical issues at play too; the late commencement of the programme combined with the lengthy intensive consultation process meant that most activities took place at the very time of year when schools are most busy. This had the most impact at G.E.T.N.S. where we developed and implemented an ambitious whole school programme of activities in May and June. The whole school cohesiveness we needed to realise the holistic nature of this programme got lost in the end of year ether. I choose to reflect on all of this as learning.
My three schools and I are building relationships together, we are reaching levels of understanding, finding out what works and what doesn’t in each setting. We are journeying. As a result of this long-term attitude and shared vision for trying to go a level deeper into creativity within the school environment, we have clear pointers for 2019/20. A large part of our work together will be investing in creative professional development for teachers. This would appear to be the most necessary and sustainable use of our time together. Our main challenges will be freeing up staff time and reaching beyond the arts curriculum. G.E.T.N.S. will engage in a Per Cent for Art project that will hopefully build, in a very exciting way, on our work together this year; the boys at Athenry are leading us toward a programme around creative play and the outdoor environment; Eglish are going to further their digital skills acquisition. The process is creative and child-led and this makes sense to me.
Frank is an Irish designer /cultural producer with an interest in film, the arts & architecture. His professional practice includes the design of buildings, & set design for film/television production. He holds a BA in Architecture, 2008 and a Professional Diploma in Architecture, 2012 both from London Metropolitan University. Prior to this he recieved a B.Des. in Production Design for Film/Television, from IADT. This background has informed his approach to practice, which is collaborative, interdisciplinary and site specific.Interested in the critical potential of design he established Architecture at the Edge in 2017, for which he devised and curated the events programme. He produced an outdoor installation, ‘Ghost Chapel’ for Galway International Arts Festival 2018 in collaboration with the Bartlett School of Architecture.
Learning from the power of place – Blog 3
“I walk because it confers- or restores- a feeling of placeness …I walk because, somehow, it’s like reading …”
― Lauren Elkin, Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London
Charles Baudelaire and Walter Benjamin wrote a while ago about the modern man, who walked the city in order to explore its history, the architecture, the changing environment.
That idea of exploring and thinking is about making sense of things, the places and people we encounter, and this approach can also be applied to adolescence children in their world, by interacting, investigating, questioning, and forming, testing and refining their ideas.
Place-based education promotes learning that is rooted in what is local— the unique local history, environment, economy, culture, landscapes, and architecture of a particular place – in mapping the students’ own “place” or immediate schoolyard, neighborhood, town or community. And walking is like mapping with your feet. It can promote a place-specific, sustainable approach to living, working and playing for all.
Following an introduction to the IAF Architects in Schools Programme to the TY students at St. Raphael’s College, Loughrea we started by asking the students a little about the town, the whereabouts of where they live and by what means had they travelled to the school that day. I wanted to find out about their lived experience and connection to the place. From this informal survey it soon became clear that the majority lived in either peripheralhousing estates or ribbon development on the towns fringes – the exception a few living on farm settlements in the environs of the county side. Not one it seemed lived within the town itself. I suggested walking the town together would allow us to stop – take a detour – and explore the form of that built environment.
Finding a historic street map from the local library and placing a glass, rim down, onto the map, we drew round its edge. We then instructed the students to pick up the map, go out into the town, and walk the circle, and keeping as close as they can to the curve, record their observations. This also helped them to get an idea of where we were in the context of the place. Loughrea town is compact and so in short, the walk would show us all the key places in the town, and help us see some hidden gems in the process. By walking – not only do you get great exercise – you won’t miss details and you’re much more likely to go in different buildings, squeeze down alleyways, etc.
Loughrea lies at a number of boundaries, both historic and geographic and its pattern and form of development has been shaped by these features at the various stages of its development. The lake and medieval moate are wonderful but one could easily pass through Loughrea without noticing either. Its existing street plan closely follows that of a medieval layout. Many tall narrow properties on either side of the Main Street occupy burgage plots laid out in the 13th century.
The Temperance Hall / Barracks road complex is a palimpsest in which the layered history of Loughrea is revealed. Signs of the walled town, the original Gate House and successive military occupations are evident at even a quick glance. Behind the Temperance Hall, built c1780s as a Cavalry Barracks, we found a complex of buildings enclosed by fragments of a defensive wall. The site backed up to the lake with picturesque views out to the crannogs and surrounding landscape beyond. Student research later revealed the arrangement had once also included a hospital, infirmary and forge. Part currently provides social, cultural and educational services for the people of the town. This was the chosen site for the student’s design project. One of the first tasks we set in carrying out the survey was to photograph and to draw these buildings.
The aim, to adapt the assembly of buildings and introduce / incorporate new housing typologies into it to form a new ‘piece of town’. One that faced the lake but which also utilized the existing network of lanes which connect back from here into the town proper. The project was somehow about revitalizing this forgotten space, repopulating it and in so doing, assist in remedying the vacancy seen in the adjacent streets at the town center.
Adopting this strategy, the workshops which followed were designed to place the student at the center of this process, and resulted in propositions for a new linear public park, a café on the crannog and a new mixed residential community. All this, a clear demonstration for the potential of architecture to enhance the experience of living and working in the 21st century Irish town, coming from the students themselves.
It goes to show that if we start with small steps …. to support novice viewers become more observant and more thoughtful about what they are looking at then this can empower them to present an alternative vision for their existing built environment. It is so vital that our towns are living vibrant places, of social and cultural exchange, community and interactions and so they must be constantly maintained as adaptive changing entities.
We see that legacy of bad planning in towns like Loughrea. It’s one symptomatic of the challenges facing many small communities in Ireland – contradictory forces in the commercial landscape due to changing consumer behavior patterns, with resultant accepted sprawl of housing leading to vehicular predominance, and the changing demographics – have pulled and shaped the town, and continue to do so resulting in increased vacancy at its core. In the context of climate change walkable and compact small towns have so much to offer us. The aim must be to shift the narrative from ‘conserving’ or ‘preserving’ small town settlements to ‘re-thinking’ and ‘championing’ them.
The students demonstrated an understanding of how these challenges faced by smaller communities can be overcome through sensitivity, creativity, collaboration and long-term stewardship. The projects demonstrate the possibilities of working in historic fabrics, re-connecting town centers to their surroundings and integrating a mix of uses into town centers. They arrived at a way of living which might suggest a more flexible approach to the town plot. It’s about creating a learning experiences that leverage the power of place. In fostering students’ connection to place, help their understanding of where they live and how taking action in their own backyards helps to take care of the world around them.
In full Swing
School days in May and especially June are incredibly busy. It always seems to creep up unexpectedly, but yet every year is the same! This business presented our biggest challenge when it came to implementing our Creative Schools programme. Starting up a creative programme for the whole school community at the same time and at this time of the year isn’t ideal. Myself and Yvonne had made a conscious decision that every single child would have access to the creative programme, and thus we spread it over 15 classrooms and over 400 children, rather than focusing in on a smaller cohert of children, and delivering a more comprehensive, focused programme. We decided this because we felt it was in line with our ethos of equality and inclusion and we didn’t want there to be a feeling that some children were accessing the creative schools programme when others were not. The reality of this decision was that we had to try hard to fit everything in to what was an already packed end of year schedule. There were successes, but undoubtedly there were also some disappointments.
The stand alone workshops were a great success. The infant classes had workshops with Down to Earth Forest schools, who demonstrated wonderfully creative ways to use our outdoor school environment to engage the children. First Class had workshops related to the importance of bees and pollination. Second Class went to visit an organic farm and brought back with them a box of organic vegetables that they cooked up creatively. Third Class designed nests for bees, and designed an outdoor area for sowing wildflower seeds. Fourth and Fifth classes visited woods near our schools and managed to forage over 15 different types of plants growing in our woods. Afterwards, they made some tinctures and elderflower cordial from their pickings. Sixth class had a workshop with Yvonne, discussing food production and the methods that Yvonne used to create her visual short film.
The workshops brought a great buzz to each class level and certainly opened the children’s minds to environmental issues as well as seeing how to creatively utilise the resources that we have easy access to in our immediate environment. Feedback for the workshops was universally positive from the children. We held a feedback meeting with the children’s creative committee and I will discuss the outcomes from this feedback meeting in the next blogpost.
The Ark
Dates: 2 & 3 August 2019
The Ark continue our monthly early-years programme Seedlings with a special workshop perfect for children ages 2-4 to get creative with their older relatives.
Come on an imaginative journey to the beach! It’s a fine sunny day and the children are having fun playing in the sand. Then some unexpected visitors arrive and seem to behaving in a suspicious manner.
What is going on? Join in and explore what happens in this delightful workshop adventure by the sea.
Combining drama, story, play and props, this interactive drama workshop invites little ones and their grown-ups to enjoy imagining together. So if you’re a parent, grandparent, uncle, aunty, godparent or carer, come along with a 2 to 4 year old and join in the fun.
Back for a fourth summer, The Ark are excited to present this really popular engaging arts summer course focusing on the two curriculum areas of Drama and Music.
This is a five day Department of Education and Skills and EPV-approved summer course for teachers.
Working with two outstanding creative practitioners, you will enjoy a week of experiential learning and development. Your confidence and skills in both music and drama will increase through highly participative and inspiring course content.
Using themes drawn from SPHE, English and other subjects, participants will explore a variety of imaginative approaches to integrated curriculum delivery. Teachers of all levels of experience will be able to fully engage in this rich week of professional development.
Course content and highlights will include:
Developing confidence and skills to deliver all aspects of the primary school music and drama curricula
Using music and drama to imaginatively respond to themes and concepts in other subjects
Working in teams and individually to bring themes to life through a range of creative approaches
Vocal development: both musical and dramatic voice use
Imaginative approaches to literacy and empathy, using both music and drama
Applying creative, reflective and evaluative practices used by musicians and theatre practitioners to teachers’ individual professional practices and to school self-evaluation.
Pathways to Production is an artist support programme led by Baboró, who has partnered with Druid, the Mick Lally Theatre, Branar Téatar do Phaistí, The Irish Theatre Institute (ITI) and Galway Theatre Festival, to support artists and young companies to develop their ideas with a view to presenting a full performance piece.
What GROW ‘Pathways to Production’ offers:
Space and time allowing artists to develop their ideas in a supportive environment.
Successful applicants will receive a bursary of €2,200 to further the development of their project.
Access to world-class work for children at Baboró International Arts Festival for Children, October 2019.
Opportunities to attend professional workshops and industry discussions at the Baboró Festival.
Access to venues, audiences, marketing and fundraising expertise.
Opportunities to share ideas and concepts in a safe, supportive environment.
Feedback via Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process Method – a widely-recognised method that nurtures the development of artistic works-in-progress through a facilitated dialogue between artists, peers, and audiences.
Access to support with recording your work via photography and videography
The exciting scheme involves workshops, sharing of works-in-progress with peers, as well as support in developing funding strategies. Baboró, Druid and the Mick Lally Theatre, Branar Téatar de Phaistí, The Irish Theatre Institute and Galway Theatre Festival will make our collective organisational experience and resources available to participants.
The Pathways to Production programme runs from October 2019 to October 2020.
Who is it for?
Open to all artists at any stage of their career who wish to develop work for children and young people (0-18 yrs).
Artists/companies based on the island of Ireland.
A maximum of two artists/companies will be chosen for October 2019 – October 2020 period
Deadline for submissions is 4pm, Friday 12th July 2019.
The Irish Forest School Association (IFSA) was founded in 2016 and is engaged in the promotion and development of the Forest School (FS) movement in Ireland. We bring Forest School practitioners together to inspire inclusive, playful learning for all, in nature. We want to build resilience and relationships, through our connection with each other, and the natural world, while inspiring creativity and supporting wellbeing. More information can be found on our website www.irishforestschoolassociation.ie.
Angie Kinsella of Nature Way (www.naturway.ie) is a passionate Forest School leader and sustainability teacher who have a firm belief in nature pedagogy. Angie feels that connecting with nature on an experiential level and encouraging learning in the outdoors is becoming ever more important in this increasingly digital age. Angie also works for Heritage in Schools.
Creative Experiences in a year at Forest School – Blog 3
Creative experiences this year at Forest School took on a slightly different feel for me and the children. I chose to fully immerse myself into celebrating and living with and through the Celtic calendar, also known as the Celtic Wheel. The Celtic calendar is focused on the cyclical change of seasons. Seasonal changes were very important to the Celts, who depended on the Wheel of the Year to dictate when to plough, sow, harvest, and rest. The turning of the Wheel represents the continuing birth, death and rebirth of nature. I felt the integration of this ancient way of being was appropriate for how I wanted to work in Forest School this year. I felt it was a helpful tool to inspire us to re-member, re-claim and re-weave our ancient heritage and what better place to share this than within the holding of the forest.
September was the return to school for children and also the month where we begin a new cycle around the Celtic Wheel. I started a long-term Forest School programme in the West of Ireland at the beginning of September. The first few weeks we entered into the woods and the children started to get to know the lay of the land. The forest floor still had plenty of flora present and the trees were full of leaves. The days were mostly warm and bright which helps, I feel, on many levels for myself, the children and their teachers.
I was met with a huge diversity of cultures within this group of children, which was such a delight; to witness the universal language of play that softly unfolds in a natural setting with the support of the Forest School principles. I witnessed children whose language skills may have been a challenge in a classroom setting blossoming in this environment. Some of these children had never been to a forest although it was only 10 minutes away from their school.
One girl joined us each week in her wheelchair with the incredible support and encouragement of her school teachers who were determined to make Forest School all-inclusive.
She would often spend time with other students crafting, or sometimes just take time out to relax in the hammock. There was always allocated time for free play. To climb trees, build forts, whittle sticks, or simple take time to be in the forest, alone or in groups, to relax in the hammock, to enjoy the canopy of the trees.
As we moved into October, I began to share and explore through fireside stories and crafts the meaning of Samhain, more commonly known as Halloween. I shared with the children how on this land we once celebrated ‘New Year’ at this time, how we honoured our ancestors, and how it was time to prepare ourselves for the winter ahead.
We made incredible sand helters stick skeletons. We whittled wands and swords and bows and arrows. We developed our fire lighting skills. We learned about wild foods and how to prepare wild foraged teas and cook feasts on the fire. We also explored how the fauna and flora of the land are preparing themselves and responding to the changing seasons. We crafted hapa zome (eco plant printing) with autumn berries, an explosion of colour. We also made nature journals so we could take note of the changes in the woods through drawing and words.
Each week that we met I asked the children to keep a close eye out and to feel the changes they noticed. As the leaves started to change colour on the trees and drop, I could certainly sense Nature starting to drop back into the underground. As the months passed and the darkness grew, I observed a shift in all our energy.
And then through Spring and now as the wheel continues through this time of blossom where we come close to Summer solstice. I feel the calling to play more energetic games and crafts that weave in the summer flora and fauna. I have learnt and continue to grow through this creative journey in the forest, in rhythm with the Celtic Wheel.
I recently received this feedback from a teacher who attended some of these sessions with her class. “The children grew mentally, physically and emotionally. They laughed and cried and sang and screeched and splashed and pushed themselves and explored and shared and learned so much about themselves and each other.” I feel this is a wonderful summary of our time in Forest School and the possibility it offers for creative expression for children, and for adults.
Blog 3 – Meaningful Actions
At this stage in the process, my role as Creative Associate on the Creative Schools programme is one of support. Here is an outline of the activities underway at each school and the decisions that informed them.
The boys at Athenry N.S. voted for the medium of construction and vocalised a desire for greater creative autonomy within activities. Staff voted to explore environmental arts and expressed an interest in professional development around the arts curriculum and cross-curriculum creativity. Both commented on the need for greater cohesion across the school community. Tom Meskell led a willow project, involving the whole school in a large-scale collaboration, with additional CPD for staff. Creative sustainability is encapsulated within the experiential process; the school sees that a whole-school project is possible and how it might work, the staff undertake a tailored exploration of creative collaboration with cross-curricular linkage, the children collectively shape a participatory experience that brings them together as a creative community, and everyone learns a new skill. The resulting work was celebrated with a magical installation at the school for Cruinniú na nÓg. 150 native tress were also planted on the school grounds.
Everyone at Eglish N.S. voted for up-skilling in Digital Media, specifically film and animation. The school has a very creative approach to curricular delivery, but the staff wished to expand on the creative confidence of everyone at the school toward greater self-expression. Again, the children vocalised a need for more creative autonomy and decision-making. Louise Manifold has been engaging the whole school in an exploratory journey of what creativity looks like, using accessible software such as green-screen and stop-motion on the school’s i-pads, and incorporating the children’s interests in movement, performance and nature. Staff are participating in customised professional development sessions that compliment the work with the children. The aspiration is to create a digital ‘guide to creativity’ informed by the children for children, which will be shared with families and peers and used by the school into the future.
Forest School Workshop by Down to Earth at Galway Educate Together National School
A programme of activities around food and nature, considering sustainability, regeneration and wellbeing, and involving talks, events, workshops and screenings, is in flow at Galway Educate Together N.S. The children voted overwhelmingly for cooking; a category that a voluntary children’s panel added to my long list of creative media. The staff showed a preference for nature-based activities. There was a shared desire to interact with external partners and off-site activities and an overall ambition to recognise, celebrate and communicate creative activities within the school and across the school community. The fifteen classes are each engaging in specialised workshops and choosing from an additional menu of activities around the expanded theme. Examples include foraging, farm walks, herbal tincture making, pollinator workshops, documentary screenings, wildflower sewing and forest school activities. The consultation process and this devised programme are also providing valuable research for an upcoming Per Cent for Art project for the school.
Stepping Back – Erasmus+ Permission to Wonder in a Post Primary School Art Room
A conversation with Anne Moylan, Art Teacher, Hartstown Community School, Clonsilla, Dubln15.
My experience with VTS has taught me that supporting authentic VTS practice, for our educators, our students, and myself is not a linear process. It thrives on a spirit of collaboration, time, and some resources to access training and share understandings of the method.
In 2016, Dublin City Arts Office piloted a partnership approach with the NCCA to test the VTS training pathway with a group of Irish educators from different backgrounds – professional educators who are from early years settings; primary school classroom teachers; secondary school (art) teachers; art educators (freelance museum and gallery educators, including teaching artists). It supported professional educators to train in Visual Thinking Strategies via Beginners and Advanced Practicums, with VTS/USA Programme Director, Yoon Kang O’Higgins. Erasmus+ Permission to Wonder extended this approach to six European partners, allowing us to deepen our understanding of the educators’ VTS practice journey through a research evaluation framework led by our partners, VTS Nederland. The intended impact is that, through supporting educators, children and young people will have access to opportunities for critical thinking & thoughtful citizenship; will be actively encouraged to trust their own perceptions and be open to the thoughts of others; will feel their observations are valued and valuable when dealing with visual expression.
Change has been apace in secondary school curriculum re-design in Ireland in recent years. The ‘new’ Junior Cycle places an emphasis on students’ holistic development, linking subject areas, and turning a titanic history of ‘information giving’ towards scaffolding students’ life skills to equip them for a rapidly changing technological and global world. This is a welcome change, and long awaited by us in the field that bridges arts, education and learning. It also invites challenging questions. I wonder what really happens in the classroom when we ‘step back’ and support our students to take the lead? In my conversation with Anne Moylan, a secondary school art teacher, and educator participating in Permission to Wonder, we discuss how her training in VTS has supported a shift in her teaching practice and heightened her awareness of the value of “stepping-back” for her students.
How does VTS inform your teaching practice?
For me, the method is very much about stepping back. It has definitely simplified down the process of looking at a painting, an object, a sculpture, piece of assemblage, for the first time. To ask the question – what is going on in this work? – and then to actually hear what the students can see and what they are thinking about it. You always come with your own knowledge but in a VTS image discussion you have to step back out of that. It is about allowing them to take you on any sort of a journey with their observations.
It is surprising when they point out something that you haven’t thought about or know already. You have to be prepared to go with the flow and therefore, your role completely changes with your students. You can make connections, bridge comments and themes, always developing the journey of their observation of the artwork. At the beginning, I found this difficult. Sometimes, as teenagers, you will find they are quiet or are afraid they are going to make a mistake. That really gets easier with experience and practice as the students get used to the process over time.
We are not looking at images on the art history course. These are images from the VTS/USA website or the Permission to Wonder project, chosen specifically for use in a VTS image discussion. They are images that I am not familiar with myself. So, I am out of my comfort zone. I find this invigorating.
*Permission to Wonder partners are building and testing a European based image bank specifically for use within the project by the educators. This will be available shortly on the project website www.permissiontowonder.com. Other images we have practiced with are drawn from the VTS/USA image curriculum for specific age groups available on https://vtshome.org/
What have you noticed happening for your students in a VTS image discussion?
Often, in a VTS session, you will find that students, who are very quiet usually, will begin to have a lot to say about a work. Some of these students would never talk, even in a practical art class. Then you show them an image, something will strike them in that image, and they really want to let you know what they see in it.
I have a number of students whose first language is not English. They have difficulty trying to say what they are looking at in their second language. Yet VTS gives them the space to do this. The atmosphere is very calm. That is the shift for me. Instead of giving them facts, dates and information about artwork, you are waiting to find out what they want to say about it, first and foremost.
With VTS, you really are connecting with their world. VTS allows the space for their world to connect with an artwork and indeed with me, as somebody from a different generation. You just see into their minds. Therefore, you could show them an image and the theme of mental health or family issues might come through from them. Of course you have to be careful and manage the discussion, not to flinch or be surprised. You might be flummoxed by what might come out of them. So holding your neutrality, and keeping the space safe for students, is important. VTS training helps you learn to do this effectively. You sometimes think they might be talking about their own lives, and yet they are not, they are talking about an artwork.
Your role becomes very much the facilitator of the discussion. Often I would have students, saying to me ‘When can we do this again?
Have you practiced VTS with images that are on the art history course?
Yes, for example, with Jan Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Wedding. When you ask the first question – what is going on in this work?- you get “I know all about this, we studied this in religion / we studied this in history”. This is an image that is a little bit recognisable to them. They are able to share what they have been taught. However, when you manage the discussion with conditional paraphrasing and ‘What more can we find?’ it deepens their engagement with the work. Even though they think they know as much as there is to know about it, it refocuses their attention back on the image. It deepens their concentration and gets their eyes back on the key elements of the picture.
As part of teaching art history, I take the opportunity to bring the students into galleries in Dublin. The guides tend to lead the tour with one voice- the guides voice. As an art teacher, I just want them to know you can walk into a gallery in any city, you do not have to pay, you can go in, see two pieces, and go back out again. With VTS and the three questions, it is a framework for them to use for looking at artwork, no matter where they are or what artwork they are looking at.
Can you recall a favourite VTS image discussion?
I have used VTS with all the year groups. However, I particularly remember a VTS discussion with a group of sixth years, at the end of the year, in May. We were finished the practical side of the preparation for the exam. With sixth years, you do not want to make anybody have to speak. It is fine if they don’t want to say anything. However, in this session, there was one boy from China. He had so much to say about a particular image. He related it back to his own country. It was a painting, with a bright yellow palette and all the children depicted had these red neckerchiefs. The Irish children read them as the scouts, or being members of a group, or a club. This boy went in a completely different direction. He described that this is what it is like in China, in school. He talked about his own experience. He spoke for a few minutes and got a round of applause from the other students. A girl in the group said to him ‘in all the years that you have been in the school, that is the most, I’ve ever heard you say’. So that is the kind of profound experience I remember coming from my VTS image discussions.
How do you think VTS complements the Junior Cycle art curriculum?
In the new junior cycle art curriculum, student voice is very important. It means stepping back and letting the student do the work, lead their learning process. This does not mean that your job is easier. Within the structure of classroom-based assessment, a lot of reflecting, verbalizing and building the visual vocabulary for teachers and the students, is required. The change is that you are putting the ownership for their learning and describing their learning process back on the student. Therefore, you need to facilitate the classroom environment more in order to achieve that.
What we are all nervous about is that it this is difficult to assess. For students and parents it is difficult to understand this change in emphasis. I gave my students a VTS image discussion as a piece of homework to try out with their parents. They took the framework and used it to look at any artwork or any piece of visual information with their family. The students were surprised with their parent’s observations and the conversations about the art work at home. I use it with my own family and it works very well!
How did Erasmus+ Permission to Wonder help you develop your VTS practice?
I really value that I have been involved in Permission to Wonder. As an art teacher in a school, you might be the only art teacher. You could be on your own, in your creative world. You are so busy day to day with project work. It is amazing to step out of it with VTS and to have an opportunity to meet other educators-to look at artwork with them using a different format. It is really quite enlightening and refreshing. There are four of us educators from Dublin and we are all coming from completely different backgrounds – gallery, artist, primary school and secondary school. Being involved in our own Irish group was brilliant. We helped each other to explore our own context and look at theirs. I really enjoyed the collaboration and it was invigorating to explore art with others.
The training practicums were very well paced out. In the Beginners Practicum, you had the three questions. But you have to get them right, and in the right order, remember the exact wording, and that was tricky for me in the beginning. It was also a challenge to learn to paraphrase accurately. That requires a lot of skill. In the Advanced Practicum, I loved learning about linking and framing comments. How you, as facilitator, can connect comments and really build the learning in the group. I enjoyed the training and understand that it is also up to me to support my own practice and keep motivated in using VTS.
What would you like to work on next in your VTS practice?
I did a VTS session with a society and politics class. None of these students were art students. We looked at images I selected specifically looking at politics and society – race, childhood issues, gender etc. VTS worked so well in this class. Students had so much to say and the images stimulated insightful conversations. I am interested in how VTS could be used in other subject areas and how I might help other teachers integrate VTS into their subjects in our school.
In this workshop, little ones will meet a king who loves spending time in his gorgeous garden surrounded by flowers, bees and butterflies.
One day he learns that other kings have wardrobes full of shiny cloaks and crowns so he buys himself a new cloak, and another, and another. Soon he has lots of dazzling cloaks of many colours but what about the garden? He has no money left to pay the gardeners and the garden is overgrown, the flowers are dying and the bees have gone.
Maybe you can make the King see sense and save his garden before it’s too late!
Combining drama, story, play and props, this interactive drama workshop invites little ones and their grown-ups to enjoy imagining together.
Dates & Times
Friday 5 July at 10.15am & 2pm
Saturday 6 July at 10.15am & 11.45am
The Ark, Dublin are delighted to be presenting this course for the fifth year in a row. This hands-on, creative course focuses on a visual arts approach to exploring narrative, literacy & other subjects.
This is a five day Department of Education and Skills and EPV-approved summer course for teachers.
The aim of the course is to enable participants to start the new school year with an enhanced tool box of skills and knowledge, in order to effectively deliver the visual arts curriculum in the classroom. Participants will be engaged ‘hands-on’ throughout this course so learning will be through doing. Working in teams and individually, you will cover a range of curriculum strands including drawing, painting, print, 3D construction, fabric and fibre.
A strong emphasis will be on building skills and confidence. The group will also explore how visual art can be used to engage with aspects of the English, SPHE, History and Maths curriculum, as well as to promote visual literacy approaches. School self-evaluation exercises will be incorporated as an integral part of the course.
This course will appeal to teachers of all levels of experience and will be facilitated by the visual arts and education specialist and founder of Art to Heart, Jole Bortoli. This is a continuing professional development opportunity not to be missed!
The National Gallery of Ireland this year are developing new resources and outreach programming, taking the Gallery off-site to schools across the country that may find it difficult to travel to Dublin. To help shape this programme, the Gallery will be forming a national network of teachers who will guide their research, planning and evaluation.
The Gallery are looking for teachers from across the country to be part of this network. They want the network to be as inclusive as possible, with every county represented, and a good mix of rural and urban, and primary, post-primary and special schools.
The network will primarily exist online, but each year we will hold programme-development workshops at the Gallery, where participants will help co-produce new programming. The Gallery also hope that members will host local events, helping to share learning and resources with their peers.
Fiona Lawton has been teaching secondary students in Scoil Bernadette Special School for the last ten years. She graduated with a Masters in Drama and Theatre Studies in UCC in 1999. During that period Fiona has been involved in writing, directing, acting and producing plays around Cork. In 2005 she played the part of the Magistrate in the award winning film ‘The Wind that Shakes the Barley’. In 2008 Fiona returned to UCC to complete a Postgraduate Diploma in Guidance and Counselling and subsequently in 2013 completed the Higher Diploma in Primary Education with Hibernia College. In school Fiona teaches a variety of subjects but has a passion for drama. Each year she works with a group of LCA students to devise, produce and perform a play. Fiona strongly believes in the importance of educating through the arts where creativity and collaboration are central to the learning process.
Creative Schools: Celebration Time – Blog 4
As the end of the school year approaches we have been looking forward to celebrating all our creative work that we have engaged in throughout the year.
On the 31st May all students in Scoil Bernadette participated in our Creative Schools Celebration Day. All students arrived in the hall to participate in eight different creative stations in small groups. There was a doodle corner, a lego station, a dance station, jenga, hook a duck, incredibox and a card making station. Everyone got a chance to try out each station to create, dance and play! A lot of fun was had and we all enjoyed ourselves.
In the afternoon, we all assembled in the hall to see some creative performances. In our school this year, our first years participated in the Music Mash Up programme where they learned to play different instruments and sing in a band. Music Mash up provides access for young people of all abilities to music in a fun, relaxed and inclusive way. This project was facilitated by Eamonn Nash. For more information see musicmashup.ie/about. We were lucky to see two performances by this group.
Our next performance we saw a dance piece that a selection of students from throughout the school were involved in. These students have been attending dance workshops every Thursday in the school with dance artist Lisa Cahill. The dance piece was part of the international movement of Global Water Dances. More information can be found on the website globalwaterdances.org/It was clear that the students had put in a lot of work and practice into their performance and it was a pleasure to see them express themselves so creatively.
We then saw a dramatic re-enactment of Johnny Cash’s song ‘A Boy Named Sue’ by the LCA 2 class. The group devised and performed the piece themselves. The play was entertaining and funny and the audience really enjoyed it.
Our main focus this year as a Creative School was to offer students additional Visual Arts Workshops for students across the school. These workshops culminated in a friendship tree which is proudly displayed outside our school. Each student coloured and drew on a series of discs which formed part of this collaborative picture. To conclude our Celebration Day we watched a photo story which documented these workshops. We saw the process of the work which involved a lot of teamwork and collaboration. These workshops were facilitated by Rosaleen Moore and Ailbhe Barrett, and led by Mairead O’Callaghan of Crawford Supported Studios. For more information see crawford.cit.ie/supported-studio-project-with-gasp-and-c_ig-artists/.
All of the participating students received a certificate from the principal for their role in the Creative Schools project this year.
This year we have developed existing relationships and also we have made new links and friendships with a lot of artists and organisations outside of our school. We were privileged to have all the artists who have worked with our school this year as guests on our Celebration Day.
The Creative Schools Project has ended for this year but creativity continues in Scoil Bernadette. Towards the end of the June we will be running an X Factor Competition where all students will again be taking to the stage to sing and dance. We are looking forward already to next year when we can get planning for our next Creative School project. Students already have an abundance of ideas of what they would like to do. We are delighted that we took part in the Creative Schools project this year and are proud of our participation and achievements.
Music Generation
Deadline: Thursday, 20 June 2019
South Dublin County Council (SDCC) is now inviting applications for the position of Music Generation Development Officer.
A Music Generation Development Officer will be appointed by SDCC and will be responsible for managing an extensive performance music education programme on behalf of South Dublin Local Music Education Partnership. Music Generation South Dublin is part of Music Generation – Ireland’s National Music Education Programme, which is co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education and Skills and Local Music Education Partnerships.
Specific Purpose Contract (Maternity Cover) (Salary range: €46,771 – €57,157 per annum)
Application form, job description and person specification available online at – www.sdcc.ie
Closing date for receipt of completed application forms: Thursday, 20 June 2019
Late applications will not be accepted.
Based on the volume of applications received short-listing may apply. Short-listing will take place on the basis of the information provided in the application form. Depending on the qualifications and experience of applicants, short-listing thresholds may be significantly higher than the minimum standards set out. SDCC is an equal opportunities employer.
Getting the Show on the Road
This second part of the process, putting together a programme of events on our theme of Food, Cooking and Nature, is a really exciting and energising process. It felt like it took such a long time to get to the point of settling on a theme that reflected the needs and wants of the children, their parents, and school staff. There was so much to choose from, the net was very wide. When we finally settled on the theme, it was really exciting to be able to brainstorm and come up with ideas that would reflect the needs of the school community in a programme of activities.
Yvonne had been busy behind the scenes putting the feelers out and getting in touch with artists and professionals working in these circles. All of the professionals that Yvonne contacted were very enthusiastic about participating in the Creative Schools Programme and delighted to link in with our primary school in a sustainable way. We have now arranged for every class level to have a workshop/trip off site, which could only have been achieved as a result of the funding we received as part of this process. We are very grateful to have had access to this funding and it’s a wonderful asset to have for our second year programme as well. Through these workshops the children will be bug hunting, foraging in our local woods, making tinctures, becoming Bee Aware and making our school grounds pollinator friendly, visiting an Organic Farm and a workshop with Yvonne on some short films she made around the butter making process.
Our Creative Schools panel of teachers and children also brainstormed together and came up with a “Menu of Activities” (pardon the pun!) that every classroom can engage with over the next few weeks. These activities range from Science experiments with food items, setting classroom up as a restaurant and having a healthy shared lunch; inviting parents in to classroom to bake with the children or to share their skills, screenings of food related programmes and documentaries. We are hoping to document the activities that the children are engaging in over the next couple of weeks so that we can celebrate this creativity when we come back after the summer holidays. It’s going to be an action packed few weeks and we are looking forward to it immensely!
Lucy Elvis is a director of CURO, a not-for-profit organisation committed to public philosophy. CURO helps communities think together more effectively by inviting them to become Communities of Philosophical Inquiry. CURO works in schools, libraries, galleries and festivals as well as organising clubs and camps that include scholarship streams for children from less privileged socio-economic backgrounds. They like to get people thinking in places where they least expect it and to listen to the ‘big ideas’ that matter to groups who often aren’t given a voice.
When Lucy isn’t engaged in public philosophy, she is completing her PhD thesis and lecturing in Philosophy at NUI Galway. She is also an independent visual art curator and a board member of the TULCA Festival of Visual Art.
Talking about thinking and thinking about Talking – Blog 2
Sometimes, our young philosophers’ work can appear deceptively low tech. Walk in on a CPI (a community of philosophical inquiry) and you’ll find children sitting in a circle, some speaking, some listening and sometimes a cuddly toy, or a ball being used to indicate who should be talking. But, in these seemingly straight-forward talking shops, mind-bending ideas are explained, exchanged, and even worlds reimagined.
So far, so not-so-different from ‘circle time,’ right? However, there’s much more happening in philosophical dialogue than ‘talking.’ Unlike conversation, where I might share some news, and then hear from someone else, content in the CPI is anchored in a philosophical question (a ‘big’ ‘tricky’ ‘contestable’ and ‘open’ question) that the community have voted on together. In the CPI our learners are trying to solve ‘big problems’ together. This requires careful critical thinking before making a contribution. In answering big questions like ‘Should we always be punished for stealing?’ I have to decide my overall position (yes/no) and the reason why I think so.
If the only goal of a CPI were sharing opinions, then the result would be a straight-forward debate. But, undertaking philosophical inquiry together, means finding the best possible answer we can to our ‘big question’- a tally of yesses and nos won’t cut it. We will have to test the consequences of any overall position we adopt, and this might mean imagining scenarios, (‘what about stealing something small from your sister?) adjusting them, (‘what about stealing something back?) or clarifying what you mean by using analogies to point at similarities and differences (‘stealing something back is like creating fairness.’*)
The creativity described here needs critical thinking too, to support the new possibilities it imagines, and to create boundaries for creative thinking to ‘go-beyond.’ Because of the ways being critical and creative work together, the CPI allows our young learners to see how thinking from radically different areas of the curriculum work together, and how, scientific discovery and creative expression are both united by care and curiosity that powers our passion to ‘find out more.’
The CPI is a place for talking through, exploring and building possible answers together. Making thinking about concepts or big questions’ share-able’ can be a challenge, and demands creativity, and a rethinking of what ‘being creative’ can be, if we can move from just sharing ideas to making and revising them together.
*The examples here are based on a workshop with Ballyroan National School, at Ballyroan Library, who asked the question: ‘Should we be punished for stealing’ after they read ‘The Whopper’ by Rebecca Ashdowne together.
Setting the Scene for Erasmus+ Permission to Wonder
My first encounter with Visual Thinking Strategies was at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) in 2001. I was on a public tour of the collection and the guide stood us in front of an artwork by Jackson Pollock and said ‘What is going on in this picture?’. I was challenged by the question. I was also surprised by the long, silent pause that followed it! The group discussion began slowly. All opinions offered by the group were considered by the guide, validated and acknowledged as a valuable contribution to the meaning of the work. But in truth, I was disappointed that the guide did not offer any explanation about history of the artwork. Being a graduate of history of art, I had visited a lot of museums and always enjoyed the experience of being told information and stories about the artwork and the life of the artist. The Pollock work was figurative, with references to native American iconography. I wanted to be told the ‘right answer’ about its intended meaning.
Soon after, I began an internship with SFMOMA and discovered that the discussion-based approach used on public tours was called VTS – Visual Thinking Strategies. I began to think more about visual learning and constructivist pedagogy. I was introduced to the basics of VTS facilitation – three questions – what’s going on in this picture? – what do you see that makes you say that? – what more can we find? – backed up with carefully considered paraphrasing on the part of the facilitator. I then did a piece of action-research with a group of adult learners with literacy difficulties from San Francisco Public Library which deepened my understanding of the role of the art museum as an active learning space which could harness rich opportunities for literacy/language development.
Visual Thinking Strategies is a teaching framework and a practice. It was devised in the late 1980s by Philip Yenawine, art educator and Abigail Housen, cognitive psychologist. At the time, Yenawine was Director of Education at The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City and was primarily concerned with making museum education programmes more effective. Yenawine and Housen’s research found that most viewers participating in museum programmes (specifically MOMA’s education programmes) were novice viewers, meaning that they had little experience looking at art, and their interpretations were relatively naïve.
VTS is based on three questions that aim to support novice viewers become more observant and more thoughtful about what they are looking at. This approach seems deceptively simple. However, with regular practice and when implemented effectively with a group, by a trained VTS facilitator, the (educational) outcomes are strong. Participants learn to acknowledge that every idea is important as they concentrate on justifying their idea with physical elements present in the work they are observing. This improves observation skills and builds confidence in understanding works of art, giving participants a sense of ownership and empowerment over their opinions about art. VTS involves no art-historical information and it does not require that the VTS facilitator have the answers to questions that arise in the course of discussion. However, it does require educators to accept that they are not teaching aboutart. Rather they are facilitating critical debate and thinking about art and indeed the bigger themes that emerge from an artworks’ powerful mirroring of the world. I have learned from my own training with VTS/USA, that while VTS is a valuable method in my arts in education toolkit, my VTS practice requires consistency and reflection to genuinely support students’ thinking, learning and aesthetic growth.
While art museums are increasingly more open to audience centred approaches in mediating art, historically, this has not always been the case. French sociologist, Pierre Bordieu, went so far as to claim that the “true function” of the art museum was to “reinforce for some the feeling of belonging and for others the feeling of exclusion” and his research highlighted a public perception of art institutions as a type of holy shrine for artwork to be admired but not necessarily understood. [i] The opposite is the agenda for the durational work with VTS at Dublin City Council’s LAB Gallery. As a contemporary art space for experimentation and risk taking in the visual arts in Dublin, The LAB Gallery has played a critical role in giving professional development, time and space for contemporary art, educators and local children in Dublin 1 to collaborate in a shared investigation of VTS. Sheena Barrett, the LAB’s Curator, highlights the importance of VTS in providing a safe space to practice discussions that support our capacity to ‘wonder’ as opposed to moving too quickly to judgement about an artwork and/or complex social issue.
Artist Claire Halpin, Art Teacher Kieran Gallagher and Liz Coman at the MACA Contemporary Art Museum Alicante
Erasmus+ Permission to Wonder aims to widen the network of VTS peers through training and sharing learning. The project focuses on supporting ‘educators’ to develop a Visual Thinking Strategies practice over time. Over the course of this blog series, I hope to introduce you to the Irish educators who participated in Permission to Wonder. Kieran Gallagher is a secondary school art teacher based in St Oliver’s Community College, Drogheda and is a member of the visual arts Junior Cycle training team. Claire Halpin, is a professional artist and art educator and is the co-ordinator of the VTS Neighbourhood Schools Programme led by Central Model Senior School. Anne Moylan is a secondary school art teacher based in Hartstown Community College, Dublin 15. Jane Malone is a primary school teacher based in St Catherine’s National School, Donore Avenue, Dublin 8. Sile McNulty Goodwin is Education Curator at Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane. Kathryn Maguire is a professional artist and art educator.
Assistant Arts Officer Liz Coman, Teacher Anne Moylan, Education Curator Sile McNulty , Teacher Jane Malone and Artist Kathryn Maguire in the David Museum, Copenhagen
[i] As quoted in Stephen E. Weil, Esq, “On a New Foundation: The American Art Museum Reconceived,” in A Cabinet of Curiosities: Inquiries into Museums and Their Prospects (Washington, D.C. : Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995), 106.
Blog 2 – Collate and Prioritise
I collected a lot of information from the schools I have been working with as part of my role as Creative Associate on the Creative Schools Programme; written notes, visuals, statistics, survey information. The biggest school (Galway Educate Together on Newcastle Road) has over 500 pupils and 50 staff. Regardless of the size of the school, everyone was asked for their opinions. This took time and investment from myself, the coordinators, staff, voluntary Children’s Creativity Panels and, at G.E.T.N.S., a voluntary Staff Creativity Panel. Questions were asked such as: What are the challenges to being creative in the classroom? What are the opportunities for this Creative Schools Programme? If you were the principle of this school and had money to spend, what creative things would you spend it on? Age-appropriate surveys were completed with in-depth questions regarding the level of engagement with creativity in the classroom, staff planning, allocation of funding, parental awareness of creative activities etc. There were votes, by all parties, in relation to areas of interest and creative media to explore. Everywhere I went I brought colored sharpies and hundreds of colored post-its, blue-tack and masking tape, large sheets of paper and visual aids. The workshops were active and inclusive and very enjoyable.
I then worked through the valuable information, stored on sheets and post-its or documented through photographs, in the same way that I would with research for any project; by laying it all out and finding the overlaps and patterns within it. I moved post-its around, joined them with arrows and written notes. Through this process of collating and prioritising (staff were involved to a certain extent during workshops), I produced a visual mind-map for each school. I returned to present the findings and discuss suggestions as to how we might address the prioritised information. My hope in each case was to find a way to marry the medium / media of choice with a methodology through which prioritised learning could be imparted and to also encompass the larger contexts, aims and ambitions, outlined by each school. Context, method, medium, not necessarily in that order, are the three strands that merge to inform and form my own artistic practice and individual projects and are the main elements of my teaching methodology.
There followed a consultative process involving staff, staff panels, children and children’s panels, through which my suggestions were padded and shaped collectively. In each case we made decisions on ‘projects’. These projects have a beginning, middle and end, however they are not stand-alone. Rather, they have been devised as a way to carry experiential learning on a number of levels and to keep this learning open so that it can be expanded upon. They have also been devised in collaboration with specific artists; the ‘who’ is as important as the ‘how’ and the ‘why’. In each case I approached particular people and engaged them in conversations, alone and then with the schools, to further shape what might happen. We are now at that wonderful point where the work is starting to unfold.
Frank is an Irish-born designer /cultural producer with an interest in film, architecture & the arts, design and technology. An honors graduate in Production Design for Film, TV and theatre, he spent the best part of a decade in this sector. Coming from a film and set design background, he has always been passionate about the power of buildings and spaces to tell stories and he developed this interest further when he later moved into interior and architectural design work setting up practice in London in 2001. This experience led to a decision to study architecture at London Metropolitan University where he was awarded an BA Honors’ Architecture in 2008 and a Professional Diploma in Architecture 2012.
His professional practice includes the design of buildings & set design for film and television production. This has informed his approach to practice, which is collaborative, interdisciplinary and site-specific. With a long term interest in the critical potential of design he established the Architecture at the Edge Festival in 2017, for which he devised and developed the events programme through all stages: planning, development and administration, including the curation and production of an annual symposium on Placemaking & associated workshops. He recently produced an outdoor built installation, ‘Ghost Chapel’ for Galway International Arts Festival 2018 in collaboration with Bartlett School of Architecture.
Cities Need Old Buildings – Blog 2
‘Cities need old buildings so badly it is probably impossible for vigorous streets and districts to grow without them…. for really new ideas of any kind—no matter how ultimately profitable or otherwise successful some of them might prove to be—there is no leeway for such chancy trial, error and experimentation in the high-overhead economy of new construction. Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.’
From; The Death and Life of Great American Cities , Jane Jacobs
In my last blog I described how we extended the Irish Architecture Foundation (IAF) – Architects in Schools learning programme at The Bish into engagement beyond the school gate. Incorporating urban sketching on Nuns Island and other activities within the workshop itinerary in an attempt to encourage and allow the students an opportunity to examine their city from another perspective … to be creative. To be imaginative.
With the school located on part of the under-utilized parcel of land at the edge of Galway City center, the regeneration of Nuns Island lands need careful and detailed consideration it being directly between the City and NUI Galway it easily facilitates an expansion of the University campus or an expansion of the City creating a civic space to carefully bring both City and University together. NUI Galway and Galway City Council recently launched a public consultation for this very purpose. The aim here is to transform Nuns’ Island into a new quarter that will enable the city to capitalize on its creativity, enterprise and quality of life. The masterplan is being prepared by internationally-renowned planners BDP, business strategy advisors Colliers International and quantity surveyors AECOM. It is supported by the Government’s Urban Regeneration Development Fund. Focusing on this regeneration of Nuns Island we were delighted that Gareth McGuire, Architect Director BDP agreed to lead the students on a mapping exercise.
So we took a walk through their Island, mapping the existing spaces and their functions, recording the grain of the place and also seeking out opportunities for future interventions.
Amongst the key programmatic functions identified by the students in this process a number of themes evolved;
The adaptive reuse potential for abandoned or ‘forgotten ‘ spaces – such as vacant former industrial buildings now in ownership of the NUI Galway.
The Island as a Place of Sanctuary in the middle of the city – the Island being the location of the Cathedral, the former Bish School Monastery and Poor Clare Nuns Convent.
An Urban Garden – utilizing the natural elements at the island location i.e. the surrounding canal / river waterways and incorporating open green spaces such as the Fisheries Field.
Amongst these functions one of the activities identified by the students is the sight every July of the Big Blue Tent at Fisheries Field, erected for the duration of GIAF Arts Festival. It’s a signifier of the festival status which is core to the public life of the city and a landmark for the summer. We discussed with the students about this ‘creative arts entertainment’ intervention and the potential for other spaces on the island, such as the old derelict Persse’s Distillery Building for adaptive reuse purposes. What might those buildings and spaces become? Student accommodation? With the meeting of ‘Town and Gown’ perhaps a shared library building for the city would be useful? Or a new Distillery? A Contemporary Art Gallery? Co-working spaces to foster a creative community? The students could quite readily foresee that in the creative use of these spaces lies the key to regeneration for the entire masterplan.
GIAF Big Top
During the process I was reminded of a famous line from the late great urbanist Jane Jacobs: “New ideas must use old buildings.” So how to interpret and translate that into a way which might allow the students to engage directly in the process of reimaging Nuns Island?
Attending the Galway International Arts Festival 2019 programme launch last Thursday, the Artistic Director Paul Fahy, referred to the lack of cultural infrastructure in the city, reaffirming the festivals need to ‘Adapt old spaces and turn them into something new … ’he announced that as in previous years having utilized the former Connacht Tribune Printworks for the Festival Gallery, and this now being is no longer available, (again its being repurposed but now as an indoor food market), GIAF is out of necessity appropriating and re-adapting the old GPO Sorting Office for the Festival Gallery 2019. Situated just off William street this building is just one other city center site which has lain vacant and idle for many years. Out of sight and just screaming for rejuvenation!!
The GIAF festival have always been the cultural pioneers in this city whom out of necessity occupy overlooked and abandoned spaces and transform them into vibrant active places. They understood that a former printing works, or an GPO sorting office can accommodate exactly the kind of framework needed for a creative hub /district. Both examples demonstrate a pragmatic response, creating flexible public buildings that give scope for further development. That kind of loose-fit re-apportion of space does not dictate how it should be used, the potential for revival is already there in the infrastructure and Galway has the cultural riches to attract people in the first place. It’s a matter of turning it to the right purpose. To look at the seeming familiar from another perspective …
As Architects we are often challenged to respond to these kinds of circumstances by conceiving new ideas for the design or re-design of existing spaces. In this process architects can become both activist and educator, championing the cause and helping to galvanize the support of the local community.
This was the approach taken with the students at the Bish. Bringing the class out into the town to explore and experience spaces and familiar places on their door step. To invite them to contribute and make decisions on what buildings or spaces they would like to create in their own local area. You could sense the excitement among the student participants in engaging as stakeholders themselves in that process which shapes their environment, in opening up new ways of looking and engaging with the world, and just perhaps pathways to creative careers as master planners or cultural pioneers for a few.
National Gallery of Ireland
Date: 1 July – 5 July 2019
This CPD course offers a unique opportunity for primary school teachers to expand their artistic skill set in a national cultural institution.
Join facilitators Claire Hall and Sinéad Hall for this National Gallery of Ireland CPD course comprising a series of presentations focusing on the six strands of the primary school visual arts curriculum, followed by workshops in drawing, painting, print, fabric and fibre, construction and clay. The sessions will involve hands-on, practical activities, and lessons that can be used at all class levels, with direct references to related works of art in the Gallery’s collection.
The course will cover all strands and strand units of the visual arts curriculum; the elements of art; linkage and integration across the curriculum; and assessment and self-evaluation. The course will also focus on the centrality of looking and responding and process throughout the strands. Course attendees will participate in tours of the Gallery’s current exhibitions, and some workshops may take place in gallery rooms.
All attendees will receive an information pack detailing all that the Gallery has to offer primary schools. Produced by the National Gallery’s Education Department, the information pack will include advice on visiting galleries and cultural institutions with students; suggestions on how to introduce primary school children to art and art history; and details on how to access online resources.
The course fee covers all materials, handouts, equipment and supplies. All art work completed during the course may be photographed and/or taken home at the end of the course as a reference for classroom use.
Dates and time: Monday, 1 July – Friday, 5 July | 9.30 am – 2pm Course Fee: €90.00 Max. number of participants: 25 Suitable for: Primary school teachers
For information and to book, please email: sineaddehal@gmail.com | claire.hall3838@gmail.com
The Irish Forest School Association (IFSA) was founded in 2016 and is engaged in the promotion and development of the Forest School (FS) movement in Ireland. We bring Forest School practitioners together to inspire inclusive, playful learning for all, in nature. We want to build resilience and relationships, through our connection with each other, and the natural world, while inspiring creativity and supporting wellbeing. More information can be found on our website www.irishforestschoolassociation.ie.
In this second blog post, Kerry Walker talks about how the Forest School principles can be used to unlock creative potential in children (and adults!)
Kerry Walker is a passionate Forest School Practitioner and Art Therapist. Her appreciation for nature and art has brought her on creative journeys around the world. She has facilitated creative arts programmes with a focus on using art and nature as a tool for integration, connection and awareness. Kerry is the co-founder of Down to Earth Forest School, a nature based educational programme where children are supported to learn and create through nature. (www.downtoearthforestschool.com)
Unlocking Creativity through the Forest School Principles – Blog 2
The wider the range of possibilities we offer children, the more intense will be their motivations and the richer their experiences. – Loris Malaguzzi
The Irish Forest School Association follows six guiding principles set out by the Forest School Association in the UK in 2011. These principles form the foundation that gives the learner the freedom to choose how they approach challenges and activities in natural spaces. Forest School, based on these principles, creates a space to encourage and support us to think critically and creatively. I am going to look at each of the principles and highlight how they are key to unlocking and supporting the creative development of children, as well as promoting resilient and independent learners.
In short, Forest School:
takes place in a woodland setting
is a long term process of regular sessions
creates a community for learning and development
promotes holistic development
provides the opportunity to take risks
is run by qualified FS practitioners
By using a woodland setting for Forest School sessions, we are providing an open-ended natural environment for the children to explore. The Forest School setting is abundant with sticks, leaves, soil, stones, and many more natural objects. They are materials that can be carried, moved, combined and redesigned – they are what Simon Nicholson (1971) referred to as loose parts. He proposed that access to loose parts encourages children’s creativity and provides a greater range of opportunities (Nicholson, 1971).The woodland setting is also providing the learner with continuous access to the natural environment where they are able to immerse themselves in the creative stimulation that nature so freely provides.
Ensuring that Forest School is a long term process of regular sessions is an important factor. As the sessions are continuous, the children are given time to return to their woodland site on a weekly basis throughout the seasons. With this time, they are afforded the opportunity to work on a certain craft or skill at their pace, and develop and share their own ideas. They are not rushed or told to have a final product; they get to experience the process of creating something over time.
By using a range of learner-centred processes, Forest School aims to create a community for development and learning.It provides a platform for all learning preferences. Play and choice are an integral part of the Forest School learning process, and play is recognised as vital to learning and development at Forest School (FSA, 2011). Child-led play is central to Forest School and play facilitates a creative response in us all.
Promoting holistic development and opportunities for supported risk taking are considered central to Forest School and also to enhancing creativity. Forest School aims to develop, where appropriate, the physical, social, cognitive, linguistic, emotional, social and spiritual aspects of the learner (FSA, 2011). It encourages children to lead activities, it can help improve fine motor skills, promotes self-awareness and gives the child ownership of the sessions. Forest School encourages children to step out of their comfort zone. In doing so, the children are able to become more aware of their physical and mental limits and are more able to assess situations. They are supported to think creatively and to trust themselves.
Qualified FS Practitioners are aware of the importance of child-led activities and so they do not teach or tell children what to do. Instead they provide ideas, activities and resources and facilitate opportunities for children to pursue their interests. Over time this supports the children’s confidence and fosters creative thinking.
By providing children a long-term learning process within a woodland setting, while supporting risk and holistic development, and by creating a community for learning with a qualified practitioner the Forest School principles are key to unlocking and supporting creativity in children.
Gill, Tim, (2007) No Fear: growing up in a risk adverse society
Nicholson, Simon (1971) The Theory of Loose Parts, An Important Principle of Design and Methodology. Open University.
A Music Generation Development Officer will be appointed by each education and training board and will be responsible for managing an extensive performance music education programme on behalf of the Local Music Education Partnership in each county.
All five counties have recently been selected for participation in Music Generation – Ireland’s National Music Education Programme, which is co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education and Skills and Local Music Education Partnerships.
Five year, fixed-term contract (€46,771 – €57,157)
Application form, job description and person specification and other details available from –
The Music Generation Development Officer will be appointed by MSL ETB and will be responsible for managing an extensive performance music education programme on behalf of Sligo Local Music Education Partnership.
Five year, fixed-term contract (€46,771 – €57,157)
Application forms, job descriptions and person specifications available online at – www.msletb.ie
Applications on the official MSL ETB Application Form are only accepted by email to: employment@msletb.ie
It is vital to insert the Reference Number of the Post in the subject line of your email.
Closing date for receipt of completed application forms: Friday 7th June
Late applications will not be accepted.
Based on the volume of applications received short-listing may apply. Short-listing will take place on the basis of the information provided in the application form. Depending on the qualifications and experience of applicants, short-listing thresholds may be significantly higher than the minimum standards set out. MSL ETB is an equal opportunities employer.
Baboró
Dates: 1st – 5th July 2019
Baboró releases final spaces for ‘Drama Tools for the Classroom’, an EPV approved Continuous Professional Development (CPD) course for educators, therapists and artists.
A limited number of tickets are now available for Baboró’s annual Continuous Professional Development (CPD) course, Drama Tools for the Classroom, taking place from Monday 1st to Friday 5th of July at the O’Donoghue Centre, NUI Galway.
Develop practical, fun and engaging teaching methodologies in this EPV approved CPD course; delivered by teacher, dramatist and facilitator Irene O’Meara, B.Ed., LLSM, MA Drama & Theatre Studies.
The week-long course of workshops is designed for primary school teachers but is also open to educators, therapists, artists and facilitators. It is for those who value the art of communication, empathy and co-operation, and wish to use drama and the creative arts to effectively engage children in teaching a range of topics.
The course will cover all the required teaching methodologies such as Active Learning; Problem Solving; Collaborative Learning and Discussion and Use of Environment, while also developing skills that can be used in a multitude of settings with many subject areas. Participants will then be guided through the processes of using drama as a methodology that supports the Using, Understanding and Communicating as per the New Primary Language curriculum.
Booking and Event Details:
Course cost of €70.00.
Taking place from 9.30am – 2.00pm Monday 1st to Friday 5th of July at the O’Donoghue Centre, NUI Galway.
Tickets available on Eventbrite at bit.ly/2JbUBG0. Places are limited and advanced booking is required.
This is an EPV Department of Skills and Education approved course and participants will receive a certificate of completion. For further information contact admin@baboro.ie or call 091 562 667
Music Generation
Kerry, Kildare, Longford, Meath and Tipperary have been announced as the next five counties to join the Music Generation programme.
As part of Music Generation, each of the five new areas will receive funding to create access to affordable performance music education for children and young people in their communities. Minister for Education and Skills Joe Mc Hugh T.D. welcomed this next big step on Music Generation’s road to nationwide expansion by 2022:
‘Giving our young people access to high quality musical education is a key element of Creative Youth, part of the Government’s Creative Ireland plan.
‘Music and the arts inspire us all and Music Generation is having enormous impacts in communities, with young people having instrument, ensemble, voice and choral experiences that simply wouldn’t be possible without this programme…’
Music Generation projects are benefitting from €3.485 million funding from the Department of Education and Skills in 2019.
Responding to the news, U2’s The Edge said: ‘Every milestone reached on this journey is a source of great pride for the band as well as everyone who has worked so hard to make it happen. With this latest announcement, the finish line is firmly in sight and our dream of an accessible music education for every young person in Ireland is getting ever closer. We are beyond excited.’
In addition to artists of the past, such as George Barret, Paul Henry and Jack B. Yeats, it includes contemporary practitioners like Dorothy Cross, Willie Doherty, Kathy Prendergast and Sean Scully, as well as Niamh O’Malley, Caoimhe Kilfeather, Samuel Laurence Cunnane and others.
Encompassing a range of artistic media and perspectives, this exhibition examines different land types and uses, revealing the significant role artists have played in visualising aspects of human impact on the environment.
Shaping Ireland for Schools
The exhibition presents an opportunity for cross-curricular learning, and the accompanying schools programme focuses on the environmental issues raised by the exhibition.
School Tours
Dates: Tuesday – Friday in May & June
Schools from across the island of Ireland can avail of free tours of the exhibition in English and Irish. To book, email tours@ngi.ie or phone + 353 1 663 3510 Primary Schools Workshops
Dates: Tuesdays & Wednesdays in May & June Time: 10am – 12pm Cost: €150 per workshop (Max. 30 students per group)
Explore the exhibition with artist Emily Robyn Archer, and discover the important role of bees and other pollinators in the Irish ecosystem. This cross-curricular workshop will take students outside into Merrion Square to creatively explore the local environment. Students will make seedbombs to take home and help spread flowers across Ireland! To book click here.
Primary Schools Resource: Art and the Environment
Teacher Sinéad Hall has developed a resource pack inspired by the exhibition, and designed to be used in the classroom, showing how art and creativity can be embedded across the primary curriculum. To download click here.
Applications are now open for schools to participate in the Irish Architecture Foundation’s Architects in Schools 2019/20 initiative. An initiative aiming to encourage collaboration between architects and teachers, giving Transition Year students a hands-on design experience.
Now in its seventh year, Architects in Schools has been delivered in over 80 schools nationwide to date, with students exploring how design and architecture affect their school and local environment, learning a range of skills and gaining insight into a range of career options. The initiative begins with a skills sharing day for all participating teachers and architects in late September, projects/workshops are delivered in classrooms in terms 1 and/or 2 and the initiative culminates with a national exhibition in mid April.
Places on the initiative are limited to 30 schools per year, and the IAF selects schools through an application process, aiming for a broad geographic spread, a mix of school types and a balance between new and returning schools. To give your school the best chance of participating, apply online by Friday 31 May.
Music Generation Cavan/Monaghan: CMETB invites applications from suitably qualified and experienced persons to be placed on a panel for part-time musicians/music tutors for the following Music Generation Cavan/Monaghan programmes –
Closing date for receipt of applications: 12 noon, Wednesday 8 May 2019.
Music Generation Kilkenny: KCETB on behalf of Music Generation Kilkenny wishes to recruit suitably qualified and experienced part-time musicians/music tutors to deliver the following programmes –
Closing date for receipt of postal applications: 12 noon, Friday 10 May 2019.
Creative Schools: An Exciting New Journey
Our school was delighted to hear about this new Creative Schools initiative and were eager for our school to participate. Our school has traditionally been very lucky to have creative teachers and parents who have shared their talents with the children over the years. Schools have changed dramatically over the years, the advent of technology means that the wider world has become much more accessible to children, and any amount of content is now available at the other end of their fingertips. The information presented on the training day for Creative Schools was so relevant and interesting. The notion that 65% of jobs our current cohort will be doing as adults have not yet been created blew my mind. That the World Economic Forum lists Creativity third in the top ten list of skills that our young people will need to navigate their future highlights how much skills development is now required in schools into the future.
We have been working in close collaboration with Yvonne Cullivan, our Creative Associate all year and this has been a great experience for our school. Yvonne has been successfully able to help us as a school identify the relationship we have with creativity through the eyes of the teachers, the children and the parents. What emerged out of that process was that as a school, we have a lot to celebrate, much to communicate and a great roadmap for how we can develop further as a school. There was a huge amount involved in the information gathering stage of the project, due in part to our large school population – surveying, collating and analysing over 1000 opinions was a long process. We were relieved to hear that there would be another year to engage with the project, as we felt that we would need a lot more time to embed the learning from the information gathering, and having another year next year will allow us to do that.
The outcomes for our school are that all members of the community wish to engage more with creativity and the arts, we wish to engage with each other and the wider community more, we wish to see more cross curricular creativity and we wish to communicate and celebrate the many wonderful aspects of creative work that we already engage in. The children voted to do more work around cooking, nature and horticulture, so myself, Yvonne and the other wonderful teachers on our Creative School committee are currently working to put together a programme to run over the course of May and June. I look forward to sharing how we are getting on in the next blog post!
Frank is an Irish-born designer /cultural producer with an interest in film, architecture & the arts, design and technology. An honors graduate in Production Design for Film, TV and theatre, he spent the best part of a decade in this sector. Coming from a film and set design background, he has always been passionate about the power of buildings and spaces to tell stories and he developed this interest further when he later moved into interior and architectural design work setting up practice in London in 2001. This experience led to a decision to study architecture at London Metropolitan University where he was awarded an BA Honors’ Architecture in 2008 and a Professional Diploma in Architecture 2012.
His professional practice includes the design of buildings & set design for film and television production. This has informed his approach to practice, which is collaborative, interdisciplinary and site-specific. With a long term interest in the critical potential of design he established the Architecture at the Edge Festival in 2017, for which he devised and developed the events programme through all stages: planning, development and administration, including the curation and production of an annual symposium on Placemaking & associated workshops. He recently produced an outdoor built installation, ‘Ghost Chapel’ for Galway International Arts Festival 2018 in collaboration with Bartlett School of Architecture.
Threshold – Blog 1
TY students from schools around the country completed their IAF Architects in Schools project this month with a presentation at GMIT’s Cluain Mhuire campus to IAF, GMIT staff and Architect Dermot Bannon. Devised and delivered by the Irish Architecture Foundation, this initiative provides students with first-hand experience of the design process under the guidance of design professionals.
This was my third year participating in the programme, and alongside architect Sybil Curley returning to my alma mater at St. Josephs College, ‘the Bish’, Galway we undertook to deliver a series of workshops which might allow the students to develop their visual spatial skills. Art is not taught as part of the curriculum at the school, so it was important that we find a way to allow the students the opportunity to express their inherent creativity. The teacher was keen for us to assist the students to work on design concept development that would prepare them for Design Communication and Graphics (DCG) subject challenges. To this aim, prompting visual research was very important as it helped the students investigate that process. Taking steps to intentionally address any lack of confidence in their own creativity the students surveyed areas of the school and recorded observations on materials, light levels, circulation etc. Critical thinking and visual awareness was encouraged throughout the course. Exploratory site visits further increased the students’ visual vocabulary and ability to convey design concepts through sketching.
In the first year we explored the idea of ‘Threshold’ in creating an aedicule, between the school institution and the city. There are plans to relocate the school away from Nuns Island and out of the city to a new site in the coming years so the idea was to think about designing a ‘gateway’ into the new institution. Starting with an exercise to create their own school motto to place above the entrance to the existing school building we brought the students out to sketch the Spanish Arch and other historical approach’s to the city. Following mapping exercises of the schools existing entrances and reception areas as well documenting the access roads/bridges onto the Island in which the school is located the students constructed a 1:100 physical model of the school upon which they could place designs of their own ‘aedicule’ interventions.
The following year we continued this exploration of that kind of creative flexibility which extended into how we can engage with the city beyond the school. Inspired by dePaor Architects refurbishment of Druid theatre, the students reimagined the adaptive reuse of their existing school building, turning it towards the river, and incorporating the adjacent Nuns Island Theatre into the schools buildings programme. Careful consideration was made to how best retain the character of this building, a former Methodist Church repurposed as an arts venue, and how this might give greater flexibility for improvements throughout the entire schools built infrastructure.
The design brief encouraged them to practice a culture of sustainability in our built environment through adaptive reuse of existing building stock located in and around the school’s current location at Nun’s Island. This initiative has the potential not only to encourage the students to better understand their built environment and gain skills in design, sketching, photography, model making & computer graphics. But also to encourage them to explore their local history & geography, engage in environmental studies, develop knowledge of material & construction studies as well as a practical use for ICT skills. The ability to spot problems and devise smart solutions—is being recast as a prized and teachable skill.
I find that these experiences have not only reinforced my belief in the importance and benefits to be found in ‘learning from making’ for a student’s development, but it has enabled them develop their own identity/interests, skills, sense of self confidence, and the possibilities for integrating this into all aspects of their learning process.
When we think about communicating something essential about the world be it through art/drama/storytelling etc. to young people in particular, it does not help to be didactic, to focus on technical or technological skill. I would encourage an emphasis on the enjoyment and the value of the process of making more than the result or final product. What is of benefit to the youth is found in the freedom, experimentation and exploration that went into their creation. Expect to make mistakes. There is no right way or wrong way. It is in finding solutions that make the value of creative imagination most valuable. My approach would be to get something across playfully. To equip students with valuable life tools which enhance their public speaking and communication skills, social development, emotional development as well as the cognitive benefits. Actually, to get playfulness itself across.
Lucy Elvis is a director of CURO, a not-for-profit organisation committed to public philosophy. CURO helps communities think together more effectively by inviting them to become Communities of Philosophical Inquiry. CURO works in schools, libraries, galleries and festivals as well as organising clubs and camps that include scholarship streams for children from less privileged socio-economic backgrounds. They like to get people thinking in places where they least expect it and to listen to the ‘big ideas’ that matter to groups who often aren’t given a voice.
When Lucy isn’t engaged in public philosophy, she is completing her PhD thesis and lecturing in Philosophy at NUI Galway. She is also an independent visual art curator and a board member of the TULCA Festival of Visual Art.
We thought we’d never ask…. – Blog 1
Often in our haste to increase engagement in arts education, we want to get children making. This is a liberating process: they meet makers, learn about their practice and have a go at creating work in that way these experiences are exciting, motivating and arguably help to create our future artists.
But, what about our future art audiences? Visual Thinking Strategies have dominated museum and gallery education programmes, and these have value too. They focus on looking slowly and carefully, getting lost in the work itself and wondering what it’s all about by answering the questions ‘What do you think is happening in the picture?’ and ‘Why?’
What happens though, when you allow young audiences to take charge? What new understanding can emerge by allowing them to frame the questions they are really wondering about after experiencing a play, roaming an exhibition, absorbing a story, watching a film or listening to some music?
This is what CURO aims to do when we think about art with our communities of young learners. Our focus is on reconnecting the experiences of art, with our experiences in and with the world using them to think deeply about questions that matter for everyone. So, where visual thinking strategies stay within the edges of the canvas and practice-oriented art interventions are focussed on making something, we encourage our communities to run with the work by devising a common, contestable and enduring question that it sparks for them.
In this process the group votes on one such question and enters into a structured dialogue to find a collective answer. Questions we’ve explored with communities include: ‘Is everyone creative?’ (inspired by the work of Sam Basu and Liz Murray), ‘Are there more than two genders?’ (sparked by Bassam Al Sabbah’s Walking, Walking with The Sun Upon my Back) and ‘Could we exist without negative emotions?’ (prompted by the experience of Richard Profit’s The Shortcut: Don’t Follow the Black Dog).
These fascinating questions are just the start of a process of exploring possible answers, the reasons for them and the imagined worlds where ‘that’s the case.’ In our next post, we’ll talk about the ‘how’ of structured dialogue and the creative thinking skills it can foster through the context of our work in Galway County Libraries.
The Irish Forest School Association (IFSA) was founded in 2016 and is engaged in the promotion and development of the Forest School (FS) movement in Ireland. We bring Forest School practitioners together to inspire inclusive, playful learning for all, in nature. We want to build resilience and relationships, through our connection with each other, and the natural world, while inspiring creativity and supporting wellbeing. More information can be found on our website www.irishforestschoolassociation.ie. Some of our members will describe their engagement in Forest School in this series of blog posts. First up is Claire Murphy:
MarieClaire (Claire) Murphy is a primary school teacher, forest school leader and a PhD researcher in Mary Immaculate College, Limerick. Thanks to funding from the Heritage in Schools scheme, Claire is currently working collaboratively with a Forest School Leader to bring a high-quality learning experience to primary school children.
Exploring the Visual Arts Curriculum in Primary School the Forest School Way – Blog 1
We know that one in six Irish parents don’t think it’s safe for their five-year-old child to play outside at home during the day (Early Childhood Ireland 2019). So opportunities to explore and to be in natural environments are increasingly limited for young children. Forest School inspires learning through interactive games, activities, songs, stories, nature crafts, foraging and sensory nature meditations. The sensory exploration deepens the children’s connections to nature as a result igniting curiosity and questioning, a fantastic gateway to learning about nature.
Forest School occurs as a weekly session in the child’s standard preschool or primary school context. The primary aim of Forest School is the development of children’s self-esteem, self-confidence and independence skills. A second aim is to encourage children to appreciate, care for and respect the natural environment (Maynard 2007). Taking risks is also an important element of this approach. The learners engage in activities such as building shelters, cooking on camp fires and identifying plant and wildlife (Harris 2017). The focus is on the whole child and their experiences developing the child’s independence and self-esteem through their engagement with the natural environment (Murray and O’Brien 2005).
The Visual Arts Primary School Curriculum presents a range of activities for the child to perceive, explore, respond to and appreciate the visual world, this involves ‘looking with awareness and understanding of the visual elements and their interplay in the environment and in art works’ (NCCA 1999, p. 2). One of the general aims of the Arts in Education includes the development of the child’s awareness of, sensitivity too and enjoyment of visual, aural, tactile and spatial qualities in the environment (NCCA 1999, p.4).
I explored the Visual Arts ‘Construction’ strand through this Forest School approach in a small-scale study. This was conducted in a 1st Class in a large, urban, DEIS status school. Overall, I found that there was a positive response as the majority of children noted that they ‘liked’ the lessons. There was evidence that children were engaged in the learning process and they displayed a development of new vocabulary associated with Forest School. I observed enthusiasm and engagement in the visual arts making process. I also found some unanticipated results of the study; I tended to structure group work in the classroom, but I found that this occurred more naturally during the Forest School sessions. Children had space to move from group to group, some enjoyed working in small groups of 2 or 3 children, while others preferred larger groups. Children had control of their social space. One child in particular tended to become frustrated with children at his group in the classroom. I observed that he moved away from the group for certain periods of time to work on his own, returning to the group when he was ready. There was a change of attitude towards the outdoors and the creatures found outdoors. One example of this is the class’ decision to protect an earthworm from the sunlight with leaves.
I am now continuing this research in a larger scale study. I am investigating the impact of the introduction of weekly Forest School sessions in an Irish Primary School setting. The Forest School sessions will take place in four mainstream classes, ensuring that there are observations of each of the curriculum levels as delivered in the Irish Primary school system. This is being conducted over the period of an academic year which ensures that each class engages in Forest School sessions for 10 weeks. The impact will be explored through the perspective of the teacher and the child to explore whether the teaching and learning methodologies used during Forest School sessions are consonant with teaching and learning methodologies advocated in the Irish Primary School Curriculum
Further reading of the integration of the Irish Visual Arts curricular objectives through the Forest School approach can be found in Claire’s paper in The Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning;https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14729679.2018.1443481
Fresh Eyes
One of the aspects that I love most about working as an artist, particularly when engaging with a group or community, is the unknown. When I begin a project, nobody really knows what is going to happen, including me! This can be daunting. However, it is also a wonderful space to hold; one that allows for active listening and open response, intuitive exploration and discovery.
What I do know and trust entirely, is the creative process in which all my work is embedded. There will always be a thorough, considered and inclusive engagement. This will have a loose starting point; like a question, intention or broad theme. It will involve research, discussion, observation, documentation, and collection of information. As my sole agenda is usually to create an artwork of some description, I like to get a sense of the ‘bigger picture’ with all its nuances and particularities, whatever the situation. As the engagement unfolds, I constantly review and refine the information that comes to me, slowly shaping a response without feeling any obligation to make it fit a particular form. Eventually, as a result of this entire process, an outcome manifests. Usually it is one that is reflective and relevant, and will take a form that is both surprising and no surprise at all, because it was taking shape throughout the process. The pattern is always the same. Time and time again I doubt the process, usually when I am in the middle of it. Then, when I reach the end, I am reminded that it absolutely works. This is how I work as an artist and as an educator and this is how I am approaching my current role as Creative Associate on the Creative Schools Programme.
Schools are extremely active places. There are enormous pressures of time and workload on staff, pupils and management. The arts subjects are the easiest to squeeze out or the hardest to fit in. However, I am finding an overwhelming desire, from staff and from young people alike, to have more creativity, more freedom and experimentation and play within the curriculum and within school life. There are challenges around this of course, and there are some fears too. I have been engaging in active, visual and collaborative ways with my school coordinators and communities to unearth these challenges and fears and to also explore the opportunities and wishes around a ‘creative school’. Through workshops, surveys, activities, discussions and votes, I have been capturing all relevant voices; from those of the youngest pupils to that of the principle. We have been considering all aspects of the question of creativity in schools, from small practicalities to large visions.
The three schools that I am working with are thoroughly invested in this programme and are bringing great enthusiasm and honesty to the table and placing complete trust in the process that we are undertaking together. They are three very diverse schools, and three very different shapes are beginning to emerge…
Music Generation
Deadline: 5pm, Thursday 9th May 2019
Established in 2010, Music Generation’s ambition is to transform the lives of children and young people through local access to high-quality, subsidised performance music education.
To enable Music Generation to reach its next stage of development, the National Development Office is now seeking to appoint a Head of Quality, Support and Development. This new senior role within the organisation will be key in the implementation of Music Generation’s Strategic Plan during a significant period of growth, planned from 2019 to 2022.
The successful candidate will be a skilled professional with a demonstrable track record of delivering results, high standards and achievement in music education development. The position requires someone with leadership and senior management experience that can support the planned growth of the national network of Local Music Education Partnerships, and enable the stated priorities for Quality in line with the organisation’s Strategic Plan.
The current strategy maps out an exciting period of growth and change for Music Generation and this role provides a rare opportunity for an experienced and dynamic music education development professional to contribute to and shape those ambitions.
For a job description and details of the application process, please contact John Deely at Pinpoint:
Email: Recruit@pinpoint.ie
Phone: +353 1 642 5721
Closing date for applications: 5pm Thursday May 9, 2019
Minister McHugh invites applications from schools for second year of Creative Clusters initiative as part of the Creative Ireland programme.
Participating schools will help students learn through a lens of creativity
The Minister for Education and Skills Joe McHugh T.D. this week invited applications for Creative Clusters, an initiative taking place as part of Creative Ireland and under the Schools Excellence Fund.
Each school will enjoy access to a specialist facilitator, artist or creative expertise in whatever their own chosen area of interest or theme might be. These resources will help the schools build a programme of learning and activities tailor-made for their students. In addition, clusters will receive up to €7,500 funding to help bring their plans and ideas to fruition.
Making the announcement, Minister McHugh said: “This is another fantastic opportunity for schools to work together on a project of their choice. Schools are given complete freedom to design and develop their own project, with support from a local facilitator and their local education centre.
“I hope that this initiative will help schools enhance creativity in their classrooms. It is important that our children are allowed to express themselves and learn to adapt and collaborate. Opportunities such as Creative Clusters are perfect to give students the opportunity to develop these skills.”
The first year of the Creative Clusters initiative has seen schools around the country work together to develop creative projects and collaborate on new ideas based on their local experience and unique perspective. In Kilkenny, St John’s Senior School, St John’s Junior School and Loreto Secondary School are working together using coding to develop innovative projects and support the transition from primary to post-primary school. This project involves students learning a variety of different coding methods and working on coding projects to develop their problem-solving and logical-thinking skills.
St Michael’s Post Primary and St Joseph’s Secondary School in North County Kerry are also collaborating on an interesting project exploring “the hidden history of North Kerry” using modern technology. This project tasks students with investigating and researching the main tourist sites of the North Kerry region. The students will use modern technology including drones to gather footage which will then be used in a documentary regarding the history of North Kerry. Students will be trained in the appropriate use of technology in the classroom and will also be able to learn valuable skills in the making of the documentary including directing, photography, narrating and producing.
The Schools Excellence Fund is an initiative in the Action Plan for Education. It sets out to encourage and recognize excellence and innovation in our schools. This initiative will help deliver on the Creative Youth pillar of Creative Ireland, which sets out a commitment that every child in Ireland has practical access to tuition, experience and participation in music, drama, arts and coding by 2022.
The closing date for applications is May 10th 2019.
Teacher-Artist Partnership (TAP)
Deadline dates vary per region – please contact Local Authority Arts Service
Announcing a wonderful opportunity for Artists to broaden their practice, receive training and project fees, develop creative partnerships with teachers, and transform the lives of children in every County in Ireland
Open to artists, working in any art form, who are committed to sharing their practice with children and teachers in a modern primary school environment
Specialist, week-long training (1st– 5th July 2019) to prepare the artist for the unique requirements of working harmoniously in partnership with a teacher within the modern Irish classroom
A training allowance of €150 per day over the initial 5-day training/induction week (€750 in total), plus travel with daily lunch provided.
Brokerage and development of partnerships with creative teachers, in schools committed to contemporary arts learning and practice and creativity
Guarantee of a paid, follow up in-school-residency within a local primary school (Fee €800, plus €100 travel plus €100 materials) to carry out a 20-hour project (14 contact hours plus 6 preparation hours) in partnership with your teacher partner throughout the 2019/2020 academic year
Information, learning and networking opportunities for further freelance work within the education system.
Artists must
have a track record of a minimum of three years professional practice in any art form
demonstrate an interest in / commitment to: the principles of Arts-in-Education and Creativity and to enhancing the lives of children through arts practice
be willing to learn about modern classroom culture and to work in equal partnership with teachers
Combine a sense of fun, joy and collaboration with professional dedication and high artistic vision
Be willing to undertake child protection training as part of the induction week, and undergo standard Garda vetting
before taking up project placements.
Artists can apply to be part of the programme in the first instance via the Arts Officer of the Local Authority in which the full-time Education Centre is located. Expressions of interest should then be sent to the relevant address of the Local Full-time Education Centre.
Expressions of interest should be in the form of a letter of max 600 words, accompanied by a CV or short Bio with links to images or samples of relevant work. The letter should set out:
Where you trained
A very brief description of your practice
Why you might wish to work in partnership with a teacher and with children in a school setting
What you think qualifies you to take up this opportunity.
Places on this national Creative Ireland CPD initiative, taking place in the local full-time Education Centre training programmes, are limited to four artists per year – 4 Artists per Summer Course. Final decision on offers of places will be taken by the Director of the local Education Centre in collaboration with the Local Authority Arts Office.
For further information including the relevant deadline date for applications contact your Local Authority Arts Service – a list and contact details are available on the Portal Directory here.
All completed Expressions of Interest/Applications must be returned to your Local Education Centre – Education Centre contact details can be found here.
The Glucksman
Date: Friday 29th March 2019
The Glucksman is delighted to invite you to join them to mark the culmination of ‘The Classroom Museum’ a project with rural schools in Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford on Friday 29th March at 11am. The celebration will be marked by Professor John O’Halloran, Deputy President and Registrar at University College Cork and will be followed by a meet and greet with the participating school students, teachers and with artists Billy Foley, Fiona Kelly and Dara McGrath.
The Classroom Museum initiative enables school children in rural Ireland to participate in an imaginative programme of creative learning based around contemporary artworks from the UCC art collection. Through the short-term loan of artworks and collaborative activities, the children and their teachers have the opportunity to interact with art in their own surroundings and to develop the skills and confidence to express themselves in educational and public contexts. The initiative facilitates the loan of artworks into the classroom space, and develops the presence of this original work through a structured programme of activities with the schoolchildren overseen by the Glucksman’s Senior Curator of Education + Community. The programme includes a visit by the artist to the school, a collaborative art project by the children and an exhibition of this work in the Glucksman.
This event is an opportunity to recognise the creativity of the young participants and to hear about their journey of creative learning.
Fiona Lawton has been teaching secondary students in Scoil Bernadette Special School for the last ten years. She graduated with a Masters in Drama and Theatre Studies in UCC in 1999. During that period Fiona has been involved in writing, directing, acting and producing plays around Cork. In 2005 she played the part of the Magistrate in the award winning film ‘The Wind that Shakes the Barley’. In 2008 Fiona returned to UCC to complete a Postgraduate Diploma in Guidance and Counselling and subsequently in 2013 completed the Higher Diploma in Primary Education with Hibernia College. In school Fiona teaches a variety of subjects but has a passion for drama. Each year she works with a group of LCA students to devise, produce and perform a play. Fiona strongly believes in the importance of educating through the arts where creativity and collaboration are central to the learning process.
Creative Schools: Working Together – Blog 3
As Spring slowly emerges with its brighter days and new beginnings, we too are delighted to get started with our new creative project in Scoil Bernadette.
After lots of planning and negotiating with calendars, our first visual arts workshop started on the 8th March with ten enthusiastic students, one from each class group, ready to pick up their pencils and get drawing.
During our first workshop we were introduced to our facilitators, Ailbhe Barrett and Rosaleen Moore who showed us some of their work and told us about their professional careers as artists. Ailbhe and Rosaleen are two artists who work in a supported studio as part of the Gasp programme. Gasp artists meet on Tuesdays in the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork and are facilitated by Mairead O’Callaghan (More information on supported artists and this project can be found here (www.crawfordartgallery.ie/Learn-and-Explore-Crawford-Supported-studio-Artists) We were certainly impressed to see their beautiful paintings and to hear of their celebrity appearances on the Late Late show.
We played a few icebreaker games to settle the nerves and to get to know each other a little better. Soon we were ready to get down to the busy work of creating. We each chose a word that represented the feeling of being at the workshop. Some of the words chosen were ‘happy’,’ listening’,’ together’, and ‘Cork’. It was the first step in expressing ourselves within the group. We then drew our words on paper, decorating them to our liking.
We finished the workshop with another fun game where in a circle we threw a ball of string from one person to another. We ended up with a visual representation of a very connected group. As one student remarked, it was all about ‘teamwork’.
The following workshop re-enforced this theme of working together. We were divided into two groups. Each group had to build a structure as high as they could. It was challenging, stressful, but lots of fun!
On the 22nd March the group set off for the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork City to get some inspiration. Here we met with Julie who gave us an extensive tour of the gallery where we viewed and interacted with the current exhibitions. We met with Ailbhe and Rosaleen there and got to visit the studio space where they work. We were lucky enough to have time to do some drawing in the Art Gallery at the end of our tour, taking inspiration from the paintings and installations we had seen.
So far the project is going well. The students look forward each week to having extra time in the school timetable to draw, build and create, taking inspiration from each other and the work of professional artists. After three weeks of working together, I feel that the group has bonded well and there is a collegial and supportive atmosphere which adds to the enjoyment of the workshops.
We have three weeks left to continue this work of creative collaboration. We are eager to continue to develop our skills and to discover our talents. We hope to have a day of celebration in the coming months to display the finished and unfinished work to parents, friends and the rest of the school community. We are proud to be a creative school.
Ciara has a PhD in English from Maynooth University. She has worked as researcher on the National Collection of Children’s Books (TCD) and “Gender Identity: Child Readers and Library Collections” at the Centre for Children’s Literature and Culture, DCU. She has taught English in various universities and currently works at Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership as office administrator.
Beginnings – Blog 3
The Creativity and Change course continually pushes its participants, encouraging us to engage, act, and reflect in new and different ways. One of the most fundamental ways it stretches its participants is simply through giving students the opportunities to start something new – to begin new actions, challenges and experiences, and in the process, to unearth new confidence for future beginnings.
At each of the course weekends, we participate in intensive workshops on different creative forms. For example, one weekend focused on poetry and theatre. We moved from creating poetry as a collective to individual creative writing and finally into spoken word performances and a poetry slam. The following day, performance and action were channelled into theatre as we engaged with some of the techniques of Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed. Throughout the course of the weekend we moved through reflection and action; from our own words to shared action and performance through poetry, and from the action and movement of the Theatre of the Oppressed to reflection again. Not only did we experience this as participants, we considered this process as facilitators – thinking through ways we could engage people through these creative forms in a manner that encourages interaction with beginning to write and enact change.
Our next task on this weekend was putting this cycle of reflection and action to use in a new context as we moved from the safe space of the Creativity and Change workshops to the public space of the city. Part of our challenge for the afternoon was to engage the public in some way, encouraging people to contribute to creating something as a group. My group set about getting people to contribute to a line poem, written in chalk on the street, beginning with the line “I know I am home when…” I was surprised at how readily and generously people got involved, moved by their openness and warmth. Individuals and small groups contributed their lines, writing on the pavement, marking the city space out as theirs a little bit more. Groups of people contributing collectively take away some of the pressure and open up new possibilities. The same was true for our groups, as our styles of interaction with the public crossed and intersected, and we reflected on and learned from each other’s actions. Even though our engagement with the public was small and transient, we learned it is possible to bring people together to create something worthwhile, that people care and will get involved.
The willingness and want to be part of a collective is encouraging in these times when we need it most. Now to find all our different ways of starting.
Naomi Cahill works as a Creative Associate for Creative Schools and is founder and director of Bespoke Productions. She is an experienced and qualified drama teacher of primary, second level and adult education as well as children with special needs and adults with physical and intellectual disabilities. Naomi graduated with a degree in Drama & Theatre Studies from University College Cork. She further completed the Higher Diploma in Arts in Drama Education and was awarded‘Highest Academic Achievement’ from the Leinster School of Music & Drama. Through Bespoke Productions, Naomi leads drama courses in Ireland and abroad which are aimed at building confidence, self-esteem and developing communication skills. She most recently directed a modern version of ‘Romeo & Juliet’ at Teatro Re Grillo, Licata, Sicily. Having performed both on stage and in film, she enjoys sharing her experience with her students. She is delighted to be working as a Creative Associate for the Creative Schools programme.
Creative Schools: An Insight into the Creative Schools Project: Barryoe National School – Blog 4
My schools are at a very exciting stage of the Creative Schools Project. Plans are being brought to life in all schools. At this stage, I thought it would be interesting to give you an insight into the project so far in one of my schools: Barryroe National School. The school is located on the Ibane peninsula and is surrounded by beautiful beaches and countryside. It has 176 pupils enrolled and a speech and language unit. The school is very lucky to have a wealth of creative local people and staff who are open to new ideas and projects. Parents strive to give and provide the best all round education possible for their children and encourage involvement in the arts. The school was delighted to receive entry to the Creative Schools Project this year and are thrilled to be accepted again next year. Their enthusiasm for the project is evident and they are very much making the most of this fantastic opportunity. They have dedicated a lot of time to the project and I have had the opportunity to engage in meetings with all staff and students. There is a core team of staff within the school working on the project including: the Creative Schools Coordinator, two teaching members of staff and local artist: Eilbhe Donovan.
Puppetry:
All students in the school were lucky enough to attend ‘Dowtcha Puppets’ performance of ‘Listen Janey Mac’ in the school. They were given this opportunity to inspire them to create their own work.‘Dowtcha Puppets’ are a renowned puppet specialist company based in Cork. They came to the school and did three separate performances of their show for different class groups. It tells the tale of a character called ‘Janey Mac’ and her puppy ‘Pepper’. They make a wish in a magical stone circle in their aunty Megan’s back garden and find themselves transported back in time, trying to find each other and their way home. One aspect of the Creative Schools project is the importance of finding ways in which the arts/creativity can be linked with and used to enhance the teaching of other subjects. Along with giving the students an appreciation for puppetry, the show produced by ‘Dowtcha Puppets’ also provided students with a history of Cork and Ireland. All students really enjoyed the experience:
“It was great to see the puppet show before we did our own one”. (Student)
“The setting and the props were great and how they showed the puppets when they were far away –it was a very funny story”. (Student)
“It was strange working behind the puppet stage. The lighting made it exciting. The show was great the way the characters were going to another dimension”. (Student)
Voice of Young People:
As I mentioned previously there is an importance emphasis on ‘The Voice of Young People’ in the Creative Schools Project. At the beginning of the year, I was given the opportunity to do a workshop with a group of students (with representatives from each class). I also met with all class groups and teachers to gain a further understanding of student’s artistic/creative interests. We regularly consult with the ‘Creative Schools Student Advisory Group’ when making plans. Having gained inspiration from watching ‘Dowtcha Puppets’ performance, a group of students (from all classes) worked with their drama teacher Annemarie to write their own devised puppet show piece. Other classes had the opportunity to make stick puppets and perform in puppet shows linked to fairy tales for their fellow students. Students are also very lucky to have the opportunity to work with renowned artist: Eilbhe Donovan to create their own air dough puppets. It is evident from their feedback that the process is very much child led:
“It was great fun – we were in charge of what we wanted to do. It took a long time but it was worth it when you saw how it played out in the end. We would love more time to work on it!” (5th Class Student)
“We did all the work”. (3rd Class Student).
“We could make up our own story, make up our own characters”. (3rd Class Student)
“Our characters could talk or not e.g. our castle was the narrator. We used objects that don’t normally speak and gave them voices”. (3rd Class Student).
“We added jingles. We were free to decide everything ourselves e.g. I had a potion and it didn’t have to be a certain colour – I could choose”. (3rd Class Student)
“We could move around and work in small groups. There was no right or wrong information and it was exciting that we could add props”. (3rd Class Student)
“We were working together and we weren’t fighting – we were laughing”. (2nd Class Student)
“We could act out the characters – perform and add music”. (2nd Class Student)
“While making the puppets it was difficult to get everyone working together”. (2nd Class Student)
“We made puppets in afterschool together”. (2nd Class Student)
“We could make up our own story, make up our own characters”. (3rd Class Student)
“Our characters could talk or not e.g. our castle was the narrator. We used objects that don’t normally speak and gave them voices”. (3rd Class Student).
“We added jingles. We were free to decide everything ourselves e.g. I had a potion and it didn’t have to be a certain colour – I could choose”. (3rd Class Student)
“We could move around and work in small groups. There was no right or wrong information and it was exciting that we could add props”. (3rd Class Student)
“We were working together and we weren’t fighting – we were laughing”. (2nd Class Student)
“We could act out the characters – perform and add music”. (2nd Class Student)
“While making the puppets it was difficult to get everyone working together”. (2nd Class Student)
“We made puppets in afterschool together”. (2nd Class Student)
Sustainable Creative Teaching:
It is important for all arts and creative activities undertaken by the school to be as sustainable as possible. Teachers in Barryroe National School are learning about puppetry as a new art form which they can incorporate into their teaching into the future. Teachers have been enabled to develop experience and expertise in this new creative area and implement their acquired skills across the curriculum with confidence. Here is some feedback from teachers about the puppetry workshops.
“It really encouraged turn-taking and team work. Children had to change their voices to suit the characters”. (Teacher)
“We had less control over the output. Junior Classes needed more scaffolding to bring the story to life using the puppets. Senior pupils lead the classes”. (Teacher)
“One class was completely child lead – teacher only had to facilitate. Children took on the responsibility and worked on their stories at home”. (Teacher)
“Without a lot of effort, I worked on puppetry, which I was not comfortable with, and found once the idea was suggested to the pupils, they took ownership of it and followed through”. (Teacher)
Stop Motion Animation:
The sixth-class students are also learning about how to create their own stop motion animations. They created a fantastic animation piece called ‘Jack and Jill Cycled Down the Hill’ which was very exciting to see.
“We were so excited. We were looking forward to the lesson as it was so different to anything we had done before. I had never done anything like animation before”. (6th Class Student)
“Taking the pictures and when they were all moving having put it all together was so cool”. (6th Class Student)
“It wasn’t like being told what to do and how to do it. You could make up your own story and put it together whatever way you liked. Our stories were brought to life through animation”. (6th Class Student)
Creative Schools Continues:
I was delighted to hear a recent announcement from Creative Schools which indicated that the schools currently involved in the project will have the opportunity to continue next year. Furthermore, there will be a further one hundred and fifty schools added to the project. Things really are going from strength to strength for the Creative Schools Project. The project is having a ripple effect across Ireland as there is an increased recognition of the importance of the arts and creativity in the lives of young people.
A partnership project by Fingal County Council & Superprojects
Date: 1st – 5th July 2019
The Artful Classroom is facilitated by Aoife Banim, Anne Bradley, Clare Breen, Catriona Leahy and Beth O’Halloran
This CPD programme The Artful Classroom facilitates primary school teachers to enrich their work in the classroom by exploring contemporary art and architecture, as fascinating resources ripe for use as inspiration and departure points for creative enquiry. Together, the group will explore the national and international practices of artists and architects, through imagery and discussion, and playfully consider how they can be applied to the primary school classroom. Workshop sessions will take place in Draíocht Arts Centre Blanchardstown and The Irish Museum of Modern Art Kilmainham where participants will have an opportunity to explore the work of exciting contemporary artists.
The learning focus will be on processand creative thinking; rather than producing fixed outcomes. Facilitated by Clare Breen, Catriona Leahy, Beth O’Halloran, Anne Bradley and Aoife Banim, the course draws on the expertise of both teachers (with experience of art/architecture) and artists (with experience of education). Each day will be led by a different course facilitator who will share their experience of working creatively with children and demonstrate how they translate their own creative/artistic interests into classroom practice in visual art, and other areas across the curriculum. Participants will creatively explore these practices daily, through a diverse range of hands-on activities.
Schedule and session descriptions
Monday: Aoife Banim, Construction ; Draíocht
Tuesday: Beth O’Halloran, Paint & Colour; IMMA
Wednesday: Clare Breen, Clay (with ICT) and Fabric & Fibre; IMMA
Thursday: Anne Bradley, Drawing, Looking & Responding; Draíocht
Friday: Catriona Leahy, Print; Draíocht
Dates: Monday 1st – Friday 5th of July 2019
Time: 10am – 3pm daily
Fidget Feet Aerial Dance Theatre tour their new children’s show Hatch, focusing on the transformational cycles of life with a special educational resource and activity pack has been developed for the show linking to the curriculum and is available to primary schools.
Hatch tells the story of Bláithín, she loves caterpillars, moths and butterflies. She joins her Uncle Rusty on an adventure to find Pearl, the most extraordinary butterfly with the most exquisite colourful wings. Learn all about two little caterpillars and their journey to fly as moths and butterflies.
Hatch weaves Irish language, Irish dancing, music, comedy, theatre, contemporary dance and aerial dance into this wonderful story for 4 – 10 year olds.
The show tours nationwide from March 30th, tour dates and venues can be found at www.fidgetfeet.com/touring/
The Portal Team are delighted to announce the second two recipients of the 2019 Portal Documentation Awards. Starting next month, these projects will be showcased on the portal as the documentation progresses.
About the recipients….
Project – Gaelscoil an Chaisleáin with contemporary dance artist Lisa Cliffe
Lisa Cliffe (Cahill) is a contemporary dance artist, movement facilitator and educator. Lisa is working with Gaelscoil an Chaisleáin in Ballincollig, Co. Cork. Lisa and class teacher Sinéad Joy and school principal Máire Uí Shé are interested in creative engagement and active learning in and with the natural environment of a school site.
In October 2018, Lisa received an Arts Council Bursary Award to examine frames and methods of facilitating ‘experiential engagement’ with the natural environment through active exchange and performance appreciation. This research is taking place in partnership with Gaelscoil an Chaisleáin.
In partnership with the staff, children and wider community of Gaelscoil an Chaisleáin, they have developed a seasonal programme of activity, exchange and performance at the school site. A seasonal approach feels important to the partners in this project as they wish to slow down their engagement in the ‘artist/ teacher/ children’ partnership over the period of a year. The intention of this seasonal approach is to offer time to learn about, respond to and engage creatively with the changing environment of the school site in each season.
Developing the body’s sensory attunement through engagement with the natural environment is a key element of Lisa’s performance and facilitation practice. In partnership with Sinéad and Máire, Lisa wishes to make visible the processes, moments of joy and learning as part of this arts in primary education engagement.
This project stemmed from the Teacher and Artist Partnership and the “Creative Cluster Initiative”. Four schools in Kerry; Firies N.S, Killahan N.S, Dromclough N.S and Lenamore N.S, have come together to form a creative cluster. Each school has been paired with one of the following artists; Silke Michels – visual artist, Zoe Uí Fhaoláin Green – dance artist, Nicholas McLachlan – Writer and Fiona Ladden Loughlin – Textile artist; under facilitator Nikki Roberts.
The children’s work will be showcased in the national folk theatre, Siamsa Tíre on 3rd April 2019. There are 94 children involved in the project. The stimulus for the project is bees and each school has used different forms of art to portray the importance of bees in our world. The partners aim is to develop the creative potential of every child and to give participating children a high quality experience working with an artist and expert in their fields leading them to an appreciation of the interaction between artistic genres.
Music Generation
Music Generation is delighted to share news of the appointment of three new Music Development Officers in Cavan/Monaghan, Galway City and Mayo.
Mairéad Duffy has taken up the position at Music Generation Cavan/Monaghan, one of the most recent Local Music Education Partnerships (LMEPs) to commence participation in Ireland’s national music education programme, led by Cavan and Monaghan Education and Training Board with support from Cavan and Monaghan County Councils.
Karen Dervan has commenced the role at Music Generation Galway City, another new LMEP under the leadership of Galway and Roscommon Education and Training Board together with Galway City Council.
One of the first LMEPs established as part of Music Generation, Mayo now welcomes Laurie Barrett as new Music Development Officer. Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim Education and Training Board is the lead partner on this programme.
In their new posts, Mairéad, Karen and Laurie will have responsibility for developing and managing affordable and accessible local performance music education programmes for children and young people ages 0 to 18.
This will include the coordination of music tuition services within the counties, working in partnership with schools, community music groups and centres in the formation of choirs, ensembles, multi-genre performance initiatives, and more.
Initiated by Music Network, Music Generation is co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education and Skills and Local Music Education Partnerships.
DRI are seeking applications for the role of Oral Historian, a 14-month fixed-term contract with the Digital Repository of Ireland’s Atlantic Philanthropies Archives project. This project is a partnership between The Digital Repository of Ireland, Atlantic Philanthropies, and Cornell University Library to explore the impact and legacy of time-limited grant making. It will be based in the Royal Irish Academy.
Closing date for applications is 12 noon on Tuesday 19th March 2019.
The project has two main aspects
to host a curated digital archive of select business records and ephemera related to Atlantic’s grant making in Ireland over the last 35 years,
to build digital exhibitions around these archives, through the collection and curation of new oral histories from individuals involved in social change activities funded by Atlantic. This is a creative and intellectually stimulating role that requires excellent research skills, people skills, and demonstrated competency in all aspects of oral history.
The Arts Council of Ireland is seeking to expand its panel of Creative Associates to support the delivery of the Scoileanna Ildánacha/Creative Schools initiative. Creative Associates are artists, creative practitioners and teachers with a deep understanding of creativity and its potential to transform the lives of children and young people. They come from a range of creative professions, such as artists, designers, teachers and craftspeople. Whether from the arts, culture, heritage, creative industries, education, science or other sectors, they challenge, support and sustain new practice in schools in the field of the arts, culture and creative learning.
Creative Associates will match the needs of schools to arts and creative opportunities in their locality. They will identify potential areas for improvement and will inspire, energise and drive schools forward in addressing these. Through this pioneering initiative Creative Associates will have the chance to shape the place of the arts and creativity in Irish schools.
Creative Associates can be:
Creative Associates – Individuals engaged by the Arts Council as individual artists or creative practitioners in the arts, culture, heritage, creative industries, science or other sectors.
Creative Associates – Organisations in the arts, culture, heritage, creative industries, science of other sectors. They are engaged by the Arts Council with named nominees, who have an arts or creative practice and are employ by the organisation.
or Teacher Creative Associates selected by the Arts Council to work on a part-time basis with Creative Schools. These applicants will be fully qualified and registered teachers who are working in a Department of Education and Skills recognised post.
Creative Associates work in partnership with participating schools/Youthreach centres to understand, develop and celebrate the arts and creativity in their schools, putting the arts and creativity at the heart of the lives of children and young people.
How to apply:
Step 1 – Visit our website and read their relevant Information Booklet today
Step 2 – Check if you are eligible as an individual artist, organisation nominee or teacher working in school
Step 3 – Complete and return the correct application form by 5pm on Monday April 1st 2019.
Creative Schools is a flagship initiative of the Creative Ireland Programme to enable the creative potential of every child. Creative Schools is led by the Arts Council in partnership with the Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. Creative Schools, formerly Arts Rich Schools/Arís, draws on the commitments set out in the Arts in Education Charter.
Touring Nationwide
What is considered “typical” or “normal” behaviour for girls and for boys? Highly energetic, fun and whimsical,Princesses can be Pirates, playfully questions our gender preconceptions.
Two versatile performers join forces as they journey into unknown territory, where play is everything and everywhere. In a series of hilarious scrapes and lively escapades, they swap toys and activities in their quest to defy stereotypes and break the norm.
The world holds endless possibility for us to discover who we are and who we want to be, and this duet celebrates it all. A dynamic and humorous dance performance – created for children but inspiring for all. Talks and workshops will follow the performance to engage with children and teachers.
School Performances
25th March: Riverbank Arts Centre Kildare/ School Performances 10 am and 12 pm
28th March: The Source Arts Centre Thurles/ School Performance 11 am
2nd April: Firkin Crane Cork/ School Performance 11 am
4th April: West Cork Arts Centre Skibbereen/ School Performance 11 am
9th April: The Civic Theatre Tallaght/ School Performance 10:30 am
11th April: Dunamaise Arts Centre Portlaoise / School Performance 12 pm
The Arts Education Research Group (TCD) and the Association for Drama in Education in Ireland (ADEI)
Dates: 9th & 10th March 2019
The School of Education in Trinity College will host an exciting international conference on drama and theatre in education on March 9th and 10th.
This is a timely event in today’s world, and explores the theme of the social and political in children’s and young people’s drama and theatre. This conference will be of interest to teachers, artists and anyone working at the cutting edge of drama, theatre, education, creative and cultural studies, arts education, sociology and social policy, political science and education, psychology, and related fields.
The conference features an impressive line-up of speakers who will explore the conference theme with reference to their own practices in different parts of the world. With subsidised rates available for attendees (€105,) and a bursary scheme available for full time students (€38 for the 2 day event).
Teachers, artists and other interested members of the sector gathered in the beautiful Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Manorhamilton on Saturday last for a day of sharing experience, gathering new ideas and networking with colleagues. This, the third of our Portal Regional Days, focused on best arts in education practice in the Northwest, after having had well-attended events in Cork and Dún Laoghaire last year. After a morning of sharing practice (from Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership, the Irish Architecture Foundation and Teacher – Artist Partnership artist Kate Wilson) the group enjoyed a fab lunch catered by local Dromahair-based Edergole Kitchen.
The afternoon session was led by artist Vanya Lambrecht-Ward— a fun, sometimes challenging, hands-on activity using folded paper to create shapes, which opened up endless possibilities for further use in classrooms and farther afield. Read Vanya’s essay ‘The Value of Folding’ in the Portal read room – artsineducation.ie/en/reading-room/
Well done to all!
Portal Spring Regional Day – Q&A Panel Discussion with Aideen McCole & Stephen Gilmartin from the Irish Architecture Foundation, Jo Holmwood & Mary Branley from Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership, Artist Kate Wilson from the Teacher – Artist Partnership (TAP)
Participants during the hands-on workshop: Spatial Exploration Through Folding Vanya Lambrecht-Ward
The Portal Team are delighted to announce that we have been in a position to award four Documentation Awards in 2019. Here we announce the first two recipients of the award. These projects will be showcased on the portal as the documentation progresses.
About the recipients….
Project – Táim (Trail of Art in Midleton)
We are two visual artists based in Cork who have joined forces to collaborate with children and staff at Midleton College under the initiative entitled TÁIM. TÁIM (Trail of Art in Midleton) is also the Irish expression for ‘I am’. As such, we seek to instigate a collaborative and participatory conversation with students, which not only situates, but also explores and expands upon the theme of identity and place within our locale.
Belinda Walsh, Visual Artist
Belinda is one of the founders and coordinators of Midleton Arts Festival, which is a celebration of creativity in the community where she lives. She enjoys the surprises and wellbeing benefits of bringing together artists and community groups in participatory projects. One of her special interests is the use of stop motion animation techniques to encourage both children and adults to communicate stories, ideas and concepts in a creative and original way.
She graduated from Crawford College of Art and Design, Cork in 2012 and lectures on Arts in Education and ICT in the Early Years in St Nicholas Montessori College.
She also works part time as an arts facilitator with East Cork Music Project.
Lucia is a social Entrepreneur with excellent communication and administration skills. She has over 20 years experience of community arts facilitation, engaging with a broad spectrum of individuals and groups. Her strong coordination skills are underpinned by a strengths based, person centered approach. She is highly committed to the core principles of community development and the arts. She graduated from Crawford College of Art and Design, Cork in 2003, after which she received a research and development award from Social Entrepreneurs Ireland. In 2015, she co coordinated an Erasmus+ project to take twenty five young ECMP course participants to Sweden to take part in a music and arts project.
In 2016, herself and Belinda Walsh received an award from Cork county Municipal districts Creative communities Scheme to co-ordinate an art project entitled RAW in the local area of Midleton – view the video.
She is currently working in East Cork Music Project as an assistant coordinator leading the art department.
Project – Future Forms Activate Citizenship
Future Forms is a creative engagement project that invites Cork schools, third-level students and community groups to work with artists to create artworks that imagine what their city and urban environment might look like in 200 years time. Participants will explore future visions of Cork through a focus on active citizenship, encouraging all of us to think about ways in which we can get involved in positively influencing the form of our own city.
The Glucksman
The Glucksman is a contemporary art museum in the historic grounds of University College Cork. It was opened by President Mary McAleese in October 2004 and since then has won numerous awards for its architecture and creative programmes. The Glucksman presents ambitious exhibitions of Irish and international art in tandem with a wide range of events and activities designed to encourage participation from all visitors, whether an art professional or first time gallery-goer.
The Glucksman is a place of creative connections between people and disciplines, and is committed to providing world- class art and architecture for all ages and abilities. Enabling access to, and creative engagement with, contemporary art is one of the central pillars of our work, and the team has a strong record of arts in education at every level from primary to postgraduate to professional development. The beautiful setting of the museum in the historic lower grounds of the university as well as a dedicated education space and restaurant, mean that the specific provisions necessary to provide a fully supported experience for people of all ages and abilities can be delivered directly on site.
Do you believe the arts help children and young people to thrive in school and in life?
Would you welcome support to develop innovative creative projects in your school?
If your answer is yes to any or all of these questions then read on…
Creative Schools aims to put the arts and creativity at the heart of children’s and young people’s lives.
Participating schools will understand, develop and celebrate their engagement with the arts, empowering them to bring about real change in the way they work. They will draw on the range of resources within their school and wider community, developing new ways of working that reinforce the impact of creativity on student learning, development and well-being.
Schools will be allocated a Creative Associate, who will support the school for a maximum of nine days over the 2019–20 school year. The Creative Associate will support the school to develop a Creative School Plan and will assist in creating or developing links between schools and with artists and arts and cultural organisations locally and/or nationally. In addition, schools can avail of a grant of €2,000 to implement their plans in 2019–20.
All Department of Education and Skills recognised primary and post-primary schools and Youthreach centres are eligible to apply. 150 new schools will be selected to participate in the initiative in the 2019–2020 school year.
Barnstorm Theatre Company is delighted to present its new production of ‘Boy with a Suitcase’ by Mike Kenny. Directed by Philip Hardy, the play deals with migration, focusing on the stories and cultural touchstones that sustain a young boy on his perilous journey to Ireland. The play has been written specifically for children aged 8-12 but is an interesting and thought-provoking piece that can be explored by all.
Like his hero, Sinbad the Sailor, who undertook many perilous voyages in search of his fortune, Naz must travel half-way around the world to reach the safety of his brother in Dublin. Naz teams up with Krysia, a young girl in similar circumstances, who helps him dodge soldiers and find safe passage over mountains, across seas and through the mire of a city slum.
A gripping tale of adventure and stories, Naz’s journey throws a spotlight on the real dangers faced by children in other parts of the world, and the lengths to which they must go to reach safety in the relative security of a country like Ireland.
A resource pack, developed in association with Ann Murtagh (Teacher/Tutor at Kilkenny Education Centre) , will be provided to participating teachers. The pack with provide a focus for exploration of the themes that arise throughout the play.
For more information or to obtain a resource pack, please contact Barnstorm Theatre at admin@barnstorm.ie, or call us on 056 7751266
Performances of Boy With a Suitcase will take place at the Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny from the 6th-9th of March.
Fiona Lawton has been teaching secondary students in Scoil Bernadette Special School for the last ten years. She graduated with a Masters in Drama and Theatre Studies in UCC in 1999. During that period Fiona has been involved in writing, directing, acting and producing plays around Cork. In 2005 she played the part of the Magistrate in the award winning film ‘The Wind that Shakes the Barley’. In 2008 Fiona returned to UCC to complete a Postgraduate Diploma in Guidance and Counselling and subsequently in 2013 completed the Higher Diploma in Primary Education with Hibernia College. In school Fiona teaches a variety of subjects but has a passion for drama. Each year she works with a group of LCA students to devise, produce and perform a play. Fiona strongly believes in the importance of educating through the arts where creativity and collaboration are central to the learning process.
Creative Schools: Making Connections – Blog 2
Since our return to school in the New Year, we have begun the next stage of our Creative Schools journey, which is developing our school plan. In mid-January, I met with Naomi Cahill (Creative Schools Associate) to discuss our aims and objectives for the near future as a creative school. Using the framework provided, we were enabled to assess our current strengths and weaknesses in the following areas: Teaching and Learning; Leadership and Management; Children and Young People and Opportunities and Networks.
The process of writing the school plan has renewed our school’s commitment to the creative arts and also has highlighted the areas we would like to develop in the near future. We have committed to providing CPD (Continued Professional Development) for teachers in the next academic year. We will receive training on how best to use drama as a teaching methodology which can be integrated with all subjects across the curriculum.
Scoil Bernadette has a strong focus on the arts already and is involved in a number of extra-curricular creative projects including, dance, music, and theatre. In keeping with our overall objective, which is to enable all students to access a broad range of creative activities whilst in school, we have decided to organize additional visual arts workshops this year.
As Scoil Bernadette is a special school it is vital that all activities are accessible and inclusive for all students. Naomi has been invaluable in providing the school with links with a variety of organisations and practitioners that have experience in working with students with disabilities. It is important for us a school to expand our community network and provide as many opportunities as possible for our students to participate in activities that will aid their journey as lifelong learners.
On 14th February 2019 Naomi, Mairead and I met to develop a plan where a series of six art workshops could be run in Scoil Bernadette during March and April. The workshops will be led by Mairead and co-facilitated by Rosaleen Moore and Ailbhe Barrett, two supported artists that attend the Crawford each week.
It is envisaged that this project will be collaborative and student-led. A group of ten to twelve students from Scoil Bernadette, one from each class, will attend each Friday in the school. The workshops will also involve a visit to the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork City. Together the students will decide on how the project will take shape. We hope to document the process with photographs which can be used to form part of an exhibition to be held in the school.
The workshops will begin on 8th March. We are looking forward to welcoming Mairead, Ailbhe, and Rosaleen to our school and beginning this new adventure.
We are excited to make new links with our local community which hopefully will expand both current and future possibilities for students in Scoil Bernadette.
IMMA
Date: 2nd March 2019, 10:00am to 12:30pm
Explore contemporary art, particularly construction, during a studio workshop and enjoy a guided tour of IMMA Collection: ‘A Fiction Close to Reality’. Artist Rachel Tynan will lead this practical workshop during which primary teachers will discover multiple links to the visual art curriculum.
This workshop is free. Booking is essential. Places are limited; booking is on a first come, first served basis. No prior knowledge or experience of art-making is needed. This is the final CPD workshop for primary teachers at IMMA during this academic year.
EVA International is delighted to announce ‘Better Words’, a new educational initiative which seeks to empower children’s access and understanding of contemporary art through creative language.
Over the course of a five week programme of workshops between March and May 2019, school groups aged 8 to 12 will develop new word-forms that articulate their experience and encounter of contemporary art. Led by workshop coordinator Maeve Mulrennan and developed in consultation with Patrick Burke (Dept. of Language and Literacy Education, MIC, Limerick) the workshops will involve visits to galleries and meetings with practicing artists, in addition to classroom-based activity.
The selected schools are:
Corpus Christi Primary School (Limerick City),
Knockainey National School (Hospital),
Limerick School Project (Limerick City),
Our Lady Queen of Peace (Limerick City),
St. Senan’s National School (Foynes).
A publication of new art terms developed through the workshop process will be published by EVA International in Autumn 2019, featuring a foreword by author Kevin Barry. Better Words is developed with support from Creative Ireland’s National Creativity Fund.
Fingal County Council is announcing a new opportunity titled Musician-in-Residence Programme 2019 ~ and is inviting expressions of interest from Musicians who wish to be included on a Musicians’ Panel, with a view to delivering high quality music lessons to children in primary schools during the academic year 2019 – 2020. The application deadline is March 8th 2019.
For further information go to www.fingalarts.ie/education to download the Application Guidelines & Criteria and Application Form.
Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre
Deadline for bookings: Friday 29th March 2019
Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre is delighted to offer West Cork Primary Schools an opportunity to engage with our Dance Artist in Residence, Mairéad Vaughan in a short summer project – Mapping the Divide.
Mapping the Divide is a creative exploration into the effects of technology on our body, mind and environment.
Uillinn invites three primary school groups to take part in a short series of workshops at school and at Uillinn. Two will take place in the school and one at Uillinn and will creatively investigate the impact that technology, and in particular the use of mobile phones, can have on us.
Students will be invited to journey into the body and out to the landscape, to bring awareness of the direct sensory and kinaesthetic relationship we have with our environment. Using gathered materials chosen from the landscape, they will explore textures, patterns, smells, sights and sounds. Then movements will be choreographed from this investigation to create a site-specific, pop-up performance.
About Mairéad Vaughan
As an artist, I am passionate about the transformational power of dance and creativity. My teaching practice highlights the need to reconnect with body-mind, specifically through cultivating sensory awareness (sight, sound, touch, smell, taste). I teach a practice called ‘Attuning’ which develops all of these aspects. This practice is the result of my PhD research and highlights the need for inclusive arts education.
Project Details:
Ages: The workshops are suitable for 5th and 6th class groups, aged 10 to 13 years. Limited to 22 children.
Venue: Your school for two workshops and Performance Space at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen for one workshop.
Dates / Times: Workshops will take place on Wednesday afternoons during May / June, duration 60 to 90 minutes. Dates and times to be arranged to suit the schools involved.
Clothing: Children should wear loose clothing like tracksuit bottoms, rather than school uniform when taking part in the workshops.
Booking Details:
Fee for series of three workshops is €2 per person
Closing date for bookings is Friday 29 March 2019
To find out more or to book your class please contact Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre on 028 22090 or email info@westcorkartscentre.com
The Ark in partnership with Mark Create Innovate
Date: 9th March 2019
This engaging workshop will provide you with an introduction to hands-on, simple creative technology tools that support cross- curricular learning through play for STEAM subjects at Primary level – particularly in Science, Technology, Arts and Maths.
You will work in teams with Make Create Innovate to design and develop your own prototype games. You will be introduced to creative technology such as MaKey MaKey and learn about more advanced uses of software such as Scratch. You will see first-hand how games can teach students about competition and cooperation as well as supporting the development of concentration, perseverance and other skills through ‘fine-motor play’. For students, including those with special needs, the design of games and the process of rule- making are ideal ways to explore ethics. It gives the opportunity to reflect on their own values, motivations and behaviour as well as society’s. This can reinforce the strands within history, geography and SPHE relating to human intervention.
Join artist Lucy Hill, our inaugural John Coolahan Early Years Artist in Residence, and her residency mentor Dr. Christina Macrae from Manchester Metropolitan University to celebrate, reflect on and discuss their experiences together as Lucy’s residency draws to an end. The fascinating discussion will include illustrations of key moments and learnings during the residency, the mentoring process, as well as research and ideas in early years and visual arts practice more generally.
Thought-provoking for parents, preschool and primary teachers, artists, arts managers and anyone with an interest in art and children.
Running since 2011, the Waltons Music for Schools Competition is a non-profit national event celebrating music in Irish schools run by Waltons New School of Music and generously supported by RTÉ lyric fm. All primary and post-primary schools in the Republic of Ireland are eligible to enter the Competition, and schools from all 26 counties have participated.
Each year’s Competition culminates in a gala Finalists Concert, in which twelve Finalist school groups (six primary and six post-primary) perform before their peers and two distinguished adjudicators. At the end of the Finalists Concert, the adjudicators announce six winning primary and post-primary schools, which receive awards totalling €7,000 worth of vouchers for musical instruments, accessories, books, music technology or PA equipment from Waltons Music, including two First Prizes of €2,000 vouchers.
The Process
School groups create an ensemble piece or song, based on the year’s Competition theme, and performed by an instrumental, vocal or mixed group from the school (maximum 40 performers). The piece or song can be performed by any combination of singers or instrumentalists you choose. This year’s theme is Music=. (What it equals is up to you!)
Schools submit an online entry form and send a video of the group’s performance and a jpeg photograph of the group.
The initial entries are judged by a team of first-round adjudicators, and twelve Finalists (six primary and six post-primary) are selected.
The Finalists are announced by Liz Nolan on RTÉ lyric fm.
The twelve school groups perform in the Finalists Concert at the National Concert Hall, and the six winning schools are announced at the end of the concert.
Friday, 22 March 2019, 5 pm • Entry Deadline Friday, 29 March • Announcement of Finalists Tuesday, 7 May • Finalists Concert, National Concert Hall
The Arts in Education Portal’s regional tour continues with a stop at the Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Manorhamilton on Saturday, February 23rd, 11am to 3pm. Tickets are free but must be booked ahead on Eventbrite here.
Following on from successful events at the Glucksman in Cork in March 2018 and the LexIcon in Dún Laoghaire in October 2018, the Leitrim Regional Day is planned to be an informal day of sharing experience and best practice from the sector. The programme includes a presentation by Aideen McCole of the Irish Architecture Foundation and participants in the IAF’s National Architects in Schools programme as well as a hands-on, experiential workshop on folding and creating three-dimensional space led by artist Vanya Lambrecht-Ward.
1:00pm—Lunch & networking (catered by The Edergole Kitchen, Dromahair)
1.45pm—Hands-on Workshop: Spatial Exploration Through Folding Vanya Lambrecht-Ward
3:00pm—wrap up
Naomi Cahill works as a Creative Associate for Creative Schools and is founder and director of Bespoke Productions. She is an experienced and qualified drama teacher of primary, second level and adult education as well as children with special needs and adults with physical and intellectual disabilities. Naomi graduated with a degree in Drama & Theatre Studies from University College Cork. She further completed the Higher Diploma in Arts in Drama Education and was awarded‘Highest Academic Achievement’ from the Leinster School of Music & Drama. Through Bespoke Productions, Naomi leads drama courses in Ireland and abroad which are aimed at building confidence, self-esteem and developing communication skills. She most recently directed a modern version of ‘Romeo & Juliet’ at Teatro Re Grillo, Licata, Sicily. Having performed both on stage and in film, she enjoys sharing her experience with her students. She is delighted to be working as a Creative Associate for the Creative Schools programme.
Creative Schools: New Beginnings in 2019 – Blog 3
Step Two: ‘Develop’
2019 has been great so far with the continuation of the Creative Schools Project. Having completed the ‘Understand’ stage, I have moved onto the next stage: ‘Develop’. Using the planning framework, I work with schools to firstly develop a ‘Creative Schools Vision’. This is a long-term vision for placing the arts and creativity at the heart of the school. It should be aspirational but realistic. It is used to enable the school to develop aims, success criteria and activity plans. The aims state what the school ideally hopes to achieve by introducing the plan. As I previously mentioned, the voice of young people is of key importance to all stages of the project. The school must outline the role of young people in the development of their plan. The success criteria must then be detailed which states how the school will know if their plan is having the desired impact on the school and wider community.
The next step I take is to work with schools to develop a ‘Creative School Plan’. This plan is used to support the ‘Creative Schools Vision’. It includes key areas for development which should be implemented over a number of years. It is used to support the following areas for development: children and young people, teaching and learning, leadership and management & school environment, opportunities and networks. The work completed to date in the ‘Understand’ stage is used directly to the benefit of the ‘Develop’ stage.
I also work with the school to develop an activity plan. The school uses this plan to detail the exact arts and creative activities they wish to undertake this year. A series of questions must be answered which ensure schools think thoroughly about the long-term benefit of chosen activities for example: Which areas of the curriculum are involved (including the potential for collaboration/integration across subject areas)?
Linking Schools to Opportunities:
Every school is unique and they each have particular strengths and arts/creative areas which they wish to develop. I am now working to link schools to relevant opportunities according to their plans. Some activities which have come up so far include: staff undergoing CPD training in drama education to learn how process drama can be used in a cross-curricular fashion as a means to enhance learning in a practical, engaging way. Another includes: students working with a street artist over a series of weeks to create their own work. There has been a fantastic response from arts/creative organisations and artists to the project. Some of the links I have made so far include: artists (in a variety of disciplines), Arts Officers, Creative Ireland Officers, Education Officers (from arts organisations), art galleries, university drama department, music organisations and dance companies.
Student Advisory Group:
To ensure students play an active role in the implementation and evaluation of the project I work with schools to set up a ‘Student Advisory Group’. This is a cross-section of students from different class groups that I engage with on a regular basis. These students give us a valuable insight into their own artistic & creative interests. Their views must be taken on board in the development, implementation and evaluation of the project.
Arts in Education:
This project is raising the level of importance of the arts and creativity in education across the board. It is not only creating opportunities for schools but also for artists that are highly skilled and trained with vast experience. Personally speaking, my career to date has revolved around creativity. On a regular basis, I hear about the benefits creativity has to mental health and well-being. Exposure to the arts and creativity is something which needs to be made possible through the education system in order to ensure equal opportunity to young people. In a world that is constantly changing, creativity is needed more than ever.
Fiona Lawton has been teaching secondary students in Scoil Bernadette Special School for the last ten years. She graduated with a Masters in Drama and Theatre Studies in UCC in 1999. During that period Fiona has been involved in writing, directing, acting and producing plays around Cork. In 2005 she played the part of the Magistrate in the award winning film ‘The Wind that Shakes the Barley’. In 2008 Fiona returned to UCC to complete a Postgraduate Diploma in Guidance and Counselling and subsequently in 2013 completed the Higher Diploma in Primary Education with Hibernia College. In school Fiona teaches a variety of subjects but has a passion for drama. Each year she works with a group of LCA students to devise, produce and perform a play. Fiona strongly believes in the importance of educating through the arts where creativity and collaboration are central to the learning process.
Creative Schools: Creative Coordinator – Blog 1
My Name is Fiona Lawton and I have been teaching in Scoil Bernadette for the last ten years. Scoil Bernadette is a special school in Cork that caters for students with mild general learning disabilities. The school aims to make each student be as independent as they can be.
We do this by providing a secure, caring and supportive environment through the provision of a broad curriculum of social, personal, academic, sporting, vocational and relevant life-skills programmes.
I teach a range of subjects in Scoil Bernadette and have a keen interest in drama, I am a graduate of the Masters in Drama and Theatre at UCC. My learning there has taught me the value of creativity in an educational setting. As teachers in Scoil Bernadette we are consistently looking for new ways to engage our students and make learning fun.
We have a strong focus on the arts in Scoil Bernadette. We have a choir that performs in school, at fundraising events and in an annual Christmas Concert each year. Our students are involved in a Samba drumming group and they participate in the Music Mash Up community arts programme where they learn instruments and singing. We have an annual visit from GMC rapper who works with our final year students in creating their own rap. We are also very involved in the dramatic arts. We are good friends with the Everyman Theatre in Cork and attend their musical theatre productions each year. We also regularly attend workshops and performances with Graffiti Theatre and Cyclone Productions. Our Fifth years create their own drama production where they devise, produce and perform their own show over a period of four months.
This is just a small selection of the creative activities that we are involved with. As you can imagine we were delighted to be chosen to participate in the Creative Schools programme. For us, it provides us with a forum to celebrate and consolidate the work we have been doing and it also gives us an opportunity to take stock, evaluate and plan how we can develop our school as a creative learning community.
Attending the in service for the Creative Schools Coordinators was an exciting and encouraging start to the year. It was great to meet all the other teachers and youth workers who are involved in the programme. The day was informative, hands on and great fun. The enthusiasm showed by the facilitators and participants was infectious. It was a great reminder of how we learn best when we are active and collaborating. This belief is one of the core teaching methodologies that we would like to promote in Scoil Bernadette as a creative school.
I did my best to recreate the days learning (albeit a condensed version) at our own staff planning day. We all did the envelope activity which required us to think ‘outside the box’ and engage with our creative sides. We don’t always have the opportunity to consider these things together so it was nice to discuss and share ideas about what creativity means to us as a staff. We also did an inventory of the creative activities that we are currently doing. It was great to acknowledge the many creative activities we are involved with already.
It was a pleasure to finally meet our Creative Schools Associate, Naomi. Naomi came up to meet with a group of our students and did a fantastic workshop with them where they were given an opportunity to consider what creative activities they are currently involved with and what they would like to do in the future. Naomi also distributed surveys to the staff so that we could give our thoughts on our current strengths, challenges and hopes for Scoil Bernadette as a creative school. Naomi’s enthusiasm for the project is evident and we are delighted we have her expertise to guide us through the planning process.
I feel that the wheels have been set in motion and we are off to a good start. I am looking forward to the next stage of the process where we can start planning and making decisions about where to go next.
It will be exciting to make links with other schools and expand our thinking and share experiences. We are delighted to be involved with this project and are looking forward to the rest of the year.
Read Naomi Cahill, Creative Schools Associate blog series at the links below:
Christopher McCambridge is a Special Educational Needs teacher at St. Colman’s Primary School, Lambeg. St. Colman’s Primary is a mainstream school of 400 pupils with two learning support unit classes. Christopher is also an active member of the Belfast art scene. He co-founded the arts organisation Belfast Platform for the Arts (Platform Arts) in 2010, which continues to provide an exhibition space and studios for artists.
In 2016 Christopher and his Primary 6/7 class were chosen to take part in the Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership ‘Virtually There’ project. ‘A virtual artist in residence project which explores the potential for creative engagement between artists working from their studio and children and teachers in the classroom using video conferencing technology’. (Orla Kenny, Creative Director of Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership). Now in their 3rd year, artist John D’Arcy has been working collaboratively with Christopher and his class at St Colman’s P.S as virtual artist-in-residence.
Away Day – Blog 4
2018 marked the completion of my 2nd Year working as part of the Kids’ Own, Virtually There project. The two years have flown in and I have found that the pupils throughout those years have been given an enjoyable and unique experience. This project has also helped me to develop creatively as a teacher and an individual. This development was furthered through the ‘creative away day’ that the Kids’ Own organisation offered to all the teacher – artist groupings. Each teacher-artist grouping would be able to organise their own creative away allowing us the opportunity to re-charge our creative batteries, broaden our horizons and prepare for the next project year.
After much discussion, John D’Arcy (Artist) and I decided to take a day trip to Dublin to view a number of exhibitions that we both found of interest. These exhibitions included Land / Sea / Signal at RUA RED in Tallaght and ‘Prototypes’ by Doireann O’Malley, Rachel Maclean ’Just be yourself’ in The Hugh Lane gallery. The exhibitions involved the use of digital technology, an aspect that has been integral to our project.
The journey to Dublin provided us both with an opportunity to reflect on the project from the previous year. Discussing aspects such as the pacing of the individual elements of the project, aspects of planning, pupils’ enjoyment, as well as discussing what we felt worked well or could be improved. This time, especially outside of term time, was invaluable as it allowed us to discuss the project without any other distractions.
In Year 2, the central theme of our project was Hacking. This word was the starting point from which all other ideas would develop from. I felt this worked particularly well as it meant we could develop ideas from this central theme, allowing ideas to either develop as stand-alone lesson or develop into their own mini-project . This flexible approach, gave me more confidence in allowing each idea to develop at its own pace, with the children developing and realising their ideas across a number of weeks. Thus, allowing for a greater insight into the work. This is an aspect which I hope we further refine, allowing the children to critically reflect on their workings within each session.
During our first two years working together, technology has played an important role within our projects. This year the use of apps had allowed the children to explore hacking in a variety of ways. In one of the mini-projects we focused on the ‘hacking of time’, exploring how we could speed up or slow down different movements from the mundane, the children completing work, to the more exciting, running a race. This mini-project was achieved through the app Hyper-lapse. I felt the variety and use of different apps had engaged the children. These apps were later used by the children to create a ‘coded film’ which the viewer was required to hack, using a code developed by the children during our sessions. Due to an interest in technology, I was interested in viewing these exhibitions in Dublin.
The exhibition, Land / Sea / Signal, was a group show featuring artists, Alan Butler, Gregory Chatonsky, John Gerrard, Nicolas Sassoon & Rick Silva and Santa France. The exhibition brought together these artists whose practices ‘mediated on the materiality of internet infrastructure and the complex socio-political conditions that are embedded within them.’The exhibition examined our modern day relationship with the internet, particularly how we ‘maintain, update and adjust our relationships … and reconfigure ourselves through technologies and with one another.
Image copyright artist Alan Butler – Land / Sea / Signal at Rua Red
As with any exhibition, there were artworks which held my interest longer than others. In Land / Sea / Signal, the artist Alan Bulter piece was one of these. The artist documented the lives and experiences of the homeless … within the video game, Grand Theft Auto V. Upon first viewing I had initially mistaken these photographs as documenting real people in the outskirts of rundown cities. Once realising my error, I was taken aback by the uncanny resemblance to the real-life and how unfortunate circumstances can lead to these positions for people.
After exploring RUA RED, we moved on to the Hugh Lane gallery to view the exhibitions by Doireann O’Malley and Rachel Maclean.
Dorieann O’Malley’s exhibition Prototypes was a multi-screen film installation exploring ‘transgender studies, science fiction, bio politics and psychoanalysis, AI and experimental music. She skilfully ties these to phantoms of modernist utopias, epitomised by the post-war architecture of Berlin, which serves as a dreamlike scenography for the main, protagonists’ ghostly actions’ [Jury Statement, Edith Russ Haus fur Media Art Stipendium, 2016]
Some of the work of Doireann O’Malley was as a result of collaborative methodology, using a combination of CGI, film and Virtual Reality of interest. This was of interest to both John and I, as we have discussed the use of Virtual Reality as a line of enquire in Year 3 of our project.
Rachel Maclean’s exhibition ‘Just be yourself!’, also at the Hugh Lane gallery, was a series of video installations and digital artworks. Her work uses “satire to critique consumer desire, identities and power dynamics … she parodies fairy tales, children’s television programmes, advertising, internet videos and pop culture … combining her interests in role-play, costume and digital production in works of cinematic collage.
Image copyright Rachel Maclean – ‘Just be yourself!’, at the Hugh Lane gallery
I would like to thank Kids’ Own and their funders for giving John and I the opportunity to organise this creative away day. It has provided us with the opportunity to discuss and critique our project work to date and allow us to view exhibitions that could influence our thinking for future ‘Virtually There’ projects.
Year 3 of our ‘Virtually There’ project is currently underway, and as documented in my previous post, we are exploring the theme of ‘Radio.’ We have developed our own radio identity, WECHO FM. Since my last post, the children have created their own DJ names, such as Smooth T, Aidan Big Shot, Jump Bam Sam and Charley KAPOW to name a few. They have also used these names to design portraits, using a variety of different materials and techniques, which reflect their radio personalities.
As the project continues to grow and develop, the children are beginning to record talk shows, news stories, weather reports and create music and jingles, advertising WECHO FM and their own individual shows. At the end of the project, we intend to visit a local radio station, where we will have the opportunity to play our content to a live audience.
The ‘Virtually There’ project continues to allow the children the opportunity to express themselves artistically, as well as giving me the confidence to step outside my comfort zone and develop as a teacher.
Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA)
Date: Saturday 2nd February, 10:00am to 12:30pm
Explore print-making during a studio workshop and enjoy a guided tour of the exhibition IMMA Collection: Freud Project, Gaze. IMMA guided tours for primary schools are focussing on this exhibition until May 2019.
Artist Rachel Tynan will lead this practical workshop during which primary teachers will discover multiple links to the visual art curriculum.
This workshop is free but on-line booking is essential. Places are limited and booking is on a first come, first served basis.
You don’t need any prior knowledge or experience of art-making.
The Ark presents ‘PEAT’ the world premiere of a brand new theatre show for ages 8+ by Kate Heffernan. Directed by Tim Crouch.
Delivered with lightness and humour, this new play for children asks big questions about life, death, time and history. A conversation between two 11-year olds who find themselves standing on top of everything that has ever happened, it is a story of friendship, loss, and finding our place in the world. The production will be performed by Curtis Lee Ashqar and Kwaku Fortune. The creative team includes lighting by The Ark’s Franco Bistoni alongside set & costume design by Lian Bell and sound design by Slavek Kwi, two acclaimed artists making their debuts at The Ark. The Ark invited consultation with children at several junctures throughout the process. The childrens’ input, including input from The Ark’s Children’s Council, greatly influenced the direction of the piece and has been at the very heart of this production.
School Days
6th -29th March (Wednesday-Friday) @ 10.15am & 12.15pm. (No show Wednesday 20th March)
Elemental an exhibition with interactivity, tactility and spacial enquiry, where children are the primary audience.
School Group bookings available.
Aimed especially at children aged 4-12, Elemental is an exhibition that invites children and people of all ages to encounter contemporary art through touch and movement, as well as sight. Leading artists Caoimhe Kilfeather and Karl Burke are transforming the galleries with their interactive, tactile sculptures and installations that explore scale, texture, space and light.
Primary school groups of all levels are encouraged to come and experience this artwork throughout the exhibition. A tour of the work is not necessary, teachers can bring along their school group to spend time in the galleries interacting and investigating the artwork and then take time to The Make Space – by practising primary school teacher and trained artist Anne Bradley – a calm room where children can take time to creatively respond to the themes and materials of the works on exhibition; using materials such as sand, small objects, pieces of wood and fabric to explore pattern, visual order, touch and more.
Charlotte Donovan, Uillinn’s Artists in Residence for Learning and Engagement will be available for schools on Friday’s to facilitate a workshop where the children can respond to their experience in the gallery and make their own work to take away.
Elemental contains a major commission from Caoimhe Kilfeather, with artworks that suggest an imagined forest of both indoor and outdoor elements. One element, created from hundreds of metres of green Indian silk, hanging 3 metres high, will offer pockets of space for children to inhabit. A tree house will perch 5 metres high overlooking the exhibition space, and the floor will be covered with cushions and ‘leaves’ fashioned from organdie, with brooms and sweeping brushes to tidy up. In the upstairs gallery, children will be able to walk around and through a steel sculpture by artist Karl Burke (entitled ‘Taking a Line’), which stands 2.5 metres high, and creates a very subtle optical illusion that implies density in empty space. Both Caoimhe and Karl have also each made interactive works that speak to children’s oft held desire to creatively arrange objects found in nature.
During the final weeks of the exhibition, a number of additional artworks will be exhibited throughout the gallery. These commissioned works will be made collaboratively by local primary school children from Dromore National School Bantry and artist Siobhán McGibbon, who will be working together over eight sessions in Uillinn to research, experiment and create their own artworks, responding to the exhibition themes.
Ciara has a PhD in English from Maynooth University. She has worked as researcher on the National Collection of Children’s Books (TCD) and “Gender Identity: Child Readers and Library Collections” at the Centre for Children’s Literature and Culture, DCU. She has taught English in various universities and currently works at Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership as office administrator.
Making Connections – Blog 2
The Creativity and Change programme meets once a month for one full weekend, each weekend bringing new experiences, challenges, and connections. These full weekends allow participants a depth of experience in learning, critical thinking, and creativity. There are also spaces for pause, reflection, and making connections woven into the structure of the course, and I begin to appreciate the space for reflection that the weeks between each course weekend allow too.
The idea that creative engagement is key in facilitating transformative learning experiences that might effect change in the way we see, exist, and act in the world is at the core of the Creativity and Change programme. With this focus, new possibility is discovered within seemingly simple, everyday acts. Listening, speaking, and observing, core components of many adult education courses, are first given renewed attention. For example, as part of our learning in a day dedicated to transformative learning and the creative process, participants pair up and take turns speaking and listening without interruption. The experience of listening intently and actively, and that of speaking uninterrupted demonstrates perhaps how often we take these acts of speaking and listening for granted in teaching, in facilitation, and in learning, and in simply communicating with others.
Consideration of communication and creativity is furthered in a weekend dedicated to the exploration of visual facilitation, which broadly refers to a process of facilitating meetings, seminars and other exchanges in visual form using images, words and symbols. As someone used to working only in the written word, this was a challenge for me. We began by visually representing sounds and playfully making marks on the page in groups. Once those daunting first marks were made on our paper canvases, the temptation to overthink into inaction was removed, at least temporarily. As we gradually built toward the challenge of visually documenting the conversations of other participants, the merit of incorporating creatively challenging work into my own facilitation and my learning became clear. A completely different part of my thinking and concentration was engaged. I gained new insight into the process of how I listen as well as how I order and create meaning. Just as the exercise on speaking and listening drew attention to the dynamics of dialogue, this act of visually representing the groups’ words brought a new attention to how I interpret and document, as well as a feeling of responsibility to accurately reflect and honour the group’s conversation.
Developing new ways of seeing and interpreting continued throughout the weekend on visual facilitation, which concluded with the class working in small groups, each tasked with creatively representing different sets of data. Groups worked on visualising data relating to the deficiencies of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme, the difficulties people with disabilities face when trying to access social housing, and on numbers of people on housing lists against the units of social housing available – important data that can become meaningless in spite of its devastating reality. From an assortment of seemingly random materials, groups created stop-motion animations, made clay models, assembled sets, and designed performances incorporating material to represent this data. What emerged from the varieties of modes and forms through which this data was visually represented was perhaps the force of that which could not be measured or visualised, the shock of what this data represented that could not be contained or incorporated numerically. Through this creative process, the groups began to find new ways to see and explore some of the most pressing justice issues in our contemporary moment.
The Four Dublin Local Authorities in association with the NCH
Date: 24th January 2019
Exploring and Thinking is a collaborative framework for early childhood arts in the Dublin region. It came about in 2016 when the four Dublin Local Authorities partnered for the first time to collectively consider early childhood arts provision in the Dublin region.
The project partners made a successful application for Arts Council funding under the Invitation to Collaboration Scheme 2016. The joint proposal focused on commissioning and touring new artwork to the four Local Authority areas with local engagement programmes, in arts and non-traditional arts venues.
The Exploring and Thinking framework culminated in the commissioning of two unique projects:
Anna Newell, I Am Baba – A new immersive theatre piece for babies aged 0-12 months. A full commission for the development, creation and tour of I Am Baba to the four Local Authority areas.
Helen Barry and Eamon Sweeney, Sculptunes – A modular interactive music-producing sculpture. A research and development commission, which supported the artists to develop one piece of the original sixpiece Sculptunes proposal and test this musical sculpture with children and early childcare practitioners.
The Local Authority partnership in association with the National Concert Hall (NCH) now wish to share the commissioned work and invite you to hear from the commissioned artists. A publication capturing a review of the commissioning process, outputs and impacts of the collaborative framework, alongside additional research conducted among the artists and key personnel will be presented on the day. Dr. Michelle Downes has been invited as keynote speaker to share some of her insights and findings on brain and behaviour development in the first years of life.
The inclusion of a space for reflection and discussion is included in the day’s events in the form of a focus workshop. Attendees are invited to communicate their experience of working in the early childhood arts sector with the local authority partners.
Bookings through NCH boxoffice at www.nch.ie or phone +353 (0)1 417 0000
Creativity & Change, CIT
If you are hoping to inject some creative change into your 2019 then look no further than the Creativity & Change Masterclass programme. They start off next month, Feb 9th and 10th with a weekend of creative writing.
Creativity and Change masterclasses are an opportunity for inspirational, intensive and in depth engagement over one or two days. Delivered by facilitators with specific expertise and experience, the programme is designed around the identified gaps and expressed interests of practitioners. Each masterclass is a deep dive into a specific method that can be used to explore change-making, global citizenship and social justice. Fees are subsidised by our partner Irish Aid in order to make these courses affordable and accessible to all. They will all take place in inspiring locations around Cork City.
Make Create Innovate is an exciting educational start-up working with creative technology across many education sectors. We offer learners the opportunity to make, build, create and explore in hands-on workshops. We are passionate about developing high quality STEAM- based education experiences for learners of all ages in both formal and non-formal educational settings.
They are now inviting expressions of interest to join a panel of freelance facilitators from which we will draw upon for our upcoming series of workshops 2019-2020.
Role Specifics:
Job type: freelance / contract – paid hourly or by the day
Location: Usually Dublin, occasionally outside Dublin
Availability: Usually Monday – Friday, sometimes weekends
The successful candidate must have easy access to Dublin and have own transport
Deadline for receipt of applications is 5pm, Wednesday, January 23rd 2019
Interviews will commence the following week
The Arts Council’s Creative Schools Initiative
Deadline: 12noon Friday 18th January 2019
The Arts Council of Ireland is seeking to engage the services of a suitably qualified Programme Manager for the Creative Schools Initiative.
Scoileanna Ildánacha/Creative Schools is a flagship initiative of the Creative Ireland Programme to enable the creative potential of every child. Creative Schools is led by the Arts Council in partnership with the Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. Creative Schools draws on the commitments set out in the Arts in Education Charter. Creative Schools will give expression to this goal as part of an integrated implementation plan for arts in education. Drawing on the commitments set out in the Arts in Education Charter, Creative Schools (formerly ARIS/Arts Rich Schools) aims to understand, develop and celebrate the arts, as a core aspect of school life, and to foster children and young people’s creativity and participation in the arts as an integral part of their education in Ireland.
It will establish a range of collaborative opportunities for schools and will develop and strengthen the relationships between schools and the broader cultural and community infrastructure within which they operate. The long-term aim is for every school to be supported to fully embrace the arts and creativity, ensuring a positive experience and strong outcomes for children and young people.
The initiative is informed by research that tells us that young people’s participation in the artsleads to a range of positive outcomes for children with regard to their cognitive development, socio-emotional wellbeing and attitudes to school. Children who participate in the arts in school are more likely to participate outside of school, including reading for pleasure. (Arts Council/ESRI, 2016)
The Arts Council is seeking to engage the services of a suitably qualified Programme Manager.
The Programme Manager will be engaged on a full-time basis and will work as part of a core team, made up of two full-time Education Advisors seconded to the programme and the Creative Schools Project Leads. The Programme Manager will be responsible for policy alignment, project planning and delivery, to ensure the effective management of all key policy, operational and logistical elements of the initiative, liaising internally to ensure effective integration with Arts Council systems, policies and procedures where required; as well as assisting with the design and implementation of new systems and processes specific to Creative Schools. The Programme Manager will work with the Creative Schools Project Leads and will report to the Arts Director, Performing Arts.
Full details and application available through etenders at the direct link below:
Kids’ Own has published a brand new book by children experiencing homelessness. The book was launched in partnership with Focus Ireland on Friday 9th November, and offers a rich resource for teachers and schools to explore themes of social justice, children’s rights and SPHE topics. The book was developed by 15 children, aged 8–12, during the summer – through a creative process with writer Mary Branley and artist Maree Hensey –and includes a beautiful mixture of artwork, photography, poetry and personal stories.
Meet the King who has banned feelings and colours from his Kingdom in this fun and interactive workshop for 3 to 5 years olds and their grown-ups at The Ark, Dublin. In partnership with First Fortnight.
The King finds feelings confusing so he says no one can laugh or cry when he’s around. Feelings of happiness, sadness or anger are not allowed. He wants everything and everyone to be grey and gloomy all day long – so he’s banished colours as well.
Be part of a group of brave, young adventurers who decide this can’t be right, so go an a mission to collect the missing feelings and colours and bring them back to the Kingdom.
About Joanna Parkes
Joanna Parkes is a freelance drama facilitator and theatre practitioner working in Primary Schools and Teacher Training Colleges. As well as devising and delivering drama programmes in schools she has also written a number of teacher’s resources packs and publications. She has been running workshops and teacher-training at The Ark since 2013.
About First Fortnight
First Fortnight is a charity that challenges mental health prejudice through arts and cultural action. The First Fortnight Festival creates a consistent space in the cultural calendar where citizens can be inspired through arts events and experiences to talk about mental health issues in a non-scripted manner. This year they are delighted to host the European Mental Health Arts & Culture Festival in Ireland. Find out more at www.firstfortnight.ie.
Ciara has a PhD in English from Maynooth University. She has worked as researcher on the National Collection of Children’s Books (TCD) and “Gender Identity: Child Readers and Library Collections” at the Centre for Children’s Literature and Culture, DCU. She has taught English in various universities and currently works at Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership as office administrator.
First impressions of the Creativity and Change programme, (CIT) Cork – Blog 1
I’ve always had a keen interest in the creative arts and concepts of creativity. Issues of social justice have also always been to the forefront of my concerns, very much connected with my interest in creativity and literary forms, and informing much of my research. It’s not surprising then that the Creativity and Change course, a programme aimed at “anyone who is interested how creative engagement can nurture global citizenship and empathic action around local and global justice themes”, piqued my interest. However, having spent most of my career to date firmly on the analytical and critical side of creativity, and perhaps on issues of social justice too, it took some courage and the making of some pros and cons lists before I applied. Though I’ve invested much time in thinking about how literature can help us think about, see, and shape the world in different ways — in other words, how engaging with a form of creative expression might form new pathways of understanding — I haven’t spent much time on what is perhaps the more uncomfortable side of creativity.
From the very beginning of the course, I was struck by the emphasis on doing, on movement, on activity. Introductory ice-breakers were conducted by participants physically orienting ourselves at different points in the room according to different prompts. Each new topic was prefaced by games involving movement and reflection. Instead of beginning by talking about our interests and experiences related to global justice, we explored these ideas through working with watercolours, pencils, markers — objects unfamiliar to the adult me. We worked silently in groups on numerous activities. In one instance, groups of participants were given a block of clay, to shape and mould any way the group saw fit, without speaking or communicating. Working with paint and clay in silence allowed me to experience quiet contentment in the process, with “doing” for its own sake, rather than focusing on my lack of competence or confidence in these activities. I think I also reflected more deeply on ideas of teamwork and leadership as a result of these experiences than through many of the designated courses on these topics that I’d attended as part of training for previous jobs.
One full day of our first weekend was spent at the “creative fair”. Course participants were let loose in a room with numerous stalls with various familiar and unfamiliar art materials, books, newspapers, magazines and much more. For the first part of the day, we were given no instruction — only to enjoy, play, or create something from the materials at hand. After a couple of hours of being absorbed in activity, we were tasked with making something that somehow engaged with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, and were given some instruction on how to use the material at each stall. This, for me, and I think for many other participants, completely and perhaps deliberately changed the earlier atmosphere of experimentation and engagement. I attempted to make a postcard based on the fourth SDG, quality education. Though it’s an issue that I feel strongly about and have given thought to, attaching the logo for the SDG of quality education made the postcard feel like a flimsy exploration, expressing an easy platitude without depth or engagement. And so, the first weekend of the course ended with numerous reflections and realisations about the relationship between creativity and issues of global justice.
Naomi Cahill works as a Creative Associate for Creative Schools and is founder and director of Bespoke Productions. She is an experienced and qualified drama teacher of primary, second level and adult education as well as children with special needs and adults with physical and intellectual disabilities. Naomi graduated with a degree in Drama & Theatre Studies from University College Cork. She further completed the Higher Diploma in Arts in Drama Education and was awarded‘Highest Academic Achievement’ from the Leinster School of Music & Drama. Through Bespoke Productions, Naomi leads drama courses in Ireland and abroad which are aimed at building confidence, self-esteem and developing communication skills. She most recently directed a modern version of ‘Romeo & Juliet’ at Teatro Re Grillo, Licata, Sicily. Having performed both on stage and in film, she enjoys sharing her experience with her students. She is delighted to be working as a Creative Associate for the Creative Schools programme.
Creative Schools: The Journey Continues – Blog 2
Creative Schools Coordinators:
In every Creative School there is a Creative Schools Coordinator. The coordinator is my first point of contact with each school and I liaise with them in regular meetings. I have now met all coordinators in my corresponding schools. In some schools the coordinator is a member of the teaching staff and in others it is the school principal. There has been a great response and enthusiasm from all coordinators and schools as a whole to the project and a strong belief in the positive impact it can make on putting the arts and creativity at the heart of young people’s lives.
Completion of Step One: ‘Understand’:
I am continuing to work with schools on the process of gaining an understanding of the school’sengagement with the arts and creativity. Having completed workshops and meetings with relevant parties and staff, I am liaising with Creative Schools Coordinators to complete the documentation for this section. All schools are provided with a document called ‘Understand’ complete with four sections: 1) Children & Young People 2) Teaching & Learning 3) Leadership & Management & 4) School Environment, Opportunities & Networks. In each section there are a series of statements which are rated on a scale of: 0-5 (0 means: the statement is ‘Not at all true’, 5 means: the statement is ‘Very true’). For example: “Pupils/students are involved in decision-making on existing arts opportunities and are able to shape their learning experiences in school” (Section 1: Children & Young People). Using age specific surveys designed for appropriate parties and information gathered from staff discussions I work with coordinators to rate all statements (using an average from the individual ratings). The following individuals are consulted with in this process: the school principal, deputy principal, coordinator, teachers (including resource staff & S.N.A.s), staff with a responsibility for the arts, parent’s association and board of management. These findings will support the development of the Creative Schools Plan which will be carried out in step two: ‘Develop’.
What is Creativity?
As I mentioned in my previous post the voice, opinions and views of young people is of key importance to this pilot project. Through ‘The Voice of Young People’ workshop I collected lots of useful information which I use as data for the ‘Children & Young People’ section and to influence my work with schools going forward. I go through this information, document and analyse it. I found it inspiring to read young people’s understanding of the word ‘Creativity’. From my experience, all young people have their own individual understanding of creativity. It is very interesting and uplifting read their definitions:
“I think it is about showing who you are and what you like to do”. “I think if you’re creative, you have a big imagination”.
“It’s about expressing yourself”.
“Imagination”.
“Like your dreams are what you feel & draw & do”.
“Do what your mind tells you”.
“Creativity is free! When you break rules, you are being creative”.
I believe it is important to let young people come up with their own understanding of creativity rather than provide them with a set definition. This is similar to the constructivist approach I often use in my own teaching. Using constructivism, students are actively involved in constructing their own meaning and knowledge as opposed to passively receiving information.
Through the workshop, I also gathered information on student’s individual artistic and creative interests. Students listed: the creative activities they are currently engaged with inside and outside school. They also listed the creative things they would like to do if they had the opportunity. It is very interesting to hear their responses. The answers vary greatly from school to school. The school’slocation and the cultural and artistic opportunities in close proximity of the school also have an influence on the responses given.
Meeting Teachers:
I have commenced meeting all teaching staff in my corresponding schools. It is very important that staff are fully aware of what is involved in Creative Schools and are able to contribute their ideas in order for the project to be of benefit. The staff are of key importance to ensure the sustainability and longevity of the project. In these meetings I initially provide staff with a thorough understanding of Creative Schools. I then explain the different components of the programme including the first step: ‘Understand’. I design posters listing the following questions as headings:
What are the creative strengths of the school? What creative areas can the school develop? What creative activities can the school implement to develop these areas?
I then facilitate a discussion with staff where they are given the opportunity to provide answers/ideas to questions listed. We pass around the posters and everyone makes a written note of their contributions. I also ask staff about their own individual areas of expertise for example: Is there a staff member that is a particularly skilled/trained musician/dancer? etc. This is very beneficial for all staff to be aware of going forward. I have found that a lot of schools are interested in working collaboratively together to share their creative skills and knowledge.
New Beginnings in 2019:
I am looking forward to a new year of opportunities for Creative Schools and excited to move on to the next stage of the project.
As 2018 comes to a close, members of the Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee have paid tribute to Orla Kenny, long-time Creative Director of Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership, who passed away in July. Here, members of the committee remember their first encounters with Orla and reflect on their experiences of working with her in different capacities within the arts and education sector. As director of Kids’ Own (the organisation that won the tender for leading the development of the Portal in 2014) Orla was instrumental in the stakeholder consultation process, design, development and management of the Arts in Education Portal in close consultation and collaboration with the Editorial Committee.
Remembering Orla
I first met Orla when Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership won the tender to advise on the building of the Arts in Education Portal in 2014. I had been aware of her work and publications prior to that. Apart from her vast knowledge I was instantly struck by her skills and expertise in working with the Portal Advisory Committee who were a heterogeneous group of people from education, arts and technology backgrounds. No question posed was too basic and her warm encouraging smile led to great working relationships. She took the concept of the Portal from concept phase to its official launch in the Printworks in Dublin Castle on the 19th May 2015. The Portal is now the key national digital resource for arts and education practice in Ireland, and thanks to Orla and her team, underpinning the continued development of the Portal is a strong and implicit shared belief amongst all stakeholders of the intrinsic value of the arts in the lives of children. She was a passionate advocate for the integration of the arts in education and she championed the voice of the child and the rights of all children to fulfil their creative potential. She is sadly missed by the large community of practice which has developed over the last six years and amongst whom she was a shining star. The last time we met she was with her beautiful son Oscar. I count myself very lucky to have worked with Orla.
Katie Sweeney, Chair of the Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee
I recall my first meeting with Orla when Simon Spain introduced her as the new Director at Kids’ Own and his successor (he was departing for Australia). He chose well! – as the legacy of his and her work will ultimately prove. Orla worked with us in 2003 on their first exhibition to share the innovative work that they were developing in schools north and south of the border – Multimedia Maps (the result of a three-year project initiated and run by Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership) The project placed artists in school communities in the border counties in Ireland to investigate the use of new technologies as tools for creativity and the exchange of ideas. From 2000 to 2001 over 500 children in the border counties of Armagh, Cavan, Donegal, Down, Sligo and Tyrone, worked with six artists – Owen Crawford, Julie Forrester, Angela Ginn, Rachel Glynne, Ann Henderson and Sharon Kelly – in a series of residencies as part of the project. Orla was a perfectionist and knew that to show the quality of engagement that was happening in the artists’ residencies she had to have this reflected in the exhibition as well.
Seeing how the work of Kids’ Own developed since then and talking with artists who were nurtured by her supportive process has been wonderful. She will be missed by so many and it was a privilege to work with her over the past few years as a member of the Portal Steering Group.
Helen O Donoghue, Senior Curator Engagement and Learning IMMA
I first encountered Orla when we were both working towards a Postgraduate Teaching Diploma in Art and Design Education in Limerick School of Art, which she embraced with energy, ambition and inquisition. Some years later, our paths crossed again, soon after I started working in Kildare County Council and Orla, in Kids’ Own, when we collaborated on ‘Can’t Loose Cant’, a stunning pictionary with words in English, Irish and Cant. I admired her commitment to creating something with a strong aesthetic, while ensuring that the children involved were immersed in the process and that the local Traveller community were consulted on the use of Cant. In recent years, Orla and Kids’ Own led a series of artists workshops in Kildare (and further afield) on documentation, reflection and evaluation of work in education contexts – a much needed discipline that many artists neglect and that Orla was a huge advocate for. More recently again, Orla put her shoulder to the wheel on www.artsineducation.ie.
My children are a similar age to Orla’s son and over the years, we compared the usual milestones and dramas. My heart hurts at the idea of a child loosing a parent. I’m not sure that there is comfort to be found when a vibrant young woman dies. But if there is comfort, let it be in a life lived to the full, jam packed with passion, creativity and a desire to share what is good.
Lucina Russell, Arts Officer, Kildare County Council
The first time I met Orla was in The Model in Sligo. In spite of wearing a suit and tie, by the afternoon, she had me sitting in the lotus position, in a circle with artist Maree Hensey and others reflecting on the art work we had completed. She smiled when she saw me. With that smile she was able to disarm everyone of their inhibitions and positive work ensued. This sense of humour combined with a vision for the arts witnessed her bringing Kids’ Own Publishing on to a national and international stage. One of her great legacies will be the first ever Arts in Education Portal in Ireland. She was taken from us all too soon. It was wonderful to have known and worked with her.
Dermot Carney, Arts Officer, National Association of Principles and Deputy Principle
My overriding memory of Orla is of her great positivity, her humour and her practicality. You always laughed a lot in her company but she was completely serious about the work of Kids’ Own and its impact on children and young people. The depth of her knowledge was incredible and you can see this in the Arts in Education Portal which is her great legacy to us that she built with such passion with her wonderful team. It was a privilege to know her.
Deirdre Behan, Strategic Development Director, The Arts Council
Orla was the sort of person who lit up a room, whom you smiled to see when she walked into a meeting. She was fun and funny, and knew that levity was never mutually exclusive to serious intent. You knew she took her work and your work and especially children’s work very seriously. She respected it all alike, and made you feel valuable by that respectful attention. And she was a very attentive and bright presence, responsive, quick to pick up on people’s feelings and concerns. Jo and she came to teach us about documentation once at the Abbey and she was a clear and patient teacher, eager to involve us in the learning and to build on what existing skills we could bring to the process. It was in that session I realised how enormously skilled she was and how lightly she could deliver it. Personally I liked her very much and felt grateful that such a dynamic and visionary figure was part of the Arts in Education Portal and so we would work together regularly. Quietly I’d started to use her as a measure for what artistically inspired project leadership looked like. Her loss hurts but I hope she can be continuously celebrated by keeping her standards of commitment and joyful engagement alive in our work.
Phil Kingston, Community and Education Manager, The Abbey Theatre
What I loved most about Orla was her passion for the Arts and Education – a marriage which offers children and young people experiences which open up their lives and their creativity. She was always a pleasure to work with – her expertise and her dogged determination underpinned by humour, compassion and joy brought us all pathways to investigate, express and take delight in the work we all try to do. We will sadly miss her inspiring presence but will continue to celebrate the Kids’ Own legacy created by herself and Jo and carry her inspiration with us.
Emelie Fitzgibbon, CEO Graffiti Theatre Company
Arts and Culture in Education Research Repository
Date: 1pm Thursday, 6th December
The Arts and Culture in Education Research Repository (ACERR) are delighted to invite you to this Symposium addressing critical research infrastructural issues for Arts and Culture in Education research in Ireland.
The recent launch of the EOSC (European Open Science Cloud) and the Vienna declaration: https://eosc- launch.eu/declaration/ reaffirms the EU Commission’s commitment to “a research data commons, inclusive of all disciplines and member states, sustainable in the long term”.
ACERR presents a solution for Ireland in this emerging EU research environment.
Venue: National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks
Date & Time: December 6th at 1.00pm.
Please RSVP to this email address o.murphy@ucc.ie for catering purposes.
Irish Architecture Foundation
Deadline: 10am, Monday 14 January
The National Architects in Schools Initiative has been devised and delivered by the Irish Architecture Foundation since 2013. In order to establish the impact of the programme and identify areas for improvement, revision, expansion etc. the IAF wishes to conduct a comprehensive independent review of the programme in 2019.
The IAF would like to welcome tenders from experienced consultant(s) to review the programme through research, surveys, focus groups, observation and/or other methods, engaging with those who participate in the programme (students, teachers and architects), those who devise and deliver the programme and those who fund the programme, in order to achieve a 360° view on the programme’s strengths, deficits and opportunities for improvement.
The deadline for applications is Monday 14 January at 10am and the IAF intend to recruit the consultant(s) by end of January, with final reporting occurring in April 2019. The fee for the project is €9,500 inclusive of VAT. Tenders, and any queries, should be sent to education@architecturefoundation.ie
A Music Generation Development Officer will be appointed by GRETB and will be responsible for managing an extensive performance music education programme on behalf of the Roscommon Music Education Partnership. County Roscommon has been selected for participation in Music Generation– Ireland’s National Music Education Programme, which is co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education and Skills and Local Music Education Partnerships.
Three-year, fixed-term contract.
Application form, job description and person specification available online: galwayroscommon.etb.ie
Closing date for receipt of completed application forms: 12 noon, Monday 17 December, 2018
Late applications will not be accepted.
Based on the volume of applications received short-listing may apply. Short-listing will take place on the basis of the information provided in the application form. Depending on the qualifications and experience of applicants, short-listing thresholds may be significantly higher than the minimum standards set out.
Naomi Cahill works as a Creative Associate for Creative Schools and is founder and director of Bespoke Productions. She is an experienced and qualified drama teacher of primary, second level and adult education as well as children with special needs and adults with physical and intellectual disabilities. Naomi graduated with a degree in Drama & Theatre Studies from University College Cork. She further completed the Higher Diploma in Arts in Drama Education and was awarded‘Highest Academic Achievement’ from the Leinster School of Music & Drama. Through Bespoke Productions, Naomi leads drama courses in Ireland and abroad which are aimed at building confidence, self-esteem and developing communication skills. She most recently directed a modern version of ‘Romeo & Juliet’ at Teatro Re Grillo, Licata, Sicily. Having performed both on stage and in film, she enjoys sharing her experience with her students. She is delighted to be working as a Creative Associate for the Creative Schools programme.
Creative Schools: The Start of the Journey – Blog 1
Creative Schools is a pilot initiative of the Creative Ireland Programme. It is led by the Arts Council in conjunction with the Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Culture Heritage and the Gaeltacht. The aim of this initiative is to put the arts and creativity at the heart of children and young people’s lives. My job as a Creative Associate is to enhance and shape the place of creativity in schools. I work to inspire, energise and drive schools forward in developing creative opportunities in the school and wider community. I enable schools to understand, develop and celebrate young people’s engagement with the arts and creativity.
Getting to Know Schools:
I work with a number of schools throughout Cork and Kerry. At the beginning of November, I began engaging in meetings with the Creative Schools Coordinators from my designated schools. There are a series of objectives I aim to achieve in these meetings. Initially, we go through the Creative Schools Planning Framework. We then begin to discuss the first step of the programme: ‘Understand’. This allows schools to understand their current engagement with the arts and creativity. It also enables them to assess the creative interests of students and the resources which are available in the school and wider community. We talk about the school’s current involvement with the arts and artistic areas which they wish to enhance. Through this meeting I develop a better, more thorough understanding of the school as a whole.
In each school I run a workshop with students on ‘The Voice of Young People’. All creative associates were lucky enough to have the opportunity to undergo training in Hub na nÓg. This is a national centre of excellence which supports us to give children and young people a voice in decision making. I use the Lundy Model to ensure the voice of young people is a priority. This model indicates that young people should be provided with a safe space and appropriate information to enable them to express their views. It is also important to make sure that their views are communicated with someone with the responsibility to listen, taken seriously and acted on where appropriate.
Workshop:
Giving young people the opportunity to actively participate in a workshop is a great way to hear their views. Let me give you a brief insight into ‘The Voice of Young People’ workshop. I use two different methods in this workshop called: ‘Open Space Method’ and ‘World Café Method’. The‘Open Space Method’ involves me asking student three questions as follows: 1) What is creativity? 2) What kind of creative things do you currently do? 3) What kind of creative things would you like to do? Students write their answers on post-its and stick them on three different parts of the wall. Students then divide these answers into sections according to what kind of arts activity they are e.g. music, dance etc. This leads to a very effective visual portrayal of student’s artistic interests. We then move on to ‘World Café Method’. Students are provided with a poster on which they are asked a series of questions containing blanks: 1) What is …..? 2) What kind of …… activities have you done/do you do? 3) What kind of ….. activities would you like to do? The young people use the arts activities they came up with in the previous exercise to fill in the blanks in these questions. Students then design the poster using a series of words and illustrations in order to answer these questions. I like using these methods as students take ownership of the kinds of arts activities they would like to explore and they are decision makers from the offset. I also give students surveys which are specific to their age and ability which allow them to express their opinion on their experience of the arts. These are important to give me concrete data to work from. If you want to know what young people want the best thing is to ask them. This workshop enables me to do that.
Further action I have taken in my role as Creative Associate is to create links between the school and local arts opportunities. So far, I have met people such as the local arts officer, programme manager from arts centre etc. These links are important to make to ensure the sustainability of the Creative Schools Programme.
The next step for my work as Creative Associate is to develop a Creative Schools Plan schools. Finally, schools will celebrate their experience with the arts and creativity by sharing their experience as a school, community and beyond.
Onwards & Upwards:
I firmly believe that providing young people with improved, sustainable arts opportunities will benefit them now and into the future. I am delighted to be working as part of this exciting new programme which allows us to make a positive difference in the lives of young people through the arts & creativity.
The Glucksman
Date: 12th January 2019, 10am – 1pm
Artists have long used visual methods of expression to consider and interrogate personal experiences and challenge mental health stigma.
Join curators and artists as we explore the new Glucksman digital toolkit for educators – Art and Mental Health. In this masterclass, teachers will investigate ways to engage their students in artistic processes that creatively encounter, explore and understand our mental health using artworks from the University College Cork art collection.
The new toolkits are designed for educators from Primary to Third level and uses the artworks of The Project Twins to look at projects about art and mental health that can be re-imagined in the classroom.
The Art Teachers Masterclass is run as part of the First Fortnight 2019 programme. First Fortnight utilises arts and culture to challenge mental health stigma while supporting some of Ireland’s most vulnerable people through creative therapies.
Cost €25 – Booking required. For online booking go to www.eventbrite.ie/e/teachers-masterclass-art-mental-health-tickets-52432269329
Following on from the success of the first series of Portal Regional Days in 2018, the Arts in Education Portal Team are delighted to announce the 2019 Spring Regional Day to take place in the Leitrim Sculpture Centre on Saturday, February 23rd from 10:45am to 3pm.
We invite regional audiences to connect with us during a series of events, where practitioners can learn more about the Portal and what it offers, tell us about their work, connect with the community at regional level, share practice and find out what opportunities or events are available in their local area. We welcome teachers, artists, arts managers and anyone with an interest in arts in education to join us for this free event.
Stay tuned for the full schedule and booking details which will be announced in the coming weeks.
Valuing Young Audiences: Fully Funded PhD opportunity with Imaginate
Imaginate is seeking prospective doctoral students to work with them on an AHRC-funded PHD exploring the value for children of experiencing live theatre and dance as audience members. This is an exciting new collaboration between Imaginate and the University of Aberdeen, as part of the Scottish Graduate School of Arts and Humanities’s (SGSAH) Collaborative Doctoral Awards Programme. The PhD student will be supported to engage with children, parents and teachers on three Imaginate projects: Inspiring Schools, Theatre in Schools Scotland, and the Edinburgh International Children’s Festival. The research will be supervised by Professor Amy Bryzgel (Visual Culture, University of Aberdeen), Dr Jo Vergunst (Anthropology, University of Aberdeen) and Imaginate’s Chief Exec Paul Fitzpatrick.
The successful applicant will work with the supervisory team to prepare a final proposal to SGSAH in February 2019, with notification in April. If successful the studentship will commence on 1 October 2019.
Imaginate warmly encourages applications from researchers with a background in the performing arts, arts-in-education or research on the value of the arts, but this is not a prerequisite.
Autumn has been a busy time for Creative Schools with lots of focus on training and development. The team have been meeting with and training 47 Creative Associates and over 350 representatives from the 150 pilot schools. The commitment shown by schools in the training to putting the arts and creativity at the heart of school life was very obvious and they are excited about the possibilities that learning in and through the arts will bring to their respective school communities. A key aim of the initiative is to give children and young people a central role in the process, to support this Creative Associates were given a day of training from the amazing team at Hub na nÓg – Young Voices in Decision-making, Department of Children and Youth Affairs. Over the coming weeks Creative Associates will meet with their schools and begin the first stages of their work together.
To view the full list of the 150 schools selected to participate in the pilot phase of Creative Schools go to www.artscouncil.ie/pilotschoolslist
Christopher McCambridge is a Special Educational Needs teacher at St. Colman’s Primary School, Lambeg. St. Colman’s Primary is a mainstream school of 400 pupils with two learning support unit classes. Christopher is also an active member of the Belfast art scene. He co-founded the arts organisation Belfast Platform for the Arts (Platform Arts) in 2010, which continues to provide an exhibition space and studios for artists.
In 2016 Christopher and his Primary 6/7 class were chosen to take part in the Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership ‘Virtually There’ project. ‘A virtual artist in residence project which explores the potential for creative engagement between artists working from their studio and children and teachers in the classroom using video conferencing technology’. (Orla Kenny, Creative Director of Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership). Now in their 3rd year, artist John D’Arcy has been working collaboratively with Christopher and his class at St Colman’s P.S as virtual artist-in-residence.
WECHO FM
A new school year, a new ‘Virtually There’ project!
The majority of the children were meeting John for the first time. They were unsure what to expect as a lot of them had never experienced or used video-conferencing technology before.
After a few technical difficulties on my end, we finally connected to John. Introductions were made by John and the children, we got straight into introducing our new project theme … RADIO!
The children discussed their knowledge of radio … Tyrell said that it was “where you could listen to things, like a music box.” Aidan said he thought of it as a “jukebox” to listen to songs. Sam stated that different types of sounds could come from it, not only music but also advertisements. Daniel, Adam and Charley thought that even though it played music there were other programmes on the radio such as the news, weather forecasts or traffic reports. Adam also said that he had listened to documentaries on the radio. The children were asked what they thought we would be creating during the project, to which they replied, “A RADIO SHOW!”
Not only were we going to create a radio show, we were going to create our own Radio Station.
We discussed the different programmes that could be on our radio station, ideas for programmes included Music, Documentaries, Cartoon or comedy shows, discussions about the news and about our interests such as gaming. With an idea of the content, we were set the task of developing our visual identity. John displayed a number of symbols that the children all were able to recognise easily, e.g. the Nike swoosh, the golden arches, the apple mac symbol.
He told us that we would begin the process of developing a visual identity through the exploration of sound. The children began this process by listening to a variety of sounds that John had created; they then had to interpret them as a drawing. They generated a lot of great ideas, which included random symbols and jagged lines that varied in sizes. John then asked us to interpret drawings that he had created as sounds. Kevin, Sam, Daniel and Kyle all had a go at trying to interpret these drawings, with lots of different and random sounds and noises being made.
In the final part of the process, the children had to name each of the sounds that John created. He explained that the name could be a made-up word or a series of letters. The children found this extremely entertaining and generated a lot of random words for the sounds, including wobe, weeoloublue, breeeeee, dweenen, dulllung, dener, dedzen, wecho, bler and weow. After a short selection and voting process, the children picked WECHO, as our radio station name. WECHO FM was born.
The children were then set the task of creating our visual identity and the background for our radio station. We had to choose two colours, one would be for our background and the other colour would be used to create our visual interpretation for the sound of WECHO.
Each child explored the sound WECHO in their own unique way. This session was great fun and challenged the children’s ideas on what art could be. As the project develops, we hope to explore different aspects of the radio station such as, DJ names and identities, jingles and radio sweepers, sound effects and different radio programmes. At the end of the process we hope to visit a local radio station to gain a better understanding of the inner workings as well as possibly playing our own jingles and songs.
The Ark
2 – 3 November, 2018
Early Years Artist in residence Lucy Hill presents ‘Seedlings’ a series of workshops for children as part of the The Ark’s John Coolahan Early Years Artist Residency. The Seedlings workshops offer opportunities to explore materials and the world around them through playful and engaging activities – ideal for getting little ones (and their grown-up!) imagining and creating together.
Join Lucy Hill for ‘Plaster Caster’
Plaster is amazing! Its transforms from powder to liquid to solid, it warms up as it transforms and it can take as many shapes and forms as we ask it to. It’s a messy but exciting business!
To start, we will press things into brown clay to leave an impression (toys, fingers, shells), then we mix the lovely powder plaster with water and pour it onto the clay.
The plaster warms and then ‘sets’ (goes hard), we then peel the clay away from the plaster, to find a new plaster impression of our objects to paint and to take home! We can also try using other things as ‘moulds’ like orange peel, avocado skins, chestnuts.
Lucy Hill is the inaugural recipient of The Ark’s John Coolahan Early Years Artist Residency and will be devising and delivering an exciting workshop programme for children in the early years at The Ark from May 2018 until April 2019.
Narrative 4 is inviting post-primary school teachers in the Mid-West to take part in their innovative story based CPD training, enabling teachers to run their creative wellness and storytelling module “The Story Exchange” in their classrooms. This module has already been delivered in 18 schools in the region, and has been piloted in Gaelcholáiste Luimnigh for the last 2 years. It was developed in the USA as a means of building empathy and breaking down social boundaries through personal stories, and is now also in schools Mexico, Canada, the UK, Palestine, Israel and South Africa.
The Arts in Education Portal editorial team are pleased to invite applications for a documentation award. Through the award, successful applicants will receive services to the value of €5,000 that will support them in the documentation of a current or upcoming project and a €500 stipend.
The purpose of the award is to support the development of documented outcomes from Arts in Education initiatives in Ireland, which can be shared with the arts in education community and give insights into different processes of engagement. This is part of the Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee’s commitment to supporting and recognising the value of documentation and reflection as a key component within arts in education initiatives.
Two awards will be offered through this opportunity.
Outcomes of the documentation process will include: a project video, a project feature to be showcased on the Portal’s Projects/Partnerships, and the option of a critical essay, with a view to also presenting the work as part of the Arts in Education Portal National Day in 2019.
The process will involve meetings with the Portal Team and a schedule of 3 site visits over the course of the project to capture video and photographic documentation and support reflective processes among participants. The portal team will edit and produce a project video, and will liaise closely with the project partners to develop the content for the project feature. The critical essay would be sited in the Portal’s Reading Room, and is optional. The author and focus of the essay can be decided by the project organisers in collaboration with the Portal Team.
Criteria
To be considered for this opportunity, projects must:
Have started in autumn 2018 or be due to start in Jan/Feb 2019.
Have a minimum duration of 8 weeks.
Involve a professional artist working collaboratively within an educational setting (early years, primary or post-primary).
Be underpinned by a strong ethos of collaboration and a commitment to excellence. Focus on the creative process, with children having an active and collaborative role
Additional criteria
Successful applicants will be asked to ensure that relevant permissions/consent have been sought for documentation of participants.
Please ensure your application has been approved by all project partners prior to submission.
How to make a submission:
Background on who you are; your professional practice and your ethos or approach towards Arts in Education.
An overview of the project – who is involved, how did the collaboration come about, what processes or approaches will take place, what is the aim or focus of the process?
A statement of interest, explaining why documentation supports would be of value to this project.
Muireann Ahern is Joint Artistic Director of Theatre Lovett. For Theatre Lovett she has directed and designed multiple shows. Muireann has over twenty years’ experience working in theatre for young audiences. Previously, she was Theatre Programmer and Producer at The Ark. She programmed the Family Season of the Dublin Theatre Festival and The Dublin Dance Festival. Muireann has worked with The Abbey Theatre’s Outreach Department, TEAM, part time lecturer at St Patrick’s teacher training college, and is a regular guest speaker on theatre for children at other third level colleges. She has led several Professional Development courses and was a member of the core working group on the published Artists~Schools Guidelines: ‘Towards Best Practice in Ireland’. She has been guest speaker at national and international conference focusing on ‘quality’ in theatre for young audiences. She is a graduate of the Samuel Beckett Centre for Drama and Theatre Studies, Trinity College Dublin and also holds a HDip Education from TCD.
Louis is Joint Artistic Director of Theatre Lovett. Theatre Lovett make work for all ages and tour extensively both nationally and internationally. For Theatre Lovett he writes, composes and performs. Work includes They Called Her Vivaldi (Abbey Theatre, National tour, USA tour 2019), The True Story of Hansel and Gretel (Dublin Theatre Festival 2015). Mr. Foley, The Radio Operator (national tour), A Feast of Bones (Dublin Theatre Festival, UK tour), The House that Jack Filled (Dublin Theatre Festival, Irish tour) and The Girl who Forgot to Sing Badly (Irish, US/AUSTRALIAN tours). Louis has also worked with The Abbey Theatre, The Gate Theatre, The Corn Exchange, Siren Productions, Performance Corporation, Barabbas and others. Louis has also performed in and directed several productions at The Ark, A Cultural Centre for Children. Television & Film includes Moone Boy, Stella Days, Anseo, Killinascully, The Tudors, Showbands, Story Lane, The Morbegs and others.
Theatre Lovett make theatre for all ages, child and adult, young and old, chicken and egg. They were nominated for a Judges Special Award at The Irish Times Theatre Awards 2017. If you seek theatre that can amuse, involve and sometimes scare, we offer you theatre as adventure www.theatrelovett.com.
FRNKNSTN
FRNKNSTN has come and gone, perhaps to return next year and tour. At Theatre Lovett, we were happy with our monstrous creation and relish the chance to play with its constituent parts again. As with all shows, a future opportunity to remount a show will allow us to tweak and try improvements.
Most satisfying was the combination of the talents within our creative team. It was important to the project that our creative designers could meet and discuss the project on many occasions before rehearsals began with the director, writer and actor.
Preparation began a year previously with three weeks of development with director, writer, actor and lighting designer. This was followed by a further week and one public showing on the Peacock stage with the support of the Abbey Theatre. This year, the full team had the opportunity to come together in the Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray for two weeks of development in advance of rehearsals to explore our teams’ different specialities and approaches. Thank you to Niamh O Donnell and her team there.
Pay for preparation, for preparation pays.
Cajoling, coercing and corralling the creative team’s work alongside happily wrangling and wrestling with the writer and the solo actor required director Muireann Ahern to enter the arena and persevere for months. She held her nerve with some particularly tough calls along the way as she whittled this beast down to its beautiful, bony exterior.
Playing for your audience
Theatre Lovett’s Actor Training with a focus on playing for audiences Young and Older
Following on from FRNKNSTN, and now in its eighth year, Theatre Lovett have just completed another two weeks of our Actor Training course ‘Playing for your Audience.’ Working in the Gate Theatre Studio, the participating actors also had the experience of presenting aspects of the work to students from two local primary schools from the Gate Theatre stage.
This live experience is integral to the week. Here, on the fourth day of the week, the actors have a chance to put into practise, before that young audience, techniques newly acquired. Freshly minted. Hard to grasp and not yet understood.
The only stories, stimulated by the movement of several beings in a space aware of and silently responding to one another. (Plenty of story detail is provided by the individual imaginations of audience members). No script, no story but a structure and techniques, techniques centred around connection, clarity and simplicity.
Eyes (and ears) for each other and for your audience. Breathe. Make the person next to you shine. Thrown into the real experience of having no prescribed ‘material’ and yet ‘presenting’ themselves to an audience of expectant, eager children, the eye contact between these actors who met each other for the first time four days ago undergoes a resonant transformation. “I am here for you.” “I am as lost as you are.” “What happens next?” “Not sure. Let’s find it together.” Their connection deepens.
To negotiate the space with fifteen other actors, to maintain the engagement of this active audience, to search for the next moment, find it… together, allow it to live and then the next and the next and to continue to engage this audience and together bring it to a close… this requires us to slow down with calm, focused energy. Our energy is the audience’s energy. Not the other way around. Slowly, the actors approach clarity and the audience sees the pictures we make.
Sixteen or so actors sing together a song in a language newly learned. “What’s the next line?” “When do we breathe?” “Do we start now?” “Is this right?” “I think it’s completely wrong” “Keep going.” “Together.” The actors look at each other. Watch each other’s breathing, eyes and mouths, conduct each other through these signals. Not with gestures or hand signals, no pictures of anxiety, no unnecessary movement. Keep it simple. Do the simple thing. Breathe and sing. Together. The children are there for them.
I will not go into the techniques used here. That requires a little time and an audience. Underlying the week is the credo that we are playing for our audience. Take care of our audience, young and older. Do not cause them anxiety. Allow them fully relax in order to be fully engaged. They should sense that they’re in good hands. Easier said than done.
Róisin O’Donnell is a 19 year old leaving cert survivor and writer. She was a participant in the first ever Young Playwrights’ Programme. Her play ‘Bernie’ premiered through the programme. She lives in Cork, where she spends her time writing fiction and plays, obsessing over books and her dog.
The series is a joint guest blog series with two participants of the Young Playwright Programme, Jessica O’Brien and Róisin O’Donnell.
College has changed the way I write… – Blog 2
I write this blog like a stereotypical college student, with a deadline looming, on a tiny computer, in a big academic library. Eight months ago I was accepted into the Young Playwrights Programme and four months ago my first play took to life on the stage. Do I miss the programme? Short answer: Yeah.
In college, I am constantly reminded of the time I spent at Graffiti – not to jinx it. Just like then I am surrounded by people I like with my trusty keyboard only a stretch of my arm away.
A lot of things that I did not expect happened when I became a first-year student at UCC.
I can stare/glare/laugh at the ‘world’ now. And feel comfortable enough in it. John and Katie always encouraged us to say what we are- writers. An obvious title. But up until this new chapter of my life, I was waiting. Waiting for proof that I could post on Instagram and make everyone stop scrolling for a second and think- wow, Róisin… she’s not average… every negative thought gone…
I am not going to type bullshit if my time with the journalism society has taught me anything. The doors did not open present my ambitions to me.
My personal life turned into the Titanic on speed when the Leaving Cert came around. And the neat blue lines of the exam booklets had no sympathy marks to give. I didn’t get the results I wanted. The State Examinations Commission said you’re not good enough, the days, the months, the YEAR you spent was as worthless as the paper the results are printed on.
I got my dream course because I got lucky. Any other year… let’s not think of that.
My Leaving Cert is worthless now. Lecturers don’t mention it and us students squint and cringe about it, rarely.
I have learned to stop wishing and writing sloppy coming of age stories that made me sick with boredom. I write about my life now and the world around me. I send my drafts to the UCC Express or the Motley to connect with other students. So far I haven’t got a no, just edits. and ‘you can do it.’ And I am happy. The tiny achievements college has offered me have given me more than six years and two exams ever could.
The Ark
Deadline: 5pm on Tuesday 30th October 2018
The Ark is delighted to invite professional artists from the fields of dance, theatre or music to apply for their second 12 month Early Years Artist Residency, running from May 2019-April 2020.
This artist residency opportunity has been established in honour of John Coolahan, who sadly passed away earlier this year. John was a longstanding member of The Ark board and a leading champion for arts education in Ireland.
Beginning in 2018, this residency aims to honour the legacy of Professor Coolahan by providing the selected artist with a yearlong opportunity to develop his/her early years arts practice in association with The Ark.
This opportunity recognises the importance of the arts in early childhood and aims to nurture and support the development of professional artists working in this emerging sector of arts practice.
The inaugural John Coolahan Early Years Artist in Residence at The Ark is visual artist Lucy Hill who will be in post until April 2019. As The Ark wishes to establish the residency as an annual opportunity, we are now seeking a new artist from the fields of dance, theatre or music who will take up the residency for a year from May 2019 when Lucy’s tenure comes to an end.
The selected artist will have a strong vision for how they would like to deepen the range of their experience, knowledge and practice with this age group through the unique context of this residency in collaboration with The Ark.
Completed applications must be received by 5pm on Tuesday 30th October 2018
Arts in Education Portal
The Arts in Education Portal’s tour of regions continued last Saturday, October 6, with a jam-packed day of activities and presentations at the LexIcon in Dún Laoghaire.
Artist and early years practitioner Helen Barry and creche manager Rosheen Kemple presented on their work using movement and music with early years children and babies in Monkstown. Principal of the Central Model Senior School Deirdre Gartland and artist Claire Halpin demonstrated Visual Thinking Strategies in the LexIcon’s Art Gallery and spoke on the numerous teaching applications for the VTS method across the curriculum. The day was topped off by a hands-on activity using natural materials foraged by artist Liz McMahon who shared her depth of experience with Forest School approaches. Thanks to all involved in making day a success!
Look out for our next Regional Day, planned for early spring 2019 for the Northwest. More details coming soon!
The post is being offered on the basis of a fixed-term contract for a period of three years. The closing date for receipt of applications is 12 noon, Monday, 15 October 2018.
Application form, post details and applicant requirements are available online from the LCETB website at limerickclare.etb.ie or by email from recruitment@lcetb.ie.
It is proposed to conduct interviews at the earliest opportunity following the closing date.
Please note that shortlisting may apply. Canvassing will disqualify. LCETB is an Equal Opportunities Employer.
About Music Generation Clare
Music Generation Clare is a performance music education service for children and young people in County Clare that provides opportunities for children and young people to access a range of vocal and instrumental tuition in their local area.
Established in 2014, it is among the 11 MEP Areas that were selected for participation in Phase 1 of Music Generation. Locally, Music Generation Clare is supported and funded by Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board, and Clare County Council. Visit www.musicgenerationclare.ie
This year’s Baboró International Arts Festival for Children takes place in Galway in just over two weeks’ time (October 15-21) and there are a number of cultural experiences for school children to enjoy. Whether you’d like to bring your class to see a show, take in a workshop or visit an exhibition, Baboró has it covered.
One of the cornerstones of Baboró’s foundation is the right of each child to enjoy arts and culture. Baboró believes the encouragement of creativity from an early age is one of the best guarantees of growth in a healthy environment of self-esteem and mutual respect.
Baboró enables children to experience first hand the transformative power of the creative arts, while at the same time developing their creative, problem-solving and collaborative skills; skills that are necessary for developing fully rounded young people.
Artists and companies from Ireland, Australia, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Scotland and England will present shows at this year’s festival. Full schools programme is here https://www.baboro.ie/festival/programme/event-type/schools
For full details of how to apply to bring your school to Baboró see here
Are you a teacher who would like to explore ways of connecting theatre back into the classroom or would you like to learn some tricks of the trade on how to foster an environment of imagination in the classroom? The following workshops might be of interest to you:
For further information and bookings go to www.baboro.ie
Jessica O’ Brien is a 16 year old student and aspiring writer from Cork. As part of the Young Playwrights’ Programme with Graffiti Theatre, she along with eight other young people wrote and staged plays in The Everyman as part of the Midsummer Festival in 2018. She is currently writing her first book and hopes to have a career in writing novels or journalism.
The series is a joint guest blog series with two participants of the Young Playwright Programme, Jessica O’Brien and Róisin O’Donnell.
Why I Write – Blog 3
I write for a reason, though I know that most of it is just instinct. Since I was a kid I would fill these hardbacks with creative writing and acrostic poems and I would fill my suitcases with my favourite books for the summer holidays – to the despair of my Mom. (my case was always overweight) I distinctly remember the first Young Adult novel I read, ‘The Fault In Our Stars’, and immediately being hooked. I couldn’t get enough of these characters and worlds that were realistic, these people I wanted to be friends with. Within two years my room was unrecognisable, with massive shelves to facilitate my little library.
When I started studying for the Junior Cert I was taught to read and look at other forms of art critically. I am very grateful for the English class, classmates and teacher I had. Instead of just spewing out whatever Ithought was good, I took criticism from others. I listened to the other girls and realised I could be as good at writing answers as them if I tried. It was then I realised just how much I loved writing. I loved being able to start writing and forgetting about where I was and having that right word come to me. Suddenly I was in love with cinematography, the meaning behind words and I began to read and write differently. Now I couldn’t just read any YA book, I would scan the fonts and blurbs and as I read, I would add things to my mental list of what I liked or disliked. My journals became a source of comfort, and they still remain so.
But as I have gotten older and learned more about myself and the world, I realised that I had never truly been able to find myself in a book. There is such a lack of diversity, there are so many cliche stories with happy endings and straight romances and I got tired. One day I was walking home from the bookshop with my Dad and he asked me what the books I had bought were about. I explained, and I guess he was surprised because the books had strong themes in them. ‘I thought you read to escape reality,’ he said, with his bag of crime novels. ‘I guess I write to help change my reality,’ I thought.
I write because I can’t not write. I write to tell people what I can’t say or to get my feelings out on paper. My journals are almost like scrapbooks in a way. But most importantly, I now write because I have stories I need to tell. There are people in the LGBT community like me who’s story never gets told. People of colour. Different religion. Disabilities. Those love stories that don’t work out and real life teenager scenarios. We are all hot messes. It is so much nicer to read a book and relate to it rather than read a book and strive to be like it.
I write for myself, and everyone who ever deserved a voice. One day, maybe I’ll be scrutinising the YA section and I’ll see my own name there. That’s the dream I have for this reality.
The Glucksman, University College Cork
Saturday 20 October 2018, 10am – 1pm
Join curator Tadhg Crowley and artist Fiona Kelly for a masterclass that explores our new Digital Toolkit (www.glucksman.org/discover/digital/toolkits) for teachers. The session will focus on the environment and how online resources can enable creative activities for your classroom.
Join artist Clare McLaughlin for a non-visual exploration of art at The Glucksman, University College Cork. This masterclass for educators of all backgrounds will provide entry points to the understanding of artwork for students who are visually impaired or blind.
Cavan & Monaghan ETB; Galway & Roscommon ETB; Kilkenny & Carlow ETB; and Mayo, Sligo & Leitrim ETB each invite applications for the position(s) of Music Generation Development Officer.
A Music Generation Development Officer(s) will be appointed by each Statutory Agency and will be responsible for managing an extensive performance music education programme on behalf of the Music Education Partnership in each area.
All areas have been selected for participation in Music Generation – Ireland’s National Music Education Programme, which is co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education and Skills and Local Music Education Partnerships.
Three-year, fixed-term contract.
Application forms, job descriptions and person specifications available online at the links below –
The Portal Team are delighted to announce the full programme for the Autumn Arts in Education Portal Regional Day which takes place in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown at the dlr LexIcon on Saturday, October 6th. We invite teachers, artists, arts managers and anyone with an interest in arts in education to join us for this free event. Ticket bookings now open!
Places are limited – booking is essential
Schedule
10:30am—registration & coffee
11:00am—Introduction – Alice Lyons, Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership (Portal Content Managers)
11:30am—Presentation – Visual Artist Helen Barry and co-presenter on Early Years Work with Childcare Facilities
12:15pm—Presenation – Visual Artist Claire Halpin and Deirdre Gartland, Principal, Central Model Senior School on Visual Thinking Strategies Project
1:00pm—Lunch & networking
1:30pm— Breakout & Creative Session – Liz McMahon, using natural materials/Forest School approaches
Deadline for Entries: Midnight Friday 25th January 2019
INSPA 2018/19 sees the second open call for Ireland’s prestigious National School Photography Awards [INSPA]. INSPA is a national children’s photography competition which is open to all primary schools located in the Republic of Ireland. This years’ awards are brought to you by Image Masters Photography in partnership with LauraLynn; Ireland’s Children’s Hospice, INSTAX Instant Photography and the Amber Springs Resort Hotel.
The awards aim to encourage young creatives in primary level education to engage with both digital technology and the creative process to create striking visual images. They will inspire and ignite passion in students, increase engagement with digital arts within primary level education while at the same time educating students about the importance of the creative process.
The awards are offering a range of fantastic prizes for finalists, winners and their schools including; Free entry to the Amber Springs Easter Train Experience for the overall winner and their classmates, FujiFilm INSTAX cameras for winners and their schools, a two night stay in the Amber Springs for the Principal of the winning school, a one night stay in the Amber Springs for the teacher of the winning class, INSPA certificates, framed photographs and an #INSPAsmiles School Photography Fundraising Day in aid of this years’ charity theme partner; LauraLynn.
This years’ theme is titled ‘CONNECTIONS’ which asks both teachers and their students to integrate the camera into the school-day, allowing their students explore their classrooms, corridors and schoolyards, seeking out new found or old connections. For example ‘Pen & Paper’, ‘Socks and Shoes’, ‘Black & White’, ‘Rough & Smooth’ or ‘Parent & Child’. All entries will be judged by a national panel including Joe Kileen (INTO President), Tanya Kiang (CEO: Gallery of Photography), Liam Magee (President: Cumann na mBunscol), Linda Shevlin (Curator: Roscommon Art Centre), Michael Fortune (Artist, Folklorist, Filmmaker, Researcher), Niamh Doyle (Community Fundraising Executive: LauraLynn) and Richard Carr (Artist, School Liaison & 2018 Cultural Ambassador for Co. Wexford).
If your school would like to get involved they can request their schools access codes from the INSPA website – www.inspa.ie – here you will be able to activate your school account and begin uploading your students’ entries. The deadline for entries is midnight on Friday 25th January 2019 so make sure you have activated your school account well in advance of this date.
Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership are delighted to announce the publication of “A Strong Heart – A book of stories and dreams for the future by Syrian and Palestinian children living in County Mayo”.
Over five weeks, in April and May 2018, the group of children, who live in communities in County Mayo, came together with artist Vanya Lambrecht Ward and writer Mary Branley at the Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar, to develop the body of work that was to be brought together in their book.
Initiated and developed by Kids’ Own – and supported by the St Stephen’s Green Trust, Mayo County Council and South West Mayo Development Company – the project was part of a vision to offer a space for migrant children to develop their creativity and self-expression through an artistic process, and to publish a book that would foreground and give credence to their voices, lives and experiences.
In relation to the project, Kids’ Owns Acting Director, Jo Holmwood, says:
“Kids’ Own is deeply committed to publishing and developing children’s work in Ireland. We believe that children’s contribution to our culture and our society, as artists and writers, needs to be more widely valued and recognised. Kids’ Own is delighted to publish this brand new book, which is such a rich celebration of children’s resilience, ambition and cultural identity.
Image copyright Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership – Minister Zappone presenting ‘A Strong Heart’ to Louise Arbour, UN Special Representative for International Migration.
In July, Kids’ Own were thrilled when the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Katherine Zappone shared the stories from ‘A Strong Heart’ at her UN Security Council address on ‘Children in Armed Conflict’.
“As Minister I am particularly proud that half of the 1,883 persons accepted into Ireland under resettlement and relocation programmes are children fleeing war and conflict.
In addition Ireland is providing care for 79 children who arrived alone at our ports and airports.
All of these children, from countries experiencing conflict such as Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea, are making Ireland their home.
They speak for themselves in a collection of stories and art created by Syrian and Palestinian children now living in Mayo in the West of Ireland.
Through the book ‘A Strong Heart’ they tell of the beauty of their new home-towns, the local rivers, mountains and even the world famous salmon.
They express their passion for Irish sport, their sense of fun and their hopes and dreams.
12-year old Khaled in Claremorris writes, “My Dream for the future is to be a footballer first and play for Ireland. When I’m thirty-three I will be a teacher and go back to Syria to teach English.”
Khaled and his classmates, Irish, Syrian and Palestinian, are flourishing. They are our future”.
Minister Zappone also presented the publication to Louise Arbour, UN Special Representative for International Migration, following a discussion on child migrants.
Post details and applicant requirements are available to download from www.lcetb.ie. The closing date for receipt of online applications is 12 noon, Wednesday 29 August 2018.
LCETB is an Equal Opportunities Employer
Music Generation Clare is part of Music Generation, Ireland’s national music education programme initiated by Music Network, co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education and Skills and Local Music Education Partnerships. Locally, Music Generation Clare is managed by Clare Music Education Partnership, led by Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board in partnership with Clare County Council, University of Limerick and Clare Education Centre.
Music Generation Laois and Laois School of Music are now seeking submissions from an experienced Violin Tutor to deliver their programmes. Training in whole-class string tuition will be provided to the successful candidate. Music Generation Laois works in partnership with Laois School of Music to deliver whole-class, group and one-to-one violin lessons in Co Laois.
Closing date for completed submissions: 12 noon, Wednesday 29 August, 2018
Interviews are scheduled to take place on: Wednesday 5 September, 2018
Music Generation Laois is a performance music education service for children and young people in Co Laois, part of Music Generation – Ireland’s National Music Education Programme, initiated by Music Network and co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds together with, The Department of Education and Skills and Local Music Education Partnerships. Locally, Music Generation Laois is funded by Laois County Council, Laois-Offaly Education and Training Board and Laois Partnership Company.
Solstice Arts Centre
Date: Thursday 11th & Friday 12th October
As part of the Patrick Hough exhibition programme at the Solstice Arts Centre, primary school students are invited to take part in an intriguing exploration of the exhibition. Students will investigate the meaning of art, object and replica whilst touring the exhibition and examining The Bronze Age Handling Box, based on the Museum of Archaeology’s Bronze Age collection. This workshop is designed to promote curiosity, understanding and discussion about visual art and history.
A curriculum linked Primary School resource and activity will be available to download.
As part of the Patrick Hough exhibition programme at the Solstice Arts Centre, post-primary schools are invited to take part in a curriculum linked visual arts workshop. Join Creative Arts Facilitator and Prop-Maker Caitriona McGowan for an intriguing tour of the exhibition and create a 3-Dimensional bust using a variety of techniques such as templating and plaster casting. Caitriona will provide students with a unique insight into the model-making industry and her own career as a prop-maker working in film, theatre and street performance.
This workshop comes with an additional resource that covers the Gallery Question of the Leaving Certificate, Art Appreciation course and can be downloaded from the Solstice Arts Centre website.
Chosen from over 400 applicants, 150 schools across Ireland will participate in the new Creative Schools pilot which aims to put the arts and creativity at the heart of children and young people’s lives. The schools chosen include primary schools, secondary schools, Youthreach centres, special schools, DEIS schools, co-educational schools, rural, urban, single-sex and Irish-language medium schools. Their work will begin in the new school year and run through to the summer of 2019.
The enthusiastic response to the call for applications suggests just how vital the arts and creativity are within schools across the country. In their application, schools had to explain how their participation would support learning and development in the arts and creativity, their capacity to engage as a school and their plans for ensuring that children and young people play an active role in developing, implementing and evaluating their work as a Creative School. Through the programme, the Arts Council is engaging with children and young people across the country to develop their creativity and linking them to the arts and creative infrastructure in their locality and nationally.
Schools selected for the pilot will benefit from a package of support which includes funding and expertise from a Creative Associate to help them to understand, develop and celebrate the impact of the arts and creativity on school life. With the support of their Creative Associate, schools will develop a Creative School Plan and design a unique programme that responds to the needs and priorities of their school. This process will support children and young people to challenge themselves in new ways, to gain in confidence and to take a more active role in learning.
The Creative Schools team within the Arts Council will be travelling the country in September and October training and inducting Creative Associates, School Co-ordinators and other teachers from each of the 150 schools.
Future opportunities for Creative Schools will be included in the Arts Council’s newsletter which you can subscribe to at the following link: www.artscouncil.ie/about-us/newsletter/. They will also be posted on their website where a full list of the 150 schools participating in the pilot can also be found: www.artscouncil.ie/creative-schools/pilot-schools/
Arts in Education Portal
Date: Saturday, October 6th 2018
Following on from the success of the Spring Regional Day for the Arts in Education Portal held at the Glucksman in Cork, we announce the Autumn Regional Day to take place in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown at the dlr LexIcon on Saturday, October 6th from 10:45am to 3pm.
We invite regional audiences to connect with us during a series of events, where practitioners can learn more about the Portal and what it offers, tell us about their work, connect with the community at regional level, share practice and find out what opportunities or events are available in their local area. We welcome teachers, artists, arts managers and anyone with an interest in arts in education to join us for this free event.
Stay tuned for the full schedule and booking details which will be announced in the coming weeks.
Róisin O’Donnell is a 19 year old leaving cert survivor and writer. She was a participant in the first ever Young Playwrights Programme. Her play ‘Bernie’ premiered through the programme. She lives in Cork, where she spends her time writing fiction and plays, obsessing over books and her dog.
The series is a joint guest blog series with two participants of the Young Playwright Programme, Jessica O’Brien and Róisin O’Donnell.
Youth, the Internet and Fiction – Blog 2
There are millions of stories on Fanfiction.net. 791K of those stories alone are listed under Harry Potter.
Meaning: Thousands of mostly young people around the world using their keyboards to enter the writing world. All because of words someone else has written.
I think that sounds amazing.
But attach the label ‘fanfiction’ and people start cringing.
Why?
Using the incorrect form of ‘your’ and ‘you’re’ shouldn’t automatically make you a joke. Writing isn’t easy. And I can relate.
On my way to becoming a writer, I went through the terrible years of primary and early secondary school feeling average. I had nothing in front of me, so much energy and nowhere to put it.
According to school there are only three categories to slot into. Athletic, brainy or social butterfly and if you aren’t a superstar at one of those things – tough shit. To the end of the pecking order, please!
One day, out of boredom, I typed 500 words on my phone and called it a first (bad) chapter. I wanted nineteen years later to be more than a just happy ending at a train station. Those 500 words turned into 230,000 words and counting. And that, I can safely say, drew me to more books, made me see things from multiple perspectives and start to question things. English class didn’t improve my editing skills, get me into the Young Playwrights Programme or give me the opportunity to write this blog. Writing something I loved did.
Yes, there are the scandalous stories but isn’t there Mills and Boons lining the shelves of every library? You just need to know where to look. The most followed stories on the site are under the genre adventure and are longer than any of the books I have on my shelf.
The readers and writers work together. They learn to improve their writing technique by editing and even beta-ing. People constructively break down each other’s work and work together to build each other up. Even the reviews are kind and supportive for the most part.
You wouldn’t believe the number of teen writers testing the waters and spreading their wings. They are trying to teach themselves. They want guidance and acknowledgement.
If you type fanfiction into any search engine late-night talk show segments will show up trying to get a cheap laugh and articles trying to teach parents what it is like in the depths of the community will appear. No one on the sites cares. That’s the outside world. The writers and readers do what they do with confidence. Confidence that would be benefitable to schools and societies in this cynical world.
And I’ll end this first blog with the lessons online writing has taught me. Lessons I should’ve learned in school:
Ability, even a magical ability like creativity takes works.
And
The only way to really succeed is to push forwards through the shitty phase every writer goes through and post that next update.
The Creativity and Change programme & CIT Crawford College of Art
Application Deadline: 15th September 2018
The Creativity & Change programme targets change-makers, educators, activists, artists, community workers, adult education tutors, youth workers, volunteers and anyone who is interested how creative engagement can nurture global citizenship and empathic action around local and global justice themes.
This part-time accredited course takes place over 8 weekends from September to May.
Course Modules
Module one ‘Thematic Creative Engagement’ considers the role of creativity in learning and its contribution to enabling engagement with knowledge, attitudes, values and behaviours of global citizens. It engages learners with a range of models and concepts of learning related to Development Education and Education for Global citizenship. Learners will engage with a range of global justice themes and topics related to local and global interconnectedness. They will also engage with a wide range of creative tools and methods. The module will require a deep critical personal engagement and self-reflection, developing personal perspective as a global citizen and connecting with values and themes. The learners will critically engage with the learning environment of the programme and their personal approach and style as learners in view of applying this learning to their practice.
Module 2 ‘Application to Practice’ builds on on the experiential learning process of the ‘Thematic Creative Engagement’ module. Learners will consider the application of their learning in professional practice. They will apply their learning in design and delivery of live projects that provide learning experiences for others and be given space for personal and peer reflection on their practice.
Muireann Ahern is Joint Artistic Director of Theatre Lovett. For Theatre Lovett she has directed and designed multiple shows. Muireann has over twenty years’ experience working in theatre for young audiences. Previously, she was Theatre Programmer and Producer at The Ark. She programmed the Family Season of the Dublin Theatre Festival and The Dublin Dance Festival. Muireann has worked with The Abbey Theatre’s Outreach Department, TEAM, part time lecturer at St Patrick’s teacher training college, and is a regular guest speaker on theatre for children at other third level colleges. She has led several Professional Development courses and was a member of the core working group on the published Artists~Schools Guidelines: ‘Towards Best Practice in Ireland’. She has been guest speaker at national and international conference focusing on ‘quality’ in theatre for young audiences. She is a graduate of the Samuel Beckett Centre for Drama and Theatre Studies, Trinity College Dublin and also holds a HDip Education from TCD.
Louis is Joint Artistic Director of Theatre Lovett. Theatre Lovett make work for all ages and tour extensively both nationally and internationally. For Theatre Lovett he writes, composes and performs. Work includes They Called Her Vivaldi (Abbey Theatre, National tour, USA tour 2019), The True Story of Hansel and Gretel (Dublin Theatre Festival 2015). Mr. Foley, The Radio Operator (national tour), A Feast of Bones (Dublin Theatre Festival, UK tour), The House that Jack Filled (Dublin Theatre Festival, Irish tour) and The Girl who Forgot to Sing Badly (Irish, US/AUSTRALIAN tours). Louis has also worked with The Abbey Theatre, The Gate Theatre, The Corn Exchange, Siren Productions, Performance Corporation, Barabbas and others. Louis has also performed in and directed several productions at The Ark, A Cultural Centre for Children. Television & Film includes Moone Boy, Stella Days, Anseo, Killinascully, The Tudors, Showbands, Story Lane, The Morbegs and others.
Theatre Lovett make theatre for all ages, child and adult, young and old, chicken and egg. They were nominated for a Judges Special Award at The Irish Times Theatre Awards 2017. If you seek theatre that can amuse, involve and sometimes scare, we offer you theatre as adventure www.theatrelovett.com.
Theatre Lovett in the Rehearsal Room
Into week two proper of FRNKNSTN rehearsals. The focus in the creative space at present is on unlocking the gate way between the words of Michael West’s script and the actor’s physical, vocal and spiritual interpretation. Director Muireann Ahern, stage manager Clare Howe and actor Louis Lovett set up stall in a creative marketplace where ideas are unloaded, laid out, prodded for texture, freshness, flavour, tried out for size, weighed, assessed, refused, balked at, laughed at (in a bad way), laughed at (in good way), and once or twice a day, but usually just once, a string of ideas are spooled out in an order sufficient to please and perhaps, for a critical second, to impress. These ones are marked down for memory and promptly asked to take one more twirl around the room, and again and again. If they stand up to scrutiny and pass muster after repetition, then they are stamped for approval and requested to present for duty the next day to undergo the same drill again. Mr. Lovett accepts the challenge on their behalf. They will then be pushed for improvement. This string of ideas might comprise one short section of one scene whereby these firm, fresh ideas might be leaned upon to point the way forward and assess the way we have come so far.
These ideas are the precious gifts we intend laying at the precious feet of our fine audience. It is essential that they are the best we have to offer. Their providence is obscure in parts, clearly archived in others. Some are like midges on a summer’s evening that have become tangled in our hair for no reason but pure chance that we had decided to cycle in the park. But now we’re overdoing it…
Time hurtles towards tech week and first audiences. Our rehearsal time, our time strolling (racing!) the aisles of our ideas market is being whittled away. Always other demands pull us from the business of ideas.
Muireann Ahern directs and Louis Lovett performs in Theatre Lovett’s next production of FRNKNSTN by Michael West, a modern mutation of Mary Shelley’s classic novel FRANKENSTEIN at The Abbey Theatre. This daring adaptation re-imagines Victor Frankenstein as a gene-splicing molecular biologist who creates human life from his own DNA with catastrophic results. Speaking from a holding cell, Frankenstein is desperate to set the record straight. A modern ghost story and psychological thriller, this version of Frankenstein aims to chill us with the darkness we hold within our DNA — and our hearts. Age Guidance: Not suitable for under 16s, www.abbeytheatre.ie/whats-on/frankenstein/
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children
Deadline: Friday 24 August
Baboró are delighted to announce applications are now open for the 2018 GROW Programme, supporting artists in making work for children and young audiences.
Baboró has a long history of mentoring and supporting artists, creatives and educators who are exploring and developing theatre, dance, music and visual art for young audiences, or are interested in doing so. Whether you are an emerging artist, a student or an established artist interested in making work for children, Baboró’s GROW programme is here to support your development.
The GROW programme includes a number of strands which interested candidates can apply for. Two of the recently introduced strands are Pathways to Production and Festival Mentoring.
Pathways to Production
The programme aims to facilitate artists development from the kernel of an idea and initial concept development to project planning, help developing funding strategies and the development of the work for a sharing with peers and the sector. It is hoped that artists/companies will eventually go on to full production of their new piece of work.
The objective is that by making available our collective organisational experience, resources and areas of expertise, Pathways to Production will support artists and companies to make excellent work in Ireland for this very special audience. The emphasis of the programme is on the process of development of new work and artist development, rather than the end product. We hope that this capacity-building initiative will contribute to the development of sustainable careers and creative opportunities for artists in Ireland. Find out more at www.baboro.ie/about/work/grow/pathways.
Festival Mentoring
A small group of participants will be lead through a curated programme of festival shows and industry events including discussions, presentations, workshops, networking events etc. The group will navigate the programme with mentoring from two highly experienced individuals from the sector, Phil Kingston, Community and Education Manager at the Abbey Theatre and Maria Fleming, Chair of Theatre for Young Audiences Ireland (TYAI) and General Manager of Dublin Theatre Festival, during the Baboró 2018 Festival. Find out more at www.baboro.ie/about/work/grow/work-grow-mentoring.
Baboró’s Executive Artistic Director Aislinn Ó hEocha commented, “We were delighted with the response to our new GROW programme in 2017. The artists involved in Festival Mentoring and Pathways to Production find the schemes really beneficial to their practice. opportunities to see a range of international work, build Irish and international networks and learn from each other and the partners have proven invaluable. We are really looking forward to seeing who emerges from the 2018 open call.”
Deadline for applications is Friday, August 24 with successful candidates being announced on Monday, September 17. Application forms and guidelines can be downloaded from www.baboro.ie/about/work/grow.
GROW is funded by the Art’s Council’s Strategic Funding.
The Ark, Dublin are excited to present a new five day arts-science summer course led by scientist and theatre-maker Dr. Niamh Shaw, aimed at primary teachers of 1st-3rd classes.
Discover STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) anew through a range of enjoyable and accessible creative drama processes designed to lift these subjects off the page and bring them to life for both teachers and students.
The course is created and led by the inspiring Dr Niamh Shaw – an engineer, former science academic and a theatre maker as well as one of Ireland’s leading science communicators and STEAM specialists. Niamh’s scientific knowledge and warm engaging style will help you in finding exciting new ways of communicating science themes to your students.
This practical hands-on course will improve your confidence in teaching STEM subjects as well as Drama and how to meaningfully link and integrate these in the classroom. A range of relevant STEM curricular areas will be explored through Drama including Mathematics, Geography, and of course Science.
The course is aimed at teachers of all levels of STEM and drama knowledge and experience.The course content and aims include:
Enhancing your confidence across a range of STEM curricular areas using highly participative and accessible creative drama methodologies.
Engaging and highly active course content delivered by an outstanding artist-scientist facilitator with unique expertise in both STEM and theatre-making/drama.
STEM areas which will be explored during the course include distance, time and heat across the subjects of mathematics, geography (planets and solar system) and science curricula (heat, gravity).
Teachers will build a tool kit of accessible and exciting new ideas and approaches to teaching both STEM and the drama curriculum using an integrated cross-curricular approach to planning and delivery.
Irish science history and heritage will also be explored relating course content to local and national science heroes to help teachers and their students connect to the subject matter and will inform some of the drama narratives developed during the course. Leading Irish scientists and engineers including Robert Boyle, Kathleen Lonsdale, Ernest Walton, William Hamilton and others will be reviewed.
The use of drama approaches will ensure the course also supports literacy and language development through devising performance and narratives for example stimulation of imaginative and creative language to create characters and scenes.
Participants will experience a range of practical creative methods that will develop their teaching in line with national priorities including STEM, numeracy and literacy.
The course will include time for teachers’ to reflect on individual, group and school performance in the areas of STEM and drama and devise creative ways to engage with the SSE 6 stage process.
The course will provide ample support material and a field trip to Science Gallery Dublin will present the teachers with an interdisciplinary approach to presenting STEM subjects.
Over five days this hands-on, creative course at The Ark, Dublin focuses on a visual arts approach to exploring narrative, literacy & other subjects.
The aim of the course is to enable participants to start the new school year with an enhanced tool box of skills and knowledge, in order to effectively deliver the visual arts curriculum in the classroom. Participants will be engaged ‘hands-on’ throughout this course so learning will be through doing. Working in teams and individually, you will cover a range of curriculum strands including drawing, painting, print, 3D construction, fabric and fibre.
A strong emphasis will be on building skills and confidence. The group will also explore how visual art can be used to engage with aspects of the English, SPHE, History and Maths curriculum, as well as to promote visual literacy approaches. School self-evaluation exercises will be incorporated as an integral part of the course.
This course will appeal to teachers of all levels of experience and will be facilitated by the visual arts and education specialist and founder of Art to Heart, Jole Bortoli. This is a continuing professional development opportunity not to be missed!
Jessica O’ Brien is a 16 year old student and aspiring writer from Cork. As part of the Young Playwrights’ Programme with Graffiti Theatre, she along with eight other young people wrote and staged plays in The Everyman as part of the Midsummer Festival in 2018. She is currently writing her first book and hopes to have a career in writing novels or journalism.
The series is a joint guest blog series with two participants of the Young Playwright Programme, Jessica O’Brien and Róisin O’Donnell.
Let Creativity STEM
All my life I have been aware of what subjects defined me as ‘intelligent’ and what made me ‘subordinate’ by the education system.
Since I made the jump from primary school to secondary school I have become increasingly aware of the differences between myself and the students who excel in STEM subjects. It’s pretty clear what careers are portrayed as sensible, high intelligence careers, as careers in the arts are simply never discussed. STEM subjects include science, technology, engineering and mathematics- and recently I have noticed what a huge effort is being made to promote careers in these subjects, especially as my school is all female. We have been visited by countless representatives encouraging us to begin a career in a STEM subject and we have had several different weeks in school dedicated to science and maths. I believe this is hugely positive and will inspire us girls with the message that we too can hold positions of power in careers dedicated to these subjects- but I do think that those who are genuinely not interested in these subjects are being tossed aside.
Despite science being a choice in my school, I am constantly made to feel like it was never my choice to drop it. There have never been weeks dedicated to the students that excel in the arts. Yes, there are classes available, but they were hard fought for and aren’t treated as important by those who don’t participate in them. I spoke to my art teacher at an open night once, and she told me that parents would approach her, and ask her if ‘art was really that hard.’ My music teachers have only recently been given time slots for practicing for our carol service that is one of the biggest events on our school calendar. This would never happen with any other subjects. I was at a meeting being on our school’s magazine team. Our teacher didn’t show up to the meeting, which was a regular occurrence, but we decided we were going to power through on our own and show the school what we could do. But that couldn’t happen now. We were told the school didn’t have the funding for the 6 extra pages we wanted to produce. Yet our school bank gets hundreds to rent in famous guests to hype up their work. Our school has an annual run to pay for a new running track for sport. Our science labs are always stocked for experiments and our art classrooms are used as supply cabinets whenever people need to make posters. If you want to work hard in schools in a subject to do with the arts, you are pretty much on your own. I feel that the way people who work hard in these creative subjects are treated is really offensive. Music, art, and all other creatively based subjects are also fulfilling and big earning careers. The world needs them just as much as it needs scientists and engineers. Would you turn around to a world famous actor and chastise them for not becoming a mathematician?
Jessica was a participant in the Young Playwrights’ Programme with Graffiti Theatre which was a recipient of the Arts in Education Portal 2018 Documentation Award.
Blog post 4: Rights Museum
The Rights Museum is a participatory art project that attempts to allow our objects to tell our story through the medium of a museum. Its subject is the lives of students in Larkin Community College and how the rights enshrined in the UNCRC intersect with their actual lived experience. Or don’t.
In my last blog post I detailed how I worked with a group of first year CSPE students and asked them to invest in the stories behind their rights – and learn about their rights in reality.
In our next session, I presented a simple everyday object to the group – I used a shoe. I like to gather the participants around the object in a circle. First I asked them to make objective observations: what can we say for certain just by looking at it? For example; “it’s a shoe”, “it’s got white laces”, “it’s black” “there’s dirt on it”. I kept this going, correcting them if they brought in any subjective observations (eg. “They look like they’ve been used to go running” or “They’re ugly”). Keep it to the facts that you can tell just by looking.
Once I’d just about exhausted this, I asked them to make subjective observations. I prompted them; who might have owned these shoes? What might they have used them for? Did they value them? And with each answer, I asked them to support their claim with evidence that they can see.
Then I placed the shoes on a raised platform (I used a bin but asked them to imagine it was a plinth in a museum!) and I asked them if that changed the way they saw it? Did it make it seem more important? Why? What could possibly be so important about this pair of shoes that they would be in a museum? I asked them to imagine that there was a label on it that said “Plastic and canvas shoes. Shoe size 5. 2017. Syria.” and then I asked them what they thought of them then. What would they think about the story of these shoes and who wore them?
I put the shoes away and then put another object on our “plinth”. This one was of personal importance to me – a pair of cufflinks displayed in their box. But I didn’t tell the participants anything about them yet. Again I asked them to make objective observations, then subjective observations (“is this important to the owner? Why do you say that?” “Are these expensive? Why do you say that?” “When were they made?” etc.) I then told them what they were, the story behind them and why they were important to me. Then I asked them all to bring in an object that was important to them, look at their UNHCR which we’d been working on, and relate what was important to them about the object back to an article in the charter.
Now we were facing the task of putting together an exhibition in the National Museum of Ireland at Collins Barracks. Our questions for this were; how do we represent the work and the participants’ learning in that space for members of the public to see? And how do we invite the public to actively engage with the ideas within it?
We decided to keep it simple; we photographed all the participants with their chosen object and asked them why it was important to them and what right(s) it related to. We then got Sarah Moloney, a graphic designer (although this could have been done by me or someone who had time to learn Photoshop) to lay out the photographs with quotations from the students laid over the image, along with the text from the UNCRC that were relevant. Each of these was printed on A2 card and was displayed on the walls of the exhibitions space. This allowed all of the students who had taken part to be represented in the exhibition.
There were three large windows in the space; the middle one we printed the text of the UNCRC and on the two sides windows we wrote “What would be in your Rights Museum?” and invited the public to write on the windows in liquid chalk pens which we provided. This allowed the public to actively engage in the ideas that the Right Museum was provoking.
The Museum kindly lent us a display case, for which I chose eight objects that were representative of the whole group, to be displayed for the duration of the exhibition. This was the centre piece of the Rights Museum and showed the seemingly everyday objects, contributed by young citizens, enjoying the prestige and equal importance that is given to the treasured objects in the National Museum’s collection.
The power of this statement seemed to resonate with those we told about it and we had an enthusiastic response to our invitation to the opening of the exhibition. The opening was attended by the Minister for Education Richard Bruton, Director of the National Museum Raghnall Ó Floinn and the Ombudsman for Children Niall Muldoon, as well as national media including RTE news and the Irish Times. Two students from Larkin Community College, Ciarán Hayden and Isabella Anthony, spoke about their experience of the process at the podium, alongside the Minister, Director, and Ombudsman for Children. A number of students led guided interpretive tours of the exhibition for our guests.
I’d count among the Rights Museums successes; the way that it was able to facilitate learning about children’s rights in an active and personal way, that it succeeded in placing, on equal footing, the objects and stories of the young people alongside the artefacts of the National Museum, and the wide reach that the Rights Museum had to the public, through the media and from those who visited it.
The main challenges were in finding time and space with the young people to work in a way that was outside of the curriculum – although there are important curricular subjects being addressed. I am eternally grateful to the staff of Larkin, particularly Máire O’Higgins for facilitating that. Another challenge I found was a lack of understanding, of and buy-in to, the idea of human rights by the young people that I worked with. I picked up on a prevailing perception, before I started working with them, that human rights were a
My takeaways from this projects are many but the main ones that jump to mind
1. That artists have a different approach to working that the students can benefit from that perspective. The artists way is often a more circuitous, process and enquiry based approach than students are used to in mainstream education. It’s one that’s comfortable with the state of ambiguity you find yourself in while you’re working, one that allows one to say “I don’t know what this is yet” and for that not to be a bad thing. That’s not to say artists are the only people who can demonstrate that way of working, but it is something that artists can do because of the way many of us work.
2. That as an artist working in a school, it’s important that that’s what I remain – an artist. My job is to be an artist, not an Art or CSPE teacher or anything else. The job is artist and that has value.
3. That the framing of work by young people has a profound impact on how it’s perceived by people, but most importantly themselves. The way their work (whether it be a copy book, or a sculpture or a story told in class) is handled by the people in the world around them, subconsciously tells them something about it’s value. And my feeling is there is a huge artistic and social potential in subverting expectations of that value – as we did in small way by displaying “ordinary” objects in a museum. The Ombudsman for Children’s Office has commissioned an education pack that features a guide on how to create your own rights museum in your school or community, and it will be available from their website in the autumn 2018 term.
If I may, I’d like to thank the Arts in Education portal for offering me this chance to share the process; Rebecca Mclaughlin and Niall Muldoon in the OCO for their support and vision in making this happen; Helen Beaumont and Lorraine Cormer in the National Museum’s Education Department for all that they did in hosting the exhibition, giving it a platform and providing expert facilitation on museum curation to the students; Richard Bruton for officially opening the exhibition; the students at Larkin Community College, and staff Siobhán Mckenzie, Declan Quinn, Emma O’Reilly, and Principal Thomas Usher. In particular I would like to thank Assistant Principal Máire O’Higgins, without whose drive, vision and passion for education and art, this wouldn’t have started and would have fallen at the first hurdle.
DCU Institute of Education
Application Deadline: July 10th, 2018
The EdD is a research degree for experienced professionals from education and related fields who would like to extend their professional understanding and develop skills in research, evaluation and high-level reflection on practice. The programme, offered within DCU’s Institute of Education, aims to foster professional development through research as well as meeting the requirements of rigour and originality expected of a doctorate. It includes assessed taught courses, research-focused workshops and supervised original research. It offers participants the opportunity to take modules in and complete a research study in one of the following eight Areas of Professional Focus:
Arts, Creativity and Imagination in Education
Assessment, Learning and Teaching
Digital Learning
Inclusive and Special Education
Leadership and Evaluation
Religious Education
Teacher Education
Values Education
Through a strong group dynamic, the intention of the programme is to foster cohort solidarity, develop inter- and intra-personal skills that are critical for teamwork, while simultaneously developing writing, research, critical, analytical, communication, leadership and collaborative skills to the highest possible standards. The intention is to educate an existing emergent educational leadership in the Irish context to the highest possible international standards.
The Doctor of Education programme (Ed.D) at the Institute of Education is currently running with a cohort which started their taught modules in July 2016. The next cohort is currently being recruited with a view to their starting their studies in August 2018. Further details and confirmation of dates will be added to the website as they become available.
Please note that the Areas of Professional Focus on offer can differ between one intake and the next.
Some Areas of Professional Focus have already reached capacity. Applicants for these areas will be placed on a waiting list and contacted in the event of a place becoming available.
Application due by July 10th and those interested should contact regina.murphy@dcu.ie with an expression of interest.
The Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award recipient project, the Young Playwright’s Programme, culminated on Friday, June 22nd in a presentation of staged readings involving professional actors and directors at the Everyman as part of the Cork Midsummer Festival and in association with Landmark Productions and The Everyman’s staging of Louise O’Neill’s award winning novel Asking For It.
Between January and June 2018, the nine young playwrights selected over a series of Saturday workshops, had the the opportunity to work with professional playwright mentors John McCarthy and Katie Holly at Graffiti Theatre Company as part of Fighting Words Cork to help them create the short dramatic pieces that were staged last week. In addition, the young playwrights were invited by The Everyman to attend selected performances throughout the programme, to inspire and inform their work.
Award-winning Cork author Louise O’Neill is a patron of Fighting Words Cork, and Asking For It has been described as “one of the most important books for young people ever written. Deeply moving, incredibly written.”
The Fighting Words programme was developed by Roddy Doyle and Séan Love in 2009 in Dublin to provide a space to support creative writing among children and young adults. In January 2017 the programme was launched at Graffiti Theatre Company.
Muireann Ahern is Joint Artistic Director of Theatre Lovett. For Theatre Lovett she has directed and designed multiple shows. Muireann has over twenty years’ experience working in theatre for young audiences. Previously, she was Theatre Programmer and Producer at The Ark. She programmed the Family Season of the Dublin Theatre Festival and The Dublin Dance Festival. Muireann has worked with The Abbey Theatre’s Outreach Department, TEAM, part time lecturer at St Patrick’s teacher training college, and is a regular guest speaker on theatre for children at other third level colleges. She has led several Professional Development courses and was a member of the core working group on the published Artists~Schools Guidelines: ‘Towards Best Practice in Ireland’. She has been guest speaker at national and international conference focusing on ‘quality’ in theatre for young audiences. She is a graduate of the Samuel Beckett Centre for Drama and Theatre Studies, Trinity College Dublin and also holds a HDip Education from TCD.
She will next direct Theatre Lovett’s production of FRNKNSTN at the Abbey Theatre on the Peacock stage.
Theatre Lovett make theatre for all ages, child and adult, young and old, chicken and egg. They were nominated for a Judges Special Award at The Irish Times Theatre Awards 2017. If you seek theatre that can amuse, involve and sometimes scare, we offer you theatre as adventure www.theatrelovett.com
Muireann Ahern, Joint Artistic Director Theatre Lovett
As we hurtle towards another new production with a new creative team and endless days of rehearsing, ‘teching’, and sweating the small stuff (each and every grain of it), I ask myself again why do we do what we do? Why do we need theatre at all? Do we need to create meaning through stories? Whether a child or an adult? The oldest of societies have had theatre-like rituals where meaning has been communicated through story. I do believe theatre can give children an arena to stimulate creative paths within their growing brains, paths on which they might meet themselves coming and going, carrying new skillsets with which to enhance their understanding of the world. And perhaps change it too.
The live exchange of theatre is increasingly important as children are more and more ‘face down in screen mode’. However, let us not demand their attention. As audience members, they have the right to switch off and tune out if they so desire. Also, if they are engaged by the piece, let’s gift them the choice to be alone in their experience or to share it with fellow audience members and like wise with their connection with the onstage players. As theatre-makers we hope our work will attract and hold their attention and win their engagement. Of course, we hope and work hard for this but again, let’s not force the issue. We concentrate on ensuring that what we create for the stage is different each time. And we hope – full of moments of wonder, skill and surprise. Our audiences might be wowed by the work asking themselves “How did they do that?” The “Why?” can come later but for now “How?” is good. It rhymes with “wow”.
Let us hope that children and young people, whether on an outing with their class or with their families, can come to think of the theatre space as a place separate from expected outcomes. Rather, let it be different to their norms. Different from the classroom or kitchen. Different possibilities emanating from the actions of the players up there on the stage. Different synapses firing in different parts of the brain. Different outlooks on a world that, once we leave the theatre, might look different.
Playing for your Audience
There are many fine theatre artists working today with a focus on children and young people. Younger theatre-makers are turning their heads towards work for children too. More people becoming involved is a good thing. When we invite artists from the ‘adult theatre world’ to bring their craft to work for young audiences or introduce younger practitioners to this audience, we must ensure they are supported in the process. If misguided or misdirected both audience and artists can end up at sea or up the proverbial creek. Most important here is accuracy in terms of the age pitch of a theatre piece.
At Theatre Lovett, we run our actor training courses entitled Playing for your Audience. Our underpinning philosophy is to encourage actors to address where their egos are in this process. Walk hand in hand with your ego, bring it with you, leave it at the door, teach it to “Sit!”. Yes, like puppy training for the Ego. Give it a cuddle but remember who’s the boss. In our training, we focus on ‘making the person next to you shine’ and strive to create work that will shine from the stage.
Happily, we have a healthy interest from artists, with all levels of experience, wishing to participate. There is definitely a growing desire to know more about this area. I love to see actors bridging the divide between playing for young audiences and playing for adults. It is, however, a particular joy to find actors who are at ease interacting with their audience and who are at ease with what children might offer them during performance. It concerns knowing when to engage and when not to, yet at all times with that lovely sense that every child’s offering is wholly, yet subtly, embraced. My Co-Artistic Director, Louis Lovett, is known for this kind of interaction. He has a real desire to upskill other actors in this area. He surfs his audience beautifully and his audiences are rarely left unheard or with their contribution left hanging in the air. This is a very skilful thing to be able to do effectively and as a director, this is a very satisfying component of the shows I direct (thanks to the actors’ skills). There is a whole methodology behind if or when an actor acknowledges or includes offers that come spontaneously from a young audience. To be able to do so, without putting the brakes on the momentum of the show, is what can really set theatre for children apart from the grown-up variety.
Muireann will direct Theatre Lovett’s next production of FRNKNSTN an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic novel FRANKENSTEIN at The Abbey Theatre. Pitched at 16+ https://www.abbeytheatre.ie/whats-on/frankenstein/
CoisCéim BROADREACH
Primary Schools in the Dún Laoghaire – Rathdown area are invited to apply to participate in SHORELINE
A Choral Song And Contemporary Dance Project For People Aged 8 to 80+
Led by CoisCéim BROADREACH Director Philippa Donnellan and renowned composer Denis Clohessy, in association with the DLR LexIcon Library and Pavilion Theatre, SHORELINE invites people from Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown to embark on an oceanic journey of discovery – to share their stories and experiences about the sea.
The project begins in September 2018 in a creative dance/song workshop project that brings together children from 1 primary school, a local choir, and people aged 50+ and culminates in 3 sea-themed performances by participants at the DLR LexIcon Library on Saturday 25 November 2018 at 2pm, 3pm, and 4pm.
What’s Involved
The project begins at the end of September and includes:
1 Collaborative planning session with Project Leader Philippa Donnellan, the School Principal and selected class teachers
Led by the 2 artists | 6 weekly in-school dance/song workshops – day/time/duration tbc
2 Rehearsals with local groups at dlr LexIcon – 23/24 November
3 Performances of SHORELINE at dlr LexIcon – Saturday 24 November
1 Feedback & evaluation session
Application Requirments
Key to participation in SHORELINE is your school’s active support for the arts and creative learning in education including:
Use of school hall or similar for 6-7 dance/music workshops – day/time/duration tbc
Class teacher attendance at all planning sessions, workshops and performances.
2-3 adult volunteers to accompany children – dlr LexIcon rehearsals & performances
Use of basic resources such as: percussion instruments, stationary, sound equipment etc
Selection Criteria
Selection will be made by CoisCéim BROADREACH and criteria are based on articulating a clear rationale as to why your school
would like to participate in SHORELINE – and a demonstrable ability that you are able to:
Engage and contribute to the artistic process through – facilitating collaboration between the teachers, children and guest artists – and developing a cross-curricular approach to maximize thematic exploration and participation.
Maintain effective communication and liaison with CoisCéim BROADREACH and Project Leaders at all stages of the project
Provide necessary practical/logistical/administrative support as relevant to the demands of the project in your school
Would you like to build on your ability to use the creative arts to aid learning in the classroom? This July 2-6 Baboró International Arts Festival for Children presents a five-day, EPV Department of Skills and Education approved summer course, which has been specially designed to explore the use of drama, both as a subject as well as a methodology. The aim of this CPD course is to inspire and augment learning in the classroom and enrich the professional practice of teachers and educators. A limited number of tickets remain.
The course provides participants with an opportunity to gain insights and practical tools to explore drama in the classroom in a safe and relaxed environment, supported and mentored by drama specialist and primary teacher Irene O’Meara. The emphasis is on process drama and enhancing teacher and child experience in the classroom.
Who is it for?
This professional development course is suitable for teachers and professionals working with children, who are enthusiastic about gaining useful drama tools to support their teaching via an integrated approach within the primary curriculum, and using drama games and strategies to enable their students to become directly involved in their own learning.
What will you learn?
The course has a practice-based approach, and offers participants 5 days of rich, fun and engaging learning, enabling them to enjoy engaging in drama activitieswith students in a confident manner while exploring a broad range of stimuli for the creation of drama. It will also help participants to feel better equipped to deepen students’ experience of the arts via simple exercises in pre and post engagement.
About the Facilitator
Irene O’Meara is a Drama specialist and primary school teacher, who has been facilitating In-Service for over two decades, and has designed and delivered programmes in Drama, Integrated Arts, Literacy, and Early Childhood Education. Irene has worked in the Drama Department at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick and is currently a tutor and assessor with Hibernia College.
Course Details
Baboró CPD 2018 ‘Drama Tools for the Classroom’
July 2nd – 6th 2017 from 9.30am to 2.00pm
The O’Donoghue Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance, NUI Galway
Course Cost €70 per person
Places Limited to 23
Attendees Receive: Certificate of Participation
The Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award recipient project the Young Playwright’s Programme to showcase at The Everyman as part of the Cork Midsummer Festival.
The Young Playwrights’ Programme brought together nine aspiring young writers to develop and hone scriptwriting skills, supported by professional playwright mentors John McCarthy and Katie Holly at Graffiti Theatre Company as part of Fighting Words Cork.
The project culminates in a presentation of their work as staged readings at the Everyman for Cork Midsummer Festival. The process which these young people have engaged with was truly transformative, far more powerful than the simple assembly of words on pages. This enriching collaborative environment has acted as a catalyst for the unique voices of the Young Playwrights and led to the creation of these nine compelling pieces.
Graffiti/Fighting Words Cork are really proud to be working with these wonderful young people in collaboration with The Everyman, Landmark Productions and The Cork Midsummer Festival as part of a programme of events in connection with Asking For It funded through the Arts Councils Open Call Awards.
This event is free but ticketed.
To RSVP you can just call the Everyman box office at 021 450 1673 or emailing info@everymancork.com
Arts Council of Ireland
Clinic Date: 19th June 2018 from 1.30 – 4pm
Application Closing Date: 17:30 on Thursday 12th July 2018
The YPCE Bursary Award is open to individual professional artists and practitioners working with, and producing work for, children and young people across a wide range of artforms. The award provides artists with the time and resources to think, research, reflect on and develop their artistic practice. Applications for the 2018 YPCE Bursary Award open on June 12th and will close at 17:30 on Thursday 12th July 2018.
The purpose of this session is to share the objectives and priorities for this award and to offer practical guidance on the application process. There will also be an opportunity to hear from previous recipients about how they have used the award to develop their practice.
Agenda
Event begins at 1.30pm, with refreshments available
Introduction and the objectives of the bursary award
Experience of previous recipients
Application process
General Q&A Session
Event closes 4pm
Please register to attend the information session by email ypce@artscouncil.ie
Professor John Coolahan R.I.P.
Chairperson of the High Level Implementation Group for the Arts in Education Charter, Professor John Coolahan, passed away last Sunday 3rdJune 2018, surrounded by his loving family. He had been ill for the last year and fought his illness in the same way he lived his life, with dignity.
John was a pivotal figure in Irish education policy for more than 50 years and was often referred to as the “Father of Irish Education”. He was an academic, a researcher, an author, a primary and second-level teacher and an adviser to successive governments on the drafting of educational policy. John Coolahan, who was Professor Emeritus of Education at Maynooth University, lectured extensively in Ireland and abroad. He wrote three books, including Irish Education, its History and Structure (1981), and published more than 120 articles in Irish and international journals. He is widely credited with shaping a modern vision for Irish education, underpinned by legislation, and he also chaired the Irish Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the primary sector. He was a “colossus in Irish education” and his life was an inspiration for all who care about teaching, learning and research.
He was a founding member and president of the Educational Studies Association of Ireland and was editor of Irish Educational Studies. He had numerous public service roles and served on a range of Ministerial committees and on the boards of educational and cultural bodies. At international level, he was a member of the OECD’s review team on education and was vice-president of the EU committee on education. He was also a consultant to the World Bank and the Council of Europe, a member of the review body on education in Northern Ireland, and the co-founder and co-chairman of the standing conference on teacher education, North and South.
To us associated with the Arts in Education Portal, he will be remembered as the Chairperson and the voice of the Arts in Education Charter. He was jointly appointed in 2013 by the then Minister for Education and Skills Ruarai Quinn and Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Mr Jimmy Denihan as Chairperson of the High Level Implementation Group for the Arts in Education Charter. He was a passionate advocate for the integration of the arts in education both within and outside of the school environment and he championed the rights of all children to fulfil their creative potential. He was so delighted and proud of the achievements of the Arts in Education Charter which included initiatives such as the launch of the Arts in Education Portal, Teacher-Artist Partnership as a model for CPD, Irelands Arts Education Research Repository and various other initiatives. He believed in dialogue, collaboration and mutual respect for all organisations and stakeholders in the area of arts in education.
I had the privilege of working with John as a member of the High Level Implementation Group for the Arts in Education Charter since 2013. I count myself very lucky to have had this experience and be mentored by John on the integration of the arts in education. I learned so much from him and all the fantastic people and committee’s we met over the last five years. I was proud to call him my friend as was everyone we encountered. He was a gentleman, a scholar and the kindest and most modest person I have ever had the pleasure to work with. Ní bheidh a leithéid arís ann.
Dr. Katie Sweeney, Chairperson of the Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee & National Director for the Integration of the Arts in Education.
Dance Theatre of Ireland
Deadline: 15th June 2018
Dance Theatre of Ireland seek applications for the positions of Programmes Manager and Centre and Outreach Coordinator to join their team in Dún Laoghaire.
Dance Theatre of Ireland is a professional contemporary dance company based in a beautiful, purpose-built Centre for Dance in Dún Laoghaire. With extensive Arts & Health, Community & Educational Outreach and Arts Participation programmes in dance, DTI works locally, nationally and internationally. Over 3500 people of all ages are engaged in participatory dance activities throughout the year, and the Company delivers over 200 Educational Outreach workshops annually.
Programmes Manager
DTI are looking for an experience and dynamic Programmes Manager to manage and develop the Company’s growing Dance & Health programmes, Community and Educational dance participation programmes and performance projects. This is a new position, involving the overall business management and development of Dance Theatre of Ireland, working closely with the Artistic Directors, and core staff.
The Programmes Manager will have the responsibility to manage the business and financial development aspects of the Company’s activities, and progress the deepening and expanding Arts Participation direction of the Company. They will be responsible to devise and deliver a business growth plan for the Well-Dance for Seniors and other Dance & Health programmes, develop partnerships, seek performance opportunities for Vintage Youth Ensemble and work with DTI’s core staff in managing the Centre for Dance and Educational Outreach programmes, coordinating the complex moving parts and key relationships. They will monitor and meet the financial and attendance targets, maintain financial diligence, diversify and secure new income streams, lead PR and Marketing, and report regularly to the Artistic Directors.
Centre and Outreach Coordinator
DTI are looking for an experienced and dynamic individual for a multi-faceted, full-time position, managing DTI’s Centre for Dance programme of classes and its nation-wide Educational Outreach programme. This role is very active and varied both in client facing and financial aspects. The Centre Coordinator’s primary responsibility is managing the enrollment / attendance/ financial tracking of all activities and facility use, interfacing with classes participants and Outreach clients and agencies, liaising with DTI teachers, and managing a wide range of key relationships working closely with the Artistic Directors.
Graffiti Theatre Company & The Cork Midsummer Festival
Dates: 15th-17th June & 22nd-24th June at 11am & 2pm
Seoid/Jewel will be Graffiti’s first Opera for Babies devised by the team who brought you Blátha Bána/ White Blossoms and Gile na Gealaí/ Melody of the Moon. Seoid promises a musical and visual treat for an important audience.
Seoid will have its world premiere at the Cork Midsummer Festival and will be the first baby opera commissioned and performed in the Republic of Ireland. Performed in Irish and English it is a treasure not to be missed.
Seoid is a gentle musical journey though the seasons and through love.
Seoidín is looking through a box of memories (her baby clothes, a much loved toy), when she comes across her own childhood drawing of her Mother and Father. Memories stir and she sings. As she sings, she recalls her parents’ voices. They join her on an adventure through the seasons as Seoidín searches for the bright jewels of memories.
Starring: Linda Kenny (Soprano), Chloe Kiely (Soprano), Damian Smith (Baritone) and Chris Schmidt Martin (Cellist)
Composer: Fiona Kelleher
Director: Emelie FitzGibbon
Assistant Director: Síle Ní Bhroin
Set Designer: Deirdre Dwyer
Lighting Designer: Aoife Cahill
Production Manager/Set Construction: Olan Wrynn
Venue: Graffiti Theatre, Blackpool, Cork
Tickets: €8 per baby/child/adult
From:15th-17th June and 22nd-24th June at 11am & 2pm
Muireann Ahern is Joint Artistic Director of Theatre Lovett. For Theatre Lovett she has directed and designed multiple shows. Muireann has over twenty years’ experience working in theatre for young audiences. Previously, she was Theatre Programmer and Producer at The Ark. She programmed the Family Season of the Dublin Theatre Festival and The Dublin Dance Festival. Muireann has worked with The Abbey Theatre’s Outreach Department, TEAM, part time lecturer at St Patrick’s teacher training college, and is a regular guest speaker on theatre for children at other third level colleges. She has led several Professional Development courses and was a member of the core working group on the published Artists~Schools Guidelines: ‘Towards Best Practice in Ireland’. She has been guest speaker at national and international conference focusing on ‘quality’ in theatre for young audiences. She is a graduate of the Samuel Beckett Centre for Drama and Theatre Studies, Trinity College Dublin and also holds a HDip Education from TCD.
She will next direct Theatre Lovett’s production of FRNKNSTN at the Abbey Theatre on the Peacock stage.
Louis is Joint Artistic Director of Theatre Lovett. Theatre Lovett make work for all ages and tour extensively both nationally and internationally. For Theatre Lovett he writes, composes and performs. Work includes They Called Her Vivaldi (Abbey Theatre, National tour, USA tour 2019), The True Story of Hansel and Gretel (Dublin Theatre Festival 2015). Mr. Foley, The Radio Operator (national tour), A Feast of Bones (Dublin Theatre Festival, UK tour), The House that Jack Filled (Dublin Theatre Festival, Irish tour) and The Girl who Forgot to Sing Badly (Irish, US/AUSTRALIAN tours). Louis has also worked with The Abbey Theatre, The Gate Theatre, The Corn Exchange, Siren Productions, Performance Corporation, Barabbas and others. Louis has also performed in and directed several productions at The Ark, A Cultural Centre for Children. Television & Film includes Moone Boy, Stella Days, Anseo, Killinascully, The Tudors, Showbands, Story Lane, The Morbegs and others.
He will next appear on the Peacock stage in Theatre Lovett’s production of FRNKNSTN.
Theatre Lovett make theatre for all ages, child and adult, young and old, chicken and egg. They were nominated for a Judges Special Award at The Irish Times Theatre Awards 2017. If you seek theatre that can amuse, involve and sometimes scare, we offer you theatre as adventure www.theatrelovett.com.
The Theatre Lovett Process
At Theatre Lovett we are acutely aware of the tone of our own shows. All too often, in our opinion, the tragedy part for children is ignored. Our menu covers comedy and tragedy. But it is a skilful expedition to take children to darker places and then bring them back again unscathed and, hopefully, exhilarated. We hope that our chosen material and staging will stretch our audiences. It need not be a replication of what they already know and have a handle on. We hope never to underestimate a child’s capacity.
Happily, we see less and less of the default, high-octane, kiddy-theatre actor with unbridled energy bounding onto the stage in brightly coloured clothing. This often misplaced energy is a bit like giving children a sugar overload before the main meal. Deep down, let’s be honest, we know it’s not terribly good for them.
If we had a penny for every time we’ve heard: ‘Oh, they’re a tough audience, they’re very honest, and they’ll tell you exactly what they think’. Contrary to popular belief, and what we have found is that children do not always tell you what they think. They are, for the most part, quite polite. After the show, they will also tell you what they think you want to hear. Especially, if you’re waving a feedback form under their nose and stand between them and the exit/lunch/playtime/home.
What should children get from theatre, we ask ourselves? What any adults strives to get – a good day out, hopefully. Or hour. And that experience might be funny, insightful, provocative, moving or challenging. However, there is often a belief that children must learn something. Muireann is with Brecht who says “all good theatre is educational” if it opens up some new understanding. Simply because the adults in their lives have gone to the trouble of taking them to the theatre does not mean that the children have to be wowed by the piece. Heavens to Murgatroyd, Batman! it might not be any good. As with adults, children have the right to discard a theatre experience from their memory as soon as they exit the auditorium. It might be the wisest move. Let’s not doorstep them as they leave with questionnaires about their ‘favourite parts’ or ‘the best bits’. Who is this kind of questioning for, really? For Theatre Lovett, those moments after we leave the theatre are some of the most important moments in the whole experience. Give it breathing space, allow it to land or not to land. Give the children space to process.
Sometimes in the latter stages of rehearsal we will invite an audience in to see the work in progress. A Questions and Answers session afterwards helps us measure our rates of success or failure in audience engagement. Louis will often get things underway with:
“So, there were some really boring bits in that show, weren’t there? Can you remember any of the particularly boring parts?” And off we go. Try it. It can be enlightening.
Scarily enlightening.
Fingal Arts Office
Deadline: 5pm Friday 1st June
Fingal Arts Office invites you to have your views heard in the development of the next County Arts Plan in Fingal by this Friday! The County Arts Plan is the roadmap for developing the arts service in Fingal over the coming years. As an advocate for Arts in Education / Children & Young People it’s important that you have your say.
Fingal Arts Office asks if you could please take ten minutes to complete the online Survey and have your voice heard.
Screenings running Nationwide throughout May/June 2018
Cartoon Saloon are delighted to announce a series of upcoming screenings for schools of ‘The Breadwinner’, a powerful story of hope and resilience set on the streets of Afghanistan. The screenings are accompanied by a comprehensive education pack containing questions and activities to guide your class through the film.
THE BREADWINNER is a powerful story of hope and resilience set on the streets of Afghanistan and is based on the beloved book of the same name by Deborah Ellis which is currently on the curriculum. The heroine is Parvana, an 11-year-old girl whose family struggles for a better life under Taliban rule. Parvana disguises herself as a boy to help her family survive following the wrongful arrest of her father. Twomey’s powerful film drew the attention of UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie, who is an Executive Producer.
There a number of upcoming screenings suitable for schools for ages 10+, with a comprehensive education pack containing questions and activities to guide your class through the film. The education pack can be downloaded directly here and is a free resource for teachers.
The key points of interest in The Breadwinner include:
Arts education in the form of Cartoon Saloon’s beautiful animation
Social and personal health education reflected in Parvana’s resilience and good actions;
Diversity and inclusion explored through the representation of Afghan people and women in Afghanistan;
Politics, history and folklore referenced in stories of Afghanistan;
Language, reading and writing is represented as important skills in The Breadwinner. The students will also have the opportunity to discuss their feelings and opinions through the activities in the education pack.
The Breadwinner is available in English and in Irish language and has received a 12A certificate. It is recommended for Senior Primary Level and Junior Secondary Level students.
There is a full list of cinemas screening The Breadwinner online here: https://bit.ly/2ImyBmT
To book please fill out this booking form: https://goo.gl/forms/ EGO92EbalUaoVFmB2 or contact your cinema directly. Ticket prices are subject to the cinema’s school prices.
For any further queries, please contact Sarah Ahern, Schools Coordinator on thebreadwinnerfilm@gmail.com or ring The Breadwinner Team on 01 6185032.
Primary School Links
School Links is a programme run by Dr. Michael Flannery which brings students from local DEIS primary schools into the Marino Institute of Education to participate in a visual arts project.
I worked with 4th class students from St Joseph’s Primary School, who came to MIE for four two-hour sessions. As the students had been exploring the use of food in art, I screened two excerpts of my films that deal with this topic. The first was a scene where a young woman eats a flower, and the students responded to this by creating their own flowers through collage and assemblage.
The second clip I screened was a scene where a performer emerges from a large fake cake with a hat of fruits on her head, and then another scene where she sifts flower onto her own head. The students responded to this by sculpting their own fruit, vegetable and other foods from memory out of modrock, which will be painted the next week. The students will decide if they wish to appropriate these materials to make their own hats and costumes, or if they would like to make another sculptural form with them.
In between these activities, students from the class interviewed me about the life and work of a contemporary artist:
Student: Why do you think art is important? KG: For me, art is like music or literature, and I think going to the an art gallery or museum is like going to the library. We are always expected to be so productive and busy, and art allows us to be quiet and reflective… it’s a different way of thinking. But, do you think it’s important?
Student: Yes, I think art is important because it brings so much colour to people’s lives.
Student: Do you make mistakes? KG: Yes, all the time! On my newest film, I spent so long making one scene… the art department spent ages on the set, there were a lot of props and it actually cost a good bit of money. But, then, when editing I realised it wasn’t working. It wasn’t fitting with the rest of the film at all… so I had to cut it out, and that’s so disappointing. It wasn’t anyone’s fault except mine!
Student: How long does it take you to make a film? Do you have people helping you? KG: Yes I have lots of people helping me! It’s impossible to be good at everything, and I’ve accepted the things I can do well and the things that I definitely can’t!
Student: How do you know if something you make is especially good? KG: It’s hard to know… sometimes you make something you really believe in, but it doesn’t connect with people. And sometimes the opposite happens. I just try to follow me intuition and not worry about what everyone else is thinking or doing… but I know you can’t really do this in school.
Student: When you’re making a film for a gallery, do you feel very pressured? KG: Yes, it’s a lot of pressure and it can be very distracting. On one hand, you are trying to be very sensitive and focused on what you are making, but then there is a professional pressure that seeps in. And it’s taken me ages to learn how to deal with that.
To mark this significant anniversary a national invitation has been extended across Irish society including schools and their communities of staff and students to join with in the celebrations, raising awareness and understanding of children’s rights and listening to children and young people ensuring their voices are highlighted and heard. The aim is to provide creative and innovative ways to mark the 25th Anniversary and to enable educators to start the ‘Rights’ conversation in school – across many subject areas.
How to Get Involved
Get Animated About Rights
The OCO has teamed up with the Irish Animation Industry in a unique way to invite young people to create an image of the right that means most to them and have the opportunity to have it animated by one of Ireland’s leading animators.
Five winning artworks will be chosen by a panel of judges (including Oscar nominee 2018 Nora Twomey ‘The Breadwinner’, Best Animated Feature) for animation and winners will be offered an exclusive ‘behind-the-scenes’ tour of the hugely successful Brown Bag Studios (home of Give Up Yer Aul Sins, Doc McStuffins, Angelas Christmas and Octonauts). The animations will feature permanently on the OCO website.
Closing date is 16th June.
The Rights Museum
A cross-sector collaboration between OCO, National Museum of Ireland and Collapsing Horse Theatre. From September 2017 the OCO has been piloting this new education resource with Larkin Community College in Dublin (the first Rights Museum exhibition launched in March 2018 in the National Museum, Collins Barracks and runs until 29 June 2018). The Rights Museum resource will be available online on www.oco.ie from September 2018 inviting Junior Cert students to explore the UNCRC, choose and curate objects representing rights to exhibit in a pop-up Museum in school or in the local community.
The process of creating a Rights Museum offers schools opportunities for co-curricular co-operation, increased professional collaboration and students possibilities to apply learning in different contexts, engage in research, be creative and learn new skills. Collapsing Horse and Larkin’s pilot of the resource will be available as a short video piece.
Exhibition runs until 29th June
Check out Dan Colley, Collapsing Horse Theatre director guest blog series for the Arts in Education Portal on the project Rights Museum Project – artsineducation.ie/en/guestblog/dan+colley
Act Your Rights
Take part in the national ‘Act your Rights Drama’ competition in partnership with The Abbey Theatre.
Running until 30th May the OCO invite teachers and students to complete the ‘Act your Rights’ online resource. Make a short play, email a 3 minute taster and enter the competition to get the opportunity to perform on stage in the Peacock in September 2018.
The ‘Act your Rights’ online resource available here is a joint collaboration between the Ombudsman for Children’s Office and the Abbey Theatre. Act Your Rights aims to help children to become more aware of their rights and explore how rights are reflected in their everyday lives. It offers an innovative and enjoyable way to talk about rights with 4-6th class students through discussion, drama and art activities.
Performative Pathways between Schools, Universities and the Wider Community
The invited speakers will offer their perspectives on why theatre should be introduced and established as a subject in primary and secondary schools, why universities should embrace performativity within and across academic disciplines, and why leading theatres should continue to embrace and increase their outreach activities and aspire to employ theatre education specialists. The symposium should be of special interest to those who aim to form stronger links between theatre and education, including teachers, lecturers, theatre students, directors of theatres and theatre companies, applied theatre practitioners and policy makers.
Symposium organisation: Manfred Schewe and Fionn Woodhouse, Department of Theatre, School of Music & Theatre, UCC
Venue: Creative Zone, Boole Library, Main Campus, University College Cork
Date & Time: 25th May 2018 (12 a.m. to 4.30 pm.) – attendance free of charge, please confirm by May 24th
“Be assertive in making space for the arts in education” Professor Gary Granville
On April 21st the third arts in education portal national day took place at Maynooth University in partnership with Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education. The portal national day is building momentum as a very significant event in the arts and education calendar in Ireland. With over 100 artists, teachers and arts in education professionals in attendance with 22 workshops and lectures across the day by a range of presenters from the sector and inspirational insights from our guest speakers Professor Gary Granville and Paul Collard. Thanks to all involved in making day a huge success!
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children
Deadline 4pm, Friday 11th May 2018
Baboró is seeking an innovative and experienced Communications Coordinator to join its small but ambitious, year-round team. The successful candidate will be responsible for Baboró’s internal and external communication including promoting the annual Baboró Festival, its year-round work, communicating Baboró’s mission and developing the organisation’s profile and brand. The role also incorprates supporting the Baboró’s operations by maintaining office systems and managing effective and efficient internal communications. This is a dynamic role which offers excellent opportunities for the successful candidate to develop their own unique skillset and areas of interest..
Essential Requirements
Excellent verbal, written, oral and digital communication skills
Strong visual communication skills with an eye for detail
Dynamic and resourceful self-starter
At least 3 years’ relevant work experience at management level
A track record in initiating strong and effective marketing/promotional campaigns
Strong organisation and planning skills with the ability to work under pressure in a challenging environment while managing workload and competing priorities
Proven ability in collecting and analysing data and in producing management reports
Experienced in managing budgets
Excellent interpersonal skills with a proven ability to work effectively in a team and build and maintain effective working relationships
Ability to effectively manage staff
Proven ability to manage processes, develop standards and promote process improvement
Excellent IT skills
Desirable Criteria
3rd level qualification relevant to marketing/communications
Knowledge of Baboró’s mission and remit
Knowledge of the arts sector
Understanding of Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA)
As part of the Hunt Museum’s Sybil exhibition programme, primary and post-primary schools are invited to take part in a series of curriculum linked workshops at the Museum. These will enable students to examine Sybil’s highly innovative use of traditional Irish fabrics, including linen, lace, tweed and her design processes.
Sybil Connolly was the first Irish female designer to become successful internationally. She took her inspiration from Ireland and its people, creating “clothes using Irish fabrics made by Irish hands.” The Friends of Limerick Lace will introduce students to Limerick and Carrickmacross lace which are used in her fashion designs. Students will then learn how to create some basic stitches.
Using the Past Projections Future Fashion display in the exhibition students will also create a Sybil inspired t-shirt design which must give consideration to the importance of technology and ethics in contemporary fashion.
In my last blog post I detailed “Phase 1” of the process in which I facilitated drama and storytelling workshops with the 2nd year Art students at Larkin Community College, and the work-in-progress of the Rights Museum project which we presented in Croke Park for the OCO’s UNCRC25 Launch.
Although the presentation in Croke Park was supposed to be a “work-in-progress”, any readers who have done works-in-progress themselves will know there’s an inevitable sense of completion that sets in afterwards. Our challenge for “Phase 2” of the Rights Museum project was finding something new in executing the same idea. At the same time, the Art teachers Declan Quinn and Siobhán Mackenzie (who had been an essential energetic and creative force through the process from the beginning) started to feel the gravitational pull of the curriculum on their time, and thought that to continue with the process would be consume more time than they could afford to give. So, it was with some difficulty that we decided to draw a line under the phase 1 with the second year art students. This, I’m sure is a challenge and a decision many educators reading this will understand.
In order to continue, Máire O’Higgins, Deputy Principal and coordinator of artistic partnerships, needed to find an enthusiastic teacher and a group students who could benefit from the work. This she found in abundance in Emma O’Reilly and her first year CSPE class.
The task now was to recreate the process of phase one with a new group. This time, given that they were a CSPE class, we decided to find our way in through the UNCRC. Emma O’Reilly gave an introduction class to the United Nations Charter on the Rights of the Child, supported by me and Máire O’Higgins. Human Rights is one of the core pillar concepts of their CSPE course which they would normally cover in second year, so there was a curricular link there.
In our next session we asked the students to pick what they considered to be the most essential article in the UNCRC and to say why. We found their answers tended to cluster around the articles relating to family (and this was a theme we saw bare out in the objects they chose for the museum later). As the students told us which articles they thought were essential , my job as facilitator was to foment debate and dissent.
I used an exercise called “The Continuum” in which we cleared away the tables and chairs, nominated one end of the room to be “strongly agree” and the other side to be “strongly disagree” with “unsure” in the middle. When I said a statement, the students had to place themselves in the room, depending on how they felt about the statement. So, for example I might say “’Article 24; you have the right to healthcare’ is the most essential right” and the students would place themselves in the room depending on whether they agreed or strongly disagreed or somewhere in the middle. Then I would call on people who had taken the most extreme positions to say why. As they listened to the conversation and opposing points, students were encouraged to change their positions in the room as they changed their minds.
In this way, the students learned, from each other, the importance of their rights through the personal anecdotes they shared; they learned about their rights in reality. Choosing extreme statements to polarise opinion at the start and then allowing them to tease out the nuances among themselves.
In my next, and final, blog post I’ll describe how we applied this knowledge to museum curation; how one can tell stories and create meaning through selecting and placing objects. I’ll describe the process of working with the National Museum of Ireland, the launch of our completed Rights Museum exhibition in the National Museum at Collins Barracks and the Education Pack being commissioned by the OCO based on the Rights Museum.
Music Generation
Deadline: 12 noon, Friday 4 May, 2018
To support the current and future development of both new and existing Music Education Partnerships, Music Generation is now inviting applications for the role of Music Education Partnership Support Manager.
Established in 2010, Music Generation’s ambition is to transform the lives of children and young people through local access to high-quality, subsidised performance music education. Music Generation has recently embarked on a new phase of expansion into 9 new areas of the country, building towards nationwide rollout by 2022.
This new role at the Music Generation National Development Office presents an exciting opportunity for an experienced professional who combines strong expertise in music development and management with excellent interpersonal and leadership skills, initiative, and determination for results.
Music Generation is a Music Network initiative, co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education and Skills and Local Music Education Partnerships.
Diorama construction and collaborative filmmaking
In the first semester of my residency at the Marino Institute of Education, I worked with the first years on the Professional Masters in Education programme. I had previously given workshops and lectures at university level at the Dublin Institute of Technology and Kyung Hee University in Seoul, and taught art classes for children at Taipei Artist Village and at primary schools in Roscommon as part of the Art School project run by Jennie Guy. However, this was my first time working with preservice teachers and, so, was the first time I was not just teaching art but also trying to impart how to teach art from the point of view of a contemporary artist.
I devised a workshop that would introduce the class to the process of filmmaking, and that could be replicated in a classroom with few resources. Students worked in groups, collaborating to make a film concept, visualize it, and realise this through constructing a diorama which would show the set/location of their film idea, the characters and any scene changes. I wanted to focusing on the storytelling and visualisation aspects of filmmaking, and my overall aim was that, from doing the workshop, students would have learnt that filmmaking is an enjoyable and achievable process, reliant more on imagination and communication than it is on expensive equipment.
In order to contextualise this project, I showed examples of contemporary animation sets, maquettes for theatre set design, and artists whose work uses collage or photomontage (John Stezaker, Hannah Hoch, David Hockney, Peter Kennard), and contemporary Irish artists working with animation techniques (Aideen Barry, Vera Klute).
To begin the project, each group had to select four random words that designated: (a) a genre; (b) a location; (c) a main human character; (d) an animal character. Then, together, they had to knit these into a coherent concept. After deciding on how to combine the elements, each group works on making a diorama. In a collaborative effort to realise their visualisation, decisions are made on colour palette, mood, materials and scale.
After their sets were made, students began to make their characters from armature and plasticine. We then began a simple stop-motion animation process using free apps on the students’ phones and school ipads. The result was that each group created a short silent animation using readily available materials and technology and each group created a unique project that can be appraised in relation to the concept they created and the parameters they set for themselves.
Learning through Creativity is a 5-day course accredited by Drumcondra Education Centre that enables primary teachers to consider how an engagement with visual art can enhance learning in other strands of the curriculum. The course offers a blend of art appreciation, art interaction and art making exercises and participants will have the opportunity to work with professional artists and curators throughout the week.
Join curator Tadhg Crowley and artist Inma Pavon to look at projects that can be re-imagined in your classroom. This season’s masterclass will look at learning beyond the classroom and how educators can capitalize on this when designing their own lesson plans. Inma Pavon will introduce participants to movement, dance and performance exercises that can be developed for students of all ages and abilities.
Participants will receive a certificate of attendance from the Centre of Continued Professional Development at University College Cork.
Waterford and Wexford Education and Training Board
Deadline: 5.00pm, Tuesday 1 May 2018
Waterford and Wexford Education and Training Board (WWETB) invites applications from suitably qualified persons for the positions of Administrator, Music Generation Waterford (1 post) and Administrator, Music Generation Wexford (1 post).
Both posts are full-time, 37 hours per week, and the successful candidates will be employed on fixed-term contracts for a period of three years.
Post details and applicant requirements are available to download from www.wwetb.ie/vacancies
The closing date for receipt of applications: 5.00pm, Tuesday 1 May 2018
WWETB is an Equal Opportunities Employer
Music Generation Waterford is part of Music Generation, Ireland’s national music education programme initiated by Music Network, co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education and Skills, and managed locally by Waterford Music Education Partnership, led by WWETB in partnership with Waterford City and County Council.
At the core of the Creative Engagement scheme is the collaboration between student, teacher and artist as set out in Artist~Schools (Arts Council 2006). It’s about tapping into the imagination of the young person while giving both an incentive and a framework for the work to thrive.
To encourage imagination, creativity, initiative and expression in student
Students must be at the centre of the creative process
To compliment curricular learning in the arts, culture and heritage
The selection criteria:
Student engagement in and ownership of the creative process
Evidence of partnership between the students, teacher and visiting artist.
Originality and viability of the proposal.
Clear plan of action.
The costing of the proposal.
The school leadership must be members of NAPD.
The school must be a second level one.
Financial considerations
The availability of the grant funding for Creative Engagement and number of applicants will determine the amount of the grant per school. We aim for €2000 euro per school.
Where possible schools will supply evidence of matching funding.
Artists are paid through the school, which will receive two cheques during the school year from NAPD, the final one following receipt of the Evaluation of the project.
Partnerships:
Since 2005 NAPD has established working partnerships with The Department of Education and Skills, The Department of Culture Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Poetry Ireland, The Heritage Council, Poetry Ireland, The National Museum, The National Gallery, IMMA, Amnesty International, Local authority Arts Officers and Cavan Monaghan ETB local arts in education Partnership.
Deadline October 25th 2018
Department of Education and Skills & Creative Ireland Programme
Deadline 11th May 2018
Creative Clusters is a pilot initiative of the Department of Education and Skills, led by, and in partnership with, the 21 full-time Teacher Education Centres (ATECI) and funded through the Schools Excellence Fund – Creative Clusters Initiative.
Creative Clusters is an important initiative of Creative Youth – A Plan to Enable the Creative Potential of Every Child and Young Person (View the full Plan here), which was published in December 2017 as part of the Creative Ireland Programme. The Creative Youth Plan aims to give every child practical access to tuition, experience and participation in art, music, drama and coding by 2022.
A Creative Cluster will typically consist of between three and five schools collaborating on the design, implementation, evaluation and dissemination of an innovative arts and creative learning project which supports them to address a common issue or challenge.
Each Creative Cluster will receive funding of €2,500 for one year to implement their project in the 2018-2019 school year. It is anticipated that all schools in the cluster will have a say in how the budget is allocated and spent to support the implement of the project
Paid substitution will be provided for the Regional Cluster Training event and two/three local cluster meetings.
How To Apply
Schools can apply as part of a cluster which may be an existing network of schools or a potential cluster. Each cluster must nominate a lead school and a Creative Cluster Coordinator. Substitution costs to the equivalent of 1 day per term for the duration of the pilot project will be provided for the Lead School Creative Cluster Coordinator
Schools can apply individually and if successful, they will be placed in a cluster with other applicant schools. The local Teacher Education Centre will have a key role in identifying and supporting a Creative Cluster for their local area.
The closing date for receipt of applications is 11th May 2018
We are pleased to announce our full programme of presentations and workshops for the Arts in Education Portal National Day 2018. The programme was selected following a call for submissions in December 2017 and reflects a broad range of projects, approaches and art forms from within the arts and education sectors; both practical and theoretical.
The day will culminate in a special performance by members of the Irish Youth Training Choir, conducted by Eunan McDonald.
In September I began my role as artist-in-residence at the Marino Institute of Education (MIE), an initiative for artists to work in institutions that provide initial teacher education funded by the Arts Council. The aims of the residency are: for the artist to develop their skills and work in a supportive education setting; for preservice teachers to have a meaningful engagement with the arts; and to support preservice teachers in developing confidence and skills in passing these meaningful experiences onto their students.
Working closely with Dr. Michael Flannery (Head of Art & Religious Education at MIE), we decided on a programme of formal inputs into courses and ways to disseminate my work to students and staff. In the first few months of the residency, I then set about on a mission to ‘activate art’ on campus with a programme of talks, exhibitions and screenings, alongside giving formal inputs into classes.
I decided to turn the lobby and windows of the Nagle-Rice building into an exhibition space where students and staff could spend a few moments looking at my work. During October I exhibited two films here: Everything Disappears which I made in Taiwan, and is in Mandarin with English subtitles; and Our Stranded Friends in Distant Lands which I made in South Korea and is in Korean with English subtitles. Photographic prints in the window space deconstructed the films into still images and accompanying scripts in English.
I then gave a lunchtime artist talk discussing these projects, the research behind them and the process of making them. As well as making the campus aware of my work as the new artist on campus, I also wanted students to encounter the work in a way similar to when they are installed in a gallery, before we began to work together in a lecture.
In October, I brought a group of 12 students on an excursion to my studio at Fire Station Artist Studios on Buckingham St, Dublin 1, and then continued on to see an exhibition that dealt with mediating art to primary school groups at Dublin City Council’s The LAB gallery on Foley St. My aim was for students to become aware of the visual art spaces in the North city centre, and also for them to see ‘behind the scenes’ of an artists studio and sculpture workshop, and then a final installation in a gallery.
For a number of evenings in November and December, I held a series of screenings to introduce video art and experimental filmmaking. As the series spanned from the beginnings of video art (Nam June Paik) to surrealism (Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí) to current practices (Hito Steyerl), I gave the context of the works and topics in art history and then led informal discussions following the screenings. I hope the series encouraged students to engage with artist film and experimental film, and to feel confident discussing such works on school trips to galleries and museums in the future.
Next year I’m looking forward to continuing this work on campus and being involved with the Masters in Education Studies (Visual Arts).
Christopher McCambridge is a Special Educational Needs teacher at St. Colman’s Primary School, Lambeg. St. Colman’s Primary is a mainstream school of 400 pupils with two learning support unit classes. Christopher is also an active member of the Belfast art scene. He co-founded the arts organisation Belfast Platform for the Arts (Platform Arts) in 2010, which continues to provide an exhibition space and studios for artists.
In 2016 Christopher and his Primary 6/7 class were chosen to take part in the Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership ‘Virtually There’ project. ‘A virtual artist in residence project which explores the potential for creative engagement between artists working from their studio and children and teachers in the classroom using video conferencing technology’. (Orla Kenny, Creative Director of Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership). Now in their 2nd year, artist John D’Arcy has been working collaboratively with Christopher and his class at St Colman’s P.S as virtual artist-in-residence.
Art as a Gateway
A recent article in the Guardian newspaper, discussed the importance of prehistoric art. In particular, that of the Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. The art critic, Jonathan Jones, was examining the significance of the findings that Neanderthals had painted on cave walls in Spain 65,000 years ago, tens of thousands of years before Homo sapiens. The Neanderthal artwork in question was a stencilled red ochre handprint on rock. It wasn’t the discussion about whether or not Neanderthals were the first true artists or if this honour should belong to another early human species, Homo erectus, or because of the quality of the representational artwork by Homo sapiens, they should be considered the first ‘true’ artists, that piqued my interest, it was the significance that art had on moulding a species. That ‘art’ constituted the beginnings of intelligence, the “capacity to imagine and dream” and within our own species Homo sapiens “the birth of the complex cathedral of the modern mind … [opening] the way, in modern human history, to everything from writing to computers” (Jonathan Jones, 2018). – read the full article www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/feb/23/neanderthals-cave-art-spain-astounding-discovery-humbles-every-human
Within the education sector, the Northern Ireland Curriculum has been developed to cater for all subjects, allowing children access to a varied education. The reality is, that as children progress through primary school, teachers can be under pressure delivering the curriculum, often focussing on the areas of numeracy and literacy to the detriment of other curricular areas, particularly art. This can be evident in Primary 6 and the first term of Primary 7, when a substantial amount of time is spent preparing the children for the GL and AQE transfer tests. These pressures can sometimes be self-imposed, a teacher perhaps feeling that it is important for the children to develop these skills and after the tests have been completed, delivering those other areas or perhaps they can be pressures by other stake-holders within the school community. Regardless of this, the Guardian article reinforced my own view that Art should be on-a-par with those supposedly ‘key subjects or areas.’ If, works of art have been “held up as proof of the cognitive superiority of modern humans,” this should mean that art can play an important role in the curriculum.
As a Special Educational Needs teacher, teaching Primary 6/7 pupils, the pressures of the GL and AQE tests are not applicable to the children that I teach. Like all primary teachers the delivery of the Northern Ireland Curriculum is still essential. However, without these testing constraints, there is an opportunity to embed art throughout the curriculum to a greater extent. It does not need to simply be an add on or linked to a world around us topic. My project work with Kids’ Own has been successful in facilitating this. As I detailed in my last post, I am now in my second year of working within the Kids’ Own project and in-particular working with the artist John D’arcy.
At the beginning of Year 2, we set about choosing a word that would encompass everything. The word we chose was Hacking. This would be the jumping off point, from which all mini-projects or lessons would stem from. John and I found that this liberated our planning, allowing for greater flexibility. When we discussed the word with the children, it ignited their enthusiasm, prompting new avenues of learning that John and I had not previously considered.
Throughout the Hacking project, we have included aspects of numeracy and literacy. A particular favourite being a session exploring ‘codes and language’. This session included: Semaphore, Morse code, the phonetic alphabet, emoji’s and Makaton. After the session had been completed, I was amazed to see children with difficulties in sequencing the alphabet testing one another on the use of Makaton and the symbol to letter correspondence. The project has also allowed the children to develop their creativity and problem-solving skills. They have become more expressive when discussing topics, themes or their own work. This has had an impact in other avenues such as their social and emotional well-being.
I began this post, examining the importance that art had on our evolution as a species. So, I feel it is relevant to question, if it had such a bearing on our evolution, then why can it not have the same impact upon our education of young children?
Improvised Music Company & The Ark
Deadline: Thursday 29th March
Fun Size Jazz – Performance and development opportunity for jazz and improvising musicians and ensembles from IMC in partnership with The Ark
Improvised Music Company in partnership with The Ark are looking for applications from professional artists and ensembles in jazz and improvised music for short ‘scratch’ performances aimed at young audiences. The chosen artists will have an opportunity to devise, create and deliver their short live performances for audiences of children at The Ark this summer 2018.
This new initiative, jointly presented by Improvised Music Company and The Ark, stems from an original production developed between 2014 & 2016, called Monster Music Improv, which toured across Ireland and the UK in 2016.
Applications should present considered, innovative and engaging approaches to creating memorable and enjoyable performances of between 15-20 minutes duration designed to specifically appeal to young audiences aged between 4 and 12 years.
Fun Size Jazz will result in 2 performances taking place on the May and August Bank Holiday Mondays respectively (7th May & 6th August 2018).
We are delighted to announce the guest speakers for the third annual Arts in Education Portal National Day on April 21st in Maynooth University in partnership with Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education. Our day begins with a welcome from Professor Gary Granville, Emeritus Professor of Education at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) & Dr. Katie Sweeney – National Director for the Integration of the Arts, Department of Education and Skills (DES).
We welcome Josepha Madigan T.D, Minister for Culture, Heritage & the Gaeltacht to speak on the day along with guest speaker Paul Collard, Chief Executive of Creativity, Culture and Education (CCE). The full line-up which will be announced shortly includes a broad range of practical workshops and skills sharing as well as theoretical and critical thinking in the area from artists, teachers and practitioners from across the sector.
This event brings together members of the arts in education community from all across Ireland, to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired, and continue interrogating best practice in the field.
Josepha Madigan T.D, Minister for Culture, Heritage & the Gaeltacht
Josepha Madigan was appointed as Minister for Culture, Heritage & the Gaeltacht on 30th November 2017. She is an award-winning Family Lawyer, a qualified mediator and is passionate about mediation. She published a book entitled “Appropriate Dispute Resolution in Ireland” and served as Specialist Liaison Officer for Family Mediation with the Mediators’ Institute of Ireland, lectured in the area of family law and has written newspaper articles on this subject.
The Minister believes in a society that is progressive and creative, and is passionate about using both her business and legal skills in assisting citizens.
Professor Gary Granville, Emeritus Professor of Education at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD)
Gary Granville is Emeritus Professor of Education at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD), Dublin. He served as Interim Director of NCAD after spending some sixteen years as Head of School of Education. The School of Education NCAD is the leading centre of research in art education in Ireland, with graduate programmes in arts leadership, in socially engaged art and in doctoral research in arts education.
He was formerly Assistant Chief Executive of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) in Ireland. In that capacity, he oversaw the design and introduction of national programmes, including the Leaving Certificate Applied, the Junior Cycle Schools Programme and initiatives in citizenship education, in enterprise education and in the arts. In recent years he has chaired the NCCA Development Group for Art at junior cycle and more recently, the design of a new programme for Leaving Certificate Art.
Dr. Granville has been a member of the Higher Education Authority and of specialist committees of the Teaching Council, NCCA and other national and international bodies. He has worked on international projects in Europe and Africa. His research interests are in the fields of education policy, art and design education, curriculum and assessment, and educational evaluation.
Dr, Katie Sweeney, National Director for the Integration of the Arts, Department of Education and Skills (DES)
National Director for the Integration of the Arts in Education (DES) – appointed by Minister for Education and Skills Ruaraí Quinn T.D. in 2013. Previously Katie has worked as a Research Scientist, Senior Lecturer in Dublin City University, Dublin Institute of Technology, Karolinska Institute of Health Sciences Stockholm in Sweden. She was a former Head of GMIT @Castlebar, CEO of Mayo VEC and CEO of Mayo Sligo and Leitrim Education and Training Board.
Paul Collard, Chief Executive of Creativity, Culture and Education (CCE)
Paul Collard is Chief Executive of Creativity, Culture and Education (CCE) an international foundation dedicated to unlocking the creativity of young people in and out of formal education. CCE was established to design and manage the delivery of the Creative Partnerships (CP) programme in England from 2002-11. The success and impact of the programme attracted considerable international attention and CCE now supports the delivery of programmes modelled on CP across a wide range of European countries including Norway, Lithuania, Holland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Romania, and Hungary. In Wales, CCE is advising the Arts Council of Wales and the Welsh Government on its £20 million Creative Learning through the Arts Plan, which now has over 550 schools enrolled and in Scotland, it is piloting its Art of Learning programme in partnership with Creative Scotland and Education Scotland.
The Ark & The Dublin Dance Festival
Schools Performances Fri 18 May @ 10.15am & 12.15pm.
Created by Philippe Saire (Switzerland), this magical children’s show for ages 7+ explores how images conjure vivid emotions, sensations and experiences.
Taking the audience on a fantastical voyage, two brothers dive into dreamlike adventures: a contortionist’s escape from a spider’s web; a journey in a damaged flying machine; and underwater encounters with fabulous aquatic creatures.
The unique set design creates a playful game of appearance and disappearance. As light is painted across the stage to reveal everything it touches, the dancers’ bodies seem to emerge from a black hole before being swallowed up again. These visual mysteries cast a spell, suspending our disbelief and unleashing our imagination.
The morning session at The Hunt Museum will be led by artist Sam Walsh, whose exhibition The Segment & Apple Drawings is currently on display. Sam will deliver two demonstrations; the first will incorporate nine different drawing techniques. The second will focus specifically on cross-hatching and its ability to create texture, form and value. Teachers will then experiment with these techniques to create their own drawings of objects from the collection.
After lunch tutors at Limerick Printmakers will introduce teachers to the printing processes of drypoint and chine-collé. With their guidance teachers will review the suitability of their drawings for these media.
This CPD will enable art teachers to plan schemes in print making for Junior and Senior Cycle students, as well as providing them with a new outlet to express their own creativity and to develop new technical skills.
Booking is essential. ATAI membership number required.
Price: Free to ATAI members or €40 for non-member. Includes all materials. Lunch not supplied
The Arts in Education Portal editorial team have begun visiting sites of the recipients of our Documentation Award.
Earlier this month, we visited St Ibar’s National School, in Castlebridge, Wexford where artist Clare Breen has been working since October 2017 with 3rd and 5th classes. Each Wednesday she has worked in 2 sessions, responding to the work of 10 different international artists, including her own. The project is titled Breadfellows’ Chats with the Living Arts Project. The Living Arts Project was established in 2013 as a long-term visual arts education scheme, supporting the existing partnership between Wexford Arts Centre and the Arts Department of Wexford County Council.
The question “what does an artist do?” is at the center of this project. Breen selected 10 artists whose work is very diverse, and she has introduced the children to as wide a spectrum as possible of contemporary material processes. They have worked with painting, collage, sculpture, performance and the body, textiles, writing, film, photography, ceramics and sound. It was also important to Breen that the activities would cover the 3rd and 5th class art curriculum during the weekly sessions.
In week one the children made tunics to wear each week to protect their clothes. The tunics are painted with images responding to the question
If you were not a human, what would you like to be?
This could be an animal or an object, an alien or a monster, anything you can think of, but it should reflect some of your best qualities. (If this question is very difficult you can ask your friends for some help!)
This question was formulated as an alternative introduction that is not based on nationality, age, gender etc. to leave space for improvisation, allowing all to introduce themselves on their own terms. Working collaboratively, the children drew around one another while lying on the ground to find their shape; the traced figure became the outline for a tunic. Each child then painted on the tunic’s ‘tummy’ the animal/ object/ monster/ alien they had selected to wear over their uniform for the coming weeks.
The accompanying photos show the children in their tunics working on a painting project responding to the work of artist Sarah de Wilde.
Blog post 2 -Rights Museum
The Rights Museum is a participatory art project that attempts to allow our objects do just that. Its subject is the lives of the second-year Art students in Larkin Community College and how the rights enshrined in the UNCRC intersect with their actual lived experience. Or don’t.
I began work on “Phase 1” of the project in September 2017 with two second-year Art classes, along with teachers Siobhán McKenzie and Declan Quinn. I facilitated four weekly hour-long workshops on Wednesday afternoons outside of class time. I also worked with the students in their art classes with their teachers.
The workshops used drama and storytelling techniques to three main aims; to surprise and entertain, to get them cooperating as a group, not just individuals; and to introduce new forms of self-expression. That work included a simple ball throwing and catching exercise (acknowledging the stress that it causes, allowing ourselves to drop the ball, and focussing on the thing that mattered; that we were all working together calmly to the get the ball around the circle). We also stood in a circle and played what I call “Kung Foo” (of which there’s many variations including “zip, zap, boing”) We also played a game in which 5 participants sit in a row, and then take turns standing up and saying “My name is X” followed by something that’s true. The aim is to always have someone standing and sating something, to act on the impulse to fill a gap where it occurs and to say anything that’s true, however mundane, that come into your head. This exercise allows for back-and-forth conversations to emerge, (eg. “My name is Dan and I have two brothers” followed by “My name is Stacy and I also have two brothers”) and for the participants to get to know each other better and have a way of expressing themselves through the exercise.
In two Art classes a week, I focussed more directly on the task of creating a Rights Museum. That time was devoted to introducing the concepts of the UNCRC (supported by a workshop delivered by the Ombudsman for Children’s Office) and a focus on objects and what story they can tell (supported by a “If Objects Can Talk” workshop in National Museum of Ireland).
The students were asked to pick an object that was meaningful to them and to bring it in to class.
They were asked to “free-write” about it.
They were asked to stand up and share why it was meaningful to them and what articles in the UNCRC it referred to.
This process lead the students to share among the following objects with their class:
One student shared his grandad’s blue stone and mass card. It reminded him of special times shared with his grandfather who used to take him to football matches and tell him historical stories of his involvement in the IRA. This related to Article 31, right to access leisure, play and cultural activities.
Another student shared a necklace that her mother gave her before she and her father moved to Ireland from Romania. Articles 9 and 10; family separation and reunification.
Another student shared a photo of her and her grandmother when she was a small child. The photo was taken in Bangladesh before she moved to Ireland. Articles 9 and 10.
Another student shared his dancing trophies. He’d won many dancing competitions and values his achievements as represented by the trophy. Relating to Article 31, acces to cultural activities.
Another student shared his passport. His passport is from Poland and he recently had to go back to Poland to renew it. Article 7; right to a name and a nationality.
In their other session each week, Ms McKenzie’s class divided into 4 groups. Each group took a theme of the UNCRC and created a large mind-map illustrating that theme and the rights that it represented. Mr Quinn’s class also divided into 4 groups and created interactive paper fortune tellers which illustrated the four themes.
The culmination of phase 1 was a work-in-progress presentation of the Rights Museum took place in Croke Park as part of the OCO’s launch of the UNCRC25 celebrations in September 2017. It featured :
Some the students objects presented in display cases and on plinth with their stories and the rights they relate to, handwritten and presented beside it.
The mind maps were mounted on the walls.
There was an installation of a bedroom with everyday objects from the children’s bedrooms, labelled with the rights they relate to.
There was an interactive “writing wall” in which the visitors wrote what would be their Rights Museum.
There was a slide show of some students photographed alongside their passports.
The participants reported their surprise and delight at how their objects and artwork were displayed just like in a professional museum. They also reported experiencing a thrill at seeing other people coming to view their objects and read their writing, and a great sense of achievement in what they’d produced.
The work-in-progress was intended to mark the end of phase 1 and the beginning of another, but we were soon to discover that it had the sense of an ending in and of itself. For phase 2 of the work, we would be starting again with a new set of students and finding a way to join the work that both groups had done.
Arts in Education Portal
Date: 24th March 2018
The Arts in Education Portal is going on tour!
In 2018, we invite regional audiences to connect with us during a series of regional events, where practitioners can learn more about the Portal and what it offers, tell us about their work, connect with the community at regional level, share practice and find out what opportunities or events are available in their local area.
The second of these distinct events will be held in The Garage Theatre, Monaghan on Saturday 24th March. We welcome teachers, artists, arts managers and anyone with an interest in arts in education to join us for this free event.
The second regional event takes place at .
Places are limited – booking is essential Schedule
10:45am—registration & coffee
11:00am— Introduction
11:30am— Presentation – dancer/choreographer Mary Farrelly
12:15pm—Presentation – Paddy Red Downey and the Voice in the Dream project
1:00pm— lunch & networking
1:30pm— Creative Session: Breadfellows’ Chats with artist Clare Breen
In 2018, we invite regional audiences to connect with us during a series of regional events, where practitioners can learn more about the Portal and what it offers, tell us about their work, connect with the community at regional level, share practice and find out what opportunities or events are available in their local area.
The first of these distinct events will be held in The Glucksman, Cork on Saturday 10th March, 2018. We welcome teachers, artists, arts managers and anyone with an interest in arts in education to join us for this free event.
Places are limited – booking is essential
Schedule
10:30am—registration & coffee
11:00am—Introduction
11:30am—Presentation – John McCarthy and participants, Youth Playwrights Programme, Fighting Words at The Graffiti Theatre, Cork
12:15pm—presentation – Tadhg Crowley and participants, Blueprints Project, The Glucksman, Cork
The second regional event will take place at The Garage Theatre, Monaghan on Saturday 24th March, 2018.
Make Create Innovate
Date: March 24th & 25th
An introductory workshop to electronics for creative projects
In collaboration with The Digital Hub, Make Create Innovate offer this hands-on, jargon-free two day workshop that will introduce you to physical computing using conductive materials, MaKey MaKey and Arduino with some basic sensors. Our artist-maker-educator approach is all about tinkering with art, electronic and everyday materials to learn through experimentation and discovery.
By the end of the weekend you will have a basic understanding of the principals involved in easy-to-make light and sound responsive systems and the materials required. You will also have collaborated with other workshop participants to create an electronically triggered soundscape or an interactive environment/artwork.
This workshop is for creative people (professionals and non-professionals) and educators, who want to do something different; whether it’s programme a touch-activated sound effects on the theatre stage or design a cross-curricular STEAM project at school. It is especially suitable for anyone involved in engaged arts that support arts participation and/or invite audience interaction.
Opportunities for schools to apply to participate in the Creative Schools pilot open on Tuesday 20th February, 2018. Selected schools will have the opportunity to deepen the impact the arts and creativity can make on school life and on the lives of children and young people. Schools selected for the pilot will be partnered with a Creative Associate, who will support them in planning and implementing a creative programme that can be sustained in their school. Creative Associates will be artists, creative practitioners and educators who will help schools to draw on the range of opportunities within their school and wider community. Each school will also receive €2,000 to help them implement their programme.
Following an application and selection process 150 schools will participate for the 2018/19 school year across Ireland. All Department of Education and Skills recognised primary and post-primary schools and Youthreach Centres will be eligible to apply. A diversity of school settings will be selected, with a strong focus on inclusion. The long-term objective is that all schools will have the opportunity to participate. Schools are encouraged to get on line and register today. Demand for places is expected to be high and this is an opportunity schools are not going to want to miss.
Scoileanna Ildánacha /Creative Schools is seeking a team of Creative Associates to support the delivery of the pilot initiative. This is an exciting opportunity for artists, creative practitioners, individuals working in organisations in the arts and cultural sector and for teachers currently working in schools who have a creative practice.
Creative Associates have a deep understanding of the arts and creativity and its potential to transform the lives of children and young people. They are dynamic agents for change uniquely placed to form sustainable partnerships between teachers, school staff, learners and other partners. They will work with a number of schools, inspire and energise them to create new connections and approaches that will develop and sustain arts and creative practices in their schools.
Christopher McCambridge is a Special Educational Needs teacher at St. Colman’s Primary School, Lambeg. St. Colman’s Primary is a mainstream school of 400 pupils with two learning support unit classes. Christopher is also an active member of the Belfast art scene. He co-founded the arts organisation Belfast Platform for the Arts (Platform Arts) in 2010, which continues to provide an exhibition space and studios for artists.
Virtually There Year 1 – Blog 1
In September 2016, my Primary 6/7 class were chosen to take part in the Kids’ Own Virtually there project. The Virtually there project is an innovative virtual artist in residence project … exploring the potential for creative engagement between artists working from their studio and children and teachers in the classroom using video conferencing technology (Orla Kenny, Director of Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership).
Our class were paired with artist, performer and composer, John D’Arcy. John’s work focuses on the use of sound and voice in intermedia art events. As a primary school teacher, teaching children with special education needs, the art mediums that I tend to explore within the curriculum include drawing, painting, ceramics, printing and 3-D sculpture. The use of sound as an art form or event, outside of musical lessons and choir, was an intriguing concept that I was eager to engage with.
Throughout the course of the fourteen weeks the pupils explored natural and man-made sounds in a variety of different environments and locations. Initial sound explorations focused on our school environment and ranged from birds chirping, the wind howling to high-heel shoes walking down the corridor or the buzzing of the whiteboard and the hum of the lights. These discussions concentrated on getting the children to describe the sounds they heard and attempt to recreate them using their voice. Throughout the sessions the children began to show greater confidence and clarity when describing different sounds.
“How could you tell it that the sound was high-heel shoes? Can you describe the sound?
“It went clip clop … the sound was spaced apart … the sound was short and repeated … it was getting quieter as the woman walked down the corridor … it sounded like my Mum’s shoes in the kitchen.”
As the sessions progressed, John began to ask the children to interpret the sounds we could hear as drawings. He taught the children to understand the concept that a drawing of lines, symbols or both can represent a sound, an abstract idea that the children loved because it frees them from trying to make a realistic drawing. After a visit to the Belfast Zoo, John asked the children to interpret the animal sounds that they heard and recorded through drawings.
He discussed with the class, what might the sound of an animal or bird look like?
The parrots talking resembled a curved line to Kevin because the ‘sound went from low to high and it was a short sound’.
Daniel drew a series of circles of different sizes joined by lines for the sound of the parrots. The sounds ‘went from loud to quiet … it was like the parrots were talking to each other.’
Caitlin – Monkey
“I was imagining the monkey making ‘oh, oh’ sounds, that is why I picked an O [to draw]. I drew a line because it was joining the sound together. I the red sound was an angry sound and the purple sound was a lower sound
Oscar – Parrots
“I drew this shape because it looked like a parrot’s beak. The triangle is getting bigger as the sound is getting louder and angrier.”
The project continued to evolve developing drawings and sounds into graphic scores, which would later be performed and recorded by the children as an abstract musical performance pieces. The children’s confidence grew as they began to interpret drawings that John had given them as sounds. The children were then able to use the sound recording app Keezy, to record eight sounds and arrange them into an abstract sound piece or follow a graphic score that John had arranged. Throughout the project it was a delight to see children that were initially reluctant to take part in the performances and recordings began to grow in confidence and express themselves through sound, drawing and performance as well as being able to articulate their thoughts and descriptions with greater clarity.
We have now entered into the second year of working within the Kids’ own project. John and myself are continuing to explore art mediums, that as a class teacher I would have been reluctant to try without his assistance. The first year and a half has been an extremely worthwhile experience not only for myself, but more importantly for the children in my class.
Rights Museum
Can our objects tell us about the state of our rights?
Can they show our rights upheld? The rights we’re denied?
The Rights Museum is a participatory art project that attempts to allow our objects do just that. Its subject is the lives of the second-year Art students in Larkin Community College and how the rights enshrined in the UNCRC intersect with their actual lived experience. Or don’t.
The project is led by me, in my capacity as Director of Collapsing Horse. I am an artist, a producer, director and writer for theatre. Collapsing Horse is a theatre and festival production company that makes work that arises out of collaboration and purposeful play. Sometimes the work we make is for and with young people.
It originated when I was approached by Máire O’Higgins, Assistant Principal at Larkin Community College and asked if I would be interested in working with the students there, if I had an idea of what I would do. She described examples of some of the remarkable work that had been created by the students with professional artists. I was familiar with Larkin from work I had done there with the Abbey Theatre’s Community and Education Department and had admired the school’s commitment to the arts as a key part of the holistic development of their students. This commitment is upheld in the face of frequent adversity. Máire made no bones about it – Larkin is a school that is on the front lines of a community that has experienced generations of lack of opportunity and neglect.
Around about the same time Rebecca McLaughlin, from the Ombudsman for Children’s Office (OCO), approached me with the idea of collaborating on something for the 25th anniversary of Ireland’s ratification of the UNCRC. It seemed serendipitous! It was obvious to put the two ideas together – I would lead the Rights Museum project in Larkin Community College, which would also serve as pilot programme that could be written about in an education pack and replicated in other schools and communities for the OCO’s 25th Anniversary celebrations. Later, the National Museum of Ireland came on board as enthusiastic supporters, making it clear they would help in whatever way we could.
The goal from the outset was clear. We would empower a group of young people to create an exhibition illustrating their experience of their rights enshrined in the UNCRC. What wasn’t clear, was how we were going to do it.
The Ark
Date: Saturday 10th March
Teachers are invited to enjoy a morning exploring a range of simple and accessible drama processes for the classroom using the Irish language. Using The Ark’s season theme of Me & the City and aspects of the primary curriculum as a bouncing off point, you will have the chance to develop confidence and skills in working thematically through drama in Irish. The workshop will focus on activities suitable for 2nd-6th class. It will be presented bilingually and is suitable for teachers at all levels of confidence in working through Irish.
In Me & The City your class will discover and explore how a city is planned, created and developed. Working with artist Jole Bortoli, they will learn how architects work and look at artists who have created landmark sculptures and colourful big-scale street art.
On arrival your class will visit The Ark’s gallery, which will be full of displays that will explore the structure of cities, their architecture and diverse habitats. You will see plans that show the design process of urban spaces as well as architectural drawings and sketchbooks, photographs and 3D models. Inspired by what they have seen, the class will then take part in a practical mixed media workshop led by artist Jole Bortoli.
Me & The City is an ideal opportunity to explore the Looking and Responding unit of the Visual Arts curriculum and the workshop is strongly linked with the Construction, Fabric and Fibre, Drawing and Paint and Colour strands.
The workshop also has strong linkage with other curricula including Geography (in particular the Human Environments strand), Science, Mathematics and SPHE.
Schools Performances – Thursday 25th at 12 pm & Friday 26th January at 10am and 2pm
Original plays, written by 15/16 year old playwrights, provide a unique glimpse into the world of our young people; articulating their experience and their reality.
TENDERFOOT, meaning neophyte, newbie, greenhorn, is The Civic Theatre’s apprentice theatre programme for transition year students. Now in its eleventh year the programme provides students from eight different schools in the South County Dublin region the opportunity to create and perform original work for the stage. From January 25th to 27th this work can be seen in The Civic Theatre. Plays written by young people, telling their stories, presenting the world as they see it. These diverse and exciting plays, the work of young theatre makers, include –
The End of the Beginning by Tadhg Slye, an exploration of male friendship in a world of exams and first girlfriends and exploding toasters.
Plastic by Jordan Lee, a supernatural chiller guaranteed to make you jump out of your seat.
Seaside Story by Aidan Kelly, a comedy about families, holidays and global warming.
And Just for the Cracked by Chloe O’Flaherty which takes a fly on the wall look at a group of young people who find their friend unconscious and unresponsive at a party.
Tenderfoot Performances 2018
Schools Performances Thursday 25th at 12 pm & Friday 26th January at 10am and 2pm
This spring Roscommon Arts Centre will host a series of films for schools:
Goodbye Berlin – IFI TY/Senior Cycle German Film
Maik is a daydreamer who goes unnoticed by his classroom crush; Andrej is an oddball kid from Russia with an eccentric taste for Hawaiian shirts. The two form an unlikely bond when Andrej shows up at Maik’s door with a “borrowed” blue Lada, and the prospect of an impromptu road trip beckons. Based on the bestselling German novel Why We Took the Car by Wolfgang Herrndorf, Tschick is a funny, endearing, coming-of-age film with fresh verve of its own. TUESDAY 20th FEBRUARY | 11am | €2
My Life As A Courgette – IFI TY/Senior Cycle French Film
Nine-year-old Icare, nicknamed Courgette, moves to a foster home, a place full of rejected kids fighting for survival among the rest of the bullies, loners and misfits. Adapted from a YA novel by Girlhood director, Celine Sciamma. TUESDAY 24th APRIL | 11am | €2
The Golden Dream – IFI TY/Senior Cycle Spanish Film
A group of Guatemalan teenagers attempt to make their way to the U.S.A., dreaming of the better life that the country promises, but they are ill equipped, both physically and emotionally, for the challenges they face getting there. This is an absorbing and suspenseful drama, excellently acted by its three non-professional leads. TUESDAY 20th MARCH | 11am | €2
This spring the Roscommon Arts Centre have planned a host of children’s events for families, schools and crèches to enjoy. We hope you will come along and join us in some fun!
Roadworks
In 2016 theatre maker Paul Curley was awarded Roscommon Arts Centre’s “First Edition Commission” to create new work for young audiences as part of the Bookworms Festival and “Roadworks” was conceived. Since then, the production has enjoyed further periods of development with the support of Theatre Lovett and Irish Theatre Institute and this season, we are delighted to welcome it back home as a fully fledged show.
From the team that brought you BAKE! a brand new show is coming to town…and you’re invited to be amongst the first to see it. Designer Ger Clancy and performer Paul Curley present a work-in-progress of their innovative new theatre show for young audiences called ROADWORKS. In collaboration with theatre artist and director Andy Manley, with music by Jack Cawley and movement by Emma O’Kane, ROADWORKS digs up an exciting new telling of a very old tale. Mac the road engineer is digging at the crossroads until unexpectedly he finds a rare and beautiful artifact. Will he turn it in or will he keep it all for himself? A visual feast with road-signs, music and…..a wolf!
THURSDAY 18TH JANUARY | 10am & 12pm | Free Admission | Suitable for ages 4 – 7
The House of Oedipus –Roscommon County Youth Theatre
An epic Greek Tragedy following the story of one man’s family who are doomed from the beginning. Are pride and stubbornness the cause of Oedipus’ downfall or did he commit some unknown sin against the Gods? He committed a crime but did not know it was a crime, was he guilty? Bringing four Greek tragedies together, this full-length play brings us three generations, two countries, five kings, two plagues and one war.
U00, Mee, Weee – Baboró International Arts Festival for Children & Branar Téatar do Pháistí
Uoo and Mee walk the same, talk the same, do everything the same…until one day one of them decides to do something different!! This playful show explores what happens when things change in a humorous tale of finding your feet and having the courage to be different. This non verbal show is directed by Lali Morris & Marc Mac Lochlainn with original music score by Michael Chang.
WEDNESDAY 7th FEBRUARY | 10am & 12pm | €5 I Ages 3 – 6
Welcome to the beautifully strange world of White. Full of birdsong and birdhouses, it gleams and dazzles and shines in the night. Two friends look after the birds and make sure the eggs stay safe. We watch, we help. The world is bright, ordered and white. But high up in the trees, all is not white. Colour appears. First red… then yellow… then blue…White is a playful, highly visual show for little ones – a perfect first time theatre experience.
TUESDAY 27th FEBRUARY | 10am & 12pm | €5 I Ages 2 – 4 year olds
Rooting through an old trunk, Barney and his dad find more than they bargained for and a few things that set them wondering. Who makes the rules? What happens if you break the rules? And who is the lady with the beard?
Join them as they spread their wings in this comic tale of forgotten memories and future possibilities.
Written by award-winning children’s writer Brendan Murray and directed by Martin Drury, founder of The Ark – A Cultural Centre for Children.
‘Barney Carey Gets His Wings’ is a world-premiere of a new play for children in 1st to 4th classes, their teachers and families.
Duration: 60 mins approx.
Venue: Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny
Dates: Wed. 21st to Fri. 23rd February – 10am and 12pm
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children will host an exciting and imaginative programme of theatre and dance shows for babies and children aged 0 – 6 years, presented by Irish and international artists. Wide Eyes is a one-off four-day European celebration of Performing Arts for very young children that will take place in Galway from 1 – 4 February, 2018.
As well as an extensive workshop and performance programme for schools and early years groups, Wide Eyes will feature a range of talks and workshops for early years professionals, including a talk for early years educators and artists, Celebrating the Creative Arts in Early Years Setting, presented in collaboration with Early Childhood Ireland. There are also a limited number of delegate packages available for the event.
Wide Eyes is the culmination of a four-year ‘Small size, Performing Arts for Early Years’ project with European partners from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, UK and Ireland.
Wide Eyes will see 140 arts professionals from 17 organisations and 15 countries gather in Galway to present an extravaganza of new dance and theatre shows for 0-6 year olds developed specifically under the project’s overarching theme of ‘Wide Eyes’. The concept for Wide Eyes, developed by Project Leader, Roberto Frabetti of La Baracca – Testoni Ragazzi in Italy, is rooted in the belief that children are never too young to quite literally have their eyes opened wide in amazement while they experience the performing arts. The programme will feature performances for schools, crèches and families, produced by some of Europe’s finest creators of Early Years work, as well as professional development workshops and industry symposia.
Schools performances will take place on Thursday, 1 February and Friday, 2 February. We welcome bookings from early years groups such as; preschools, crèche and Montessori, junior and senior infants and those with additional needs.
The showcase and exhibition were a great success. The discussions after each showcase were enlightening and exciting. It was heartening to hear what young people thought about their own education. It was poignant to hear what older adults remembered about their often limited creative engagement with education.
Did we succeed with this partnership project? Yes, on so many levels.
The work was a celebration of a year of hard work and focused engagement with the theme of reimagining education. It gave a voice to young and old and allowed them to express their opinions about education. Students developed skills in independent research, collaborative learning, planning an event, Theatre Making and curation. Students mirrored the world of work by modelling best practice in curation and theatre making.
However a lot of the good work that was done to ensure a strong aesthetic standard in performance and in curation, was done in teachers’ and facilitators’ own time. And that is not sustainable. This sad reality shines a light on what is currently the reality in our education systems at second level, in particular in second level DEIS schools (a DEIS school is a school that receives more funding from the Department of Education and Skills to deliver equality of opportunity in schools).
I hope that in naming what that reality is, we can help to reimagine a new and exciting DEIS model.
In the year of our partnership project with the Gaiety School of Acting, teachers and facilitators had two classes a week for one hour at a time, to research, devise, rehearse and produce a showcase about reimagining education. They also had two classes a week for one hour at a time to create exhibits and a catalogue for an exhibition. Outside of this time teachers met with each other and with facilitators from the Gaiety School of Acting in their own time, to plan and reflect on processes and prepare for the exhibition and showcase. We loved the experience but it took its toll.
The key to the project’s success was twofold:
firstly, the regular meetings we held to connect with each other and the project;
secondly, the critical development of our own passions around the project.
We all bought into the vision for the project and we were able to check in with each other as we progressed, to make sure that we were all still clear on that vision.
This work as I have stated was done in our own time. We were happy to give of our time voluntarily but this way of working is not sustainable in a wise education system. Volunteering in a school community is important but it should not form the core work of creative engagement in education. If the core work relies on volunteerism it will quickly move to adhoc provision of best practice in education.
Sadly for this project, none of what the students did could be formally assessed in education last year. This year with the new Junior Cycle, we can thankfully now record similar processes and outcomes and formally acknowledge this type of work. That is great news.
However for us to continue to engage creatively in education with partners is challenging for a myriad reasons.
For instance, teachers are often now on year to year contracts. This makes it difficult to plan a project with a colleague until we know that they will be working with us the next year.
We cannot apply for funding until we know who may be engaging with the projects.
Funding then does not often come in to the school until the middle of the first term.
All of this means that is really hard to plan projects for the academic year.
An exciting model for education would be one where teachers and artists are supported and empowered to create a strategic direction for a school for five years. This would allow us to deepen practices and develop innovative programmes that can nurture creativity in education for stakeholders and for young people.
It is hugely time consuming trying to fundraise and plan and build experience amongst teachers so that we can best serve young people.
Working in a DEIS school, we work with young people from areas of socio-economic disadvantage. One of the factors that contribute to instability in the lives of the young people we work with is the often chaotic patters they encounter in their personal lives. These include constant changes in the home, breakdown of family relations as well as addiction outcomes such as unpredictable behaviour in the home. Change happens too frequently and causes instability for our young people. It is a real pity then that they find that their school life mirrors this with a high turnover of staff annually due to employment structures in education. Offering five year contracts to those who work in DEIS schools would support wise planning and sustainable structures in DEIS schools and create stability for our young people. Teachers and partners could plan, fundraise, build research components and evaluations, reflect and reiterate best practices in creative engagement. I firmly believe that this would begin to address equity and equality in some of our most deprived communities in Ireland.
Artists, teachers, academics and arts education professionals….Do you want to be part of the third annual Arts in Education Portal National Day?
The Arts in Education National Day will take place at Maynooth University – Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education on Saturday 21st April. The event aims to bring together members of the arts in education community from all across Ireland, to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired, and continue interrogating best practice in the field.
We are inviting proposals from organisations or individuals who want to give dynamic and inspiring presentations or workshops that can offer sharing of skills, practical approaches, new insights and critical thinking across the field, from a range of perspectives.
Do you have a workshop or presentation that you would like to be included in the programme for this day? If so, please send us your proposal.
Deadline for submission of proposals is Friday 2nd February 2018. .
On the 7th December Creative Ireland delivered on one of it’s key promises by publishing Creative Youth: a Plan to enable the Creative Potential of Every Child and Young Person. This now represents the core work programme for Pillar 1 of the Creative Ireland Programme. Michael O’Reilly from Creative Ireland discusses the plan development and implementation.
Michael O’Reilly – Creative Ireland
Developing the plan was an interesting and not entirely pain-free process: it is no secret that the 2018 budget didn’t allow as much scope for new investment as had been hoped. But in the end, a creative engagement between the Department of Culture Heritage and the Gaeltacht, the Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs produced a plan with a long-term vision – cultural and creative education for all – a strategic approach to the further development of pillar 1, and 18 implementation actions.
The two headline actions are implementation of Scoileanna Ildánacha / Creative Schools – an Arts Council led project, which is a development of the Arts in Education Charter initiative, Arts Rich Schools – ARIS, and the extension of Music Generation countrywide during the lifetime of the Programme.
There are several entirely new ideas in the plan but in the main it builds on existing initiatives. For example there will be a significant research project, and a culture and creativity-mapping project, but both will build on existing work.
From our point of view the most encouraging aspect of the plan is the acceptance of the long term vision of cultural and creative education for all: Cultural education that enables young people to explore and understand their own and other people’s cultural assumptions, viewpoints, beliefs and values, and Creative education that uses the innate creative skills of children and young people as a powerful instrument of learning.
The plan is not static. A Pillar 1 expert advisory group will be appointed shortly which will guide the further development of pillar 1 and also monitor the implementation of Creative Youth. A cross-departmental working group and a senior officials group will ensure that implementation stays on track.
We now have a clear agenda and cross-government support for its implemenation. The next few years will be both testing and exciting.
Appointed by WWETB, the Music Generation Development Officer will be responsible for managing an extensive performance music education programme on behalf of Wexford Music Education Partnership.
Closing date for receipt of completed application forms: Mondy, 15 January 2018
Late applications will not be accepted.
Based on the volume of applications received short-listing may apply. Short-listing will take place on the basis of the information provided in the application form. Depending on the qualifications and experience of applicants, short-listing thresholds may be significantly higher than the minimum standards set out.
Waterford & Wexford ETB is an equal opportunities employer.
Blog 4
In my final blog I would like to describe my response to an invitation to lead a workshop.
I have been asked to focus on the interaction between the identities of maker and educator…
– exciting!
and to begin by submitting a 50 word blurb for the workshop
– challenging!
Settling in to task I find that I am a little ill at ease with the label, educator. Learning in arts practice comes about from the creative encounter, and the excitement of discovery, we all know that even when a ‘discovery’ has been made a thousand times before by others our own personal experience is the vital thing. So, by setting a path and then looking for traces, following these and generating some excitement about where they might lead, I feel more like a Companion tracker than ‘educator’: we find our own routes of discovery in the world about us.
The richness of arts practice means that discoveries may be found in just about anything: the way a particular material behaves, or by becoming aware of a new sensitivity to sound or colour, or in the places a mind might wander while creating a rhythm with a lump of charcoal. And in the education setting, where there is a wealth and breadth of experience, sharing these discoveries with others is a particular pleasure which doesn’t happen in the studio.
Often in the education setting a theme is superimposed onto the art process, this theme might be drawn from with the school curriculum. So for example one might begin with a broad parameter called “Ecology.” We look for a jumping off point and so we may begin by a brainstorming activity – perhaps the naming of all of the plants we know, then perhaps by making a collection of indigenous species of plants – the way one might approach the creation of this collection is diverse and this approach will often set the methodology for the project.
MAKER
When I am alone, in studio I have my radio tuned, usually to Lyric FM, it may be day or night, music and light discretely setting mood and contributing to context. The starting point for work is incidental to me, and the farther it is from any kind of reasoning, or logic, the better. The first mark in the void, needs to be unattached, innocent. Throw up a coin and watch it land. After that there is something to respond to. This initial mark is like a lodestone attracting whatever is buzzing in the air, it expands the possibilities of the moment.
Work becomes a series of acts, of making and responding of adjusting and reinterpreting, slipped in with memory and carried out with a heightened sensitivity to coincidence and connection. The work evolves, parts are discarded, parts are advanced, the whole becoming gradually orchestrated into some edited, arrived at, Thing/Series of Things. If this all sounds rather vague perhaps it is in this part, a conjuring; a cloud of energy seeking form. A theme will arise midway through a project, the beginnings are tentative, arbitrary and blind. The way is felt.
(EDUCATOR)//TRACKER
One of the privileges of working in education settings is to be working with the curiosity of young collaborators. Collaborators, in addition to being creators in their own right, contribute much to my practice, becoming part mirror, part joker and part external eye on process. It is this working in tandem that allows flow and mutual enrichment between my practice and the project’s unfolding. Feeling my own way in the dark I am able to see more clearly what others do with the same criteria, what gets thrown up: Whatever the seekers find, and how they communicate their findings will lead us deeper into the project, and into the next phase. It is in the observation of this process that reflection becomes a driving force.
I try to encourage a commentary from participants. The voicing of observations aired during the making process are witness to a wider sensibility. When a maker becomes commentator on the work both commentator and audience are led into an observational position that opens up a reflective dimension. Process becomes foregrounded, motivations become more clear, particular sensitivities and attractions are voiced and often more subtle and unusual connections are made between image, outcome and intention.
A drawing of a dandelion might lead to a conversation about yellow, or sunshine, first experiences of the bitter sap staining hands, folkloric warnings about bed wetting or other knowledge latent within the imaginations of a group of participants. A conversation about a dandelion may begin with its name – what a strange name this flower has! We might research and find that the name is middle English and comes from French dent-de-lion, meaning ‘lion’s tooth’ that’s another image straight away. Discussions might find other routes, the gardener’s phrase that “a weed is a plant out of place” may throw up extended conversations about migration and belonging. We could think of dandelion seasons, perhaps about how a dandelion might support an ecology. An observational drawing of a dandelion before such a discursive process will be very different from a drawing from the imagination, made after these wanderings (and this is just me thinking aloud).
By recording this commentary we deepen and extend the reflective process. The recording of those observations involves an echoing and a a translation, from an initial drawing, to spoken word to written report, photograph or other kind of document. The choice of media for documentation influences this enquiry. It’s fun to play with different recording methods. …the pressing of the flower, the crushing and collection of sap, the particular material properties and behaviours of dandelion seed heads, stories about dandelion experiences, the folklore of a dandelion, actions with a dandelion.
Translation from one media to another will involve further images, references, words, actions or sounds, and will also throw up different kinds of problems, seeking creative solutions, all of which will augment and colour the work leading it on to new places. Curiosity will drive this process along. I try to remember the voice, I scribble things down on scraps of paper, transferring them later to a notebook. I find that multiple translations help my process, a hasty scribble is wildly different from a concentrated drawing out of an idea, but each has their own qualities. I use notebooks for ideas that I might try out in studio and I use blogging as a kind of scrapbook for documentation and references to other realms, a blog post might include a bit of research arising from the work in progress, it may be a fragment of video, a link to another artist’s work, something I am reading about, a piece of music, or a random image or connection found online.
Blogging is a perfect space for holding these observations and documenting the process. It is a shared space. Maker, student and teacher can refer to the observations held in the blog, an audio visual record of the territory, a map.
I arrive at my wording for the blurb:
WORKSHOP
The idea is a spark – the spark can be as volatile or as contained as you decide. There will be some parameters which will guide the explorations. Shared knowledge is rich, we will tap into this. The imagination is wild and we will allow this to roam. Other peoples’ ideas are always interesting. Roaming between our own perception, responses to peer work and free expression we will explore the territory together. (71 words)
The Glucksman, UCC
Date: January to March 2018
From Frankenstein to the Hulk, Shrek to Beauty and the Beast, monsters who seem to be really frightening often turn out to be misunderstood. This Spring, the Glucksman presents a monster project that invites schools, community groups and children living in Direct Provision to take over the museum with fabulous creatures of their own making. In Monsters in the Museum workshops, participating children will explore ideas of difference and respect, working collaboratively to create artworks for an exhibition that will take over all of Gallery 1. The renowned illustrator Chris Judge will visit the Glucksman to see all the monster artworks on display and to launch the exhibition with a special event for participating children.
If your school or community group would like to get involved in Monsters in the Museum, please email education@glucksman.org.
Art can help us understand and address difficult issues. Artists have long used visual methods of expression to consider and interrogate societal problems such as homelessness and discrimination. In this masterclass, teachers will investigate ways to engage their students in artistic processes that creatively explore global and local challenges. Join curator Tadhg Crowley and artist Cassandra Eustace to look at projects about art and social change that can be re-imagined in your classroom.
For 2018 the Creativity & Change programme have an exciting line up of masterclasses for educators and artists including:
Street Art – March 24th -25th
Street Art-Using creative expression in the street to communicate justice messages and to practice active citizenship with artists Claire Coughlan and Helen O’Keeffere from ‘Splattervan’.
Theatre – April 21st and 22nd
Theatre workshop, from the Personal to the Public: using theatre to explore understand issues of power from the micro to the macro, local to global with Peter Hussey, Artistic Director of Crooked House and Kildare Youth theatre.
As the weather turns ice-cold on the run up to Christmas, I feel it is fitting to remember the warm days of Summer and reflect on a collaborative project between Mayfield Arts Centre and biologist and educator Darragh Murphy that took place for Summer In The Park 2017.
Summer In The Park is an programme of events, organised and supported by Cork City Council, that takes place annually at Fitzgerald’s Park. The programme, which boasts music, art, dance, performance, food and film is developed following a public call out to animate the park over the summer months. We at Mayfield Arts were keen to get involved and began to think of ways of temporarily transporting the creative energy of the arts centre to the grounds of Fitzgerald’s Park. I caught up with Darragh, Mayfield Arts arts worker Brían Crotty and Cúig artists Ailbhe Barrett and Angela Burchill to chat about their experiences of the project.
Surrounded by beautiful organic gardens, Mayfield Arts Centre has always fostered an active relationship with the natural environment. The many groups that pass through the space frequently explore the grounds for inspiration in the form of plants and leaves, looking for pattern, colour and small details often overlooked. The arts centre is also home to the Cúig artist in the studio project. Here artists are supported by two arts workers to create artworks that are wholly their own. The five artists are Bríd Heffernan, Stephen Murray, Ailbhe Barrett, Angela Burchill and John Noel Kennealy.
Although each of the five artists’ practice is unique, nature is a frequent theme, with animals, insects, plants and flowers appearing as regular subject matter in the studio over the years. There is a natural inquisitiveness and curiosity that comes with being an artist and for Summer In The Park, Mayfield Arts were keen to explore ways of sharing this innate spirit of investigation in an inclusive way.
We at the centre were also eager to learn more about the park and its rich variety of natural diversity ourselves. We got in touch with biologist, environmental educator and photographer Darragh Murphy and invited him up to visit the Cuig artists’ studios. Darragh designs and leads nature tours & workshops to people of all abilities, combining photography, ecology & history to illustrate the beauty & value of our local wildlife. Darragh and the artists hit it off and ideas for a collaboration formed quickly.
A Walk In The Park: Art and Ecology was a series of guided ‘art walks’ through the grounds of Fitzgerald’s Park, co-facilitated by Darragh Murphy, Brían Crotty and artists from the Cuig studios. As Darragh describes, the idea for this project was a simple one; ‘exploring nature through art – exploring art through nature’. Generously supported by Cork City Council, these art walks took place over two Fridays during summer 2017, with a series of hour-long tours taking place each day. The tours were free to join and were open to participants of all ages and abilities.
Equipped with sketchbooks and a range of art materials, groups of fifteen participants set off from the park Pavilion and were guided in discovering, observing and visually recording the park’s diverse plant and wildlife through fun and accessible drawing and mark making.
Brían describes the day: ‘We choose five different locations in the park and discussed the trees, patterns, wildlife and ecology and then responded using a different artistic method in each. We learned about the patterns of trees and took rubbings of the bark and the leaves. We also did things like blind drawing and observational drawing.’ Artist, Angela Burchill, whose practice usually involves working from found imagery says she really ‘enjoyed drawing the trees and leaves’ in the outdoors.
There was a great diversity in age and background of participants on each of the walks which enriched the experience for everyone. Darragh reflects on the activity of the groups; ‘Through the tours, we found that each participant had an individual starting place and pursued our idea on their own path. As the team biologist, I tried to give the biological basis for the kinds of shapes, patterns & textures we observed around us, & the artists helped to explore these structures using chosen artistic techniques.’ Darragh also sourced attachable smartphone lenses for the tours, allowing participants to use their phone cameras to zoom right into places of interest and capture these scenes through photography. Brían remembers how participants began to investigate ‘the other little worlds that exist in the little cracks and corners of the park’.
The walks were as much a social event as an educational one. Cúig artist Ailbhe Barrett recalls how ‘people really enjoyed it, they were all chatting and drawing’. For Darragh, witnessing the wide range in output from participants on the walks was where the success of this project lay; ‘Through considering the same information & landscape before us, the innate & personal experience of each participant was revealed on the page as they sketched.’
Underpinning the art walks was also a belief that if people increase their direct experiences of being out and about in nature, they may show more interest in it’s survival. ‘As a biologist/environmental educator, it is very important for me that people engage with their natural environments under their own steam. My role is only to help highlight why the world may be interesting & worth paying attention to. I cannot tell anyone to conserve the birds or the rainforests, I can only express why I think they’re interesting. Engagement comes from within the individual.’
Darragh also commented on the inherent links between his work as an environmental educator and that of the Cúig artists; ‘We all see the world’s beauty & make attempts to highlight this beauty. We all drew the same trees but what was drawn was the personal connection to the trees.”
To find out more about the Cuig artists and Mayfield Arts please visit www.mayfieldarts.ie Mayfield Arts wish to thank Cork City Council for their generous support of this project.
The Art of Storytelling
“People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it’s the other way around.” Terry Pratchett
The art of storytelling allows children and adults to express themselves. A written story, an illustration and the spoken word can provoke an immediate connection. For very young children stories can have no words, a story might have clear meaning, but a story may also remain unclear – their play is the story. A teacher needs to tune in and listen to how even the youngest child is expressing their story, through for example their voice, actions, interactions, and hands-on experiences. The child needs tools to provoke a story, opportunity and time to share their thoughts. For older children exploring deeper questioning, their inquiry can be helped by the child and adult enquiring together.
Like a writer telling a story when a child can represent their ideas and words through creative processes, they can express thought and emotion. Expressing these emotions in a symbolic or abstract way. We do not have to draw, paint or photograph for children. Older children can be shown a variety of illustrative techniques that can inspire and provoke a representation of their individual ideas, but it is not a necessity. By providing the tools, we support children to explore and contextualise their thought processes independently. Through hands-on investigation and illustrative techniques children can develop an understanding of themselves and the world around them. Children can challenge and extend their own thinking, create new knowledge and engage individually or collaboratively in processes.
The creative child is encouraged when materials are presented for free uninterrupted exploration. By using art to tell stories, children are given the opportunity to problem solve, share, explore and communicate through the arts. Active involvement changes what they know and can do, developing creativity and storytelling concepts enables children to participate in and give voice to their thoughts, transferring and adapting what they have learned from one context to another.
One way Early Childhood Ireland encourages early childhood teachers to share children’s stories, is through our Book Club, the aim is to create a space where stories are shared with other children, teachers and families. We store them in our online Children’s Library, encouraging children as authors and illustrators. The book club is not about a product it is about seeing the beauty in what children say, think and create. A child’s story does not need to be planned, it does not need to follow a sequence, children have an innate ability to take us on such amazing unexpected and inspiring adventures.
‘The world may be in miniature but the story is universal …’
Walking Man tells the tale of a man who has spent his whole life in pursuit of success. He has always rushed headlong through life, determined to follow in his father’s footsteps to the best job on the top floor of the tallest building in the whole city. And when he has done all that, with Walking Woman and little Walking Baby at his side, something doesn’t feel quite right …
So, Walking Man must go on an entirely new journey, which takes him far from home.
Walking Man is a charming allegory, which will captivate its audience. With the help of an original live music score, the actor brings us into the miniature world of the Walking Man, a tiny wooden figure.
Walking Man is designed for 1st, 2nd & 3rd classes and performs to one class at a time (up to a maximum of 35 students). The accompanying Teacher Resource Book (available online) links carefully with the curriculum across a range of subject areas.
Please note: Graffiti Theatre can give your school the exciting opportunity to attend a performance in their fully equipped Theatre on Assumption Road. If the performance is booked to take place in your school please contact Graffiti for space requirements.
Cost: Thanks to their funders, Graffiti Theatre Company can offer this production for just €150 per performance (and €100 for a second performance on the same day).
The Arts in Education Portal editorial team are pleased to invite applications for a documentation award from organisations or individuals who are leading arts in education initiatives. Through the award, successful applicants will receive services to the value of €4,000 that will support them in the documentation of a current or upcoming project.
The purpose of the award is to support the development of documented outcomes from Arts in Education initiatives in Ireland, which can be shared with the arts in education community and give insights into different processes of engagement. This is part of the Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee’s commitment to supporting and recognising the value of documentation and reflection as a key component within arts in education initiatives.
Two awards will be offered through this opportunity.
Outcomes of the documentation process will include: a project video, a project feature to be showcased on the Portal’s Projects/Partnerships, and the option of a critical essay, with a view to also presenting the work as part of the Arts in Education Portal National Day in April 2018.
The process will involve meetings with the Portal Team and a schedule of 3 site visits over the course of the project to capture video and photographic documentation and support reflective processes among participants. The portal team will edit and produce a project video, and will liaise closely with the project partners to develop the content for the project feature. The critical essay would be sited in the Portal’s Reading Room, and is optional. The author and focus of the essay can be decided by the project organisers in collaboration with the Portal Team.
Criteria
To be considered for this opportunity, projects must:
Have started in autumn 2017 or be due to start in Jan/Feb 2018.
Have a minimum duration of 8 weeks.
Involve a professional artist working collaboratively within an educational setting (early years, primary or post-primary).
Be underpinned by a strong ethos of collaboration and a commitment to excellence.
Focus on the creative process, with children having an active and collaborative role.
Additional criteria
Successful applicants will be asked to ensure that relevant permissions/consent have been sought for documentation of participants.
Please ensure your application has been approved by all project partners prior to submission.
How to make a submission:
Please submit the following to the Arts in Education Portal Team:
Background on who you are; your professional practice and your ethos or approach towards Arts in Education.
An overview of the project – who is involved, how did the collaboration come about, what processes or approaches will take place, what is the aim or focus of the process, what are the dates of engagement?
A statement of interest, explaining why documentation supports would be of value to this project.
Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership, as part of its 20-year anniversary celebrations, will host 2 days of sectoral activities, in partnership with Dublin Book Festival and The Ark, exploring the value of publishing with children, and interrogating how we can support children to be seen and heard within our literature, culture and society. With the ambitious vision of current policy to reach all children through cultural tuition by 2022, Kids’ Own seeks to ask how we make space for quality and depth of engagement to support children as cultural makers and creators in their own right.
8th November 2017 Round table discussion (10.30am – 4pm) Chaired by Martin Drury
Through a series of presentations and discussions hosted by Kids’ Own Creative Director, Orla Kenny and Kids’ Own co-founder Victoria Ryle, the day will involve explorations and case studies of the Kids’ Own archive, followed by discussions involving a chaired panel of guest speakers, and focused conversations, where participants will be invited to explore and interrogate how we make space for quality and depth of engagement, the role of the professional artist working with children and young people, and how we give children’s work greater visibility and recognition within mainstream culture.
This event is free but booking is essential.
9th November 2017
A day of practical exploration and creativity
Workshops for artists, teachers and arts education practitioners
11am – 1pm All That We Are: An artist-led public participatory workshop with Simon Spain (Australia)
Kids’ Own co-founder and artist Simon Spain returns to Ireland to share his practice with Irish artists, teachers and practitioners. Through this practical workshop where participants will make figures from wood and plaster that will be joined to create a gathering, Simon will discuss key elements of his current practice-based PhD enquiry about working as a socially engaged artist. The work is centred around a strong theory of collaborative making environments that create liminal spaces for individual input while leading to a shared outcome celebrating difference.
Workshop fee: €10
2pm – 5pm Print and book-making workshop with Alain Regnier (Belgium)
In this workshop, printmaker and art teacher (and founder of Motamo International Biennial of Children’s Books) Alain Regnier shares his way of working and will support participants to make books that include print and text, inspired by the work of his second-level students in Belgium. Copies of the books made during this workshop will be taken back to Belgium to be shared with a European audience.
On December 13th The Mansion House will play host to celebrate 120 years of school choirs in a special event ‘It’s the Taking Part that Counts’.
The event will celebrate and highlight the positive impact of school-based choral participation on both choir members and the wider school community and will feature prize-winning Irish school choirs alongside a community outreach school choir formed ‘from scratch’ specially for the celebration. This ‘scratch choir’ involves one of Ireland’s DEIS schools – St. Vincent’s GNS, Dublin who is being trained by Wesley College choral conductor Helen Doyle for this their debut concert, and beyond. Joining them will be the Feis Ceoil prize-winning school choirs, along with members of two of Ireland’s leading professional choirs.
Additional choirs ‘from scratch’ will attend the event as they begin their year-long journey, culminating in the celebration of Christmas in their own schools in 2018. With a keynote address from Assistant Professor in Education Marita Kerin, Trinity College, the event will celebrate school-based choral activity while demonstrating its powerfully transformative effects on school communities, thus encouraging every school in Ireland to get involved in choral singing.
The Mansion House event, ‘It’s the Taking Part that Counts’, takes place on Wednesday, 13th December at 2.30pm. Please lend your support to this project and attend this choral celebration of our school choirs.
Post-primary schools in the south-east are in for a theatrical treat this November and December!
Due to the success of last year’s first Curriculum Play Live co-production with the Watergate Theatre: Brian Friel’s Translations, Barnstorm Theatre Company’s second Curriculum Play is Seán O’Casey’s ‘The Plough and the Stars’.
These productions are in response to requests over the years from post-primary schools to produce a curriculum play and to give students the opportunity to see the play that they are studying as live theatre, and not solely as a text to be studied in the classroom.
The Plough and the Stars is one of the greatest in the Irish canon and one that Barnstorm and the Watergate are proud to present as the second Curriculum Play. (Barnstorm values input from teachers about our next curriculum play.)
Watergate Theatre:
Wed 29 November to Sat 2 December; performances nightly at 8pm.
School performances:
Thursday 29 November – 10.30am
Friday 1 December – 10.30am
Due to the volume of applications, only shortlisted candidates will receive further contact.
Please note that no CVs – only official application forms – will be accepted. Application forms and further information can be found online at: http://bit.ly/2g4vBCY
LMETB is an equal opportunities employer.
Essential requirements:
Candidates must demonstrate a strong passion for teaching and learning, and for nurturing the musical development of children and young people of all ages and abilities. Qualification in Music is essential.
Closing date for receipt of completed application forms:
This year sees the inauguration of Ireland’s prestigious National School Photography Awards [INSPA]. INSPA is a national children’s photography competition which is open to all primary schools located in the Republic of Ireland. These awards are brought to you by Image Masters Photography in partnership with Dublin Zoo, The Alzheimer Society of Ireland and MummyPages.
The awards aim to encourage young creatives in primary level education to engage with both digital technology and the creative process to create striking visual images. They will inspire and ignite passion in students, increase engagement with digital arts within primary level education while at the same time subtly educating students about the importance of the creative process.
The awards are offering a range of fantastic prizes for finalists, winners and their schools including; Free Entry to Dublin Zoo for the overall winner and their classmates, digital cameras for winners and their schools, framed photographs, certificates of achievement and school photography fundraising days in aid of The Alzheimer Society of Ireland.
This years’ theme is titled ‘Making Memories’ which asks both teachers and their students to integrate the camera into the school-day to generate discussion and understanding around the idea of memory/memories. All entries will be judged by a national panel including John Boyle (INTO President), Ronan Smith (Chair of ASI Irish Dementia Working Group), Aideen Howard (Director: The Ark, Dublin), Catherine Bowe (Visual Art Manager: Wexford Art Centre) and Richard Carr (Artist & School Liaison).
If your school would like to get involved they can request their schools access codes from the INSPA website – www.inspa.ie – here you will be able to activate your school account and begin uploading your students’ entries.
The deadline for entries is midnight on Friday 19th January 2018 so make sure you have activated your school account well in advance of this date.
We welcome educators from all backgrounds to join us for a curatorial tour of our exhibitions Now Wakes the Sea and Deep Maps. The evening will include light refreshments and an opportunity to discuss upcoming Glucksman projects and events.
Join Curator of Education Tadhg Crowley and artist Carol-Anne Connolly for a morning masterclass that looks at art projects ready to be re-imagined in your classroom. This season the masterclass will look at techniques and approaches to helping students develop personal projects and establish individual ideas through sketchbooks and drawing exercises.
Trinity College Dublin is calling on the nation to get creative this autumn and be inspired by one of Ireland’s greatest cultural treasures, the Book of Kells. Get your pens and paint brushes out, and write a poem, short story or create a drawing or painting based on the images from the world’s most famous medieval manuscript. Our judges will be looking for modern and innovative interpretations of the Book of Kells from participants. There are fantastic prizes to be won for individuals, schools, clubs and groups nationwide.
Closing date for entries Thursday 30 November 2017
The month of October at Roscommon Arts Centre means it’s Lollipops Children’s Festival time! We’ve planned a host of children’s events here at the arts centre for families, schools and crèches to enjoy. From theatre performances, music events, workshops, and exhibitions, the month of October is all about our youngest audience members! We hope you will come along and join us in some Lollipops fun!
Four Go Wild In Wellies – A whimsical adventure featuring bobble hats, scarves, tents that have a life of their own and, of course, lots of fun in wellies! FRIDAY 6th OCTOBER 10am, €5, Ages 3 – 5
The Locksmiths Song – Set in the dusty world of an old locksmith’s shop in this tale is full of action and adventure. TUESDAY 17th OCTOBER, 10am, €5 Ages: 7+
They Called Her Vivaldi – Family favourites Theatre Lovett return with this upbeat comedy-adventure. WEDNESDAY 25th OCTOBER, 10am & 12pm, €5, Ages: 7+ and Adults of All Ages
And coming up in November!
The Ugly Duckling – In a nest at the edge of a pond a flock of baby ducklings find an enormous egg in their midst and here our story begins…. of the most unusual duckling the pond has ever seen. TUESDAY 28th NOVEMBER, 10am & 11.45am, €5, Ages 3+
Date: 7 & 8 October 2017 at The Digital Depot, James St, Dublin 8
In collaboration with The Digital Hub, Make Create Innovate offer this hands-on, jargon-free two day workshop that will introduce you to physical computing using conductive materials, MaKey MaKey and Arduino with some basic sensors. Our artist-maker-educator approach is all about tinkering with art, electronic and everyday materials to learn through experimentation and discovery.
By the end of the weekend you will have a basic understanding of the principals involved in easy-to-make light and sound responsive systems and the materials required. You will work in groups to create an electronically triggered soundscape or an interactive environment/artwork.
This workshop is for creative practitioners and educators, who want to do something different with non-screen based technology; whether it’s programme a touch-activated sound effects on the theatre stage or design a cross-curricular STEAM project at school. It is especially suitable for anyone involved in engaged arts that support arts participation and/or invite audience interaction.
As the new year unfolds into Autumn I would like to reflect on that heady time, a few short months ago, when the holidays stretched ahead and routine was being dissolved into the long days of summer.
My summer usually begins with a week of creative activity with teachers, as part of their Continuing Professional Development. This CDP Programme run by CRAFTed and the West Cork Education Centre takes place in different host primary school each year and the number of participants is 25. So teachers find themselves in a familiar setting where their roles are reversed, the tables are turned, teacher becomes pupil, and, I have found, they make this switch naturally and with gusto!
Teachers are on a giddy high at this busy time, there is a sense of release as they wind down into the summer and also sense of self evaluation and reflection as they are packing up after a year in the classroom. The CPD programme must address this ‘end of year’ dynamic and the structure and content of the programme allows for this valuable teacher time together, peer to peer, sharing ideas, catching up, meeting new friends and enjoying each other’s company. After a year of routine and responsibility, it is time to be on ‘the other side’ and a chance to allow for loosening up, and a complete freedom to adopt a “what happens?” approach. Our CPD programme allows plenty of time for interactive play while opening up opportunities for sharing, testing and evaluating individual classroom procedures and preferences. It is a place where a process of ‘discovery towards’ something is the modus operandi for all activities, where there is no such thing as a ‘here’s one I made earlier’ format to fall back on/aspire to/comply with/copy. For many teachers, who have a profound sense of responsibility, and who are expected to be in control at all times, and must who achieve measurable results across a classroom of pupils, this artist’s approach can present a daunting task and a leap into the unknown. The discovery approach involves great faith in process and requires some practice, it can meet with both enthusiasm and resistance in a classroom full of disparate personalities and performance pressures. The reward for this open ended practice is a confidence in the ability of the child to meet the challenge of the task at her own level.
So in the spirit of a new term I would like to share here one of my favourite loosening up activities for drawing. This activity comes from copying, or, more grandly put, from observation, and celebrates the capacity for invention. It is a drawing game in the spirit of an old party favourite, Chinese Whispers. In my example the source material came in the form of photographs I had collected of extinct and endangered Irish wild flowers (but the source could easily be from any other kind of ‘category’ and is ideal for focussing closely on any area of research). Each individual is invited to fold their A2 sheet into 8 sections and numbered 1 to 8 (in a room of lively teacher/pupils it quickly became evident that this was a task in itself!)
In the first section, numbered “1” they must make a drawing from their photograph. I set a time limit of 5 minutes for each drawing. Each artist then passes the sheet to the person on their right who must copy their predecessors drawing in the next section. Participants may only look at the previous drawing and must work from the information contained in that section. The drawing goes around the table and comes back to the original draughts-person.
Results are always interesting, we can see the corruption from one drawing to the next we can note changes, omissions and exaggerations and we can think about evolution, design, glitches, copying, originality, perception, imagination, preference and progression that affirm each artist’s hand in the final work. It can be the beginning for al kinds of enquiry and further artwork. This activity touches on the relationship between perfection and invention, itself a profound enquiry. There is no right or wrong and its impossible to dictate a ‘correct’ outcome. Many rules are broken. I love this activity especially because it celebrates copying – one of the cardinal sins of the child’s universe and often the bane of the teacher’s classroom! What’s more, it celebrates copying badly, turning a vice into a virtue. It celebrates collaboration and corruption and all that deviates from the original. It celebrates the original.
After this exercise drawing becomes a whole lot easier for everyone.
Blog 3 – EYF programme
In this penultimate blog post I’d like to talk about what we currently programme for early years audiences at Tate Modern and Tate Britain, reflecting on the history of the programme and its current ‘non-negotiables’ of agency, curiosity, diversity and openness – which reflect the influence of the Reggio Emilia philosophy.[1]
By designing an open programme with artists, we aim to encourage the agency of a diverse group of children and carers to use their curiosity to explore the social space of the gallery together – inclusive of art and architecture – to co-construct meaning relevant to their lives.
Children of an early years’ age come to Tate with parents or guardians if they are in a family unit or early years’ practitioners if they are with their nursery, and our programme needs to speak to these adults as much as to the children. We are keen to acknowledge the expertise and inherent knowledge these adults hold in relation to the children in their care, and for our resources and events to draw this out and build on it. We offer a range of self-led resources that can be used independently for people to use in their own time and in their own way. Through their openness, our self-led resources aim to evoke the unique interests, abilities and motivations of visitors under 5.
An example of one of these resources at Tate Britain is ‘Swatch’.[2] Swatch takes its name from a colour swatch and is a palm-sized collection of cardboard pieces with images of details of the gallery (one of which has a raised texture, another a hole through which to look), a mirror piece and an orange-coloured perspex piece. Developed by artist Abigail Hunt [3] with the Early Years and Families’ team over 5 years ago, it has a long history with the programme.
Its language-free, sensory and tactile nature means it’s accessible to children with special education needs, and it has been used succesfully as part of projects for children with speech and language development needs as a communication tool in the gallery.[4] When facilitating the resource, we try and offer it to the child rather than the adult so that they can choose the images or materials that excite them to act as a catalyst for their collective experience of the gallery.
For many families a resource is not enough. An event, where parents/ carers know that other families will be present and more guidance will be offered, is far preferable. Our artist-led and staff-led events are aimed at either parents/ carers or early years’ practitioners and aim to support people to have confidence in using their own expertise and knowledge of the early year’s children in their care to support a very individual, child-led experience.
In the last year a new monthly event was launched by the Early Years and Families team at Tate Britain entitled Under 5s Explore the Gallery.[5] Taking the learning from the aforementioned Big and Small programme as well as borrowing a format similar to our 8-14s Studio programme at Tate Modern[6], this relatively new strand works with a different artist every 3 months and explores their practice in the galleries with families through different choices of artworks or spaces, materials and processes. This strand considers the environment of the gallery as educator, capitalises on the social experience of the gallery for families, and ensures early years audiences are visible and evident to other audiences.[7]
Another strand worth mentioning is our seasonal Early Exchange event for early years’ practitioners.[8] Building on previous experiences trying to work with partners in a reciprocal, equitable way through programmes like Big and Small and the Early Years Open Studio[9], this social event invites practitioners to come together, view an exhibition with early years audiences in mind, and engage in a discussion about the benefits and challenges of working with early years in the gallery. As well as being an opportunity for practitioners to find out what we do, it’s a great way for our team to find out about the challenges facing this audience and remain relevant to the sector. We invite these practitioners to return with groups of under 5s and lead their own visit of the galleries based on our advice and the learning from this event.
My next blog will consider the artists’ practicies being explored through our early years programme.
[1] Up to date listings of what’s on for families at Tate can be found here –
[3] Abigail Hunt is an artist who we work with again and again on our early years programme and who has been pivotal in shaping what it is today. More information about her work can be found here –
[4] A major example of this is when it was used as part of projects for the Big Lottery funded Big and Small programme of long-term projects, veents and resources. More information and a film explaining the aims and different facets of this programme can be viewed here – http://www.tate.org.uk/about/projects/big-and-small.
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children is delighted to announce details of its GROW programme, which aims to support Irish-based artists who are currently active in making work for children and young audiences, or who have an interest in doing so. Now in its 21st year, Baboró already has a long history of mentoring and supporting artists and educators who are committed to placing the creative development of children and young people at the heart of their work.
The GROW programme will continue to build on Baboró’s existing supports, and this October will also introduce two new strands; Pathways to Production and Festival Mentoring. Applications are now open for these new initiatives. The GROW programme hopes to solidify and support the development of artists and the TYA (Theatre for Young Audiences) sector in Galway and throughout the country. Baboró is delighted that the Irish Theatre Institute (ITI) will partner on GROW in an advisory capacity on the Pathways to Productionand Festival Mentoring strands.
The GROW programme includes a number of strands which interested candidates can apply for. Two of the recently introduced strands are Pathways to Production and Festival Mentoring.
1. Pathways to Production: Pathways to Production is a new initiative led by Baboró, which will commence in October 2017 and is funded by the Arts Council’s Theatre Artist Development Scheme. This scheme will see Baboró partner with Druid and the Mick Lally Theatre, Branar Téatar de Phaistí and Galway Theatre Festival to support artists and young companies to develop their ideas with a view to presenting a full performance piece. The scheme will involve workshops, sharings of works-in-progress as well as support in developing funding strategies.
The Pathways to Production programme will run from October 2017 to October 2018. This is a pilot programme and will be reviewed on an annual basis. Closing date for receipt of applications is 21 September 2017. Successful applicants will be notified by 29 September. For more details and to apply please see www.baboro.ie/grow
2. Festival Mentoring: Another new initiative from Baboró is the Festival Mentoring programme aimed at artists and creatives at any stage of their career, including those with an established career, who have never before made work for children. As part of the programme, participants will receive mentoring from two highly experienced individuals from the sector; Phil Kingston, Community and Education Manager at the Abbey Theatre and Maria Fleming, Chair of Theatre for Young Audiences Ireland (TYAI) and Freelance Producer. The four successful candidates will have an opportunity to attend shows during this year’s Baboró International Arts Festival for Children, which runs from 16 – 22 October in Galway, and will also attend industry and networking events.
The Festival Mentoring programme will run for three days during this year’s Baboró International Arts Festival for Children from 16– 22 October. Exact dates to be confirmed. Closing date for receipt of applications is 21 September 2017. Successful applicants will be notified by 29 September. For more details and to apply please see www.baboro.ie/grow
The GROW programme is open to artists at any stage of their career throughout Ireland. For more information about these exciting new initiatives see www.baboro.ie/grow or call 091 562 667.
Baboró would like to acknowledge the support of The Arts Council for funding the GROW programme through The Arts Council’s Theatre Artist Development scheme.
Exploring Refuge and Migration Issues With Young Children: notes from Baboro’s Primary In-Career Course, Drama Tools for the Classroom.
You know you’re in good hands when the facilitator of a week-long course for primary teachers, can guide a roomful of strangers from the polite stiffness of a Monday morning, to improvising scenes at a horse fair, and tracking the thoughts of a young character’s deepest fears and longings, all before lunch on the first day.
For the first week in July I had the good fortune to spend a week participating in Baboro’s ‘Drama Tools for the Classroom’, facilitated by the truly remarkable Irene O’Meara, who drew effortlessly from her vast experience in theatre, music, visual arts, a Masters in Drama and Theatre Studies, and all refined through years of real life experience in the classroom. In addition to a number of primary school teachers, our diverse group included a youth mentor, a Spanish teacher, a Community Circus coordinator, an after-schools programme animator, a couple of play therapists, and me; a development education worker with the Galway One World Centre.
GOWC’s function is to provide workshops for schools, youth and community groups addressing a range of local and global justice issues, including refuge and migration; poverty; and anti-racism perspectives. Since 2012, GOWC has been delivering the Global Teachers Award programme in Ireland, offering training around the country for teachers who wish to bring a greater global justice perspective to their work.
In that time, the issue of rights for people fleeing danger and persecution has become increasingly urgent, along with the need to create opportunities to explore it in the classroom. But how? There are real challenges involved in addressing a crisis of this scale, in the context of rising Islamophobia, racism and right-wing sentiments, and a crushing accommodation crisis at home. And even greater challenges emerge when working with young children. There are numerous teaching resources available, and some of our own materials developed in-house, but I came looking for fresh ideas and inspiration about how Drama might offer ways of engaging younger children. In particular, I was seeking an age-appropriate approaches, that would allow for deep exploration of thoughts and feelings, and build empathy, without overwhelming children, but also, without trivialising the issues.
Over the course of the week, Irene shared numerous insights, tips and practical examples from her vast knowledge and experience, taking us through a number of drama conventions and sharing ideas about books, poems, artefacts and images for prompts. For my purposes though, most useful was her reminder of the 3 prerequisites for drama in the classroom: a safe environment; appropriate content; and a fictional lens.
While these are, of course, essential for approaching any theme, they provided me with a helpful framework to guide and anchor the design of classroom activities and lesson plans on the theme of refuge and migration.
The safety of the environment, beyond the practical need to ensure that the space is free of hazards, may also include considerations about working in smaller groups, to avoid intimidating ‘high-focus’ attention, or to ensure that consent is sought in advance before ‘spotlighting’ individuals. This concern for a safe environment also spills over into the need to make sensitive choices about the content being presented: is it age appropriate? Whose perspective is being shared? Are the characters portrayed as having agency, or as helpless victims?
Then comes the fictional lens. At a time of unprecedented crisis – over 65 million people are now displaced from their homes by war, conflict and persecution – I found myself gently steered away from the stark world of statistics and terrifying news reports, to the more accessible world of fiction.
Irene’s frequent reminders of the power of the fictional lens to explore potentially ‘difficult issues’, were peppered with quotes from the likes of Emerson and Camus (“Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth”) and were accompanied with examples from the classroom, using storybooks, such as the beautifully illustrated When Jesse Came Across the Sea (Amy Hest and PJ Lynch) and Oskar and the Eight Blessings (Tanya and Richard Simon). Though perhaps removed, geographically and temporally, from today’s crisis, the issues raised in these stories have much in common with the contemporary crisis, and provide opportunities for children to make those connections for themselves, and to explore the values, tensions, conflicts and opportunities attached to each. Even seemingly whimsical storybooks, such as The Lighthouse Keeper’s Rescue (Rhonda and Simon Armitage), were opened up as spaces for young children to consider how it might feel to be displaced, or to need help from the wider community, as well as celebrating the diversity within a community that makes change possible.
While the news from Syria, Sudan or Iraq may be overwhelming for children (and, frankly, for many adults), the story of one child, or one family, will contain some universally recognisable details and concerns, and may be more relatable for pupils. All children love to play. All children want to feel safe.
This was the thinking behind German author, Kirsten Boie’s decision to base her book Everything Will Be Alright, on the experiences of a young Syrian girl, Rahaf, and her family. In Kirstens’ book, the family’s luggage, containing Rahaf’s doll, is stolen by people smugglers on the journey across the Mediterranean. “She’s very unhappy about losing her doll that way. The children here always start by asking, ‘Has she got her doll back?’ I think the reason for that is that this is something that they can imagine [happening to] themselves, whereas all the bombs and fighting and nights on the Mediterranean… they can’t imagine that happening to themselves. “Stories,” she explains, “…always make it much easier for children to understand something more than theoretical knowledge. I think that’s the chance we have…”
I signed up for a five-day CPD course in The Ark with one summer course already under my belt. I had brought my class to The Ark on a number of visits and they have always been very supportive and accommodating. I’m a special education teacher, and my students really enjoy the sensory elements of the visual arts, so I also wanted to build my skills and learn a few new tricks.
The course facilitator was Jole Bortoli, whose warmth and insight made the workshop space very welcoming. I am very aware of my limitations when it comes to the visual arts, I’m not a “good drawer”, but the emphasis was very much on the engagement and practice rather than the end result, though many of my classmates blew me away with their talent and creativity. There are some very lucky classrooms and libraries in Dublin!
We started with drawing, and spent time making a collaborative project with lines and curves, on big rolls of paper. This was displayed on the ceiling during the course, so we could take it in. It was a simple and practical exercise, and the result was lovely. We then worked to Jole’s instructions, but interpreted them in our own way, so the results were very different. I was already seeing the potential for linkage with SPHE and maths.
We then took the time and space to visit the exhibition of animal sculpture in The Ark, and used sketches we had taken to inform the final project of the day which was based on work that Jole has done with a range of children. She was incredibly passionate and enthusiastic about the young people she works with, and showed us examples of ways she adapts her activities for different age ranges and abilities. She also showed us some video footage of a project she had done with Saplings in Rathfarnham, where a team worked with children with autism.
Day two was paint and colour, and the bright shades were really welcome after (the mostly black and white) day one, and we made another collaborative project, this time a riot of shape and colour. We were introduced to a range of different materials. I was particularly taken with paint-sticks, which were like glue-sticks but with paints. We painted with our eyes closed to music and again with our eyes open. Particularly popular was making our own egg tempura paints, and exploring a range of textured paints that can be made at home or in the classroom, depending on your setting. This activity would link in well with the science curriculum, as well as being a lot of fun.
Day three was 3D! We focused on construction, and engaged in collage, work with different types of clay (on the theme of rural and urban space and the wildlife within) and most interestingly sculpture. We used soap and a knife to whittle seals (and one sparrow), and it was a really interesting activity. The knives were safe (blunt), and this activity could be done in a class. It made me think a lot about shape and space, and the clay-play seemed really easy in comparison. Again, Jole and the other facilitators were supportive and gave us inspiration and space to create, and the results were impressive.
On Day 4, we worked on Fabric and Fibre, and spent the day making hats and masks. The hats were made from cardboard, fabric, beads and natural objects such as driftwood and feathers, and Jole once again drew inspiration from the First Nations artists of northern Canada to prompt our creative activity. This drew in the “Looking and Responding” part of the visual arts curriculum really nicely. The masks were two-sided, one animal on the outside and another on the inside, and they were made with paper on cardboard. These two projects were time-consuming, and some people were so enthusiastic they worked through their coffee break to get them finished, which is a good sign.
Friday was our final day and we worked on map-making- with a range of different activities, relief-painting and ink-dripping. The results were interesting, and Jole gave us some pointers on the correct materials to use for the best results with a class.
We kept reflective journals throughout, and Jole took time to explain where each exercise was coming from, and how it could be developed. There was a lovely mix of learning and creating, and I came away full of excitement to share some of my new skills with my students over the coming year. Highly recommended.
I am very enthusiastic about visual art and its impact on education. I challenge myself to try and be as creative as possible in all my approaches to teaching each subject area. Thematic teaching allows me to integrate subjects more freely and use more hands on visual methods. An example of this is the Craft Ed project I recently undertook through my local education centre (a fantastic scheme that unfortunately very few teachers know about). For this project I was paired with a local artist who came to my school to complete a six week project. The wood carving artist and I team taught my class in 2 hour blocks. The children from my 1st class were delighted to be handed chisels and pieces of wood! We based the project on a trip to Lough Boora Sculpture park in Co.Offaly, where the children learned all about the local wildlife and the history of the bog . Each child chose an animal to write a report on and also drew an accompanying image. This image was then transferred onto the wood and carved out. The results were amazing. We created our very own ‘Sky Train’ which is proudly on show at the front of our school.
My experiences with Craft Ed have even further heightened my interest in art education and so I am constantly on the lookout for new ideas and ways to upskill and develop my artistic abilities. I try to attend as many local art workshops as I can in areas such as ceramics, mosaics as well as art education classes in the Glucksman Art Gallery in University College Cork. A particularly strong influence is the art classes I attend with Hazel Greene in Shinrone Co.Offaly, where we paint mostly landscapes using acrylics. We also complete silk paintings and palate knife paintings. I also gain a lot of experience and inspiration from the childrens’ summer camp I run each year. I am the co-founder of an art and alternative sports camp, named Da Vinci’s Frisbees, with my partner Liam. Our camp is in its fourth successful summer and it is based in Offaly and Cork. The art activities focus on the process of art making and creativity.
So this week I was delighted to get the opportunity to attend my own summer camp, in the form of the Learning through Creativity educational course run by Tadhg Crowley at the Glucksman Art Gallery. The bright, airy spacious gallery is the perfect space to facilitate our week long voyage of discovery. Even with the end of the summer holidays looming, I was very excited. Throughout the week we have looked at art and the possibilities for integration with other subject areas on the primary curriculum. We have explored various examples of artists that could be used to facilitate the creative combination of Art with Maths, English, History, Science and SPHE. Each afternoon we were also lucky enough to work with different artists to put into practice the theory from the morning session.
Initially we started off our discussion on the impact of art on education. Just like when you read a good book, art education allows you to develop empathy, different points of view and it awakens your senses. Tadhg introduced the concept of creativity to us as an essential part to education and a unique human factor which allows us to show case our individuality. Everybody is creative in some shape or form whether it’s through your sense of fashion or how you hang the clothes on the washing line! Creativity is even fast becoming one of the most desired characteristics for employers who are seeking to employ innovative problem solving employees. Children are the future so let us prepare them as best we can!
I particularly enjoyed the caricature depicted by Ann Bamford, the art educator, which really highlighted the importance of teachers developing creative teaching methodologies in order to differentiate for the children in their class. There is a line of zoo animals in front of a tree. Maybe there was an elephant, a lion, a monkey, a seal and a zebra. The teacher tells the class, ‘Now climb the tree’. We discussed how as educators, we sometimes ask all of our class to do the same thing, using the same method, when there are many different capabilities and skills present in every classroom. By making the effort to offer a variety of imaginative approaches we will have a much more beneficial impact on the education of our students. We were also told about the impressive project in Harvard Medical school, ‘Training the Eye: Improving the Art of Physical Diagnosis’. In this project a group of doctors were split into two groups. Group A received an art education course and group B didn’t. Both groups were observed during their medical careers and it was found that group A had a much higher diagnosis rate with their patients. We discussed how art education can make you become more aware of your surroundings and awaken your senses and this was clearly evident for the doctors in group A who were demonstrating these skills.
I also thoroughly enjoyed working with Cork based artist, Cassandra Eustace, who outlined numerous invaluable creative activities linking art and language. These simple tasks included drawing simple still life objects using a blinder on the pencil. This took all of the stress out of drawing and some of the control. It really made you focus your attention and become aware of the lines and what you were looking at. We also used a view finder and an acetate sheet to draw our hands. Both of these tasks took a lot of concentration but they were fun and you did not have to be ‘good’ at drawing. Everyone can find their artist! Following this we then had to pick an object in the room and write a description about it without giving the name of the object away. For example, I chose a fire extinguisher and described it as a hard, cold, bright metal object with a beak that made me feel safe. These descriptions were then swapped with a partner. Based on the descriptive piece of writing that you received, you then had to create a collage of words and images, which made for some very interesting results! Another appealing activity was highlighting the use of drawing as a way of communicating and expressing ourselves. Using simple notebooks we had to respond to words that Cassandra said, firstly through non representative lines and then using symbols or images. A series of words were used like, bored, angry, peaceful etc. All of the activities used very little materials and took very little organisation or tidying up, which will make them attractive to a lot of teachers. But also they provided a chance for children to express themselves in very creative ways.
Artists such as, Josef Albers, Sol Lewitt and Bridget Riley provided inspiration for our maths based art activities with artist, Dominic Fee. Dominic has an excellent website which links numerous artists to the world of maths and he outlined links to various strands in the curriculum, especially around the area of shapes, spatial awareness and tessellations. I enjoyed layering 2d shapes using textured wallpaper and ink. This was then passed through a printing press. For most schools, there is not the luxury of a printing press, so Dominic showed us how the taped down acetate sheet and paper can be covered in paper and a poly pocket and then a wooden/metal spoon can be rubbed vigorously on top to create the print.
We then examined the links between art and history. Tadhg outlined how art works can tell us about the clothes, politics, social situations and living conditions at different periods of time. As a cross curricular activity we had to arrange a number of paintings into a time line (which I found very challenging!) Tadhg went on to highlight William Kentridge, Rita Duffy and Kerry James Marshall as artists who could be used to discuss themes such as conflict and human rights. This approach would be an imaginative visual way of tackling history in a classroom.
Later in the week with the guidance of artist Kevin Mooney, we studied some pictures of ancient artefacts and responded to the various images through painting. It was interesting to mix the various patterns seen in the images and collaborate African statues, the Book of Kells and New Grange into the one piece. One of my favourite activities that Kevin outlined was painting in response to a text. This simple idea could be used with any age group. We underlined the adjectives in a descriptive section about Cuchulainn and then depicted the words through painting and mark making.
As we were in the renowned architecturally designed gallery, it was only fitting that we also had a tour of the current exhibition, Now Wakes the Sea. I really feel that the pieces of art would mean little to me if I did not get the history and background of them and begin to fully appreciate the process that went in to making the piece of art. I was very impressed by the stories that went with each piece. This led to some interesting discussions for the group, for example, we discussed who decides what art is worthy of hanging in a gallery. I think that an established artist can justify his/her pieces through outlining the process of the production and the idea behind it’s creation which in most cases turns out to be fascinating, even if the end piece sometimes does not seem impressive. Without the tour and information I feel that I could have been staring mindlessly at the art wondering what I was supposed to be looking at! This experience made me become more aware of my surroundings, engaging all of my senses in the process of looking at the art. Perhaps most importantly as a teacher it further developed my sense of empathy for the art making process, as opposed to just the final piece of art. This outlook allows me to appreciate art, (and life more generally) from different viewpoints and perspectives, a skill which I feel would be hugely beneficial for the children in my classroom.
The gallery tour also made me question what is it that can be described as art, the possibilities are endless. I am starting to develop a broader concept of more non-traditional examples of art work. As a very interesting activity we had to choose a piece of art from the current exhibition, Now Wakes the Sea, and develop a set of questions that could be used with children. This process of really looking at the art, identifying how it was made, the materials used, the colours, shapes and lines present in the piece as well as the whole thought process behind the piece, made me become much more aware of what I was looking at. My list of questions for my class became longer as I thought about what the children might see and how I could broaden their perspectives when studying a piece of art. For example, what is your first impression when you look at this art, how does it make you feel, what is the mood/tone, does it remind you of anything, what is the focal point, what title would you give this piece etc.
Tadhg went on to discuss the benefits of using a 3d object like a sculpture or an artefact to initiate a lesson. An object would make for an interesting starting point for engaging the children in a lesson. A visual stimulus like this could be multi-sensory and accommodate various learning needs in the class. It would also help to develop visual literacy in children as well as their capacity for careful critical observation of their world. I think that I would have to practice this approach myself to build up my confidence before introducing it to my classroom. However, I can see how it would create a buzz of excitement in the classroom to place some strange sculpture on the table and start the journey of exploration through the senses.
A highlight of the course was working with Killian, when we were integrating Art with Science. We developed photograms! In the dark room, I arranged my jewellery on a special sheet of light treated paper and placed a lamp directly above it for about five seconds. The piece of paper was then put in a tray of water with the chemical developer until the image appeared. The paper was then lifted into the water mixed with the chemical fixer for thirty seconds, before being rinsed off. I was both shocked and amazed at how simple the process was to create such a cool piece of art. I was so delighted to realise how cheap and easy it would be to set up a dark room in a school store room. My third class are in for a treat this year! Bring on September, I can’t wait to try out some of my new ideas!
‘Parting Memories’: St. Patrick’s Girls National School Mural
Making the move from Primary to Secondary School can be a big deal. In 6th class you’re the big fish in the pond – you know the school like the back of your hand, younger kids look up to you and you have mastery of your environment. When I meet the 6th Class year group of at St. Patrick’s Girls National School, Gardiners Hill, the countdown to the end of the school year is underway. There is a buzz in the air – mostly of excitement, but with a little trepidation stirred in also. As eager the girls are to be approaching summer holidays there is an understanding that this is the last few weeks of their time within the walls of the school. The girls will surely miss this place – the colourful hallways, the sounds of the playground, the generosity of their teachers, the friendships they’ve formed. While many of the girls will continue on with their education just a short hop across the yard at St Patrick’s College, others are enrolled in other schools across the city – It’s the last few weeks they will all be together as a group.
Principal of St. Patrick’s Girls National School, Mrs Eileen Kelly, got in touch with us at Mayfield Arts to help devise an art project that would engage the 6th class girls creatively in this time of transition in their lives. There is a strong ethos of the holistic development of all children in St. Patrick’s Girls National School; ‘Our school is a happy, active, safe environment where we include, encourage and respect each other.’
Mrs Kelly wished to involve her students in something that would pay tribute to those ‘pupils and staff who have passed through our school, each making a difference.’ Mrs Kelly led me to a light filled corridor in the school and proposed it as the site of our project.
‘Parting Memories’ is a three dimensional wall mural composed of hundreds of origami butterflies individually created by the girls. A key motivation in designing the project was to provide an opportunity for reflection on time spent in the school; to recall, recount and visualize shared memories. It was hoped that this process of shared reflection on time spent together could make this time of change smoother for the girls; the process of remembering acting like a talisman for the crossing into the next phase of their lives.
Arts workers Wayne Ford and I, with support from Cuig artists Ailbhe Barrett and Bríd Heffernan made four trips to the school over the month of May, conducting workshops with Ms Dunne and Ms Conran’s classes of twenty five students. Each student was asked to design and make two little paper butterflies. Each butterfly contains a memory between its folds – this could be a story, a memory or a wish for the future.
Origami can take a bit of time to get the hang of. Some of the girls mastered the butterfly shapes quickly, while others took more time. Once one or two had gotten the hang of things it was lovely to see the girls offer help to others in the group. The learning of this new skill spread and soon the tables and floor were scattered with little paper butterflies.
Once the technique was learned, each person was handed two squares of thick paper – one lined in either blue or red, reminiscent of copy book paper, the other blank. Instructions were simple; on the lined paper the girls were asked to recount a story or memory from school. Students were encouraged to ‘write outside the lines’, incorporating the lines of the page into their designs. Some stories spiralled through the lines, others fanned out in multiple directions. Once folded into shape the lines of the paper form geometric patterns, with the stories and memories tucked up inside.
On the second sheet the girls had free reign in visualising a memory from the past six years. Some of the work represented their involvement in school activities such as sport, drama and science, others depicted the forming of friendships, the natural surrounding the school or patterned abstraction. Once completed each butterfly was coated in a hardening medium and affixed to the wall. The installation resembles butterflies taking flight, symbolising the girl’s departure from the school – flocking together, yet moving on their own path through life.
The mural was kindly opened by Micheál Martin TD during a visit to the school in June. He told the girls that the mural reminded him that art is for everybody and is a reminder that it is the individuality of each of the girls that makes the school so special.
The real magic in this project for me is in witnessing what emerges when people are provided with time and space for reflection and exploration. There was a hum of conversation throughout the workshops as the girls drew out stories from one another. The success of the mural lies in the collective; the coming together of individual parts to make a whole. Mrs Kelly tells me that ‘every time I look at the mural a new butterfly stands out’. I think that’s lovely.
This project was generously funded by St. Patrick’s Girls National School, Gardiner’s Hill.
Mayfield Arts would like to thank principal Mrs Kelly, and teachers Ms Conran and Ms Dunne for their support during this project.
In my last blog post I outlined the DCC Neighbourhood Schools Visual Thinking Strategies project with which I am co-ordinator and VTS Facilitator. The aim and structure of the VTS: Neighbourhood Schools project is to continue to use Visual Thinking Strategies to add to the knowledge of the arts and build on the sense of place and experience that the children in Central Model N.S have and to share that experience with their neighbours through working in close collaboration with two schools (St. Mary’s N.S, Fairview and St. Vincent’s B.N.S, Ballybough) with trained VTS practitioners in each of the schools.
As mentioned previously I completed the VTS Beginners Practicum Training in September 2016 and was very enthusiastic about trying out VTS facilitation with a class group over a number of sessions. With the support of DCC Arts Office I approached St.Mary’s N.S, Fairview. The aim of a series of sessions was for me to practice VTS in its pure form in St Mary’s N.S., Fairview – a school where I have been working as artist in residence for 5 years practicing art making with the children. The purpose of this was to model the VTS method for the class teacher and to evaluate how VTS works for me as practicing artist in education, the children, and the classroom teacher, in order to inform the school Principal and DCC Arts Office.
Eibhlín McGarry, Principal and Evita Coyle, 4th Class teacher were hugely supportive and enthusiastic about the project and from the outset we agreed that at least half of the sessions would be exhibition visits to The LAB, Hugh Lane Gallery and exhibitions of contemporary art.
In a lot of ways this project differs to how the VTS Programme’s are run in the US. And as the project is developing we are encountering these differences and complexities. A VTS Programme in the US with a beginners group would usually comprise six sessions with a class group over 6 months – ie. once a month. The VTS facilitator would work from the “curriculum” of carefully selected images that have been “tested” for VTS facilitation with groups in the classroom and would include just one museum or gallery visit.
With St.Mary’s N.S and the VTS Neighbourhood Schools Project, the emphasis is on exhibition visits and encountering the best of contemporary art by Irish artists and using VTS to look at this work. From the initial sessions where it felt more like a guessing game of “Did we get it right?” with observation and notation of imagery, subject in the artwork and little reading of the work beyond that to sessions now with engaged discussions around content, materials, scale and artists intent. From my initial introduction to Visual Thinking Strategies it was explained that people like to tell stories, people like to tell you what they know, their experiences. With a 4th Class group you might think that they would have limited experience and reference points. But bearing in mind this is a 4th Class group from Dublin 3, mainly living in Eastwall, Summerhill, Ballybough and the inner city with a demographic of 24 nationalities in the school – the social and cultural diversity and extent of their references and experience is far reaching.
As a practicing visual artist it has been hugely enlightening and enriching to experience exhibitions with a group through facilitating these VTS sessions. It has made me reflect on my own artworks in a different light and how I view artworks and exhibitions. I am intrigued by the observations, theorising and discussions that happen in the sessions. Also seeing the development within the classgroup – their oral language, articulation, observations as well as confidence. This has quite naturally spilled over into other subjects in the classroom. Evita (class teacher) has observed that the class are now very naturally using “I agree with” and “I think that because”. More importantly they are recognising acknowledging there can be more than one meaning, and multiple perspectives on a subject.
The wider impact of the VTS Project with this class group is a work in progress. The project is twofold – it is a Visual Thinking Strategies Project but also a project where the class are visiting, experiencing and familiarising themselves with the best of contemporary Irish art in contemporary galleries. They encounter artworks with an engagement and enquiry that is refreshing and inspiring. The exhibitions and works that we are viewing and experiencing are challenging and complex – the girls are undaunted by this and comfortable and confident in discussing works and visiting galleries and meeting artists and discussing their work as recently with Aideen Barry at The LAB.
We are looking forward to meeting with the other class groups, teachers and VTS Practitioners from St. Vincent’s BNS and Central Model Senior School to share and exchange experiences in the next stage of the project commencing in September 2017.
‘There is no substitute for exploration, unconstrained by rules or expectations when it comes to generating creative solutions to our problems.’ Alison Gopnik
More and more research hints at simple, open-ended objects as ones that are most likely to be used continuously, over and over to stimulate the imagination of children regardless of their age. These are objects such as cups, tubes, fabric, natural elements including bark, sticks, stones, feathers. These are materials that can be used in multiple ways, and are activated and defined by the child’s exploration. Three settings – Creative Kids Walkinstown, Corduff Childcare and YMCA Childcare Kidsworld Creche – were selected to participate in a sensory project with ReCreate* and Early Childhood Ireland, and use open-ended materials within their existing environments. The project was based on the strategic approach of ReCreate and Early Childhood Ireland to support the arts in early childhood education, and focused on the marriage of the arts and pedagogy – the arts as a language of inquiry, a way of communicating, exploring and thinking (Aistear 2009) in early childhood.
The sensory project took reusable open-ended materials from ReCreate to engage children’s senses through play. The artist Deirdre Rogers from ReCreate set up each room with objects intended to spark curiosity, imagination and exploration. The focus was the process of exploration – allowing children to be with the materials, to create without seeking a result. It positioned the environment as the ‘third teacher’ – an ECE environment can bring hope and inspiration to the child and educator, or it can be lack lustre and leave them frustrated. Seeing the environment as a teacher reminds us that our spaces should provoke learning and stretch the mind.
Children need to be given the opportunity to realise their potential as thinkers and creators. Open-ended materials and unstructured play encourage them to devise their own challenges, problem-solve and be immersed in their thoughts. Children in the throngs of self-directed creative play are too often interrupted. Creativity is nurtured when adults master the skill of quiet observation, answering questions from children when requested to. In the sensory project, educators were positioned as observers and co-explorers, not instructors, to support each child’s creative spirit.
One goal was for children to use the materials to develop their own problem-solving abilities through trial and error. Through observation, the educators made additional sensory provocations available and incorporated these into the spaces as extensions of the children’s exploratory processes. Photography was used to document the processes children engaged in. Photographs help boost children’s memories by revisiting their experiences and reminding them of the process. During the project, the children were confident, resembling scientists in the depths of problem solving and questioning. As Alison Gopnik has discovered, children are like ‘scientists testing theories’, expressing their intelligence through connections with the every day, with people and objects. Explicit teaching can interfere with what comes innately to young children.
By giving the children more time to exhibit their independence and engage with each provocation, and have a say in what was going on around them, they started to develop the sense that their own ideas and opinions matter. The children moved bubble wrap through the space, popping it using their hands and feet, the technique of jumping was applied and the couch was used as a prop to bring more height to the experience. They explored, for example, light and shadow using projectors, tasted the bitterness of lemons, constructed and deconstructed a wide variety of objects. The camaraderie oozed from each small group as experiences strengthened their play communities. Masterful negotiations were witnessed as the children’s play was extended.
We sometimes unintentionally limit children’s ideas and creativity by assuming they are aiming for a specific outcome or result. Our role is to offer encouragement, rather than instructions. The child’s sense of agency was encouraged by welcoming and responding thoughtfully and respectfully to their questions and ideas. One of the best aspects of inquiry-based approaches is that they often lead to unexpected surprises and extended ongoing investigations. One goal of the project was to support educators in using open-ended materials in their environments, to develop sensory spaces that extend beyond one-off activities. However, the overarching goal was to ensure each child is given the space to engage uninterrupted and unquestioned, tuned in to each precious moment in time.
*ReCreate: recreate.ie/Recreate is a thriving social enterprise making art materials and educational supplies affordable and accessible to every sector of the community.
This course sounded like just what I was looking for: “Creative Writing in the Differentiated Classroom”, I was excited by the chance to be in Temple Bar in Dublin in the middle of Summer and better again to work from The Ark.
As a school librarian, working in a Deis school as part of the JCSP Demonstration Library Project, I have been running an after school creative writing group for the past eight years. I am always looking for new ideas to inspire my students and to develop their writing. Too often I am looking for these bright ideas at the end of a long and tiring day.
Poet Nell Regan delivered the course, as Nell has worked as a teacher and continues to teach writing to children, this was a course grounded in the reality of the day to day of school life and not high falutin theory. The course was fun and we deserved fun at the end of the school year, especially the primary school teachers who had only days before waved goodbye to their students.
Practical playful activities were described by Nell from her experience, we were invited to try each exercise ourselves and then to reflect on how we would work it in to our classrooms or libraries. This generous sharing of ideas led to wonderful discussions among us. There was a great buzz and spirit of collegiality between all of us participants. It was especially interesting to share experiences between primary and secondary level. We had a lot to learn from each other and Nell having experience of both made the course relevant to all of us.
The project room on the top floor of The Ark is a beautiful creative space, we explored it thoroughly during one exercise leading each other blind folded on a sensory exploration around the room and out onto the balcony (eek!). We were brought on a tour of The Ark’s exhibitions and learned of the rich programme of visual and performing arts. I found it a stimulating environment, just being there you felt creative.
By Wednesday afternoon I was exhausted and was so happy to sit back and listen to Children’s author and guest facilitator Patricia Forde. Patricia was a ball of energy, she told a hilarious and personal story of growing up on Shop Street in Galway City and how she began to write. It brought home to me the huge influence an adult, especially a teacher or librarian, can have on a child’s sense of themselves as a writer. An engaging conversation followed on children’s and young adult’s books with much scribbling down of titles and authors.
Nell organised a visit to The Chester Beatty Library on Thursday afternoon. We used the exhibits of the library as the stimulus for some writing and for ideas for Friday’s book making workshop. On Friday we were up to our oxters in glittery paper, glue and ribbon as we made our own notebooks. Having had trouble that week folding up my paper lunch carton from a nearby trendy café this was not an easy task. Some of the results were gorgeous, I’m filing it under “student led activity”.
I’ve come away from the week with a stack of ideas, some “just hints” of ideas and some half fledged lesson plans. I have a list of online resources recommended by Nell and fellow participants and I have more confidence and enthusiasm for teaching creative writing next year.
‘Virtually There’ Project – Opportunity for Action Researcher
Kids’ Own is pleased to invite applications from suitably qualified individuals for the role of ‘Virtually There’ Action Researcher.
Kids’ Own seeks an Action Researcher to join the ‘Virtually There’ project, which takes place in Northern Ireland. This is a long-term piece of work, running until 2020. This phase of this project is funded through a ‘More and Better’ Grant from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s Arts-based Learning Fund.
Deadline for receipt of applications is Weds 23rd Augustat 5pm. Shortlisted applicants for the post of Action Researcher will be invited to interview on 31st August or 1st September 2017, with a view to starting work in September. The successful applicant will be required to attend a two-day creative planning meeting in Belfast on 28th and 29th September 2017.
More information and a full brief for the role can be found here
Blog Post 2:
This post looks at some of the key parallels between the Reggio Emilia philosophy and the ‘non-negotiables’ or values of Tate Learning’s Early Years and Families’ programme. It’s worth noting just how different the conditions of each context are before launching into this. While the early years’ schools of Reggio Emilia are formal educational settings, Tate offers an informal, flexible learning setting not restricted by the demands of curricula, but inextricably linked to the Tate collection (sometimes exhibitions) and the buildings artwork is housed within. In Reggio Emilia, the pedagogistas, atelieristas and others who run the schools have an opportunity to get to know children and families well, meeting them daily and going on a journey of at least an academic year with them. At Tate, the Early Years and Families’ team are usually dealing with a transient, fleeting audience who drop in to the programme occasionally – sometimes by accident. Despite this, there are many correlations that can be made between our approaches to learning.
Agency
In the Early Years and Families’ team, we are passionate about treating children as equal gallery visitors and as an audience of the here and now rather than a developmental audience of the future. Similar to Reggio, this is about treating every child as an individual and programming in a way that recognises their unique interests, abilities and motivations.
One of our key values as a team is agency. We aim to design a programme that invites families of all ages from many different backgrounds with a range of experiences and knowledge to participate and find their own personal route through the gallery via our programme. Our resources and events should be an opportunity for families to co-construct meaning together (which also relates to the Reggio approach). In order for this to be successful, activities need to speak to and attract both adults and children in a very open-ended way.
Art and artists
The status of artists on our programme and the way we work with them can be compared to the Reggio approach. When we engage artists in the work we do, it’s about agreeing on where we would like to get to in terms of audience engagement, without knowing exactly how we’re going to get there.[1] This makes it an exciting but often complex relationship that needs to be continually managed and reflected upon.
Like in Reggio, we view artists as experts in their own practice and as having a very particular view of the world which can be very different to ours, but we do not expect them to be experts in working with children or the Tate collection – which is where our expertise comes in. At the heart of this is a discussion about their studio practice and how the materials and processes might relate to engagement with the Tate collection and our audience.
Curiosity
When working with an artist, our approach to the framing of an activity and to the use of materials we employ can be compared to the Reggio approach too. We believe in using high quality materials that relate to artists’ studio practice, ones that cannot be found in conventional educational settings. We aim to present these materials in a way that engages children and families’ curiosity (another of our non-negotiable) and imagination through introducing materials and processes in layers that unfold, rather than introducing everything all at once. This relates to the Reggio Emilia belief in ‘environment as educator’, and we would include the setting and location of our activity in this – the galleries and architectural spaces of Tate.
A social space
By its very nature the gallery environment is a public, social space. It is a space where families have the potential to view each other in a very different light, where they can encounter (and sometimes collide with!) other visitors, and where they can communicate about ideas and issues they may not have explored before. I think this aspect of our work relates to the importance Reggio places in children forming relationships with other people in order to learn. We are keen to make our programme as visible as possible in the gallery so that families and our programme can be seen and heard rather than tucked away in a studio space.
In my next blog post I’ll consider some specific examples of programming for early years audiences at Tate.
[1] I always find a quote by artist Jeremy Deller useful when thinking about this – “A good collaboration is like going on a long journey without a map, never knowing quite where you will end up.”
The art of play is the art of living life to the full.
I’m a huge fan of Colwyn Trevarthen’s work. I think he constantly brings us into the real world of the human drives and dynamics and reminds us just how amazing we humans are. I’ve grouped the above photo and quote together because the photo, for me, speaks to the art of sharing fantasies of action and experience. This huge tractor tyre is now the edge of a ravine and the children dare to plunge into its fearsome waters – sharing fantasies of action and experience. Their story draws on other stories, on experiences and possibilities. I’m reminded of what Alison Gopnik describes as the most uniquely human characteristic, the ability to imagine. I’m thinking about Bruner’s contention that we imagine ourselves into being – that children are in the process of encountering and creating possible selves through the stories they create – possible mothers and fathers, possible big sisters, possible builders, astronauts, teachers, shopkeepers, doctors, dinosaurs and, here, ravine divers. And Carl Jung’s premise that the creation of something new is not achieved by the intellect but by the imagination. And Winnicott’s (1971:54) who says that
‘It is in playing, and only in playing, that the individual child or adult is able to be creative and to use the whole personality, and it is only in being creative that the individual discovers the self’.
Is it any wonder that play has survived evolution across all species? Is it any wonder that humans have brought it to such a fine art? There you go – the words play and art in one sentence! I’m interested in the relationship between play and art.
There is a recognition of this relationship in recent research in Ireland. The ESRI/Arts Council report (2016) ‘Arts and Cultural Participation among Children and Young People: Insights from the Growing Up in Ireland Study’ recognises ‘the mosaic of ways in which children and young people express themselves and interact with the world of culture’ and so their definition of art includes young children’s engagement in creative play and make believe games. There are some interesting findings. Just as with literacy and numeracy and all forms of development, they find that make-believe play is a precursor to the development of an artistic and creative imagination. I welcome this recognition for play. I don’t like the term precursor – it belongs to that school of giving priority to adult forms of maturity. We need to remind ourselves that children do some things better than adults, among them is play and the easy shift into the imaginary and creative world. Creativity is at its peak in early childhood – not a precursor to better things. Creativity is at its peak because children need to learn so much in such a short time and the innate creative drive makes it possible.
Another interesting finding is that, according to their parents, five year olds engage in pretend play while 3 year olds don’t. How could that be? I have no doubt that all these parents play pretend games with their children from the moment they are born. They pretend to be surprised, shocked, overjoyed, lost, found, toe eaters, belly guzzlers. They look for their children’s lost heads and hands as they pull on a vest or encourage them to wriggle through sleeves. They drive buggies with engine sounds. They pretend to be dogs and cats and any animal that makes a sound. They play hide and go seek. They feed teddy and put him to bed. They do all these things to help children to manage, and to engage, entertain and humour them because nature tells us that the dramatic, emotional, fun filled world of play is the way to bring children into the dynamics of human communication, into the rituals and routines of life, into cooperation and competence. These are all art-full interactions, full of drama, emotion, movement, big gestures and, of course, creative meaning making. That’s why people like Stern and Trevarthen call it a dance. It is an art form.
Of course, children do not engage in play to create art. The primary purpose of play, according to Sutton Smith (1997), is simply to enjoy and become better at playing. The baby’s exploratory body movements, exercising vocal cords, moving backwards and forwards, rolling and swinging are all done for their own sake, for the excitement and pleasure of movement itself. And the wonderful trick of nature is that the leap from a rock not only pleases but develops the body and, at the same time, teaches about gravity and, most importantly, exercises the brain so that it stays sharp, flexible and innovative. Body and brain are being sculpted in play.
Drawing on another art form, children add story to their play. Adding narrative brings children together and generates companionship, adds excitement, and sustains the play. Play narratives require certain creative skills – ideas, improvisation, role enacting, imagination, plot development, dialogue in keeping with the persona – all very demanding skills. Players need to present as authentic, convincing, trustworthy as well as innovative and challenging. Being an active participant in play stories is important if your voice is to be included in the view of the world being constructed. Children, as Stainton Rogers (1995) says, are creating the ‘narratives through which we render ourselves and our worlds intelligible’ – a shared frame for seeing the world. I’m a collector of those narratives and I wallow in them because they speak to me of children’s empathy and kindness, of their fears and consolations, of their experiences of the adult world and its rules, rituals and power struggles. Gussin Paley tells us that play is like theatre with universal themes such as someone is lost and finds a friend, is unloved and finds love, confronts life and death, is weak and then strong. Think of these themes as you read this play story:
A group of 5/6 children come running up to me screaming and laughing. I kneel and ask what’s happened. They talk about the Dragon living behind the shed. We go to have a look and once again they all run away screaming. Rob’s suggestion that they get swords and shields to fight the dragon meets with agreement so off they go in search of useful material. They come back with brushes, spades, buckets and bin lids to fight the dragon. Eventually they decide that the dragon is too powerful and they must find another way to fight him.
Katie then puts her sword down and goes behind the shed, much to the shock and resistance of the others. She returns moments later explaining that “it was a mammy dragon” who was protecting her “baby dragons”. Everything changes. The children decide to keep the dragon as a pet. They name her “Arnold the Dragon”, and have great fun taking turns to fly around with her. Once inside, the children draw pictures of Arnold and even go to the gate at home time to say goodbye to her.
It seems to me that these children are also working on a very important moral – and that is, that perspective changes everything. Perspective can change an invincible dragon into a pet to be cared for. And Katie demonstrates that changing perspective takes leadership and courage – and caring is comforting for everyone. The children have co-constructed an experience, generated strong feelings and developed a story – each element in itself is an artistic experience.
So, is play art? Does it involve a desire for meaning, curiosity, wonder, feeling, thinking, imagining, relating, expressing? Does it involve active participation in creating something new? Is it about finding joy? These, according to people such as Ann Pelo, Vea Vecchi and Deb Curtis, are the key indicators of an art experience – and children’s make-believe play ticks every box. Don’t be fooled by the lure of teaching young children lessons that they can repeat and show off to adults. We can train children to do routine things –say hello, please and thank you, eat with a spoon, dress themselves, recite the ABC, sound out words, count to ten, learn multiple times tables etc. but.. for children to be alert, responsive and intelligent thinkers they must engage in the art of free play. Nothing is as important as the experience of play for the sake of play – for the fun of it – for the very fact that through play we learn the skills needed for play and we get better at them – such skills as the serve and return of interaction, the mind reading, the intersubjectivity, formulating ideas, running with the ideas of others, being fun to be with, being a cooperative, giving team player, generating energy and enthusiasm, problem solving on the hoof. The most important thing that children learn through play is how to play well -they are the traits that make for a healthy and successful life across the social, economic and health spectrums. Like all the important things in life, they generally only get assessed when they’re missing! Play is improvisation, drama, design, creative use of materials, symbolism, dance, story-creating and telling, characterisation, fantasy, imagination and real life enquiry. The art of play is the art of living life to the full.
Music Generation has announced that it will expand into nine new areas of Ireland within five years, thanks to the ongoing support of U2 and The Ireland Funds who together will have raised a total of €6.3m for the programme’s second phase. This combined investment in ‘Phase 2’ of Music Generation will include donations from the proceeds of U2’s The Joshua Tree Tour 2017, as well as donations previously raised for Music Generation through the band’s iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE Tour in 2015, alongside further philanthropic investment by The Ireland Funds. A grant from Bank of America, through the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, forms part of The Ireland Funds’ investment in this second phase of Music Generation.
Phase 2 of Music Generation has been assured of long-term sustainability through a commitment by the Department of Education and Skills to co-fund the new areas into the future, together with Local Music Education Partnerships.
To encourage imagination, creativity, initiative and expression in student
Students must be at the centre of the creative process
To compliment curricular learning in the arts, culture and heritage
The selection criteria:
Student engagement in and ownership of the creative process
Evidence of partnership between the students, teacher and visiting artist.
Originality and viability of the proposal.
Clear plan of action.
The costing of the proposal.
The school leadership must be members of NAPD.
Financial considerations.
The availability of the grant funding for Creative Engagement and number of applicants will determine the amount of the grant per school.
Where possible schools will supply evidence of matching funding.
Artists are paid through the school, which will receive two cheques during the school year from NAPD, the final one following receipt of the Evaluation of the project.
Partnerships:
NAPD has established working partnerships with The Department of Education and Skills, The Department of Arts Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Poetry Ireland, The Heritage Council, Poetry Ireland, The National Museum, The National Gallery, IMMA, Amnesty International, Local authority Arts Officers and Cavan Monaghan ETB local arts in education Partnership.
Deadline October 24th 2017
Living Art with Young Children
‘Accepting – or at least acknowledging all the children offer is a real key into the endless realms of imagination that are only waiting for our bravery’. Martin Brunsden, Musician
We have long known that young children are intent observers of the workings of the world and compulsive meaning makers about everything they see around them but, somehow, we are only beginning to understand their capacity to teach us about life.
The painting tells a story of first encounter. It represents the squashed and decayed apple that he saw on his way to preschool with his mother, according to the artist. It speaks to me of wonder, of beauty, and of sadness – all of which gives food for thought, for some questions. Did the painter set out to paint what he saw? Or was it something that emerged in the encounter with the art materials that subsequently surfaced the story? Maybe his painting started life as another idea or just a series of brush movements and like so many children’s paintings, layered with paint, turns into a brown circle. Maybe the circle evokes a memory of something experienced, something observed. The question is where is the art in this whole experience? Is the art in the representation or in the first encounter with the decayed apple? Is the art in his wondering, in the conversation, in the enquiry with his mother, in that moment of connection, of sharing? We can easily imagine a lovely moment when his mother looks to his wondering – and explains, as you do, something of the cycle of life – apples fall and decay. We can imagine the questioning and the dawning understanding in the child’s eyes – something significant has landed in his consciousness and leaves an impression that lingers there – so much so that he feels the need to express it with paint. He paints the story. Is the art in what is etched in his memory? Imagine an educator who stops to listen, feels the connection, experiences the beauty and joins in the wondering. Is this an aesthetic experience? The point is that depending on our capacity to see, or the lens we use, we can see art in almost everything children do – because children’s exploits have the key ingredients of enquiry, wonder, awe and emotional connection. The product is just a small part of the art process.
Young children, by the very nature of coming to know the world, live the creative life. They are meeting the world for the first time and creating new perspectives. They bring something new to the world. Alison Gopnik calls early childhood ‘the research department’ of life, when children, untethered by information and obligations to get it right, are free to wonder and engage with multiple possibilities – not defined by end results. Working with the early years requires us to let go of prescribed expectations and traditional norms, milestones and measurements. Instead we think of the encounters that allow the new personhood of each child to emerge and register itself in the community. As Educators, we are called on to exercise our sense of wonder, imagination and playfulness. It requires us to be present to – to listen with our eyes and ears and hearts to children’s explorations and discoveries – and with them to see the world anew. The learning is in the listening, the being with, the co-experiencing, the conversation, in the
‘the feeling of being present with one another’ (Trevarthen, 2001:20).
Vecchi’s (2010:5) says that art is ‘an attitude of care and attention for the things we do, a desire for meaning; it is curiosity and wonder; it is the opposite of indifference and carelessness, of conformity, of absence of participation and feeling…..’.
In the end, that is why what children do is art – they bring a new perspective to the world – a new way of seeing things.
This all came home forcefully to me on a day that I spent with the artist, Maree Hensey and musician, Martin Brunsden on the Lullaby project, an art project with babies, a few years ago. It was all so simple. The scene was set by stacking all the plastic toys in a corner and creating a space in the middle of the room where beautiful materials were introduced, sand, ribbons, boxes, feathers, musical instruments. The children were invited to play with them. Something descended on that space – an atmosphere that held the experience of a lullaby,
‘a stillness… this lull…this lullaby essence..…we have achieved it several times and sometimes with such force that the room becomes tender and emotional and yet still safe and supportive’ (Martin Brunsden)
Everything slowed down. We watched with keen interest – so interested in how these babies thought and felt and responded. Nothing was more important than the present moment – the looking, touching, feeling, tasting, wondering, questioning, pulling, pushing, listening, smiling, mouth opened, eyes agog, hands and legs vibrating, and the sounds of wonder, gurgling, hands clapping – just what happens in each moment.
As Educators, we commonly use the term ‘art’ to refer to static objects such as paintings, sculptures and songs but Vea Vecchi (2010) tells us that art can simply be a way of being in the world. Art is in the experience of encounter, the movement of the body, the narratives we create, the beauty we perceive, the eye of the beholder. In the early childhood sector, we think of art as a process to be lived – a process that includes to explore, sense, action, think, feel, express, communicate, create. It’s in the moment.
Were there moments in your experience today?
The Arts Council’s Creative Schools Initiative
The Arts Council is establishing a project team to lead Scoileanna Ildánacha/Creative Schools – a partnership initiative with the Department of Education and Skills. This initiative is being developed in the context of the Creative Ireland programme 2017–2022 and with the support of the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.
Scoileanna Ildánacha/Creative Schools is an ambitious national initiative, which sets out to understand, develop and celebrate the arts in Irish schools, and to foster children and young people’s creativity and participation in the arts as an integral part of their education in Ireland.
The project team will be based in the Arts Council, 70 Merrion Square, Dublin 2.
The Project Lead will be procured by an EU public tender process and will be responsible for the development and implementation of the first phase of this important national initiative, and future phases, subject to agreement.
In addition, up to two Advisers will be recruited on a secondment basis from the Department of Education and Skills on an initial one year basis. These secondees will be qualified and registered teachers. A Primary and Early Childhood Education Adviser and a Post-Primary Education Adviser will work alongside the Project Lead and will contribute to the design and development of the Scoileanna Ildánacha/Creative Schools initiative as it relates to primary and early childhood education; and to post-primary education respectively.
Further information
For more information on the Project Lead tender and required services, please visit the Arts Council’s tenders page.
For more information on the roles of Primary and Early Childhood Education Adviser and Post-Primary Education Adviser please visit the Arts Council’s jobs page.
(Note: Scoileanna Ildánacha/Creative Schools is a working title. This initiative was formerly known as ARIS/Arts Rich Schools.)
Inspiration for Tate’s EYF programme – the Reggio Emilia approach
“The child is not a citizen of the future; they are a citizen from the very first moment of life and also the most important citizen because they represent and bring the ‘possible’… a bearer, here and now of rights, of values, of culture… It is our historical responsibility not only to affirm this, but to create cultural, social, political and educational contexts which are able to receive children and dialogue with their potential for constructing human rights.” Carlina Rinaldi, In Dialogue with Reggio Emilia: Listening, Researching and Learning
When I took up the post of Early Years and Families (EYF) Curator at Tate, most of my experience was with families’ programming aimed at 5-12 year olds, with under 5s included as part of an intergenerational group, or where activity was primarily aimed at parents with an understanding that early years are welcome.[i]
I was introduced to the theory influencing Tate’s EYF programme – the Reggio Emilia approach[ii] – by the Convenor of the programme, Susan Sheddan[iii], and through working on the programme have learnt about the potential of the gallery to be used as an important site of learning and communication specifically for this agegroup.
The infant and toddler schools of Reggio offer places to 0-6 year olds and consist of a mixture of municipal, state, public and private schools. The aims of the schools are to involve their community in participatory consultation in all aspects of their running, to be transparent and shared in this approach, to give substance and voice to the rights of children, parents and teachers, and to improve the quality of life of children in the city overall. Each centre has a pedagogista, teacher, atelierista and cook. Children and parents are involved in the running of each centre, which is closely connected to its context. The process of how people communicate and when is of utmost importance to the streamlined running of the centre.
The learning principles of Reggio are that children must have some control over the direction of their learning, be able to learn through experiences of touching, moving, listening, seeing and hearing; have a relationship with other children and with material items in the world that they must be allowed to explore, and have endless ways and opportunities to express themselves. I had the opportunity to visit Reggio Emilia for a study week in spring 2014 and came away with the following highlights relevant to my work at Tate. These are reflected in the EYF team’s current values or ‘non-negotiables’ of agency, curiosity, diversity and openness.
“The best we can be”: Carla Rinaldi, president of Reggio Children, talks about childhood as a quality (not just a stage of life), and about it representing ‘the best we can be’. She describes children as being in a constant state of searching for meaning and understanding in the world – interpreting their surroundings to find answers in life. The Reggio approach sees children as keen, sensitive observers with the potential to fill flexible contexts and generative environments with meaning.
Diffused atelier: There is an atelier (studio) and atelierista (studio artist) in every Reggio school. Atelieristas are considered to have heightened awareness of contemporary culture, know how to interpret art, and have a unique perspective on learning. They work as co-constructors with teachers, students and parents to create contexts for learning a range of different subjects – the process for which can be compared to an artist developing work in their studio. The atelier, a metaphor for the Reggio approach as a whole, pervades the public space of the school so that everyone involved can influence the atelier and come together to co-construct meaning.
Co-researchers: The role of the teacher is as researcher alongside the children (with parents and artists). This might include exploring existing theories together, but also developing new theories and going to new places of learning as a result of exploration. Parents are involved as much as possible in the building of shared value.
Traces of learning: In order to research alongside children, observation (of and by children) is a key process used by Reggio teams – with drawing being used as a consistent tool for this, revealing traces of learning. Active listening, consulting with and talking to children about what they have noticed or observed develops critical thinking skills among children.
Exchange: The Reggio approach is highly influenced by Lev Vygotsky and the belief that psychological development occurs through interpersonal connections, actions and play in small groups. Children have a predisposal to creating relations and engaging in exchange. This is encouraged in Reggio schools by adults offering their point of view ready for children to offer theirs, using a range of the so called ‘100 languages’ Reggio deem children to have.
Education is political: Reggio is a political project, ultimately trying to change the status of EY schools nationally in Italy from service providers to education centres. They consistently refer to the rights of children and to some children as having ‘special rights’ (rather than special needs). In Reggio Emilia itself, the schools played an important role in welcoming and involving immigrant communities from Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and China.
‘Shaped by the city but also shaping the city’: The city of Reggio plays a leading role in the school – it is referred to as a protagonist, with schools visibly present in the city/ their local areas. Bringing the school and children to the city and making the culture of children more public strengthens the school’s alliance with their context.
In the next post I’ll explore how the Reggio Emilia approach influences the EYF programme at Tate.
[1] The Reggio Emilia approach emerged in the small northern Italian city of Reggio Emilia after it was badly affected by World War II. A visionary educator named Loris Malaguzzi (1920-1994) along with parents from the locality wanted “… to bring change and create a new, more just world, free from oppression” urging people to “gather their strength and build with their own hands schools for their young children.” Influenced by early childhood psychologists and philosophers such as Dewey, Piaget, Vygotsky, Gardner and Bruner, the educators of Reggio Emilia, inspired by their already existing community-centred culture, went about setting up a new form of early years learning for the children of the city.
In 1963, with great economic and social development taking place across Italy, the first municipal preschool was opened. In the late 1960s the schools were transferred to the city government for operation and financing. There was a feminist focus to the setting up of the schools as it enabled women to go back to work and tried to garner more respect for early years educators, usually the responsibility of women (formally/ informally). By the 1980s the Malaguzzi method was known and appreciated by many educators including thanks to an exhibition at the Modern Museet in Stockholm. At this time, the National Group for Work and Study on Infant Toddler Centres was formed in Italy.
In 2003 the municipality of Reggio Emilia chose to manage the system and the network of school services and toddler centres by forming the Istituzione Scuole e Nidi d’Infanzia. Municipal schools and preschools had their own independent programs and activities, but were supported by the public sector. The political roots of the approach and its continued political engagement in campaigning for the importance of governmental support for early years education is important to acknowledge.
In February 2006, the Loris Malaguzzi International Centre opened in Reggio Emilia for professional development and research of the philosophy. The foundation was officially established in 2011 with the aim of “Education and research to improve the lives of people and communities, in Reggio Emilia and in the world”.
[ii] The Reggio Emilia approach emerged in the small northern Italian city of Reggio Emilia after it was badly affected by World War II. A visionary educator named Loris Malaguzzi (1920-1994) along with parents from the locality wanted “… to bring change and create a new, more just world, free from oppression” urging people to “gather their strength and build with their own hands schools for their young children.” Influenced by early childhood psychologists and philosophers such as Dewey, Piaget, Vygotsky, Gardner and Bruner, the educators of Reggio Emilia, inspired by their already existing community-centred culture, went about setting up a new form of early years learning for the children of the city.
In 1963, with great economic and social development taking place across Italy, the first municipal preschool was opened. In the late 1960s the schools were transferred to the city government for operation and financing. There was a feminist focus to the setting up of the schools as it enabled women to go back to work and tried to garner more respect for early years educators, usually the responsibility of women (formally/ informally). By the 1980s the Malaguzzi method was known and appreciated by many educators including thanks to an exhibition at the Modern Museet in Stockholm. At this time, the National Group for Work and Study on Infant Toddler Centres was formed in Italy.
In 2003 the municipality of Reggio Emilia chose to manage the system and the network of school services and toddler centres by forming the Istituzione Scuole e Nidi d’Infanzia. Municipal schools and preschools had their own independent programs and activities, but were supported by the public sector. The political roots of the approach and its continued political engagement in campaigning for the importance of governmental support for early years education is important to acknowledge.
In February 2006, the Loris Malaguzzi International Centre opened in Reggio Emilia for professional development and research of the philosophy. The foundation was officially established in 2011 with the aim of “Education and research to improve the lives of people and communities, in Reggio Emilia and in the world”.
Then we are looking for you! We would love to hear from teachers who are taking part in a Summer Course and would like to document their learning throughout the week, as part of our Guest Blogger series.
If you are interested in being a guest blogger for the Arts in Education Portal then contact us at editor@artsineducation.ie for more information.
“What I Do When I Feel Blue”
The teenage years and early adulthood can be particularly tricky times to navigate in life. According to the ‘My World’ National Survey of Youth Mental Health one in three young people have experienced mental health difficulties at some point (Headstrong and UCD School of Psychology, 2012).
Developing coping strategies and building self-esteem can offer a strong protection as young people move into adulthood. A secondary school setting offers an opportunity to reach young people in their formative years and provide tools for mental and emotional resilience, equipping them with skills to cope with the bumps in the road into adulthood and beyond. Funded through Creative Engagement (NAPD) and St. Patrick’s College, “What I Do When I Feel Blue” is a collaborative animation project between Mayfield Arts Centre and St. Patrick’s College in Cork.
June McCarthy, Transition Year coordinator, identified a desire on behalf of the school to engage students in areas of mental health, wellbeing, peer support, community and belonging. St. Patrick’s College has a strong history with Mayfield Arts, having engaged in many Creative Engagement Projects over the years. An introductory meeting with June allowed us to get a sense of the student group as a whole, learn about their previous experiences with art and to get an idea of what they and the school hoped to achieve through this project. Film was something previously unexplored in St. Patrick’s College and seemed particularly appropriate for a project of this kind. Video and stop-motion are communicative, accessible and fun mediums to work within. The potential to share their film through social media and Youtube also gives potency to the work of the students.
Every Friday for six weeks, a group of twelve transition year girls made the short journey up the road to Mayfield Arts. For most of the girls it was their first time inside the building. On day one students were introduced to basic principles of filming and stop-motion using slideshows, demonstrations, examples and warm-up exercises. Once the group was familiar with the process, we all sat together, drank tea and chatted about their ideas for the project. Students were invited to name and respond to important issues that impact their lives and that of their peers. I was taken by the openness of the girls in sharing their stories. Through facilitated discussions, it became clear that the group wanted to create something positive that could help their friends and others experiencing difficulties.
We went about compiling a list of things they do when they are feeling down; things that can help lift them out of difficult times. We quickly filled an entire blackboard with suggested actions; ‘go outside!’, ‘eat chocolate!’, ‘Ring your friends!‘ Through a voting system the group arrived on the six top things they do to make themselves feel better when feeling down. We then brainstormed how we might illustrate these suggestions through animation. Roles within the group formed naturally; some were eager to be in front of the camera, while others prefered ‘out of frame’ activities like setting up cameras, framing shots, controlling light and directing actors. The girls worked great as a team, generating ideas, sharing equipment, helping each other and discussing their outcomes. Footage was collected and reviewed in groups with editing carried out with support from facilitators. Regular feedback was sought from groups to access progress and offer support where needed.
The final film, a three-minute animation that acts as a ‘tool-kit’ for resilience, was launched and screened during the school’s Transition Year closing ceremony. A couple of the girls introduced the project, sharing their ideas, methods and processes with their peers, teachers and parents. Once uploaded to Youtube, the film and its message began to spread beyond the school grounds.
Feedback from the group was really positive and there was a tangible sense of pride in what had been achieved.
“I liked everything about this project but especially that we could do it all by ourselves with just a little bit of help.”
“I wouldn’t change anything, it was very interesting and fun.”
This project was funded by Creative Engagement (NAPD) and St. Patrick’s College, Gardiner’s Hill. For more information visit mayfieldarts.ie
As a visual artist, curator and arts educator I work on many different projects across different contexts over a range of timescales. It is a juggling act with no days or weeks being the same – something that any working artist is familiar with as their profession, way of life and the challenges, opportunities and rewards it brings. Over the next four blog posts I am going to focus on one or two arts in education projects I am working on as they develop. Since March 2017, I have been working as project co-ordinator and Visual Thinking Strategies facilitator on the DCC VTS Neighbourhood Schools project. VTS Neighbourhood Schools is a visual thinking strategies project funded by Dublin City Council Arts Grant in collaboration with The LAB Gallery, Central Model School, St. Vincent’s B.N.S, Ballybough, St. Mary’s N.S, Fairview. It is part of Project 20/20 – a visual literacy initiative with children living in Dublin 1 led by Dublin City Council, the City Arts Office and The LAB Gallery.
Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) is an educational curriculum and teaching method which is designed to enable students to develop aesthetic and language literacy and critical thinking skills. It is a discussion based methodology for looking at art. The method is the result of more than fifteen years of collaboration between cognitive psychologist Abigail Housen, a Harvard trained educator and psychologist and veteran museum educator Philip Yenawine. The current Irish Primary School Curriculum places emphasis on developing a child’s sense of wonder and facilitating the child to be an agency in his or her own learning. VTS allows space for these aims as well as for other core ideas of the Curriculum such as creating space for the child’s own knowledge to be a base for learning- the VTS facilitator scaffolds what the child’s responses are rather than the opposite way around.
Since 2014 Central Model Senior School has worked with VTS facilitator, Lynn McGrane, funded by Dublin City Council Arts Office and The LAB Gallery using VTS to look at contemporary Irish art both through visits to The LAB Gallery and classroom sessions. IAWATST – Interesting And Weird At The Same Time was an exhibition of work from the OPW Collection and Department of Finance, Northern Ireland Collection, selected by this class group, using VTS in the selection process. The aim and structure of the VTS: Neighbourhood Schools project is to continue using Visual Thinking Strategies to add to the knowledge of the arts and build on the sense of place and experience that the children on Central Model N.S have and to share that experience with their neighbours through working in close collaboration with two schools (St. Mary’s N.S, Fairview and St. Vincent’s B.N.S, Ballybough) with trained VTS practitioners in each of the schools.
In September 2016, I completed the Visual Thinking Strategies Beginners Practicum with Yoon Kang-O’Higgins, VTS Programme Director along with teachers from Central Model School (Deirdre Gartland and Bridget Kildee) and St. Vincent’s B.N.S (Orla Doyle), funded by Dublin City Council Arts Office. In this first phase of this project (March – June) the VTS Practitioners have facilitated 6 sessions with four class groups – Junior Infants to 3rd Class. These sessions happened at The LAB Art Gallery, Hugh Lane Gallery, ArtBox Gallery and classroom based looking at contemporary Irish art. As a team we have met for peer to peer mentoring and support sessions and Liz Coman DCC Assistant Arts Officer and VTS Trainer facilitated coaching sessions with each VTS practitioner. In June we will have a Reflective Practice Session with Yoon Kang-O’Higgins – an opportunity to see where we are all at this stage of the project and where we are going with Phase 2, building capacity, modelling VTS for teachers and observing teachers, image selection, potential trainees for VTS Beginner’s Practicum in Autumn 2017. In this blog post I have only had the chance to lay out the structure and background to the project. In the next post I will relate back from the class groups themselves and their teachers, their responses, experiences and my own experience as a practising visual artist using VTS.
The Creativity and Change programme targets educators, change-makers, activists, artists, community workers, adult educators, youth workers, volunteers and anyone who is interested how creative engagement can nurture global citizenship and empathic action around local and global justice themes.
This is a Level 9 CIT Special Purpose Award offered over 8 weekends of the academic year, September – May.
Are you passionate about change?
Do you believe that you can make a difference in the world?
Do you believe that we need creativity to think in new ways about the challenges that face the world?
Are you curious about how creative processes and learning environments can transform how people engage with the world around them?
Do you want to build skills to bring others on a journey of transformation and growth as global citizens?
This course is for you if you can say ‘Yes!’ to these questions.
Find out more about the Accredited award, hear the stories of previous participants and how to connect to CIT online application here
Find out more about the Creativity & Change programme and what else it has to offer with master classes, Creative fairs and training for youth workershere
Room 13 Inquiry is a dynamic investigation into the potential of shared art studio spaces in school settings. It has evolved in two primary schools in Fingal since its inception in 2014 and includes the provision of a dedicated art studio space, an artist in residence and a series of exhibition and artists’ studio visits for the students.
We engaged filmmaker Kilian Waters to capture the activities of the students and artists over the course of six weeks this academic year and commissioned a website to share some of the intelligent and honest conversations held by the students over the past three years. The website www.room13inquiry.ie will go live on Tuesday 20th of June at 12noon.
My mother describes a picture of me age 4, she shows me a photograph, there I am sitting, legs spreadeagled, on the floor in front of me is “Julie bear” (my childhood teddy bear), in the diamond of floor encompassed by me, my legs and my bear is a piece of paper and on that paper I am making a drawing. Now I look at the photograph, I see it as my mother describes, I can’t get back to that place, I see it now outside of myself – a child absorbed. But I know that feeling.
I have a drawing my daughter made, age 6, it has the date on the back of the frame, in her own writing the legend reads: “My dog Under the table 23.12.97. Annie”. Annie doesn’t remember doing the drawing, and nor do I. I do remember the events around this picture, and where we were living at the time. Our dog was Miko, a stray we homed, and Miko had puppies, nine in all. The Daddy was Bart, our housemate’s dog.
The drawing shows an inky black shape with multiple extremities which seem to be leaking out from the body. On closer look you can make out the 4 black legs and 6 elongated teats, the mother’s tail is curled backward, awkwardly echoing the arc of her body. At her back are 3 leggy blobby pup shapes, there are 2 more at her front. There are five puppy shaped blobs in all: 4 are missing.
I look at the picture and I see the repeated arcs of dogs back, ringed over and over and framed finally within the square and capped by a border on three sides. I see the mother’s pink tongue haloed by exclamations of blue spittle, I see her ears askew, her eyes, which are barely visible, have obviously been drawn into the black silhouette at later stage, and this action has left a bleachy green rim where one marker dye acts on another. I see the mother dog held within the horse shoe form of the yellow basket bed she had, I see a turquoise ring with turquoise triangles pointing in and pointing out, this jagged, joined up ring form is contained within the orange square of ‘under the table’, a liminal floor/table space. Here the angle changes from top view to sideview and I see the table holding it all together. The table has two pink drawers. There is a large fruit bowl on top of the table, it is a bowl we still have, made by her Granny (It clearly shows the apple design of Bandon Pottery) The bowl contains stalked fruits. Beside the bowl is the most mysterious object in the picture – is it a yellow door?
This drawing contains a concentrated world, a complex mixture of emotion, observation, invention and imagination. It is a brave drawing, it is a necessary drawing and it is a mysterious drawing. It is a drawing that describes an event long forgotten by its maker. It is a drawing that gives me a glimpse into another world and one that I know is real, even if I wasn’t there.
When children draw they bring forth worlds, turning the inside out. This way of processing of experience is something that continues to fill me with awe, it still draws me. I love the word Draw, it has so many meanings, encompassing ideas of pulling, attracting, taking in and letting out, one can “draw breath” and one can “allow tea to draw”, “draw a pistol”, or a bath, as well as a line, it has a particular tension between hiding on and letting go. One time when I was a teenager I went with my father to the mart, we brought our sketchbooks. Later an acquaintance politely asked us what we were doing there, when I said “drawing” he said, looking at my father slightly puzzled, “drawing cattle to the mart?”
In the previous blog, I spoke about some drawing we did together at the Virtually There project in Killard house. This was not exactly a collaboration, we hadn’t agreed on making a ‘work of art’ together, it was a live action conversation. The whiteboard was the testing ground where our dialogue took place. It was a space where images were placed, excavated from our archives, grabbed online, or captured from life, they were uploaded, they were drawn out and drawn upon, discarded, elements were shrunken, enlarged, obliterated and moved about by one person or another, threads were created and broken over the course of a conversation, it was often hard to keep track. The drawing happened one mark or image beside another in a space which became layered and sequenced over time. We were celebrating together the act of drawing.
The Association of Irish Choirs presents its 38th International Choral Conducting Summer School from 6th-12th August 2017, for conductors, teachers, music students, choral singers and musicians. The only one of its kind in Ireland, this seven-day intensive course offers a wealth of expertise from international tutors, all of whom are active conductors and experienced teachers of conducting. With courses designed to meet the needs and abilities of every student — from beginners to experienced and established conductors — participants at all levels will develop and refine their core conducting skills, with more advanced classes focusing on areas such as rehearsal technique, interpretation, vocal technique, style, and pronunciation of languages. EPV accredited.
“The arts transformed my love of learning and are the reason I’m standing before you today” Prof. Anne Bamford
On May 6th the second arts in education portal national took place at St Patrick’s Campus, DCU. The portal national day is building momentum as a very significant event in the arts and education calendar in Ireland. Just under 200 people registered to attend the event with 17 workshops and lectures, an inspiring keynote from Prof Anne Bamford and a policy update from the Arts Council and Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional and Gaeltacht Affairs, Heather Humphreys. We are already excited about next years event. Have a look here to see the video from the day. Thanks to all involved in making day a huge success!
Blog 1 – Art enables a magical way of being in the world
A conscious turn from routine can transform one’s approach along a spectrum from lacklustre ennui to one of tantalising attention. Objects take on significance, the ordinary becomes enriched, moments collide in fascinating ways. Sharing these ideas connects us in new and interesting conversations. We notice things that lead us to explore the nature of things and we are led on an adventure at once wild and exciting. Our senses connect to our brains our perceptions change…….but there is no need to say any of this here – suffice to say that I am motivated and captivated by a magical sense of being. Working with children expands the possibilities here. A sense of discovery leads into new territories for both myself and the child.
Working with teachers in the classroom is a very privileged place to be. The teacher is the holder of the space (s)he creates the environment for learning. (S)he is also a creative partner. The collaborative relationship between teacher and artist gives the structure to support and wings to let loose the children’s explorations.
This 3 way relationship is at the heart of the Virtually There residency project run by Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership. Here the Artist/Teacher roles are very much foregrounded by the challenges and limitations of online presence. In Virtually There the artist is not in residence in the classroom but in a virtual space that hovers between classroom and studio. Her visual presence is contained in a frame, on a screen. Aurally her presence can be heard through a speaker, often as gremlins or in delay. Like wise the artist’s experience of the classroom is on screen and remote, tiny moving ants, often backlit by classroom windows, occasional face to face conversations and a virtual whiteboard. The teacher often takes up the role of mediator between screen and room. Gremlins come and go ransacking the airwaves. It’s today’s technology but it feels archaic. Two distinct worlds form at either end, in parallel. I imagine being in a submarine at the periscope communicating by radio control, sometimes it even feels like we are feeling our way via sonar echolocation, at once remote and intimate.
One develops strategies to incorporate this technology, it becomes another collaborator, the fourth partner in the equation. Experiments often begin with instructions as jumping off points, and in the sense of a Chinese whisper, one is anticipating the return of something wild and wilful from the original.
The interactive whiteboard becomes a shared ground where ideas are thrown up and moved about. During my residency at Killard House I worked in one to one conversation with children from year 10, using the whiteboard as our ‘visual speech bubbles’. I captured this activity using screenshots. Digital capturing does not at all represent a record of the session. It creates its own truth through a punctured narrative where elisions reign, occluding vital moments, replacing them, punctuating them with knots of captured stasis, warping time and concentrating attention in offbeat places. Human fallibility has its place of honour here, turning the machine/system into poetry or farce. The children’s voices push dynamically through the images they share and the sequencing of their thoughts. For me it is the perfect medium to test the narrative capabilities of stop motion animation.
Meanwhile classroom activity continues with teacher, the dynamic Ms Davey, elaborating on our prepared activities, the children coming up to webcam at intervals to intercept the dialogue with some extraordinary observation, discovery or piece of work to share.
In Virtually There time with the teacher between sessions is invaluable, here we are able to explore and adapt our project, pushing out ideas, extending chance encounters and developing these into a mutual understanding for creative play, the collaboration is always live, as we share our differing approaches, responses and strategies to all that is thrown up. There is also a hovering of all that I have missed from my submarine.
For more on the Virtually There Killard House Blog please click here
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Teacher/Artist Partnerships: supporting and enhancing Arts Education in Primary Schools
This is a unique summer course offering teachers the opportunity to explore the nature and educational value of partnerships between teachers and artists in supporting arts education in schools.
This course, which has the potential to improve literacy, numeracy and well-being in all schools including DEIS, will be offered across the Education Centre Network in 2017. It is supported by the Department of Education & Skills and the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural & Gaeltacht Affairs. Many schools across the country are engaged in projects with artists, in a variety of art forms, ranging from one-off artist visits to longer term projects. If you are currently engaged in such a project, or are planning one for the coming year, then this course will be of interest to you. This course looks at the ways in which working with an artist in school can be enhanced in order to provide meaningful experiences for children and a lasting impact on school practice. Particular emphasis will be on the role of the teacher and artist, their unique contributions to projects and the significant benefits that can accrue from a dynamic teacher/artist relationship in the planning and implementation of projects. Placing the teacher/artist project within the overall Arts Curriculum in schools and exploration of related practical issues will be central to the course.
The course draws on research in the field and looks at practical teacher/artist projects and partnerships that have been undertaken in schools recently. Various art forms will be explored and participants will have opportunities to explore their own creativity throughout the week. Course tutors are teachers and artists who have been involved in such projects and participants on the course will include both teachers and local artists. Artists participating in the summer course are nominated through their local authority arts offices.
Are you looking to improve your understanding of arts education, to improve Arts Curriculum integration in your classroom, to work with a partner in the field of ‘The Arts’, to engage with a professional artist as a way of improving your own arts teaching skills? Would you welcome the input and insight of a practising artist while teaching the children in your care?
Schools Principals might consider this course in the context of the Government’s Creative Ireland Programme 2017-2022, featuring “Enabling the Creative Potential of Every Child” in Pillar 1 (creativeireland.ie), the upcoming launch of a Creative Children plan in September 2017 and the overall development of arts education your school community. It may be useful to consider more than one teacher attending from a school or even whole school participation.
A Teacher/ Artist Residency programme will be available to a limited number of the schools which participated in this summer course in the school year 2017-2018. While there is no guarantee that your school will have access to a residency in 2017-2018, this course will provide you with the skills and knowledge to support you and your school in your implementation of the Arts Curriculum.
Date & Venue: Please contact your local Education Centre (Teachers will receive EPV days). The course is free.
The Ark presents an engaging selection of arts summer courses for primary school teachers and a concert for school groups.
For more information please contact (01)6707788/boxoffice@ark.ie
CREATIVE DANCE TALES is storytelling through dance. It began as a pilot workshop project in 2015 which ran in parallel with CoisCéim Dance Theatre’s THE WOLF AND PETER by David Bolger and its three year-long residency at DCU (formerly St. Patrick’s College).
Supported by The Ireland Funds, CoisCéim BROADREACH conducted 26 workshops in 8 primary schools at 6 locations around Ireland with over 300 children taking part. Two specialist seminars for educators were held in Dublin and Galway. CREATIVE DANCE TALES gave children an imaginative, kinaesthetic learning experience in dance and highlighted the power of storytelling through performance.
Emerging in part from requests made by teachers, the CREATIVE DANCE TALES DIGITAL RESOURCE was developed together by BROADREACH and the Physical Education Unit, The School of Arts Education and Movement, Institute of Education, DCU, and funded through the residency by the Arts Council of Ireland.
It is a celebration of the work of children, students, teachers, teacher educators and dance professionals. Distributed free of charge through the Arts in Education Portal in Ireland and www.dcu.ie, the lesson plans are designed to act as a starting point to stimulate creative thinking for teachers and children alike.
Poetry Ireland’s Writers in Schools scheme part-funds visits by writers and storytellers to primary and post-primary schools in the Republic of Ireland (funded by The Arts Council) and Northern Ireland (funded by Arts Council Northern Ireland).
Over the past 22 years, the scheme has given more than 500,000 children the chance to work closely with writers in the classroom. Poetry Ireland believes that the creative energy sparked by these first-hand encounters with writers can trigger an appreciation of the emotional and intellectual power of language that lasts a lifetime.
Writers in Schools single visits are:
Suitable for primary and post-primary school groups
Available in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland
Available with a range of artists including poets, novelists, storytellers, teen fiction writers, children’s writers and screenwriters
2 hours with a selected writer, which can be divided into shorter sessions for different class groups (eg two/ three sessions during one visit).
€100/£85 per visit. This is half the writer’s fee, paid by the school. Poetry Ireland funds the balance plus travel expenses.
B type visits (4 hours/ cost €200/ £170) are reserved for special projects, with more information available upon request.
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National Opera House Present New Drama For Primary School Children
National Opera House
School Shows: Thursday, 25 & Friday, 26 April, 10am and 12pm
Booking is now open for school performances and public performances of Pegasus The Clothes Horse, which runs at the National Opera House. This play is suitable for young people aged 7-10
This new play by Wexford-based Alison Ní Mháirtín, brims with wonder and play. Irish language, music and mythology combine with puppetry, opera and some very silly socks to create an epic journey from a young girl’s own house to the National Opera House.
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Teacher’s CPD: Arts & Wellbeing in MTU Crawford College of Art and Design
MTU Crawford College of Art & Design
Application Deadline: 24th April 2024
Applications are now open for the Level 9 Certificate in Arts & Wellbeing in MTU Crawford College of Art & Design. This is the first course of its kind in Ireland. The course is designed to offer professional development that guides you through the most up to date theories in Wellbeing and Positive Psychology. You will develop your own personal wellbeing at the start of the course, finishing with a resource toolkit of tried and tested arts and wellbeing activities and workshops, developed with your peers.
Completing this course has the added bonus of being an elective on the MA in Arts & Engagement in MTU Crawford, should you wish to continue your studies. Applications for the Certificate in Arts & Wellbeing and the MA in Arts & Engagement are now open through the Crawford and MTU websites.
This course is part-time over the duration of one year.
One Academic Year (Part-time. 1 day twice a month in person, 1 evening online every 2nd week)
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Fall and Float Dance Show Irish Tour 2024 for schools
Mónica Muñoz Dance
Location and Dates: Various
Mónica Muñoz Dance presents FALL and FLOAT: A Dance show for schools in venues across Ireland recommended for children from age 4+.
With playful energy, impressive acrobatics, comic timing and a joyful soundscape, two dancers create a magical world through the clever manipulation of simple balloons. Their imagination seems to know no bounds- resulting in a hypnotic, funny and uplifting performance full of falling, throwing, catching, stumbling, floating… and sometimes maybe even a little bit of flying.
The tour takes place in May across selected venues throughout the country:
15 MayBackstage Theatre, Longford 16 MayNenagh Arts Centre, Co. Tipperary 21 MayCivic Theatre, Tallaght, Dublin 24 23 MayMermaid Arts Centre, Bray, Co. Wicklow 5 JuneSource Arts, Thurles, Co. Tipperary 8 June Dunamaise Arts Centre, Portlaoise *Family shows for Cruinniú na nÓg 12 JuneDraíocht Blanchardstown, Dublin 15. 13 JuneRiverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge, Co. Kildare
Schools and Teachers interested in attending should contact their local venue and book directly through their box office. Ticket prices vary, and teachers attend FREE with their classes.
Towards the end of our playschool year 2023 we had the pleasure of welcoming Kids’ Own associate artists Maree Hensey and Naomi Draper into our playspace, as our playschool took part in the Arts in Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School Age Childcare (SAC) Pilot. Embarking on a journey of creativity and learning together, we put the child’s experience at the centre.
Placing the child at the centre of practice requires a greater investment of energy from the adult. It is usually more stressful and certainly appears more chaotic and messy than putting the adult’s needs at the centre of practice.
In our space we try always to put the experience of the child at the centre of all we do – empowering for the child, exhausting for the adult! One of the many benefits of adopting a truly child-centred approach means that by the end of the year the group is very well defined, usually extremely confident, inclusive and cohesive with members confident, and comfortable within their own role and expectations. This can be beneficial when introducing new adults into the setting, allowing for the swift development of trust and rapport.
Strong leadership is important in ensuring that staff feel supported and secure in their role when new adults are introduced, especially staff are being asked to step away from their comfort zone into unfamiliar and unknown areas: e.g. “I’m rubbish at art…..I don’t know anything about art”. Thoughtful use of supportive, inclusive, non-threatening language can enhance and promote a feeling of mutual respect and encouragement, protecting positive outcomes for all of the adults involved.
We observed how the adults in the setting, both staff and artists, developed positive, supportive links, sharing the experience and learning that emerged through reflective practice: e.g. “I’ve noticed how ______ really loves working with charcoal….We should bring that resource into the playspace more often…..I really enjoyed working with the flowers, twigs, moss that we collected on the nature lane, I never thought of using them in that way before”.
Reflective practice should be a cornerstone of practice in the Early Years and is the hallmark of a high quality service – embracing new ways of doing things, seeking out and welcoming new challenges and reflecting upon this process empowers staff and encourages creative and innovative thinking.
The adult’s experience enhances the child’s experience.
Inviting the artists into our space elevated our practice and energised our thought processes, supporting our continued professional development.
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Job Opportunity: Kids’ Own seeks Portal Assistant (freelance, fixed term contract)
Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership Deadline 3 April 2024
Kids’ Own, the current Arts in Education Portal Mangers, is seeking an experienced individual to assist with elements of the Arts in Education Portal programme in 2024. Reporting to the Arts in Education Portal Manager, and the CEO of Kids’ Own, the Portal Assistant will assist with key events and content development for the Portal. We invite applications from suitably qualified individuals for this fixed term contract for service.
Launched in 2015, the Arts in Education Portal is the key national digital resource of arts and education practice in Ireland. The ethos for the Portal is about building a community of practice within arts and creativity in education, and providing a space – both online and offline – where artists and teachers can be supported and inspired. It provides a platform through which good collaboration practice in arts-in-education and arts education will be supported, developed and enhanced.
The specifications of the contract are set out below.
Coordination of Portal events, particularly the Spring Regional Day, in Sligo in late Spring 2024 and the National Arts in Education Portal Day which will take place in Dublin in early November 2024. Event coordination will include pre-event planning, organising guest speakers, communications with ticket holders and management of all event logistics. Coordinating third-party suppliers, freelancers, videographers and designers to ensure on-time delivery of assets.
Developing social media content to promote the content of the Arts in Education Portal website and events, ensuring the delivery of effective, cohesive, and engaging brand messaging.
Assistance with the management of the Arts in Education Portal website, including updating content.
Assisting with the development of content for the AIE Portal, which could include travelling to different education settings to document arts in education projects.
The successful applicant will have:
A strong interest in arts in education and collaborative arts practice.
Experience in event coordination.
Experience with self-directed projects.
Strong digital skills, including experience using WordPress.
Proven track record in managing social media campaigns, across platforms including Facebook, Instagram, X, and LinkedIn.
Expertise in documenting creative projects.
Ability to travel when required for meetings, events etc. Full, clean driving license and access to own transport.
Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
Excellent organisational and time-management skills.
The ability to work well as part of a small team.
Desirable:
Experience in working with non-profit or charitable organisations.
How to apply:
Applicants should send a detailed CV, along with a cover letter outlining their interest in this piece of work, with reference to relevant experience, and any other relevant details.
Fee: there is a set fee of €12,000 for the delivery of these services. There will be additional funds available for travel and other expenses to be confirmed with the successful applicant(s).
Timeline: Timelines will be agreed with successful candidate, but candidates should note dates of Regional and National Day events are in May and November.
Deadline: Wednesday 3rd April
How to apply: please send a cover letter detailing your experience, approach, and interest in the role, along with a CV to ciara@kidsown.ie
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BLAST Arts & Creativity in Education Residency 2024/2025 Applications Are Now Open
Department of Education: BLAST Initiative
Application Deadline: 10th May 2024
Applications for BLAST are now open.
Minister for Education Norma Foley, TD, has invited primary, post-primary, special schools and YouthReach to apply for the BLAST – Bringing Live Arts to Students and Teachers – arts in education initiative 2024/25.
Minister Foley is delighted to confirm that BLAST will be running in 2024 for the fourth time. The 2024 programme will enable 425 new arts in education residencies in schools over the course of the year.
BLAST aims to provide pupils in schools all over the country, time and the space to work with a professional artist/creative practitioner on imaginative and joyful projects. BLAST is a key Department of Education initiative of the Creative Youth Plan 2023-2027 which aims to foster creativity in schools focus and to provide young people with opportunities to learn and develop the key skills and competencies of collaboration, critical thinking, problem-solving, and innovation.
Innovative BLAST residencies are designed and developed between the artist/creative practitioner, teacher, students and the school community under the coordination of the 21 full-time Education Support Centres Ireland (ESCI) network.
Minister Foley said: “I am extremely proud to announce the launch of BLAST 2024, which builds on the great success of the BLAST 2021, 2022 and 2023 Programme.”
BLAST Arts & Creativity in Education Residency 2024/2025 apply online here: LINK
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Siamsa Tíre Theatre Host Free ‘Whole Wild World Bus Tour’ Workshop for Children
Siamsa Tíre Theatre & Art Gallery
Dates: 24th April 2024 10am to 11:30am
School groups can join award-winning children’s author Jane Hayes, along with other authors and illustrators for a hands-on workshop designed specifically for young children.
As part of the Whole Wide World Bus Tour, Siamsa Tíre Theatre and Art Gallery are offering free workshops for children. This first-of-its-kind ‘Whole Wild World Bus Tour’ will bring children’s writers and illustrators to schools, libraries, bookshops and cultural venues all along the west coast of Ireland this April to host workshops, readings and artist events for school groups, library groups and families.
The children will work with the writers to create a brand-new story together while the illustrator produces artwork to accompany the children’s story. These illustrations will be projected onto a screen for everyone to see in real time while the artist draws. The audience can see their story come together as they view what their new characters and the world they are creating will look like.
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FÍS Film Project Invite Primary Schools to Enter Their Storyboard Storytelling Competition
FÍS FILM Project
Deadline: Friday 19th April 2024 at 5pm
Irish primary schools are invited to enter the 2024 FÍS Storyboard Storytelling competition. The FÍS Storyboard Storytelling Competition is open to all primary schools in the Republic of Ireland. Only storyboards created and produced by primary school pupils and their teacher(s) will be eligible, i.e., the storyboard must be the school’s own original work.
To enter schools should create a storyboard that is a visual interpretation of a story, a concept, a topic, a poem or nursery rhyme. Suggested themes are as follows but not limited to:
Everyday heroes, e.g. ‘a day-in-the-life of someone in your community who supports others
Staycation
Local History / Folklore
As Gaeilge
Curriculum relevant topic, e.g. environmental exploration, climate change, history, science, etc.
Time capsule, e.g. school of the future, letters to grandchildren, a snapshot of time
An adaptation of a traditional story / fairytale with a modern day twist
FÍS film making in schools – what would that be like in the future?
The pupils own original story
Judging Critera Highlights:
When reviewing storyboards submitted to the competition, judges will consider the following:
Excellence in visual interpretation of a story or concept or topic
Excellence in the use of artistic media e.g. a variety of art materials, copyright free images, etc.
Imagination and creativity
Curricular relevance
Support of pupils’ literacy skills development and enhanced learning
Use of different types of shots, i.e. close-ups, mid-shots, long-shots, etc. that help to convey the story
Evidence that the Storyboards could be developed in the future by the class or group into a FÍS film or stop-motion animation project for entry into the 19th Annual FÍS Film Awards competition 2024.
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Kids’ Own Offer Complimentary Books and Teacher Resource to Schools and Educators
Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership
Kids’ Own have published two books by children and young people from the Roma and Traveller community Cork. They are offering complimentary copies of these books, together with the accompanying teacher learning resource, to schools and educators.
Explore the lives of Roma children with The Real Us. This publication shares their voices, experiences, and ambitions, challenging stereotypes and fostering empathy.
Discover insights from Traveller children with Grow Up Strong. Through narratives and artwork, this publication celebrates their experiences, highlighting the significance of their voices.
Developed by teachers, artists, and educators, the teacher resource supports the use of these books in classrooms. With a focus on fostering creativity and meaningful discussions, it aims to cultivate cultural understanding by centring children and young people’s experiences.
Tailored for upper primary and post-primary levels (Junior Cycle), these resources provide valuable perspectives and insights for your students’ educational journey.
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Opportunity For Teachers : CPD Courses with Education Support Centres Ireland
Education Support Centres Ireland (ESCI)
Education Support Centres Ireland are offering a selection of CPD courses for teachers. Highlights of courses available are as follows:
Cork Education Support Centre
Course Title: Enriching Learning Through Play – The Power of Drama Games in your Classroom
Location: Online
Date: 10 April 2024
Level: Primary
Drama can sometimes feel like a strain for teachers! Join Debbie Cullinane for an enlightening, informative webinar, where you’ll delve into the magic of drama games for all ages and the positive impact they can have in your classroom. A huge bank of games & resources will be shared, along with practical ideas to seamlessly integrate drama games into your classroom.
Read more and register here: https://www.cesc.ie/primary-courses/3022-24-5938-spr-enriching-learning-through-play.html
Wexford Education Support Centre
Course Title: Senior Cycle Poetry
Location : Online
Date: 30 April 2024
Level: Post primary
Join facilitator Deidre Carroll in this CPD Course by Wexford Education Support Centre.
Looking at Language – What is required in a Comprehension exercise? Writing style – what is it? How to write an impactful piece. The composition – what to choose, what to write.
Course Title: Let’s Play
Location : Online
Date: 30 April 2024
Level: Primary and Post primary
Join multi-disciplinary artist Kajsa Kinsella for an exciting webinar titled “Let’s Play!” In this session, learn how to transform everyday objects into simple, cost-effective toys, games, and even musical instruments. Imagine the joy on your students’ faces as they learn to create, replicate, and share these fun projects, fostering a love for learning that lasts a lifetime.
This is a great opportunity to bring hands-on, interactive learning into your classroom.
Course Title: Sensory Arts for SEN
Location : Online
Date: 07 May 2024
Level: Primary, Special Education
Join Blackrock Education on this webinar where you will learn to create captivating educational, safe and sensory arts and crafts for and with SEN classes. Speaker Kajsa Kinsella will show you how to utilise everyday items to create educational material for children of different abilities, sensitivities and preferences.
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Catalyst International Film Festival Hosts Screening The Future Student Day
Catalyst International Film Festival
Date: 18th April 2024
Booking is now open for Catalyst International Film Festival’s Screening The Future Student Day. The event will include a full day of film for Second Level Students plus:
INTERACTIVE FILMMAKING MASTERCLASS
With Screenwriter & Director Laura O’Shea and Editor & Educator Phil Shanahan (plus Actor)
Venue: Engine – Innovate Limerick, Cecil Street, Limerick
Time: 9am and 11am
Duration: 1.5 hours
Price: €10 per student (€15 for Masterclass + Afternoon in The Belltable)
AN AFTERNOON OF FILM IN THE BELLTABLE!
Irish Shorts Taster Programme
Vote for your favourite Short
Meet the Industry Panel and Q+A
Nextgen perspectives shorts programme and award presentation
Venue: Belltable Theatre, 69 O’Connell Street, Limerick
Time: 1.15pm – 4pm with short interval
Price: €7 per student (€15 for Masterclass + Afternoon in The Belltable)
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Call for presentations and workshops: Portal Spring Regional Day 2024
Deadline extended: 5th April 2024
Artists, teachers, academics and arts education professionals… Would you like to be part of the Portal Spring Regional Day? The Arts in Education Portal Team are seeking submissions for presentations for the Portal Spring Regional Day 2024 with a focus on the North-West Region. This regional event will take place on Saturday 25th May in Sligo at Sligo Education Centre.
The event aims to connect teachers, artists, arts managers and anyone with an interest in art and creativity in education based in the counties around Sligo, Mayo, Donegal, Leitrim and Roscommon.
Practitioners can learn more about the Portal and what it offers, tell us about their work, connect with the community at regional level, share practice and find out what opportunities or events are available in their local area.
We are inviting proposals from organisations or individuals who are involved in arts and creative projects in education in the North-West, and who want to give inspiring presentations or workshops that can offer sharing of skills, practical approaches, new insights and critical thinking across the field, from a range of perspectives.
Do you have a presentation or workshop that you would like to be included in the programme for the Portal Spring Regional Day? If so, please complete your proposal via our online form from the link below. If you have any questions please get in touch by email to editor@artsineducation.ie.
Application Information:
The programme includes two project presentations with up to two presenters.
Two creative workshops with one facilitator will be selected.
All Speakers and Creative workshop facilitators must be based in the North-West Region (Donegal, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon and Sligo).
Towards the end of our playschool year in 2023 we had the pleasure of welcoming Kids’ Own associate artists Maree Hensey and Naomi Draper into our playspace, as our playschool took part in the Arts in Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School Age Childcare (SAC) Pilot. Embarking on a journey of creativity and learning together, we put the child’s experience at the centre.
By placing the experience for the child at the centre it, the experience, becomes relevant and meaningful for the child – they are empowered and the process better reflects the individual need of each child. For example, a more confident and socially independent child will prioritise their learning through identifying and initiating contact with the newcomers. She will explore what they have to offer, what their contribution is going to be and how she can use this to further her own learning. She will embrace the new experience, quickly and enthusiastically seeking out learning e.g. “What’s your name?….What’s in your basket?….Can I have a go?….I need that” etc. etc.
A more reserved child, on the other hand, may prefer to spend his time in an observational role, building up learning through spectating, watching others, as they develop relationships and build trust. Once this phase is completed he is ready to take a more active role within the group once they become certain of expectation, roles and the new dynamics which are emerging.
Children experience art and the creative process differently to adults. Mostly children are creative in nature, possessing abundant curiosity and motivation to explore, experiment and create. Children do this all of the time through constructive play, arts and craft, mark making, dramatic role-play, musical play and physical play. It is, in fact, impossible to stop children from creating – it is how they learn.
The introduction of the artists directed the children’s learning and we observed how the child’s experience was enhanced through the patient, child-centred and facilitative approach adopted and employed by the artists.
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Arts for transformative education: A guide for teachers from the UNESCO Associated Schools Network
UNESCO
This guide invites teachers to harness the transformative power of the arts through the research-informed Arts for Transformative Education model. This thinking tool for teachers was developed by analysing data from more than 600 teachers across 39 countries in the UNESCO Associated Schools Network (ASPnet).
The guide presents and explains the Arts for Transformative Education model – a thinking tool for understanding, planning and supporting transformative arts learning experiences. It also describes a curated collection of arts learning activities and projects from across the globe that may serve as inspiration for arts learning experiences suited to your own context.
This publication provides:
12 ‘learning experience descriptions’ illustrating how the Arts for Transformative Education model works in real-world learning.
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Cork County Council’s Library and Arts Service Seeks Creative Facilitators and Musicians
Cork County Council Library and Arts Service
Deadline: Friday 15th March 2024 at 5pm
Cork County Council’s Library and Arts Service is seeking creative facilitators and musicians to work with them over the next two years.
This is an invitation for
Musicians who are interested in performing in community settings, including schools, libraries, care homes etc. as part of the Council’s Arts Activity Programme.
Arts Facilitators working in any medium, for example visual arts, literature, or crafts, interested in delivering workshops and co-creating once off and medium-term quality arts projects with people of all ages, as part of the Council’s Arts Activity Programme.
In 2022, the Arts Office established a panel of enthusiastic, experienced, and skilled arts facilitators in various arts disciplines. Selected panellists have worked in a range of different engagement settings throughout the county including National Play Day, Cruinniú na nÓg, library workshops, and arts and health projects.
Cork County Council’s Arts Office is now updating this panel for arts facilitators, also extending the call to musicians.
JCSP Libraries are running an exciting new photography challenge. This inclusive challenge can be enjoyed by students in post-primary JCSP/DEIS schools across all year groups. The aim is to support young people to develop their artistic practice, creativity, originality and self-expression through the medium of photography.
The main idea behind this initiative is to promote visual literacy and creative thinking. To take part, students are encouraged to take a daily photo inspired by daily prompt words throughout February. Students can snap photographs of people, places or things around them. The prompt list encourages students to study the world around them and to focus on visual features including texture, pattern, colour and shape. Extra resources on jcsplibraries.com will also allow students to make connections between photography and numeracy, learn new tips and tricks, and to develop their literacy with photography keywords. The challenge is very flexible: individual students, clubs or classes can participate.
The Challenge is open to students in all post-primary JCSP/DEIS schools and that winners will be selected in 3 categories:
1. Junior
2. TY and Senior
3. Special Needs
HOW TO ENTER:
This exciting new photography competition is open to students in 2nd Level JCSP and DEIS schools across Ireland.
There will be three prizes categories: Junior Cycle, Senior Cycle, Special Needs.
Each school can submit a maximum of 5 entries per category.
All entries must be the original work of the students.
All entries must be submitted via the school and using the official entry form. Students should not submit entries directly.
Send a digital file or make a scan of all of your student entries and send them to info@jcsplibraries.ie along with a copy of the entry form detailing your school and participating students’ details.
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Barnstorm Theatre presents new work for Junior Cert Students
Barnstorm Theatre Company
Dates: Thursday 29th February & Fri 1st March 2024
This month Barnstorm Theatre Company is proud to produce the first Curriculum Play Live for Junior Cert students. This gives an opportunity for students to contextualise course material by experiencing a full production of a play in their Junior Cert curriculum. This play is ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ by Oscar Wilde
This is a great opportunity for students to see the characters, themes, and language of the play in action, and to have fun while learning.
School performances take place on Thursday 29th Feb and Friday 1st March at 10:30am.
School group tickets are only €12 per person (teachers go free).
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Free Creative Workshops at Solstice Arts Centre
Solstice Arts Centre
Dates: various
As part of Solstice Arts Centre’s Learning and Participation programme a number of workshops are available to primary schools connecting with their current and upcoming visual art exhibitions. The following workshops are aimed at Junior Infants to First Class and are free, however booking is essential.
Mapping the gallery spaces together through movement and drawing, let’s explore the artworks on display by artist Mark Garry as part of his exhibition to hold or to be held. Delicately constructed by hand, Mark’s work awakens the senses, arranging objects that cross the space and form relationships to each other. Using the four interconnected themes of Aistear: well-being; identity and belonging; communicating; exploring and thinking, create with paper and pastel to make a large collaborative piece of art. This workshop will also draw on cross-curricular links to colour, shape, and construction while extending children’s learning with visual and verbal stimulation. Further information on the workshop can be found here: https://solsticeartscentre.ie/event/fold
disAPPEAR
Fri 26 Apr 2024
9:30am & 11am (60 mins)
Where do shadows go? Why do they disappear? In this playful workshop, primary level pupils will explore light and time, creating imaginary scenes that will only remain in our memory. Or will they? Can we capture shadows, hold them and revisit them again?
Inspired by the artworks in our gallery created by artist Willie Doherty as part of his exhibition Remnant, we will combine reality with the imagined. Connecting through light, drawing and story, we will embrace elements of belonging and collaboration, unfolding possibilities through creative fun and making the imagined visible. Further information on the workshop can be found here: https://solsticeartscentre.ie/event/disappear
For all queries and bookings email Deirdre: deirdre.rogers@solsticeartscentre.ie
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Opportunity for Schools: Creative Clusters 2024-2026 initiative
Department of Education
Deadline: 10th May 2024
The Department of Education is pleased to announce the opening of a new round of Creative Clusters for the two years commencing September 2024. The programme is open to primary and post-primary schools, including special schools, as well as YouthReach centres.
Up to €575,000 has been made available this year for Creative Clusters and this will enable up to 210 schools to come together across 42 clusters.
Each Creative Cluster will receive grant funding of €3,000 per school over a two-year period to implement their project 2024–2026.
3 schools would receive €9,000
5 schools would receive €15,000
In addition to financial support above each cluster will also receive:
A Creative Cluster Facilitator
Teacher Substitution to attend workshops and meetings
Eligible Schools – The following schools are welcome to apply to participate in Creative Clusters:
Schools that have not yet participated in Creative Clusters.
Schools that have not yet participated in Creative Schools and those who will complete Creative Schools Year 2 in the 2023/24 school year.
Schools that will complete Creative Clusters Year 2 in the 2023/24 school year. However, they must apply as part of a cluster who have not yet participated in the initiative. In this instance, it is required that this school applies to lead a cluster of schools that are new to the initiative.
The local Education Support Centre will have a key role in identifying and supporting a Creative Cluster for their local area. 42 Creative Clusters will be selected nationally – 2 per Education Support Centre.
In announcing this new round of Creative Clusters, Minister Foley said:
“This is a wonderful opportunity for schools to work together on a creative project of their choice. Schools are given complete freedom to design and develop their own project, with support from a local facilitator and their local education centre.”
Creative Clusters is an initiative of the Department of Education, led by and in partnership with the 21 full-time Education Centres (Education Support Centres Ireland – ESCI) and funded through the Schools Excellence Fund.
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Opportunity: Portal Documentation Award 2024
Deadline extended: 6 March 2024
The Arts in Education Portal editorial team are pleased to invite applications for a documentation award. Through the award, successful applicants will receive services to the value of €5,000 that will support them in the documentation of a current or upcoming project and a €500 stipend.
The purpose of the award is to support the development of documented outcomes from Arts in Education initiatives in Ireland, which can be shared with the arts in education community and give insights into different processes of engagement. This is part of the Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee’s commitment to supporting and recognising the value of documentation and reflection as key components within arts in education initiatives.
Two awards will be offered through this opportunity.
Outcomes of the documentation process will include: a project video, a project feature to be showcased on the Portal’s Projects/Partnerships, and the option of a critical essay, with a view to also presenting the work as part of the Arts in Education Portal National Day in 2024.
The process will involve meetings with the Portal Team and a schedule of up to 2 visits over the course of the project to capture video and photographic documentation and support reflective processes among participants. These visits and meetings can be conducted virtually if required.
The portal team will edit and produce a project video and will liaise closely with the project partners to develop the content for the project feature. The critical essay would be cited in the Portal’s Reading Room and is optional. The author and focus of the essay can be decided by the project organisers in collaboration with the Portal Team.
Criteria
To be considered for this opportunity, projects must:
Have started in Autumn 2023 and continue into 2024, or take place in 2024. Please note if selected, filming of engagement sessions will take place after 19th March 2024.
Have a minimum duration of 8 weeks.
Involve a professional artist working collaboratively within an educational setting (early years, primary or post-primary).
Be underpinned by a strong ethos of collaboration and a commitment to excellence. Focus on the creative process, with children having an active and collaborative role.
Additional criteria
Successful applicants will be asked to ensure that relevant permissions/consent have been sought for the documentation of participants.
Please ensure your application has been approved by all project partners prior to submission.
Deadline for submission is 5pm, Wednesday 6 March 2024.
Note: this article was amended on 29/02/24 to revise the deadline for submission from Friday 1 to Wednesday 6 March
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I-TAP-PD: Research Reports
International Teacher-Artist Partnership (I-TAP-PD) PD
Research reports from the International Teacher-Artist Partnership (I-TAP-PD) PD project were published in June 2023. The project focus was on enabling teachers and artists to jointly develop their understanding, expertise and creativity in ‘arts in education’ work with children and young people in education, community and arts settings. It is funded under the Erasmus+ KA2 Strategic Partnership for School Education initiative.
Consisting of a 5-day pre-service training course to prepare participants for their partnered engagement and a 20 hour in-situ residency in a primary school, the programme was piloted in four countries: Ireland, Serbia, Greece and the Netherlands.
I-TAP-PD focuses specifically on the partnership between a teacher and an artist, aiming to facilitate a strong foundation of relationship and inspiration before working together in the classroom. In co-creating this methodology a research group was organised to collect data about the impact of the programme and the residencies, and to monitor the development and finetuning of the training programme. The research team consists of representatives of each country.
Four residencies took place in Ireland during 2022, data from these, confirmed findings published internationally on TAP initiatives. In this case, sufficient allocation of time for residencies, whole school buy-in and political will and support were confirmed as the main enablers of TAP practices, whereas two residencies were hindered by a lack of support by school management. Key findings for the Irish research indicated that learning fell broadly into three categories: personal development, professional development and effective collaboration. The greatest areas of learning for teachers were in the collaborative sphere while artists reported significant personal development.
The research from each partner country is available to read on the I-TAP-PD website, including a short introduction and download link to each research reports from Ireland along with Greece, Serbia and the Netherlands. Read them all and explore how the programme and residencies were experienced and analysed within the different contexts.
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Highlights at Mother Tongues Festival for artists and creative practitioners
Mother Tongues Festival
Dates: 16th-17th Feb
Mother Tongues Festival is the largest festival celebrating linguistic diversity through the arts in Ireland. Its mission is to showcase the country’s rich artistic and cultural tapestry, and connect people through the power of language. Most of the events are designed for families with children, this year there are two exciting events which explore the intersection of multilingualism and the arts.
Creativity and Multilingualism – Panel Discussion and Workshop
Mother Tongues Festival invites the public to join an engaging exploration of Creativity and Multilingualism at the County Library, Tallaght. The event, funded by Languages Connect and organised in collaboration with Trinity College’s School of Education, will feature a panel discussion and a workshop, and will be followed by a film screening.
The afternoons activities will commence with a presentation by Dr Francesca La Morgia, continue with the participatory workshop “Living Languages: Exploring mothertongues through body and voice”, led by Miriam Stewart and finish with a discussion panel among academics Jean-Rémi Lapaire, Claire Dunne and Iseult Ní Chonchúir.
“Go Beyond Language” Workshop on Multilingual Performance
Mother Tongues Festival continues its exploration of multilingualism with the “Go Beyond Language” workshop focused on multilingual performance. The workshop will take place at Rua Red, Tallaght, from 10 am to 6 pm.
This professional development programme aims to enhance participants’ skills in drama-based methodologies that foster language development, inclusion, and well-being. Facilitated by Teatro Multilingue coaches Flavio Marigliani and Marta Iacopini, the interdisciplinary workshop is open to all socially engaged arts practitioners interested in working in multilingual contexts.
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Pinocchio: Teachers’ Visual Art CPD at The Ark
The Ark
Date: 9th March 2024
This visual art workshop for teachers is inspired by the timeless story of the wooden puppet Pinocchio celebrating the 140th anniversary of the first publication.
Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio is one of the world’s best-loved children’s books, translated into over 280 languages and dialects, and the subject of countless films and television series.
Although Pinocchio’s story has been adapted into many media the focus of The Ark’s visual art programme is on the illustrated book, from vintage copies to modern interpretations and by various artists and illustrators.
You will be introduced to and experiment with different illustrative styles and creative solutions including pop-up book-making, collage and block printing. The aim is to create your own version of the story and produce your own Pinocchio booklet.
Attending this CPD will support you if you wish to bring your class to a workshop as part of The Ark’s Pinocchio programme later in the year, but will also stand alone and provide you with lots of ideas you can use in your own classroom.
Suitable for all levels of experience including beginners.
Children’s Books Ireland are delighted to announce the 2024 Junior Juries’ scheme – part of the KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards – is now open for registration! Junior Juries is a unique programme for schools, libraries and book clubs, designed to encourage reading for pleasure and appreciation for a wide variety of books for all ages.
Participating classes make their own selection of suitable titles from the KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards shortlist, which will be announced on 7th February online and at Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast. Each group will be provided with a specially designed digital resource pack so participants can engage with the chosen books by taking part in quizzes, debates, discussions, research projects, creative writing, and visual art activities which will enhance their reading experience. At the end of this process, each group is asked to collectively score the books they have read.
Registration is completely free, all groups will receive:
A digital resource pack
Bookmarks
Poster
As part of the Junior Juries scheme registered groups can apply for the following free opportunities*:
An online or in-person author or illustrator visit to your school March – April 2024
A visit from a KPMG volunteer on 21 March 2024
Copies of the shortlisted books
A chance to be part of a short online video about the Junior Juries
Attending the in-person awards ceremony on 22 May 2024
*These opportunities are limited and based on need. Applications for books or author/illustrator/volunteer visits will be given to those groups who show most need.
Registration for the Junior Juries is ongoing. However, if you’d like to apply for an author visit or visit from a KPMG volunteer please ensure to register your class no later than 1 March 2024.
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New Creative Schools initiative: Creative February
The Arts Council of Ireland
Dates: 1st-29th Feb
The Arts Council is inviting all schools across Ireland to get involved in their first ever Creative February, a celebration of art and creativity in schools with a focus on fun, festivities, imagination and innovation. This initiative will run from the 1st to the 29th of February.
Creative February will recognise and affirm that our schools are truly creative places, filled with very creative people. From primary to secondary to alternative settings, all children and young people will be encouraged to MAKE, SEE, DO.
Make any style of art you choose – paint, draw, dance, knit, design, sculpt, code;
See art – visit a museum or gallery, attend a theatre or spoken word performances, dance shows, music gigs, or see architecture and local art in your town or city!
Do a creative project – as a team, as a class or as a school.
To help inspire, guide and motivate everyone taking part, the Arts Council will host a series of online workshops in collaboration with Monaghan Education Centre and Wexford Education Support Centre. These workshops will be divided: half will be catering for school staff and teachers, with the remainder dedicated to students.
The underlying theme for Creative February is Spring. Creation from new growth, the seeds of inspiration, this theme hopes to encourage students and school communities to reflect on where creativity begins in our lives, in every class, in every school and how it can grow and flourish.
Ongoing updates and details of webinars will appear across the Arts Council’s social media platforms and Creative February website.
Run by the Creative Schools team within the Arts Council, Creative February is open to every school in the country, and all are warmly invited to take part. A welcome pack, with posters and details has been distributed to each school across the country.
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National Museum of Ireland: New School Programmes
National Museum of Ireland
Dates: various
The National Museum of Ireland is delighted to launch its latest programme of guided tours, workshops and resources for primary schools for the spring term. Available from January 2024, all activities are offered free of charge and encompass all four Museum sites in Dublin and Co. Mayo.
Each site focuses on a different part of the National Collections with a school programme to reflect the collection on display at each location offering a diverse range of activities to complement the primary curriculum.
Highlights from each location:
GUIDED TOUR: A Taste of the Past – The History of Food and Drink – Collins Barracks, Dublin 7 – 3rd-6th Class
This interactive tour will give students a flavour of the wealth of artifacts on display in the Museum. They show the continuity and change of food preparation over time.
GUIDED TOUR: The Vikings in Ireland – Kildare Street – 3rd-6th Class
The Vikings in Ireland guided tour explores the three main activities of the Vikings – raiding, trading and settling – using the Museum’s unique collection of artifacts.</p
WORKSHOP: Engineers Week: Make a Town – Turlough Park, Castlebar, Co. Mayo – 5th & 6th Class
In this virtual session construct buildings, make roads and paths, cut, colour and create each building and put them into your town layout! Participants may like to decorate with Matchbox cars or figurines and can work from their classroom to expand, make further buildings and perhaps even a whole city with Makermeet!
GUIDED TOUR: Get Stuffed! – Merrion Street, Dublin 2 – Junior Infants-2nd Class
This session is new and specifically designed for junior primary audiences. Make some new friends as we visit the furry deer, feathery puffins, and scaly turtles on a guided tour led by a Museum Educator.
View the full schools programme for the National Museum of Ireland at:
The Arts Council has warmly welcomed the publication of a landmark report which shows the impact, reach and influence of the Creative Schools Programme. Creative Schools is led by the Arts Council in partnership with the Department of Education, the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and Creative Ireland.
The report by Dr Regina Murphy and Dr Eemer Eivers (Dublin City University) presents an evaluation of the first four years (2018-2022) of the initiative and provides information on the experiences of children and young people, teachers, educators, arts practitioners and artists. To date 971 schools, nearly a quarter of all schools in the country [~24%], have participated in the programme.
Participants in schools and centres, including children, students, teachers, principals, Creative Schools Coordinators and their supporting Creative Associates have been overwhelmingly positive in their overall attitudes towards the programme and in their reports of experience. 99% of participating schools said they would recommend the programme to other schools.
Schools from every county in Ireland have participated in the programme and all school types including 27 Youthreach Centres, have been well represented. The Creative Schools programme has successfully prioritised participation by DEIS Schools, small rural schools, Special Schools, Irish Language medium schools and Youthreach centres in response to interim findings from this report.
In many instances, changes to how students perceive their place in the school as well as improvements to the physical face of the school (e.g. an art installation or a student co-designed garden), can be directly attributed to the programme. The report also highlights that the Creative Schools initiative has been successful in promoting and infusing creativity in schools and drawing attention to the increasing importance of creativity in education.
Creative Schools has opened up a very broad range of experiences for students and pupils and each participating school has had a unique journey. The wide variety of activities undertaken by schools during their engagement in Creative Schools have included circus, architecture, heritage, music, comedy, literature, coding, traditional arts, science, horticulture, film, design, craft, drama, visual arts and dance.
The researchers Dr. Murphy and Dr. Eivers conclude:
“The overall Creative Schools initiative has transformed a very broad range of Irish schools in the Irish educational landscape more than any other initiative heretofore in placing learners in every county at the heart of the process, valuing and validating their perspectives and experiences, collaborating meaningfully with them while shifting the focus of arts education in particular from child-centred to child-led participatory practice.”
Maureen Kennelly, Arts Council Director said of the report:
“…By placing young people at the heart of decision making, we have been able to support schools to fully embrace the creative possibilities within their community and their locality…”
Catherine Martin TD, Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media said:
“Creative Schools, a key programme under the Creative Youth Plan, has gone from strength to strength since 2018, particularly in its reach to schools and those under the DEIS programme, in alternative settings and special schools. This report highlights positive impacts that Creative Schools has had on students and their school communities…”
Minister for Education, Norma Foley TD added:
“I welcome DCU’s Creative Schools report which highlights the success of the programme in putting the arts and creativity at the centre of education. It has given students the opportunity to develop creative projects on their own school grounds, to take part in workshops and performances and to visit galleries, theatres, heritage sites, cinemas, museums, libraries and local arts centres…”
Two Sixth Year students from Mungret Community College, Limerick who participated in the Creative Schools programme also gave their views about their experience.
Aaroh Jain: “I think Creative Schools had a profound impact on me, because it was a chance to exercise autonomy in our school, a platform to see if we could bring our own ideas to life.”
Eve Adedirann: “Creative Schools is a great way to explore interests you may have thought you never had.”
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Opportunity for Schools: Young Filmmaker of the Year 2024 call for submissions
Fresh International Film Festival
Deadline extended: Friday, 1st February 2024
Fresh International Film Festival is accepting entries for Ireland’s Young Filmmaker of the Year 2024. Open to all young budding filmmakers and school groups, between 7 – 18 years of age, encouraging young people from Ireland and overseas to create, exhibit, and share films. Submissions are welcome across comedy, horror, drama, documentary, experimental, music video, animation.
The 28th annual Fresh International Film Festival will take place in April, showcasing hundreds of short films from Ireland’s future screen talent. A highlight of the festival is Ireland’s Young Filmmaker of the Year, an awards programme which acknowledges and celebrates the highest standards of youth filmmaking across three categories: Junior (7-12 years), Senior (13-18 years) and International (7-18 years). The awards include a prize fund, filmmaking equipment, mentoring sessions with creative professionals, and the opportunity for young people to have their work screened theatrically.
Dublin student Max Hendrickson (17) was named Ireland’s Young Filmmaker of the Year 2023 at the Fresh International Film Festival. His short animated film, The Tell-Tale Heart is a re-telling of Edgar Allan Poe’s famous short story and it scooped the top prize for the amazing young Director.
“I have been submitting to the Fresh International Film Festival since I was 12, and it has consistently provided the inspiration and motivation for me to keep making movies. It has been absolutely amazing to attend every year and meet other young filmmakers, and I urge all aspiring filmmakers to submit their work to Fresh”. – Max Hendrickson, Dublin; Ireland’s Young Filmmaker of the Year 2023.
Are you a school group who produced an original film work since January 2023? Closing date for entries is Friday, 1 February, 2024 and are welcomed in English (or English subtitles) and Irish.
This article was edited to amend the deadline date which was extended from 19 Jan to 1 Feb
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Funding Opportunities and Events for Artists
The beginning of the year often signals the start of the funding cycle for artists and arts organisations, we have collated a number of upcoming webinars and sessions along with a selection grants of interest for artists working in the arts and creativity in education sector as well as school/education leaders.
Funding Opportunities from The Arts Council
The Arts Council is the national agency for funding, developing and promoting the arts in Ireland. They recently released the current schedule for funding opportunities for 2024. The full listing can be found here: https://www.artscouncil.ie/funding-opportunities-schedule/
For interest to school/education leaders and artists in the arts and creativity in education practice are a selection of relevant funding streams:
Creative Schools Initiative – opens 27th Feb, deadline 2nd May (open to Department of Education-recognised primary and post-primary schools and Youthreach centres)
Young People, Children and Education Residencies – opens 5th Mar, deadline 4th Apr (open to higher-education institutions that provide initial teacher education in partnership with an artist / arts organisation)
Date: Thursday 25th January 2024
VAI are hosting a webinar ‘An Artist’s Guide to Accessing Funding’ on Thursday 25th January at 11am via zoom with curator and critic Marianne O’Kane Boal. This event is supported by Clare, Limerick and Tipperary County Council Arts Offices.
The online session will consist of one 45 minute presentation that will take a closer look at all things ‘Funding and applications’ covering grants, bursaries, residencies, per cent for art commissions and project proposals. It is free to artists based in Counties Clare, Limerick and Tipperary and general admission is €10.
The Arts Council is also hosting a series of ‘Meet the Arts Council’ sessions in arts venues around the country in January/February.
These sessions are an opportunity to speak with Arts Council staff about funding opportunities and hear about what the Arts Council does.
Update: bookings have now closed for all events, but you are welcome to join the waiting list using the links below and the Arts Council will contact you if further places arise.
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Blog 4 – Lorna Watkins, Visual Artist and TAP+ Tutor
It’s all in the planning.
We are all starting to wind down for Christmas so it’s a good time to start thinking about any future TAP+ or Blast projects that may be on the horizon in the New Year. Maybe reach out to any partners that you may be working with in January or February, have a coffee or arrange a Zoom meeting for an initial meet and greet. It’ll just be great to have touched base before signing off this term.
How do you do your actual planning? Do you record on an app? Do you take notes old school in a diary? I do a combo of both. I use the Goodnotes app on my iPad and a bullet journal. For the bullet journal, I like to use a Leuchtturm 1917 notebook. I divide every double spread into a week and keep a double spread spare for listing monthly activities. I love how it’s flexible, I can draw or use pages at the back for longer notes. For detailed notes, I use my Goodnotes app. I highly recommend it if you have an iPad. You can hand write notes or type, record audio from lectures and you can insert images. When I’m working in a school, I would take photos then insert them into the notes to remind me of what happened that day. I use the 2 systems to keep me on track.
Maybe ask Santy for some new notebooks? Or an iPad if he’s very generous!
I recently worked in a secondary school, Colaiste Mhuire in Ballymote on a BLAST Residency. Both Oona McGrath and I spent a lot of time planning to maximise my time with the students and it really paid off. We decided to do a two day intensive session with the students. We had a coffee in August and then had a studio visit. Oona discussed what she wanted to get out of the residency, she really thought about what her students needed so that was brilliant. Once we figured out what we were going to do, we were able to make a detailed materials list. I recorded this in my bullet journal and then screen shot it into my Goodnotes app to have a permanent record of it. Everything from what print paper to how we were going to protect the tables in the art room. It was very specific and it really worked. We checked in with each other coming closer to November and then it was smooth sailing when I turned up into the class as everything was perfect. I had visited the room beforehand and we had planned how the room needed to be rearranged before we started. It just made everything so much easier to work on the day, everything was in place and the focus was on the students as it should be.
Have a peaceful, restful time on your break and a Happy New Year.
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An Cumann Scoildrámaíochta: Irish medium drama festivals for primary and post-primary schools
An Cumann Scoildrámaíochta
Dates: February – March 2024
An Cumann Scoildrámaíochta, which is under the patronage of the Department of Gaeltacht and Rural Affairs, organises schools drama festivals on a countrywide basis to promote Irish medium drama in schools at both primary and post-primary level.
The festivals are organised on a local, provincial and national basis. These festivals give young people from every part of the country the opportunity to be directly involved in all aspects of drama production. As well as being a hugely enjoyable experience, participation also helps to build self-confidence, self-esteem and an overall fluency in the Irish language. Part of the fun is the competition element with the standard rising year after year.
The programme begins with the local festivals which are usually held in February and early March each year, provincial festivals follow in March and the national festival is held in April.
There are separate competitions and divisions based on school level, the size of school, age groups, operas/musicals and for primary schools that are not Irish-medium or Gaeltacht schools.
A repository of scripts translated into Irish are available in pdf format to download from An Cumann Scoildrámaíochta website.
If you are a drama producer involved with primary or post-primary students or if you are a teacher who would like to try producing a play for the first time ever, this is your chance to take part.
If you are interested in taking part, contact the representative listed for the festival nearest you or send an e-mail to eolas@scoildramaiocht.ie.
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Creative Schools initiative: Arts Council announces 141 new schools
The Arts Council recently announced that offers have been made to 141 schools and centres across Ireland who applied to be part of the Creative Schools initiative.
The Creative Schools initiative gives opportunities for children and young people to build their artistic and creative skills. Each of the 141 schools taking part will receive a grant and work with a professional Creative Associate who will support them to develop and implement their own bespoke Creative School Plan over a two-year period.
The 141 new Creative Schools comprise 97 primary schools, 25 post-primary schools, 4 special schools and 10 Youthreach centres. Joining the programme this year are five schools in Alternative Settings who cater for young people with severe emotional and behavioural challenges. St Paul’s YEP, Dublin; St Laurence O’Toole’s Special School, Dublin; Henrietta Street School, Dublin; St Kevin’s School, Cork; and St Augustine’s Special School, Limerick will join the programme and receive enhanced supports.
Catherine Martin TD, Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media said:
“I am thrilled to see the continued success of the Creative Schools initiative and warmly welcome the 141 new schools and centres. Since 2018, Creative Schools has been a testament to the pivotal role creativity plays for children and young people across Ireland; in their education and for their school communities. I hope that the Creative School initiative continues to flourish and empower our young people as these new schools and centres embark on the programme.”
Norma Foley TD, Minister for Education said:
“I am pleased to see that 141 new schools and centres are now joining the Creative Schools Programme. Creative Schools puts the arts and creativity at the heart of children’s and young people’s lives. Over 970 schools and Youthreach centres have been invited to participate since it was set up in 2018. We are increasingly embedding the arts into the education system, which includes the development of a new subject – Drama, Film and Theatre Studies – which will commence in schools in 2025.”
Maureen Kennelly, Director of the Arts Council, said:
“We extend a warm welcome to the 141 new schools joining Creative Schools. The demand nationwide is a testament to the programme’s impact, and we’re excited even more schools in Ireland are now part of this creative journey. Collaborating with our partners in the Department of Education, the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport, and Media, as well as Creative Ireland, we anticipate another school year filled with creativity, consultation, and exploration.”
Participation empowers children and young people to develop, implement and evaluate arts and creative activity throughout their schools and centres. Creativity stimulates additional ways of working and has a positive impact on children and young people’s learning, development and well-being.
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Call for contributions: FEAPDA/NCSE/BATOD Joint Congress 2024
National Council for Special Education
Deadline: Friday 12th January 2024, 5pm
The European Federation of Associations of Teachers of the Deaf (FEAPDA), National Council for Special Education (NCSE) and British Association of Teachers of Deaf Children and Young People (BATOD), with support from BATOD Northern Ireland, invite all interested parties (teachers, professionals, lecturers, researchers, developers and manufacturers of technical devices, service providers, service users, policy makers, students etc) to present their work at the 27th FEAPDA Congress.
Deaf children and young people form a diverse group with varying experiences of hearing loss but who are also affected by other aspects of their lives. Additional medical and/or educational needs, cultural and social backgrounds and every individual’s own life experience will influence their experience of deafness.
This year’s congress will explore the diversity of deaf learners in their many lives: implications for our knowledge and practice.
Papers and presentations may consider issues such as:
Meeting the needs of children who are deaf with additional needs;
Meeting the needs of children whose deafness is not their primary need;
The experience of deaf children from minority communities;
How deaf individuals experience and define their own identities
Abstracts for paper presentations (30 min), workshops/interactive presentations (60 min) and poster presentations are welcomed.
The Emma O’Kane Bursary is an award for independent artists who want to think beyond the boundaries of their art form and practice and to explore dance or a physical language in their work. It honours the exceptional ethos and artistic practice of artist Emma O’Kane who died in 2021.
The Emma O’Kane Bursary is open to artists working in any artform and at any stage in their career. Whatever your background, lived experience or artistic practice, if you have the curiosity to explore and integrate dance, movement or other forms of physical language in your work, the courage to push art form boundaries and to challenge norms and the ambition to be the best that you can be as an artist, we would love to hear from you.
Over the course of the year, successful bursary recipients will receive a six-week residency at the Atrium at 42 Fairview Strand, Dublin along with a stipend for the duration of the residency and a research and materials budget. There will also be opportunities to avail of bespoke mentorships sessions and to attend professional morning dance classes.
The Emma O’Kane Bursary was created by Anu Productions, CoisCéim Dance Theatre, Crash Ensemble, Dublin Dance Festival, Fishamble: The New Play Company, Pavilion Theatre, Project Arts Centre The Ark, Dublin and a number of independent professionals. It was set up with a Collaborative Capacity Building Award from the The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon in 2021 and is funded entirely by donation.
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Opportunities for Schools: Support & Inclusion for Erasmus+
Léargas
Date: 18th January
Do you have ideas for an Erasmus+ project, but not sure where to start? Wondering how to promote inclusion in your Erasmus+ project?
Don’t miss this information session on 18th January for those working in primary and post-primary schools in Ireland and who are interested in learning about funding opportunities under Erasmus+. The event will be led by Inclusion and Impact Officer, Vasiliki Psarra, and will be a good opportunity to connect with other schools, share experiences and challenges and learn about additional supports.
This session will focus on the range of opportunities for pupils and staff in school education and the inclusions supports available. This session will cover pupil mobility, staff mobility, and how to apply. There will be time to answer any questions you may have.
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2024 Waltons RTÉ lyric fm Music for Schools Competition
Waltons New School of Music and RTÉ lyric fm
Deadline: Friday, 23 February 2024, 5pm
After four long years without it, Waltons New School of Music and RTÉ lyric fm have announced the launch of the 2024 Waltons RTÉ lyric fm Music for Schools Competition!
Founded in 2012, the Music for Schools Competition is a non-profit national event celebrating and supporting music in Irish schools.
The Competition is open to all primary and post-primary schools in the Republic of Ireland, and hundreds of schools from all 26 counties have participated in previous years. Music groups of up to 40 members formed by schools will work together to produce a piece or song in response to this year’s Competition theme, Music Moves.
Groups can be made up of any combination of instrumentalists and singers that schools choose, and all music genres are welcome. (Past entries have included classical, Irish traditional, jazz, pop, rock, rap and folk). Schools are also encouraged to promote diversity and inclusiveness in their groups.
Twelve Finalist groups (six primary and six post-primary) will be selected to perform before their peers and a distinguished panel of adjudicators in the National Concert Hall on 8 April 2024. And at the end of the concert, the adjudicators will announce this year’s six winning groups (three primary and three post-primary), which will win awards totalling €7,000 worth of vouchers for musical instruments and equipment from Waltons Music to expand and enhance their schools’ music programmes. The entire concert will be streamed live by RTÉ lyric fm and can be watched from anywhere in Ireland or around the world.
The Music for Schools Competition offers schools the opportunity to think and work creatively with any combination of students, developing a creative and original musical project that has learning potential at every stage of the process.
Important Dates
Friday, 23 February 2024, 5 pm • Entry Deadline
Friday, 1 March • Announcement of Finalists on RTÉ lyric fm
Monday, 8 April • Finalists Concert, National Concert Hall
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Promoting diversity and inclusion in schools in Europe: Eurydice Report
European Education and Culture Executive Agency
The diversity of the educational landscape is increasing; however, learners from disadvantaged backgrounds and those who experience discrimination or unequal treatment disproportionately underachieve in schools. Equality, equity and inclusion are fundamental principles of the European Union. They have also become key topics of the educational science discourse and a policy priority across Europe.
Promoting diversity and inclusion in schools in Europe report investigates existing national/top-level policies and measures that promote diversity and inclusion in school education in 39 European education systems including Ireland.
It focuses especially on learners who are most likely to experience disadvantage and/or discrimination in schools, including students from different migrant, ethnic and religious backgrounds, LGBTIQ+ students, girls/boys and students with special educational needs or disabilities. The report highlights existing targeted policy initiatives promoting the learners’ access to quality, inclusive, mainstream education.
It provides a comparative overview of policies and measures across 39 European education systems and presents many country examples, which showcase some of the most recent initiatives taken across Europe.
Eurydice is a network whose task is to explain how education systems are organised in Europe and how they work. They publish descriptions of national education systems, comparative studies devoted to specific topics, indicators and statistics in the field of education.
In Ireland, Léargas manage international and national exchange programmes in education, youth and community work, and vocational education and training. To find out more about iniatives and programme offered through Léargas, visit their School Education page here for more information: https://www.leargas.ie/explore-school-education-opportunities/
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The 2023 National Arts in Education Portal Day – Roundup
The Arts in Education Portal
“Do you know what I like about art..? Is – it’s messy You can do some things and it doesn’t turn out the way you think It turns out better than you thought it would be”
– a participant on the Follow Your Nose project, presented by artist Julie Forrester
On November 11th the eighth annual National Arts in Education Portal Day took place at at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick in partnership with the Department of Arts Education & Physical Education. The national portal day has grown in significance as one of the key events in the arts and education calendar in Ireland, and this year through a very a inspiring set of presentations and workshops addressed the special focus of ‘Seldom Heard Voices’ reflecting diversity and inclusion across school communities..
With over 70 artists, teachers and arts in education professionals in attendance, this year’s conference was jointly opened by Helen O’Donoghue from the Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee and Dr Gwen Moore of Mary Immaculate College. The day unfolded from there featuring a mix of lectures and workshops throughout the day providing insights into the breadth of practice across the sector. The keynote address was delivered by Dr Jill Goodwin, in a highly engaging talk entitled “Can you hear me? Creating space for listening – an artistic enquiry” delegates gained inspirational insights from Dr Goodwin’s practice working with children labelled as having profound and multiple learning disabilities, demystified many aspects of working in this space.
A set of resources that were referred to her in her presentation can be found at the end of this article.
The beautiful surrounds of Mary Immaculate College provided the space for a day filled with conversation, networking and connections. Thanks to all involved in making the day a huge success!
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Opportunity for Artists: Funding Opportunities for Artists in Schools Announced for Cork County
Cork County Council Arts Serive
Dealine : 9th January 2024
Cork County Council has announced details of its 2024 funding opportunities for the county’s arts sector. Cork County Council’s Library and Arts Service is inviting proposals for funding for arts projects, activities and events taking place in the Cork County administrative area in 2024 that may be eligible for funding under a range of grant assistance schemes available.
Schemes announced include the Arts Grants Scheme which will support arts organisations and the voluntary sector, a scheme to support artists to work in schools, support for developing arts projects through the Irish Language, and a set of bursary and residency opportunities for professional artists of all disciplines.
Announcing details of the funding, Mayor of the County of Cork, Cllr. Frank O’Flynn, said, “Cork County Council is proud to support the arts community on an annual basis through our grants scheme. The Arts are integral to our communities, our schools, and our citizens. As well as supporting artists and arts organisations, we support festivals, performances, exhibitions, and other publicly accessible cultural programmes throughout County Cork. I look forward to seeing the joy and creativity that will emerge from the many projects who are set to benefit next year.”
Cork County Council supports artists, schools, and arts and community organisations in the Cork County administrative area annually through the following grant assistance schemes:
ARTS GRANT SCHEME
The Cork County Council Arts Grant Scheme provides financial or other assistance to individuals and organisations engaged in the presentation and promotion of arts activities or events in Cork County.
The Arts Grant Scheme is open to new or established arts groups, artists, festivals or other groups wishing to undertake creative artistic activity in any artform in the Cork County Council administrative area.
ARTISTS IN SCHOOLS SCHEME
The Artists in Schools Scheme enables primary and post-primary students and teaching staff to work collaboratively with an artist working in any artform on a creative project.
All Department of Education and Skills-recognised primary and post-primary schools and Youthreach centres in Cork County are eligible to apply.
To remove barriers for participation, this year for the first time, Cork County Council will also accept video/audio applications through the online portal. The Arts Office will provide assistance to applicants where extra accessibility support may be required.
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Blog 3 – Lorna Watkins, Visual Artist and TAP+ Tutor
Self-care and Textiles
I realise that the work I’ve done so far with Arts in Education has not touched on the curriculum. So far in my experience, teachers are using the projects as some time out for students to relieve anxiety post Covid both in primary and secondary schools. I suppose this is reflective of what we are, what we all need as a society post-Covid.
Working on the TAP+ project with Our Lady of Mercy Primary School in Sligo with Niamh Middleton is such an example. Niamh had identified 11 students from first class up to sixth class who were struggling for one reason or another. There were children suffering from high levels of anxiety, trauma, poverty and we wanted to give these children something special, some time out and they were just so thrilled to have been chosen.
There were different needs and abilities in the group, and the children didn’t know each other at the start as it’s such a large school. We decided on a rough plan of doing taster sessions every week but we were letting them lead on what they liked doing best. Firstly we did tetra pak printmaking and it turns out their favourite bit was rolling the ink. If I had left the glass pallet there for two weeks and the children could’ve kept rolling the ink they would’ve been so happy! I love that you CANNOT predict what the children will gravitate towards. They were not that bothered about the actual printing and we didn’t push them, it was all about what was making them happy in the moment. They just loved mixing the colours and it was the lovely sticky sound it makes which I can appreciate!
One of the weeks we decided we would try pom pom making and the children absolutely LOVED it. They were helping each other out, making multi-coloured ones and giant ones. Niamh thought it would be great to spread the pom pom love throughout the school. I had talked about guerilla crocheting and how I had yarn bombed a tree in Sligo with 400 pom-poms and they were very interested in this. We picked a tree in the schoolyard that was looking a bit sad so we could decorate it with pom poms. We decided it would be great for the students to go back into their respective classrooms with me and share with their classmates what they had learnt and how to make pom-poms so that every child in the school could then contribute to this pom-pom tree.
In my own practice post-Covid, I have returned to textiles as a self-care tool and I make my own clothes, knit, crochet, and quilt. It’s so useful when I’m trying to work out a painting, I take a break, do a seam or knit a row. You are still thinking about the work but there’s something about having textiles in your hand that eases and clarifies things. It is a mindful activity, you can’t be scrolling or thinking about 1 million other things. So I can see why the children responded to it, the tactile quality, the bright colours. What’s not to like?
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Opportunity For Schools: Solstice Arts Centre Gallery Tours Using VTS
Solstice Arts Centre
School Gallery Tours using VTS
DATE : Tuesdays – Fridays, various times available during exhibitions.
Broaden creative thinking through oral and visual literacy by exploring works in the Solstice Art’s Centre gallery spaces.
Using Visual Thinking Strategies, this is an opportunity for students to investigate, analyse and reflect on multiple perspectives, and assist in the development of imaginative and innovative ideas. Using cross-curricular links and learning through art, these sessions support the Junior and Senior Cycle, placing students at the centre of the learning process. Upon visiting Solstice, Senior Cycle students will receive specific information that embraces the three strands – Research, Create and Respond (visual and written responses), with particular focus on Content Area 3: Today’s World of the New Appreciating Art
Encouraging peer-to-peer discussion, this is an opportunity for children and teachers to focus and reflect on multiple perspectives, enhancing engagement and enjoyment of learning through art. To conclude, learn about the artist and her work, inspiring you to create artworks back in the classroom.
Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) is an inquiry-based method of visual processing – looking, describing and discussing what we see in a work of art. It is about listening to others, responding and expanding thoughts and new possibilities revealed within group engagement. VTS improves oral and visual literacy, problem-solving and collaborative interactions among peers. Suitable for all ages, VTS tours are best with groups of 5 or more.
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Opportunity for Schools: On-site Tour of The Dead Zoo in Irish
National Museum of Ireland
Date: Thursday 16th November 2023 Times: 10am & 11.30am
National Museum of Ireland invite schools to join a highlights tour of the ground floor Irish Room to learn about the museum and its displays of animals and fossils. Includes a close up inspection of some of the educational handling collections in the Wonder Cabinet e.g. real and replica furs, fossils and skulls. Join this special tour in Irish for Science Week! Discover the unique stories behind a selection of 3,000 animals and fossils on display. Students will see up-close zoological and geological examples of the natural world that have been on display since we opened our doors over 166 years ago.
Includes curriculum linked themes such as biodiversity, ecology, endangerment and extinction.
On completion of this live session students should be able to:
Identify wildlife and biodiversity of Ireland
Describe animal adaptations and their habitats
Explain local and global environmental issues, such as threats to species and habitats
Define conservation and outline actions that help protect biodiversity
Summarise the role of a science museum and how collections are preserved for display and scientific research
On the tour learn about:
How the giant Irish deer became extinct 10,500 years ago in Ireland
A seven metre long basking shark that was caught off the west coast of Ireland over 150 years ago
The ecology of different Irish sea birds and the threats the face
The Wonder Cabinet and see up close the different predators and prey on display, including the fossil jawbone of an Irish hyena!
Level: 3rd Class – 6th Class Duration: 45 mins Capacity: One class per session
Before your visit
Prepare the class for the tour. Give pupils an idea of what to expect to see or have a discussion about the Museum in advance of the visit.
Why not take a 3D virtual tour of the NMI – Natural History in the classroom with your students
Places are limited. To enquire about booking a facilitated visit for your class please complete this enquiry form.
After your visit
After the session, Teachers will be sent via email a number of fun follow-up learning activities in Irish for pupils to explore in the classroom.
Please note: The teacher will remain with the class throughout the duration of the tour.
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Mixing Moments – An LCYP-ETB exhibition at Kerry County Museum
Kerry County Museum
Date: Saturday November 11th until January 5th 2024.
Kerry Local Creative Youth Partnership (LCYP) at Kerry ETB has announced a unique exhibition opening at Kerry County Museum on Saturday 11th November at 2pm. Mixing Moments highlights the work through a project of the same name, which brought together one hundred and twelve younger and older Ukrainian, Irish, African-Irish, French, Indian-Irish and English families. Through a series of workshops and events, music, art and sound offered a structure for participants to meet, express pain, joy, and beauty in imaginative ways using art, drums and sound recordings. It was a chance for many communities of people to come together using creativity as the common ground, where mixing, meeting new people, making new friends was the order of the day.
Mixing Moments is an art and audio visual experience detailing a creative journey in 2023 that allowed friendships to form and integration to happen. Developed in collaboration with Áiseanna na hÓige Dingle, Killorglin FRC, Maine Valley FRC, Tralee International Resource Centre and South Kerry Development Partnership with support from Kerry County Museum. Mixing Moments brought together 112 remarkable individuals from diverse backgrounds, including younger and older members of Ukrainian, Irish, African-Irish, French, Indian-Irish, and English families together, fostering care and support of one another and serving as a reminder that it’s often the small things in life that provide us with meaning and comfort.
Mixing Moments was facilitated by a creative team of artists and arts professionals, including Martin Scharer and Teresa Galvin, musicians, David Fortune, visual artist and audio video expert Niall Foley. Funding was provided by Creative Ireland and the Department of Education, as well as through the International Protection Integration Fund at the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration, and Youth (DCEDIY).
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Opportunity for Teachers: Oide Creativity Autumn/Winter Workshops
OIDE Creativity
Dates: Various
OIDE Creativity have released various dates for their creative and engaging workshops for teachers this autumn and winter.
The courses include:
Unlocking Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice
Oide Creativity in collaboration with voice specialist Andrea Ainsworth, presents a one-day elective workshop, open to post-primary teachers from all subject disciplines.
This workshop offers participants an opportunity to:
focus on a prescribed Shakespeare play (junior cycle English)
experience practical, creative ways to lift Shakespeare’s language off the page and into action
reflect on how the workshop may support professional classroom practice and approaches to Classroom-Based Assessments (CBAs).
Get your World Turning With woodturner Willie Creighton
Oide Creativity and Oide Technology Subjects, in collaboration with woodturner Willie Creighton, present a one-day elective workshop, open to post-primary teachers from all subject disciplines.
This practical workshop offers participants an opportunity to:
experience exciting ways to create wood turned artefacts
discover the natural properties and aesthetics of wood through the craft
develop practical and creative approaches that may be used in classroom practice.
Page Turners
Oide Creativity, in collaboration with spoken word poet Erin Fornoff, author Sam Blake/Vanessa Fox O’ Loughlin and author Dave Rudden, presents a one-day series of workshops and a panel discussion, open to teachers from all subject disciplines.
These three writing workshops offer participants an opportunity to:
collaborate, share ideas, learn and reflect in a safe, supportive environment
learn practical, creative teaching methods
discuss writing tips, writing groups, and author visits.
Spaces are limited for each workshop. A waiting list will apply.
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Minister Foley announces 425 new BLAST Arts in Education residencies in schools and 40 new Creative Clusters commenced
Department of Education
Minister for Education Norma Foley recently announced the latest updates to BLAST (Bringing Live Art to Students and Teachers) and Creative Clusters as part of the Creative Youth Plan 2023 – 2027. 425 schools have been selected to take part in the BLAST 2023 initiative and 40 new Creative Clusters were created.
The aim of the BLAST scheme is to give students in schools all over the country the opportunity to work with a professional artist on unique projects to be planned and developed between the artist, the teacher and the school under the co-ordination of the Education Support Centres Ireland ESCI network of 21 full-time education centres.
Announcing the creation of 425 new BLAST Arts in Education Residencies, Minister Foley said:
“The initiative will provide additional opportunities for schools to collaborate with established artists and creatives, supporting our children and young people to collaborate and engage in creative and critical thinking – all crucial skills for their futures… Each residency is worth €1,100 which is fully funded by the Department of Education and the local Education Centre will pay the Artist for a 20-hour residency which will be delivered throughout the academic year, commencing from September 2023. I look forward to seeing how these exciting artist in residency opportunities in schools develop over the coming year.”
With the creation of 40 new Creative Clusters, Minister Foley said:
“Now more than ever, it is important that our students are supported to develop their creativity and given flexibility to express themselves in a variety of exciting new ways. Today I am proud to announce the 140 schools that are coming together to form 40 new Creative Clusters. I look forward to seeing how these exciting projects develop over the coming two years. This year has once again seen a very significant level of interest from schools applying to participate in the 2023 Creative Clusters initiative across the country.
Each Creative Cluster will receive grant funding of €3,000 per school over a two-year period to implement their project in the 2023–2025 school years (e.g. a cluster of 3 schools would receive €9,000 over two years while a cluster of 5 schools would receive €15,000 over two years). Clusters will receive 50% of the total grant funding in Year 1, with the second 50% being provided in Year 2. In addition, but separate to the grant funding, all successful clusters are further supported with: A fully paid Creative Cluster Facilitator; paid Teacher Substitution to attend training and meetings; room hire, travel & subsistence.
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Blog 2 – Lorna Watkins, Visual Artist and TAP+ Tutor
Threading needles with Youthreach
This year, I was hired to do a project with Youthreach and MSLETB in Sewing and Sustainability in Sligo, Carrick on Shannon and Mohill. It was also designed as a few hours in the week to help ease anxiety in students post Covid. The students were studying catering, hairdressing, computers or LCA in the various centres.
We started off the six week project with the basics of the sewing machine, learning how to thread a machine and how to fix it if it stops working. We went on to cut out a basic pattern for a gender neutral top in curtain lining or fabric the students had at home. The students worked in groups of two and threes at a machine so everyone got a go. Some struggled with going from a 2 dimensional flat piece to a 3 dimensional garment but eventually got it when they saw the finished article. I love sharing my passion for me made clothes and by making your own clothes, you can make garments to fit every body shape.
I found a few challenges as the artist working in this context. There are new students starting not every week, but frequently and absenteeism is common so it became normal to have students at different levels at the project, which is tricky when you are trying to build on skills every week and to keep having to start again at the beginning.
I sometimes forget that a lot of young people are not used to working with their hands and it can take a while for students to get that hand eye coordination going. Basic instruction like threading a needle can be very frustrating for students in the beginning but when they persevere with it, they find it really rewarding and I know from the tutors when they walked into the room they couldn’t believe how quiet the class was, the students were completely engrossed in the task, it’s an extremely mindful pastime.
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Opportunity for Schools: Fighting Words Workshop for Schools At Riverbank Arts Centre
Riverbank Arts Centre
Secondary Schools – Monday 6th November, Monday 4th December 2023 at 10.30am
Primary Schools – 27th November, 11th December 2023 at 10.30am
Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge is the Kildare Partner of Fighting Words. They are hosting creative writing workshops for primary and secondary schools. Fighting Words workshops are always free of charge to the participating schools.
Their volunteer mentors work with the young writers to identify key elements of a story and help them write the first half of their story together as a group. The students work together to choose their characters and plot the group story sentence by sentence, editing as they go. In the second half of the workshop, students can opt to continue the group story or write a new story of their own.
These workshops will be conducted in Riverbank Arts Centre by an experienced Fighting Words Kildare coordinator, Pierina Campbell, and supported by 2-3 writing mentors from Riverbank’s Fighting Words team. The workshop will last 2 hours and they require that the teacher is present throughout.
Please contact Theresa 045 448327, or email boxoffice@riverbank.ie to book your workshop.
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Cork International Film Festival Schools Programme 2023
Cork International Film Festival
Locations: The Everyman Theatre – 13th to 17th November 2023, Gate Cinemas Midleton and Mallow – 20th to 24th November 2023, The Reel Cinema Ballincollig – 20th to 24th November 2023
Cork International Film Festival are presenting a diverse and exciting programme of films for young people as part of their Festival Schools Programme in November. Screenings include:
TY and Leaving Cert || Green Screen – Environmental Activism:
Fashion Reimagined
Special Event – Screening + Q&A with Special Guests || Everyman Theatre Only Becky Hutner || UK, USA || 2022 || 100 mins || TY and up || Documentary
Follow fashion designer Amy Powney on her journey from outsider to industry leader, as she sets out to create a transparent, ethical and sustainable collection, from the field to the finished garment. Exposing the complexity of the fashion industry’s supply chain, and addressing the urgent issue of global waste, this documentary highlights how the actions of one can influence an entire sector.
The screening will be followed by an open Q&A with special guests.
This event is sponsored by Future Planet.
Junior Cert French: The Little Gang (La Petite Bande)
Pierre Salvadori || France || 2022 || 106 mins || Drama ||French, Subtitled
Four young teens in rural France form a plan to stop the local factory polluting their local water supply and help raise awareness about climate change. The young gang turned activists want to carry out a late night attack on the factory, when things don’t go quite to plan. This French family comedy will have you routing for the mini climate activists despite their crimes.
Leaving Cert German: Run Lola Run (Lola Rennt)
Tom Tykwer || Germany || 1998 || 81 mins || Thriller || German, Subtitled
In celebration of the films’ 25th anniversary, we are bringing Run Lola Run back to the big screen for new audiences. Bursting on to the scene in 1998, Run Lola Run was an instant cult classic thanks to its innovative style and catchy soundtrack. The set-up is simple: Lola gets a phone call from her boyfriend Manni, who needs to deliver 100,000 Deutschmarks to a local gangster at noon, 20 minutes from now. Will she get the money in time? Or will her father, the police and barking dogs get in her way?
Junior and Senior Cycle French, Spanish and German language films are available. For the full programme and accompanying study guides, please visit https://corkfilmfest.org/schools-programme-2023/
Each student ticket is €7.00 (€6.50 DEIS school discount) accompanying teachers can attend free of charge.
To inquire about the screenings’ schedule and for bookings, please contact schools@corkfilmfest.org
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2023 National Portal Day – Programme Announced
Unveiling the 2023 National Arts in Education Portal Day Programme.
Ticket Booking Now Open!
We’re excited to be back with our 2023 conference taking place at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick on Saturday, 11 November 2023 in partnership with the Department of Arts Education & Physical Education. The event aims to bring together members of the arts in education and creative practice community from all across Ireland, to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired and continue interrogating best practice in the field.
The Programme will see a mix of presentations, smaller discussion-led sessions and creative workshops each addressing the special focus of ‘Seldom Heard Voices’ reflecting diversity and inclusion across school communities. As previously announced The Portal Team is delighted to welcome guest speaker, artist/researcher Dr. Jill Goodwin, highly respected for her practice working with children labelled as having profound and multiple learning disabilities, who will deliver the conference keynote address.
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Get Ready for the 2023 National Arts in Education Portal Day!
Ticket Booking Opens on 12th October!
Ticket booking for the Arts in Education 2023 National Portal Day will open on 12th October.
This year’s conference is taking place at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick on Saturday, 11 November 2023 in partnership with the Department of Arts Education & Physical Education. The event aims to bring together members of the arts in education and creative practice community from all across Ireland, to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired and continue interrogating best practice in the field.
The Programme will see a mix of presentations, smaller discussion-led sessions and creative workshops each addressing the special focus of ‘Seldom Heard Voices’ reflecting diversity and inclusion across school communities.
As previously announced The Portal Team is delighted to welcome guest speaker, artist/researcher Dr Jill Goodwin, who will deliver the conference keynote address. Using personal examples from her experience in schools, her research and her art practice, Jill will consider the spaces – both physical and psychological – we provide and inhabit. Can we make space to dream, to listen, to be?
Sneak Peek at the 2023 National Arts in Education Portal Day Programme
Presentation & Discussion: Seen and Heard – Refracting responses of children to a school-based theatre workshop and arising implications for the Arts and Education sectors
Lecturer in Drama Education Dr Tríona Stokes and Creative Producer/Curator Hannah Mullan will reflect on the findings from an engaged research project featuring a consultation with key stakeholders, including children, about the extent to which they felt seen and heard in a pre-production school-based theatre workshop by Monkeyshine. They will invite audience consideration and discussion for artists, teachers and teacher-artist collaboration and partnership.
Creative Workshop:Reflective Data Visualisation – Using art-based reflections to encourage participants to promote an individual as well as a collective understanding of social injustices.
Visual Art Education lecturer Anne Marie Morrin from Mary Immaculate College will present an original methodology called ‘The Data Reflective Wall’.The focus of this workshop is (in)equality and will place the participants’ own understanding of inequality and social justice at the forefront of the learning experience, building a sense of empathy and collective responsibility into a teaching and learning experience.
Ticket bookings open at 12 noon, Thursday 12th October 2023. Tickets are free but pre booking is essential as capacity is limited.
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Barnstorm Theatre Company Presents Noah Barleywater Runs Away
Barnstorm Theatre Company
Dates: Monday 16th October, 11.30am, Tuesday to Friday 20th October 10am and 12pm
Barnstorm Theatre Company in Kilkenny City will launch its latest world-premiere at the Watergate Theatre this October and invites schools to attend matinee performances.
Noah Barleywater Runs Away is the world premiere of a truly exciting theatre piece which has been adapted by internationally renowned playwright Mike Kenny from John Boyne’s novel of the same name.
The book explores the world of childhood and the adventures that we can all have there. Noah is running away from his problems, or at least that’s what he thinks, the day he takes the untrodden path through the forest. When he comes across a very unusual toyshop and meets the even more unusual toymaker, he’s not sure what to expect. But the toymaker has a story to tell, a story full of adventure, and wonder and broken promises. And Noah travels with him on a journey that will change his life for ever. This is a thought-provoking fable for our modern world from the author of the bestselling and critically acclaimed Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.
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Opportunity For Teachers: Teaching Creative Skills Programme by The Big Idea
The Big Idea
Deadline: Open
The Big Idea have created a full 14-week creative programme of learning resources for your Transition Year or Leaving Cert Applied students. Each teacher and tutor will receive a teaching pack to support in-class activities regardless of their school context. You will also join their B!G Teacher community with exclusive offers from their partners.
All resources are digitally formatted with two lessons per week. The adaptable format can be used for either a 40-minute class or a 1-hour class with teacher prompts and lesson plans included as well as built-in assessment structures and additional class materials.
Their national and international network of professional experts will share knowledge directly with your students, supporting them in their project development. Student teams will be matched with Big Idea industry Mentors giving them the opportunity to gain advice on next steps, ask questions to get students thinking, ask them things to consider or offer resources to explore.
There will be a free B!G Idea Learning Pack given to every student, which includes all the materials needed to engage in the programme.
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Blog 1 – Lorna Watkins, Visual Artist and TAP+ Tutor
In the first of a new guest blog series, artist Lorna Watkins talks about her thoughts and experiences on her TAP placement.
New Beginnings
Being an artist of any kind can be a lonely existence. I love my alone time, it’s necessary to do the work but other human exchange is needed from time to time. I need that human energy to feed into my work and to me. I had worked with adults on painting workshops before but had never really considered working with young people.
My studio work is cyclical, I tend to make more work during the winter than the summer as I’m a Mammy too, with kids off school it’s harder to to get to the studio every day.
In comes an email from Sligo Education Centre and I clicked on it. I don’t even remember signing up for it. They were offering the TAP+ CPD training. Truthfully I didn’t really know a whole lot about it but it sounded interesting. It turned out to be a week long of blissful discussion with other artists, theatre practitioners, composers and designers amongst passionate educators.
The exercises that we did during the course were fun, inventive, thought provoking and playful. As an artist once you complete the course you are given a TAP+ Residency with a Primary School. That year I got a TAP+ placement in the Our Lady of Mercy Primary School, Sligo paired with tutor Niamh Middleton. It was a wonderful experience and has energised my practice. As a result I have since worked on four BLAST projects, worked on several Youthreach projects and with the SMILY LGBTI group. All because I left myself open to the “what if?”
So artists out there. If you’ve ever wondered about Arts in Education, please go to your local Education Centre and enquire about the TAP+ CPD Summer Course.
It can change everything!
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Dr. Jill Goodwin Announced As Keynote Speaker for 2023 National Arts In Education Portal Day
The Portal Team is delighted to welcome guest speaker, artist/researcher Dr. Jill Goodwin, highly respected for her practice working with children labelled as having profound and multiple learning disabilities, who will deliver the conference keynote address.
Dr Jill Goodwin
Dr Jill Goodwin is a UK-based artist/researcher with a background in education. Her experience working with children labelled as having ‘profound and multiple learning disabilities’ has led her to seek and explore ways of sharing meaning without words, and she sees the arts as key to this process. Jill has recently worked as a consultant, mentor and trainer with arts and educational organisations, as well as with individual artists. She was Visiting Research Fellow with the ‘Centre for Research in Inclusion’ at the University of Southampton from 2020 – 2023, and Researcher-in-Residence with Oily Cart, a London-based sensory theatre company, from 2020 – 2022. Jill’s own art work privileges the sensory over the intellectual, making it innately inclusive.
The full line-up of the national day will be announced soonwhen ticket bookings will open online. This year’s event will again focus on ‘Seldom Heard Voices’ and will see a return to the usual mix of presentations, smaller discussion-led presentations and creative workshops addressing this theme.
These events bring together members of the arts in education community from all across Ireland, to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired, and continue interrogating best practice in the field.
Baboró have published their report and findings from their pilot LEAP programme. LEAP is a community-building project and artist development programme for creative individuals from underrepresented, ethnically diverse communities and/or migrant backgrounds curious about creating work for young audiences.
This report is an account of the development and implementation of Baboró’s LEAP as a pilot programme between December 2020-April 2022. The report examines the context of LEAP’s creation, what worked about this pilot programme, what could be improved for the future, and what learnings LEAP offers that are relevant to wider Irish and international theatre for young audiences’ communities.
This report also situates Baboró’s LEAP within post-2000s Irish arts policy focused on interculturalism and/or diversity and the wider international landscape of politics, policy and social change in the theatre for young audiences sector and beyond that immediately influenced the creation and implementation of this programme.
For a short executive summary of this report, and their learnings from the pilot LEAP programme, download the document below.
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Opportunity for Schools: Applications Open For National Heritage Keepers Programme
Burrenbeo Trust
Application Deadline: 12th October
Burrenbeo Trust have announced the latest round of the National Heritage Keepers Programme which they launched with the help of Kinvara Tidy Towns and The Dolmen Centre, Kinvara. After working closely with 117 groups and schools over the past two years, the programme is now accepting expressions of interest for its highly anticipated third round. Burrenbeo Trust proudly partners with the Heritage Council in this transformative initiative.
The National Heritage Keepers Programme is a fantastic opportunity for schools and communities across Ireland. It empowers them to delve into their local built, natural, and cultural heritage and then provides funding to allow them to take action. This programme offers various learning formats, including in-person, online, and blended options, making it accessible to a wide range of participants.
In the previous year, 40 schools and communities participated in the programme, with the majority successfully completing local projects and actions. These actions included constructing ponds, developing heritage trails, hosting networking days, tree planting, creating booklets on local built heritage, and even organising historic photography exhibitions.
Mary Dillon, Heritage Keepers Co-ordinator, emphasised the programmes mission, stating, “Heritage Keepers aims to empower people to explore and discover their own local heritage, fostering pride, ownership, and ultimately responsibility towards both their community and environment. Through Heritage Keepers, schools and communities can play a huge part in protecting and promoting their local heritage and Place.“
The programme consists of five engaging two-hour workshops, followed by dedicated support while completing the funded action. It opens for expressions of interest on the 14th September, with options to begin this autumn or in the New Year. The programme is open to senior classes in primary schools and will be scheduled during school hours.
Learn more about this opportunity at an online information session scheduled for Thursday, September 28th, at 7.30pm. Visit heritagekeepers.ie for additional details and to complete a brief Expression of Interest form.
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Call for Papers, Presentations and Workshops! 2023 National Arts in Education Portal Day
Arts in Education Portal
Deadline: Friday 15 September 2023
Artists, teachers, academics and arts education professionals….Do you want to be part of the eighth annual National Arts in Education Portal Day?
The National Arts in Education Portal Day will take place at Mary Immaculate College on Saturday, 11 November 2023 in partnership with the Department of Arts Education & Physical Education. The event aims to bring together members of the arts in education and creative practice community from all across Ireland, to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired and continue interrogating best practice in the field.
The Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee invites proposals from organisations or individuals who want to give dynamic and inspiring presentations or workshops that can offer sharing of skills, practical approaches, new insights and critical thinking across the field, from a range of perspectives.
This year, the Portal Day will continue the special focus of ‘Seldom Heard Voices’. The Committee particularly want to profile projects this year that reflect diversity and inclusion across school communities and represent all children.
Do you have a workshop or presentation that you would like to be included in the programme for this day? If so, please send us your proposal.
The deadline for submission of proposals is 5pm Friday 15th September 2023.
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Opportunity for Teacher Creative Associates: Creative Schools
Creative Schools
Deadline: 31st August 2023
Creative Schools have launched a call out for Teacher Creative Associates. Scoileanna Ildánacha/Creative Schools is a flagship initiative of the Creative Ireland Programme to enable the creative potential of every child. Creative Schools is led by the Arts Council in partnership with the Department of Education.
It is expected that the Creative Associate will work in partnership with up to one school to develop expertise and approaches that will develop and sustain arts and creative practices in their schools. Creative Associates will draw on the range of opportunities within the school and wider community to stimulate and support creative practices as part of the school’s plan.
Creative Associates are educators with their own arts practice and a deep understanding of creativity and its potential to transform the lives of children and young people. They are dynamic agents for change uniquely placed to form sustainable partnerships between teachers, school staff, learners and other partners.
They are original thinkers who will match the needs of schools to creative opportunities in their locality. They can identify potential areas for improvement and will inspire, energise and drive schools forward in addressing these. Through this pioneering initiative, Creative Associates will have the chance to shape the place of the arts and creativity in Irish schools.
It is expected that up to 10 to 15 Teacher Creative Associates will be engaged to deliver services. Each associate will be partnered with one school within one the following regions:
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Baboró Share First Look at their 27th Annual Festival Programme
Baboró International Arts Festival
Date: Friday 13th to Sunday 22nd October 2023
Deadline for Schools Application: Friday 8th September
Baboró share a first look at the highlights of their upcoming 27th annual festival.
You’ll find an enchanting new show from beloved Irish companies Fidget Feet and Ceol Connected alongside world-class theatre for older children by renowned Australian company Slingsby. Also from Australia, an engaging visual art exhibition will invite Galway families to create and view their own photographic portraits in Galway Arts Centre.
“As we finalise plans for Baboró 2023, I am delighted to unveil three stunning festival highlights featuring aerial dance, theatre, live music and portrait photography – two of which come from as far away as Australia! The full programme of work from Belgium, England, Spain, The Netherlands, Australia and Ireland will be revealed in a few weeks,”said Aislinn Ó hEocha, Executive Artistic Director.
The full programme will include visual arts, music, dance, theatre, literature, creative workshops and adult events, as well as many more performances for all ages. The programme will be announced on Tuesday 5 September.
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Blog 3 – Coláiste Muire (Ennis) and Scoil Mhuire (Ennistymon), Co. Clare
Teacher as Observer
Our artists, Mitch Conlon and James Moran, lead with a loose, conversational archiving style, asking students to explore their local hang-out spots, local stories or folklore. They listened for nuggets of information as students described where young people hang out locally: the Cliffs in Lahinch… the Sulphur baths in Lisdoonvarna, the Lake in Inagh, or some more virtual meeting spaces. The artists focused on places where students could hang out and be alone with their friends, to just be.
My favourite quote in the early weeks of the project was when I asked students for real feedback on the process so far: they answered with a slightly bewildered ‘I don’t think they even know what the project is about!’ It summed it up. The gap between the prescriptive, fact-based academic tradition, the ‘just tell me what to learn’, ‘answer-in-the-back-of-the-book’ learning model that is the points based Leaving Cert, and what Keystone proposed: a nebulous, prompting, listening, chatting, exchanging of stories, a watching for crossovers, for sparks of connection to form. A waiting with slight discomfort and frustration for the ideas to take shape. The creative process in action. This collaborative, democratic outcome is not a mode of working that sits easily within the exam system. Discomfort. Impatience. Underwhelm? It took a while… A low-level dread of maybe being made to ‘do drama and be on film’ pervaded until students realised that they needn’t be in front of the camera at all. That there were roles they could elect to play in the process. A gently guided ‘it’s ok to feel slight discomfort’ approach!
The artists showed footage of the 1980’s underground punk scene in Belfast. An anarchic idea for these digital natives: a place where you could go and be anonymous and express yourself with abandon.
It saddened me that the students haven’t known a world before the omnipresent smart phone, listening, snapping, recording their every move. Before Google Maps, eircodes, data analytical tracking, the rise of AI and Chat GPT. (I thank God regularly for the 90’s!!)
How do you hang out, away from surveillance. How do you disconnect and connect to each other, or to nature? The irony of making a documentary art piece about this was not lost on us.
For me, one student’s phone footage of their pristine white runners carefully negotiating a puddle summed up the duality poignantly.
Our art class has a wonderful diversity of cultures with Irish, Spanish, Italian, Polish and Ukrainian students. Google Translate was a welcome support for the visiting artists! When students began sharing and comparing their respective Christmas and New Year’s traditions and customs it sparked a particularly joyous exchange. Similarities were noted. Things began to click.
Momentum gathered via shared words, snippets of sound recordings, video, photos of clifftop sunsets, waves, the roar of a match crowd, the crunch of pebbles. Abandoned spaces..
Students had a blast with Mitch and James playing sound wars!
The next task: how to communicate isolation, togetherness, a mood, a feeling, an idea? ‘Film studies’ became real. Figuring out their individual role in all this. Listening. Making decisions. Voicing their opinions. Respectful communication. Shared outcomes. Compromise.
Life lessons. Soft skills. Play. Discomfort. Purpose. Trusting the process, and surprise at and -hopefully- pride in their finished product.
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Opportunity for Teachers and/or Artists: Online Photography Learning Resource with Source Magazine
Source Magazine
Date: Ongoing
Source Magazine has created a free online learning resource about photography, designed for the Senior Cycle. Its three interlinked strands of research, creativity and response aim to provide a context for students to develop critical and productive skills in photography.
They are written by Jesse Alexander, an experienced educationist in photography and contributor to Source. Each includes group discussion topics and suggested activities to help grasp their significance. They are illustrated with the work of some of the most celebrated photographers.
Portraiture & the Human Form: Portraiture has been an important part of art for centuries and photography has given the genre new opportunities. This essay looks at how portraiture photography compares and how it can reveal the private lives of its subjects, show their emotional states and personalities. We might see ourselves reflected in some!
Exterior & Interior Spaces: Many photographers concentrate on landscapes and cityscapes, along with interior spaces such as bedrooms, shared domestic spaces or parts of public buildings. They can make familiar places look strange and make the unfamiliar seem welcoming. After seeing many of the photographs included, we may see our own surroundings a little differently!
Documentary & Narrative The many forms of documentary photography often record everyday aspects of our lives, such as work or play, or it can be used to help professionals in many fields to do their work. For some, this is an opportunity to tell stories about how we live our lives. At times, this is an area where making art and documenting the world around us often cross over, making this, for many people, the most exciting area of photography to pursue or to look at!
Teachers can email research@source.ie to obtain a free digital subscription to Source, which includes access to the digital archive of the last 47 issues.
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Opportunity for Creative Practitioners: Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council (DLR)
Deadline for applications: 16th August 2023 at 12pm
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, in partnership with Blackrock Education Centre, is looking for four experienced artists/creative practitioners to work with children and teachers in the classroom setting. They are also seeking two emerging artists/creative practitioners to join the programme. Applications are open to practitioners who work in any art form. The programme runs from October 2023 to May 2024.
The purpose of the programme is to partner a Creative Practitioner with a primary school class and teacher. They will explore creativity in the classroom together. A Creative Practitioner is a professional artist/facilitator with an art form background, for example; a dancer, a visual artist, a writer, or a musician.
The fees are €60 per hour for facilitation; with an additional €500 payment for research and €250 for blogging about the programme. Payments will also be available for coming to three scheduled meetings with all the artists and teachers during each project. Five meetings with the teacher outside of contact hours with the class will be paid for, if these are required (these can be phone meetings or in person).
The two emerging creative practitioners will be expected to work with a mentor who will support and assist their development. It is envisioned that this will be four sessions, two in the classroom and two outside.
To apply please email your application to mdavey@dlrcoco.ie with the subject line dlr Primary Arts
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Blog 2 – Coláiste Muire (Ennis) and Scoil Mhuire (Ennistymon), Co. Clare
Collaborating in Sound Design
For my blog I have decided to discuss in detail one of my favourite days during the Keystone project. This was the sound designing session with Liam McCartan.
This was the explore and experiment stage of the project. Earlier in the week we were asked to record short clips of sounds that remind us of our themes of isolation, identity, privacy etc. These recordings were then sent to Liam, a sound producer. He arranged the audio clips in a wonderful piece of audio art.
We met with Liam digitally, through a zoom call. He introduced himself and let us listen to some of his previous pieces such as “Blue Morning”, and “Hold your Breath”. This gave us an insight into what the final piece could be like. We then listened to our piece, and Liam began combining it with other musical elements. He played around with different audio files, interchanging them, and adding audio effects. He also added different instruments such as guitar or keyboard to create harmonies out of the recorded clips. By doing all this he managed to enhance our recordings, making them sound more interesting. It brought out more emotion and so the themes became more obvious.
He explained the process very clearly. What I also really liked was at each stage he created a few options and allowed us to make decisions and vote on what we felt worked best. One of these decisions was to slow down a particular part. We felt this created a bigger and more dramatic atmosphere, or to layer a number of selected sounds to increase the intensity.
The piece was taking on a narrative. I could really hear the isolation feeling in some parts such as when the loud building of bird songs, the keyboard and other clips came to a climax, then everything stops and all we hear is the single beeping of the coffee machine. In other areas we agreed that the addition of the musical cords tied the sounds together, and gave it a familiar cinematic quality. A warm, joyful atmosphere was created which also reminded the group of times in our place – in our spot.
Overall the Keystone project was something I really enjoyed as I gained experiences in areas of art that I have never been involved in before. I gained a much broader insight into contemporary art and the different media that can be used. It took us away from the traditional idea of what art is and made us think a lot more about how to develop ideas.
The students of Coláiste Muire with teacher Aidan Power (left) during one of their engagement sessions with artist Mitch Conlon (centre-right) and James Moran (right), also pictured curator Fiona Gannon (centre-left). 2023 Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award, Keystone Project, Coláiste Muire, Ennis. Image Courtesy of Edel Doherty.
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Teacher’s CPD: Dance in Primary Schools with Ballet Ireland
Ballet Ireland
Dates: 3rd – 7th July 2023
Ballet Ireland invite primary school teachers, educational professionals and artists to sign up for their CPD course: Ballet Ireland Teachers Week: Dance In Primary Schools. The course is approved by the Department of Education with 3 EPV days entitlement.
It takes place at DCU St. Patrick’s Campus, Drumcondra, in association with the School of Arts Education and Movement, DCU, 3rd-7th July 2023. The course provides participants with a secure understanding of how to teach dance, using simple, clear methods, easy steps and straightforward dance vocabulary.
Teachers are introduced to the fundamental aspects of dance education, including:
class structure
an understanding of anatomy in relation to dance
how music is used, composed, and selected for dance
how dance relates to drama and narrative
expression
The course presents an interdisciplinary approach to teaching dance, and explores the potential for integrated curricular learning. Each day comprises a gentle Pilates-based warm-up, demonstration/lecture workshops and timetabled periods of peer and self-assessment, discussion, and reflection.
The programme employs specialists in several complementary areas, providing workshops in dance, anatomy, music and mime. Participants are supported with comprehensive course notes and access to online video resources and dedicated musical content.
Optional follow up days are held during mid-term breaks in autumn and spring (at DanceHouse, Dublin) and ongoing support is available through closed social media groups.
The week will be led by Stephen Brennan, Education Officer at Ballet Ireland, supported by Hayley Cunningham, former Ballet Ireland dancer, Stott Pilates instructor, qualified ballet teacher and a member of the Ballet Ireland educational team.
Focused workshops will be led by Nolwenn Collett, composer and musician trained at the Paris Conservatoire, and specialist in dance accompaniment, and Deirdre McKenna, a Musculoskeletal & Dance Physiotherapist specialising in sports and dance training and injury prevention.
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Applications Open for Art and Wellbeing Course for Teachers at MTU
MTU Crawford College of Art and Design
Deadline: Open for the summer.
The Certificate in Arts and Wellbeing (Level 9, 20 credits) offers an introduction to key concepts in models of Wellbeing, with a focus on the arts. The course gives participants opportunities to explore arts and wellbeing activities in a personal and group dimension, supported by a reflective process.
This course will benefit teachers or artists looking to broaden the scope of their practice. The aim of the course is to equip participants with practical approaches to Arts and Wellbeing, which can be applied in a range of contexts.
Through a series of experiential workshops, participants will be offered the opportunity to explore practical ways of developing Arts based Wellbeing programmes. Through a series of lectures and guest speakers, participants will critically engage with a range of concepts and theories related to Arts in Health and Wellbeing.
The course duration is one academic year, part-time, one day twice a month in person, one evening online every second week. The fee for the course is €1700.
For enquiries, contact: Avril O’Brien, Department of Arts in Health and Education. Email: avril.obrien@mtu.ie
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Uillinn: Brightlines – Children’s exhibition of work
Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre
DATE: 3rd June – 1st July 2023
Four primary schools from across West Cork came together to participate in Bright Lines – Uillinn’s Spring education programme for primary schools. Bright Lines invited students to stretch how they see and interpret the world around them and weave together new stories.
The programme consisted of a tour and workshop at Uillinn with Public Engagement Artist Kate McElroy viewing the work of Sérgio Leitao ‘The Fallout’ which was then followed by visits in the students’ classrooms to develop their own collaborative collages exploring creativity and storytelling. Bright Lines invited students to be creative with their responses blending items from their everyday life with their imagination.
Altogether 100 students from 1st – 6th class worked on Bright lines. An exhibition of their work is currently on view until 1st July 2023.
Uillinn wish to thank students from Dromore NS, Scoil Mhuire NS, Schull, Scoil na mbuachaillí, Clonakilty and Gaelscoil Dr. Uí Shúilleabháin, Skibbereen for their excellent creative work and the teachers for taking part in the programme.
On Saturday 10 June between 10 AM – 1PM, children and young people are invited to take part in a drop in art activity at the centre where they too can add their artistic contributions to Bright Lines. This collaborative drawing art activity is part of the celebration of Crinniú na nÓg – A day of free creativity for children and young people.
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Part 3: Announcing the Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award Recipients
The Portal Team are delighted to announce we have been documenting a third project as part of the Portal Documentation Awards: ‘Up, Up, Up’. This award was originally made in 2020 for an early years project at the Central Remedial Clinic School, Clontarf. We are very excited to be working with each recipient in the coming months to document their projects. These projects will be showcased on the portal as the documentation progresses.
Project Title: Up, Up, Up
’Up, Up, Up’ is an immersive experience for early years children with a physical disability and complex needs and is supported by the Exploring & Thinking Award, an initiative of the four Local Dublin Authorities and the Arts Council of Ireland. The project aims to provide early years children living with limited mobility and additional needs the opportunity to grab, stretch and reach into the forbidden cookie jar! Reaching, moving, creating sounds, mischief making and making marks are the tools we shall use together as we explore the dexterity of the body and creative mind whilst expanding the child’s physical literacy.
Every child has something to say and every child has their own way of saying it. Communication is through movement, mark making, sound generation, verbalising and vocalisations, the children initiate and together we extend their curiosity. They choose, in their own time, their learning. We choose, as a team, to value their choice and bounce it back and forth with them. Our interactions are careful and balanced. Our project needed to be multisensory, to appeal to all the needs of the children in the class. The project evolved because we wanted the children to be more actively involved in their learning. We wanted time to allow for this concentrated involvement, building on their existing interests and giving them the freedom to just be.
Over several weeks artist Helen Barry and Early Years Educator Audrey Fagan along with the team at the CRCS will create a developmental interactive experience for these early years children to engage together with their friends. The floor will be the canvas, it is what will support us, to lie, sit, roll or push against. Each element will be designed to support and enable a more equal engagement.
Artist: Helen Barry Helen Barry is a visual artist, inventor and classically trained dancer. She has over 35 years experience working creatively and playfully with the very young to the very old. This collaborative process is what drives her work, from the initial concept through to the design, making and sharing of the creative output with her co-creators and new audiences. Since 2010 Helen has specialised in co-creating with early years and children living with mild, moderate, profound and neurodiverse needs. The synergy created by using a cross-disciplinary approach provides a sensorium palette from which Helen draws from. Everything exists on the horizon; a perpetual visual and aural palatte of sensations, frequencies and movements through which we interpretate the world around us. Helen’s ambition is to design arts experiences that allow us to explore and discover our bodies’ receptors that will stimulate growth, wellbeing and an ability to focus and thrive. Helen has been awarded several bursaries and commissions for her work with early years children. The National Concert Hall continues to support her foray into music and sculpture.
Early Years Educator: Audrey Fagan Audrey Fagan is a primary school teacher who has been working in special education for over 25 years. Audrey works in the Central Remedial Clinic School, Clontarf, a school for children with physical disabilities and additional complex needs. Fourteen years ago, Audrey moved into the Preschool of the CRC, delivering a two-year cycle of early education embracing the Aistear framework, and incorporating elements of the Froebel, Reggio Emilia and Te Wháriki approaches. A kaleidoscope curriculum is in place to respond to the diverse needs and interests of the children. Audrey believes in creating a learning environment that allows all the children to be involved and included – inquiring, discovering and experiencing holistically at their level of ability. Audrey completed a self-study action research M. Ed from Maynooth University in 2021 exploring a slow pedagogy in the preschool. As part of her role as Assistant Principal, she is currently responsible for the development of multisensory experiences and a wellbeing policy in the CRC School. Working in special education, Audrey has reached out and developed important collaborative relationships with therapists, parents and artists from many disciplines – music, art and drama to consolidate and inform her love of the arts and to bring this learning to the children in preschool.
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Blog 1 – Coláiste Muire (Ennis) and Scoil Mhuire (Ennistymon), Co. Clare
A Coláiste Muire Collective
I was instantly intrigued by the idea and inspiration behind the Keystone project. At its essence art should challenge our perceptions and viewpoints, provoke thought and discussion. By getting the students to focus on the local, and the everyday, they were challenged to reconsider their traditional concepts of what is worthy to be art. Moments in their own lives were investigated especially those centred around places they frequented around the town; their hang out spots.
These “spots”, these centres of interactions and events, often located in places unintended for that purpose; private places within shared spaces, offer teenagers a third space away from the restrictions and rules of home and school. A separate social dynamic for freedoms of expression and connectivity. Nevertheless, these places are normally frowned upon, considered loitering spots, adults tell youths to move on, to stop wasting time. The very idea that the artists wanted students to celebrate these places challenged their preconceptions of the value of these spots and in turn inspired further exploration.
The explorations brought us down a rabbit hole of new experiences where Mitch and James introduced the group to artistic influences such as the sound art of Mary Anne Amacher, and a documentary about protestors in Curraghinalt made by Emily MacFarland. Each piece inspired very much by the space they were captured in; the physical place and landscape told the story or was the story. This encouraged the students to go out and collect and gather content to tell theirs. They used sound recording, photography, written word and film. A multi-sensual catalogue of data was being built that would act as the primary source of a final realisation.
Our collective expanded further when the expertise of sound producer Liam McCartan and filmmaker Emily MacFarland were brought in to help build our content. Their choices, influenced by written reflections made by students, an interactive zoom call and on-site video shoot where students made creative inputs into all decision making. The experience of observing the layering and manipulation of individual sounds to produce a whole composition, along with the opportunity to use professional video production equipment was something I feel the students really enjoyed. Seeing how, as the project developed, the students’ immersion within the project increased was something that was very enjoyable for me. Evident in their reflections their initial writings were basic literal descriptions of the sessions, but as the project developed and the students allowed themselves to become more absorbed, their writings became more conceptual considerations. They contemplated how themes could be communicated within the content; a swinging zipline rope from the playground could suggest isolation, a grove of trees in the fair green symbolised privacy in a public space. Their thoughts were now of symbolism and metaphor, associations were being sought outside of their literal meaning. This I believe was one of the greatest successes of the project; the opening of the student’s minds and realisation that all the resources they need to create and solve are often right there in front of them, they just need to give themselves time to look and observe.
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Portal Spring Regional Day 2023 – Roundup
Earlier this month, teachers, artists and arts in education professionals gathered together in the beautiful surrounds of the MTU Crawford College of Art and Design across two of their city-centre sites – Sharman Crawford Street and No. 46 Grand Parade. For delegates this was an opportunity to share experience, gather new ideas and network with colleagues. This event, the seventh of our annual Portal Regional Days, showcased arts in education and creative practice in the South-West. Delegates travelled from Counties Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Clare, Waterford and even Dublin to hear presentations from Jane Hayes and Fiona Linnane, participate in a workshop led by Julie O’Hea and visit the partnership Arts in Education exhibition at Sample Studios.
The morning of sharing practice began with socially-engaged visual artist Jane Hayes delving into key moments from her artistic practice which focuses on work for and with Early Years. In her presentation, ‘The Voice of the Child in Creative Decision Making – the Early Years Context’ Jane spoke of career shaping experiences including residencies with Baboro International Arts Festival for Children in Galway, a project with Scoil Chroí Íosa and becoming a Creative Associate which opened up opportunities for conversation and formalised the voice of the child into her practice. Jane elaborated that her projects evolve as choices and connections are made by the children, encouraging them to think and explore materials independently from carefully considered provocations introduced influenced by Jane in the Reggio Emilio style.
The key thing is … to give adequate time and space for those ideas to evolve to allow the project to evolve … to allow the child to become the chief investigator in everything and the classroom almost becomes an artist’s studio for them.” – Jane Hayes
The morning continued with an interactive session from composer Fiona Linnane. Her presentation, ‘Tutti – Exploring pathways to inclusivity for music composition in the classroom’ focused on her experiences in classrooms delivering projects through initiatives such as TAP, Creative Schools and Artist in Schools residencies. She spoke of the challenge and importance of engaging all children regardless of their musical ability through an approach of “experimentation not expectation”. Calling on audience participation, Fiona demonstrated a number of practical exercises and shared her approaches in how to equip children with the skills to experiment.
“For me, it’s about empowering the children just to have that avenue of self-expression in music where even if they’re not the piano prodigy, that they can still express themselves through music and through sound.” – Fiona Linnane
In the afternoon, attendees moved to Number 45 Grand Parade to take part in a practical creative workshop with visual artist Julie O’Hea. In a fun and messy workshop, Julie along with assistant Amaia Ibarbia led a very hands-on creative session on the processes behind ink-making from natural ingredients and hapazome printing, providing participants with many creative ideas to bring back to the classroom.
Creative Workshop: ‘Pigments from Nature’ with artist Julie O’Hea
The day came to a close with a reception in the Lord Mayor’s Pavilion with a viewing of the Partnership exhibition with Sample Studios. On display were works from Jane Hayes, Fiona Linnane and Julie O’Hea showcasing their arts in education practices. The exhibition continues until Saturday 27th May.
Partnership exhibition with Sample Studios at the Lord Mayor’s Pavilion
Thank you to everyone who joined us on the day. For those who missed the mornings discussions, video recordings will be available to watch back online. Registration for viewing is available through the link here.
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TAP+ Summer CPD Course and Residency Programme for Teachers and Artists
Teacher-Artist Partnership+ (TAP+) CPD
Call Out for Artists and Creative Practitioners
Application Deadline: Friday 23rd June 5pm
Teacher Artist Partnership + (TAP+) together with the Association of Local Authority Arts Officers are pleased to launch a Call Out for Artists/ Creative Practitioners to participate in the 2023 Face-to-Face TAP+ Programme.
TAP+ CPD Summer Course & Residency programme is open to Artists / Creative Practitioners (in all art forms / creative practices) who are committed to sharing creativity with children and teachers in primary and special schools.
To apply for TAP+ Summer Course and Residency please send expressions of interest to the Director of your local Education Support Centre (ESC): https://www.esci.ie/
Call Out for Teachers
Application Deadline: 26th June 2023
The Teacher Artist Partnership+ (TAP+) Summer Course explores partnership through arts and creativity in education in primary and special schools.
TAP+ trained teachers can apply to host a fully funded TAP+ artist/creative practitioner Residency in their school in 2023/2024.
TAP+ is a unique summer course that offers teachers the opportunity to explore professional learning through a partnership between teachers, artists, creative practitioners, and children. TAP+ aims to support creativity throughout the curriculum and focusing on wellbeing, literacy, and creative arts for all schools including DEIS.
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Primary School FÍS Film Awards 2023 Open for Entries
FÍS Film Awards
Deadline: 30th June 2023 at 5pm
FÍS have launched an open invitation to all Dept. of Education designated Irish primary schools to enter their films into the annual national FÍS Film Awards competition. There is no need to register in advance. To enter, primary schools across the country are asked to create an (up to) five-minute film on a subject of their choice.
Judging Criteria Highlights:
Imagination and creativity
Originality of the story
Curricular relevance (include details of subject/strand/strand unit where relevant)
Support of pupils’ literacy and/or numeracy skills development
Excellence in set design, costume design, film direction, film production, the use of sound, acting, cinematography, etc
Excellence in the art of storytelling
Excellence in the use of special techniques, e.g., animation or special effects
Excellence in visual interpretation of a story or concept
Shortlisted schools must be available to attend the FÍS Film Awards Ceremony, which takes place in the Helix Theatre, DCU Dublin. It is a large-scale national event with over 900 people in attendance, filmed and broadcast by students and staff from the National Film School, at the Institute of Art, Design & Technology (IADT). The awards ceremony is live- streamed via their website. Shortlisted schools must be available to attend the ceremony.
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Applications Open for Creativity and Change at MTU
Creativity and Change at MTU
Application Deadline: 22nd June 2023
Creativity & Change is accepting applications for their 2023-2024 course, which begins in September. This part-time, 20 credit certificate at level 9 offers participants the opportunity to explore Global Citizenship Education, immersing themselves in arts-based practices that connect their heads, hearts and hands, to learn about and take action for global justice, while developing skills to nurture fellow changemakers.
What you can expect from the programme:
Participate in a transformative experience in global citizenship education
Examine your place in our interconnected, rapidly-changing and unequal world
Explore issues affecting the world and make connections between local and global
Reflect on the values, actions and behaviours of global citizens
Develop skills in facilitating meaningful dialogue, collaborative arts processes and transformative learning
Boost your creative confidence through participating in workshops including movement, theatre and street art
Put your learning and passion into practice to engage others on a journey of transformation and growth as global citizens
Build a toolkit of exercises to design and facilitate learning processes to nurture global citizenship
Apply Design Thinking to develop creative actions in imaginative learning environments
Connect your passions to take action for change
Recognise that small actions can have big impacts
Plug into a network of people passionate about creativity, learning and changemaking
Supported by Irish Aid, Department of Justice, the course will be of interest to artists, activists, youth & community educators, volunteers and all those who are interested in collaboration and the transformative power of art. They especially welcome applicants from minority groups facing barriers to accessing education, who can apply to avail of fully funded places under their Amplifying Voices scheme.
Duration: One weekend per month from September 2023 to May 2024
Location: Munster Technological University (MTU) Crawford College of Art and Design
Course fee: €680 (subsidised by funding from Irish Aid)
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Barboró Arts Festival launch their Five Year Strategic Plan
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children
Baboró has announced the launch of their Strategic Plan for 2023-2027 highlighting their vision for the future, and their ambitions for the next five years.
“We are committed to making our festival and programmes more equitable. Baboró is building on our work in the community by bringing festival shows and workshops into schools throughout the city and county, touring to rural schools and community libraries, and unearthing new ways of reaching audiences that cannot reach us. We work directly with teachers and schools year-round on innovative arts in education projects in Galway city and county. We are building our community of families, schools, artists and local organisations so that everyone feels that they can belong at Baboró. We collaborate with our Children’s Panel to ensure the voice of the child is included in our work” – Barboró
Baboró’s Strategic Goals:
Every child is valued and welcome at Baboró. Baboró is working towards removing barriers facing children and artists and is committed to creating programmes where everyone feels welcomed, feels heard and is represented in their community. They commit to reflecting the diverse, multicultural Ireland of today in our artistic programmes.
Goal One:
Their annual Festival continues to be Baboró’s beating heart – a celebration of all their work and a gathering place for their community.
Goal Two:
Children in all their diversity and brilliance will be at the centre of their programmes and activities.
Goal Three:
Artists will be supported to make exciting, innovative work for children and young people.
Goal Four:
The environmental and biodiversity crisis will be reflected in the way they work and the stories they tell.
Goal Five:
Invest in their staff team and build a resilient organisation that reflects the breadth and quality of their work.
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Summer CPD for Teachers: A Visual Arts Approach in the Classroom with The Ark
The Ark
Date: 14th – 18th August 2023
Join artist Jole Bortoli at The Ark for this hugely popular hands-on, creative course focusing on a visual arts approach to exploring narrative, literacy & other subjects.
The aim of the course is to enable participants to start the new school year with an enhanced toolbox of skills and knowledge, in order to effectively deliver the visual arts curriculum in the classroom. Participants will be engaged ‘hands-on’ throughout this course so learning will be through doing. Working in teams and individually, you will cover a range of curriculum strands including drawing, painting, print, 3D construction, fabric, and fibre.
A strong emphasis will be on building skills and confidence. The group will also explore how visual art can be used to engage with aspects of the English, SPHE, History and Maths curriculum, as well as to promote visual literacy approaches. School self-evaluation exercises will be incorporated as an integral part of the course. Time will also be given for individual reflection and learning and group discussion.
This course will appeal to teachers of all levels of experience and will be facilitated by the visual arts and education specialist and founder of Art to Heart, Jole Bortoli. This is a continuing professional development opportunity not to be missed!
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Sign up for Arts In Junior Cycle Elective Courses!
Arts in Junior Cycle
Dates: Various
Arts in Junior Cycle have an extensive range of elective courses available to book for post-primary School teachers. Please see a selection of the course available below.
Lights, Camera, Action! A film production workshop
Date:Wednesday 7th, Thursday 8th and Friday 9th June
Times: 10.30am – 4pm
Location: Kilkenny Education Centre
This Arts in Junior Cycle workshop with Young Irish Film Makers (YIFM) in Kilkenny Education Centre will provide participants with an opportunity to:
understand how camera tells a story and consider film as visual language
engage in the three phases of production from concept to realisation, including: story-boarding, scripting, devising shot lists, filming, editing and creating a final rough cut
learn techniques to support classroom engagement with film-making across a range of contexts, including free software and using smart phones to film
This in-person workshop is open to junior cycle teachers of all subjects and disciplines.
Figurative Oil Painting workshop
Dates: Monday 19th and Tuesday 20th June
Times: 10.30am – 3.30pm
Location: Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts (RHA), Dublin
This Arts in Junior Cycle workshop with visual artist Blaise Smith in the RHA will provide participants with an opportunity to:
explore basic technical and material skills to underpin a professional painting practice
examine how compositional tools such as the Golden Mean and the Rule of Thirds are utilsed in traditional and contemporary oil painting
use a limited palette to create layers and flesh tones
explore basic anatomical structure of the human figure
Open to junior cycle teachers of all subject disciplines.
Do Your Own Thing! A workshop to explore the creative process
Dates: Thursday 22nd and Friday 23rd June
Time: 10.30am – 4.00pm
Location: Irish Museum of Modern Art
Arts in Junior Cycle in partnership with visual artist threadstories and writer and poet Colm Keegan offer a two-day workshop in The Irish Museum of Modern Art.
In this hands-on and practical workshop, participants will:
engage in an open-ended exploration of word and image, using a variety of art-making materials and writing prompts
consider their own relationship to education, art and self-expression
gain insights into the creative processes of a visual artist and a writer
explore IMMA and use it as a source of inspiration
discuss possible approaches to a range of stimuli
collaborate in a safe, supportive and experiential environment
This year Cruinniú na nÓg will be on 10th June 2023 and will feature more than 500 free creative activities for children and young people throughout the country. Cruinniú na nÓg 2023 is a collaboration between, the Creative Ireland Programme, local authorities and RTÉ and is the only event of its kind in the world.
Announcing Cruinniú na nÓg 2023, Minister Martin said:
“Every year Cruinniú na nÓgbecomes more firmly embedded into the lives of young people all over Ireland. There’s a huge programme of free creative activities for 10th June that will really stretch the imaginative muscles of all young people. Cruinniú na nÓg 2023 is a wonderful opportunity for the young people of Ireland to show off a little, try a new creative activity, make new friends and connect with their communities. Every event is free.”
The Creative Ireland Programme and its strategic partners have developed a number of creative projects, all planned to go live on Saturday 10th June 2023. These include:
Irish Street Arts, Circus and Spectacle Network (ISACS) will host open days for young people who want to try their hand at circus skills and street spectacle at their dedicated venues in Cloughjordan, Cork, Dublin and Galway. For those that can’t be there on the day, there will be a full range of online tutorials available.
Rhyme Island – This year Creative Ireland is teaming up with The Kabin Studio to get every young person in Ireland rapping. In preparation the Rhyme Island team have been travelling the length and breadth of the country holding a series of online and in-person workshops which will culminate in a massive day of rap at 17th Century Elizabeth Fort in Cork.
This is Art 2023 –Creative Ireland and RTÉ’s wonderful art competition for young people has returned, and the winning entries will be announced on 10th June 2023 along with a national on-line digital gallery of all entries.
TG4 with support from the Gaeltacht division of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media will support ‘Our World’/ ‘Mo Dhomhan’several Cruinniú na nÓg projects groups which will include sand art projects.
Cruinniú na nÓg 2023 Ambassadors
This year, Creative Ireland have asked five wonderful young people to represent Cruinniú na nOg 2023 to inspire others with their creative energy and skills.
Caterina Chiu Paone (8)Last year Caterina triumphed in This is Art with her cat collage. Not only does Caterina make art but she loves Irish dancing, playing the guitar, writing and singing her own songs.
Sibéal de Spáinn (8) loves swimming, making art and recording radio shows. She made her first radio show in 2022 on Raidió Rí-Rá. Making art makes her feel great and that she is helping the world.
Jamie (the King) Forde (17) has been rapping at Knocknaheeny’s The Kabin in Cork since he was 10. With his friend MC Tiny (Darren Stewart) Jamie recorded ‘ Yeah Boy’ which they have performed in all over Cork, at Dublin Castle and on The Late, Late Toy Show.
Jodie Byrne (14) isa member of the Dublin Circus Club which she joined in 2022. In a relatively short period of time she was walking on stilts in the St Patrick’s Day parade. For Cruinniú na nÓg this year she will be at the Dublin Circus Club learning to spin plates.
Archie Evans (15) has been involved with the Dublin Circus Club for over a year and he loves it! Once a week he joins his friends in the club to learn everything from stilt walking to trapeze to juggling. Through circus he has met other circus teens from all over the country.
Consistent with the aims of the Government’s Shared Island initiative to deepen beneficial cooperation and connections across the island of Ireland, Cruinniú na nÓg 2023 will be programmed on an all-island basis with cross-community events connecting children and young people from both sides of the border, including via our partners in Circus Explored and Rhyme Island. This action is an integral part of the Shared Island dimension to the Creative Ireland Programme which focuses on harnessing the power of culture and creativity to inspire connections between people, communities and places.
RTÉ is supporting Cruinniú na nÓg with a nationwide campaign on television, radio, online and digital.
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2023 Creative Schools Initiative open for applications
Arts Council of Ireland
Application Deadline:Thursday 15 June 2023 at 5.30pm
Maximum Award: with €4,000
Applications are now open for the Creative Schools Initiative! All Department of Education-recognised primary and post-primary schools and Youthreach centres that have not already participated in a previous round of Creative Schools are eligible to apply.
Creative Schools supports primary and post-primary schools and Youthreach centres across Ireland to put arts and creativity at the heart of children’s and young people’s lives.
It supports schools/centres to provide opportunities for children and young people to build their artistic and creative skills, and to develop additional ways of working that reinforce the impact of creativity on their learning and wellbeing.
Schools and Youthreach centres that join the programme take part in a two-year guided journey to develop a Creative Schools Plan unique to their own school, and to put it into action. Children and young people’s involvement in planning, decision-making and reflection is central to the journey.
Participating schools/centres will be provided with a package of supports that includes working with a Creative Associate, training and networking to support them to create their Creative School Plan, as well as seed funding to begin to implement their Plan. Successful schools will receive €4,000 to implement their plans over the school years 2023–24 and 2024–25.
Application guidelines 2023
The application guidelines are available here. All applications to the Arts Council are made through the Arts Council’s online services system. To access the application form and make an application, please set up an organisation account for your school or Youthreach centre on the Arts Council’s online services system here.
Information clinics
Please join one of our online information clinics to find out more.
Monday 15 May 2023 at 16.00-17.00. Book tickets here.
Tuesday 16 May 2023 at 16.00-17.00. Book tickets here.
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School Tours and Workshops at The Hunt Museum
The Hunt Museum
Dates: Ongoing
Join The Hunt Museum for a range of options of tours and workshops in the museum, and online resources for learners of all ages including lesson plans, videos and activities.
Some highlights of the workshops include:
Primary:
Life in the Bronze Age
Duration: 60 minutes
This workshop encourages pupils to thematically explore the objects and practices of Ireland’s Bronze Age people. It enables them to investigate and use as evidence the Bronze Age collections on display in the Hunt Museum. The handling of replica prehistoric artefacts will provide additional opportunities for inquiry-led learning. Pupils also get to try out some simple prehistoric technologies. This workshop walks the students through the prehistoric timeline as they learn how technologies emerged and advanced from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age.
Animal Hunt Online Programme
Date: Watch video to your schedule
This 20 minute video workshop introduces Primary School students to animal based collections at the Hunt Museum. Students learn how artists throughout history have depicted animals in their art, and why certain animals are important to different cultures. Students will be introduced to the online research tools that will help them complete the Animal Hunt 3D online activity.
Post-Primary
800 Years of Fashion Workshop
Duration: 60mins
€3.50 euro per student. Teachers go free!
In this workshop, students will learn about clothing from eight different periods (between 1200 and 1920), and these societies. These resources, and objects in the permanent collection, will be used as historical evidence to better understand the evolution of fashion over time, and how these shifts in style relate to changes in society.
Creative Schools have invited every school in Ireland (primary, post-primary, special education schools and Youthreach centres) to celebrate the arts and creativity from 8 – 12 May, 2023. The theme this year “Creativity Lives Here” encourages school communities to pause and reflect on where creativity is evident in their lives, in every class, in every school and in the experience of every student. The week is a time to focus on celebrating this creativity, perhaps adding to the experiences of students in the form of events or workshops and providing a platform to show how creative each school can be.
If your school is already in the Creative Schools initiative, this week is a great time to celebrate your journey so far!
Previous years’ Celebrations included Online Celebrations highlighting work from a selection of Creative Schools and Creative Clusters initiatives since 2018, as well as workshops, interviews and features across a wide range of different artists and arts and cultural organisations. They invite you to watch these videos with your students to learn about school communities across the initiative as well as their creative approaches to learning and artistic responses to Covid 19. Schools highlighted are a representation of the over 460 schools who had participated in the Creative Schools initiative since 2018.
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The Ark Presents A Schools Visual Art Workshop: My Own Folktale
The Ark: A Cultural Centre for Children
Dates: June, various
Inspired by Cartoon Saloon’s award winning animated movies The Secret of Kells, Songs of the Sea and WolfWalkers, this visual arts workshop invites Primary school classes from 1st to 6th to delve into the rich world of Irish folk tales.
During the workshop, each child will start by creating the setting for a personal narrative by painting the backdrop for this story, as background artists do in animation studios. They will then design a character of their own invention – perhaps a creature or animal they’d love to shape-shift into, to be in their skin and take on their abilities?
In keeping with folklore traditions, children will explore the magical and mythical world of Irish stories and legends, their characters, environments and possible artefacts to see what connections can be made with real historical events.
To fuel the children’s imagination, your class will start the session by visiting Cartoon Saloon’s WolfWalkers exhibition in The Ark gallery. This exhibition contains concept art, beautiful framed artworks and panels that illustrate WolfWalkers’ production stages and teamwork.
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Join Creative Futures Webinar on Creative Uses for Immersive Technology
Creative Futures Academy
Date: Wednesday, 10th May 2023
Creative Futures Academy at IADT invites you to join their upcoming webinar on creative uses for immersive technology.
Are you looking to explore how immersive technologies can be used to enhance learning and creativity? Join their upcoming webinar, Immersive Technologies Use Cases for Learning and Creativity.
Learn about the potential of these technologies and how they can be applied in education and creative activities. Their panel of experts will be showcasing their work in utilising immersive technologies. Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to gain insight into the latest trends and innovations in immersive tech! Register now for their webinar.
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Join The Erasmus+ Online eTwinning Schools Conference
Erasmus+
The Online eTwinning Schools Conference
Date: 24th-26th May 2023.
The Online eTwinning Schools Conference will take place from 24 to 26 May 2023. The first day of the conference (Wednesday 24 May) will be live streamed and open for anyone to join and engage with. No registration is needed.
The overall goal of the conference is to identify, highlight, share, promote, disseminate and further establish the practices of eTwinning Schools that focus on creativity and well-being.
During that first day, Arianna Sala of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) will present the keynote presentation “LifeComp: A European competence framework for better lives in our uncertain world”. LifeComp is the European framework for the personal, social and learning to learn key competence.
Days 2 and 3 will be closed only to eTwinning registered participants.
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Mayo Education Centre: Creative Arts Session for Teachers
Mayo Education Centre
Date: 30th May 2023
Mayo Education Centre invites teachers to a free arts session that will inspire them to experiment and be creative with a variety of materials to create both two and three dimensional artworks. Led by artist Jennifer Hickey “Making the Season Creative with Art” is a practical face to face session, which will encourage participants to explore art making processes using a variety of materials and will deliver an imaginative learning experience that teachers can bring back to the classroom.
Participants will work with a variety of materials including; clay, inks, paint, card and materials from nature.
It is aimed at teachers of all levels of experience and is suitable for teachers in junior and senior classes.
Learning outcomes
• Learn new and easy ways to incorporate natural materials into the classroom.
• Gain knowledge on contemporary artists who explore their environment and use natural materials in their work.
• Explore hands on craft processes that will promote wellbeing and encourage the classroom to respond, explore and interpret the season in a visual and creative way.
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Creative Writing Workshops for Teachers with Arts in Junior Cycle
Arts In Junior Cycle
Date: Wed 3 May 2023
Time: 5:00pm – 6:30pm
Venue: Zoom
Arts in Junior Cycle are hosting a creative writing workshop for Teachers. Knights of the Borrowed Dark: Approaches to Story writing with award-winning author Dave Rudden.
Using his novel Knights of the Borrowed Dark – an indicative text for 1st year junior cycle English – Dave will share how he turns inspiration into a fully developed narrative. You will see the writing process from the inside and learn creative writing techniques you may wish to use in the classroom.
During this workshop participants will:
use the Knights of the Borrowed Dark as a starting point, learn how to, craft ideas into stories and develop sustainable writing practices
explore how to create and describe the characters and structure of a story
develop a plan to write a ‘draft zero’ of your own novel or short story
collaborate, share ideas, and reflect in a safe, supportive workshop space
experience practical and creative methodologies that can be used / put to use in professional classroom practice.
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Part 2 – Announcing the 2023 Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award Recipients
The Portal Team are delighted to announce the second of the two recipients of the 2023 Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award. We are very excited to be working with each recipient in the coming months to document their projects. These projects will be showcased on the portal as the documentation progresses.
SCEALTA
The BA in Early Childhood Education and Care programme at Atlantic Technological University ( ATU) Galway and Mayo campuses were delighted to be awarded an Artist in Residence funded by the Arts Council, to work with the students undertaking the BA in Early Childhood Education and Care programme.
The Arts project SCEALTA (Stories, Curiosity, Engagement, Active learning, Language, Theatre, Aistear) was devised as an extension of the Artist in Residence project. This project is based in Tuam Community Childcare Centre which is owned and managed by Western Traveller and Intercultural Development (WTID) group. The provocation for this project is the Community preschool School Bus. The preschool children in Tuam community preschool are collected each morning and return to their homes, families, and extended families after the preschool session on the school bus.
The second preschool which is part of this project Whiz Kids, is a private preschool. Going on a bus journey is a treat or an adventure for these children, usually associated with an outing. As part of the arts project, the children from Whiz Kids preschool travel on the bus to the Tuam Community Childcare Centre, where all of the children come together to actively participate in the project. The children’s social and cultural context is celebrated through this creative experience of stories, puppetry and theatre using the school bus to take children on real and imaginary journeys, sharing stories, songs, engaging in experiential learning through media, art, clay.
Early Years Educator: Louise O’Shaughnessy Louise O’Shaughnessy is the Manager at Tuam Community Childcare Centre, For Western Traveller Intercultural Development Group. Louise is also in year three of the BA in Early Childhood Education and Care at Atlantic Technological University Galway. Louise believes in the importance and value of supporting young children’s identity and belonging in the early years setting in partnership with parents and families.
Early Years Educator: Sandra Mills Sandra Mills is an Early Childhood Educator at Tuam Community Childcare Centre. Sandra is currently pursuing a Degree in Early Childhood Education and Care in Atlantic Technological University Galway. She has worked in the early years sector for over 12 years and is deeply committed in encouraging children to become self-directed learners and establishing a warm safe and welcoming early years environment.
Early Years Educator: Paula O’Reilly Paula O’Reilly is an Early Years Educator at Wiz Kidz preschool and afterschool service Tuam. Paula is in year three of the BA Early Childhood Education and Care at Atlantic Technological University Galway. She is passionate about play and recognises children’s right to play and playful early learning experiences which supports their curiosity, imagination and creativity.
Artist: Cliodhna Noonan Cliodhna Noonan is The Arts Council ATU Artist in Residence. Cliodhna is an early years arts creator, producer and programmer for creative arts events with children and families aged 0-6 years. Cliodhna writes, develops and performs her own work for young children age 0-6 years, she is a member of Smallsize EU network association and an active member of TYAI.
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Irish Architecture Foundation Open Call for Schools
Irish Architecture Foundation (IAF)
Application Deadline: 9 June 2023 – 6 pm
The Irish Architecture Foundation has opened a call for schools to participate in their TY Architects in Schools Programme 2023/24.
Now entering into its 11th annual cycle, this Transition Year programme is creative, collaborative and participatory, providing an introduction to architecture and the design process for young people. There is no cost for your school to participate (apart from providing some art materials). An architect will facilitate hands-on design workshops in your school.
Dates, times and workshop duration will be arranged directly between the designated teacher / TY coordinator and the assigned architect.
Workshops must take place between 1 September 2023 and 22 March 2024.
There are two options for participation:
Option A: Full Programme
30 schools can participate in the full programme (12 hours of workshops per school, with an architect / architectural graduate).
Option B: Introductory Programme
40 additional schools can avail of introductory workshops (1 x 3 hour workshop per school, with an architect / architectural graduate).
In this CPD workshop for primary teachers, textile artist and educator Gabi McGrath will introduce participants to the art of felting and explore ways to bring their learning into their classroom.
A designer, craft teacher, maker and curator, Gabi will introduce her textile practice to participants and share a selection of projects that she has undertaken with schools.
You will then have the opportunity to experiment with fibres in this hands-on workshop, learning simple felting techniques and uncovering the expressive possibilities of the material. Through both 2D and 3D construction, you will explore shape, tone, texture and form.
Over the course of this two-hour workshop, Gabi will help you develop skills, techniques and processes that can be integrated into your lesson plans and adapted for students of all ages.
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2023 Portal Spring Regional Day – Programme Announced
Arts in Education Portal
Date: Saturday, 6th May 2023
The Portal Team is delighted to announce the full programme for the Arts in Education Portal Spring Regional Day which takes place on Saturday 6th May in Cork City at MTU Crawford College of Art & Design in partnership with the Department of Arts in Health & Education and Department of Fine Art & Applied Art. We are also delighted to present, in collaboration with Sample-Studios in Cork, an exhibition of work from artists in the field of arts in education based in the South-West region. An exhibition viewing will be held at the Lord Mayor’s Pavilion to wrap up the day’s programme from 3:30pm; delegates are welcome to attend then or to visit the exhibition which will run until 27th May.
We invite teachers, artists, arts managers and anyone with an interest in arts in education in Cork, Kerry, Limerick and Tipperary to join us for these free events.
The programme for the day includes a series of presentations in the morning; artist Jane Hayeswill discuss the challenges and opportunities that go with balancing a studio practice with collaborative arts projects, and her mission to make both child-centred. Following this discussion, composer Fiona Linnanewill explore the activities which she has found to be the most effective in engaging students during her residencies through presentation, discussion and creative exercises.
In the afternoon join West Cork based visual artist artist Julie O’Hea for a creative workshop in ink making and hapa-zome pigment printing, this session promises to be messy, fun and informative.
How to Book
Tickets for the 2023 Portal Spring Regional Day are free but pre booking is essential as capacity is limited.
For those who can’t join us in person on the day, the morning talks and presentations will be available to watch back online following the conference. Registration for viewing is available through the link here: https://forms.gle/MF4NLWcRWq8t15nk8.
Please note: ISL Interpretation will be available at the venue and on the video recordings.
Schedule
10:00am — Registration & coffee at MTU CCAD, Sharman Crawford Street
10.15am — Welcome Address
10:30am — The Portal: a brief introduction by Edel Doherty, Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership (Portal Content Managers)
10:45am — Presentation ‘The Voice of the Child in Creative Decision-Making – The Early Years Context’ with Jane Hayes. Join early years artist Jane Hayes for an informal discussion about her socially engaged visual arts practice and her work with and for very young children.
11:30am — Presentation ‘Tutti – Exploring pathways to inclusivity for music composition in the classroom’ with Fiona Linnane. Composer Fiona Linnane will share her learnings, as an artist delivering schools residencies exploring music and sound, around what she has found to be the most inclusive approaches to music composition in the classroom.
12:15pm — Lunch & networking
1:15pm — Walk to MTU CCAD, Grand Parade
1:30pm – 3:00pm — Creative Workshop ‘Pigments from Nature’ with artist Julie O’Hea at MTU CCAD, Grand Parade. Visual artist Julie O’Hea will give a demonstration in ink making and hapa-zome pigment printing in a messy, fun and informative creative session.
– – – – – – – – –
3:30pm — Exhibition viewing and reception at Lord Mayor’s Pavilion
5:00pm — wrap up
Collaborative Arts in Education exhibition with Sample-Studios at the Lord Mayor’s Pavilion
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National Gallery of Ireland Schools Programme 2023
National Gallery of Ireland (NGI)
The National Gallery of Ireland have released their spring programme for schools. Some highlights include:
ONSITE:
School Tour: Collection highlights (free)
Term Time. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays at 10am, 11am, 12pm and 1pm
Explore treasures of the national collection through engaging discussions with National Gallery expert guides on this free school tour. Focusing on dialogue, questioning, and creativity, this free tour will embolden students to look, respond, and form opinions. The tour will be tailored to the age and level of your group and is available in Irish, English or ISL.
The school tours are free but booking is essential. Book your tour here
Sketching Tour (€35)
Term Time. Thursdays at 12.30pm
Take a deeper look at the national collection on this sketching tour with an artist from the NGI’s guide panel. Use sketching to observe and respond to details and techniques. Your guide will select some key artworks to look at in depth on this tour. The tour will be tailored to the age and level of your group and is available in English.
Explore treasures of the national collection through engaging online discussions with one of their expert guides. Focusing on dialogue, questioning and creativity, the session will embolden students to look, respond and form opinions. The online session will be tailored to the age and level of your group and is available in Irish or English. You can choose from the following themes: Collection Highlights; Portraits; Irish Art; European Art.
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Poetry Day Ireland 2023 Events Programme Announced
Poetry Ireland – Day of Poetry 2023
Date: Thursday 27th April
Submission Deadline: 20th April
Poetry Ireland is celebrating poetry in schools by offering this online collection of inspiring activities and ideas for teachers and children. Packed with poems and fun activities, this vibrant online resource encourages teachers, children and families nationwide to read, write, listen to, illustrate, perform, share – and above all enjoy
poetry.
The programme of events is now live on their website. This all-island celebration of poetry takes place on Thursday 27 April and the theme is ‘Message in a Bottle’.
They have more than 70 exciting events included in the programme encompassing Bangor, Belfast, Cork, Donegal, Drogheda, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, Kilkenny, Limerick, Mayo, New York, Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford, so far!
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Minister Foley announces call for applications from schools for BLAST 2023 and Creative Clusters initiatives
Department of Education: BLAST and Creative Clusters
Deadlines:
BLAST: 19th May 2023
Creative Clusters: 12th May 2023
The Minister for Education Norma Foley TD has invited primary and post-primary schools to apply for the arts in education initiative, Bringing Live Arts to Students and Teachers (BLAST) 2023 and Creative Clusters.
BLAST – Bringing Live Arts to Students and Teaches
BLAST will be running in 2023 for the third time. The 2023 programme will enable 425 new arts in education residencies in schools over the course of the year.
The aim of BLAST is to provide pupils in schools all over the country, time and the space to work with a professional artist on creative, imaginative and fun projects.
Each Creative Cluster will receive grant funding of €3,000 per school over a two-year period to implement their project in the 2023–2025 school years (e.g. a cluster of 3 schools would receive €9,000 over two years while a cluster of 5 schools would receive €15,000 over two years). Clusters will receive 50% of the total grant funding in Year 1, with the second 50% being provided in Year 2. In addition, but separate to the grant funding, all successful clusters are further supported with: A fully paid Creative Cluster Facilitator; paid Teacher Substitution to attend training and meetings; room hire, travel & subsistence.
Supported by The Arts Council Invitation to Collaboration Scheme and taking place throughout May and June, this exciting programme—Social Practice Toolkit: Children and Youth—is aimed at artists and arts workers who are keen to exchange knowledge and upskill in collaborative and participatory arts with children and young people.
The deadline for applications is midnight on Monday 10th April. Please contact sptoolkit2023@gmail.com with any queries.
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Part 1 – Announcing the 2023 Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award Recipients
The Portal Team are delighted to announce the first of the two recipients of the 2023 Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award. We are very excited to be working with each recipient in the coming months to document their projects. These projects will be showcased on the portal as the documentation progresses.
Project Title: ‘Keystone’
Keystone has been commissioned by Clare County Council to celebrate and mark 20 years of artist in schools programming by Clare Arts Office. The curatorial framework Art School directed and curated by Jennie Guy has been invited to deliver the project by artists Mitch Conlon and James Moran, with co-curator Fiona Gannon. The project has been taking place over the course of 2022 and 2023 in Coláiste Mhuire (Ennis) and Scoil Mhuire (Ennistymon) in Co. Clare, providing an opportunity for fifth year students to work with the artists to explore the significance of myth within local youth cultures.
The artists will work with the students to explore questions including: What are sites of mythological importance for teenagers in these two towns? Are these the same as those deemed important by the wider communities? And how do teenagers relate to the collective unconscious of their wider local communities?
Teacher: Mary Fahy
Mary Fahy is a visual artist from Galway and art teacher in Scoil Mhuire, Ennistymon since 2003. Commenting on the project she said: “Our 5th year art class are thrilled to be participating in this collaborative, socially engaged Artists in Schools project. It is an incredible opportunity for students to co-create art with professional artists in a supportive environment that centres their opinions and artistic voice.”
Teacher: Aidan Power
Aidan Power is an Art Teacher with Colaiste Muire, Ennis. On being part of the project he added: “We have a strong artistic tradition in music, performance and visual art which helps our students to nuture a sense of self while striving for academic success. Our 5th year art class will be taking part in this collaborative project which will develop their artistic skills in a new and exciting direction. The learned knowledge will go on to support future projects throughout their senior cycle art course.”
Artist: Mitch Conlon
Mitch Conlon is an artist originally from the West of Ireland currently based as a studio member within PS2, Belfast. He is a member of the Turner Prize winning group, Array Collective, a former director of Catalyst Arts, Belfast; was a co-director of online journal COLLECTED and Chairperson of Engage Studios, Galway.
Artist: James Moran
James Moran is an experimental comedian and theatre maker born and based in Dublin. Since 2014 he has written comedy shows for traditional and alternative venues; and he has also hosted several podcasts, including the leftist political Celtic Ligers and historical comedy Primordial Views.
About Art School
Art School is a collaborative project founded by Jennie Guy in 2014. Art School enables exchanges between contemporary artists and sites of education, creating opportunities for younger audiences to encounter and participate in the making and potential of art in society.
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New Creative Youth Plan 2023-2027 launched for children and young people
Creative Ireland
A new Creative Youth Plan for the period 2023-2027 was approved and launched by Government on Tuesday 28th March to further embed creativity into the centre of the lives of Ireland’s young people.
Building on the success of the first Creative Youth Plan 2017-2022, this new plan aims to provide everyone from birth to 24 years with more opportunities for creative engagement in every aspect of their lives. Across seven strategic objectives, the Creative Youth Plan will ensure children and young people retain a key voice in decision-making on its implementation and will prioritise those that are seldom heard and most at risk of disadvantage. Parents and caregivers, educators, artists, and creative practitioners will be supported to recognise the centrality and value of creativity to their lives.
The Creative Youth Plan 2023-2027 aims to enable the creative potential of children and young people, from birth to 24 years, prioritising those seldom heard and at risk of disadvantage
Under the new Creative Youth Plan, opportunities for creative engagement will reach tens of thousands of children and young people.
Children and young people to retain a key voice in decision-making on its implementation.
Impactful programmes such as the Local Creative Youth Partnerships, Cruinniú na nÓg, Creative Schools, Creative Clusters and BLAST to continue.
New €500,000 Creative Youth Nurture Fund to support pilot youth-led projects that prioritise seldom heard children and young people.
The launch was supported by a panel discussion between the Ministers and four young creatives with a music performance from Music Generation and a spoken word performance organised through Creative Schools.
Read more about the upcoming 5 years of Creative Youth here: https://artsineducation.ie/en/resource/creative-youth-plan-2023-2027/
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Portal Spring Regional Day 2023: Collaborative Arts in Education exhibition with Sample-Studios
Arts in Education Portal
Date: 27th April – 27 May
As part of this year’s Arts in Education Portal Spring Regional Day, we are delighted to be partnering with Sample-Studios in Cork city for a collaborative exhibition which will run for the month of May in their gallery at the Lord Mayor’s Pavillion. The exhibition will showcase work from artists in the field of arts and creativity in education based in the South-West region.
The exhibition will be launched as part of the 2023 Spring Regional Day which will take place on Saturday 6th May at MTU Crawford College of Art & Design in partnership with the Department of Arts in Health & Education, showcasing arts in education projects and creative practice in the South-West.
In November 2021, Sample-Studios Artistic Director, Aoibhie McCarthy and member and lead Education Programme tutor Kate McElroy presented to the National Arts in Education Portal Annual Conference about our Cork Creative Careers Programme and Cork Young Curators and Critics Programme. Through this connection as speakers, Sample-Studios and the Arts in Education Portal began a dialogue about the need to offer profile to arts educational practitioners in Munster, to stimulate knowledge sharing amongst peers and collaborations, as well as awareness amongst wider audiences about the important role of arts education and arts educators in the community.
Collaborating with Sample-Studios on an exhibition to complement the programme will present both this audience and a wider public audience with an opportunity to delve deeper into the creative practice shared on the day adding another layer of engagement. The exhibition is co-curated by the Arts in Education Portal team with Sample-Studios and invites keynote speakers and presenters at the Portal Regional Day to exhibit documentation and artwork from best practice examples of their own work. An opening reception for delegates will be held as part of the Regional Day programme.
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Opportunity for Teachers: Tartuffe – Text to Performance
The Abbey Theatre: Tartuffe – Text to Performance
Dates: Various
Arts in Junior Cycle and the Abbey Theatre are delighted to present Tartuffe: Text to Performance. Open to teachers from all subject disciplines, Tartuffe: Text to Performance consists of an in-person workshop, a performance of Tartuffe and a follow-up online workshop.
In a new adaptation by Frank McGuinness, Molière’s 17th century classic has been updated to an Irish setting and will embrace the comedy’s humour and farce in which the villainous Tartuffe shocks and enthrals with his deceptive powers.
A key part of Tartuffe: Text to Performance includes attending a performance of the Abbey Theatre’s production of Tartuffe, directed by Abbey Theatre artistic director, Caitríona McLaughlin.
Tartuffe: Text to Performance offers opportunities to:
explore how a play in performance communicates its message to an audience.
collaborate, share ideas and reflect in a safe, supportive environment.
experience practical and creative methodologies that may be used in professional classroom practice.
As Tartuffe is an Abbey Theatre touring production, Tartuffe: Text to Performance is being they offered in Donegal and Cork.
Participants will register for ONE of these locations.
DONEGAL :
Saturday 6th May 2023:
Workshop: 10.30am – 1:00pm, Perfomance: 2:30pm
An Grianán Theatre, Letterkenny
Monday 8th May 2023:
Online Workshop: 6:00pm – 7:00pm
CORK :
Saturday 13th May 2023:
Workshop 10.30am – 1:00pm
Cork Education Support Centre
Performance 2.30pm
Cork Opera House
Monday 15th May 2023:
Online Workshop: 6:00pm – 7:00pm
Spaces are limited to a maximum of 20 participants for each workshop venue. A waiting list will apply. Register on www.artsinjuniorcycle.ie
CLOSING DATES FOR REGISTRATIONS: Friday 28 April at 4.30pm (Donegal) and Friday 5 May (Cork) or prior to these dates if the workshops have reached capacity.
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Schools are invited to The Race – a new theatre show at The Ark
The Ark
Dates: Thursday 18th May and Friday 19th May
An exciting new dance piece for children aged 4+ inspired by Aesop’s Fables, presented by The Ark, Dublin Dance Festival and Arts & Disability Ireland.
From acclaimed international choreographer, Marc Brew, The Race entwines three of Aesop’s Fables to create a fun, interactive and colourful world of animals, puppets, theatre and movement.
Cheer with the cast of animals as the Tortoise and the Hare set off for the finish line, join the Grasshopper in gazing with fascination as the Ants collect food for the winter ahead, and root for the little Mouse as she faces down the mighty Lion! Watch as their journeys unfold through beautiful movement and dance, and share in the lessons they learn along the way.
The Race will make its World Premiere as part of Dublin Dance Festival 2023. Presented by a cast of disabled and non-disabled dance artists, all performances have been created to offer an inclusive audience experience. The show is relaxed in nature and welcomes children who are neurodiverse.
School Day Performances Previews – Thursday 18th May, 10.15am & 12.15pm and Friday 19th May, 10.15am
Fri 19 May, 12.15pm
Schools’ Tickets: €6.50 (€5 Early Bird** if booked by 21 April). Teachers go free.
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Creative Ireland – A Creative Future Progress Report
Creative Ireland
Creative Ireland have released their 2022 progress report A Creative Future, highlighting their initiatives throughout the year, including progress made under the Creative Youth Plan. Published in December 2017, the aims of the Creative Youth Plan are to give every child practical access to tuition, experience and participation in art, music, drama and coding by 2022.
Catherine Martin TD, Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, was delighted to announce the project will be extended until 2027.
Under the project 185 new schools and Youthreach facilities joined the Creative Schools programme. This includes the addition of four schools in alternative settings which will receive enhanced supports: Oberstown Children Detention Campus School; Ballydowd High Support Special School; Crannog Nua Special School, Portrane; and St Canice’s Special School, Limerick.
Other highlights include :
153 new schools joined 42 Creative Clusters around the country.
629 new school artist residencies were awarded under BLAST (Bringing Live Arts to Students and Teachers) for the 2022/2023 school year
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Creative Associate Opportunities with Creative Schools
The Arts Council’s Creative Associates
Deadline: 12 mid-day, Tuesday 18th April 2023
Creative Schools is delighted to announce an exciting opportunity for artists, creative practitioners and individuals working in organisations in the arts and cultural sector.
The Arts Council wish to engage between 100 and 120 Creative Associates to work in up to 400 schools across the Republic of Ireland. Creative Associates are artists or creative practitioners with a deep understanding of creativity and its potential to transform the lives of children and young people. They are key to the success of the Creative Schools initiative. Individuals or organisations that wish to nominate an individual may apply for this opportunity.
Applications must be completed and submitted by 12 mid-day on Tuesday 18 April 2023.
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Minister Foley launches new Primary Curriculum Framework
Department of Education
The Minister for Education Norma Foley recently launched the new Primary Curriculum Framework for all primary and special schools.
The Primary Curriculum Framework will shape the work of all primary and special schools for the coming years. This is the first curriculum framework for primary education in Ireland. Under the framework, schools will have a dedicated structure underpinning learning, teaching and assessment.
The Primary Curriculum Framework is designed to cater for all primary and special schools and sets out the vision and principles for a redeveloped, modern curriculum.
The framework also introduces key competencies for children’s learning, setting out the main features and components for the full redevelopment of the primary school curriculum, detailing curriculum areas and subjects; and suggested time allocations. It introduces and expands aspects of learning including STEM Education, Modern Foreign Languages and a broader Arts education.
The Primary Curriculum Framework was developed by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) over a six-year period and draws on an extensive body of national and international research, working with a network of 60 primary schools, post-primary schools and preschools nationally, engaging closely with education partners and wider stakeholders, and conducting extensive consultation, including with primary school-aged children.
The Primary Curriculum Framework emphasises the importance of curriculum integration, inclusive practice, inquiry-based learning and playful pedagogy. The framework will guide the development of the specifications for each of the curriculum areas that will be introduced in the coming years.
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Opportunity for Schools: The Safer Internet Day Awards Art Competition
Webwise / PDST Technology in Education
Deadline: Friday, 21st April
The Safer Internet Day Awards are back and this year a special new category has been added for budding creatives.
NEW: Art Competition with special guest judge; Irish artist – Maser. Be in with a chance to have your work exhibited in a gallery! Simply design a poster under the Safer Internet Day theme Respect and Empathy Online.
Entries will be judged by International Irish Artist Maser.
Open to Primary and Post-Primary Schools.
Closing date March 31st.
Categories for Primary:
1st and 2nd Class | 3rd and 4th Class | 5th and 6th Class
Categories for Post-Primary:
1st and 2nd Year | Transition Year | 5th and 6th Year
How to submit your entry:
Post your entry to: Webwise / PDST Technology in Education, Innovation House DCU Alpha, Old Finglas Rd, Dublin 11, D11 KXN4
Include the following information: Name, school, teacher’s contact details, category you are entering, and a brief description of the poster.
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Artist Opportunity: Baboró International Arts Festival for Children
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children
Deadline: Midnight, Monday 10th April
Baboró are inviting applications from multidisciplinary artists with experience working with children for Creating Space, a two-year collaborative project with a Galway primary school that will begin this summer and conclude in 2025.
This is an opportunity for experienced multidisciplinary and performing artists who are passionate about the positive impact the creative arts can make on young lives. The selected artist will design and deliver a plan for creative classroom engagements and activities which will take place from autumn 2023 until spring 2025.
If you would like to find out more about Creating Space, you can join Baboró for an online information session via Zoom on Tuesday 21 March at 3pm. RSVP to receive the Zoom link here: https://forms.gle/aCZk1KuYQYW3STkF6
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The FÍS Film Project Awards 2023 – Winners Announced
FÍS Film Awards 2023
Cappawhite National School in Tipperary have been crowned winners of ‘FÍS Film of the Year’ at the FÍS Film Awards 2023, which have taken place at The Helix, DCU, Dublin.
The movie, entitled ‘The Christmas Truce of 1914’ recounts the fabled ceasefire between British and German soldiers on the Western Front during World War I. It also scooped the Outstanding Cinematography prize. The FÍS Film Awards 2023 recognises the creative talents of primary school children across Ireland.
The Awards, hosted by RTE’s Sinead Kennedy, is a collaboration between the Institute of Art, Design and Technologyand the Professional Development Service for Teachers It was devised as a grassroots initiative to nurture Ireland’s future moviemaking talent by encouraging them to devise, develop, produce, and submit their short films for consideration in a range of categories. The event was co-produced by students of IADT’s National Film School and streamed live on the official FÍS website.
Some other 2023 winners include :
Lackamore NS, Tipperary – Outstanding Achievement in Filmmaking – Adaptation – Na Trí Mhuc
Carrig N.S, Offaly – Award for Best Comedy – The Villains
Strawberry Hill NS, Cork – Outstanding Achievement in Filmmaking – Production Design – The Normans
Gaelscoil Riabhach, Galway – An Scannán Is Fearr as Gaeilge – Fáilte go dtí An Córas Díleá
Commenting on this year’s awards, FÍS Manager from The Institute of Art, Design & Technology, Bernadette Meagher said: “The judges had a tough task at this year’s event, the standard and ambition of the entries was so high, not to mention the creativity. We congratulate every one of the children involved, along with their teachers, on their well-deserved awards……”
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Early Insights Review of the Junior Cycle Visual Art
National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA)
Deadline: 31st March, 5pm
NCCA is seeking the views of a range of parties, including education stakeholders, practising teachers and students who are interested in contributing to this Early Insights Review. There are several ways to participate in the consultation:
Via an Online Survey
Make a written submission, using our template, Visual Art Written Submission” in the subject line.
Register to attend a regional focus group:
Dublin: Ashling Hotel – 21st March Limerick: Strand Hotel – 14th March Galway city: Harbour Hotel – 28th March
These focus groups will take place during the day from 10:30am – 1:00pm. Places are limited and registration remains open until one week in advance of each focus group.
This review process will close on Friday, 31st March at 5pm.
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National Museum of Ireland: Schools Spring 2023 Programme
National Museum of Ireland (NMI)
The National Museum of Ireland (NMI) is inviting schools and teachers across Ireland to spring into culture and heritage with a new programme of tours, activities and resources for onsite and online engagement.
The museum has just launched a diverse range of events across four public sites in Dublin and Mayo. Activities include virtual tours, guided tours, self-guided visits, workshops, classroom resources, video resources, wordsearches, arts and crafts and more.
The curriculum-linked programme aims to spark curiosity, stimulate discussion and encourage cultural and heritage engagement through our national collections.
All schools visits are free but must be booked in advance as capacity is limited and varies from site to site.
Learn some basic map reading and navigation skills and complete an orienteering course around the grounds of the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life at Turlough Park in Co Mayo. Booking is required.
Use these curriculum-linked activity sheets and video resource to learn more about Ice Age Ireland. In this museum activity, find out about Ice Age Ireland, learn about fossils and the different kinds of animals that lived on your doorstep thousands of years ago.
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Date Announced for the Arts in Education Portal Spring Regional Day 2023
Arts in Education Portal Events
Date: 6 May 2023
The Portal Team is delighted to invite teachers, artists and anyone with an interest in arts and creativity in education to save the date and join us for the 2023 Portal Spring Regional Day. This year’s event will take place on Saturday, 6th May at MTU Crawford College of Art & Design in partnership with the Department of Arts in Health & Education, showcasing arts in education projects and creative practice in the South-West.
We invite regional audiences to connect with us during a series of events, where practitioners can learn more about the Portal and what it offers, tell us about their work, connect with the community at regional level, share practice and find out what opportunities or events are available in their local area. We welcome teachers, artists, arts managers and anyone with an interest in arts in education to join us for this free event.
For those who can’t join us in person on the day we will be recording the main talks and presentations which be available to watch back online following the event.
Stay tuned for the full schedule and booking details which will be announced in the coming weeks. Pre-booking will be essential.
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Opportunity for artists: Writers in Schools Scheme
Call for Applications: Writers in Schools Scheme
Deadline: ongoing
The Writers in Schools Scheme part-funds visits by writers and storytellers to primary and post-primary schools throughout the island of Ireland. This scheme is co-funded by the Arts Council in the Republic of Ireland and administered by Poetry Ireland.
Applications are open on an ongoing basis from poets, novelists, storytellers, teen fiction writers, children’s writers, playwrights and screenwriters to join the Writers in Schools directory.
Over the past 22 years, the scheme has given more than 500,000 children the chance to work closely with writers in the classroom. A comprehensive professional development and support programme for successful applicants is delivered by Poetry Ireland before they are enlisted to the directory of writers.
Prospective applicants can find out more information on the scheme, including eligibility criteria and the online application form from the following link:
The Catalyst International Film Festival will host the 4th edition of the festival in Limerick from 30th March to 1st April 2023, presenting a film programme that celebrates diverse stories and storytellers currently under-represented on screen and behind the camera.
After a hugely successful schools’ screening last year and taking on board feedback from teachers they have expanded their schools programme for 2023 and are very excited to share their plans and officially open bookings! This is a great opportunity for young people to experience filmmaking from the ground up and find out if a career in film is for them.
In 2023, IMMA will present an exhibition spanning 20 years of Sarah Pierce’s practice, to the present. IMMA is seeking expressions of interest from Transition Year students to participate in a day-long project with the artist in April/May (date to be confirmed). Students will participate in the presentation of the artwork The Square. The Square uses Bertolt Brecht’s Lehrstück – or learning play – as a starting point for developing a new work with students. In this experimental “play without a script” the students are the authors, cast and audience. The performance takes place during the time of the exhibition in the gallery space, as the performers interact and migrate around and among the visitors. There are no characters, no plot or other narrative devices. This is a roaming set of memorised chants and gestures that speak quite abstractly to ideas of learning and gathering, and what it means to act, make and be together.
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Leitrim Youthreach and The Dock: Envision Youth Arts Exhibition
Leitrim Youthreach & The Dock
3rd February – 31st March
A new exhibition of digital and photographic works created by learners at Leitrim Youthreach opened in The Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon on Friday, February 3.
Visual arts, painting and photography are some of the creative modules taught at Leitrim Youthreach based in Mohill. The exhibition is on view in The Jury Room Café until 31st March.
The artworks, created for the project Envision, blend digital art and photography techniques. Each artist directed the theme and technique to suit their individual vision. Some of the techniques used include digital drawing, long exposure, blended exposure, and digital/physical assemblage. The students were supported in creating their artworks by their art teacher David Smith.
This project has been kindly supported by the Local Creative Youth Partnership and The Dock Arts Centre.
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Opportunity for Schools: Branar Digital Arts Flag
Branar Téatar do Pháistí
Deadline: ongoing
Branar are inviting applications for the Digital Arts Flag programme for schools. This is a whole school initiative to promote and reward arts engagement in schools. Schools are chosen each year to engage in the initiative through a series of workshops presented online.
Open to schools across Ireland, 10 bespoke workshops across 5 different artforms have been created by Branar Artists for junior and senior classes to do in the comfort of their classrooms.
Each class will receive:
A link to the video workshops (5 for junior classes, 5 for senior classes)
An Educational Resource Pack to accompany each workshop
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Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre: Art encounters for primary school teachers
Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre
Deadline: 4 March 2023
Public Engagement Artist Kate McElroy invites primary school teachers to take part in a tour and workshop at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre.
This will include:
– An exhibition tour of The Most Recent Forever an exhibition by Brian Fay
– A visit to an artist’s studio to see the process of making
– An art workshop exploring creativity – No art experience necessary
– A small take home ‘goody bag’ of materials
The aim of this tour and workshop is to help facilitate effective strategies for teaching art in the classroom through looking, talking and making. Kate will guide teachers through a tour of the artworks and a workshop, modelling methods that can effectively be incorporated into Art lessons in the classroom.
The tour and workshop will take and hour and a half, break included, Tea and coffee provided.
This consultation invites artists, early years educators and all early learning and care stakeholders to use and explore these draft principles and test their validity in practice.
While the draft principles were conceived from an early learning and care perspective the Department also wish to explore their relevance and the ways in which they may be adapted to better support engagement with the arts in school-age childcare. All school age childcare stakeholders are invited also to use and test these draft principles.
Findings from this consultation will inform the finalised publication of the principles, the development of practice resource materials and accompanying CPD training.
Read the discussion paper ‘ Facilitating the Arts in Early Learning and Care: Towards Best Practice Principles’ and share your comments and suggestions here.
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Solstice Arts Centre: School Gallery Tours using Visual Thinking Strategies
Solstice Arts Centre
11th February – 31st March 2023
Solstice Arts Centre have a number of events in their spring programme for schools, teachers and artists.
Primary School Gallery Tours using Visual Thinking Strategies
Look, listen and respond to artworks by Sinéad Ní Mhaonaigh in her current exhibition ‘Deep Mapping: Unseen Landscapes ‘. Encouraging peer-to-peer discussion, this is an opportunity for children and teachers to focus and reflect on multiple perspectives, enhancing engagement and enjoyment of learning through art. To conclude, learn about the artist and her work, inspiring you to create artworks back in the classroom!
Secondary School Gallery Tours using Visual Thinking Strategies
Broaden creative thinking through oral and visual literacy by exploring works in our current exhibition by Irish artist Sinéad Ní Mhaonaigh . Using Visual Thinking Strategies, this is an opportunity for students to investigate, analyse and reflect on multiple perspectives, and assist in the development of imaginative and innovative ideas. Using cross-curricular links and learning through art, these sessions support the Junior and Senior Cycle, placing students at the centre of the learning process. Upon visiting Solstice, Senior Cycle students will receive specific information that embraces the three strands – Research, Create and Respond (visual and written responses), with particular focus on Content Area 3: Today’s World of the New Appreciating Art Visual Studies for Leaving Certificate curriculum.
For all queries and bookings email Deirdre: deirdre.rogers@solsticeartscentre.ie
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The Arts Council: Creative Schools Week
Arts Council of Ireland
Creative Schools Week 2023
The Creative Schools Team at The Arts Council is delighted to invite your school to join Creative Schools Week 2023 which will run from the 8 – 12 May. Creative Schools Week is a celebration of creativity in schools within curricular subjects or in separate projects and activities.
The theme for Creative Schools Week 2023 is ‘Creativity Lives Here! / Tá Beocht na Cruthaitheachta Anseo!’. The theme encourages school communities to pause and reflect on where creativity is evident in our lives, in every class, in every school and in the experience of every student.
There will be a Teacher Drop-In informational session on 8 March 4:30pm-5:30pm via Zoom. If you are a teacher interested in participating in Creative Schools Week 2023, please join us by registering for the session here: https://buytickets.at/creativeschools/858237.
Creative Schools 2023 online information clinics
The Creative Schools team is running a series of online information clinics in March for teachers and Principals in schools and Youthreach centres who are curious about joining the Creative Schools programme in autumn 2023. The team will explain the programme and how to apply, and there will be plenty of time for questions.
Clinics take place online on 20, 21 and 22 March at 16.00-17.00.Further information and the link to book your place is available here.
This article was updated March 2nd 2023 to add details of the Teacher Drop-in session for Creative Schools Week.
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FÍS: Teacher Resources
FÍS Film Project
The FÍS Film Project Teacher Resources support teachers to introduce live-action and stop motion animation filmmaking into the Primary Classroom with interactive lessons, teacher perspectives and technical guides.
The online FÍS Teacher Resources are well designed individual lesson plans which can be used in isolation or as a complete course. The course outlines all the skills and activities involved in making a film with the emphasis being on the children being the creators/doers, and the teacher as the facilitator of the learning.
FÍS helps develop active learning, creative thinking, language, imagination, collaborative learning and problem-solving skills, as well as giving children hands-on experience of using technology as part of the filmmaking process. For children this project provides them with an outlet to express themselves and showcase their talents in an educational but non-academic way which can do wonders for children’s confidence and attitude towards learning.
The FÍS Film Project is an initiative of the Department of Education in a collaborative partnership between the Institute of Art, Design & Technology’s FÍS Office and the Professional Development Service for Teachers (Technology in Education Dept.) The project started during the 1999/2000 school year. The FÍS methodology supports teachers to introduce film making in a cross-curricular way into their primary school classroom. After a successful 3-year pilot, the project was mainstreamed and the annual national FÍS Film Awards Competition was also launched and remains a highly successful outcome of the FÍS Film Project to this day.
To access the FÍS Teacher Resources, please visit https://fisfilmproject.ie/teacher-resources/
You will also details about the annual FÍS Film Awards Competition and videos of the shortlisted national finalists.
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Roundup: A selection of funding opportunities for artists
A selection of some national and local funding opportunities for professional artists working in arts and creativity in education with open deadlines in February and March 2023.
Arts Council of Ireland
Applications are currently open for funding from the Arts Council of Ireland, including Agility Awards and Bursary Awards in a number of art forms.
The Young People, Children and Education Bursary Award supports the professional development of artists by enabling them to spend time developing their practice. The award is specifically focussed on helping artists to improve their capacity to develop or present high-quality arts experiences with or for children and young people. It is open to individual artists and practitioners working in a creative capacity in any artform, including arts facilitators, curators or programmers. Deadline: 5:30pm, 9 February 2023 More info:https://www.artscouncil.ie/Funds/Young-People,-Children,-and-Education-Bursary-Award/
The Agility Award aims to support individual professional freelance artists and arts workers at any stage in their careers to develop their practice, their work, or their skills. Deadline: 5.30pm, 9th February 2023 More info:https://www.artscouncil.ie/Funds/Agility-Award-2023/
Fingal County Council
Fingal County Council is delighted to announce the 2023 Artists’ Support Scheme. This strand of funding allows professional artists to avail of up to €5,000 of an award towards travel and professional development opportunities, a residency, or towards the development of work. Deadline: 4pm, February 24, 2023 More info:http://fingalarts.ie/news/fingal-artists-support-scheme-2023
Galway Arts Office
Galway County Arts Office invites applications from individual artists to develop their arts practice and artistic career under their Artist Support Scheme. The scheme is open to professional artists residing in County Galway at all stages of their career, working in any artform and context. Deadline: 4pm, February 13, 2023 More info: https://www.galway.ie/en/services/arts/funding/bursary/
Laoise Arts Office
Laois County Council has announced details of grants and opportunities to support the development and presentation of creative and artistic projects in the county in 2023. Through the Artists in Schools Scheme 2023, grants are available for artists’ residencies in schools, to include all art forms. This scheme gives primary and post primary schools the opportunity to select and work with professional artists and explore new arts media. Deadline: 5pm, 17th February 2023 More info: https://laois.ie/departments/arts/grants-schemes/artists-in-schools-scheme/
Limerick City and County Council
Limerick City and County Council offers grant funding to amateur, community or voluntary groups, or organisations, and individual arts practitioners, which in the opinion of the authority, will stimulate public interest in the arts, promote the knowledge, appreciation and practice of the arts or assist in improving the standards of the arts. Deadline: 4pm, 22 February 2023 More info: https://www.limerick.ie/council/services/community-and-leisure/culture-and-arts/funding-schemes-and-bursaries/limerick-0
Mayo Arts Office
The Mayo Artist Bursary Award is now open for applications. The Artist Bursary Award aims to support the work of professional artists, working in any artform, at all stages of their career, currently resident in Mayo. Deadline: 5pm, March 16th, 2023 More info: https://www.mayo.ie/arts/funding/mayoartistbursary
Wicklow Arts Office
This year Wicklow County Council Arts Office are currently accepting applications under their Artist Award Scheme 2023. The scheme assists professional artists in the development of artistic practice by enabling them to explore meaningful ways to make work, test out innovative thinking and grow new ideas. The award supports professional practising artists to develop or realise a particular body of work or to undertake professional development. Deadline: 4pm, February 27, 2023 More info: https://www.wicklow.ie/Living/Services/Arts-Heritage-Archives/Arts/Funding-Support-Opportunities/Arts-Act-Funding
All information is correct at the time of publishing.
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National Gallery of Ireland: Teacher Network Evening
National Gallery of Ireland
Thursday, 9 Feb 2023, 6pm
Find out more about the National Gallery’s Teachers & Schools programme and network with colleagues over a glass of wine.
Jennie Taylor, curator of the Zurich Young Portrait Prize, and artist Grainne Moloney Minehan will lead a tour of the exhibition and discussion on supporting students entering the prize.
Explore My Primary School is at the Museum, our special project with 4th class students from John Scottus National School, the latest school in residence.
National Gallery of Ireland Teacher Network Facebook Group
This online group is an active place for collaboration, peer learning and idea exchange. Meet teachers from across Ireland and beyond, and help shape the National Gallery’s schools programme, connect here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/NationalGalleryIRLTeacherNetwork/.
Schools Programme
The National Gallery offer onsite and online experiences for schools including guided tours and online sessions. Schools can also arrange to visit the Gallery as a self-guided group. Full details on their current programme can be viewed from the following link:
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Minister Martin confirms additional funding for Minding Creative Minds as part of the Safe to Create Programme
Minister Martin confirms funding of €300,000
Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media Catherine Martin, has today announced funding of €300,000 for Minding Creative Minds as part of the Safe to Create Programme. This brings the Department’s overall allocation for the Safe to Create Programme to €782,000. Minding Creative Minds is Ireland’s (32 county and Irish overseas) first 24/7 mental health and wellbeing support programme for the Irish Creative community delivered in association with Spectrum Life.
With the launch of the Safe to Create Programme last October, Minding Creative Minds announced an enhancement of its service to include specialist trauma and abuse counselling care. This service enables crucial support for anyone who has experienced trauma or sexual abuse and ensures that they can access immediate support and up to 12 free counselling sessions from a trauma counsellor immediately.
Minding Creative Minds offers a range of other in-house services to the Irish Creative Sector which includes a comprehensive Career and Mentoring service incorporating all creative art forms and a monthly peer support meeting which offers support, advice and resources to the Irish Creative Community.
The Minding Creative Minds programme includes access to a number of additional services to help users overcome various practical issues they may face including:
Advice on practical, day-to-day issues that cause anxiety and stress.
Legal Assistance
Financial Assistance & Consumer Assistance
Career Guidance & Life Coaching
Support for non-Irish nationals & their families
Mediation Services
Announcing the funding, Minister Martin commented:
“The Safe to Create Programme which I launched in October of last year, is built on the stark findings of The Speak Up: A Call for Change Report. The Speak Up report included key findings that the majority of those surveyed had experienced (70%) or witnessed (53%) harmful behavior. Minding Creative Minds is working closely with the Irish Theatre Institute, is an integral part of the Safe to Create Programme and is helping to lead the way to improving the damaging norms in the arts sector for the benefit of all arts workers.”
Children’s Books Ireland will host their first virtual artists’ coffee morning of 2023 on Tuesday, 24th January. This is part of a recurring series of informal yet informative gatherings on Zoom where artists creating work for children and young adults can hang out, learn from experts about something pertinent to their work and meet others in their creative area.
At this free coffee morning, hear from Executive Librarian with Kildare Library & Arts Service Amye Quigley. In what promises to be a practical and informative session, Amye will give an overview of programming strands within Kildare Library & Arts Services, detail what she looks for in a facilitator or artist and outline their funding, invoicing and accounts procedure.
If you would like to attend please email aoife@childrensbooksireland.ie by 5pm on Monday 23rd January.
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Minister Foley welcomes hundreds of additional schools to Creative Clusters and BLAST arts programme
The Minister for Education Norma Foley recently announced the awarding of BLAST residencies to 629 schools in 2022-2023, the second year of the BLAST (Bringing Live Arts to Students and Teachers) programme. Minister Foley also welcomed the creation of an additional 21 Creative Clusters for 2022-2024, comprising a further 77 primary and post-primary schools. This doubles the number of participating schools and clusters this year, up from 21 clusters announced already in September 2022, in response to the demand from schools.
The BLAST programme has seen a significant increase in residencies from the 489 primary and post-primary schools that took part in the programme in its first year and demonstrates the strong interest and engagement from schools in working with creative professionals through this programme.
Minister Foley said:
“Creative thinking and creative expression benefit our students both by providing opportunities for learning and through enhancing wellbeing. Engaging in creative projects enables children and young people to express themselves, provides them with opportunities for connection and collaboration, and gives them the space to explore new ideas and learn new skills.”
School Clusters in this year include, for example, one cluster of schools that cater for students with autism, which aims to create tactile and interactive outdoor play areas, and another cluster of primary schools working together to create a shared interest and knowledge of coding. Such varied themes reflect the local experience and unique perspectives of each cluster, and demonstrate how students can benefit from creative engagement in multiple ways.
The Minister has also welcomed the publication of the research and evaluation report, Creative Clusters: A Collaborative Approach to Cultivating Creativity in Schools. This report, commissioned by the department, provides a valuable assessment of the strengths of the programme and contains recommendations to further strengthen the design, delivery and reach of Creative Clusters.
To read the full statement from the Department of Education, visit: https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/8a543-minister-foley-welcomes-hundreds-of-additional-schools-to-creative-clusters-and-blast-arts-programme/
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Cork ETB: Arts in Education Strategy 2022-2026
Cork ETB
Cork ETB recently launched their Arts in Education Strategy 2022-2026. The Strategy outlines the importance of the arts and provides a framework for arts education and the promotion of the arts and supporting their implementation throughout Cork ETB.
Minister for Education, Norma Foley attended Nano Nagle Place in Cork City on Friday 2nd December where she launched Cork ETB’s Arts in Education Strategy 2022-2026.
The Arts in Education Strategy outlines the importance of the arts and provides a framework for arts education and the promotion of the arts and supporting their implementation throughout all of Cork ETB’s primary, post primary and further education and training facilities.
The implementation plan includes the following five key points and their respective objectives:
Awareness: develop and create a space for the Arts in all its forms
Inclusivity: to promote and deploy Arts Education as a valuable tool for promoting social inclusion, community engagement, well-being and fostering lifelong learning
Partnership: develop existing relationships while nurturing the development of new partnerships and joint ventures
Value: to foster and promote creativity by encouraging schools and centre’s to give parity of esteem to creative subjects
Quality: provision of appropriate supports and resources to provide for quality teaching and learning in the Arts
Speaking at the launch, Minister Foley praised Cork ETB for their efforts to enable better integration and promotion of the arts in their education entities.
She said: “It was a joy for me to be invited to launch the Cork Education and Training Board’s Arts in Education Strategy 2022 – 2026. I strongly believe that inclusive access to the arts can nurture, inspire and innovate all our students and young learners. The Arts in Education Strategy today clearly identifies Cork ETB’s commitment to the arts and provides a framework for the way forward for all stakeholders. It was a pleasure to officially launch this milestone strategy in the presence of such vibrant performers and talented musicians.”
Baboró recorded three talks during the 2022 festival discussing early years arts education, sectoral sustainability and artist development, which they have now made available for streaming.
The Baboró podcast is available to listen on Spotify or Apple.
Opening Doors
In this discussion, a roundtable of makers, educators and thinkers explored models of practice to aid artists in the creation of work for very young audiences in early years education and crèche settings.
The panel featured Gaëtane Reginster (Théâtre de la Guimbarde, Belgium), Marc Mac Lochlainn (Branar, Ireland) and Dr. Rita Melia (Atlantic Technological University, Ireland). Chaired by Marianne Kennedy (University of Galway, Ireland).
Towards Sustainability
In partnership with Branar’s Meitheal Initiative, this panel discussion explored models of practice which support the sustainable development of career paths for independent artists making work for young audiences.
The panel featured Tony Reekie (Catherine Wheels, Scotland), Kate Cross (The Egg, England), Dan Colley and Matt Smyth (Creators of ‘The Man with Enormous Wings’ and formerly Collapsing Horse, Ireland), Emer McGowan (Draíocht, Ireland). Chaired by Linda Geraghty (Branar/Meitheal, Ireland).
Meitheal is a pilot creative support initiative committed to the development and presentation of performing arts for young audiences across Ireland. Devised by Branar, funded by the Arts Council.
Reflecting on LEAP
The participants and stakeholders of Baboró’s LEAP artist support programme discussed the pilot project’s development and execution.
The panel featured Rachel Baltz (Baboró, Ireland), Alexandra Craciun (LEAP Participant, Romania and Ireland), Fernanda Ferrari (LEAP Participant, Brazil and Ireland), Justyna Cwojdzińska (LEAP Participant, Poland and Ireland), Ionia Ní Chróinín (Moonfish, Ireland) Jo Cummins (Moonfish, Ireland) and Maeve Stone (Cracking Light Productions, Ireland). Chaired by Dr. Charlotte McIvor (Drama and Theatre Studies, University of Galway, Ireland).
The Creative Ireland South Dublin programme wishes to commission an Early Years Irish Language artwork. This commission will be delivered in collaboration with children from Naíonra Chrónáin located on the grounds of Áras Chrónáin in Clondalkin.
The expectations of the commission are:
Early Years children (0-6years) will be engaged with the creation process of the work and their voice will lead the way
Close collaboration with the teachers at Naíonra Chrónáin to create artwork that could be a model for other Early Years facilities, while remaining feasible for the space of the Naíonra.
The duration of the commission will be discussed with the awarded creative (s) but likely duration is one year.
Objectives
Develop process to work with young children in project creation
Create a model for other educators and practitioners to work in Early Years Arts and Irish Language
Create a participant-led piece of work
Award Amount
The commission is for €30,000 inclusive of VAT
Timeline
Applications closing date 5pm 20th January 2023
Assessment will take place week of the 23rd January 2023
Award Notification first week of February
Applications
For more detailed information on the application process and to submit an application, please visit: https://www.sdcc.ie/en/services/sport-and-recreation/arts/creative-ireland/
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IFI Schools Programme 2022/23
Irish Film Institute School Programme 2022/23
The Irish Film Institute is delighted to offer a brand new programme of films selected for students across primary and post-primary levels, available in-cinema at IFI Dublin or regional venue and online through IFI@Schools. This year includes exciting collaborations with the Irish National Opera, IMMA, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland/BAI and An Chomhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta & Gaelscolaíochta/COGG.
IFI@Schools supplements the in-cinema programme, offering further ways of incorporating film into your teaching, including rewatching key scenes or choosing from a wider range of content for other subjects such as history, geography, music, art, Gaeilge, English and more.
Screenings for the French language selection include Mes Fréres et moi (My Brothers and I) and King in partnership with the Ambassade De France en Irelande. Screenings for the German language selection includes Der Pfad (The Path) and Klammer in partnership with GEOTHE Institut.
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Call for presentations: Portal Spring Regional Day 2023
Deadline: 3 February 2023, 5pm
Artists, teachers, academics and arts education professionals… Would you like to be part of the Portal Spring Regional Day? The Arts in Education Portal Team are seeking submissions for presentations for the Portal Spring Regional Day 2023 with a focus on the South-West Region. This regional event will take place in Cork City on 6th May 2023.
The event aims to connect teachers, artists, arts managers and anyone with an interest in art and creativity in education based in Cork, Kerry, Limerick and Tipperary. Practitioners can learn more about the Portal and what it offers, tell us about their work, connect with the community at regional level, share practice and find out what opportunities or events are available in their local area.
We are inviting proposals from organisations or individuals who are involved in arts and creative projects in education in the South-West, and who want to give inspiring presentations or workshops that can offer sharing of skills, practical approaches, new insights and critical thinking across the field, from a range of perspectives.
The 2023 event will also include an accompanying exhibition in partnership with Sample Studios at their gallery in the Lord Mayor’s Pavilion, Fitzgerald Park. The exhibition will be an opportunity for artists from successful proposals to exhibit their own work. The exhibition will run from 27th April to 27th May.
Do you have a presentation that you would like to be included in the programme for the Portal Spring Regional Day? If so, please download our Proposal form from the link below. If you have any questions please get in touch by email to editor@artsineducation.ie.
Further Information
The programme includes two project presentations with up to two presenters.
The Arts in Education Portal editorial team are pleased to invite applications for a documentation award. Through the award, successful applicants will receive services to the value of €5,000 that will support them in the documentation of a current or upcoming project and a €500 stipend.
The purpose of the award is to support the development of documented outcomes from Arts in Education initiatives in Ireland, which can be shared with the arts in the education community and give insights into different processes of engagement. This is part of the Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee’s commitment to supporting and recognising the value of documentation and reflection as key components within arts in education initiatives.
Two awards will be offered through this opportunity.
Outcomes of the documentation process will include: a project video, a project feature to be showcased on the Portal’s Projects/Partnerships, and the option of a critical essay, with a view to also presenting the work as part of the Arts in Education Portal National Day in 2023.
The process will involve meetings with the Portal Team and a schedule of up to 2 visits over the course of the project to capture video and photographic documentation and support reflective processes among participants. These visits and meetings can be conducted virtually if required. The portal team will work closely with the recipients to ensure all restrictions and protocols in terms of COVID-19 are adhered to during the process to ensure safety for all involved.
The portal team will edit and produce a project video and will liaise closely with the project partners to develop the content for the project feature. The critical essay would be cited in the Portal’s Reading Room and is optional. The author and focus of the essay can be decided by the project organisers in collaboration with the Portal Team.
Criteria
To be considered for this opportunity, projects must:
Have started in Autumn 2022 and continue into 2023, or take place in 2023. Please note if selected, filming of engagement sessions will take place after 20th March 2023.
Have a minimum duration of 8 weeks.
Involve a professional artist working collaboratively within an educational setting (early years, primary or post-primary).
Be underpinned by a strong ethos of collaboration and a commitment to excellence. Focus on the creative process, with children having an active and collaborative role
Additional criteria
Successful applicants will be asked to ensure that relevant permissions/consent have been sought for the documentation of participants.
Please ensure your application has been approved by all project partners prior to submission.
Deadline for submission is 5pm, Friday 24 February 2023.
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The Big Idea: Teaching Creative Skills programme
The Big Idea
The multi-award winning free creative programme The Big Idea has been designed to empower students with the 21st century skills they need. Developed by educational and industry experts, students will have the opportunity to gain transferable skills to support them in tackling the problems they might face.
The Big Idea consists of a full 12-week creative programme of learning resources for Transition Year students, LCA students or Youthreach students. Joining The Big Idea programme provides teachers with a teaching pack to support in-class activities regardless of their school context.
As the facilitators of the programme, teachers are supported every step of the way. All resources are digitally formatted with two lessons per week. The adaptable format can be used for either a 40-minute class or a 1-hour class with teacher prompts and lesson plans included. With built-in assessment structures and additional class materials.
A nationwide network of professional experts share knowledge directly with your students, supporting them in their project development. The team at The Big Idea match student teams with their industry Mentors giving them the opportunity to gain advice on next steps, ask questions to get students thinking, ask them things to consider or offer resources to explore.
For participating students, they are provided with the materials needed to engage in the programme from – a LEGO pack for systems thinking exercises, a sketch book to capture brainstorming and reflection, all the stationary needed to engage in lessons and activities, and some other surprises.
The programme is open to teachers from all subject areas and runs between January to May.
Registration is now open for new schools to join the programme, for further information on the initiative and apply, please visit: https://thebigidea.ie/teachers/
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Butler Gallery: Cartoon Saloon – My Father’s Dragon, The Exhibition
The film is based on a beloved 1948 fantastical children’s novel by Ruth Stilies Gannett about Elmer Elevator, a boy who runs away from home to rescue Boris, a captive baby dragon trapped on a wild island.
The exhibition combines the expertise of Butler Gallery’s exhibition team with Cartoon Saloons worldwide reach and distinctive style to develop an immersive, sensory and child-centred exhibition experience that will captivate audiences of all ages.
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Learning and Public Engagement Programme:
As with previous collaborations with Cartoon Saloon, Butler Gallery will deliver an extensive programme of public engagement for children and adults that will include themes such as children’s resilience and problem solving, addressing mental health issues while coping with a crisis, and celebrating the films art and artists. Learning and Public Engagement events will include: tailored inclusive activities for children and young people; interactive visits for schools and groups that encourage creativity through hands-on making; a talk series and masterclasses with Cartoon Saloon animators, editors and directors; and an animator-in-residence programme.
To book an interactive visit for your school* contact Butler Gallery at: learning@butlergallery.ie or +353 (0)56 7761106
*Bookings for groups of over 5 is essential.
The exhibition is also complemented by the screening of The Making of My Father’s Dragon which is on view in the Digital Gallery (duration 5 mins 24 secs)
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CPD for Teachers: Fighting Words’ Creativity and Creative Writing in Education
Fighting Words
Fighting Words in partnership with DCU Institute of Education, has launched Creativity and Creative Writing in Education, an online course to equip educators with the methodologies, evidence and resources to build your understanding of the importance and benefits of creativity for learners, and to strengthen your confidence and interest in creative engagement and creative writing.
Presented in six 40-minute sessions, the course focuses on the Fighting Words creative writing model as an approach, looking at the associated development of communication skills, critical thinking, self-efficacy and resilience in the young people.
Enrolment is open on an ongoing basis; participants can complete the course in their own time and a certificate of completion is provided from Fighting Words.
Collaboration between Fighting Words and the DCU Institute of Education started in the early days of Fighting Words and has only grown and expanded over the years. In 2018, the relationship evolved to a formal partnership between Fighting Words and Institute of Education, funded by the Department of Education. The purpose of the collaboration is to progress creative writing and creative engagement in education through teacher education and research.
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Job Opportunity: Creative Director at Carlow Carnival of Collective Joy
Carlow Arts Festival & VISUAL Carlow
Deadline: 6th January, 2023, 5pm
Carlow Arts Festival, in partnership with VISUAL Carlow, are seeking a Creative Director to lead on the co-creation of the Carlow Carnival of Collective Joy in 2023. The Creative Director will work in collaboration with a choreographer and children aged between 8-12 years from across Carlow County to design and deliver this project. The role will be supported by the creative teams at both Carlow Arts Festival and VISUAL Carlow.
In 2022 we delivered our first Carnival of Collective Joy and are delighted to bring this tradition into our 2023 festival programme. The Creative Director will lead on the design, planning and facilitation of the creative aspects of this project, delivering workshops that inspire creativity and curiosity across four schools over 12 weeks from March to June 2023. The Carnival will be presented as part of Carlow Arts Festival programme on Saturday the 10th June.
Experience
The candidate will be required to have a wide level of experience and a track-record in workshop facilitation, design and making for spectacle and installation events with children and young people.
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Solstice Arts Centre: Gallery engagement & resource for students & teachers
Solstice Arts Centre
Resource Supporting Content Area 3: Today’s World – Senior Cycle New Appreciating Art Visual Studies
Using cross-curricular links, and learning through art, this resource supports students completing their Junior and Senior Cycle studies. Designed to assist teachers and students in how to assess and evaluate an exhibition in the Solstice Arts Centre gallery, it includes:
Background information on Solstice Arts Centre and its functions;
The technical and curatorial requirements of the exhibition including display, layout, lighting, and the gallery’s role in interpreting an exhibition for visitors.
An in-depth look at the current exhibition SURVEYOR 2022 and three of the artworks
Assisting Senior Cycle students to investigate, analyse and reflect on multiple perspectives, this information embraces the three strands – Research, Create and Respond, with particular focus on Unit 14 in Content Area 3: Today’s World of the New Appreciating Art Visual Studies for Leaving Certificate curriculum.
To help students understand and analyse the work of other artists and assist in their development of imaginative and innovative ideas, students and teachers are encouraged to combine this resource with –
Solstice Gallery is open Tuesday-Saturday 11am-4pm.
This exhibition runs until 21 Dec 2022.
For more information or to make a booking please contact Deirdre Rogers, Solstice Visual Arts Facilitation & Public Engagement Coordinator deirdre.rogers@solsticeartsccentre.ie
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2022 National Arts in Education Portal Day – Roundup
The conference was officially opened by John Walsh, Head of School, TU Dublin School of Art and Design, and later in the day John facilitated a tour of part of the East Quad campus giving delegates a look at the state-of-the-art facilities available to students.
With a special focus placed on ‘Seldom Heard Voices’, the day then unfolded out to the usual mix of presentations, smaller discussion-led presentations and creative workshops addressing this theme. The National Day also served as an opportunity for colleagues from the International Teacher-Artist Partnership (I-TAP-PD) PD Project to explore and share emerging learnings through two multiplier sessions within the Erasmus+ KA2 Initiative 2020-2023.
Image Credit: keynote speaker Dame Evelyn Glennie in conversation with Mark O’Brien, Executive Director The Abbey. Photograph by Cían Flynn, lookalive.ie
This years keynote took the form of an in conversation between guest speaker, the percussionist and solo performer Dame Evelyn Glennie who sat down with Mark O’Brien, Executive Director of The Abbey Theatre. In a highly engaging exchange lasting just under an hour, the pair delved into Dame Evelyn’s introduction to music in primary school, her hearing loss, the idea of success and how residual hearing and improvisation were important components in her career development.
In the plenery session that followed Dame Evelyn spoke about the importance of listening.
“I think listening is the glue to being human, to be honest”
“If we can cultivate this feeling of being listened to, and really what does this mean, listening doesn’t mean that we’re interacting with sound. It’s interacting with a presence that we’re in.”
The 2022 National Portal Day was also an opportunity for the Portal Editorial Committee to share it’s new strategic plan ‘A Community of Practice: A five-year strategy for the Arts in Education Portal,
Ireland’s national resource for arts and creativity in education. Officially launched by Dr. Katie Sweeney, Portal Chair and National Director for the Integration of the Arts in Education (DE), copies of which were available to delegates on the day and will be embedded into the Portal website as a living and accessible document in the coming months.
Image Credit: St. Agnes Teenage Chamber Orchestra with conductor Jimmy Kavanagh. Photograph by Cían Flynn, lookalive.ie
A day which saw the arts in education community convene to share, learn, talk, be inspired and interrogate best practice in the field came to a close with a heartwarming performance from St. Agnes Teenage Chamber Orchestra led by conductor Jimmy Kavanagh.
We would like to thank all our guest speakers, artists and all who joined us to engage in the conversation.
Stay tuned for our round up video which will follow soon!
A selection of the main talks and presentations are available to watch back online. Registration for viewing this series is available through the link here.
Image credit: 2022 National Arts in Education Portal Day. Photographer Cían Flynn (lookalive.ie)
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I-TAP-PD: Tapping into Creativity podcast
The International Teacher-Artist Partnership (I-TAP-PD)
The International Teacher-Artist Partnership (I-TAP-PD) podcast series ‘Tapping into Creativity’ shares stories about the magic that happens when creativity, art, and education meet. Stories about creative learning from diverse European projects in schools and beyond. Stories about what happens when artists work with young people. Hosted by Linda Rosink and Manja Eland of Stichting Kopa, they talk to teachers, artists, scientists, policy makers and children about the importance of creative education. Listen to the show if you’re looking for inspiration for your own practice.
Season 2 launched on 5th November featuring guest speaker Tania Banotti, Director of Creative Ireland. It will run for eight episodes with the final episode airing on 20th December. The programme focuses on enabling teachers and artists to jointly develop their understanding, expertise and creativity in ‘arts in education’ work with children and young people in education, community and arts settings.
The guest speakers this season include:
Tania Banotti – 5th November
Georgina Kakoudaki – 8th November
Sanja Krsmanović Tasić – 11th November
Jolanda Schouten – 22nd November
Klaas Dijkstra – 29th November
Jane O’Hanlon – 6th December
Miranda Siemelink – 13th December
Paul Collard – 20th December
You can listen and subscribe to the full series via Captivate: https://tappingintocreativity.captivate.fm/ or your favourite podcasts platform including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music.
International Teacher-Artist Partnership (I-TAP-PD) PD is funded under the Erasmus+ KA2 Initiative 2020 – 2023 and is a partnership between Tralee Education Centre (Ireland), Centre for drama in education and art (CEDEUM) (Serbia), Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network (TENet-GR) (Greece) and Stichting Kopa (Netherlands)
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The Arts Council: Creative Schools
Arts Council announces 186 new schools will join its Creative Schools initiative
The Arts Council recently announced that offers have been made to 186 schools and centres across Ireland who applied to be part of the Creative Schools initiative. The very high level of applications to be part of this 2-year process reflects the importance that schools and Youthreach centres put on creativity and their ambition to celebrate and put creative thinking at the very heart of what they do.
Speaking at the announcement Director of the Arts Council Maureen Kennelly said: “We warmly welcome our new cohort of 186 schools to Creative Schools. We are delighted that demand for the programme is so strong across the country and we are thrilled to say that by this stage of the programme, 20% of schools in Ireland have connected with us. Working with our partners in the Department of Education, the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and Creative Ireland, we are looking forward to another school year full of creativity, consultation and exploration”.
Minister for Education Norma Foley TD said “I am delighted to welcome the 186 schools that are coming together to join the Creative Schools initiative 2022. I would like to welcome these new schools into this exciting initiative, and I look forward to seeing how these creative, colourful and captivating projects develop over the coming two years. Through Creative Schools the Department of Education supports critical thinking, cognitive and emotional wellbeing, encouraging a creative environment, without boundaries within the educational space.”
Also speaking, Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media Catherine Martin TD said “I would like to congratulate the 186 schools and Youthreach centres that have successfully applied to become a Creative School and now have the opportunity to embark on a two-year journey to place creativity at the heart of their school communities. With the addition of this new cohort, 1 in 5 schools in Ireland will have experienced Creative Schools since the programme commenced in 2018 and this year sees an increase in the diversity of settings in receipt of support. This is a testament to its impact and the strength of the partnership between the Art Council, the Department of Education and the all-of-government Creative Ireland Programme.”
The Creative Schools Initiative is designed to provide opportunities for children and young people to build their artistic and creative skills, each school taking part receives a grant and works with a professional Creative Associate who supports them to develop and implement their own bespoke Creative School Plan. Participation empowers children and young people to develop, implement and evaluate arts and creative activity throughout their schools/centres and stimulate additional ways of working which reinforce the impact of creativity on children and young people’s learning, development and well-being.
Creative Schools received applications from counties throughout the country to be part of the initiative and they were assessed on how Creative Schools would benefit learning and development in the school and how children and young people would play a central role in leading the process.
The programme was established in 2018 and more than 650 schools have been invited to participate to date. With this latest round of offers it means that 1 in 5 schools in Ireland will have / will be taking part in the Creative Schools initiative. Recipients range from large schools in major cities to smaller schools on islands including Inisboffin, Achill, Inis Oírr and Inis Meain. Creativity truly lives everywhere.
This year 131 more primary schools, 35 more post primary schools, 11 Special Schools and 5 Youthreach centres have been sent offers to join. Also joining the programme this year are four schools in Alternative Settings who cater for young people with severe emotional and behavioral challenges. Oberstown Children Detention Campus School, Co. Dublin, Ballydowd High Support Special School, Dublin 20, Crannóg Nua Special School, Portrane, Co. Dublin and St Canice’s Special School, Limerick will join the programme and receive enhanced supports.
Schools who have been taking part to date have explored creativity in all its forms and embraced how it can be celebrated in so many ways. From baking to creating and designing gardens, from photography to performance, from working with other community groups to transforming areas of their own schools, the impact of Creative Schools can be seen around the country.
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Riverbank Arts Centre: Schools Autumn/Winter 2022 programme
Riverbank Arts Centre
Riverbank Arts Centre are delighted to offer events for Primary and Secondary Schools over the coming months. These include live theatre, comedy, IFI School Screenings and more.
Riverbank Arts Centre is a multi-disciplinary venue in Newbridge, County Kildare, with a dedicated children’s gallery and programming of high quality theatre and workshops for younger audiences, Riverbank is also committed to promoting early engagement with and access to the arts.
Primary Schools
This season Riverbank Arts Centre are delighted to offer shows that travel to your school, highlights include:
UP CLOSE On 17 & 18 November
UP CLOSE is an energetic dance piece where two strangers meet, connect and celebrate their new friendship. A 25 min performance, followed by a 15-minute Q&A and 15-minute movement workshop. Recommended capacity is up to two classes. For 1st to 4th Class.
Exhibition: FIBRE Felted by Artist Tamzen Lundy 12 November – 23 December. Workshop in your classroom: 13th December (Suitable for 1st Class – 6th Class.)
FIBRE Felted introduces young people to the wonders and possibilities of felt making, the oldest textile making process in the world. The woollen textiles in FIBRE Felted are playful and experimental, the only tools required to create them are the artist’s hands. Riverbank Arts Centre offer guided tours and activity sheets for all those who attend.
Tours/Workshop can be booked with Theresa at boxoffice@riverbank.ie
Secondary Schools
Highlights from the programme for post-primary schools include:
Exhibition: Dētrīmentum by artist Katie Whyte 12 November – 22 December
A Latin word meaning harm, loss, or damage,
Dētrīmentum is an exploration of the journey of an object from an intact historical/archival
piece, to an object that has fallen into disrepair and out of the collective memory. This installation focuses on presenting hidden and lost historical narratives in photographic form.
Guided tours and an education pack aimed at senior cycle students are available.
WhistleBlast Quartet Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky Tuesday 22 November, 12pm.
This unique performance of Mussorgsky’s wonderful symphony Pictures at an Exhibition, musically arranged by the quartet’s own Dr. Kenneth Edge, is accompanied by a multimedia video of paintings relating to each movement. An
accessible performance especially created to inspire young main stream and special-needs secondary school students and anyone to enjoy a gripping, dramatic masterpiece through live music performance and visual art.
Please contact Theresa on boxoffice@riverbank.ie or call 045 448327 to book an event or exhibition tour.
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The Three Muses: Clay Through the Ages
The Hunt Museum, Limerick Museum, Limerick City Gallery of Art
The Three Muses: Clay Through The Ages
Level: Primary schools, 3rd & 4th Class
This is the newest offering from ‘The Three Muses‘ Joint Education Programme comprising of the Hunt Museum, Limerick Museum and Limerick City Gallery of Art. There are three strands to this programme including a Digital Teachers Pack, an online game and an onsite primary school workshop programme. The 27th Oct will see the launch of this suite of resources.
Digital Teachers Pack: This resource is available from https://www.huntmuseum.com/schools/the-three-muses/ and focuses on four ceramic objects from the above cultural institutions. It was developed in conjunction with Ann McBride, an award winning local ceramic artist. It provides clay based lesson plans and a wealth of related video based resources to support classroom based teaching and learning on these objects.
Online Game: This free online game is available at the link below. Truffes, the treasure hunting Piggy, navigates the streets of Old Limerick collecting treasures and artifacts. Each level reveals a ceramic object from the above cultural institutions. Look and listen closely for evidence of a city rich in cultural heritage. Play game here: https://www.huntmuseum.com/schools-resources/play-the-three-muses-online-games/
Onsite Primary School Workshop: This workshop, for 3rd and 4th classes, facilitates engagement and exploration of ceramic objects from the above cultural institutions. This interactive Three Muses workshop offers pupils the chance to travel through space and time focusing on ceramic objects from the Hunt Museum, Limerick Museum and Limerick City Gallery of Art. Their exploration begins in the Bronze Age and concludes with examples of contemporary ceramics. Pupils will learn about techniques and processes used to make clay objects and how these have changed over time.
For further information and booking for onsite workshops, email / call: una@huntmuseum.com / 061490089
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Ireland’s National School Photography Awards: National Winners Announced
Ireland’s National School Photography Awards (INSPA)
National Winners Announced
Theme: Me, Myself, and I
INSPA has extended their congratulations to every school who participated in the 2021/22 National School Photography Awards. The national winner is Matthew Asiedu-Appiah from Lucan CNS, who submitted the photo entitled ‘Instruments’ into the Senior Category of the awards. The winner of the Junior Category is Sophie Mai Woulfe from Kilcummin N.S. with her entry ‘The Pizzeria’.
INSPA is the national children’s photography competition and Positive Primaries Programme which is open to all primary schools in the Republic of Ireland. Throughout the 2021/22 school year, young creatives from around the country were encouraged to embed Creative Wellbeing into their school community while exploring the theme: Me, Myself, and I.
The awards are having a massive impact in classrooms and homes across Ireland as they provide an inclusive model for children of all backgrounds and abilities to get involved. Through photography, INSPA introduces creative well-being into the lives of primary school communities while building a future generation of people who are confident, resilient, connected, kind and ready.
The awards are free and offer a range of fantastic prizes alongside the schools Positive Primaries Flag. These include getaways to the Amber Springs Resort for principals, teachers, pupils and families, Instax cameras for winners and schools, framed photographs, certificates, and school photo fundraising days at your school. All entries are judged by a national panel of experts and over 500 primary schools have already registered their accounts and taken their first Step of their Positive Primaries Journey.
The awards will open again for entries in September 2023.
For further information on INSPA and their Positive Primaries programme, visit www.inspa.ie.
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Blog 4 – Vera McGrath, Visual Artist, Researcher & Former Primary Teacher
Voices & Choices
TAP training is fundamentally about partnership but the voice and needs of the child has always been central to its residencies. The first TAP residency I engaged in with artist Claire Halpin in 2014 centred around this premise. Documented on this Portal, it describes how through strategic questioning, guided conversation, real and virtual museum visits and exploration of materials, the children determined their own focus, process and product. As longstanding practitioners, Claire and I knew how to tailor experiences and scaffold the learning so that the children were not overwhelmed by choice.
Because faced with limitless choices, children often flounder. ‘I don’t know what to do!’ is commonly heard and needs an appropriate response. Sometimes this might be offering an open-ended programme where considerable time is dedicated to discussion, experimentation and reflection, focused on the arts with other curricular areas being developed by default. Other times, a residency programme might be anchored to enquiries in other curricular areas; the enquiry being the jump-off point for an in-depth arts-led exploration of a selected topic. While both approaches are valid, the latter integrates the arts fully into curriculum, utilises arts-based approaches in the everyday classroom. promoting holistic, inclusive learning. Yet, disappointingly, I have witnessed some members of the AiE community disparage this approach on the grounds that the children may not have elected, for example, to explore their class novel through dance or ponder the plight of our bee population through visual arts and poetry.
The hallmark of all authentic arts practice is that there is always more than one valid response. Likewise, responses to ‘the voice of the child’ can take many forms. Different children have different voices. Some may not know how to voice their needs or desires while other voices might dominate. I have learned through my considerable experiences in education and the arts that a range of approaches are needed. Some suit certain contexts while others need alternatives. The more approaches we are open to adopting, the more appropriate and nuanced our responses to children’s voices will be.
Both children’s voices and needs are worthy considerations when planning a residency. Skilled facilitators know this. Not only do they listen to words, they hear silences, observe body language, assess needs, provide relevant opportunities and scaffold learning appropriately; be that through open-ended arts-focused residencies where children’s leads are followed or through residencies that embed arts practices in curriculum to facilitate the learning and extend modes of expression for all participating children.
For the child who might struggle with literacy, being able to grasp meaning and embody learning through choreographing the class novel’s plot is transformative. I believe, if sought, his voice would be ones of relief and gratitude, relief to have found a new mode of learning and a voice in dance and gratitude for the opportunity to experience literacy through another artform, an experience the class might never have considered, if left solely to their own devices.
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Creative Associate Opportunities
The Arts Council’s Creative Schools Initiative
Deadline: 12 noon 10 November 2022
Creative Schools is delighted to announce an exciting opportunity for artists, creative practitioners and individuals working in organisations in the arts and cultural sector.
Creative Associate Services for 10 Locations
The Arts Council wishes to engage 14 CAs to work in up to 32 schools across 10 counties (Cavan, Donegal, Kerry, Limerick, Louth, Mayo, Meath, Monaghan, Tipperary and Waterford) for up to one year. Individuals or organisations that wish to nominate an individual may apply.
Completed applications should be emailed to creativeassociates@artscouncil.ie by 12.00 hours (local time) on Thursday 10 November, 2022 with ‘Application: CA Services for 10 Locations’ in the subject line of the email.
For this year’s programme we are delighted to be joined by colleagues from the I-TAP-PD project for two multiplier sessions who will explore and share emerging learning within the Erasmus+ KA2 Initiative 2020-2023. The Programme will also see the launch of the Arts in Education Portal Strategic Plan: 2023 – 2027 along with the usual mix of presentations, smaller discussion-led sessions and creative workshops each addressing the theme of ‘Seldom Heard Voices’.
As previously announced The Portal Team are excited to welcome guest speaker Dame Evelyn Glennie, solo percussionist and composer who will join the conference for a special in conversation with Mark O’Brien, Executive Director of the Abbey Theatre.
Tickets for the 2022 National Arts in Education Portal Day are free but pre booking is essential as capacity is limited. Booking this year is slightly different with a two step process.
Step 1: Book your ticket for the day – Open Now here
Step 2: Ticket holders will then be invited to pre-select parallel sessions for the day – via email invitation on Wednesday, 19 October. Please note some sessions have limited capacity in particular creative workshops. Please note some sessions have limited capacity in particular creative workshops.
For those who can’t join us in person on the day we will have a selection of the main talks and presentations available to watch back online following the conference. Registration for viewing is available through the link here.
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Get Ready for the 2022 National Arts in Education Portal Day!
Ticket Bookings Open 5 October 2022
The 2022 National Arts in Education Portal Day will take place on Saturday, 5 November at East Quad, TU Dublin, in partnership with TU Dublin School of Art and Design and the Conservatoire of Music and Drama, and the Erasmus+ International Teacher-Artist Partnership (I-TAP-PD) PD Project.
The full line-up of this year’s programme will be announced at 12 noon,Wednesday, 5 October when ticket booking will open online. Before that we wanted to give you a sneak peek of what you can expect at this year’s in-person conference. The day will have a special focus on ‘Seldom Heard Voices’, with the programme profiling projects that represent children from diverse communities and children who are seldom heard.
First Look at the 2022 National Arts in Education Portal Day Programme
Discussion-led Presentation: Cuinne an Ghiorria / The Hare’s Nook
Join artist Zoë Uí Fhaoláin Green, writer Emer Fallon and educator Darach Ó Murchú with artist Manuela Dei Grandi as they discuss learnings from ‘Cúinne an Ghiorria (The Hare’s Nook)’, a bilingual primary school programme designed to nurture a sense of stewardship and joyful connection between pupils and their environment.
Creative Workshop: Exploring Creative Solutions to Climate Change through the Arts Using a STEAM Approach
In this experiential workshop, Environmental Artist and Educator Evelyn Sorohan will invite participants to investigate how the arts can be harnessed to explore environmental issues such as Climate Change. Participants will be inspired to collaboratively problem solve, create and invent in response to three climate themes leaving with skills and ideas that they can use in their practice.
Online Viewing: For those who can’t join us in person on the day we will have a selection of the main talks and presentations available to watch back online following the conference. Registration for viewing will be required.
Ticket bookings open at 12 noon, Wednesday 5 October 2022. Tickets are free but pre booking is essential as capacity is limited. Once ticket booking is confirmed attendees will be asked to preselect their parallel sessions choices for the day.
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Creative Clusters Initiative: Minister Foley Announces creation of 21 new Creative Clusters
The Minister for Education Norma Foley today announced the creation of 21 new 2022 Creative Clusters comprising 78 schools. Creative Clusters is an initiative taking place as part of Creative Ireland and under the Schools Excellence Fund. The Department of Education’s budget for Creative Clusters in 2022 is €595,000.
Under this scheme to support schools to build capacity in creativity, schools in each cluster will enjoy access to a specialist facilitator, artist or creative expertise in whatever their chosen area of interest or theme might be. These resources will help the schools to build a project of learning and activities tailor-made for their students. As part of this funding allocation, a cluster may receive up to €15,000 funding to help bring their plans and ideas to fruition in 2022-2024.
Minister Foley said:
“Creative Clusters is an excellent initiative that supports students to develop their creativity, learn to adapt and collaborate and provides them with real opportunities to express themselves in a variety of exciting new ways.
“Today I am delighted to announce the 78 schools that are coming together to form 21 new Creative Clusters. I would like to welcome these new schools into this Schools Excellence Fund initiative, and I look forward to seeing how these exciting projects develop over the coming two years. This is a wonderful opportunity for schools to work together on a project of their choice. Schools are given complete freedom to design and develop their own project, with support from a local facilitator and their local education centre.
“This year has once again seen a very significant level of interest from schools applying to participate in the 2022 Creative Clusters initiative across the country. In the five rounds from 2018 to 2022, a total number of 1,276 schools have applied to participate in Creative Clusters, with 375 schools shortlisted and invited to participate. I hope that this exciting initiative will help schools to further enhance creativity in their classrooms.
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CPD Opportunities: Experiential workshops for second-level teachers
Arts in Junior Cycle (JCT)
Dates: Vary
Arts in Junior Cycle provide teachers at second-level with the opportunity to engage in elective learner-centred teacher professional learning (TPL) experiences. The vision of Arts in Junior Cycle is for all Junior Cycle teachers to value, enjoy and be enriched by the arts and to see the arts as integral to learning. The Arts in Junior Cycle team co-design and develop learner-centred TPLs in collaboration with a range of artists, creative practitioners and arts organisations.
This month we are delighted to offer the following:
Style and Purpose in partnership with Poetry Ireland
Writing our Place in partnership with Fighting Words and Graffiti Theatre Company, Cork
In the News in partnership with Newsbrands Ireland
Introduction to Screenprinting with Elena Santos ‘Just Art It’, Galway
A call out for expressions of interest for an Artistic Performance community of practice
A call out for expressions of interest for aDesignCIRCLE community of practice
These TPLs aim to inspire, support and empower teachers and to embody the principles and key skills which underpin the Framework for Junior Cycle 2015. All TPLs are open to teachers from all subject disciplines.
For more information and to register for upcoming workshops and communities of practice, visit www.artsinjuniorcycle.ie. New workshops are added weekly!
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Blog 3 – Vera McGrath, Visual Artist, Researcher & Former Primary Teacher
It’s the AiE Regional Portal Day. I’m in Kildare. The theme of the morning’s discussion; ‘The Voice of the Child’. Serendipitous! I’ve being reflecting on voices recently, both in my arts practice and in my role as an art facilitator.
Prior to my studies at NCAD and my engagement in TAP, I practiced art on a superficial level, drawing my world without mining it. I ended up profoundly disillusioned. It was only when I began to dig deeper in an attempt to map my inner narrative that I began to hear my own voices, not least those of the child and adolescent I was, and effectively, still am. At times, these were difficult voices to attend to; a cacophonous chorus whose ignored realities generated high-tides of anxiety, shame and grief. I’m no swimmer but swimming through them was the only way to calmer waters. So, I dived; art practice as my life-jacket.
This has been game-changing, transforming both my work and my facilitation of artists, teachers and children. In reengaging with my buried voices, I’m hearing more clearly the voices those I work alongside. I’ve learned that being in authentic communication with my inner child has expanded the register and sensitivity of my communication with others, alerted me to nuances my adult sensibility might not otherwise detect and enabled me to respond from a place of recognition, understanding and empathy. It has also rekindled my spirit of spontaneity, playfulness and fun; characteristic of both childhood and creativity.
I believe we can only truly hear the voices of others when we have embraced our own. So, in discussing the importance of the voice of the child, let’s expand that concept to consider the child’s voice in the hearts of the adults who work with them. We all need to remember and own what it was like to be that child. For while listening to a child’s voice is an act of attendance and hearing it is an act of acknowledgement, identifying with it is an act of acceptance and validation. And this is the first meaningful step towards giving the child the appropriate agency and support to express the truths of their experiences and engage confidently with their imaginations.
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‘A-Z Alphabet of Actions’ Publication – Findings from a Pilot Early Years Initiative
Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership are delighted to announce the publication of ‘A-Z: Alphabet of Actions’ which outlines the findings from a pilot project that explored literacy with young children. This project investigated how children of different ages and stages of literacy interacted with the materials.
This project was developed as a pilot early-years intervention, putting arts and creativity at the centre of early childhood learning and development. Funded by ESB Energy for Generations, the project evolved in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2020 and 2021, the early stages of the project took place during strict lockdowns and were designed to facilitate parent-child interactions. The project modelled a way of working that supported young children to manipulate and play openly with materials and connected them with their parents and other children through verbal and non-verbal communication.
Artist, Naomi Draper, designed a material environment that allowed for different ‘layers’ of entry to accommodate children at a very early stage of literacy, as well as those in primary education with more developed literacy. This project investigated how children of different ages and stages of literacy interacted with the materials.
The Sligo Country Childcare Committee and Children & Young People’s Service Committee (CYPSC) were delighted to be involved with the A-Z programme. The results highlighted by the parent and child’s voices have demonstrated the importance of that parent/carer interaction.
If you would like to receive a copy of “A-Z Alphabet of Actions: Findings from a pilot early years initiative”, please send your name and address to info@kidsown.ie
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2022 National Arts in Education Portal Day – Guest Speakers
The Portal Team are delighted to welcome guest speakers, solo percussionist and composer Dame Evelyn Glennie for a special in conversation talk with Mark O’Brien, Executive Director of The Abbey Theatre.
Dame Evelyn Glennie
Dame Evelyn Glennie is the first person in history to create and sustain a full-time career as a solo percussionist, performing worldwide with the greatest orchestras and artists. Evelyn has commissioned over 200 new works for solo percussion and has recorded over 40 CDs. She regularly provides masterclasses and consultations to inspire the next generation of musicians.
Evelyn was awarded an OBE in 1993 and has over 100 international awards to date, including 2 GRAMMY’s, the Polar Music Prize and the Companion of Honour. She was appointed as the first female President of Help Musicians, and since 2021 she has been Chancellor of Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Scotland.
Evelyn is the curator for The Evelyn Glennie Collection which includes in excess of 3,500 percussion instruments. The film ‘Touch the Sound’, TED Talk and her book ‘Listen World!’are key testimonies to her unique and innovative approach to sound-creation. Through her mission to Teach the World to Listen she aims to improve communication and social cohesion by encouraging everyone to discover new ways of listening in order to inspire, to create, to engage and to empower.
Watch Dame Evelyn Glennie’s TED Talk, How to truly listen, below
Mark O’Brien
Mark O’Brien, Executive Director of The Abbey Theatre has had over 25 years’ experience in the theatre and wider culture sectors, as a leader, facilitator, actor, sound designer, administrator, and theatre director. He has also led, directed, and developed work in the youth theatre sector, and with Team Educational Theatre Company.
Mark was previously Director of axis arts centre Ballymun. Over ten years, he developed axis into an organisation and space of local, national and international renown, that created, facilitated and produced new and significant work, across theatre, arts development and engagement contexts. Under his leadership, axis became an artistic and cultural hub for both artists and the public. His driving force was to achieve a shared vision of excellence through inclusion.
The full line-up of the national day will be announced on Wednesday 5th October when ticket booking will open online. This year’s event will have a special focus on ‘Seldom Heard Voices’ and will see a return to the usual mix of presentations, smaller discussion-led presentations and creative workshops addressing this theme.
These events bring together members of the arts in education community from all across Ireland, to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired, and continue interrogating best practice in the field.
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National Museum of Ireland: Schools Autumn/Winter 2022 Programme
National Museum of Ireland (NMI)
The National Museum of Ireland (NMI) is delighted to invite teachers and students across the country to reconnect with culture over the coming school term with an in-person visit to one of its sites.
The Museum has launched its autumn/winter 2022 programme of tours, events and activities, which educators can use to get up close to history, spark curiosity, encourage learning, and promote enjoyment of culture.
Much of the NMI’s school programme was offered virtually over the past two years due to pandemic restrictions. Many schools enjoyed engaging with the Museum online so there will also still be elements of the programme available to access directly from the classroom.
This tour at the Museum of Decorative Arts & History, Collins Barracks is available at primary and post primary level, focuses on the people involved in World War One and how the war impacted their lives.
A mix of traditional and contemporary stories linked to artefacts in the National Folklife Collection at the Museum of Country Life, Turlough Park with some of Ireland’s premier traditional storytellers, in collaboration with Poetry Ireland. Available online and onsite for primary and post-primary levels.
An onsite tour at the Museum of Archaeology, Merrion Street specifically designed to cover key objects that appear on the History of Art Leaving Certificate specification and traces the development of art in Ireland from the Neolithic to the 12th century.
The Ark are delighted to announced their full Autumn programme for early years, schools and teachers, a jam packed programme including theatre, music shows, exhibitions and workshops. Below is a selection of some of the highlights taking place:
Dates: 4 & 10 December Age Range: Early Years 2 – 4 years
Artist Jane Groves explores the textures of a frozen landscape through storytelling, creative play and imagination in this Early Years visual arts workshop.
Discover the magic of winter in the much-loved winter music show, Tracks in the Snow by The Henry Girls. Schools can enjoy free access this Winter, the show links in with the Listening and Responding strand units of the Music curriculum. A free downloadable classroom pack is also available online at ark.ie/events/view/ondemand-tracks-in-the-snow-the-henry-girls-2
The full season can be viewed at ark.ie, booking is now open for all events via the simple schools booking form on each event page.
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CPD For Teachers: IMMA’s Intertwined Workshop Series
Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA)
Dates: 24 September, 1 October, 12 & 19 November 2022, 21 & 28 January 2023
Enjoy a Saturday morning on IMMA’s historic site, the Royal Hospital Kilmainham; experience exhibitions and creative processes in the museum studios.
The Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) are delighted to welcome Primary School teachers to a new series of in-person CPD workshops exploring links to the visual art curriculum. Led by IMMA’s Assistant Curator, Mark Maguire and teacher, Eibhlin Campbell in this series of art workshops participants will explore links to the visual art curriculum, including “slow looking” practices in the galleries, displaying artwork (curation) and developing language talking about art.
Two practical workshops will be led by artists and educator Fiona Harrington in the IMMA studios in November, exploring fabric and fibre materials and processes. Fiona is interested in combining traditional processes with imagination and encouraging both children and adults to reconnect with creativity by exploring new materials, ideas, and techniques.
The purpose of these workshops is to restart in-person workshops in IMMA’s galleries and studios, emphasizing first-hand experience of artworks as well as studio-based, artist-led engagement with creative processes and art materials, and partnership between teachers and artists.
Duration: One/two day(s) per month, September to January. Dates: 24 September, 1 October, 12 and 19 November 2022, 21 and 28 January 2023 Times: 10:00am – 12:30pm No. of participants: 15
This workshop series is Free but booking essential. For more information or to book, email mark.maguire@imma.ie
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‘Songs of Ourselves’ Live Performance at The Dock
From November 2020 to June 2021, George Higgs was The Dock Composer in Residence at Scoil Mhuire, Carrick on Shannon for the project ‘Songs of Ourselves’, exploring communal song forms – e.g., work songs, anthems, canons, and call and response – with the ultimate aim of creating a new composition. Based on his earlier investigations into multisensory composition (The Sense Ensemble, 2017), George asked the students to think of a song not only as sound, but as a participatory activity for all the senses. Students were encouraged to invent gestures to accompany the performance of each song and draw pictures to reflect on the various themes. A Song Scrapbook was amassed from all the sessions, featuring the finished multisensory lyric ‘The Dream of the Knockabock’.
‘The Dream of the Knockabock’ was performed at The Dock in early June, 2022 by the Scoil Mhuire Choir and the Millennium Choir. The song was a twelve-minute ‘mobile composition for multisensory voices’ created was a rich pageant of sound, movement and was a spatial performance to remember.
It was a special event for all involved and a great achievement.
View the performance below
View here the Documentation Award Series Discussion ‘Songs of Ourselves’ with composer George Higgs, teacher Noelle Igoe and The Dock’s Visual Arts and Education Manager, Laura Mahon as part of the 2021 National Arts in Education Portal Virtual Conference.
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Creativity & Change: Nurturing Change-Makers, Imagining a Better World
The Creativity and Change programme & MTU Crawford College of Art & Design
Creativity & Change at MTU Crawford College of Art & Design, Cork City, is presently recruiting for their September course intake. This part-time, 20 credit certificate at level 9 is about creativity and its power to ignite empathy, passion and learning about our interconnected and interdependent world. Supported by Irish Aid, Department of Justice, the course supports learners to imagine more humane, just and viable ways to be and to connect with how we think, live, and act in the world.
This course explores how we can utilise the arts to live as connected global citizens, becoming part of the changes we want to see. It will be of interest to artists, activists, youth and community educators, volunteers and all those who are interested in collaboration and the transformative power of art.
Amplifying Voices Scholarships:
The core of Creativity & Change’s work is to explore and address inequality and injustice, which becomes minimised without the perspectives and experiences of a diverse participant group. Creativity & Change are consistently seeking to improve the accessibility of their programme and endeavour to provide opportunities to people who may have faced barriers to accessing education in Ireland, such as those from minority groups. We are pleased to have support from MTU to offer a number of funded places on the course for those who may not have otherwise been in a position to apply.
Duration: One weekend per month from September to May
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Blog 2 – Vera McGrath, Visual Artist, Researcher & Former Primary Teacher
Teacher, Artist, Other
May 6th 2022. I visit a school in Cavan. My role; a ‘critical friend’ in an Action Research capacity on behalf of our International-Teacher-Artist Partnership (I-TAP-PD) PD Programme. I sit, observing, relishing what unfolds: An artist and teacher in near-perfect synchronicity, finishing each other’s sentence. I’m unable to tell one from the other. Digging further, I discovered that the teacher had taught the art skill to the artist in her kitchen and the artist prepared self-assessment booklets so students could track their learning. They have, in essence, exchanged roles and I’m witnessing my own audacious claim in action. “There’s an artist and a teacher in all of us.” But it’s really no surprise.
Vygotsky’s theories, cornerstones of modern curricula, hold that children learn primarily by observing and engaging in activities, guided by those more experienced, skilled or knowledgeable. Adults, whether parents, family members, neighbours, carers, coaches or community leaders provide the majority of this tuition, outside of formal education. As social beings who nurture our young, teaching is a critical human enterprise. We all teach, at some juncture, whether actively, passively, under contract or by default. It’s the impulse that spurs some graduates to choose teaching careers and prompts many artists to become involved in education, run workshops or engage apprentices.
Correspondingly, the compulsion to create is innate. Our capacity to imagine what does not exist is a cognitive strength that supports human advancement. To access and give form to creative thought, we engage in playfully explorative behaviours like acting, dancing, music-making, story-making, hypothesising, illustrating, constructing, concocting and crafting. These ‘creative’ practices are the fora for working through and testing our ideas. And creativity can manifest in many areas of practice; from book-binding to baking, from constructing mathematical theory to music-making.
One of Teacher-Artist Partnership (TAP) unique features is its potential to develop both competences in participants, the educator and the creator, waking the ‘other’ in those who stay engaged. This has supported me immensely in declaring my own identities and I trust my narrative will encourage others to recognise that the many hats they wear in life are equally worthy of recognition and validation.
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Blog 1 – Vera McGrath, Visual Artist, Researcher & Former Primary Teacher
A Question of Identity
September 2006: Circumstances forced me to abandon full-time art practice and accept a job-share teaching post. My ambiguous attitude to this turnabout and maverick methodologies prompted one of my charges to ask if I was a ‘real teacher’? Parents made more subtle enquiries. The school caretaker presumed I was an SNA.
Back practicing art full-time, I entered a school as the BLAST-assigned artist. The principal showed me around. Once our presence on the corridor was detected, a rumour raced from classroom to classroom; ‘There’s an inspector in the school!’
These narratives are anecdotal evidence of a professional identity dilemma I’ve wrestled with for decades. Artist or educator? Inhabiting this professional twilight zone had altered the lens through which I perceive labels like ‘teacher’ and ‘artist’; what it means to be either, both or to be more than the sum of these two entities.
Professional identity matters but it’s contextual. A singular definition casts us in two-dimensional stereotype, ignoring the richness of our many and evolving roles, cumulative experiences, skills and knowledge. I faced this dilemma on entering the Teacher-Artist Partnership programme in 2014. With an Education Centre network nomination, I was obliged to enlist as a teacher but yearned to sign the artist’s register. On introducing myself to the group, I claimed my artist identity, the only teacher to do so. After all, my teacher-self existed so my artist-self could be; the teacher supporting the artist, the artist sustaining the teacher.
Owning my dual identity felt bold but until did, I would never walk into a school as an artist. I’ve learned much on this journey, not least that there are many teachers in and beyond TAP who feel similarly. Some TAP-trained teachers are graduates of art/arts colleges. Others are skilled arts practitioners. Moreover, several TAP artists are former teachers and more possess intuitive teaching abilities, relishing engagement with children. August’s blog will further explore concepts of ‘teacher’ and ‘artist’, and the guiding and creative impulses we all possess. Meantime, for those reading, conscious of echoes of ‘the other drum’ in the recesses of their hearts, take comfort. There’s a teacher and an artist in all of us!
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Opportunity for Creatives: Language Explorers with Mother Tongues
Mother Tongues
Language Explorers facilitator training and work opportunity.
Do you have experience developing/delivering creative experiences to children? Or are you an artist? Are you fluent in another language other than English? Are you passionate about making a difference?
Mother Tongues‘ is currently training individuals to enter a paid panel of facilitators to draw from when delivering workshops across the country as part of their flagship programme ‘Language Explorers’.
Mother Tongues’ envision a society that embraces different cultures and languages. Their mission is to curate multilingual creative experiences where artists and communities connect across languages and cultures. Language Explorers is Mother Tongues’ flagship programme for children aged 3 to 6. Language Explorers provides a child-centred, interactive and engaging experience for all children – monolingual, bilingual and plurilingual.
Who should register?
Developed to be equal parts practical and inspirational, this new training is designed for artists or creative people with a passion for working with children and who have experience in developing and/or delivering creative experiences to children.
Training
This training combines online and in-person elements. It will run over 8 weeks with an estimated overall time commitment of 40 hours. Self-directed learning is an important element of this training.
Mother Tongues is an equal opportunity employer.
We encourage applications from individuals of a variety of backgrounds and levels of experience.
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Open Call For Evaluation Services: Music Generation – Arts Council Partnership
Music Generation & Arts Council of Ireland
Deadline: 5 August 2022
The Music Generation National Development Office invites quotations, from consultants, researchers or organisations, for the completion of an evaluation of the Music Generation – Arts Council partnership. It is anticipated that the evaluation will identify learnings from the partnership and will provide recommendations for the future. The evaluation will assist Music Generation in its planning and development for the future and will assist the Arts Council in planning future potential partnerships and investments in this sector.
Queries
All queries will be responded to by email only.
Please email all queries to: info@musicgeneration.ie where they will be forwarded to the relevant person for clarification.
The latest date for receipt of queries is Friday 29th July 2022.
Closing Date
The closing date for receipt of tender submissions is 17:00 (Dublin time) on Friday 5th August 2022.
Music Generation is Ireland’s National Music Education Programme that transforms the lives of children and young people through access to high-quality, subsidised performance music education. Initiated by Music Network, Music Generation is co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education, and Local Music Education Partnerships (LMEPs) and is supported by the Arts Council as a programme partner.
The Arts Council /An Chomhairle Ealaíon is the Irish government agency for developing the arts. The Arts Council works in partnership with artists, arts organisations, public policy makers and others to build a central place for the arts in Irish life. The Arts Council is guided by its Strategy “Making Great Art Work”.
For further information on the Arts Council, please visit www.artscouncil.ie
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Opportunity for Artists: County Dublin Primary Arts Programme 2022-2023
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council
Deadline: 15 August 2022
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, in partnership with Blackrock Education Centre, is looking for six creative practitioners in a variety of artforms to work with children and teachers in the classroom setting. The main purpose of the programme is to facilitate a professional Creative Practitioner to collaborate with a primary school class and teacher to explore creativity in the classroom setting through various artforms.
Overview of dlr’s Primary Arts Programme
dlr’s Primary Arts Programme was initiated in 1994. dlr Arts Office has partnered with Blackrock Education Centre since 2008 to deliver the countywide programme. dlR Arts Office recognise the importance of life-long learning and the positive impact that early intervention may have in addressing education inequality. Through the partnership with Blackrock Education Centre, dlr Arts Office works to ensure that children have access to cultural education regardless of circumstances. The main purpose of the programme is to facilitate a professional Creative Practitioner to collaborate with a primary school class and teacher to explore creativity in the classroom setting through various art forms. A Creative Practitioner is a professional facilitator with an artform background, for example, a Dancer, a Visual Artist, a Writer or a Musician.
The timeline for engagement of the creative practitioners is October 2022 – May 2023. Upon agreement between both parties, this may be extended from October 2023 – May 2024.
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Call for Papers, Presentations and Workshops! 2022 National Arts in Education Portal Day
Arts in Education Portal Deadline: Friday 26 August 2022
Artists, teachers, academics and arts education professionals… Do you want to be part of the seventh annual National Arts in Education Portal Day?
The National Arts in Education Portal Day will take place at TU Dublin, School of Art and Design on Saturday, 5 November 2022 in partnership with the School of Art and Design (formerly the School of Creative Arts) and the Erasmus+ International Teacher-Artist Partnership (I-TAP-PD) PD Project. The event aims to bring together members of the arts in education and creative practise community from all across Ireland, to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired and continue interrogating best practice in the field.
The Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee invites proposals from organisations or individuals who want to give dynamic and inspiring presentations or workshops that can offer sharing of skills, practical approaches, new insights and critical thinking across the field, from a range of perspectives.
This year, the Portal Day will have a special focus on ‘Seldom Heard Voices’. The Committee particularly want to profile projects this year that represent children from diverse communities and children who are seldom heard.
The Portal Editorial Committee are delighted to also partner this year with the Erasmus+ International Teacher-Artist Partnership (I-TAP-PD) PD Project, an exciting trans-European project which focuses on enabling teachers and artists to jointly develop their understanding, expertise and creativity in ‘arts in education’ work with children and young people in education, community and arts settings. The Erasmus+ I-TAP-PD multiplier event at the National Portal Day will share outcomes and learning from the programme to date.
Do you have a workshop or presentation that you would like to be included in the programme for this day? If so, please send us your proposal.
The deadline for submission of proposals has been extended to 5pm Friday 26 August 2022.
The Portal team have had an exciting few months on the road visiting the recipients of the 2022 Portal Documentation Awards.
‘Music Makes Me Happy’ Creative Cluster
In May and early June we visited three Limerick based schools who have been collaborating as part of a Creative Cluster Project under the theme ‘Music Makes Me Happy’. The focus of the two year project has been to create more opportunities for the pupils of all three schools to experience music; to learn an instrument, listen to live music, perform and explore music through creative collaboration.
In this, the second year of the project the students and teachers from all three schools have been continuing to collaborate with local musician Mike Hogan in learning the ukulele. On our visit to St Patrick’s Boys National School, the 5th class pupils and their class teacher Mr Murray shared with us some of the songs they have been working on for a group performance at the end of the school year.
Ukulele Player at St Brigid’s National School – ‘Music Makes Me Happy’ Creative Cluster Project
In St Brigid’s National School and St Patrick’s Girls National School the students have been delving deeper in their exploration of the cluster theme through the BLAST initiative. On our visit to St. Patrick’s Girls NS we met visual artist Chelsea Canavan who has been collaborating with the 5th class students and their class teacher Ms Farrell in the creation of a large scale artwork that will become part of the school’s new building. Taking inspiration from music the pupils have been designing patterns based on the honeycomb shape and fretwork patterns found on the end of a concertina instrument. During our visit the children were creating prints using stamps they had made, exploring different shapes and combinations.
At St Brigid’s NS, class teacher Ms Nihill and the 5th class pupils have been collaborating with composer Fiona Linnane in the c0-creation of a musical composition inspired by the cluster theme. During our visit the class were writing lyrics to add to melodies they had created and were starting to put the elements of the song together. For the song the children used a combination of instruments including the ukulele’s the class had been using for their sessions with Mike Hogan.
‘Finding the Common Thread’ International Teacher Artist Partnership Project
St Kilian’s National School, County Cavan is situated in a state-of-the-art school where its beautiful design makes you feel like you are outdoors when indoors, surrounded by nature wherever you look. This influence of nature was evident when visiting Breeda’s classroom. Artist Vera McEvoy, class teacher Breeda Kenny and the students have been exploring a local bog using art, textiles and many other means.
On the first day of our visit, the children were developing lace pieces based on flowers found in the bog. Each child had created an intricate sewn piece which re-imagined tiny plants which they discovered on trips to the bog. It was amazing to see how engrossed the children were in their needle work. The intimate nature of the work seemed to draw out different conversations amongst the children, giving them time and space to think and talk in an unstructured way.
Exploring the bog – ‘Finding the Common Thread’ International Teacher Artist Partnership Project – St Kilian’s National School, County Cavan
On the second day, we had a magical visit to the bog. Vera and the students set up a clothes line where they pegged on their lace pieces, letting them flutter in the wind. We were introduced to the various plants that had inspired their lace works – and were amazed by how tiny but complex they were. The students performed a song, using their voices and bodies to create ripples across the bog.
Over the summer months the Portal team will be working on editing the documentation footage captured during the school visits. We look forward to sharing the Documentation video’s for both project’s in the Autumn. Stay tuned!
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Opportunity: Project Manager for the Arts in Education Portal
Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership Deadline 13 July 2022
Kids’ Own, the current Arts in Education Portal Mangers are delighted to invite applications for the role of Project Manager for the Arts in Education Portal (part-time).
Reporting to the Kids’ Own CEO, the Project Manager will work very closely with other members of the Kids’ Own team and the Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee to manage the Arts In Education Portal. Kids’ Own are the current managers of the Arts in Education Portal on behalf of the Portal Editorial Committee.
This is a very exciting opportunity for a dynamic community-minded individual with excellent digital skills and event management skills combined to lead the management of the Arts in Education Portal as it enters into a new phase of strategic development.
The specifications of the role are set out below.
Key Responsibilities
The Project Manager for the Arts in Education Portal will be responsible for managing all aspects of the Arts in Education Portal, including but not limited to:
Ongoing management of all aspects of the Arts in Education Portal website including regular content updates of project features, guest blogs, critical essays, videos, and resources.
Liaise with, and report regularly to, the Portal Editorial Committee; and attend and lead quarterly meetings.
Liaison with the Portal web developers to ensure the site is fully maintained and up to date with the latest software.
Implementation of AiE Portal Digital Marketing Strategy, including web, SEO/SEM, email marketing, social media and digital advertising.
Manage content across all platforms including email and social media in collaboration with Kids’ Own’s Digital Marketing Officer.
Managing metrics such as Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools.
Leading on website and social media channel optimisation for SEO as well as usability.
Providing editorial, creative and technical support to team members and content contributors.
Measuring, reporting and recommending on the performance of all activities both online and off.
Creating and implementing editorial calendars in collaboration with content contributors.
Delivering effective, cohesive, and engaging brand messaging.
Development of and implantation of aspects of the annual Portal Commissioning Plan.
Coordination of all Portal events, particularly the annual National Arts in Education Portal Day and Spring Regional Day, including pre-event planning, audience engagement, organising guest speakers and management of all event logistics.
Collaborating with the broader Kids’ Own team to ensure that the AiE Portal activities and content aligns with the ethos and remit of the Portal.
Briefing and managing third-party suppliers, freelancers, videographers and designers to ensure on-time delivery of assets.
Manage project budgets, in collaboration with the Creative Director and Finance Officer.
The successful applicant will have:
A third level qualification in the field of journalism, communications, marketing or equivalent experience.
A minimum of 4 years’ experience in a digital marketing with a portfolio of visual and written content.\
An excellent understanding of the Arts in Education sector and collaborative arts practice.
High-level, versatile writing abilities with strong attention to detail and editorial experience.
Proficiency in designing, managing and delivering broad, multi-angle projects.
Proven track record in creating and publishing online and offline content.
Proficiency with popular content management systems.
Adept at SEO best practices.
In-depth knowledge of various social media platforms, best practices, and website analytics.
Experience in event management ideally both online and offline.
Desirable:
Experience in working with non-profit or charitable organisations.
Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
Excellent organisational and time-management skills.
The ability to work well as part of a small team.
Highly creative with excellent analytical abilities.
Ability to travel when required for meetings, events etc. Full drivers licence preferable.
Terms of contract:
This is a part-time post (3 days p/week). An initial contract of 9 months will be offered, subject to extension. There will be a probationary period of 6 weeks.
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Arts In Health & Education Postgraduate Courses
MTU Crawford College of Art & Design
Arts In Health & Education, MTU Crawford College of Art & Design are presently recruiting for their September course intake across the department. Choose from a number of innovative post-graduate, level 9 courses centred around the power of the Arts in supporting wellbeing, personal development and changemaking.
All courses take place at the CCAD Grand Parade campus in Cork City.
Arts & Engagement is a new two-year, part-time, 90 credit MA programme combining a number of CCAD’s Special Purpose Awards. Through research, reflection, group and practical work, participants will explore different ways of learning, investigating the transformational power of the arts in personal and societal activation or regulation through a broad scope of contemporary methodologies.
Through elective modules in year one, opportunities will be provided to broaden skill sets through Socially Engaged Theatre, Eco-Arts Practice or Art Therapy. In the second year, opportunity will be given for students to develop their ongoing arts practice informed by, and in relation to, one of two strands of engagement – Health & Wellbeing or Global Citizenship Education.
Creativity & Change is a part-time, 20 credit certificate at level 9 about creativity and its power to ignite empathy, passion and learning about our interconnected and interdependent world. Supported by Irish Aid, Department of Justice, it is about imagining more humane, just and viable ways to live in the world and to connect with how we think, live, and act in the world. This course explores how we can utilise the arts to live as connected global citizens, becoming part of the changes we want to see. It will be of interest to artists, activists, youth & community educators, volunteers and all those who are interested in collaboration and the transformative power of art.
This programme is offered as an elective within the MA Arts and Engagement. Participants on the course who are not already taking it as an elective within the MA can apply and progress to the MA Arts & Engagement, with 20 credits of the programme already completed.
Amplifying Voices Scholarships: We have a number of funded places available for those who have faced barriers to education in Ireland. See more information on the course application page.
Arts & Wellbeing is a new part-time. 20 credit Certificate at level 9. The course will be delivered through lectures and experiential workshops and provide participants with theory and approaches to arts and wellbeing that could be applied in a range of different contexts, making it attractive to teachers, therapists, arts in health practitioners, youth and community workers or artists looking to broaden the scope of their practice.
This programme is offered as an elective within the MA Arts and Engagement. Participants on the course who are not already taking it as an elective within the MA can apply and progress to the MA Arts & Engagement, with 20 credits of the programme already completed.
Eco Arts Practice is a 10 credit, level 9 certificate. Through experiential learning, this course provides an opportunity to explore Eco Arts Practice theory and application within a group setting. The aim of the course is to provide participants with approaches to Eco Art Practice that could be applied in a range of different contexts, making it attractive to teachers, therapists, youth and community workers or artists looking to broaden the scope of their practice. Participants will explore nature and the environment within an art context, from ethical use of materials, to eco literacy through to the natural environment as a classroom, a therapeutic space and a material that can be worked with.
This programme is offered as an elective within the MA Arts and Engagement. Participants on the course who are not already taking it as an elective within the MA can apply and progress to the MA Arts & Engagement, with 10 credits of the programme already completed.
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Opportunity for Schools: Drama & Filmmaking Project Adúntas
Crooked House Theatre Company
Crooked House Theatre Company are delighted to invite applications from youth work organisations and schools in County Kildare to participate in a new drama and film making project ‘Adúntas’. Providing eight free programmes for young people, the project will focus on maintaining wellbeing and developing emotional resilience after COVID-19.
Through ‘Adúntas’ eight young people will also receive training in youth drama facilitation.
“We recognise the importance of allowing our young people to process the experience of Covid-19 in their own way and at their own pace”, Oguzhan Sahin, Outreach Manager with Crooked House.
This project is funded by the RTE Toy Show Appeal Grants for 2022 by the Community Foundation for Ireland. for more information about the RTE Toy Show Appeal go to www.rte.ie/eile/toy-show-appeal/.
About Crooked House Theatre Company
Crooked House is a theatre-making organisation established in 1993 in Newbridge in County Kildare, Ireland. We make theatre with, for and by young people from the ages of 11 to 24. Participation in all our activities is free and open to anyone. Young people can join our weekly workshops in Newbridge anytime. Visit www.kildareyouththeatre.com to find workshops for your age group. Our work is inspired by tolerance, equality, social justice, compassion, and empathy. We aim to create theatre that is ambitious, challenging, aesthetically engaging, and relevant to our audiences.
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Blog 4 – Marc Mac Lochlainn, Executive Artistic Director of Branar Téatar do Pháistí
To the Stage
This month in Branar we are focusing on preparing for the live presentation of YOU’LL SEE…
In previous blogs, we have spoken about creating the film based on our adaptation of Ulysses for children and now, the next phase is for us to create a live theatre version.
We are back in the rehearsal room and must make some adjustments to the piece with the knowledge that we will have a live audience in front of us. In the film version, we were able to use the camera to dictate exactly what the audience would see through framing. However, with the live version, we have to consider the pacing, the clarity of the delivery and the visuals of the piece from the audience’s point of view. We also need to add elements such as lighting and sound cues, and everything that makes theatre different from other forms of presentation. This is challenging to do, but this is the art form we are most experienced in.
We have new members of the team now. Michael joins us as our technician and Debbie as our stage manager. The work becomes about supporting the performance and ensuring that what the audience sees is excellent every time. Helen Gregg who adapted the text with me is the performer and she now has to consider the audience as they watch the piece and ensure that they are following what she’s doing as well as being entertained by the piece.
The live performance will be longer than the film as we allow for pauses, moments to linger a little and hopefully laughter. We work on ensuring that the narrative makes sense by itself. We work on the pace to ensure that the audience has something interesting to follow at all times, whether that is the soundscape, the visuals, or Helen’s performance.
As I write this, we are preparing to present the show for the first time at the Cork Midsummer Festival for an audience of children and their adults. We are excited, nervous, and hopeful that all of our work over the past few months will pay off and that the audience will enjoy the fruits of our labor. We hope that they will leave entertained and knowing a little bit more about Ulysses, written 100 years ago by James Joyce.
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Summer CPD for Teachers: A Visual Arts Approach in the Classroom
The Ark Dates: 15 – 19 August
Join the team at The Ark, Dublin and artist Jole Bortoli for this hugely popular hands-on, creative course focusing on a visual arts approach to exploring narrative, literacy and other subjects.
This is a five-day Department of Education EPV-approved summer course for teachers. Suitable for all levels of experience.
The aim of the course is to enable participants to start the new school year with an enhanced toolbox of skills and knowledge, in order to effectively deliver the visual arts curriculum in the classroom. Participants will be engaged ‘hands-on’ throughout this course so learning will be through doing. Working in teams and individually, you will cover a range of curriculum strands including drawing, painting, print, 3D construction, fabric, and fibre.
A strong emphasis will be on building skills and confidence. The group will also explore how visual art can be used to engage with aspects of the English, SPHE, History and Maths curriculum, as well as to promote visual literacy approaches. School self-evaluation exercises will be incorporated as an integral part of the course. Time will also be given for individual reflection and learning and group discussion.
This course will appeal to teachers of all levels of experience and will be facilitated by the visual arts and education specialist and founder of Art to Heart, Jole Bortoli. This is a continuing professional development opportunity not to be missed!
Tickets: €100/€90 (For ArkEd Members)
Dates & Time: Five day course, 15-19 August at 10am-3pm (with breaks) each day
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Teachers’ Summer CPD Course with Ballet Ireland
Ballet Ireland Dates: 4 – 8 July
In Association with the School of Arts, Education & Movement, DCU
The Ballet Ireland CPD course for Primary School Teachers and Education Professionals provides participants with a secure understanding of how to teach dance, using simple, clear methods, easy steps and straightforward dance vocabularies.
Teachers are introduced to the fundamental aspects of dance education, including:
Class structure
An understanding of anatomy in relation to dance
How music is used, composed, and selected for dance
How dance relates to drama and narrative expression
The course is based on workshop programmes which have been in operation since 2005, developed in collaboration with ten national schools in the greater Dublin area. All material covered in the summer course is suitable for primary school children of all ages, and for children with diverse abilities and experiences.
The Ballet Ireland educational approach for primary school teachers offers an interdisciplinary approach to teaching dance, music, and drama, and emphasises the potential for integrating curricular learning through dance.
The initial course is a week in length; each day comprises 2 two-hour workshops and an additional session, up to an hour, for discussion and feedback with the participants, totalling 25 hours. The programme employs specialists in several complementary areas, providing workshops in dance, anatomy, music, and mime.
Participants are supported with comprehensive course notes and access to specialised musical content online. Optional follow up days are held during midterm breaks in autumn and spring (at DanceHouse, Dublin), and ongoing support is available through closed social media groups.
“It helped me to understand the benefits dance can offer a child’s whole development, in terms of physical development, gross and fine motor skills, overall co-ordination, concentration and memory skills and social-emotional development. Dance can hugely benefit a child holistically and understanding this made me feel more confident that teaching dance wasn’t simply a ‘fun’ or frivolous’ treat lesson for a class, but a worthwhile endeavour”
The week will be led by Stephen Brennan, Education Officer at Ballet Ireland, supported by Hayley Cunningham, former Ballet Ireland dancer, Stott Pilates instructor, qualified ballet teacher and a member of the Ballet Ireland educational team.
Focused workshops will be led by Nolwenn Collett, composer and musician trained at the Paris Conservatoire, and specialist in dance accompaniment, and Deirdre McKenna, a Musculoskeletal & Dance Physiotherapist specialising in sports and dance training and injury prevention.
Creative Schools is delighted to announce two exciting opportunities for artists, creative practitioners and individuals working in organisations in the arts and cultural sector.
1. Creative Associate Services for Alternative Settings
Creative Schools seeks to engage up to four Creative Associates, with relevant experience, to support the delivery of a project for schools in alternative settings from autumn 2022 for up to two years. This project will focus on schools from particular types of educational contexts that have not yet participated in the Creative Schools initiative.
2. Creative Associate Services
Creative Schools seeks to engage a number of Creative Associates, with relevant experience, to work with schools in Mayo from autumn 2022 for up to one year.
Individuals or organisations that wish to nominate an individual may apply for these opportunities by 12.00 hours (local time) on Thursday 7, July, 2022.
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children Deadline: 29 July 2022
Baboró is looking for children who will be starting 4th class in September 2022 to join their Children’s Panel to ensure their voices are included in their planning and decision making.
The Children’s Panel will play an important role in shaping Baboró’s work to make all children feel welcome, heard and represented at Baboró and in our community. The children will be guided through their experience of the festival and creative workshops throughout the year by Baboró artist in residence, Maisie Lee. Their perspectives and voice will inform how they present their annual festival and year round work with schools and communities.
Members of the Children’s Panel will attend their festival in October where they will watch performances and visit exhibitions; together meet artists and performers and learn about their creative process; meet the people who create the festival and share their ideas with them; workshop and express their opinions and perspectives of their festival experience.
Members will also meet once a month to take part in workshops and arts activities, attend creative events, meet new friends and have fun!
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Opportunity for primary schools: My Bloomsday
Branar and the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI) Date: Bloomsday Thursday, 16 June 2022
MoLI is asking young people from 2nd to 6th class to tell us all about a day in their life, this Bloomsday, on Thursday, 16 June. And teachers, it’s a schoolday – so they need your help!
As a follow-on activity from watching Branar’s wonderful You’ll See… film, we want to capture the diversity of lived experiences of young people from around the island of Ireland and put their voice and perspective at the heart of this day.
This is a simple and fun exercise that links imagination and biography, giving us a sense of what their days are like. Schools from across the country are taking part, and the submissions will be presented as an online archive later this year.
The closing date for submissions is Friday, 8 July 2022.
Earlier this month, teachers, artists and arts in eduction professionals gathered together – in-person and on-online – at the beautiful surroundings of the Kildare Education Support Centre. This was an opportunity to share experience, gather new ideas and network with colleagues. This event, the sixth of our annual Portal Regional Days, showcased arts in education and creative practice in the Mid-East. This year’s gathering was particularly special as it was the first in-person event in two years and provided a wonderful opportunity to catchup with members of the community, some of whom had only met virtually.
The morning of sharing practice began with visual artist Penelope Monaghan in conversation with Deirdre Rogers, Visual Arts Learning & Engagement Coordinator at the Solstice Arts Centre who shared their experience and learnings from the BLAST project with Stackallen National School, Co. Meath. As part of the presentation, Deirdre brought the audience on a Visual Thinking Strategy (VTS) journey of the painting ‘Three Space Unfolding’ by Lesley-Ann O’Connell, sharing a taste of how she uses VTS techniques in exhibition visits with schools.
“That’s so true, for me art and creative activities if you want to call it a subject is the only subject that can teach every other subject”, Deirdre Rogers
The morning continued with a thought-provoking panel discussion chaired by teacher and Teacher–Artist Partnership (TAP) Lead Facilitator Jennifer Buggie with speakers Michelle Furlong, Portal Committee member and Creative Schools Manager with the Arts Council of Ireland; Dr Triona Stokes from the Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education, Maynooth University and Mark Ball, Theatre-maker and Artistic Director of Super Paua. The panel explored the question ‘How do we ensure the voice of the child is heard?’. They shared insights into how, in their own practices, they consider the child’s voice and other practical ways to open opportunities for the child’s voice in the classroom or during a creative engagement.
Do we other children by calling them children? That old concept of not being fully a person in terms of traditional forms of education. But I really do think by using those terms ‘young people’, young people who are fully themselves… as Caitríona Ní Chullota used to say always, they are fully themselves in every moment of their existence. – Jennifer Buggie
In the afternoon, attendees where invited to take part in practical creative workshops. Photographer Brian Cregan shared some practical tools and tips on using smartphone’s and tablet’s for photography with in-person attendees. They explored how smartphones and tablets can be a key tool in documenting creative engagement.
Creative Workshop: ‘Smartphone and Tablet Photography Skills’ with photographer Brian Cregan
Online, artist Helen Flanaghan invited participants to explore their own connections to land, place and nature and to consider – what we stand to lose in the context of the climate crisis in the creative workshop titled ‘What is left and what left to lose?’. Through discussion, participants were invited on a journey of co-creation creating a piece collaborative writing which was then burnt in a fire pit at the end of the session.
Creative Workshop: What is left and what left to lose? with artist and writer Helen Flanaghan
“Lets try it and lets fail beautifully together”, Mark Ball, Artistic Director Super Paua
Thank you to everyone who joined us on the day. For those who missed the mornings discussions the live stream is available to watch back on the Portal’s Vimeo Channel here.
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Blog 3 – Marc Mac Lochlainn, Executive Artistic Director of Branar Téatar do Pháistí
My Bloomsday
Schools engagement project
This month at Branar, we have been focusing our attention on the engagement element of ‘You’ll see…’, our adaptation of Ulysses by James Joyce, for children age 7+. This engagement from children was at the forefront of the creation of You’ll See. Ulysses tells the story of one day in one city and this inspired us to ask the children of Ireland to tell us the story of one day in their lives.
We have been working in conjunction with our colleagues in the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI) in Dublin to devise an engagement program that will allow children to respond to the video while also sharing their thoughts on what it’s like to be a child in 2022, 100 years after Ulysses was published.
We have a created a response template pack that is loosely based on some of the main questions or thoughts that are in the key episodes of Ulysses. The template pack consists of six prompts for the children to respond to. These prompts were created by Branar and MoLI after examining the school curriculum and deciding what prompts would allow the children who respond to be as creative as possible in their answers. The children are asked to respond to these prompts in their own way, be it through creative writing, or drawing images in response to the prompt questions. Our hopes are that it will be a creative process that gives us an insight into the life of children in 2022. The children will be able to engage with these packs as a class activity facilitated by the teacher after they’ve watched the You’ll See… video.
What is really exciting about this process is that the documents the children will create will be collected by the MoLI Museum and archived over the Summer. We decided that the archive should be created in a way that encourages engagement from children all over Ireland. We aim to do this by using technologies used by children on a daily basis to host the archived materials. This should hopefully allow children from all over the country to engage with each other’s responses.
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Deadline Extended: 2022/2023 Creative Schools Programme Open for Applications
Creative Schools Deadline: 17.30, 16 June 2022
The Arts Council are delighted to announce that applications have opened for schools to apply for the Creative Schools 2022/ 2023 programme.
Creative Schools 2022 welcomes applications from schools and Youthreach centres across the country who would like to join the programme. The deadline has been extended to 17.30, 16 June 2022.
The purpose of Scoileanna Ildánacha/Creative Schools is to support schools and Youthreach centres to put the arts and creativity at the heart of children’s and young people’s lives. Participating schools/centres will take part in a guided journey over two years to develop a Creative Schools Plan unique to each school, and begin to implement it. Key supports offered by this award include up to nine days per year of expert support and advice from a Creative Associate assigned to each school/centre, and a €4,000 grant towards activities and projects arising.
All applications to the Arts Council are made through the Arts Council’s online services system. Schools and Youthreach centres interested in applying to Scoileanna Ildánacha/Creative Schools 2022 can register an account on the Arts Council’s online services system here.
All Department of Education-recognised primary and post-primary schools and Youthreach centres that have not already participated in a previous round of Creative Schools are invited to apply.
Online information clinics for schools and Youthreach centres about how to apply for Creative Schools 2022
The Arts Council will be holding online information clinics in May about the Creative Schools programme and how to apply for 2022. The clinics are for representatives of Primary and Post Primary Schools, Special Schools and Youthreach Centres who are interested in participating in Scoileanna Ildánacha/Creative Schools for the academic years 2022/2023 and 2023/2024.
The online information clinics will take place as follows:
Wednesday 18 May 2022 at 16.00-17.00 – English language – Book a ticket here
Thursday 19 May 2022 at 16.00-17.00 – Irish language – Book a ticket here
The application deadline for Creative Schools has been extended to 17.30 on 16 June 2022. The reason for the new deadline is to facilitate schools at this busy time to complete their applications successfully.
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BLAST Arts in Education Residencies School 2022 Applications Open
BLAST Arts-in-Education Residencies Deadline: 30 September 2022
Minister for Education Norma Foley invites primary and post-primary schools to apply for the arts-in-education initiative, BLAST 2022.
Minister Foley is delighted to confirm that BLAST – Bringing Live Arts to Students and Teachers – will be running in 2022 for the second time. The 2022 programme will enable over 400 new arts-in-education residencies in schools over the course of the year.
The aim of BLAST is to provide pupils in schools all over the country with the time and the space to work with a professional artist on creative, imaginative and fun projects.
These innovative classes are designed and developed between the artist, teacher and the school under the coordination of the Education Support Centres in Ireland (ESCI) network of 21 full-time education support centres.
Minister Foley said:
“I am extremely proud to announce launch BLAST 2022, which builds on the great success of the BLAST 2021 Programme.
“When I launched BLAST last year, I had hoped that it would open up the minds and the hearts of our children by providing new and creative collaborative experiences and opportunities for our children and young people and for our schools. The evidence over the past year has shown that school communities have embraced BLAST beyond our expectations.
“In 2021, BLAST enabled over 480 new arts in education residencies in over 480 schools, ensuring over 12,000 students could benefit from this experience along with teachers and schools. Some of the trained artists available to schools covered topics such as multimedia, fine art, mosaics, stained glass sculpture/animation and performance art.
“BLAST has shown that school is a fantastic environment for children to have new and different experiences, to make new friends, to be creative and importantly to have fun while learning.
“I am delighted also to launch today the new BLAST logo, following a nationwide competition. The winning logo was chosen by a panel of judges including Louis Walsh, and Brenda Dermody of TU Dublin.
“The winning entry is both creative and practical, and does an incredible job of bringing different aspects of the alerts to life, in line with the spirit of BLAST. Well done to Lily Fleming from sixth class in Bunscoil Rinn An Chabhlaigh, Rushbrooke, Cobh, Co Cork.
“Lily will receive a go-pro camera, and their logo has now been adopted as the official logo for the BLAST programme. I hope they enjoy seeing it proudly adorn all BLAST activity in future!”
The winning entry was selected from over 1,411 entries from primary and post-primary schools all over Ireland. 5 runners-up were highly commended by the judges for their entries. All entrants will receive a BLAST certificate.
The runners-up were:
Tayla–Jae Morcombe, Mercy Mounthawk Secondary School, Mouthhawk, Tralee, Co Kerry
Louise Corry Galvin, St. Joseph’s secondary school, Spanish Point, Co Clare
Szymon Krzyzanowski, Wexford CBS, Thomas St, Co Wexford
Grace Hilliard, Coláiste Eoin, Hacketstown, Co Carlow
Julia Bartecka, Holy Family Secondary School, Newbridge Co Kildare
Applications will open on 25 May 2022. The closing date is 30 September 2022.
This initiative will be supported by the ESCI education centre network, Teacher Artist Partnership CPD programme, Arts in Junior Cycle, NAPD Creative Engagement Programme and the Arts in Education Portal.
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Summer CPD for Teachers: Creative Music & Drama in the Classroom with The Ark
The Ark Dates: 4 – 8 July 2022
The Ark are excited to present this really popular engaging arts summer course focusing on the two curriculum areas of Drama and Music.
This is a five day Department of Education and Skills and EPV-approved summer course for teachers.
Working with two outstanding creative practitioners, you will enjoy a week of experiential learning and development. Your confidence and skills in both music and drama will increase through highly participative and inspiring course content.
Using themes drawn from SPHE, English and other subjects, participants will explore a variety of imaginative approaches to integrated curriculum delivery. Teachers of all levels of experience will be able to fully engage in this rich week of professional development.
Course content and highlights will include:
Developing confidence and skills to deliver all aspects of the primary school music and drama curricula
Using music and drama to imaginatively respond to themes and concepts in other subjects
Working in teams and individually to bring themes to life through a range of creative approaches
Vocal development: both musical and dramatic voice use
Imaginative approaches to literacy and empathy, using both music and drama
Applying creative, reflective and evaluative practices used by musicians and theatre practitioners to teachers’ individual professional practices and to school self-evaluation.
Cost – €100/€90 (For ArkEd Members)
Dates & Times – Five day course, 4-8 June @ 10am – 3pm (with breaks) each day
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Cruinniú na nÓg: Save the date! It’s all happening on 11 June!!
The Creative Ireland Programme Date: 11 June 2022
Taking place on Saturday, 11th June, young people can enjoy 450+ free creative events across the country.
Catherine Martin TD, Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, has announced details of Cruinniú na nÓg 2022, a day of free creative activity for young people.
At the launch of Cruinniú na nÓg 2022 at Killruddery House and Gardens in County Wicklow, Minister Martin said:
“Since 2018, Cruinniú na nÓg has become a key date in Ireland’s cultural calendar. It has provided wonderful opportunities for Ireland’s 1.2 million children and young people to try something new like circus skills, animation, perform at live music gigs, explore contemporary dance, showcase new work through youth theatre and so much more. All events are free.
This year the Cruinniú na nÓg team are delighted that most of the events will be live and in person. Alongside the events planned by strategic partners – Dance Ireland, Garageland, Irish Street Arts, Circus and Spectacle Network (ISACS), Nenagh Children’s Film Festival, Youth Theatre Ireland and the Historic Houses of Ireland – the programme has more than 450 events programmed by local authorities in venues around the country. The Cruinniú na nÓg team are so thrilled that the restrictions of the last two years are behind us and that this year everyone can join together to be creative, express themselves and have fun.
Going live Saturday 11th June 2022
The Creative Ireland Programme and its strategic partners have developed a number of creative projects, all planned to go live on Saturday 11th June 2022.
This exciting spread of events include:
Pop-Up Dance is a Dance Ireland project which aims to connect with young people who want to dance. There will be twelve pop-up performances around the country, developed by local youth dance companies to reflect their own communities and experiences.
Garageland is back! And this year they are going live with concerts in Dublin, Meath, Donegal, Waterford, Tipperary, Kerry, Wicklow, Cavan and Monaghan. Running alongside these live concerts will be Galaxyz, a dedicated online TV channel which will live stream the concerts, screen pre-recorded performances and host industry chats.
Irish Street Arts, Circus and Spectacle Network (ISACS) will host open days for young people who want to try their hand at circus skills and street spectacle at their dedicated venues in Cloughjordan, Cork, Dublin and Galway. For those that can’t be there on the day, there will be a full range of online tutorials available and 5,000 juggling balls will be given away so that young people can develop their circus skills at home.
Historic Houses of Ireland invites everyone to four of their gorgeous properties. Activities will include aerial acrobatics at Killruddery House and Gardens in Wicklow and a forest school a Kilmokea House in Wexford. Birr Castle will focus on astronomy and biodiversity and Enniscoe in Mayo will have a full programme of events in their historic gardens.
Nenagh Children’s Film Festival will run from 10-12 June with Crúinniu na nÓg at the heart of it. In an exciting development, the festival will collaborate with Foróige, Digital Animation Production TUS and the National Talent Academy for Animation to encourage young people to create and participate.
Highlights will include screenings of a commissioned animation dedicated to young audiences and 10 film shorts created in participating schools.
Youth Theatre Ireland will host introductory theatre workshops throughout the country.
This is Art 2022: Creative Ireland and RTÉ’s wonderful art competition for young people has returned, and the winning entries will be announced on 11th June 2022.
TG4 with support from the Gaeltacht division of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, will produce Cruthaím 33 which will champion the talents of 33 children and young people from every county in the country as well as a representative of our young diaspora. Also included in the programme will be four films made by transition year students from Gaelscoileanna around the country.
Teacher-Artist Partnership (TAP) Dates: 4 July – 8 July 2022
Teacher-Artist Partnership (TAP) Programme invites teachers to register for their Face-to-Face CPD this summer. The Teacher Artist Partnership Residency programme 2022 – 2023 will be available to eight participating schools in all 21 full-time Education Support Centres. Only schools whose teachers participated in the summer course 2022 will be eligible for a residency.
The Teacher-Artist Partnership (TAP) CPD and Residency Programme is a unique Department of Education led initiative for supporting and enhancing arts and creativity in education in primary schools. It is funded and supported under the Creative Ireland Programme – Creative Youth. The initiative includes CPD Summer Courses and subsequent funded Artist in Residency opportunities in which TAP trained teachers and artists and the children work together in partnership during the following academic year. For more on TAP see: edcentretralee.ie/27-teacher-artist-partnership.html
Dates: 4 July – 8 July 2022
Register on your local full-time Education Support Centre’s website. Find your local Education Support Centre here: esci.ie/
Barnstorm Theatre Company Dates: 10am & 12pm, 25 May – 10 June 2022
Barnstorm Theatre Company are delighted to invite primary schools in Kilkenny to Swansong. This performance is a heartfelt and comic exploration of a once in a lifetime encounter between two strangers. This new play for audiences aged 9+ by Shane O’Reilly playfully and sensitively engages with the mythical notion of the swansong; a final gesture or performance.
Schools attending a performance can book two workshops in their school, a session on visual literacy in advance of the performance and a second workshop on critical analysis in the days following their visit to the theatre. There is limited availability and will be provided on a ‘first-come’ basis. A resource pack will be provided to participating teachers. The pack will provide a focus for exploration and discussion of themes raised through the play. There is a special school group ticket rate of €10 with teachers attending for free.
This video resource explores 4 different questions: Why is the Teacher-Artist relationship important, why is it important to document your projects, what is the value of the arts in the classroom and lastly, what does a child-led process look like? The four videos feature the Teacher – Artist pairs who participated in the TAP Special Initiative Project which took place over 2021.
These videos form part of a wider programme facilitated by Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership. Participants took part in a 5-session online documentation training programme. These in-depth workshops covered topics such as what is creative documentation, digital tools for creative collaboration and documentation, documenting as part of your process, presenting your creative self and work and lastly, editing and curating your work.
The Teacher-Artist pairs also took part in 6 mentoring sessions, choosing a mentor that best suited their project from a curated panel. During these mentoring sessions, the pairs got the chance to delve deep into their practice together, offering a space for reflection. The final element of the Special Initiative will consist of a digital publication sharing the learnings of this documentation training programme.
The Teacher-Artist Partnership (TAP) CPD and Residency Programme is a unique Department of Education led initiative for supporting and enhancing arts and creativity in education in primary schools. It is funded and supported under the Creative Ireland Programme – Creative Youth. The initiative includes CPD Summer Courses and subsequent funded Artist in Residency opportunities in which TAP trained teachers and artists and the children work together in partnership during the following academic year. For more on TAP see: edcentretralee.ie/27-teacher-artist-partnership.html
TAP Face-to-Face 2022 runs from Monday 4th July – Friday 8th July. The Teacher Artist Partnership Residency programme 2022 – 2023 will be available to eight participating schools in all 21 full-time Education Support Centres. Only schools whose teachers participated in the summer course 2022 will be eligible for a residency.
Register on your local full-time Education Support Centre’s website. See link to find your local Education Support Centre https://esci.ie/
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Blog 2 – Marc Mac Lochlainn, Executive Artistic Director of Branar Téatar do Pháistí
Ulysses, Ulysses 2.2
This month in Branar we have been working on adapting Ulysses by James Joyce for children aged 7 to 12. This is a challenging project, but equally rewarding as we get to engage with the amazing text that Joyce wrote 100 years ago. We had to explore ways in which we could adapt that text to make it interesting and suitable for younger audiences.
The MOLI museum, Landmark Productions and ANU Productions created a yearlong celebration of the 100th anniversary of the printing of Ulysses, Ulysses 2.2. They commissioned 18 contemporary artists to respond to various episodes of the book using different art forms.
Obviously, Ulysses wasn’t written for young audiences and there is a lot of content, plots and subplots that are not really suitable for children. But there’s also a lot of magic in it, in its content, language and in the story, one city in one day, the 16th of June 1904.
We made the decision to follow Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom, (the main characters) on their journey through the city during this summer’s day. They are two very different characters; one is sad mostly and thinks in poetry the other happier and thinks in short sharp thoughts. This allows the audience to clearly identify them as we travel through the day switching from character to character.
After reading the book I decided on the images that would best represent the action for each of the episodes, then working alongside my colleague and friend Maeve Clancy, paper artist, we decided on what those images would look like, and Maeve created a pop-up book version of Ulysses. The pop-ups are animated by performer Helen Gregg, who worked with me in the adaptation of the piece.
The pop-up book allows us to create new scenes quickly but also adds an element of magic and an element of surprise that will allow the children to really engage with the story and with the people within that story. There are 39 pop up images and two for each of the of the episodes, none of the pop ups work in the same way so there’s loads of visual content for the children to follow.
The text of the story is delivered brilliantly by Helen Gregg. Michael Chang, our composer, created a score that would complement all these elements. Adrian ferry, sound designer added a sound to the world and together with James Ryan who filmed it and we have created a film version of this pop-up story that will be available to schools nationwide they will be able to watch it and engage with the story and ultimately understand that Ulysses is a story about many many different characters in one city in one day.
The show is an invitation is to children two created their own story of their day on the 16th of June 1922 Bloomsday. All of these stories will be gathered by the MOLI museum and then they will be archived and the children will be able to access their stories online later in this year.
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Job Opportunities with Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership
Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership Deadline: 3 May 2022
Kids’ Own are seeking to appoint an Operations Manager and Project Manager to join their team in Sligo. See details below:
Operations Manager
Kids’ Own is now seeking to appoint an Operations Manager to support the smooth running of all of our operational activities.
Job Description: Reporting directly to the CEO, the Operations Manager’s duties will include, but not be limited to, the following:
Governance Code compliance: Monitoring and supporting updates to, and implementation of, policies and procedures, in line with Charities Governance Code.
Company Secretary duties.
Management and monitoring of operational risk.
Responsible for data storage and management of all company databases.
Top-level administrative and filing duties.
Management of company calendar.
HR supports: Overseeing updates to the company staff handbook, filing of staff contracts and organising relevant training for staff members and associate artists.
Building oversight and maintenance.
Managing stock: Responsible for book storage, postage of book orders and other dissemination initiatives.
Publishing duties: Registering ISBNs, recording titles with Nielsen, sourcing print quotes—in collaboration with CD/CEO.
Some accountancy supports, where required.
Support company development, where required.
Terms: This is a part-time post, 3.5 days p/week. Fixed-term contract of one year, with a view to extension.
Kids’ Own has an exciting opportunity for an experienced individual to lead on the ongoing delivery of our collaborative initiatives with children and young people.
The Project Manager will report to the CEO and will work closely with our small team to support the delivery of our strategic aims through our projects and programmes with children and young people.
Key Responsibilities The project manager’s duties will include, but not be limited to:
Plan and manage a diverse range of projects on an ongoing basis, in line with Kids’ Own strategic objectives.\
Co-ordinate and oversee all practical elements of project management, including:Scheduling planning and review meetings.
Appointing and contracting artists.
Working with partners to identify participant groups; or open recruitment.
Organising project details: dates, venue, materials and documentation methods.
Organising launch events for published outputs.
Issuing consent forms to participants in line with Kids’ Own’s Child Protection Policy.
Ensuring safeguarding procedures are strictly adhered to.
Responsibility for evaluation, and processing of outputs.
Draw on expertise and knowledge to support decision-making in relation to projects.
Work collaboratively with project artists, teachers and partners to ensure the smooth and timely running of projects.
Develop and maintain effective relationships with key partners and funders.
Support grant-writing for project income and submit activity reports to funders.
Manage project budgets, in collaboration with the Creative Director and Finance Officer.
Support marketing and publicity activities related to specific projects.
Terms: This is a part-time post, 3 days p/week. Fixed-term contract of one year, with a view to extension.
Applications:
Candidates are requested to send a detailed CV and cover letter to:
Jo Holmwood, Creative Director of Kids’ Own, jo@kidsown.ie by Tuesday 3rd May at 5pm.
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Opportunity for Teachers & Artists: Online Creative Professional Development with Dance Artist Lisa Cliffe
Class Dance! Dates: 24 & 31 May, 7 & 14 June
Gain skills and confidence in putting dance ideas into practice with the children you work with. Join this new series of online workshops hosted by dance artist and teacher, Lisa Cliffe.
‘Class Dance’ is an online creative professional development programme for primary teachers and practitioners of all forms of dance working with children from ages 6 to 12. Together, participants will explore and share ways of engaging children creatively in dance. Perhaps you have an idea you would like to develop or you are looking for new inspiration? The four sessions are your opportunity to move, gain skills, celebrate creativity through dance and connect with your peers across the country. Working in small groups, participants will discover new approaches and build confidence in planning and delivering creative tasks and dance sessions.
The series is devised and facilitated by experienced dance artist and qualified primary school teacher Lisa Cliffe. Participants need to commit to all four online sessions, 7pm to 8:45pm on Tuesdays: 24th & 31st May, and 7th & 14th June. The closing date for registration of interest is May 19. Please note that places are limited. The research and development of this series of workshops has been funded through the Arts Council of Ireland.
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Join The Ark Team For Teacher’s Afternoon Tea
The Ark Date: 4 May 2022
Calling all primary & preschool teachers! Join The Ark team for a cup of tea and learn more about their classroom resources and our Summer CPD courses.
The Ark are delighted to be able to welcome you back! This will be an informative and relaxed chat with like-minded teachers and the Ark team. There will be a short presentation by The Ark team highlighting the classroom packs and resources available which have been designed to complement the primary school curriculum. You will also get to hear about their exciting Teacher CPD Summer Courses on offer in-person at The Ark this year.
You’ll have plenty of time to chat and catch up with colleagues and The Ark team.
This event is free to attend but we do ask that you register your attendance.
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School workshops: Image-Making-Meaning with artist Claire Halpin
Solstice Arts Centre Dates: Thursday 26 May, 9:30am – 11am or 11:30am – 1pm
Solstice Arts Centre invites 1st – 6th class primary school students to this hands-on workshop which will focus on the contrasting painted artworks in their current exhibition ‘Golden Fleece: 21 Years’. Artist Claire Halpin will begin with a Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) tour of the gallery to engage students in peer-to-peer conversation on the multiple perspectives and themes explored by the exhibiting artists. Students will then have the opportunity to respond and engage in a range of artistic and creative techniques, including 2d and 3d drawing, layering and collage.
This multimedia approach to image making will be inspired by the aspects of everyday urban and domestic environments depicted in the works of Kathy Tynan, the controlled brushwork and cropping of his subject matter seen in Marcel Vidal’s triptych, the atmospheric paintings by Paul Hallahan, focusing on how we relate and interact with nature or the subtle depictions based on gender, class, and identity within Irish history in an artwork by artist Jennifer Trouton.
Curricular links made during this workshop will include oral and visual literacy, visual art appreciation, drawing, collage, colour, history, SESE, SPHE as well as problem solving and collaboration.
Dates: Thursday 26 May, 9:30am – 11am or 11:30am – 1pm
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Architects in Schools Exhibition: Student Response Workshops
National Museum of Ireland – Country Life Dates: 1 May to 30 June 2022
The Irish Architecture Foundation and the National Museum of Ireland invite you to Architects in Schools Exhibition. This is a national exhibition created by Transition Year students, teachers and architects responding to themes of Community, Sustainability and Home.
This exhibition features 2D drawings and 3D models and were made in workshops by young people, in collaboration with architects and teachers. The exhibits are displayed in different locations throughout the Museum. An exhibition map is available to guide you on this exhibition trail. There are a number of objects in the Irish Folklife collection that link to the exhibition themes so keep an eye out for them!
The National Museum of Ireland is facilitating Student Response Workshops in response to the Architects in Schools Exhibition. These school visits are an opportunity for students participating in Architects in Schools to meet each other and share their views and ideas. As part of their visit, they will participate in a workshop facilitated by an architect.
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School Gallery Tours Using Visual Thinking Strategy at Solstice Arts Centre
Solstice Arts Centre Dates: Until 4 June 2022
Solstice Arts Centre invites schools to explore artworks from over 40 artists and craftspeople in their current exhibition, ‘Golden Fleece: 21 Years’, using Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) to expand students’ thoughts on ‘what’s going on in these artworks’. Guided by Deirdre, our learning and engagement coordinator, students will be encouraged to engage in peer to peer discussion, and have the opportunity to focus and reflect on multiple perspectives, enhancing their engagement and enjoyment of learning through art. To conclude, students will learn about the artist or craftsperson who created the works, and may even be inspired to create artworks of their own!
Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) is a research-based teaching methodology VTS encourages oral and visual literacy, problem solving and positive collaborative interactions among peers. Based on the work of cognitive psychologist, Abigail Housen and veteran museum educator Philip Yenawine, VTS supports learner-centred thinking and feeling when looking at art objects.
Date & Time: Continues throughout the exhibition until 4 June 2022, various dates available (duration: 60 mins)
Ages: Primary 2nd – 6th class & Post Primary (all ages)
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Bloom Bloom! Interactive Early Years Dance Workshop
The Ark Date: 14 May 2022
Celebrate the beauty of Spring through this interactive dance workshop with The Ark’s John Coolahan Early Years Artist in Residence Monica Muñoz.
Meet Blossom, she is delighted that finally spring has arrived. Join her in a sensory movement adventure around a spring day: Hopping, skipping around flowers, leaping and jumping over rivers, meeting caterpillars and butterflies and touching the most perfect sky!
This delightful interactive dance workshop invites little ones and their grown-ups to enjoy imagining and moving together. So if you’re a parent, grandparent, uncle, aunty, godparent or carer, come along with a 2 to 4 year old and join in the fun.
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Artist Opportunity: Artist Basic Income Scheme open for applications
Dept of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media Deadline: 12 May 2022
The Dept of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media has launched a new and pioneering pilot scheme to support artists and creative arts workers. The Basic Income for the Arts pilot scheme will examine, over a 3 year period, the impact of a basic income on artists and creative arts workers. Payments of €325 per week will be made to 2,000 eligible artists and creative arts workers who will be selected at random and invited to take part.
The overarching objective of the scheme is to address the earnings instability that can be associated with the intermittent, periodic, and often project-based nature of work in the arts. The scheme will research the impact on artists and creative arts workers creative practice of providing the security of a basic income, thereby reducing income precarity.
Its intention is to research the impact a basic income would have on artists and creatives work patterns by providing the opportunity to focus on their practice, and to minimise the loss of skills from the arts as a result of the pandemic and to contribute to the sectors gradual regrowth post pandemic.
The delivery of the pilot is a key priority for Minister Catherine Martin, Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, to underpin the recovery in the arts and culture sector and provide much needed certainty to the artists and creatives who choose to avail of the pilot scheme.
The pilot scheme will be open to eligible artists and creative arts sector workers.
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Part 2 – Announcing the 2022 Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award Recipients
The Portal Team are delighted to announce the second of the two recipients of the 2022 Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award. We are very excited to be working with each recipient in the coming months to document their projects. These projects will be showcased on the portal as the documentation progresses.
About the recipients…. Project title: ‘Finding the Common Thread’ International Teacher Artist Partnership Project
This project “Finding the Common Thread” is an International Teacher Artist Partnership (I-TAP) residency project between teacher Breeda Kenny and visual artist Vera McEvoy in collaboration with the 6th class pupils of St Kilian’s National School, Mullagh, Co Cavan.
This project will integrate aspects of the SESE Curriculum with the Arts Curriculum. This will be done by developing an innovative way of combining the pupils learning about the local bog environment with learning traditional lace making. This project will reinforce the work covered in the Primary Curriculum in the areas of English, Science, History and Geography. The processes that will be employed will include looking at the heritage of lace-making in the area and learning the particular stitches and techniques synonymous with Carrickmacross Lace. The pupils will be afforded opportunities to design patterns for their lace pieces based on their visit to the bog and their exploration of flora and fauna in this unique environment. Kinaesthetic and enquiry-based approaches will be used throughout the project to encourage critical thinking and innovation but more importantly to develop the pupils’ own individual creativity. The voice of the child will be paramount throughout the project.
The Portal Documentation Award will be an exciting opportunity for the pupils to create a record of their learning journey within the Arts curriculum through the creation of “Bog Books” incorporating sample lace pieces and the pupils own reflections on the process.
Artist: Vera McEvoy
Vera McEvoy is a Kildare based visual artist, educator and graduate of the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. Vera is a multidisciplinary artist working in collaborative and participatory art projects. She aspires to encourage more creativity in all ages, providing opportunities to explore, experiment and create using various art processes, techniques and materials. She is a lecturer in Visual Art Education, Froebel Dept. of Primary and Early Childhood Education, Maynooth University. Since 2019 she has been a member of the Helium Artist panel and a Creative Associate with the Creative Schools programme.
‘My partnership with Breeda has been of great benefit to my professional practice and development and to me personally. I am excited as I look forward to expanding our partnership as part of the Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award,’ Vera. See more of Vera’s work at www.veramcevoy.com
Teacher: Breeda Kenny
Breeda Kenny is Deputy Principal in St Kilian’s N.S., Mullagh, Co.Cavan. She currently teaches 6th Class. She is a graduate from Mary Immaculate College of Education. Breeda has always been interested in the arts, in particular Music. She has been responsible for the delivery of summer courses in this area in Monaghan Education Centre in the past. She has worked with Vera McEvoy since 2016 on the Teacher – Artist Partnership (TAP) course.
Breeda completed a M.Sc in Education and Training in DCU in 2013. The title of her dissertation was “How can I demonstrate the importance of the Creative Arts in my practice as a primary school teacher through the medium of video?” As part of her role as Deputy Principal, she is currently responsible for the development of the creative arts in St Kilian’s.
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2022 Portal Spring Regional Day – Programme Announced
Arts in Education Portal
Date: Saturday, 7th May 2022
The Arts in Education Portal’s regional tour continues this spring with our first in-person event in 2 years! On Saturday, 7th May join us and our hosts at Kildare Education Support Centre for a series of discussions and creative workshops sharing experience and best practice from the sector in the Mid-East.
The programme for the day includes a presentation with artist Penelope Monaghan and Deirdre Rogers, Visual Arts Learning & Engagement Coordinator at Solstice Arts Centre sharing their experience on the recent BLAST project with Stackallen National School, Co.Meath, along with a panel discussion chaired by Jennifer Buggie, Teacher and Teacher-Artist Partnership (TAP) Lead Facilitator exploring the question ‘How do we ensure the voice of the child is heard?’ with panel speakers Dr Triona Stokes from the Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education, Maynooth University; Michelle Furlong, Portal Committee member and Creative Schools Manager with the Arts Council of Ireland and Mark Ball, Theatre-maker and Artistic Director of Super Paua.
In the afternoon join Kildare based photographer Brian Cregan for a hands-on practical session to explore composition, framing, apps and editing techniques to learn and improve photography skills using smartphones and tablets.
The morning discussions will be live streamed to ensure accessibility for those who cannot travel to the event in-person. In the afternoon for those joining us online a virtual creative workshop ‘What is left and what left to lose?’ will explore the Ardee Bog in County Louth and connections to land, place and nature with artist and writer Helen Flanagan on zoom.
Please note: ISL Interpretation will be available at the venue and online.
11:00am — Project Presentation ‘Creative Connections’: Visual Artist, Penelope Monaghan in conversation with Deirdre Rogers, Visual Arts Learning & Engagement Coordinator Solstice Arts Centre sharing their experience on the recent BLAST project with Stackallen National School, Co.Meath
11:45am— Panel Discussion: Dr Triona Stokes, Educator and Drama Practitioner with the Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education , Maynooth University; Michelle Furlong, Teacher and Creative Schools Manager with the Arts Council of Ireland; and theatre-maker, Mark Ball Artistic Director of Super Paua in conversation with Chair Jennifer Buggie, Teacher and Teacher-Artist Partnership Lead Facilitator.
1:00.pm — Q & A: whole panel of presenters
1:15pm —Lunch & networking
2.00pm — Hands-On Creative Workshops
In-person Creative Workshop: ‘Smartphone and Tablet Photography Skills’with photographer Brian Cregan
Virtual Creative Workshop: ‘What is left and what left to lose?’ with artist and writer Helen Flanagan. Separate booking is required for this workshop as capacity is limited – Book here.
Backstage Theatre Date: 11am & 1pm, Friday 20 May 2022
Backstage Theatre invites primary schools to Lúminaria, a theatre show for ages 6+. With an array of wonderful characters played by three amazing actors, colourful puppets and original music, Lúminaria brings the audience on a whimsical journey into the unknown.
There is an emergency in the village of Lúminaria and only Lúna can save them. Join Lúna on an adventure into the sky as she tries to find the light to protect her mother and the villagers from darkness. As Lúna faces her deepest fears, we learn about courage, love and finding light in the darkest of moments.
Writer Fionnuala Gygax & Director Maisie Lee carried out a number of workshops with two local Longford schools in Lúminaria’s development stage, incorporating the childrens’ feedback into this imaginative show.
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Workshops for primary & post-primary schools with Super Paua
Hawk’s Well Theatre Dates: Monday 25 or Tuesday 26 April 2022
Hawk’s Well Theatre is bringing Super Paua to Sligo to deliver three different in-person workshops in local primary and secondary schools. Super Paua is an Irish artist-led collective whose workshop programmes encourage young people to question what they know and how they’ve come to know it, creating space for them to harness their creative ideas and to come together to connect in a new way.
There are three workshops: ARTificial; Is Peace Possible? Zine Workshop; and Getting Lost- Ag Dul Ar Strae – Multilingual/Super Paua Stories Workshops.
ARTificial
This art and science workshop explores artificial intelligence, machine learning and fake news. Using practical, creative, and discussion based activities, Super Paua explore with the young people the impacts that technology and fake news have, and could have on our world and future.
Is Peace Possible? Zine Workshop
In 1957, Kathleen Lonsdale wrote her book Is Peace Possible? Kathleen was a pioneering chemist, crystallographer and activist who was extremely aware of the social and political impacts science can have. In this zine workshop, participants will develop your artistic and storytelling skills to create your own zines based on the question Lonsdale poses in the title of her book. What would peace look like to you? What do young people, scientists, artists and citizens need to engage with to make peace a possibility?
Getting Lost- Ag Dul Ar Strae
In this workshop, you will be playing with idioms and proverbs to create stories together, and to celebrate different languages (Irish, English and the other languages in your class!). Participants will use drama, images and conversation to create imaginative stories from unique poetic phrases in our native languages, chosen by the children. This workshop is based on Lara ar Strae from Scéalta Super Paua, a bilingual podcast for children.
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Blog 1 – Marc Mac Lochlainn, Executive Artistic Director of Branar Téatar do Pháistí
21 years of stories.
We are delighted to be celebrating our 21st year of making work for children this year. We have the great privilege as arts to be allowed to create arts experiences for young citizens aged 0- 12 years. This privilege comes with a great responsibility also, because the day we meet a new audience member could be their first ever experience of the arts and it also could be their last.
Therefore, we must ensure that each and every artistic encounter we have with children is excellent, because we believe every child should have the best childhood possible and that excellent art made especially for them should be part of it.
We insist on calling our audience young citizen because as citizens they have the same rights as adults and therefore are entitled to every opportunity that an adult is entitled to.
“State parties shall respect and promote the right of the child to participate fully in cultural and artistic life and shall encourage the provision of appropriate and equal opportunities for cultural, artistic, recreational and leisure activity.”
The importance of arts and culture for children cannot be understated and it is this belief that is the core of what we do at Branar.
We love stories, and we promise to create stories that children can enjoy. Branar was founded 2 April 2001, with the aim of creating arts experiences for children so that they and their imagination may thrive. Over the years, we have created over 22 shows, working with an ensemble of exceptional artists and creative partners including The Ark, Baboró, NIE (England), Starcatchers (Scotland), and many leading Irish arts centres and festivals.
This year we have also launched Meitheal, our new support initiative for artists creating work for young audiences across the performing arts disciplines. With this initiative, we aim to help independent artists create exciting new work for young audiences.
Over the next few blog posts, we will be giving some behind the scenes sneak peaks into one of the projects the team will be working on in the coming months.
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Part 1 – Announcing the 2022 Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award Recipients
The Portal Team are delighted to announce the first of the two recipients of the 2022 Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award. We are very excited to be working with each recipient in the coming months to document their projects. These projects will be showcased on the portal as the documentation progresses.
About the recipients…. Project Title: ‘Music Makes Me Happy’ BLAST Project
This project began as a Creative Clusters Project between St Brigid’s National School, St Patrick’s Girls National School and St Patrick’s Boys National School in Limerick.
As part of the project, we engaged with the school self- Evaluation process and identified music as an area for improvement in all three schools in the cluster. We agreed that we would like to create more opportunities for our pupils to learn an instrument, listen to live music and perform. We connected with local musical groups such as Comhaltas, The BUG’s ukulele group, St John’s Brass and Reed Band and local musicians. We designed a programme of work for the year to include opportunities for the children to learn ukulele, tin whistle whilst also bringing live musicians to our schools. We also set up after school ukulele clubs for both pupils and staff. This was led by Robert Moloney, a teacher in St Brigid’s National School.
We worked collaboratively to identify a theme for the project. The overarching theme of the project is ‘Music Makes me Happy’. The focus of the project is on participation and enabling as many children as possible to actively engage with the project. Pupils were involved in the early stages of planning through our Student Council.
Pupil voice will be key to the BLAST project. This will be achieved in very real terms with pupils in 5th class composing a Music Makes Me Happy inspired anthem in conjunction with Fiona Linnane, our BLAST composer. A staff ukulele group has also been established between the cluster to ensure the longevity of the project can be sustained through teacher CPD. Wellbeing has been an added bonus with staff being inspired by the project and creating an overall sense of excitement and fun.
Creative Cluster Artists
The Creative Cluster project currently engages with two musicians namely Paula O’Regan, a connection made through Comhaltas and Mike Hogan, a connection made through The BUGS ukulele group. These musicians visit the three schools weekly to teach tin whistle and ukulele.
BLAST Artist: Fiona Linnane
Composer Fiona Linnane will be working with St Brigid’s National School as the association BLAST artist.
Fiona Linnane is a composer based in County Limerick. Fiona is a Teacher – Artist Partnership Programme trained Lead Artist and has been involved in Artist in Schools schemes for almost 20 years. Her workshops are enthusiastic, energetic and fun and aim to give students a new perspective on sound, music and composition.
Fiona was awarded the Limerick City and County Council Individual Arts Bursary in 2018 and 2019, for work in the field of opera and Art song. She is a recipient of the Arts Council of Ireland Music Bursary Award 2020 and has been commissioned by Opera Workshop supported by the Arts Council of Ireland Commissions Award 2020.
Fiona will be working on the composition aspect of the music curriculum with the pupils in Mrs Sinead Nihill’s 5th class to create a ‘Music Makes Me Happy’ inspired anthem. All of the pupils will be incorporated into the composition process in various ways including our ukulele and tin whistle classes as well as our Peace Proms group.
Teacher: Avril Cross
Avril Crosse is a primary school teacher in St Brigid’s National School, Singland, Limerick. She graduated from Mary Immaculate College in 2013 after completing a Bachelor or Education with a specialism in Gaeilge and has recently completed a Masters of Education in Educational Leadership and Management. Avril has always been interested in the creative arts and bringing learning to life; she tries to incorporate fun and playful learning experiences in the classroom including that of music. Avril is part of the staff ukulele group and can play the tin whistle and piano.
BLAST Artist: Chelsea Canavan
Chelsea Canavan is a Limerick based multidisciplinary artist interested in exploring ecological and naturalised belonging. Looking at invasive and naturalised plants as a way to challenge constructed narratives around globalised society within landscapes and nationalism. Chelsea received the Arts Council Agility Award 2021 to explore a practice drawn from kinships with invasive species through hyper-connected thinking similar to that of Anna Tsing, Timothy Morton, and Deleuze and Guarttari’s ‘Rhizome’ theory.
Chelsea is also involved in the Creative Schools Programme, Teacher-Artist Partnership Programme and BLAST Schools’ Project.
Chelsea Canavan will be working with St Patrick’s GNS as their associated BLAST artist.
Teacher & Creative Coordinator: Evelyn Hartigan
Evelyn Hartigan has been a teacher in a primary school setting since 1999. She has a keen interest in the Arts, and feels that exposing children to art in its many genres is a very important part of the curriculum. Currently teaching in SET and use various art forms weekly as a source of well-being for children with additional needs. Evelyn completed the Teacher-Artist Partnership project in 2019 which involved working with an artist where 2nd class learned all about the Ilen ship and signal flags. They designed and created their own flags, one which made it to a school in Madeira and another hangs in Limerick City Hall. Evelyn am currently involved in coordinating on both Creative Cluster and Blast projects at St Patrick’s Girls National School.
Teacher: Clare Farrell
Clare Farrell is the current fifth class teacher and Deputy Principal in St. Patrick’s Girls National School in Limerick. Clare have been teaching there since she graduated in 1999. She have always been interested in Art and using all strands of the art curriculum to enhance and promote, not only, creative thinking and expression in each student but also a love and appreciation for art in the world around us. “Allowing students to experience area of the curriculum permits opportunities for pride in their work, not limited by how well or not they can draw, write, or even complete mathematical equations. Art also allows the students exposure to personal expression and choice in a way that no other subject really does. Freedom of expression of personal choice and acceptance of difference of opinion is activity encouraged and developed in the looking and responding aspect of the curriculum. Having a real artist in the classroom encouraging and inspiring their ideas and work is an opportunity that cannot be underestimated”.
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Events: Schools programme at the Highlanes Gallery
Highlanes Gallery Dates: April – Nov 2022
Highlanes Gallery are offering both primary and post-primary school programmes running from April – November 2022 that engage your students with art & ideas.
The primary school programme involves 4 free sessions where teachers will explore art with your class, looking, thinking and making, focusing on Highlanes’ current exhibitions.
Facilitated by artist Claire Halpin, you and your class will visit Highlanes Gallery in-person in Session 1 to view the exhibition where Claire will use Visual Thinking Strategies methodology to activate reflection and discussion. Session 2 and 3 are practical and involve Claire visiting your classroom where you and your class group will work with ideas and materials liked with the exhibition. Session 4 concludes with a reflection and discussion session back in the gallery and with the other class groups (2) who will also have taken part in the programme.
Recent Acquisitions (Summer)
Wed 11th May Gallery Visit
Wed 18th May Classroom Session
Wed 25th May Classroom Session
Wed 1st June Gallery Feedback Session
Brian Fay – The Most Recent Forever (Winter)
Wed 12th Oct Gallery Visit
Wed 19th Oct Classroom Session
Wed 26th Oct Classroom Session
Wed 9th Nov Gallery Feedback Session
Also on offer are post-primary guided tours of Highlanes’ current exhibition ‘We are here’. This exhibition which was co-curated by a group of artist-art teachers and lecturers continues until 16th April. The guided tours will focus on the Leaving Cert Curriculum and/or other approaches that are of interest to your students.
Dates: April – Nov 2022
Both programmes plus materials are free to teachers and their students. To book your place, or get more information, please email Simon Colfer at info@highlanes.ie
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Opportunity: This is Art! open for entries
RTÉ and Creative Ireland Programme Deadline: 1 May 2022
Calling all artists of all abilities – This Is Art! Competition is back. RTÉ and Creative Ireland Programme are inviting artists aged 18 and under who live anywhere on the island of Ireland to create and submit an original piece of visual art with the theme ‘This Is Extraordinary’.
Snap or scan a digital version of the artwork and upload it, together with a brief artist statement, to an online art gallery where it will be shown for for generations to come.
There are five categories: Age 7 and under, age 8 – 11, age 12 – 15, age 16 – 18 and a group category. A prize fund of more than €10,000 will be awarded across the different categories for further education and art related vouchers. The competition aims to promote artistic practice among young people and encourage and support creativity, originality and self-expression. All visual art disciplines are welcomed.
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Workshop for Professionals with Dance Artist Takeshi Matsumoto
The Ark & Dublin Dance Festival Date: 24 May
Explore how to use your creativity and inspire young audiences with dance artist Takeshi Matsumoto. The Ark and Dublin Dance Festival present a dance workshop for professionals interested in working with young audiences.
Join Takeshi Matsumoto for a workshop exploring a multi-disciplinary practice in working with and making performances for children and young audiences.
Combining contemporary dance, somatics, meditation and dance movement therapy practice, participants are invited to reconnect with their own senses, creativity and playfulness through dancing, drawing, reflecting and sharing.
This workshop is suitable for professional dancers and dance students interested in creating work for young audiences.
National Gallery of Ireland Date: 4-5pm, 11 May 2022
National Gallery of Ireland invites teachers to an online CPD for Teachers: Mindfulness & Art. Join Maria Broderick, gallery tour guide and primary-school teacher, for a practical workshop that will equip you with tools and ideas for including mindfulness in the classroom.
The session will support teachers using the National Gallery of Ireland’s schools resource Art & Mindfulness, and will include peer learning via group work to enable you to develop cross-curricular creative strategies.
This is an online event via Zoom. A link will be sent via email to all ticketholders before the event. Booking closes an hour before the event is scheduled to begin.
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Opportunity for Schools: Creative Clusters Initiative Invite Applications
Creative Clusters Deadline: 13 May 2022
The Minister for Education Norma Foley TD invites primary and post-primary schools across Ireland to apply for Creative Clusters, an initiative taking place as part of Creative Ireland and under the Schools Excellence Fund. The Department of Education’s budget for Creative Clusters in 2022 is €595,000.
Under this scheme to support schools to build capacity in creativity, schools in each cluster will enjoy access to a specialist facilitator, artist or creative expertise in whatever their chosen area of interest or theme might be. These resources will help the schools to build a project of learning and activities tailor-made for their students. As part of this funding allocation, a cluster may receive up to €15,000 funding to help bring their plans and ideas to fruition in 2022-2024.
Minister Foley said:
“This is a wonderful opportunity for schools to work together on a project of their choice. Schools are given complete freedom to design and develop their own project, with support from a local facilitator and their local education centre. I hope that this exciting initiative will help schools to further enhance creativity in their classrooms. It is important that our children are enabled to express themselves and learn to adapt and collaborate. ‘Creative Clusters’ gives students of all ages the opportunity to develop these essential skills, enjoy and explore artistic and creative expression.”
To date, the Creative Clusters initiative has seen schools around the country work together to develop creative projects and collaborate on new ideas based on their local experience and unique perspective. The Schools Excellence Fund of the Department of Education sets out to encourage and recognise excellence and innovation in our schools. This initiative will help deliver on the Creative Youth pillar of Creative Ireland, which sets out a commitment that every child in Ireland has practical access to tuition, experience and participation in music, drama, arts and coding.
Application Deadline: 13 May 2022
Each Creative Cluster will receive grant funding of €3,000 per school over a two-year period to implement their project in the 2022–2024 school years (e.g. a cluster of 3 schools would receive €9,000 over two years while a cluster of 5 schools would receive €15,000 over two years). Clusters will receive 50% of the total grant funding in Year 1, with the second 50% being provided in Year 2. In addition, but separate to the grant funding, all successful clusters are further supported with: A fully paid Creative Cluster Facilitator; paid Teacher Substitution to attend training and meetings; room hire, travel & subsistence.
Schools can apply as part of a cluster which may be an existing network of schools.
A school nearing the end of year 2 of an existing Creative Cluster can reapply to be in a new cluster where the other schools in the new cluster have not participated before.
Schools nearing the end of 2 years with Creative Schools are eligible to apply.
The local Teacher Education Support Centre will have a key role in identifying and supporting a Creative Cluster for their local area.
A total of 21 Creative Clusters will be selected nationally – One successful Creative Cluster per Education Support Centre.
Applications should be sent to the local full-time Teacher Education Support Centre (list at Appendix 1 of Guidelines document on DoE website) or use this link Appendix 1.
Creative Clusters is an initiative of the Department of Education, led by and in partnership with the 21 full-time Teacher Education Centres (Education Support Centres Ireland – ESCI) and funded through the Schools Excellence Fund.
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Launch Event: The Unfinished Book of Poetry 2022
Cork City Libraries and Ó Bhéal Date: Wednesday 4 May 2022
Cork City Libraries and Ó Bhéal are delighted to announce the 18th edition of The Unfinished Book of Poetry (2022) features new poetry from transition-year writers representing five Cork schools. This edition will be launched at Cork City Library, Grand Parade, at 12pm, Wednesday 4th May 2022. All are welcome to attend and listen to these young writers read from their work.
Each year these student writers undergo a series of workshops led by established poets, over nine sessions. The workshops take place between November and March and the book is then launched by the Lord Mayor of Cork each year.
Since 2005 over thirty writers have provided workshops for Transition Year students from over twenty Cork schools, with almost 700 young writers find their way into print. Ó Bhéal has been curating the project since 2012. To find out more about this project, see www.obheal.ie/blog/the-unfinished-book-of-poetry/
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2022 Creative Schools Week: Creativity Lives Here
The Arts Council’s Creative Schools Initiative Date: 9 – 13 May, 2022
Where does wondering happen in schools? When do students explore ‘What if’ questions? How is inspiration and imagination expressed? Creativity is developing and flourishing in all school environments. The Arts Council of Ireland is delighted to announce Creative Schools Week. This week provides a space in the calendar to recognise schools as centres of creativity, highlight those areas where creativity is at work, and give students an opportunity to share their creative exploits.
‘Creativity Lives Here’ is the theme for this year’s celebration. It presents an opportunity for school communities to pause and reflect on where creativity is evident in every class, in every department and in the experience of every student. The week is a time to focus on celebrating this creativity, perhaps adding to the experiences of students in the form of events or workshops and providing a platform to show how creativity lives in each school.
The Creative Schools online programmes from the 2021 celebration provide a great snapshot of creative activities and events in a variety of school settings and age groups. These episodes are available to watch on www.artscouncil.ie/creative-schools/celebration-2021/
Date: 9 – 13 May, 2022
Creative Schools Week is open to every school. Schools will receive a brochure with lots of ideas and ways to become involved in the celebration. Creative Schools will send some updates in the weeks leading up to May 9th with further ideas for activities and information about how your schools can celebrate. To further information or to get involved, please contact creativeschools@artscouncil.ie
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Teachers’ CPD: Explore, Make & Respond with The Ark
The Ark Date: 12 March 2022
The Ark are delighted to announce this CPD workshop for teachers, were you will learn a range of easy, accessible skills which delve into the world of fabrics, textiles and the ways in which you can bring your learning into your classroom.
During this workshop, experienced arts educator and artist Carrie Lynam will discuss the building blocks needed for the delivery of the Fabric & Fibre and Construction strands of the visual arts curriculum. This workshop focuses on understanding the materials and tools needed for success and learning techniques that transfer to a busy classroom.
Often within the hustle and bustle of the classroom, the design process and preparation can become overlooked and focus can often lie on the finished products. This workshop will allow you to take the time to rediscover the importance of design research, experimentation and the creative process.
Attendees will explore the design process, discussing research, gathering stimuli, ideas for open ended experimentation with materials and the planning stages of creating an artwork. In this hands-on workshop participants will create their own unique samples to support in-classroom delivery.
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Date Announced for the Arts in Education Portal Spring Regional Day 2022
Arts in Education Portal Events Date: Saturday, 7th May 2022
The Portal Team is delighted to invite teachers, artists and anyone with an interest in arts in education to save the date and join us for our first in-person event in two years! The Portal Spring Regional Day will take place on Saturday, 7th May 2022 at the Kildare Education Support Centre, showcasing arts in education projects and creative practice in the Mid-East.
We invite regional audiences to connect with us during a series of events, where practitioners can learn more about the Portal and what it offers, tell us about their work, connect with the community at regional level, share practice and find out what opportunities or events are available in their local area. We welcome teachers, artists, arts managers and anyone with an interest in arts in education to join us for this free event.
This event will be live streamed to ensure accessibility and an online creative workshop will be available for our audience joining online.
Stay tuned for the full schedule and booking details which will be announced in the coming weeks. Pre booking will be essential for both in-person and online attendance.
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Event: The Voyage Theatre Workshop with Graffiti
Graffiti Theatre Company Online workshop
Graffiti Theatre Company are delighted to present The Voyage, a new interactive theatre workshop for Primary classes (8+) and their teachers. This participatory well-being workshop offers an opportunity to reflect on the year gone by, and equips students and teachers with skills they may need for future change and transition.
Designed and developed by Graffiti’s Creative Learning team in consultation with educational psychotherapist Marie Delaney, The Voyage offers:
A pre-workshop discussion with a Creative Learning Team Member
Resource activities in preparation for the workshop
An interactive workshop for the class group, delivered online by Graffiti Theatre Creative Learning facilitators
Follow up resources for additional teacher-lead workshops
This workshop has been designed during Covid restrictions to address some of the anxiety and well being issues faced by young people associated with the pandemic. This workshop has been designed to be delivered virtually, and will continue to be offered online when restrictions are lifted.
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Event: Bringing Books To Life workshops for primary schools
Draíocht Dates: 1-31 March 2022
To celebrate 25 years of World Book Day on March 3rd, Draíocht invites primary schools to this fun workshop which brings books to life.
Using themes of well-loved and known fairy-tales as a starting point, these workshops introduce students to the wonderful world of books through imaginative storytelling and fun collective group games. The workshops will explore ways of engaging the imagination, of thinking creatively, seeing, listening and expressing yourself through theatre games. Pupils will work together towards a common goal of creating a short performance based on stories they already know and giving them the opportunity to experience the creation of something from nothing!
The programme is offered on a first come first served basis and is restricted to schools within the Dublin 15 area. Cost per day €120. All materials are provided. Subject to artist availability, this subsidised workshop price is limited to two days per school.
Dates: 1-31 March 2022
Workshops can take place from 1-31 March 2022 on a date of your choosing. Closing date for Bookings is 11 March 2022. For further details please see www.draiocht.ie/whats-on/bringing-books-to-life
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National Print Museum Mini Printer and Storytelling Workshop
National Print Museum Ongoing
The National Print Museum offer a fun and interactive Mini Printer and Storytelling Workshop for pre-school/early Montessori groups. These workshops are most suitable for children aged from 3 – 5 years old.
The workshop takes place in the Museum’s Education Area, which is prepared for the children before their arrival. Children first join a storyteller who, using props and involving the children throughout, will read a fun and engaging story from the Museum’s Junior Library. The aim is that all stories are linked in some way to printing, books, museums or libraries.
Once the storytelling session is complete, children will don a mini apron and using crayons and ink stampers decorate their very own printer’s hat. Children are free to move around the Education Area to choose the items with which to decorate their hat. Once complete children become qualified mini printers!
How to book
The workshop is 45 minutes in duration and can accommodate up to 24 children. There must be a minimum of 10 children in the group and the National Print Museum require at least 1 adult per 4 children visiting. The cost per child is €2.00 and all leaders/ teachers go free. To make a booking for a pre-school visit please see www.nationalprintmuseum.ie/education/schools/preschool/ or contact the Education Officer education@nationalprintmuseum.ie.
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Creative Ireland Programme extended to 2027
Minister Martin announces government decision to extend Creative Ireland, the culture and wellbeing programme that transforms people, places and communities through creativity. Committed to the vision that everyone should have the chance to realise their creative potential to the full, the innovative all-of-government culture and wellbeing programme will be extended, in principle, for five more years until 2027.
In 2017, Creative Ireland was launched as an all-of-government culture and wellbeing programme committed to the vision that every person should have the opportunity to realise their full creative potential. Established as a legacy initiative of the Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme, it is the only programme of its kind in the world.
The founding vision of the programme is that creativity must be at the heart of public policy and that participation in cultural and creative activity promotes the wellbeing of the individual, the community and the nation at large. Creative Ireland collaborates across government and with arts, community and voluntary organisations to deploy creativity as a strategy for wellbeing, social cohesion and economic success.
Alongside its very successful Creative Youth initiative, the programme’s Creative Communities partnership with the 31 local authorities, and their delivery of over 5,700 creative projects to date, has been key to enabling community-led nationwide engagement.
Minister Martin said:
“I warmly welcome the Government’s decision to implement the all-of-government Creative Ireland Programme for another five years, and to work with me in the coming months to develop its framework. This programme has been innovative and effective in delivering the opportunity for people to explore their creative potential. Key initiatives such as Cruinniú na nÓg and Creative Schools have become embedded in the country’s cultural infrastructure. New projects that respond to contemporary social issues such as climate action and loneliness have emerged. With the support of my Cabinet colleagues, I look forward to developing a Creative Ireland Programme that will continue to enhance people’s lives in the coming years.”
The Government’s decision in principle will be for the Creative Ireland Programme to continue for a further five years, encompassing the period 2023-2027, and to focus on the following areas:
I. Creative Youth;
II. Creative Communities;
III. Creative Industries;
IV. Creative Health and Wellbeing; and
V. Creative Climate Action and Sustainability.
It is anticipated that a final framework of Clár Éire Ildánach/Creative Ireland Programme 2023-2027 will be brought to Government for its final agreement in Autumn 2022 prior to its publication, launch and implementation on an all-of-government basis.
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Resource: Mayo County Council’s A Splash of Blue
Mayo County Council Arts Service & Kids’ Own Publishing Primary school resource
A Splash of Blue is a Schools Exhibition and classroom resource available on loan from Mayo County Council Arts Service to primary schools in County Mayo. The artworks in the exhibition are part of the Mayo County Council Collection and are by artists from or living in Mayo, or who had an exhibition in the county.
A Splash of Blue is an initiative of Mayo County Council Arts Service in collaboration with Kids’ Own Publishing and was developed to make the collection accessible to schools and show children how to explore artworks through looking, thinking, talking and responding in creative ways such as art, writing, music and more.
The collection and accompanying resource A Splash of Blue is available now to tour to schools in County Mayo. This booklet is jam packed with children’s thoughts and ideas on how to engage with the artworks in a fun way while they are at your school. So now you can become a creative explorer too and use this booklet to support you on your journey of discovery of the Schools Exhibition.
If you would like your school to become a creative explorer and to use ‘A Splash of Blue’ to support you on your journey of discovery of the Schools Exhibition, simply email mayoarts@mayococo.ie or call 09490 64666 to arrange a tour of the collection to your school.
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Event: We Are Here workshops for primary schools
Solstice Arts Centre Dates: 10:00 – 11:30 & 13:00-14:30, 16 February 2022
Solstice Arts Centre invites 1st – 6th class students to a guided tour and creative workshop using their latest exhibition ‘There is a forest in my backyard but my house is built from trees grown far away’ as a starting point.
Seeing architecture as a collaboration between humans and the environment, as co-organisms, WE ARE HERE will question if the structures we build can mimic how bees form their hives, a tree generates rings with each year, or a forest continually regenerates itself as a home for other organisms. Can a building be alive, breathing, growing, responsive, rather than something static and monumental? And what could this mean for the wellbeing of the people who use them and the wellbeing of our planet?
Following a tour of the exhibition, artist Anne Cradden will lead students through processes of experimentation with raw wood and plant products such as branches and twigs, as well as materials processed from wood and plants such as cardboard, paper, pulp forms, charcoal, MDF, wood chips and hessian. Thinking of building as a continually ongoing process rather than something with a predefined start and a final product, students will see what forms make-up their ideas before considering how humans can best use these structures. This workshop will touch on a broad range of cross-curricular topics including design, construction, mathematics, language, literacy, SESE, sustainability and co-operation.
Dates: 10:00 – 11:30 & 13:00-14:30, 16 February 2022
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Masterclasses: Creativity and Change Deep Dives Spring series 2022
Creativity and Change, Crawford College of Art & Design Various dates
Creativity and Change Deep Dives are an opportunity for inspirational, intensive and in depth creative engagement over two days. Delivered by facilitators with specific expertise and experience, the programme is designed around the identified gaps and expressed interests of practitioners. Each creative workshop is a deep dive into a specific method that can be used to explore change-making, global citizenship and social justice.
These masterclasses explore a wide range of creative methods of storytelling, visual communication, podcasting, street art, drama and more. Masterclasses include:
1. The Story of Self with Clare Mulvany: Craft a compelling leadership story for social change
Sat 12th and Sun 13th of March
Cost €60
2. Visual Facilitation for Global Citizenship Education with Eimear Mc Nally
Sat 26th and Sun 27th March
Cost €60
3. Art + Activism = Artivism with Helen O Keeffe & Claire Coughlan
Sat 2nd and Sun 3rd April
Cost €60
4. Podcasting with Ainle ó Cairealláin from Rebel Matters Podcast
Sat 9th and Sun 10th April
Cost €60
5. Theatre of the Oppressed & Forum Theatre with Julian Boal
(Yes! That Boal!)
Friday 22nd, Saturday 23rd & Sunday 24th April
Cost €150
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Opportunity: Tipperary Artist in Primary School Scheme 2022
Tipperary County Council Arts Office Deadline: Friday 18 February 2022
Applications are now open for Tipperary Arts Office‘s Artist in Primary School Scheme 2022. The scheme provides funding to a professional artist of any discipline to work in a school for 50 hours on a project designed collaboratively between the school and the artist. The scheme provides opportunities for children to access and to engage with an artist and the language of creativity at an early age; and for schools and teachers to work collaboratively across curriculum areas.
Projects funded in 2022 must take place within the following timeframes: March – June 2022 or September–December 2022. This scheme is open to applications from all primary schools in Tipperary. Please note that schools that have been successful in their application for the scheme in 2020 and 2021 are ineligible to apply under the 2022 scheme. Artists must be Garda Vetted by the Arts Office before projects can commence.
The scheme is open to art projects in all art forms including visual arts, music, dance, drama, literature, film, photography, architecture and new media.
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Blog 4 – Dr Francesca La Morgia, Founder and Director of Mother Tongues
Now it’s your turn! Here is a new toolkit to get you started
I am sure that by now, after reading previous blogs, you are ready to embark on a multilingual journey!
In this last blog I would like to share with you some practical tools and ideas that you can use and adapt to your environment.
Multilingualism in your day to day practice
If you are interested in shifting towards a multilingual approach, you will find many ideas for whole school approaches in One school, Many Languages, an interactive repository of resources, from blogs, to lesson plans, videos and podcasts, as well as articles based on the latest research and best practice from around Europe.
As we approach International Mother Language Day, we can all get creative and imagine new ways to celebrate multilingualism with our children and our community. International Mother Language Day is a celebration marked by UNESCO on 21st February to highlight the importance of cultural and linguistic diversity for sustainable societies to foster tolerance and respect for others. All over Ireland, people are now getting ready to mark the day on 21st February, and using this toolkit you can get involved too!
Here is a list of ideas shared by teachers on how to create a special celebration around multilingualism. Of course, these can work any time of the year, and you could turn some of these into regular events!
A storytelling session where parents/grandparents tell stories in their mother tongue
A podcast showcasing everyone’s language
A blog to highlight the importance of International Mother Language Day
An activity to reflect on words that are difficult to pronounce or on the pronunciation of names
An activity around idioms or metaphors from around the world
A child-led survey of languages spoken in the school
Translating school signage in all the languages of the children
A multilingual mural with words in many languages
A video or written piece where children tell a story about their language, where it comes from, facts and figure
I hope that these blogs have brought you to think in a new way about languages and multilingualism!
Read the previous blogs in this commissioned series by Dr Francesca La Morgia here.
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The Chester Beatty Learning Resources for Junior Cycle
Chester Beatty
Online resource
The Chester Beatty Learning and Education Department has collaborated with the Junior Cycle Religious Education Team and co-produced a number of learning resources for the RE curriculum, using artworks from their multi-faith collections as a starting point.
Teachers of the Junior Cycle RE curriculum attended an onsite CPD in March 2020 exploring how to work with the Chester Beatty multi-faith collections. Participants learned about key faiths with an object based handling session (OBL) looking at every day faith-based objects.
The Chester Beatty launched an updated website in December 2021. It features a new School’s page chesterbeatty.ie/learning/schools-page/ including a tailor-made section for the Junior Cycle Religious Education Curriculum. Teachers and students can learn about various aspects of the new curriculum through the incredible Islamic, East Asian and European collections with particular focus on key areas including developing knowledge, understanding, skills, attitudes and values to enable young people to come to an understanding of religion and its relevance to life, relationships, society and the wider world. The course is built around three interconnecting strands: Expressing Beliefs, Exploring Questions and Living our Values.
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Job: Education Officer for The Playhouse Derry-Londonderry
The Playhouse Deadline: 5pm, Thursday 3 February 2022
The Playhouse is seeking an Education Officer. The Education Officer will work with the Head of Engagement and the wider Engagement Team to support learning and participation work in formal and informal settings and in the organisation’s role as an Open College Network Centre.
This is a part time role (2.5 days per week) in which you will help to ensure that The Playhouse develop pathways for people of all ages and abilities to engage in creative learning and participation.
The ideal candidate will be someone passionate about the value of education and motivated by engaging people in the learning that matters to them. You will understand and believe in a cultural democracy, in the value of the arts as part of our everyday lives and as a force for good in the world.
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Opportunity for Schools: Your Gallery at School with the National Gallery of Ireland
The National Gallery of Ireland Deadline: 18 February 2022
Following a successful programme in 2021, the National Gallery of Ireland is delighted to bring art to classrooms across the country again this year with Your Gallery at School, an innovative education initiative.
Your Gallery at Schoolaims to break down the barriers that prevent engagement with the arts through holistic programming that ensures children transition to adulthood equipped with the life-changing benefits of art. They also aim to build in students a sense of ownership of their National Gallery so they have a positive place to turn to in adulthood. Engagement occurs in three key strands: learning through and about art, wellbeing, and creative careers.
Over the course of 2022–23, they will work with schools who would not usually be able to visit the Gallery. Participating schools will be selected via an open application process.
Selected schools will not have visited the Gallery in the past three years and will be from one or more of three key groups:
DEIS schools to address socio-economic barriers to accessing culture.
Boys’ schools to address the gender barrier to accessing culture.
Schools geographically far away (over 2 hours away from Dublin) to address the geographic barrier to accessing culture.
There will be two windows of opportunity for primary and post-primary schools to apply, giving schools the option to choose what time of year suits them best to take part:
Round 1 applications accepted 24 January–18 February 2022 (workshops take place March–October 2022)
Round 2 applications accepted 29 August–15 September 2022 (workshops take place November 2022–June 2023)
The deadline to apply for Round 1 is 18 February 2022.
Or contact Catherine O’Donnell on 087 6436310 or codonnell@ngi.ie
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Event: Science Magic Show for schools
Bell Table Date: 12pm, 23 February 2022
Bell Table invites primary schools to ‘Science Magic Show’. Triple award-winning Irish comedian & scientist, Donal Vaughan, brings his hugely popular science and comedy show to Belltable this February. In Science Magic Show, using only things you find around the house, Donal will perform amazing tricks to show how magical science can be. Want to see a potato rocket launcher? Or conjure dragons breath? How about a vomiting unicorn? Of course you do.
Ticket price per student is €8. Book your school via box office only.
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Opportunity for Schools: Ireland’s National School Photography Awards 2022 Open for Entries
Ireland’s National School Photography Awards Deadline: 12am, 9 May 2022
The INSPA’s are once again open to all Primary Schools in the Republic of Ireland. INSPA is a national children’s photography competition and Positive Primaries Programme which introduces Creative Well-being into the lives of primary schools by engaging with the magic and art of photography.
This year’s theme ‘Me, Myself, and I’ is looking for images that explore ‘Self-Portraits’ in new and imaginative ways. Therefore, INSPA reminds schools that a ‘Self-Portrait’ is not necessarily a ‘Selfie’ and can incorporate many different things such as, objects, activities, and environments.
To help you along the way, INSPA have developed a 5 step Positive Primaries Programme which includes a series of free Creative Wellbeing Activities, all designed by professional artists and qualified mental health first-aiders. These will help you integrate the camera into your school-day and allow the children to explore Creative Wellbeing in their own unique ways. Once you activate your school account, you will be able to upload your school activities, share ideas and engage with other Positive Primaries as they prepare to enter the awards.
The INSPA’s are having a massive impact in classrooms nationwide, helping to boost the well-being of students by simply integrating the camera into your school day. Participating in the awards helps your students increase their Confidence, Resilience, Connection, Kindness and Readiness. It also gives a platform for teachers to creatively explore their wider curriculum, allowing students from all backgrounds to actively engage with subjects in new and exciting ways.
This year, the awards are offering a range of fantastic prizes for the whole school community including; Weekend breaks away to the Amber Springs Resort Hotel, free Instax cameras and printers, Positive Portrait fundraising days, certificates and of course your schools Positive Primaries Flag. All entries will be judged by a national panel including Joe McKeown (INTO President), Enda Bowe (Photographer for Normal People and winner of the Zurich Portrait Prize), Brian O’Doherty (IPPN President), Fiona Foreman (Author and Teacher-Trainer), Majella McAllister (CEO The Museum of Childhood), and Richard Carr (Artist and Founder of INSPA).
Deadline: 12am, 9 May 2022
For more information and to register, see www.inspa.ie
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Event: Wire, Strings & Other Things music performance
Linenhall Arts Centre Date: 10:15am, Tuesday 22 February 2022
Linenhall Arts Centre invites your school to ‘Wire, Strings & Other Things’. This music performance encourages you to always be curious. To listen, respond to and communicate through the sounds, music and stories that are all around you – wherever you are and whoever you are with.
Meet Ed, Andrea and James, three totally different people with one thing in common – they are crazy about music and sound. Anything can happen as they find each other and start to invent music together. What stories will they share when, with your help, they explore the magic and mystery of how to compose, perform and improvise?
Perfect for all primary school classes, Wires, Strings and Other Things links in with the Listening and Responding strand units of the Music curriculum. It fosters a sense of excellence in and appreciation of new music. Through storytelling and composing, this show encourages an awareness and sensitivity to the inter-related elements of music and musical understanding. Experiencing this live music performance means children will see and hear outstanding musicians performing brand new music on a range of instruments including the viola, bass clarinet and improvised musical instruments made from a variety of objects.
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Solstice Arts Centre Present A-do-le-TA! for Primary Schools
Solstice Arts Centre Available Online
Solstice Arts Centre are proud to present A-do-le-TA! This highly imaginative piece shows a day in the life of two friends. Joy and Sky are in a world where everything is possible – a tent can be a crab, an umbrella can be a cloud and the moon can sing! Through play, two friends overcome differences and together imagine, create and expand their reality and yours.
Enjoy a screening of the show in your classroom and continue the fun with their colourful and interactive AdoleTA! Play Packs. Each child/teacher will receive their own Play Pack with a link to a short video to watch after the show, where artist Selma Daniel demonstrates some of the fun activities for you to do. The activities include cutting out, sticking, movement and slow dance, all encouraging children to use their fine and gross motor skills.
The performance is based on the importance of play, especially free play during early childhood. It explores the fine line between the contemporary life, where electronic play has a huge role, and the natural instinctive play deep-rooted in human nature. Although digital media and technology have benefits, excessive use of electronic media can have a negative impact on wellbeing and mental health.
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Opp: Visual Arts Exhibition for Children, Schools and Families at Ballyfermot Library Creative Hub
Dublin City Council & RHA Gallery Deadline: 12pm, 28 January 2022
Dublin City Council, in collaboration with and curated by RHA Gallery, invites submissions for its 3rd Visual Arts Exhibition Commission to be created for children, schools and families, which will be located in an exhibition room in Ballyfermot Library for 8-12 weeks in the Autumn of 2022. Dublin City Creative Hubs initiative, in collaboration with RHA, seeks to commission an engaging Visual Arts Exhibition for children that will stimulate both their curiosity and imagination and meets the following:
1. Provide children (both within and outside of school contexts) with a quality experience of Visual Arts.
2. Take cognisance of the library setting and the location of Ballyfermot.
3. Be appropriately cognisant of the needs, interests, real or imaginative lives of the target age group attending the Visual Arts Exhibition. (The age group identified can be jointly agreed between the Arts Office and the commission recipient(s) but must be under 12 years of age.
4. Be innovative in its approach and utilise the resources of its surroundings to deliver a quality artistic experience to its audience.
5. As part of the award, the successful candidate(s) will be expected to contribute to and help inform an engaging exhibition education and learning programme.
The Visual Art Exhibition Commission Award of €8500 is for research and delivery of commissioned works for exhibition. Technical support for installation will be provided by the RHA Gallery. A separate budget will be allocated for the associated education and learning programme that will take place with Primary School Children and family audiences across the 8 week term of the exhibition. This may involve additional artists as facilitators.
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Masterclass: Bridging Language Barriers and Building Connection
Mother Tongues Date: 10-12:30, Friday 28 January 2022
Mother Tongues is offering an interactive online course ‘Bridging Language Barriers and Building Connection’. In this masterclass, participants will learn about linguistically and culturally responsive strategies that will help them to bridge language barriers and build connections in their work. During the session, participants will get to draft their own language strategy. This course is designed for individuals working in organisations that provide Artistic and Cultural experiences to the public.
Some of the topics covered will include:
– Understanding the types of language and communication barriers and challenges
– Identifying and addressing relevant language and communication barriers
– Building your own inclusive language and communication action plan
Date: 10-12:30, Friday 28 January 2022
About the training:
The course is delivered via Zoom. Participants will take part in group discussions and will be guided through the steps to build their inclusive language and communication plan. All participants receive a certificate of attendance. Cost: €150.
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Opportunity: Three Muses Public Engagement Coordinator
The Hunt Museum
Deadline: 4pm, January 26th 2022
The Hunt Museum are looking for a self-motivated, collaborative and efficient individual to take on the role of Public Engagement Coordinator for the ‘The Three Muses’ Joint Education programme. They will be required to consolidate, innovate and grow the reach and impact of this visual arts programme which engages primary school aged children from across Limerick with collections at the Hunt Museum, Limerick Museum and Limerick City Gallery of Art.
Are you excited by the unlimited potential the pooling of these collections offers for curriculum linked and creative learning with children? If you have excellent project management, facilitation and administration skills and enjoy working in a busy and creative environment, this role might well suit you. This contract is full time and for two years (subject to funding).
The Public Engagement Coordinator role has three key areas of responsibility:
Programme development and coordination including developing new curriculum linked resources (digital and non-digital), coordination and facilitation of blended learning opportunities with Limerick schools.
Partnership Management, including all related administration.
Promotion of the programme, its resources and results including the preparation and circulation of online publicity materials and networking in the community.
The successful candidate will work across the three partner institutions and with primary schools from across Limerick. A priority area is engaging new schools who have not previously participated in the programme. Given the ongoing challenges presented by Covid 19, the successful candidate will be required to find new ways to deliver online and digital engagement with schools. On this basis, applications from those with excellent IT skills and some knowledge of gamification for learning and open-source learning are particularly welcomed.
The Arts in Education Portal editorial team are pleased to invite applications for a documentation award. Through the award, successful applicants will receive services to the value of €5,000 that will support them in the documentation of a current or upcoming project and a €500 stipend.
The purpose of the award is to support the development of documented outcomes from Arts in Education initiatives in Ireland, which can be shared with the arts in education community and give insights into different processes of engagement. This is part of the Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee’s commitment to supporting and recognising the value of documentation and reflection as a key component within arts in education initiatives.
Two awards will be offered through this opportunity.
Outcomes of the documentation process will include: a project video, a project feature to be showcased on the Portal’s Projects/Partnerships, and the option of a critical essay, with a view to also presenting the work as part of the Arts in Education Portal National Day in 2022.
The process will involve meetings with the Portal Team and a schedule of up to 3 visits over the course of the project to capture video and photographic documentation and support reflective processes among participants. These visits and meetings can be conducted virtually if required. The portal team will work closely with the recipients to ensure all restrictions and protocols in terms of COVID 19 are adhered to during the process to ensure safety for all involved.
The portal team will edit and produce a project video, and will liaise closely with the project partners to develop the content for the project feature. The critical essay would be sited in the Portal’s Reading Room, and is optional. The author and focus of the essay can be decided by the project organisers in collaboration with the Portal Team.
Criteria
To be considered for this opportunity, projects must:
Have started in autumn 2021 and continuing into 2022, or taking place in 2022. Please note if selected filming of engagement sessions will take place after 21st March 2022.
Have a minimum duration of 8 weeks.
Involve a professional artist working collaboratively within an educational setting (early years, primary or post-primary).
Be underpinned by a strong ethos of collaboration and a commitment to excellence. Focus on the creative process, with children having an active and collaborative role
Additional criteria
Successful applicants will be asked to ensure that relevant permissions/consent have been sought for documentation of participants.
Please ensure your application has been approved by all project partners prior to submission.
How to make a submission:
Background on who you are; your professional practice and your ethos or approach towards Arts in Education.
An overview of the project – who is involved, how did the collaboration come about, what processes or approaches will take place, what is the aim or focus of the process?
A statement of interest, explaining why documentation supports would be of value to this project.
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Blog 3 – Dr Francesca La Morgia, Founder and Director of Mother Tongues
Building and touring the Interactive Museum of Languages for Young Audiences
There is a widespread belief that multilingualism is rare or special and that the norm is speaking only one language. This is far from true. There are more people in the world who speak more than one language than there are monolinguals.
It is often difficult to explain what it is like to have a language inside your mind that is “speaking to you”, that wants to emerge, but that has to stay silent. For years bilingual children in schools have silenced one of their languages (or more) to focus on the language of instruction, and this is something that will speak to Irish speakers all over the country.
This is what made me want to create a visual representation of multiple languages, which are normally invisible and intangible, but are present in our lives.
While this idea of creating a physical piece to increase visibility of languages and act as a starting point for discussion had been floating in my mind for a long time, but it was only a commission from South Dublin County Council Arts Office for Cruinniú na nOg that sparked my interest in pursuing it further. At the time there were several restrictions associated with Covid19, so a touring museum of languages seemed to be the right way to reach children in schools at a time of severe restrictions.
Creating IMLYA
The artist who was ready for the challenge was Tomasz Madajczak, who understood immediately the scope of the project and the potential impact it could have on all children.
Tomasz named his creation IMLYA, the Interactive Museum of Languages for Young Audiences.
Here you can hear Tomasz sharing a message for the children who are about to explore the museum.
In this video Tomasz talks about the different components of the museum.
Touring IMLYA
The museum started touring in May 2021 and has so far reached thousands of children in different parts of Ireland who have engaged with it in their own school, library or arts centre.
Through a collaboration with Wexford library, IMLYA recently visited children in schools across Wexford county and through the skilled facilitation of artist Fernanda Ferrari children created fantastic multilingual books that were then displayed in Wexford library and exhibited for all children, families and other visitors to enjoy. There is something quite magical about IMLYA, and children are immediately drawn to it, they want to touch it and play with it. There is also a very deep connection that children see in some of the pieces, as they remind them of their parents’ languages, of writing systems they see when they visit their family abroad, of sounds that “sound like home”. As an adult, I also am drawn to IMLYA and I see something new every time I look. There is a video of Tomasz himself telling a story in Polish, a poem by film-maker Jijo Sebastian in Malayalam, a fairytale told by artist Fernanda Ferrari in Brazilian Portuguese… so many people have contributed their knowledge, expertise, words and sounds, that IMLYA carries a very special meaning to me and my hope is that it will continue to inspire children around Ireland to be curious about languages and cultures.
Art Movements is a newly commissioned performance by Inma Pavon that will premiere as part of the First Fortnight Festival. The performance will invite an online audience to participate wherever they may be. If you are sitting in your office, at the kitchen table or in your bedroom, you too can join the artists and students from University College Cork in this unique event. A set of instructions, information on the project and further details on the event will be emailed to all participants.
In Autumn 2021, the Glucksman art museum in UCC invited university students to participate in a project that would result in the commissioning of a new artwork for the University Art Collection. The project saw students work with artist Inma Pavon over a series of workshops designed to explore mental health. Together they creatively examined aspects of wellbeing, recovery, awareness, and the challenges facing people today. The workshops included discussions, talks, field trips and practical movement and creative sessions enabling different conversations to emerge. These conversations and the content of the workshops have influenced the artist to create a performance titled Art Movements which will be premiered as part of the First Fortnight Festival in 2022.
The performance will be accompanied by the creation of a set of photographs and film documentation which will be accessioned into the university art collection before being disseminated widely to facilitate further discussions amongst the university community, and wider national and international audiences.
The Irish Film Institute launches its comprehensive 2021/2022 IFI Schools’ Programme. This year’s programme offers screenings in cinema and also online, on the platform IFI@Schools. Choose from brand new titles for Modern Foreign Languages, prescribed English titles, Irish films, and much more!
The ever-popular Modern Foreign Languages strand, encompassing French, German and Spanish are an invaluable way of promoting language and culture. Included in the 2021/2022 German selection is films Cleo, Zu weit Weg, Das freiwillige Jahr, and Nachtwald which are presented in partnership with the Goethe-Institut Irland. Screenings for the French language selection includes Petit Pays, Gagarine, Man Up!, and Fahim in partnership with the French Cultural Service.
If you can’t get to IFI or one of our partner venues, you can stream the majority of the films on the Schools’ Programme 2021-22 on IFI@Schools. For more information about the streaming platform go to ifi.ie/learn/ifischools-about.
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Artist Opportunity: Baboró’s LEAP Artist Programme
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children
Deadline: 30 January 2022
Calling creators from underrepresented communities who have passion and curiosity for making theatre for young audiences! Applications open now for LEAP!
LEAP is a four day, paid workshop and community-building project open for creatives from underrepresented, ethnically diverse communities or migrant backgrounds. Facilitated by Moonfish Theatre practitioners, the workshop will encourage participants to share and exchange artistic and creative techniques and tools. Participants will play physical theatre and devising games and explore how to create stories using puppetry, multiple languages, music, and movement.
In partnership with Moonfish Theatre and NUI Galway, the LEAP workshop is a pilot programme and part of Baboró’s EDI strategy aiming to strengthen diversity, equity, and inclusion in the TYA sector.
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Opportunity for Artists: Artists’ Virtual Coffee Morning with The Ark
The Ark
Date: 7 January 2022
Join The Ark’s Team for a special January virtual coffee morning focusing on artists’ wellbeing, in partnership with First Fortnight.
At this dark time of year, if you are an artist interested in working with children, grab yourself a soothing hot drink and pop into this relaxed online get-together for informal chats and an opportunity to meet other like-minded artists as well as some of The Ark and First Fortnight teams.
Though life is opening up and live arts are slowly returning, challenges undoubtedly remain. These online coffee mornings have proved supportive for many artists around the country to stay connected over the past while. So The Ark is staying online in order to continue to give artists a chance to connect and meet with others regardless of their location.
The team welcome all artists, whether you are new to work with children or just curious, as well as those of you with more experience working with this unique audience.
Selma Daniel is the guest speaker at this artist’s coffee morning. Selma is an Associate Dance Artist with Solstice Arts Centre and has over 20 years’ experience in dance performance, choreography and education.
This is a free event but advance registration is required.
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Schools Online Workshops with The Ark: Winter Magic
The Ark
Dates: 18 – 28 January 2022
Taking inspiration from The Ark’s Winter Light exhibition and music show Tracks in the Snow, children will celebrate the magic of winter light and the variety of elements that are part of the natural world during this season.
In wintertime, light takes on a different more intriguing dimension. With frost glittering on trees and gardens, with ice forming beautiful designs on water and the moon creating magical shadows on a white landscape our imagination soars and stories unfold. There is so much to look forward to!
This workshop for primary school 1st – 6th classes is based on a simple 3D activity aimed at creating a shadow scene using a selection of white paper. Children can work on an individual piece or in pairs.
Artist Jole Bortoli will introduce the workshop through the projection of a sample of images on the theme of winter art and narrative for the children to work from and create their own artwork.
Curricular Links
This workshop links with the construction strand and drawing strand of the curriculum, allowing children to create imaginative and complex 3D structures from paper. They will explore shape, tone, line and form as they use paper in different ways to manipulate light and shadow.
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The National Arts in Education Portal Virtual Conference 2021 – Round Up
Arts in Education Portal
Earlier in November, over the course of seven days, more than 250 artists, teachers, and arts in education professionals attended our sixth annual National Arts in Education Portal Day, which this year moved online with a series of virtual events.
Over the seven days, the arts in education community came together to share, learn, talk, be inspired and interrogate best practice in the field. We would like to thank all our guest speakers, artists and all who joined us to engage in the conversation.
Connections, the value of community and relationships, critical thinking and the importance of children and young people being comfortable to make mistakes were all key threads in all discussions across the week. Our keynote speaker professor Adele Diamond, Canada Research Chair Professor of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience at UBC in Vancouver noted;
“The different parts of the human being are fundamentally interrelated. Each part (cognitive, spiritual, social, emotional and physical) is affected by and affects the others. The best and most efficient way to foster any one of those is probably to foster all.”
Sound Walk by Patricia Moriarty craeted as part of the creative workshop ‘Exploring the Sound Walk’ from composer Fiona Linnane
Composer Fiona Linnane facilitated a workshop entitled “Exploring the Sound Walk”. Here is the collaborative audio piece created by participants during the workshop.
‘Two Ducks’ by Kathleen. Stop Motion Animation crated as part of the creative workshop ‘Imagine, Play, Shoot’ with artist Ana Colomer.
For those who missed the discussions they will be available to watch back until the end of December on the Arts in Education Portal Facebook page.
Reflections on International Teacher-Artist Partnership (I-TAP-PD) – Presentation Slides
Creative Workshop: When Reality Ends, Imagination Begins – Reference Document
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The 16th Annual Fís Film Project Awards – Winners Announced
Fís Film Project
Best COVID Movie, most powerful Irish language production and more announced at 16th annual FÍS Film Awards.
IRELAND: Lockdown, Irish language movies, outstanding contributions and achievements in filmmaking have been recognised at this year’s FÍS Film Awards. The renowned event which celebrates the moviemaking abilities of primary school students took place virtually earlier this month (19th November). Pupils from across the country tuned in to the online ceremony which was hosted by RTE’s Sinead Kennedy.
Guest of Honour, Minister for Education, Norma Foley, TD spoke at the awards filmed at the Institute of Art, Design & Technology’s (IADT) National Film School, Dún Laoghaire. Hosted jointly by IADT’s FÍS Office in collaboration with the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST TiE). This year’s event was hosted virtually due to COVID, with the ceremony broadcast via www.fisfilmproject.ie. The Aileen MacKeogh Film of the Year Award 2021 went to film titled ‘Son of the Grabber’ made by pupils from St. Hugh’s National School. The County Leitrim 54 pupil, 3 teacher school also received the award for Best Direction for their Irish folklore film. A story, from their parish of Ballinaglera, is about a journey taken in the dead of night and the events surrounding it. It was a unanimous decision by the judging panel to award film of the year to Son of the Grabber.
Some other 2021 winners included:
Gardiner Street Primary School, Dublin – Outstanding Achievement in Filmmaking – Storytelling (Letters from Manresa)
St. Gerard’s Junior School, Co.Wicklow – Award for Best Junior Film (The Party Crasher)
Gaelscoil Shlí, Laois – An Scannán Is Fearr as (Simon & An Sneachta)
Scoil Padraig Naofa Cregmore National School, Co.Galway – Award for Best Covid-19 Film (Covid 19 – 2020 A year of change)
Scoil Riabhach – Award for Curriculum Relevant Films – Science (An Croí)
Shortlisted films throughout Ireland battled it out for the contest with the judging panel shortlisting just 18 films. Counties represented across the award-winning films include Limerick, Donegal, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, Laois, Leitrim, Waterford, Cork, Sligo, Wicklow, Kildare and Tipperary. This year saw a variety of awards up for grabs with accolades for Outstanding Achievement in Film Making for: Costume Design, Sound Track, Adaptation, Special Effects, Best Newcomer, Best Junior, as well as awards for curriculum relevant films that included subject areas such as History, Science and COVID-19. A unique montage of all the award-winning films can be viewed HERE. Each film can be viewed in full at the website fisfilmproject.ie.
The awards ceremony showcased the successes of the FÍS Film Awards project which exposed primary school students and teachers to all aspects of the film-making process. The concept behind FÍS is to help children not only develop essential communication and team working skills, but technological skills to assist them in a digitally driven world. It also aids teachers in developing children’s problem solving and investigative minds and is aligned with the Government’s digital strategy for schools.
This year marked 21 years since the inception of the highly successful FÍS project. To commemorate the occasion, the judging panel introduced a special merit award, to be presented to a school that demonstrated deep learning, imagination, creativity, tenacity and commitment in light of the challenges faced by all schools, pupils and teachers due to the pandemic. The FÍS Film Project 21st Anniversary Special Merit Award went to county Galway school, Scoil Eanna, Ballaun. The school also received the award for Outstanding Achievement in Filmmaking Award for Cinematography for their film ‘Hidden’.
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Early Years Workshop at The Ark: Little Bird & Shadowlands
The Ark Dates: 10.15am & 11.45am, 7 & 14 December 2021
The Ark invites you to two Early Years workshops this December.
Little Bird 10.15am & 11.45am, 7 December
In this workshop you’ll hear the tale of a hungry little Robin who needs your help. Learn how to make a special bird feeder for Robin and his friends to hang in your garden or window box. Further details and booking information here
Shadowlands 10.15am & 11.45am, 14 December 2021
Join artist Jane Groves and play in the light and the dark and all the shadows in between. Learn how to make a lantern to light your way. Create bright shiny stars to join our lonely star, and make the night sky dazzle and twinkle all night. Further details and booking information here.
Tickets cost €11.50/€9.50 per child with 20% off for members. These workshops are suitable for 2 – 4 year olds.
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National Gallery of Ireland Online CPD for Teachers: Portraiture
National Gallery of Ireland Date: 4pm, 2 February 2022
National Gallery of Ireland are delighted to announced their new online CPD workshop for teachers. Join Jennie Taylor, curator of the Zurich Young Portrait Prize, and Catherine O’Donnell, Education Officer, for a practical workshop, equipping you with tools and ideas for including portraiture in the classroom. The session will support teachers using their schools resource What is a Portrait?, and will include peer learning via group work to enable you to develop cross-curricular creative strategies.
Please note that this is an online CPD workshop via Zoom.
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Theatre for Schools: A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
Watergate Theatre Dates: 12pm, 2 December & 7pm, 3 December
‘A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings’ is Gabriel García Márquez’s darkly comic tale, brought to the stage in the Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny. Suitable for children aged 8+, the Watergate Theatre are offering special rates for school audiences.
In a kitchen, in a theatre, two storytellers and their audience find something remarkable — a very old man with enormous wings. The wise neighbour woman tells us he’s an angel. The priest says he’s an imposter. Pilgrims flock to see him, hoping to be healed by him, hoping for a gawp. They leave with something different than what they expected.
Adapted from Gabriel García Márquez’s ‘Un señor muy viejo con unas alas enormes’, Dan Colley and Riverbank Arts Centre bring this classic piece of magical realism to the stage in search of its beautiful, strange, emotional richness.
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Blog 2 – Dr Francesca La Morgia, Founder and Director of Mother Tongues
Exploiting the creative potential of multilingualism
It is widely accepted that if you express yourself through art there is no “right way”, because art is about exploring all creative possibilities, and not necessarily by following a set path. When it comes to language, our unique and incredibly creative form of human expression, we are often brought to believe that the right way is the one that is “conventional” and that we can master this art only by following rules in a very strict way.
In this blog I would like to dispel the myth that in order to engage with languages we need to be experts, and share some reflections based on the ‘Language Explorers’ initiative.
Language is power
As Frantz Fanon stated in Black Skin, White Masks, “A man who has a language consequently possesses the world expressed and implied by that language. What we are getting at becomes plain: mastery of language affords remarkable power.”
Language has always been the repository of cultural traditions, behaviours and beliefs passed down from generation to generation. Most importantly, language has an influence on how we think, how we behave, socialise and reason. Language is power because when we feel that we are not understood, we feel powerless. When we see that our mother tongue is considered less valuable than other languages, we feel inferior.
Language is power because if you possess the linguistic skills of those who have power you are privileged, if you don’t you face discrimination. So how do we shift and revisit this power dynamic?
Who is the expert in the room?
I created ‘Language Explorers‘ to offer children a space to listen to each other’s language stories, to examine the neighbourhood they live in and get to know about languages, sounds and linguistic differences. If I am working with a new group of children, I can’t tell if someone is an Irish speaker and whether the same person can also speak Polish until we get to have that conversation. So, my first step is always based on an initial conversation open to everyone in the group. This often starts with me learning to say each name correctly, a small effort which has always paid off, both with children and parents. The workshops in class vary: we use interactive games, art-making, singing, storytelling, story writing, and more.
The biggest challenge in this work lies in accepting that I don’t know much about other languages, and I have no power to decide what is right or wrong. As described by Phil McCarthy and Annie Asgard in this video, for multilingualism to thrive we need to let children be the experts, and by led by them.
A resource I use is the Mother Tongues podcasts, which carry us straight into the world of multilingual families and offer many points of discussion and reflection. Being in English, they are accessible to all, but they also allow for a short immersion in another language and culture, and the scenarios described will be very familiar to many children. It is quite astonishing to see the reaction of the children when different languages are used or heard in the classroom, and I think this is summed up really clearly in Soraya Sobrevía’s article on her experience.
When talking to older children, I enjoy using George the Poet’s poem Mother Tongue because it goes straight to the heart of the challenge that many young people face. The children’s creative responses to this poem have led us to tears multiple times!
Most of our creative work can become multilingual if we allow languages to emerge from silence. There is no ideal lesson plan, because this is mainly a shift in approach. The task of the person facilitating this work is to accept to be in a state of “not knowing the right answer”, and to make a clear statement that welcomes all languages. It might seem obvious or redundant, but since children are normally not offered this opportunity and sometimes not allowed to use all of their language skills outside of their home, this needs to be a clear statement of intent.
You will need to say that your space welcomes all languages, and to show in your own personal way that you are keen to have multilingual poems and songs, that you would like a bilingual dialogue in your next play, that you will regularly offer a creative space where no language is excluded or marginalised, and where English is not your only priority.
Once you create a space for every language to be unleashed and used as a powerful creative tool, you will notice that children will do the rest, and the change you have brought about will be long lasting.
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Guided Workshops for Schools with VISUAL Carlow: The Corona
VISUAL Carlow Dates: October 2021 – January 2022
The VISUAL Carlow invites primary, post-primary and third-level students to The Corona, an animated documentary film, interactive exhibition and series of guided workshops through the gallery, sharing the experiences of young people in their own voices during lockdown.
The Corona foregrounds the experiences of young people aged 3 – 24 in their own voices. The film shows the experience of lockdown from the perspective of children in early years settings, primary schools, afterschool care, young people from Comhairle na nÓg, early school leavers, third level students and children and young people with disabilities.
Schools can book facilitated, guided workshops through the galleries to view The Corona films, engage in facilitated conversation about their experience of the COVID-19 pandemic and contribute their drawings and reflections to the archive of children’s experiences of the pandemic.
If cost is an issue for your school please contact learning@visualcarlow.ie Schools can also come to the gallery any time during opening hours and do a self-guided free visit to the exhibition. Self-guided tours are free but must be booked through boxoffice@visualcarlow.ie or by calling 059 917 2400.
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Fighting Words: Call Out for Student Submissions
Fighting Words Deadline: 5pm, 22 December 2021
Fighting Words invite submissions from post-primary students for its annual Fighting Words supplement in The Irish Times. They are looking for short pieces of fiction on any theme – as Béarla agus as Gaeilge. Young people may submit one prose submission or two poems for consideration. The maximum word count is 1,500 words.
Fighting Words aim is to help children and young people, and adults who did not have this opportunity as children, to discover and harness the power of their own imaginations and creative writing skills. It is about using the creative practice of writing and storytelling to strengthen children and teenagers – from a wide range of backgrounds – to be resilient, creative and successful shapers of their own lives.
Every year, Fighting Words publishes a magazine of exciting new writing by young people from all over Ireland. While the magazine will be predominantly short fiction, if anyone is working on monologues, scripts, poems, comics etc. they are welcome to be submitted, as are extracts from longer pieces. All work submitted will be considered.
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Online School Gallery Tours using Visual Thinking Strategy at Solstice Arts Centre
Solstice Arts Centre Dates: Various times and dates available
Solstice Arts Centre invites schools to explore 3 artworks in their Surveyor exhibition from the comfort of their own classroom. Their learning and engagement coordinator Deirdre Rogers, will use Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) to expand students thoughts on ‘what’s going on in these artworks’. Encouraging peer to peer discussion, this is an opportunity for students to focus and reflect on multiple perspectives, enhancing engagement and enjoyment of learning through art. Students will learn about the artists who created the works explored in their VTS discussion, and may even be inspired to create artworks of their own!
These online school tours are free of charge. They are suitable for students from 2nd – 6th class and students of all ages at post-primary level. The tour and conversations can take place during an in-person visit to the gallery or over Zoom. Good classroom internet access is required if you prefer to attend through Zoom.
Dates: Various times and dates available, please enquire with you preferred date & time.
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Poetry Ireland Writers in Schools Scheme: School Applications Open
Poetry Ireland Deadline: 5:30pm Friday 31 December 2021
Poetry Ireland are inviting applications from primary and post-primary schools for their Writers in Schools scheme this Autumn 2021. The Writers in Schools scheme part-funds visits by writers and storytellers to primary and post-primary schools in the Republic of Ireland (funded by The Arts Council) and Northern Ireland (funded by Arts Council Northern Ireland).
Writers in Schools visits are available with a range of artists including poets, novelists, storytellers, teen fiction writers, children’s writers and screenwriters. In-person visits are consist of 2–2.5 hours with a selected writer, which can be divided into shorter sessions for different class group. For the duration of the Covid-19 restrictions, Writers in Schools will also be supporting virtual visits by writers. These virtual visits will be one hour in duration and can be split into a maximum of 2 sessions.
Poetry Ireland recommend that schools submit their application as early as possible, as they generally operate on a first-come-first-served basis and unfortunately cannot accommodate every request.
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National Arts in Education Portal Day 2021 – A virtual conference like no other
The 6th annual National Arts in Education Portal Day 2021 is a virtual conference from 15 – 21 November. The National Arts in Education Portal Virtual Conference will welcome hundreds of professionals from across the arts, education, arts in education and creative sector, who will attend various online events to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired and interrogate best practice in the field.
The event represents an important landmark in the calendar for educationalists and arts and creativity in education sector professionals with a shared interest in quality and access to best practice arts provision for children and young people. This year the National Arts in Education Portal Day has once again moved online to ensure accessibly for all audience members as per government guidelines.
The Arts in Education Portal – an initiative of the Arts in Education Charter, a cross-governmental policy launched in early 2013 – is the key national digital resource of arts in education and creative practice in Ireland. This annual event is an extension of the Arts in Education Portal with specially commissioned activities and events that are funded by the Department of Education and supported by the Creative Ireland Programme. This is also part of a wider programme of national initiatives that have been developed as a result of the Arts in Education Charter and form part of the Creative Ireland, Creative Youth Pillar I programme, which was launched by Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar T.D. in December 2017.
There will be a broad range of Creative Workshops delivered by artists and creators, Ana Colomer, Fiona Linnane, Daithí Ó Murchú, Sarah Fitzgibbon and Joanna Parkes. These workshops aim to support artists and teachers to explore new ideas, approaches and techniques to support their own professional development through creative practice. The virtual conference will culminate in a closing event with curator, artist, writer and educator Jennie Guy, who will share her reflections on the week’s events and discussions.
The 2021 National Arts in Education Portal Virtual Conference has been organised by the Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee, who oversee the content management of the Portal on an ongoing basis, in collaboration with the current editors, Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership.
Please note: ISL Interpretation and live captioning will be available for all publicly broadcast events on zoom only booking in advance is required. artsineducationportal.eventbrite.com
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Cork International Film Festival 2021 School’s Programme
Cork International Film Festival Dates: 8 – 11 November 2021
Cork International Film Festival presents five excellent films in this year’s Schools Programme. These specially selected titles are aimed at Leaving Cert students of French, German and Spanish. Presented in association with the Irish Film Institute Education Department, these films will be screened at the Gate Cinemas in Cork, Midleton and Mallow from 8 – 11 November.
Leaving Cert French titles include Gagarine by Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh, suitable for ages 12 and over; and Petit Pays by Eric Barbier, suitable for ages 15 and over. Leaving Cert German titles include Nachtwald by Andre Hörmann, suitable for ages 15 and over; and Cleo by Erik Schmitt for ages 13 and over. For Leaving Cert Spanish students, the Festival will screen Los Lobos by Samuel Kishi, a Mexican film suitable for ages 12 and over. Tickets are €6 per student and accompanying teachers go free.
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The Wintry Life of Plants & Animals – Teacher’s CPD at The Ark
The Ark Date: 10.30am, 6 November
Using The Ark’s Winter Light exhibition as inspiration, artist Liselott Olofsson will lead the group on an exploration of the season of winter through the use of visual arts.
This hands-on workshop delivered live through Zoom will encourage teachers to use art as a tool with their class to investigate, learn and discover seasonal changes in nature during wintertime, giving them tools and techniques to recreate a lesson back in the classroom.
The workshop will focus on the drawing, colour and construction strand of the curriculum, creating a 3D wintry diorama scene that reflects the winter activity of woodland plants and animals.
This is an event aimed at primary school teachers or other educators at the primary level.
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Early Years Workshop at The Ark – Fallen Forest
The Ark Date: 10.15am & 11.45am, 30 November 2021
The Ark invites you to their early years workshop ‘Fallen Forest’ with artist Jane Groves. In the Fallen Forest all the trees have lost their leaves and the branches are bare. But nature is only sleeping: little seeds and big roots are buried deep down within the earth, resting through the cold winter so they’re ready to emerge in spring. Come explore the Fallen Forest with your grown up, discover all the colours and patterns of the forest. Make marks and curious designs with the fallen leaves, create your own squiggly roots and come dig for hidden seed treasure!
Artist Jane Groves loves to connect people, places, and landscapes and specialises in working with young people, inspired by her own observations of nature and informed in part by many children’s lack of interaction with and vocabulary about the natural world.
Tickets cost €11.50/€9.50 per child with 20% off for members. This workshop is suitable for 2 – 4 year olds.
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Blog 1 – Dr Francesca La Morgia, Founder and Director of Mother Tongues
How to create a culturally responsive environment
When my first child started primary school I was very surprised to be invited alongside all the other parents to spend 15 minutes every week in the class to read together in small groups. It was the first time I walked into a classroom of 4 and 5 year olds where more than 10 different languages were spoken. Each parent was very comfortable speaking to their children in Urdu, Arabic, Chinese, French and Italian, and all the children were quickly accustomed to this immersive sound experience.
For years I studied the development of language in the early years, visited homes to test and assess children, but only when I saw my own children growing up in their dual Italian and Irish cultural and linguistic identity I realised the important role the school community would play in developing their confidence in who they are.
This sparked my interest in developing Mother Tongues with the goal of supporting parents and teachers in making the most of the linguistic and cultural diversity that is already present in our children’s lives. Culturally responsive teaching means making an active choice to leverage each child’s cultural capital to benefit everyone’s learning experience. It shifts the populistic narrative of cultural diversity as a challenge and turns children and families into funds of knowledge, with their lived experiences becoming an integral part of the curriculum and informing the teacher’s approach.
As in the classroom, I think a shift in the conversations and approaches to cultural diversity needs to change in our society, with a stronger emphasis on each individual’s lived experiences as unique and valuable in creating the common space we share.
This is why the work of Mother Tongues takes so many forms in order to enact change inside and outside of the classroom.
In this series of blogs I will take you through some key projects developed by Mother Tongues to achieve our mission and vision, to examine how arts in education can be instrumental in building a culturally responsive environment.
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Job Opportunity: Music Generation Development Officer (Kilkenny)
Music Generation Deadline: 12 noon, 8 November 2021
Kilkenny and Carlow Education and Training Board (KCETB) invite applications for the position of Music Generation Development Officer in Kilkenny. This post is a five year fixed term contract. As the lead partner for Kilkenny Local Music Education Partnership, KCETB seeks to employ a Music Generation Development Officer to implement its plans for the provision of performance music education for children and young people in Co. Kilkenny.
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Schools are invited to Branar Téatar do Pháistí How to Catch a Star
Branar Téatar do Pháistí Dates: 29 November – 10 December 2021
Branar, in association with Town Hall Theatre, are delighted to present a new film version of their acclaimed production of How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers. Partnering with 24 venues across Ireland, all schools will have the opportunity to experience this unique and well-loved story.
Based on the beloved book, this film will be available to stream to classrooms throughout the country for a limited period. Schools can book to receive access to the filmed production for a full week and receive access to a dedicated online educational resource pack for pre- and post-engagement.
This adaptation combines an original score by Colm Mac Con Iomaire, puppetry by Grace Kiely and Neasa Ní Chuanaigh, directed by Marc Mac Lochlainn with design by Maeve Clancy. Branar’s signature storytelling creates a show which reminds us all to follow our dreams.
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Opportunity: The Three Muses Education Programme Art In Eduction Practitioners Call Out
The Hunt Museum
Deadline: 22 October 2021
Are you an experienced art in education practitioner with good knowledge of the primary school curriculum and established skills and expertise in ceramics and clay? If yes, you really should check out this exciting opportunity.
The Three Muses Joint Education Programme, which comprises the Hunt Museum, Limerick Museum and Limerick City Gallery of Art, are looking for suitably qualified and experienced individuals or teams to design, trial and evaluate teaching resources for the Clay Through the Ages digital teachers pack which they will also deliver. Teaching resources include lesson plans on Clay Through the Ages objects/artworks and instructional videos which will assist teachers to plan and deliver clay based creative activities in the classroom inspired by Clay Through the Ages collections.
Clay Through the Ages is a new primary schools workshop programme currently being developed by The Three Muses. It will be offered to local schools next year. The digital teachers pack is an important component of this programme because it will be used by teachers to prepare their pupils for participation in the workshop but also to extend its learning potential. In addition, the digital teachers pack should also work as a standalone resource for teachers who are not able to bring their pupils to this workshop but want to deliver a scheme of learning on clay.
“I am delighted to welcome a further 188 schools as our latest Creative Schools – the largest intake of schools in a single year since the establishment of the programme in 2018. This increased intake of schools, in line with the commitment made in the Programme for Government to expand the initiative, will enable even greater numbers of our youngest citizens to discover and develop new skills and talents that enhance their development and growth, and add to the richness of their overall learning experience through increased engagement with cultural creativity.”
Announcing the creation of 21 new Creative Clusters, Minister Foley said:
“Now more than ever, it is important that our students are supported to develop their creativity and given flexibility to express themselves in a variety of exciting new ways. Today I am delighted to announce the 81 schools that are coming together to form 21 new Creative Clusters. I would like to welcome these new schools into this Schools Excellence Fund initiative, and I look forward to seeing how these exciting projects develop over the coming two years. This year has seen a very significant level of interest from schools applying to participate in the 2021 Creative Clusters initiative across the country. I am hoping to increase the number of Creative Clusters in the 2022 intake.
“In addition, the new BLAST initiative I announced earlier this year will also provide opportunities for schools to collaborate with established artists, supporting our children and young people to collaborate and engage in creative and critical thinking – all crucial skills for their futures. Applications for BLAST closed recently and I look forward to finalising the details of this exciting programme in the coming weeks.”
“The Arts Council is thrilled to welcome the wide range of schools and Youthreach centres across the country that are joining the Creative Schools programme for the period 2021-2023. These schools will participate in a guided journey to establish a Creative Schools Plan bespoke to each and every one of them. This creative and democratic process gives primacy to children and young people’s voices in creativity planning in their schools. It supports teachers in their work to embed creativity in the curriculum, and facilitates schools and centres to develop vibrant relationships with the arts and cultural sectors. This will help sustain artistic and creative practice for schools beyond their participation in the programme, and will help ensure that artistic expression is in abundance for years to come throughout the country.”
In addition to Creative Schools and Creative Clusters, the Creative Ireland Programme continues to support a wide range of both school- and community-based initiatives to enable greater participation by children and young people in all forms of creative activities.
Minister Martin added:
“Our ongoing commitment to Creative Schools and Creative Clusters has meant that in just three years almost 1,000 schools have been given the opportunity to engage with arts, culture and creativity in new ways, helping to enrich the learning experience of thousands of children and young people. Together with our continued investment in an array of community-based initiatives and projects, made possible by the Creative Ireland Programme, young people are being provided with evermore opportunities to engage in creative activities – not only as a support to their learning and development, but also for the sheer enjoyment and hopefully to develop a lifelong love of arts, culture and creativity.”
Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership Deadline: 5pm Monday 1 November 2021
Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership seeks an experienced individual to lead on the delivery of their collaborative projects with children from late November 2021 to mid–June 2022. They are a national children’s arts organisation and publishing house, whose mission is to create opportunities for children to collaborate with artists, and to publish and promote the artwork and insights that emerge from these encounters.
The Project Manager will have a base at the office of Kids’ Own Sligo town, but will work both remotely and on-site. Some travel may be required as part of this role. The Project Manager will report to the CEO, and will work closely with our small team to support the delivery of our strategic aims. The role is a full-time post, based on a fixed-term contract to cover maternity leave.
Salary is pro-rata, based on an annual remuneration of €32,000.
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Imagine Arts Festival 20th Anniversary: Highlights for Children & Young People
Imagine Arts Festival Dates: 15 – 24 October 2021 Imagine Arts Festival is a unique celebration of the arts in Waterford City. Now in its 20th year Imagine features live performances, exhibitions and interactive performances for people of all ages, including dance, film, visual art, theatre, spoken word and literature, as well as classical, contemporary and traditional music.
Below are some highlights for children and young people:
Theatre: The Little Robber Girl
18 – 22 October
A limited audio drama series for children with accompanying posted pack, written and directed by Deirdre Dwyer. The school’s ticket includes a digital teacher’s pack with curriculum-related activities. Join Mattie, her little dog Arthur, and her new friend Finn as they go in search of Mattie’s missing Mammy…and return with much more than buried treasure. Let the listening adventure begin!
School’s Ticket – €50 (limited edition; includes a digital teacher’s pack with curriculum-related activities)
Multimedia art: Creative Cluster exhibition 15 – 24 October
Under the theme of ‘Horizons’, five Post-Primary Schools in Waterford, supported by Creative Ireland, have come together to form an innovative ‘creative cluster’ aimed at student participation in the arts. This exhibition will feature creative writing, photography and visual art from the Transition Year students of 2020/2021 of Abbey Community College, Ardscoil na Mara, De La Salle College, Our Lady of Mercy School and St Angela’s Secondary School.
Workshops: Body Percussion workshop for 8 – 10 year olds 23 October
Join Karen from Mini Musos in this FUN and engaging body percussion workshop that uses the body as the instrument to create interesting and creative sounds, through pulse and rhythmic coordination. The workshop will engage memory & sequencing skills as well as promote the use of music as a means of encouraging well-being especially in todays ‘new’ world. By the end of the session the children should be able to perform a short body percussive piece for their friends and families!
Leaflings with Niamh Sharkey and Owen Churcher
24 October
A Field Guide to Leaflings, a family event with former Laureate no nÓg Niamh Sharkey and Owen Churcher. Welcome to the world of Leaflings, the secret guardians of the trees. Among the branches and roots of some of our planet’s most important inhabitants, live the leaflings. These tiny creatures protect trees and help manage their interactions, their cycles and tell their stories.
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Limerick’s Bualadh Bos Children’s Festival 2021 Programme Announced
Bualadh Bos Children’s Festival Dates: 3 – 16 October 2021
Limerick’s only arts festival dedicated to children, all on your doorstep!
Lime Tree Theatre, Belltable are delighted to announce the return of their annual Bualadh Bos Children’s Festival this October. From the 3rd to the 16th of October an exciting programme of live and online events will be presented for families and schools.
The team hope the festival will bring some joy after a very difficult year for children and families. The programme offers a wide variety of events for all age groups, from our smallest citizens right through to our older primary school children.
One of the highlights this year is the Family Day at Belltable on Saturday 9th October to encourage family audiences back into the venue in a safe manner. Best-selling children’s author Dave Rudden will kick off the day with a 40 minute talk, it will no doubt fire up the creative juices of every child attending. Families can also pick up a Modernist Trail map by OpenHouse Limerick and explore the city with fresh eyes for an hour or two. The Bualadh Bos Human Library “drop-in” event will take place in the Belltable Hub throughout the afternoon. Children of all age groups are invited to come with questions about music, dance, writing and illustrations for four professional artists working in these areas every day. Cartoon Saloon’s screening of Wolfwalkers will complete a fantastic family day out. The Belltable Café will feed and water everyone with an appetizing family-friendly menu throughout the day so everyone can stay in the building for the full immersive arts experience.
Outside of the Family Day the festival presents a gorgeous theatre show by Barnstorm Theatre Company Alice and the Wolf, Riverbank Arts Centre presents A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings for families.
For schools they present Glór’s The Wild Atlantic Tales in Belltable and also host streamed events into schools with Music Generation’s Messin’ In The Musical Metaverse, White: The Film and Potato Needs a Bath. One streamed family show to watch out for is Hansel and Gretel complete with songs from Frozen and The Greatest Showman by Verdant Productions. This show is great fun and can be enjoyed from the comfort of your own couch. For the real smallies there is a beautiful show by Anna Newell called I AM BABA and the Bualadh Bos On Tour programme presents a show by Manchán Mangan called Arán agus Im for 5th & 6th class pupils. There is guaranteed something for everyone.
Despite ongoing challenges due to the pandemic the festival team has rallied to present the best possible programme this October. They hope families and schools in Limerick city and county will engage and join in the fun. In order for children to engage all we need is you. The team encourage all grown-ups to have a look at the programme here and book in advance due to limited capacities for many events.
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Irish Architecture Foundation: Open House Junior
Irish Architecture Foundation Dates: 15 – 17 October 2021
Open House Dublin returns from 15-17 October with an exciting mix of over 100 FREE events happening across the city and online! This year the IAF are delighted to bring Open House back on-site, with limited building tours making a triumphant comeback! See the city from a new perspective with Open House outdoor tours by boat, bus or bike! The digital programme allows fans of Open House to bring their festival home, with films, virtual tours, live streamed events, the Open House Journal and Open House Junior events all available to enjoy from the comfort of home.
The Open House Junior programme includes workshops and activities both in person and online for junior enthusiasts. Highlights include:
Architrek: A colourful series of specially designed architecture activity sheets for families, full of observation games, sketching and quizzes that guide you along selected routes around Dublin and Dun Loaghaire.
Building Stories: A competition to build a 3D model of your favourite building! This is a nationwide competition designed for families with children aged 5-12. Entries accepted until 30th October.
Digital Design Challenge: Use your creativity and digital skills to design your very own ‘Social Space’. This is a nationwide design competition for children and young people aged 7-18. Entries accepted until 30th October.
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Baboró’s School Programme: Digital Delegate Pass
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children Dates: 4 – 17 October 2021
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children are delighted to launch their Digital Delegate Pass. With a Digital Delegate Pass you will have access to a variety of talks and online work created by some of the finest makers of children’s art and theatre and a series of talks with artists, sector and academic leaders. For their 25th festival, Baboró will be celebrating the rights of the child with a strand of events and performances dedicated to giving children a platform for their voice to be heard, a space for expression and, of course, a festival experience to be enjoyed with family and friends.
For the duration of the festival, Digital Delegates will have access to:
Six Digital Talks
Exploring ‘Mapping’: a map on the aesthetics of performing arts for early years
Bringing the Rights of the Child into View
Reflecting on RISE and Looking Towards Galway 2020 Legacy
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Job Opportunity Music Generation: Quality Support & Development Manager
Music Generation Deadline: 5pm Tuesday 5 October 2021
Music Generation is seeking to recruit a Quality Support & Development Manager as it builds towards its aim of nationwide expansion by 2022. This is an exciting job opportunity for a skilled professional with expertise in and a demonstrable track record of delivering results and achievement in music, education development and management. Reporting to the Head of Quality, Support and Development, the successful candidate will join a growing team focused on providing strategic support for the implementation of its Quality Strategy with its network of Local Music Education Partnerships.
Music Generation is Ireland’s National Music Education Programme which helps children and young people access performance music education in their local area. Music Generation has been successfully established in 25 cities and counties in Ireland. It has created some 67,000 opportunities for children and young people to engage in music tuition annually.
This position will be offered initially as an 18 month fixed-term contract commencing in January 2022. The Music Generation National Development Office is located in Dublin city centre; this job may be performed onsite or through a hybrid working arrangement.
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Blog 4 – Third Class Pupils, Scoil Mhichil Naofa, Co. Kildare
Mapping Outside
We went outside straight away to do some artwork. Tunde gave us a clipboard with two sheets of paper and explained what to do. Firstly we had to draw a bird’s eye view map of the school yard. Secondly we worked in pairs to use a view finder to find an interesting spot to draw. This was tricky as if you were holding the view finder you had to be still, our yard is quite big so it was hard to choose which area to map.
While we were outside, the portal filming crew called us in pairs to a quiet area to do an interview. We were asked questions like
“What was your favourite part?”
“What do you think art is?”
“What was hard about the artwork?”
“Can you tell us about Tunde?”
The interview’s were fun to do but at first it was a little awkward. It was our first time being interviewed so we were a little nervous but we really enjoyed talking about all the work we did this year.
Plaster
We collected materials outside to use to make prints. We collected things like sticks, leaves, flowers, feathers, twigs, grass ETC to put in. We mixed flour, hot water and cold water to make a plaster mixture. We all had a turn stirring the mixture. We poured the mixture into containers. We placed the materials we gathered outside into the containers and we left them to dry. We wanted this plaster to set and go hard so we could use it as a plate for printing, however, when we came back to class after the weekend, our plaster had stunk up the whole class. Unfortunately our plaster had not worked. We think we may have overfilled the containers or maybe used too much liquid. They never hardened and we couldn’t use them. If we were to try this again, next time we could; make the mixture differently and pour less into the containers, or use clay or plaster of paris instead.
Bridges
Our task was to make a bridge that connected or combined something in nature with something man-made. We were given a few materials to construct our bridges with – blue paper, skewers, straws and masking tape. We worked in small groups to make our bridges. We found it tricky to find a place to make our bridge as we had to find somewhere outside that had nature and man-made items. We enjoyed this activity as the materials were easy to use and we enjoyed being out in the sunshine working with our friends.
Recording our reflections
In class, we made a scrapbook to talk about the lessons we did with Tunde and Ms. Hourigan. We stuck in pictures from our lessons, art we made during our virtual, we wrote recounts about our sessions and we were able to write our thoughts and feelings about art in here also.
By Artur, Sochi, Katie and Renata
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Artist Opportunity: Per Cent for Art Commission, Co. Mayo
St. Mary’s Secondary School, Ballina, Co. Mayo Deadline: 19 November 2021
St. Mary’s Secondary School, Ballina, Co. Mayo, invites proposals for the commission of an Artwork / Artworks to be funded under the Per Cent for Art Scheme in connection with their new school building. Artists / Architects / Designers are invited to tender for the project in a two-stage process.
Proposals are welcome from both individuals and collectives, and from those working across a range of disciplines and a broad scope of creative approaches. The school are interested in physical artwork(s) that integrate into and enhance the public spaces of the school, within the building and / or on the extensive exterior grounds. They welcome proposals that have an interactive and / or engaging element and that are vibrant and innovative in design / approach. They envisage that within the budget, a public art project that results in one or multiple physical artworks may be commissioned by an individual or a collective.
Budget
The value of the commission is €43,500 including VAT and taxes.
Stage One Deadline
Friday November 19th 2021 at 12:00pm
Brief
This is a two-stage open competition. Proposals will be short-listed for development in Stage Two. A fee of €300 will be paid to short-listed artists for further development of their proposal. Please read the brief for further details about the commission, location and school community. The brief, site maps, and a virtual tour of the new building are available on the school website: stmarysballina.ie/Page/New-School-Development/372/Index.html
Site Visit
Wednesday October 13th 2021 at 2:30pm. Places will be limited. Please book your place by Friday October 8th at 12:00pm by contacting the Curator, Yvonne Cullivan, at percentforart@stmarysballina.ie
Deadline for Queries
Friday November 12th 2021 at 12:00pm. All queries should be directed to the Curator.
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Teachers’ CPD: Photography with The National Gallery of Ireland
The National Gallery of Ireland Date: Wednesday 24 November 2021, 4 – 5.30pm
The National Gallery of Ireland is delighted to announce a Teachers’ CPD workshop in photography. Join photographer Brian Cregan and Education Officer Catherine O’Donnell for a practical workshop, equipping you with tools and ideas for photography in the classroom. The session will support teachers using their schools resource Medium, Materiality and Magic: Photography at the Gallery. It will also include peer learning via group work to enable you to develop cross-curricular creative strategies.
The National Gallery of Ireland’s Teachers’ CPD programme is designed to support teaching and learning through and about art, via collaborative networking.
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Opportunity for Schools: Your Gallery at School with the National Gallery of Ireland
The National Gallery of Ireland Deadline: 5pm, 17 Sept 2021
National Gallery of Ireland is thrilled to announce Your Gallery at School, along with the return of lots of new programmes, resources and opportunities, including the return of onsite school visits, digital sessions and teacher CPD. They are inviting post-primary schools to apply to participate in Your Gallery at School, a new holistic outreach programme that brings the Gallery directly to schools. This project builds on the success of the Gallery’s established schools programme and develops new content and partnerships outside of the Gallery walls.
Your Gallery at School aims to break down the barriers that prevent engagement with the arts through holistic programming that ensures children transition to adulthood equipped with the life-changing benefits of art. It also aims to build in students a sense of ownership of the Gallery, giving they a positive place to turn to in adulthood. Engagement occurs in three key strands: learning through and about art, wellbeing, and creative careers.
How to apply
Download and complete the short application form and email it to tours@ngi.ie. Please note that only schools who have not visited the National Gallery of Ireland in the past three years are eligible to apply. They will let you know if your application has been successful by Monday 4 October.
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Arts in Group Facilitation Certificate at Crawford College of Art and Design
Crawford College of Art & Design Deadline extended
The Arts in Group Facilitation Certificate (Level 8, 10 credits) at Crawford College of Art & Design focuses on the practical skills of planning and running creative workshops with groups in a range of non—formal contexts. Participants learn these skills through experiential learning processes, taking part in visual arts, drama, dance and music workshops and reflecting on the experience. The focus is on acknowledging the individual within learning, recognising the importance of play and the need for learning to be engaging. There is a strong emphasis on engaging with diversity and learning to adapt a range of arts approaches to meet the varying needs within a group.
The programme will be delivered through blended learning, involving face to face experiential learning and online learning. The face to face learning is being designed to maximise the potential of creative learning in outdoor environments. Crawford College of Art & Design are adapting to Covid—19 restriction and see the potential of learning in outdoor environments for participants in the programme and for those participants may work with in the future. They are inviting participants to join them with a bicycle to access outdoor learning environments.
The course will provide skills face to face in working in physical workshops, classes, centres as well as facilitation creative engagement online.
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Culture Night 2021: Events for Children & Young People
Culture Night Date: Friday 17 September 2021
The sixteenth edition of Culture Night will take place on Friday 17 September 2021. Culture Night / Oíche Chultúir celebrates all that makes up the richness and diversity of culture in Ireland today, connecting people to cultural activities locally and nationally and aims to open up pathways to ongoing engagement. Doors are opened late and special and unique events are specifically programmed at participating locations. All activities are free of charge, thanks to the continued support of the Arts Council and Local Authorities across the island of Ireland.
Here are a selection of family friendly events taking place for Culture Night:
Cork: Pitch’d Circus and Street Arts Festival
Time: 6pm – 10pm
The event is a space for friends to catch up, stand awestruck at acrobats flipping and tumbling, or even a place to scratch your head at some silly walkabout characters. Features pop-up performances of Tumble Circus’ “Cycle Circus” and Tom Campbell’s “Rubbish Performance”.
Dublin Interactive Museum of Languages for Children
Time: 4pm – 8pm
Visit Mother Tongues’ touring Interactive Museum of Languages for Young Audiences in Rua Red. Since 2017, Mother Languages has promoted multilingualism in Ireland. Through artwork, sculptures, and spaces, the exhibit creatively encourages children to interact with different letters and alphabets across languages. This fun, immersive experience promotes both creativity and linguistic/cultural diversity.
Online Sundown Circus
Event Times: 7.30, 9.30, 10.30
Erebidae Circus preforms an intimate and enchanting circus show with Irish mythology, original music, fire dancing and aerial circus spectacle. They will have three special online performances about three ancient fires: The Fire of the Hearth, The Fire of the Forge, and The Fire of Inspiration.
Zoom Book Clinic with Children’s Books Ireland and Hodges Figgis
Time: 4pm – 6pm
Are you a young reader? Looking for a new series to delve into? Feeling uninspired by your bookshelves at home? Then pop into the virtual Children’s Books Ireland Book Clinic with Hodges Figgis! Chat to the Book Doctor, consult on your favourite reads and leave with a prescription for your next book, as well as a 10% off book voucher.
Live Online Workshop for Teens: Kabuki Actors
Time: 6pm – 7pm
Inspired by the Kabuki theatre, join the Chester Beatty Library and create your very own puppet dressed to dance and entertain. Bring your theatrical creature to life with glamorous costume and heavy make-up of the Kabuki world.
Date: Friday 17 September 2021
See culturenight.ie for more information on events and activities in your local area.
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National Arts in Education Portal Virtual Conference 2021 – Guest Speaker
We are delighted to announce the dates of the sixth annual National Arts in Education Portal Day. This year, it will be moving online with a series of virtual events taking place over a week in November – Monday 15th to Sunday 21st.
The Portal Team are excited to welcome guest speaker Professor Adele Diamond, Canada Research Chair Professor of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience at The University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Professor Adele Diamond will open the conference on Monday 15th November.
Adele Diamond is the Canada Research Chair Professor of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience at UBC in Vancouver.
Professor Diamond’s specialty is executive functions (e.g., self-control, problem-solving, mentally playing with ideas, thinking outside the box). She offers a markedly different perspective from traditional medical practice in hypothesizing that treating physical health, without also addressing social and emotional health is less efficient or effective. Adele offers a markedly different perspective from mainstream education in hypothesizing that focusing exclusively on training cognitive skills is less efficient, and ultimately less successful, than also addressing emotional, social, spiritual, and physical needs. She has championed the roles of music, dance, storytelling, and play in improving executive functions and academic and mental health outcomes. When not working, Adele loves to be with her 4-year-old granddaughter and to hike, play tennis, and especially dance.
View Dr. Diamond’s TEDx talk on the power of Executive Function and its impact on learning below:
The full line-up of the conference will be announced shortly. It includes a series of ‘in-conversation’ sessions with artists, teachers and practitioners from across the sector, bringing discussion and critical thinking to a range of topics. It also features series of online processed based creative workshops and a closing event.
These events bring together members of the arts in education community from all across Ireland, to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired, and continue interrogating best practice in the field.
Full programme details for the day will be announced shortly. For enquiries please contact events@artsineducation.ie.
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Call Out: Art Facilitators for Frameworks, Cork Art Collection in Schools Scheme
Cork County Library and Arts Service Deadline: Midnight 29 August 2021
Cork County Library and Arts Service is inviting visual artists, designers and craftspeople to apply for role of facilitators for Frameworks, its 2021 – 2022 Art Collection in Schools Scheme. Six primary schools across County Cork will be participating in the scheme.
The purpose of Frameworks is to:
Make visual art available for primary school children to view and engage with in their own schools.
Foster a sense of appreciation and understanding for visual art.
Support the primary school curriculum.
Provide the school with the opportunity to engage with a visual artist, designer or craftsperson.
Cork County Council has a substantial collection of visual art. This civic collection includes works in various media including, painting, drawing, print, photography, video and small scale 3—dimensional work. These artworks were created by emerging and established artists, many of who are living and working in Cork county.
Facilitators will engage with a primary school class for four 2-hour sessions, working with five artworks from the Cork County Collection as their starting point. The artworks will be installed in schools for the academic year 2021— 2022. The art facilitators will create and deliver an engagement plan specific to the artworks and context of the class. This plan should take into consideration the age of the class and other contexts such as geographic, historic or environmental factors.
Deadline: Midnight 29 August 2021
Artists will be paid a fee for these engagements, plus travel costs. A materials budget will be made available to each participating
school.
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The Ark & Dublin Theatre Festival Present ‘What Did I Miss?’
The Ark and Dublin Theatre Festival Dates: 1 – 10 October, 2021
The Ark and Dublin Theatre Festival present a new show by The Ark Artist-in-Residence, Shaun Dunne. This children’s theatre piece offers a window into one child’s experience of the first lockdown of 2020.
Kyla is throwing a party on her street. Not just any party. It’s a graduation ceremony. It’ll be mad to see the kids from her old class again after so long. Summer 2020 was literally endless.
Now that they’re all in first year, Kyla wants to get the old gang back together. She’s made caps, she has gowns, and she’s even prepared a speech. But there’s one visitor she’s not expecting…
As Kyla attempts to mark an important milestone in her young life, can she and her mother learn to understand each other and bridge the divide left by lockdown?
Informed by collaborative work with The Ark Children’s Council and featuring choreography by the multi-award winning Junk Ensemble, What Did I Miss? is a story of both childhood and parenthood, about growing up, no matter what age you are.
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Education Advisor Role with Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership
Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership Deadline: Friday 3 September, 2021
Kids’ Own is seeking an Education Advisor to develop and expand their links with teachers, schools, and academics in teaching and learning over a nine-month period from October 2021. The Education Advisor is a brand new fixed-term role that aims to support Kids’ Own by building new audiences through outreach to schools. The Advisor will also build on the increased interest of teachers, academics, and educational bodies in their work. They will develop new connections with all of the above to ensure Kids’ Own’s work remains linked with sectoral developments.
The Education Advisor will primarily:
1) build links between Kids’ Own and schools, teachers, and teacher training colleges
2) conduct focus groups to understand the links between our books and the current and incoming primary school curriculum
3) make connections with governmental educational bodies
4) advocate for the use of Kids’ Own books within the classroom to demonstrate the value of greater representation of children’s voices and lived experience within the curriculum and the books children encounter in school.
Qualifications and experience needed:
A strong interest in arts in education
A qualification in education or equivalent experience
Up-to-date knowledge of primary education in Ireland
Experience of working with schools, teachers, and primary school student groups
Experience with self-directed projects
Full, clean driving license and access to own transport
Interest in and strong commitment to advocating for children’s voices and rights. Previous experience in this area would be desirable.
Deadline: Friday 3rd September, 2021
To apply, please send a detailed cover letter expressing your interest and suitability for the role, along with a CV to staff@kidsown.ie. Please include a document that outlines ideas you have for how you may approach this role. This should include a breakdown of costings according to the fee that is being offered. There is a set fee of €10,000 offered for this role to take place between October 2021 and July 2022. This is primarily to cover the Education Advisor’s fee, but must also cover any other anticipated expenses, e.g. travel costs, materials etc.
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Dublin Fringe Festival: Theatre Events For Children & Young People
Dublin Fringe Festival 11-26 September
The Dublin Fringe Festival takes place this September with live events in venues across Dublin and online nationwide. Their programme features an outdoor visual art in Dublin 8 and secret locations city-wide, as well as live open-air performances at Dublin Castle and Grand Canal Dock. They will be hosting music and comedy gigs back in beloved venues. Whilst bringing cutting edge interdisciplinary performances to stages in The Abbey Theatre, Project Arts Centre, Smock Alley, Chapel Royal and Draíocht Blanchardstown – as well as events online.
Some of the highlights for children and young people include:
Dublin 8, Yer Lookin’ Great 11-26 September Free
Emmalene Blake is an internationally recognised street artist based in Dublin. This September, she will create a new mural on Swift’s Alley, inspired by the ideas of children from that neighbourhood. Cities change and grow to suit the people who live in them. The artist asked children from local schools to tell her what makes Dublin 8 great. Children also shared the positive changes in the area that have made life better for them and their friends.
The Veiled Ones Dates: 7pm on 10, 11, 12 & 13 Sept; 4pm on 10 & 13 Sept; 12 noon on 11 & 12 Sept Tickets: €12/€8
Junk Ensemble present a dance theatre production for young audiences. This show explores witches, transformations and the powerful relationship between a grandparent and grandchild. The audience are invited on an intriguing journey through intricately designed rooms with a cast of internationally acclaimed dancers, young performers and live musicians.
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Blog 3 – Third Class Pupils, Scoil Mhichil Naofa, Co. Kildare
Making Plates
We looked at different types of leaves common to Ireland on the board. We chose a leaf we liked and drew it on a card. We had to make sure that they were bigger than our hand.
We stuck foam and corrugated cardboard onto our leaf. We had to make sure that none of the pieces were touching as we wanted mosaic design. This leaf would become a plate for printing. We used a screw to dot texture onto our leaves by leaving marks in the foam.
We used view finders to find an interesting view in our nature booklets. We drew what we seen in our view finder on to a piece of card and we enlarged it. After this Tunde called us up one by one to choose materials to stick onto our picture. Some of the materials used were wool, foam, string, piece of a woolly jumper, thread, netted paper, hessian, lace, matchsticks, grease proof paper and many other things. Next we used PVA glue to stick our materials to the plate.
Printing
Our first printing session happened during our first day filming for the Arts in Education Portal as a part of the documentation award. We were very nervous at first but we soon grew confidence and we can’t wait to see ourselves on the video! Here’s what we did!
We used acetate, a roller, red yellow and blue block print ink to make orange on our acetate. We rolled the ink onto the leaf. We got another sheet of paper and placed it on the leaf plate. We gently rubbed the back of the paper in a circular motion to make sure the print transferred. We carefully removed the page and then ta-dah! Like magic, the print has appeared on the page.
We repeated this three times on white, green, and blue paper. We repeated this process using yellow and blue ink on our second plate (nature plate) to make two more prints. We hung our prints on a clothes line in the classroom to draw. It took our prints around a week to dry and our plates are still inky a month later.
We drew a leaf onto green or yellow paper and cut it out. We folded the leaf into quarters and we cut out three triangles on each edge. We opened our leaf to find a diamond pattern inside. We used blu tack to stick our leaves onto a massive, long piece of card. We used pouches made from hessian, cloth and thread, bubble wrap and Styrofoam sponges to create prints on the card using block ink.
Everyone in the class worked on this piece together. This was our teacher’s favourite piece that we made because everyone worked together. We left our piece to dry over the weekend, and when it was dry we removed it the leaves and we were amazed to discover the blank spaces they had left behind.
We really enjoyed using the printing ink and rollers. We liked the way we were able to use plates that we had made ourselves in previous sessions. It was great to have lots of artwork made from the same plate. We enjoyed removing the page from the plate as it was very satisfying to watch the ink appearing on the page.
By Seán, Pippa, Tyra and Ryan
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Announcing the 25th Baboró International Arts Festival for Children
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children October 4 — 17, 2021
For their 25th Arts Festival for Children, Baboró will be celebrating the rights of the child, inspired by the UN Convention on the Rights of The Child. The arts festival will have strands of events and performances dedicated to giving children a platform for their voice to be heard, a space for expression and, of course, a festival experience to be enjoyed with family and friends.
Two Baboró commissions, a co-commission and a touring exhibition, will be central to these celebrations and part of the festival programme in October. The full programme and box office will be announced at the end of August.
Artists, teachers, academics and arts education professionals… Do you want to be part of the sixth annual National Arts in Education Portal Day Conference?
The sixth National Arts in Education Portal Day will move online again this year with a series of virtual events taking place across a week in November. The conference aims to bring together members of the arts in education and creative practice community from all across Ireland, to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired and continue interrogating best practice in the field.
The Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee invites proposals from organisations or individuals who want to share practical approaches, new skills, new insights, open conversation and offer critical thinking from across the field.
This year, the Portal Committee is looking for the following:
‘In Conversation’ Series
Submissions for ‘in conversation’ style online sessions. We invite proposals that seek to explore or interrogate particular aspects of arts-in-education practice and/or that unpick common terminologies through a practice-based lens:
i.e. What do we really mean when we talk about ‘collaboration’?
How do we measure or understand ‘high-quality’?
What does listening to, or giving a platform to, the child’s voice really mean?
What does a child-led process look like?
Where does arts-in-education practice fall short? Who is left behind?
Proposals should clearly demonstrate an innovative approach to online delivery, ideally with dynamic presentation methods which stimulate audience conversation. Please note the committee will be selecting two ‘in conversation’ sessions for the conference.
Creative Workshop Series
Submissions for the facilitation of two online creative workshops over two days (one per day). The workshops should be focused and process-based, aiming to support both artists and teachers to explore new ideas, approaches or techniques to support their own professional development through creative practice.
The workshops will take place over a weekend (Saturday & Sunday) with the delivery of two 90 minute sessions with the same group of participants.
Creative Workshop ‘Sensing to Action’ with artist Kate Wilson as part of the 2020 National Arts in Education Portal Day Virtual Conference
Would like to be included in the programme for this day? If so, please send us your proposal.
Please ensure your proposal includes the following:
Detailed background on presenters and professional experience in the sector;
Some visual examples of work (no more than 5) relevant to the proposal;
Outline of why you think this presentation/workshop is important to bring to the arts-in-education community.
Practical details of how the presentation/workshop will be delivered in the online context.
The Committee will prioritise submissions from people from diverse communities, including but not limited to people of colour, those from ethnic minority backgrounds, migrant communities and those with disabilities.
The deadline for submission of proposals is 5pm Friday 27th August 2021.
National Portal Day Virtual Conference Proposal Form 2021
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New MA in Arts and Engagement at Crawford College of Art and Design
Crawford College of Art and Design
Extending the artist’s practice, grounding it in a social context. Looking at engagement through the intersection between the senses, society and the arts.
Crawford College of Art and Design CIT are delighted to announce a new Masters in Arts and Engagement. A 2 year part time course that prepares graduates to develop a professional practice in arts rich engagement with individual, group, and broader societal contexts. Participants on this Masters programme will develop an understanding of the role of the arts within learning, changemaking and the development of culture.
Employment Opportunities:
Arts in Health/Social Care programmes
Arts programming Production Manager/Developer
Outreach Education programmes
Artist Engaged in Community Issues
Professional Artist
Gallery/Museum Education
Youth work
Community Education
Second Chance Learning
Community Development Officer
MA Arts and Engagement
The course will run part-time, one day a week, plus 2 day block monthly for elective module. Applications are welcomed from graduates of arts (visual arts/theatre or music) or social sciences interested in:
Developing their own arts practice in relation to others
Developing arts-based processes to incorporate into existing work place
Developing arts engagement facilitation skills
This Masters programme builds on a number of existing Special Purpose Awards all centred on learning through expressive meaning-making: Arts based facilitation training, creativity and change-making and art therapy. These programmes educate through and activate different modes of communication, promote learning through experiential and reflective practice, and engage with other perspectives and diverse intelligences.
Participants on the Masters will develop an understanding of the role of the arts within learning and engagement and will develop the skills to apply this to a range of contexts. Core modules over the two-year programme relate to the arts in engaged practices which recognise neurodiversity, equality, social justice, power and autonomy. Through research, reflection, group and practical work participants will explore different ways of learning, investigating the transformational power of the arts in personal and societal regulation through a broad scope of contemporary methodologies.
Through elective modules in year one, opportunities will be provided to broaden skill sets through Socially Engaged Theatre, Eco-Arts Practice or Art Therapy. In the second year, opportunity will be given for students to develop their ongoing arts practice informed by, and in relation to, one of two strands of engagement – Health & Wellbeing or Global Citizenship.
Duration: Part time over two years (1 day a week + 2-day block monthly for elective module) Course Fee: EU Applicants: €6,000
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Online resource: The Glucksman’s Free Art Toolkit for Primary & Post-Primary Schools
The Glucksman Free online art toolkits
The Glucksman has released a series of online art toolkits suitable for primary and secondary students. Organised around key themes, their free art toolkits enable you to explore works in the UCC Art Collection. Whether you are an educator, activist, student or individual art lover, these online toolkits are full of ideas and information to support you and your community.
The toolkits focus on the work of Irish artists Fiona Kelly, Deirdre Breen and The Project Twins. Fiona Kelly’s work has a strong environmental interest and
focuses on ideas of urban sprawl and its impact on the Irish landscape and its traditions. Deirdre Breen is a printmaker and designer who makes screen
prints characterized by flat abstract motifs and geometric compositions. The Project Twins, a Cork based collaborative art duo, create bold and playful graphics which explore ideas of absurdity, identity and the mundane.
Based in Cork, The Glucksman is a leading museum nationally and internationally for creative learning and access to the visual arts. For more information about the toolkit, get email education@glucksman.org.
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Online Exhibition: Ireland’s National School Photography Awards 2021
Ireland’s National School Photography Awards Finalist Mini Expo now online
Ireland’s National School Photography Awards (INSPA) are delighted to launch their Finalist Mini-Expo online. The theme for this year’s National School Photography Awards was Accessible Places | Safer Spaces. A national panel of judges have made the selections from a wide range of entries from primary schools around Ireland. The exhibition is open until October 2021 at INSPA’s online gallery.
The INSPA team would like to take this opportunity to congratulate every primary school who participated in the 2020/21 National School Photography Awards. Through photography, INSPA introduces creative wellbeing into the lives of primary schools, while building a future generation of people who are confident, resilient, connected, kind and ready. This programme provides an inclusive model for children of all backgrounds and abilities to get involved.
The awards are free and offer a range of fantastic prizes including experiences at the Amber Springs Hotel for principals, teachers, pupils and families, cameras for winners and schools, framed photographs, certificates, photo fundraising days and national recognition as a Positive Primary School. To date, INSPA has seen over 450 primary schools register and take their first step on their Positive Primaries Journey.
If your school would like to begin its own journey and participate in the 2021/22 awards, you can register your school at the INSPA website.
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Online Summer Early Years Art Workshops with The Ark
The Ark Dates: 5 Aug 2021, 14 Aug 2021 and more
The Ark, Dublin are hosting a series of art workshops for Early Years this summer.
Workshop 1: Box Baby
Thursday 5 August, 10.15am. €10/€8.50* per child.
In this early years workshop, little ones and their grown-ups can explore, make and play together using old cardboard boxes and packaging to create something new.
Workshop 2: Natural Creators of Magical Sounds
Saturday 14 August, 10.15am. €10/€8.50* per child.
This Early Years workshop will focus on ‘found sounds’ made from everyday stuff you can find around the house and outside in nature. The workshop invites little ones’ natural openness and curiosity through a series of delightful composing, improvising, listening and play activities.
Dates: 5 Aug 2021, 14 Aug 2021 and more
For more information or to book these Early Years art workshops, see ark.ie/events. For safety reasons, a parent or grown-up should be present in the room throughout the session, and if necessary be available to assist your child.
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Arts Council of Ireland Young People, Children and Education Project Award 2022
The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon Deadline: 5:30pm, 19 August 2021
The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon has opened applications for their Young People, Children and Education Project Award 2022 (YPCE). The purpose of the YPCE Project Award is to support artists to develop and deliver ambitious and original projects with and for children and young people. Projects may be interdisciplinary or focused on a specific artform. The maximum award is for €80,000.
This award has four strands. You should choose the strand that is most suitable for your project proposal. You may only apply to one strand:
Strand 1: Early Childhood Project Award – Ambitious and original projects that engage children aged 0–6 in the arts.
Strand 2: Childhood Project Award – Ambitious and original projects that engage children aged 7–12 in the arts.
Strand 3: Transitions Project Award – Ambitious and original projects that enable children and young people to engage in the arts. This may involve transitioning into or out of secondary education, between Junior and Senior Cycle (Transition Year), or into further education or the field of work.
Strand 4: Connections Project Award – Projects that connect young artists and recent graduates aged 18+ with established arts organisations and arts infrastructure in Ireland.
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Part-Time Accredited Courses at the Centre for Continuing Education in Art & Design at NCAD
The Centre for Continuing Education in Art and Design at NCAD (CEAD)
The Centre for Continuing Education in Art and Design at NCAD provides opportunities for part time study leading to a qualification at University Certificate (NFQL7) and Higher Diploma (NFQL8). Each of the certificate programmes carries 30 ects. On completion students can progress to the two year part-time Higher Diploma in Art to achieve a further 90 ects and will be eligible to apply for Advanced Entry to up to the final year of the NCAD full-time undergraduate BA programme in Fine Art, Design or Visual Culture.
CEAD offers credit and non-credit options for adults who choose to study part-time. In an era of lifelong learning, CEAD aims to provide a diverse programme of courses, which offer flexible, quality learning opportunities, that enable access, and support progression and transfer for students who wish to further their visual arts education. Applicants to an accredited course must be 23 years or over.
You can choose from a range of part time evening University Certificate programmes:
VAP Certificate A/C modules
The University Certificate in Visual Arts Practice offers flexibility and variety and can be completed in 1 – 3 years. Alternatively individual modules may be taken in a non-credit (audit) capacity. Applications opening soon.
D+VI Certificate
The University Certificate in Drawing and Visual Investigation signals a departure in the provision of visual arts education and the role of CEAD in creating opportunities for lifelong learning. This one year programme is for mature students who are interested in participating in a challenging learning opportunity in visual arts education.
P+DI Certificate
The University Certificate in Photography and Digital Imaging is a one year part-time programme offering students an opportunity to extend their visual vocabulary and explore the creative possibilities of photography within contemporary visual art and design practice. Applications now open.
CEAD- Higher Diploma in Art
The two year part-time Higher Diploma in Art provides mature students interested in establishing a personal direction in their art practice an opportunity to attend a flexible programme leading, on completion, students will be eligible to apply for Advanced Entry to up to the final year of the NCAD full-time undergraduate BA programme in Fine Art, Design or Visual Culture.
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Opportunity to be Part of The Ark’s Children’s Council 2021/22
The Ark Deadline: Friday 6 August
Are you a creative young person who loves drama, music, dance or art? If you are going into 4th or 5th Class in September then this could be right up your street!
The Ark Children’s Council is a dynamic and enriching year long experience exploring active citizenship through engagement with the arts as well as amplifying the voice of the child within The Ark, making sure that your voices are included in The Ark’s decision making.
Applications are now open for children who would like to join The Children’s Council 2021/2022. This Council term will run from October 2021 until June 2022 with at least one key event per month where attendance will be required. Sessions will commence remotely via Zoom in October with in-person sessions at The Ark in Temple Bar from November 2022 onwards, subject to government guidelines.
Please note that The Ark Children’s Council is strictly for children who will be going into 4th or 5th class in September 2021.
Applications should be submitted by 5pm on Friday 6 August 2021.
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Architects in Schools Programme: Call for Architects & Architectural Graduates
Irish Architecture Foundation (IAF) Deadline: Friday, 6 August 2021
The Irish Architecture Foundation invites applications from architects and architectural graduates to participate in the 2021/22 Architects in Schools initiative. Starting in September 2021, it is a great opportunity to gain CPD points while sharing your knowledge of architecture with young people and teachers in a fun and engaging way.
You will work directly with students in their school, supporting them as they learn how to explore, research, design and communicate their ideas about architecture and the built environment. You will also collaborate with students and teachers to select work for the annual Architects in Schools exhibition in the Museum of Country Life, Mayo, in May 2022.
There are two programme options for schools. Architects can work across a combination of these options if working with a number of schools:
Programme A: (Full)
20 hours work in total (8 hours preparation, 12 hours delivery) for a fee of €1000 (incl. VAT), on a schedule agreed between you and your assigned school.
Programme B: (Introductory)
4 hours work in total (1 hour preparation, 3 hours delivery) for a fee of €200 (incl. VAT), on a schedule agreed between you and your assigned school.
If you have good communication skills and are looking for exciting ways to expand your practice, we would love to hear from you!
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Blog 2 – Third Class Pupils, Scoil Mhichil Naofa, Co. Kildare
Discussion led our project
On our first face to face session with our artist, we had a discussion about nature and mainly the bog. We learned about sphagnum moss. Sphagnum moss is good for the environment as it gives us oxygen. From this discussion on our project became focused on nature
Tunde gave us a booklet which we would add to throughout the project. In this booklet, we drew our favourite nature place or thing. Many of the children drew woods, forests, trees, rivers, campsites and waterfalls. In this session we encountered our first difficulty by not being allowed to use rubbers. This was tricky as if you made a mistake you couldn’t rub out, so you would have to draw over it or turn it into something different.
After we drew our nature places, we wrote 3 words to describe this nature place.
We had a discussion about nature in danger. Sadly we were able to think of lots of places and things in nature which were in danger or in trouble.
Some of our ideas were:
Deforestation: cutting down trees.
Overfishing: which is exactly like its name.
Pollution: which is when you litter in the environment.
Forest fires: especially the recent Australian forest fires
Hunting animals for food and sports
We drew a picture of nature in danger in our booklet. We then chose and wrote three words describing our drawings.
We made nature in danger posters. We used our persuasive writing skills to try and convince people to save our nature places and things.
We liked making our nature booklets as we got to choose what we drew. It was fun to colour and draw in the booklets.
Post by Caoimhe, Igor and Fabian
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Gort River Geolocated Sound Walk Created by Young Musicians
Coole Music & Arts Until 26th July 2021
Coole Music & Arts have launched the Carolan’s Rambles Sound Walk, a unique geolocated audio experience along the banks of the Gort River Walk. This audio experience is the creative outcome of Coole Music and Arts’ music school, where musician Sinead Hayes worked with children and teens via Zoom. In this project, the participants explored the life of Turlough Carolan – a composer and musician who preformed across Connaught, Clare and south Ulster in the 1700s – creating artwork, stories, poems and original music compositions over the past three months.
The free ‘Geo-located Sound Walk’ is the first one in Ireland to use this newly launched sonic maps software, is available until 26th July 2021 along the River Walk in Gort (entrance beside Aldi). Bring headphones and a smart phone and hold your camera over the QR code on the Carolan’s Rambles poster or download the App through www.coole-music.com.
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Children’s Summer Programme: ‘Inside Out’ with Dublin City Arts Office & Libraries
Dublin City Council Arts Service Throughout summer 2021
Over seven weeks of Summer, Dublin City Arts Office and Libraries are delighted to present Inside Out – a feast of free online and outdoor workshops and performances for children and families. Events are free but booking is required through Eventbrite.
Summer Programme includes:
Underwater Moves: Early Years Dance workshops with Monica Munoz
Dates: 27th July, 28th July or 29th July, 10.15 – 10.45 or 11.45 – 12.15
The Storybook Treasure Trail: Performance based, interactive, outdoor family friendly adventure with the Gaiety School of Acting
Dates: 24th July, 7th August, 14th August, 11-11.45am, 12.45-1.30pm or 2.30-3.15pm
CuriousB: A pop-up festival site that you and your family will dream up, design and play in with ReCreate.
Dates: 4th August, 11th August, 10.15 – 11.00 & 12:00 – 12: 45
Events are free but booking is required. Capacity is limited to ensure that this is a good experience for children. To book workshops, see here: www.dublincity.ie/events.
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Blog 1 – Third Class Pupils, Scoil Mhichil Naofa, Co. Kildare
The beginning…
Our project started in March during lockdown. We met our artist Tunde for the first time online. We did two sessions on video call on Google Classroom. Tunde showed us examples of her work and we came up with some ideas of what we might like to do in our project.
We completed our first art task at home. We drew a map of a place when we were at home. Some children drew real maps and some drew imaginary maps. Some ideas include : A map of school, A fairytale map, Memory map of a holiday in Czech, Inside a house, Japan, France, A layout of a ship.
When we got back to school we continued our project in person. We looked at real maps of counties, towns, places, countries. We looked at different symbols on the maps and tried to figure out what they represented. We listed all of our findings on the board.
We drew a map showing our journeys from home to school. We taped a long strip of white paper to our desk. The paper was cash register roll normally used for receipts. We had to draw everything we saw on our way to school. We choose three colours and we only coloured the things on the map which contained those colours. We recorded the sounds that we heard on our journey to school on our map by drawing symbols. We did the same thing for our other senses, what we smelled, touched and tasted.
We enjoyed using lots and lots of long receipt paper. We loved adding our senses to the map as this was something we had not done before. We found this tricky at the beginning because we had to try and remember what we experienced each time but we figured it out.
Post By Noelle, Megan and Linards
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Centre for Continuing Education in Art & Design at NCAD: Summer School
Centre for Continuing Education Dates: 19 July – 9 August
The Centre for Continuing Education at NCAD offers a range of short summer courses in art and design for adults and school leavers (16+) who want to explore their creative potential, learn new skills, or develop an on-going practice.
Summer courses are at different levels; there are introductory courses suitable for beginners, or for those considering returning to or progressing within higher education. If you want to learn something new you can choose beginners courses, and if you have established an arts practice and want to continue to expand and explore your options you can choose advanced courses.
Portfolio preparation courses are suitable for students considering applying to third level undergraduate art and design courses and wish to complete a portfolio in preparation.
Where students are interested in applying to the accredited part-time autumn options or want to progress within art and design they can consider taking one or more summer workshops as a way of developing skills and knowledge in a subject area.
Places on summer short courses are allocated on a first come first served basis. If a course is over-subscribed it is possible to join a wait list for cancellations.
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National Museum of Ireland Call Out for Artists & Educators
National Museum of Ireland Deadline: 30th July 2021
The Education Department of the National Museum of Ireland is looking for artists working in visual arts, design, drama, film, storytelling, architecture, craft and/or other arts disciplines with experience of designing and delivering workshops to meet the learning styles and needs of a range of audiences, including adults, schools and intergenerational groups such as families.
While currently prioritising online engagement programmes, the National Museum of Ireland are inviting facilitators who are interested in creating both online content and in facilitating onsite programmes. Those eligible will have experience in the delivery of digital-based content in a virtual capacity and should be comfortable operating digital based equipment and programmes.
Facilitators and artists who register their interest in working with the Museum may be invited to work with them, at one or more of its four sites, and/or to create one or more short videos or participate in the Museum’s public engagement programmes through live online or onsite workshops or talks.
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I-Stem Project Teacher Resource – The Gaiety School of Acting
The Gaiety School of Acting
Despite the fact that scientific developments permeate and enrich the lives of young people on a daily, or even hourly basis, studies across Europe are identifying pockets of this demographic that are struggling to relate to and engage with the science curriculum in the classroom. According to Science Foundation Ireland’s 2015 Science Barometer report, young women from less affluent backgrounds are less inclined to identify with science education at second level. This has a direct impact on the number of students from this demographic advancing to third level and ultimately working within the field.
Drilling down further into the statistics, researchers have found that young women from a cultural minority background or who identify as LGBTQIAP+ are even less likely to develop a positive scientific identity, meaning a far reduced number of people from these societal groups tend to aspire to careers in science.
With the aim to address these gaps in science engagement, The Gaiety School of Acting has teamed up with partners from Ireland, Finland, Poland and Holland to investigate ways in which performance, and specifically comedy improvisation, can be utilised by science educators to impact on their students in a new and dynamic way. The three year I-Stem project, supported by the Erasmus Plus fund, began on September 1st 2020.
In its first publication ‘Creative Methods in Science Teaching – Ways Forward!’ an e-book resource for teachers, STEM subjects are related to arts. Use of arts in education tell us something about society: our educational systems and its angles of entry are creating the scientists of tomorrow. The combination of arts and science gives us a better starting point to develop our full potential which is needed when creating something new.
This publication presents research and best practices of using arts as a means of improving pedagogy and classroom practice in STEM education. In these pages “STEAM” represents STEM plus the arts–humanities, language arts, dance, drama, music, visual arts, design and new media. It draws on theoretical understandings of arts in STEM disciplines to illustrate how researchers and practitioners are using creative initiatives to promote inclusive teaching approaches.
The e-book is aimed at post-primary school teachers who are currently using arts within their teaching practice or have an interest in doing so in the future. Examples of STEAM teaching in Poland, the Netherlands, Ireland and Finland are given. It is not intended to provide a fully comprehensive exploration of all aspects of arts in STEM disciplines. The I-Stem Project acknowledges the necessary limitations of this resource, but trusts that it will serve its purpose of guiding you through the main relevant concepts, and that it will give you insights and inspiration for your teaching.
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Job Opportunity: Music Generation Development Officer Co. Clare
Music Generation Clare Deadline: 12noon, 9 July 2021
Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board invites applications for the five year, fixed-term position of Music Generation Development Officer in Co Clare. The Music Generation Development Officer will be responsible for managing a programme of performance music education on behalf of County Clare Local Music Education Partnership.
The successful candidate will have a broad understanding of the diversity of effective, contemporary approaches across the diversity of performance music education – and will have the skills and experience to develop a programme that responds to the specific needs of children and young people.
Music Generation Clare is part of Music Generation – Ireland’s national music education programme, which is co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education and Local Music Education Partnerships.
Deadline: 12noon, 9th July 2021
Application form and full job description are available at www.lcetb.ie/mgce/ Completed application forms should be emailed to recruitment@lcetb.ie. Please indicate in the subject line of your e-mail “Ref Number 21/12″.
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Survey: VAI’s Artists Payments and Workplace
Visual Artists’ Ireland Dates: Ongoing
VAI is updating their research into the real impact and experience of the Artists’ Payments Guidelines. They have created a carefully edited questionnaire to capture the information that they need to continue their advocacy work in that area. They want to know about artists working at all levels of experience, and especially to know about artists who may not have generated an income from their practice during 2019 or 2020.
They are also asking organisations questions about their experience of the Guidelines and looking at their realities. They believe that it is important to get both sides of the story, and to understand those who have effectively implemented payment policies as well as those who have yet to do so, as well as the barriers that they may experience in their efforts to support artists.
Visual Artists Ireland is the Representative body for professional visual artists in Ireland.
This July, a group of aspiring composers age 15-18 will have the opportunity to work remotely with professional composers and singers to create their own Choral Postcards—short pieces of music written for four-part choir, in a joint project with Chamber Choir Ireland and the Contemporary Music Centre.
All sessions will be held via Zoom and it is free to participate.
To apply, please send the following to education@chamberchoirireland.com:
1. Any examples of music you’ve written, either for choir or any other instrument/combination of instruments
2. A note outlining your reasons for applying
3. A recommendation from your school music teacher, instrumental/vocal teacher, or choir conductor, outlining your capacity to be involved in a choral composition project with Chamber Choir Ireland
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Opportunity: Applications Now Open for Creativity & Change Programme
Creativity & Change, MTU
Applications now open for the September intake of Creativity & Change ’21/’22
Creativity & Change’s accredited, Special Purpose Award programme, targets educators, change-makers, activists, artists, youth and community workers, adult educators, volunteers and anyone who is interested in how creative engagement can nurture global citizenship and empathic action around local and global justice themes.
Based at Crawford College of Art & Design, Cork, Creativity & Change is about creativity and its power to ignite empathy, passion and learning about our interconnected and interdependent world. It is about imagining more humane, just and viable ways to live and to connect with how we think, live, and act in the world. This course explores how we can live as connected global citizens becoming part of the changes we want to see.
In 2020/21, Creativity & Change have developed a new pop-up mobile classroom initiative. They have a new cargo e-bike to carry materials and participants are asked to bring bicycles where possible and they travel together to different locations around Cork City and surrounds, applying learning and creatively responding to the outdoor environment. Allowances are made for participants with mobility difficulties.
The course fee is €680. This is a subsidised fee that is made possible by the support of a grant from Irish Aid’s Development Education unit. Places on this programme are offered to suitable applicants on a rolling basis and will close once they reach maximum participant number.
It is advised to apply for the programme as early as possible to avoid disappointment.
Amplifying Voices Scholarships: Creativity & Change are consistently seeking to improve the accessibility of our programme and would love to provide opportunities to those who may have previously experienced barriers to accessing post—graduate education, such as members of minority groups, those in the Direct Provision system, or Travellers. They are now offering a number of free places on the course to those who may not have otherwise been in a position to apply. To apply for a scholarship, see www.creativityandchange.ie/amplifying-voices-scholarships/
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Opportunity: BLAST Arts in Education Residencies School Applications Open
BLAST Arts-in-Education Residencies Deadline: 30 September 2021
Arts in Education Residency Initiative in Primary and Post-primary Schools
The Department of Education has developed a new innovative Arts-in-Education BLAST Residency Programme in 2021, which will enable up to 400 new Arts-in-Education Residencies in schools each year.
This initiative aims to support the integration of the principles and key skills outlined in the Arts in Education Charter and the Creative Ireland Programme (2017-2022), Pillar 1 Creative Youth.
The aim of this scheme is to give pupils in schools all over the country the opportunity to work with a professional artist on unique projects, to be originated and planned between the artist, the teacher and the school, under the coordination of the Education Support Centres Ireland ESCI’s network of 21 full-time education centres. This initiative supports children and young people for the future, where skills like the ability to connect and collaborate with others, engage in creative and critical thinking and practice inclusivity at every level, will be paramount to peace, stability, sustainable economic growth and equality.
What is proposed is a unique streamlined process whereby schools apply for an artist on the Online Register of Approved Artists, who are already trained for the new BLAST Arts-in-Education Residency Programme, managed by the local education centre. The education centre will also pay the artist which will further remove the administrative burden on teachers and schools.
How this BLAST Residency initiative will work
The Education Centre:
While the programme will be nationally coordinated by the Arts in Education administrative base located at the Education Centre Tralee, schools will apply for a BLAST Arts-in-Education Residency to the full-time education centre in their area, based on the Online Register of Approved Artists. The Register of Approved Artists in each education centre will be arranged by artist and discipline, include relevant required and approved training experience, examples of previous work and examples of relevant or related experience in an educational and community context.
In excess of 300 artists are currently trained and registered on the Online Register of Approved Artists, managed by the education centre network nationally. All artists will have submitted their Child Safeguarding Best Practice Policy (to include Child Safeguarding Statement) and their Certificate of completion of the Children First Training module to the education centre.
What is proposed is a unique streamlined process when schools apply for an artist under the new BLAST Arts-in-Education Residency Programme. The education centre will also arrange for payment of the artist, which will further remove the administrative burden on teachers and schools.
Garda vetting:
Garda vetting for artists for successful school applications will be organised with the individual artist by the education centre in collaboration with the school. Schools may separately (if they wish) request the artist to apply for Garda vetting specifically to work in their school.
The Artists:
Artists from any artistic discipline, who have been trained in partnership working with schools, will be registered with each of the 21 full-time ESCI centres. Artistic disciplines include visual arts, crafts, music, dance, drama, literature and film. Creative disciplines will be expanded as the residency programme develops over the next number of years.
The artists on the Register of Approved Artists will have been previously trained and have engaged in school residencies under the Teacher-Artist Partnership CPD and Residency initiative or the Arts in Junior Cycle Programme which are both approved and led by the Department of Education.
The School:
The schools must be in the catchment of the local full-time education centre. Schools may submit only one application. Schools should make their own selection of artists on the Approved Register, based on CVs/examples of recent work, training and recommendations. Inclusion of artists on the Approved Register is based on training in the education centre (TAP) in addition to suitability/artistic qualification and has taken place in advance to ensure the selected artist satisfies school policies in relation to engagement of external personnel.
Once a school is approved for the scheme, the school has a commitment to the artist, who will have earmarked that time for the project and could potentially turn down other work at the times scheduled to work with the school.
This initiative encourages:
schools, primary and post-primary, that have not recently had an opportunity to participate in such creative initiatives, to apply
schools supporting inclusion and enhanced arts-in-education engagement with students from disadvantaged backgrounds and students with special educational needs to apply
schools that have a track record in teacher-artist partnership working in the classroom and school to apply
a whole-school commitment to the project, but it is not a requirement that all classes work with the artist
projects should have regard to the relevant school curricula where appropriate and have a focus on process
BLAST Arts-in-Education Residency funding:
The artist’s fee is €1,000 per residency. This is funded by the Department of Education via each education centre. The education centre will pay the artist in accordance with agreed guidelines after the artist and teacher/school evaluations have been submitted and received. In certain instances, this may include the payment of two instalments of €500 with agreement.
The artist will be funded for 20 contact hours, including 6 hours planning/development/review time. Participating schools must pay for materials associated with the project and also for documentation of the project through photographs, for example, and any other costs involved including insurance costs. Funded residencies can be delivered throughout the academic year commencing in September in the year the residency was approved.
Schools must acknowledge the Department of Education and the local education centre in all publicity relating to the project.
Successful applications:
Successful schools will be required to sign a short contract with their local education centre accepting the terms of the BLAST Arts-in-Education Residency Programme prior to the commencement of the residency. Successful residencies should not be started until official written notification to proceed has been received from the education centre and once Garda vetting has been completed and this has been communicated to the school.
It is a specific condition of this residency programme that a teacher works closely and collaborates with the artist to plan the learning experience and is present at all times with the artist while working with students in the school and to enhance further teacher-artist partnership. Schools will be responsible for ensuring the residency complies with Public Health advice relevant at the time of the project.
Evaluation:
The education centre will put in place the necessary evaluation for Arts-in-Education Residencies. This will include a school visit, completion and return of the Teacher/School Feedback Form and the Artist Feedback Form. The second instalment of the artist fee will be paid following the submission of the final reports.
Any images submitted by the school either in reports or on completing the project may be used to promote the scheme through print and other media including social media. It is therefore important that the schools have permission for the use of such images, noting in the consent forms that they will be used for this purpose, and only send images to the education centre once parental consent has been obtained.
Guidelines for application
A note on COVID-19 related Public Health Guidance: Schools should base proposals on the best public health advice and guidance available at the time of application.
a written proposal for the project indicating the aims of the project, the theme, materials, processes, anticipated outcomes, deliverability, number of contact hours and number of classes and pupils that will participate in the project
Please also indicate the planned time-frame schedule and planned method of documentation for the project.
The proposal should demonstrate a whole school commitment to the project. (This does not mean that all children must participate in the project rather that the whole school should be supportive and flexible in facilitating the project).
Applications will open on 4 June 2021. The closing date is 30 September 2021.
This initiative will be supported by the ESCI education centre network, Teacher Artist Partnership CPD programme, Arts in Junior Cycle, NAPD Creative Engagement Programme and the Arts in Education Portal.
The panel will include Blaithin Quinn (Irish Architecture Foundation), Muhammad Achour (Places of ARcture), Frank Monahan (Architecture at the Edge) and students and teachers from Holy Faith and Synge Street secondary schools in Dublin, Ireland, and focus on imaginary public realm projects as part of the Irish Architecture Foundation’s ‘Architects in Schools‘ initiative 2021.
In their collaborative work with the students, Muhammad and Frank focused on care, co-creation, pride, citizen engagement and ownership in the design of public space. How we care for our public realm is always relevant, even more so now as we adapt to life in a post-pandemic world.
‘Architects in Schools’ is supported by the Arts Council of Ireland, Department of Education and Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
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Irish Architecture Foundation International Summer School
Irish Architecture Foundation Dates: 15 – 30 June 2021
Registration is open for IAF’s International Summer School, a series of live, virtual seminars and workshops exploring the relationship between architecture and media. The Summer School will explore how architecture as culture is mediated, communicated, disseminated, represented, experienced and consumed through the diverse media of filmmaking, podcasting and critical writing.
Events are suitable for post-primary school pupils.
Tuesday 22nd & Friday 25th June – Architecture and Podcasts
Monday 28th & Wednesday 30th June – Architecture and Writing
Attendees can look forward to an exciting lineup of speakers and workshop facilitators including:
Emmett Scanlon (IRL), Matthew Blunderfield (UK), Grace La (USA), Inga Saffron (USA), Mimi Zeiger (USA), Tom Ravenscroft (UK) & Shane O’Toole (IRL).
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Opportunity for Artists & Writers: Callout for Panel for Collaborative Book Projects
Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership
Deadline: 5pm, 21 June 2021
Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership are seeking 8 professional artists and writers (4 artists and 4 writers) to join their panel specifically for collaborative book-making and publishing projects with children and young people. Are you an artist or writer with a strong professional practice who is interested in exploring collaborative ways of working with children and young people? Would you like join a panel of experts who will lead on developing new publications for Kids’ Own with groups of children and young people?
Having developed an approach to collaborative publishing with children and young people over two decades, they are inviting applications from people who would like to participate in a 2-day funded training programme and subsequently be part of a panel, from which artist–teacher pairs will be selected to work on future projects.
Kids’ Own invite applications from all over the island of Ireland, and especially welcome applications from diverse communities that are reflective of the communities of children they work with, and of artistic and cultural life in Ireland.
Music Generation Development Officer (Limerick County)
Ref number: 21/11
A Music Generation Development Officer will be appointed by Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board and will be responsible for managing a programme of performance music education on behalf of Limerick County Local Music Education Partnership.
The successful candidate will have a broad understanding of the diversity of effective, contemporary approaches across the diversity of performance music education; and will have the skills and experience to develop a programme that responds to the specific needs of young people in disadvantaged communities.
Music Generation Limerick County is part of Music Generation – Ireland’s national music education programme, which is co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education, and Local Music Education Partnerships.
Application form and full particulars are available here. Completed application forms should be returned BY EMAIL ONLY to recruitment@lcetb.ie not later than 12 noon, Tuesday 22 June 2021.
Please indicate in the subject line of your e-mail “Ref Number 21 /11”. Late applications or CVs will not be considered. It is the responsibility of the candidates to ensure that the application form is received at the stated address before the stated deadline. Canvassing will disqualify. Garda Vetting will apply.
Based on the volume of applications received short-listing may apply. Short-listing will take place on the basis of the information provided in the application form. Depending on the qualifications and experience of applicants, short-listing thresholds may be significantly higher than the minimum standards set out.
Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board is an equal opportunities employer.
Earlier this month (May) Catherine Martin TD, Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, announced details of Cruinniú na nÓg 2021, a day of free creative activity for children and young people under the age of 18. Cruinniú na nÓg 2021 is a collaboration between the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, the Creative Ireland Programme, local authorities and RTÉ and is the only event of its kind in the world.
Announcing Cruinniú na nÓg 2021, Minister Martin said:
“Over the past 3 years Cruinniú na nÓg has become a key date in Ireland’s cultural calendar. It provides opportunities for Ireland’s 1.2 million children and young people to be inquisitive, innovative and to fulfil an inner creative talent. The emphasis is always on participation and trying something new like knitting, drumming, stop-start animation, contemporary dance and so much more. All events are free and are accessible online.
This time last year we were forced to bring all our Cruinniú na nÓg events online, yet it proved to be our most successful Cruinniú to date with hundreds of thousands of young people from around the world joining us in our national day of youth creativity. This year we hope to replicate the same level of international excitement with new and exciting projects.”
Building on the success of 2020, hundreds of events have already been planned by Creative Ireland Culture and Creativity teams in local authorities around the country. These teams are key to the successful delivery of Cruinniú na nÓg as their events are planned to respond to the needs of local children and young people. This year we will see events such as Circus Factory in Carraigaline in Cork, a live interactive workshop on Upcycled Clothes in Louth and Dublin Zoo are inviting young people to explore the wonderful world of animals without backbones!
In light of the public health restrictions that are currently in force, the Creative Ireland Programme and its partners have developed a number of creative, cultural and engaging “calls to action” which children, young people and their families can create in their own homes and gardens on Saturday 12th June.
These include:
Knitting Across the Nation: Airfield Estate in Dundrum will send out 400 wool packs to young knitters around the country. These packs will contain wool from Airfield’s own flock of Jacob’s sheep are designed to foster a long term love of craft making, sustainability and creativity in young Irish people.
Nenagh Children’s Film Festival: Working with Cartoon Saloon’s Grainne Fordham, children and young people will learn new film making and the latest in stop-motion animation skills in a series of on-line workshops. Children and young people are also invited to this year’s festival for free which will feature the work of young Irish film makers.
Garageland is a music project that gives young Irish bands an opportunity to step out of their bedrooms and onto Garageland Youth TV, a dedicated online TV channel designed to give young musicians the same opportunities as their older peers. Garageland is proudly supported by RTÉ 2XM.
Let’s Dance is a Dance Ireland project which aims to support youth dance companies around the country, and connect with hard to reach groups who want to find out more about dance in Ireland. An experienced creative team, including a professional choreographer, a digital producer and a dedicated coordinator will be in place to provide a full suite of online resources all aimed at connecting more young people with dance.
Imagine-Orchestra is presented by the world-famous Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM) who want to create a world record for the biggest online youth orchestra. No formal musical instruments or training required! Imagine-Orchestra will also provide children with access to digital resources that explore the creation of music and sound, through instruments, the body, and items around the home.
Céilí in the Kitchen: A céilí in the kitchen can happen anywhere in the world and embrace all cultures and traditions. Following on from the success of last year’s céilí, Áirc Damhsa will deliver a series of Meitheal Workshops – connecting young people, youth groups and schools to take part in a set programme across the 4 weeks leading up to Cruinniú na nÓg.
Beat Your Drum: Working with drummer Brian Fleming, the Glór Arts Centre and the Creative Ireland Programme and the Department of Foreign Affairs will deliver an international drumming programme that will start in Ireland on the bodhrán and travel the globe utilising the indigenous drums of Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe.
TG4, with support from the Gaeltacht division of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, will produce a unique series of Irish language projects including small tailor made features about the Cruinniú na nÓg 2021 national projects, Cruthaím 33 will champion the talents of 33 children and young people from every county in the country as well as a representative of our young diaspora and the day itself will be marked by a TikTok Debs fairy tale from the award winning writer Philip Doherty.
Online supports and resources are provided by the Creative Ireland Programme in partnership with the Airfield Trust, Nenagh Children’s Film Festival, Garageland, Dance Ireland, Royal Irish Academy of Music, Áirc Damhsa, Glór and RTÉ to enable children and young people to unleash their creativity.
Further details and resources are now available from the Creative Ireland website and RTÉ platforms see www.creativeireland.gov.ie and www.rte.ie.
In addition, local authorities will also be hosting a range of cultural and creative activities and online events for Cruinniú na nÓg – full details will also be available at www.cruinniu.creativeireland.gov.ie.
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Online Summer Courses for Teachers with The Ark
The Ark Booking closes 1st July 2021
The Ark, Dublin are delighted to present a number of creative courses for teachers this summer:
The Magic of Everyday Materials in the Early Years Classroom Date: 5–9 July 2021
The Ark and Dublin West Education Centre are delighted to present an innovative new week-long online course for teachers working with children in the Early Years.
This hands-on, creative course focuses on a visual arts approach to working with very young children, supporting participants to develop and enhance their confidence and skills to deliver process and play-based art experiences. This year, due to ongoing public health restrictions, this face-to-face course will take place live online using Zoom video conferencing.
This is a five day Department of Education EPV-approved summer course for teachers.
Creative Music & Drama in the Classroom Dates: 5 – 9 Jul 2021
We are excited to present this established and popular engaging arts summer course focusing on the two curriculum areas of Drama and Music. This year, due to ongoing public health restrictions, this face-to-face course will take place live online using Zoom video conferencing.
This is a five day Department of Education EPV-approved summer course for teachers.
Bringing Science Alive in the Classroom through Drama Dates: 12–16 Jul 2021
Now in its third year, we are excited to present a five-day arts-science summer course led by scientist and theatre-maker Dr. Niamh Shaw. This year, due to ongoing public health restrictions, this face-to-face course will take place live online using Zoom video conferencing.
This is a five day Department of Education EPV-approved summer course for teachers.
A Visual Arts Approach in the Classroom Dates: 12 – 16 Jul 2021
Always hugely popular with teachers, we are delighted to be presenting this course once more. This hands-on, creative course focuses on a visual arts approach to exploring narrative, literacy & other subjects. This year, due to ongoing public health restrictions, this face-to-face course will take place live online using Zoom video conferencing.
This is a five-day Department of Education EPV-approved summer course for teachers.
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Blog 4 – Anna Newell, Theatre Maker for Early Years & Children with Complex Needs
And Now….?
The unforeseen adventures that were created by being forced to re-invent, re-imagine, to find ways to re-connect with our audiences at this time of distance and disconnection had a profound impact on me.
It became clear that, for some of our audience, taking shows directly to where they are, taking the flexibility of the shows to a whole new level was what really worked for them.
So this year, inspired by that adventure and that discovery, I’m making a new show called SWEET DREAMS ARE MADE OF THIS that can play anywhere. A garden, around a hospital bed, outside a school, in a hospice – wherever makes most sense of our audience. It’ll be a tiny intimate show with just two performers, a gentle magical soundtrack and two gorgeous costumes created by leading Irish fashion designer, Rebecca Marsden who works with responsive wearable tech fashion – costumes that light up with the connection we make with our audience, costumes that transform an ordinary space into an extraordinary moment. The development is funded by Wicklow Arts Office and will happen this July and September in creative consultation with St Catherine’s School, County Wicklow families and with St Catherine’s Hospice, hopefully leading to a longer tour next year to my national Network For Extraordinary Audiences.
And right now, we’re on week 3 of an 8 week tour of GROOVE – a chilled out 70’s inspired happening for children and young people with complex needs, full of immersive video and live harmony singing. In masks of course.
It’s a wonderful co-incidence that for GROOVE (conceived in 2019 so well pre-pandemic) that there’s such an overwhelming visual element – even with one side of the tent missing in order to allow sufficient ventilation – the combination of the immersive video art and the live singing to a hypnotic soundtrack is so rich and all around that it has an energy and a presence that, whilst not replacing the usual tactile offers that we might make, has a welcome viscerality.
I’ve been describing GROOVE as a happening – I remember reading the definition of a 60’s/70’s happening – in broad terms it’s about an environment being created and then what happens is totally dependent on who comes and what they bring. That’s the space and the adventure that I wanted to create with my audience for GROOVE.
I hardly dare hope that we’ll make it through all of the 8 weeks all over the country. I’m grateful for each day and for the incredible welcome that the schools have given and are continuing to give us in what must be the hardest year they’ve ever had. They truly are extraordinary audiences.
Throughout these last 18 months, the power of human connection has continued to be my lodestar and it, and my audiences, keeps me putting one foot in front of the other as we move forward as best we can.
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Part 2 – Announcing the 2021 Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award Recipients
The Portal Team are delighted to announce the second recipient of the 2021 Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award. We are very excited to be working with each recipient in the coming months to document their projects. These projects will be showcased on the portal as the documentation progresses.
About the recipients….
Project Title: Songs of Ourselves
Songs of Ourselves is a participative song programme led by The Dock Composer in Residence, George Higgs with Scoil Mhuire, Carrick on Shannon, Co. Leitrim.
Songs of Ourselves will explore the nature of communal song forms and result in the composition of a new song. The song’s composition will involve using words, music and gestures to make a multi-sensory composition that will be showcased in a digital song scrapbook. The song scrapbook will reflect the diversity in the school’s makeup, with well over half the students originating from countries such as Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Serbia and India. The song’s lyrics will therefore have a rich, multi-lingual character.
The Dock
The Dock is a flagship arts centre in the North West of Ireland offering an annual programme of contemporary visual art, performances, residencies and workshops in three beautiful gallery spaces, residency spaces and an intimate performance space. This programme is augmented by arts education and outreach projects that provide people of all ages and interests the opportunity to engage with contemporary arts practice.
Teacher: Noelle Igoe
Noelle has a degree is in Early Childhood Education from DIT and a postgraduate diploma in primary education from Brunel University in London. She taught in the UK for 3 years and is teaching in Ireland nearly 10 years. At present Noelle is teaching 4th class in Scoil Mhuire Carrick on Shannon, Co. Leitrim.
Being a primary school teacher, Noelle (Igoe) has always been interested in teaching the visual arts with a specific interest in art and music education. She enjoys using a cross curricular approach to education. The children in her class have really benefitted from tours and workshop at The Dock. The Dock is a great local resource for the school, Scoil Mhuire. The children have also worked with some artists/musicians in conjunction with the Creative Ireland initiative.
Teacher: Orla Kenny
Trained in St. Pat’s in Dublin and is currently teaching 6th in Scoil Mhuire, Carrick on Shannon, Co. Leitrim.
As a primary teacher, Orla (Kenny) has always been interested and involved in arts education, particularly music. Aspiring to provide a broader and richer experience for pupils in the area of visual arts, she has developed links with local arts theatre, The Dock, initially through musical collaboration, followed by workshops in visual arts and participation in the Creative Schools initiative. This included also gallery visits for both staff and pupils of Scoil Mhuire, Carrick-on-Shannon. Involvement with the arts in education has enriched her teaching experience, and has enabled both professional and personal development.
Composer, George Higgs George Higgs is a composer and an Artist in Residence at The Dock in 2021. His approach to arts in education focusses on a balanced collaboration between artist and student: encouraging each to listen to the other as all skilled musicians should. George’s work comprises opera, film music, songs, chamber work, experimental electronics and music for instruments of his own making.
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Online Arts Education Resource: MoLI in the Classroom
Museum of Literature Ireland
New online visual arts education resource for primary school students.
The Museum of Literature Ireland are launching MoLI in the Classroom: a free, interactive, virtual, 40-50 minute workshop for 3rd to 6th class primary school students from across Ireland. It takes place over Zoom and is delivered directly into classrooms around Ireland. Teachers can book online with their live calendar. Their aim is to make the workshops fun and stimulating for all children, whatever their abilities.
All students need to participate is paper, pen/pencil and some colouring pencils, crayons or markers. Students can write, draw or doodle their responses according to their learning style. Students will see and hear all about the museum and will get to watch a special behind-the-scenes TikTok video. They will be encouraged to explore their own creativity through a range of individual and group work, fun word and drama games and creative writing exercises.
Teachers will not need to cover any topics in advance. After the online workshop, teachers can continue to encourage creativity in the classroom with their engaging follow-on activities, which include an opportunity to win a writer visit to a school and an iPad.
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Opportunity for Schools: Architects in Schools 2021/22
Irish Architecture Foundation Deadline: 6pm, June 4 2021
The IAF are delighted to announce that applications are now open for schools to take part in the 2021/22 cycle of Architects in Schools programme. The programme is entering into its 9th cycle, and the IAF will be collaborating with the National Museum of Ireland (Museum of Country Life, Mayo) for the annual exhibition of student work in May 2022.
An architect will facilitate hands-on design workshops in your school. Dates, times and workshop duration will be arranged between the designated teacher / TY coordinator and the assigned architect. Workshops must take place between 1 September 2021 and 4 March 2022. All architects will be fully Garda Vetted and will sign our Child Protection Policy. There is no cost for schools to participate (apart from providing some art materials).
There are two options for participation: Option A: Full Programme
30 schools can participate in the full programme
20 hours with an architect / architectural graduate, consisting of 12 hours of workshops & 8 hours of preparation time for the architect Option B: Introductory Programme
A new strand introduced in 2020/21, up to 40 schools can avail of introductory workshops
1 x 3 hour workshop per school, with an architect / architectural graduate
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Opportunity for Schools: New Arts in Education Programme with Cork County Council
Cork County Council Arts Service Deadline: 3pm, Thursday 10th June 2021
Cork County Council’s Arts Service is inviting schools to participate in a new classroom based arts in education programme that will be facilitated by a professional artist. Four schools in County Cork will be invited to become temporary custodians of Cork’s County Art Collection.
Cork County Council has a substantial collection of visual art. This civic collection includes works in various media including, painting, drawing, print, photography, video and small scale 3-dimensional work created by emerging and established artists, many of who are living and working in Cork County. This collection is owned by the people of Cork and as such it is the policy of Cork County Council to make this collection as widely available to the public as possible. It is in this context that they have developed a schools education programme that will enable young people to gain knowledge and engage creatively with work from the collection in a managed programme in the classroom. They will have an opportunity to create a collaborative artwork with an artist, using the artworks as a springboard for creativity.
The programme is funded by Creative Ireland and will be provided free of charge to all schools.
Deadline: 3pm, Thursday 10th June 2021
Applications should be made via email to grace.mitchell@corkcoco.ie no later than Thursday 10th June 2021 at 3pm. Queries can be made to Grace Mitchell, Creative Ireland Projects Coordinator, 021 4346210 or grace.mitchell@corkcoco.ie.
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Opportunity for Artists: Per Cent for Art Commission, Limerick
St. Paul’s N.S. Dooradoyle, Limerick Deadline: 12pm, 25 June 2021
St. Paul’s N.S. Dooradoyle, Limerick invites submissions from artists for its Per Cent for Art commission of €35,000. This commission is open to all visual artists working in all art forms including but not limited to painting, print, sculpture, digital and new media art, sound art, street art, socially engaged and participatory art.
It is hoped that the selected commission will emphasise and prioritise the current pupils and create a meaningful experience for them. This may be achieved by involving the pupils in a participatory project or in the making of an artwork, or by creating an interactive artwork or area for pupils to engage with. In addition to any participatory elements, the commissioners would like a tangible and enduring element from which future generations of pupils will also benefit. They are open to the form this may take, it could be a physical artwork, a film, involve digital technology, a book, activity area or a workshop plan.
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Artist Opportunity: Per Cent for Art, Maynooth, Co. Kildare
Kildare County Council Arts Service and St. Mary’s Boys’ National School Deadline: 12pm, 11 June 2021
Kildare County Council Arts Service and St. Mary’s Boys’ National School, Maynooth invites submissions for their Per Cent For Art commission of €49,000. The commission may include Artists in Residence programmes, commissioning of artwork (temporary and permanent) across all art forms including digital media, and may include collaborative work practice. Applications that consider the physical school environment (the buildings and grounds, indoor and outdoor) as well as applications that directly engage the school community are welcome.
Artists should submit their CV, expression of interest and samples of work to percentforart@maynoothbns.ie. All queries relating to the Per Cent for Art commission should be directed to Lucina Russell, Arts Officer, Tel: 045-448328; Mob: 0872399212; Email lrussell@kildarecoco.ie.
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Free Online Webinar: “Design as Agency in the World”
The Spirit of Eileen Gray lives on at Brownswood House Date: May 19 2021
The birthplace of Wexford born Eileen Gray, the pioneering modern architect, designer and artist, continues to be witness to the effects of her creative force.
This webinar, coming live from Gray’s place of birth in Brownswood House, Enniscorthy – now home to Meánscoil Gharman- marks the completion of an ambitious Creative Ireland and Creative Schools programme, in which transition year students worked with architect Ben Mullen on a project exploring the work and legacy of Eileen Gray. Over the school year the students studied this pioneering designer’s work, then designed, and created by hand, outdoor furniture for the grounds of their school campus.
The webinar will be free and open to the public, it will be hosted by art historian Karla Sánchez and will feature prominent guests Dr. Jennifer Goff, curator of the Eileen Gray collection of the National Museum of Ireland, and Eilis O’Connell, internationally renowned Irish sculptor, whom along with a selected group of students, will uncover some of the many design processes Eileen Gray followed and those which she has inspired in others.
This programme, funded by Wexford County Council’s Creative Ireland Programme and supported through Creative Schools and Creative Associate Laura Ni Fhlaibhín, sees the collaboration between the Irish Architecture Foundation, the Art Department of Wexford County Council and Meánscoil Gharman. It arose out of a shared interest in developing the legacy of Eileen Gray in County Wexford.
Architect Benjamin Mullen, of the Irish Architecture Foundation, who led the workshops with the students, commented:
“…the project set out to see past the formidable legacy of Eileen Gray and attempt to interpret her engagement with design itself as an activity in its own accord, and as a form of agency in the world. (…) Design is a type of behaviour and an instrument for imagining a future that does not yet exist. One of the project’s key aims was to provide this autonomy for the students to make what they imagined would represent their own experience of our world.”
This project would not have been possible without the vision of Laura Ní Fhlaibhín, the Creative Associate responsible for reuniting all the bodies involved:
“The Legacy of Eileen Gray is advanced through this project, bringing her ground-breaking approach and innovation to its ethos and overall aims. It has been so exciting and rewarding to develop this, from initial meetings and brainstorming in the Meánscoil Gharman art room, to a fully realised project that activates both the creative impulses of Eileen Gray and the ethos of the Creative Schools programme.”
The documentary “I do shuí le Eileen Gray – Sitting with Eileen Gray”, produced by Terence White, chronicles the process that the students went through to carry out their concept. Such documentary will also be shown during the Seminar.
Commenting on the programme, Wexford Creative Ireland Co-Ordinator Eileen Morrissey stated,
“The Creative Ireland programme aims to bring creativity and culture to the heart of the community in County Wexford. Through this seminar, we hope to shine a light on the world-renowned Wexford born architect Eileen Gray. We also hope to showcase too the results of an excellent creative project with the students of Meánscoil Garman. I would encourage members of the public to join the online seminar to delve into the fascinating world of the pioneering architect and designer who was born in Co Wexford.”
Event Details:
Date: Wednesday, 19 May 2021 Time: 11.00am – 13.00 pm
Members of the public interested in joining the webinar will be able to register here:
For further information about the seminar please contact Karla Sánchez (087 7842503, karlasanchez@yahoo.com)
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Opportunity For Artists: Offaly Youth Arts Commission 2021
Offaly County Council Arts Office Deadline: 4pm, 2 June, 2021
Offaly County Council Arts Office invites professional artists, individual or collaboratively, to submit proposals for the delivery of a new Youth Arts Project for the cohort of 13 to 25 year olds within Offaly. The commission is open to submissions from all art disciplines including visual arts, film, animation, digital arts, performing arts, literature or sound art. The commission can concentrate on one art form or a range of art forms but must demonstrate a youth led ethos. It is vital that consideration is given to the times we are in and how engagement with young people can take place within a socially distanced world.
A fully inclusive fee of €15,000.00 to include all travel, materials, VAT will be made payable in three instalments:
1. €5000.00 on signing of contract with agreement on a submitted project outlining clear timelines, delivery and process.
2. €5000.00 mid way into the project
3. €5000.00 on completion of the project
There need not be a specific outcome, (i.e. piece of art, performance), rather the process and engagement with the Young People in Offaly should be central to the project and be inspired by their wants and needs. If there is an outcome, consideration should be given on how same could be showcased.
We would envisage the project as being easily accessible, have a wide reach and attract young people that are not necessarily involved in Arts.
The programme includes a specialist week-long online training on 1st – 7th July 2021 with a training allowance of €150 per day over the initial 5-day training week (€750 in total); and a guarantee of a paid, in-school-residency with a local primary school (Fee €900, plus €100 travel) to carry out a 20-hour project (14 contact hours plus 6 preparation hours) in partnership with your teacher partner throughout the 2021/2022 academic year.
Artists can apply to be part of the scheme via expressions of interest to Thérése Gamble, Director, Drumcondra Education Centre at director@ecdrumcondra.ie. Expressions of interest should be in the form of a letter of max 600 words, accompanied by a CV or short bio with links to images or samples of relevant work.
Deadline: 5pm 21st May 2021
For more information view the poster below
Callout for Artists: Teacher-Artist Partnership (TAP) CPD 2021
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Opportunity for Schools: Creative Clusters Initiative Invite Applications
Creative Clusters Deadline: 14 May 2021
The Department of Education are pleased to announce the opening of a new round of Creative Clusters. The deadline for receipt of applications is Friday 14th May 2021.
Each Creative Cluster will receive grant funding of €3,000 per school over a two-year period to implement their project in the 2021–2023 school years (e.g. a cluster of 3 schools would receive €9,000 over two years while a cluster of 5 schools would receive €15,000 over two years). Clusters will receive 50% of the total grant funding in Year 1, with the second 50% being provided in Year 2. In addition, but separate to the grant funding, all successful clusters are further supported with: A fully paid Creative Cluster Facilitator; paid Teacher Substitution to attend training and meetings; room hire, travel & subsistence.
– Schools can apply as part of a cluster which may be an existing network of schools.
– A school nearing the end of year 2 of an existing Creative Cluster can reapply to be in a new cluster where the other schools in the new cluster have not participated before.
– Schools nearing the end of 2 years with Creative Schools are eligible to apply.
– The local Teacher Education Support Centre will have a key role in identifying and supporting a Creative Cluster for their local area.
– A total of 21 Creative Clusters will be selected nationally – One successful Creative Cluster per Education Centre.
Any queries, please contact your local Education Centre or email Arts in Education Administration mairevieux@edcentretralee.ie.
Creative Clusters is an initiative of the Department of Education, led by and in partnership with the 21 full-time Teacher Education Centres (Education Support Centres Ireland – ESCI) and funded through the Schools Excellence Fund.
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Part 1 – Announcing the 2021 Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award Recipients
The Portal Team are delighted to announce the first of the two recipients of the 2021 Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award. We are very excited to be working with each recipient in the coming months to document their projects. These projects will be showcased on the portal as the documentation progresses.
About the recipients….
Project Title:‘Place’ Teacher Artist Partnership Project
This project is a Teacher – Artist Partnership (TAP) residency project between teacher Alyson Hourigan and visual artist Tunde Toth in collaboration with the 3rd class pupils of Scoil Mhichil Naofa, in Athy, Co. Kildare with support from the Kilkenny Education Centre.
The overarching theme for the project is ‘Place’: we will explore natural and built environments, locality, home and belonging through a range of artistic processes both for individual and collective making. The thematic approach to the project will see many curriculum areas feed into the work the children will complete. Some activities the children will be interacting with include: creative ‘deep’ mapping, drawing, walking and collecting, book making, poetry, storytelling and creating materials and fibres. The focus of the project is on participation and enabling the children to actively guide their project and the choices and voices are listened too. The project is a hybrid of face-to-face and online sessions.
This project began in March 2021 when the children completed some online sessions with Artist Tunde Toth from their own homes via Google Classroom. . The Portal Documentation Award will allow the children to create a record of their own efforts and successes within the Arts curriculum and engage in reflective practice. This award will also give the children a voice within the Arts community and allow them to share their creativity with a much wider audience.
Artist: Tunde Toth
Tunde Toth is an artist, educator, arts advisor and researcher. Tunde has been involved with Arts in Education in Ireland since 2006 when she joined the Education Panel at Butler Gallery in Kilkenny City. She is an active member of the Creative Practitioners Panel at Dún Laoighaire Arts Office and Dún Laoighaire Libraries. She devises and delivers the Art Projects in Primary Schools programme in Co. Waterford in partnership with Waterford Arts Office. This year she will be undertaking a Teacher Artist Partnership with Scoil Mhichil Naofa Primary School, Athy.
Teacher: Alyson Hourigan
Alyson Hourigan is a primary school teacher in Scoil Mhichil Naofa, Athy, co. Kildare. She graduated from Mary Immaculate College in 2016 after completing a Bachelor of Education with a specialism in Special Educational Needs. Alyson has always been interested in the Arts, particularly Music, having been a member of Presentation Secondary School choir in Kilkenny and training in classical singing, completing the Royal Irish Academy of Music singing exams. Alyson has always put a huge emphasis on Arts Education in her teaching and completed a TAP summer course in 2020 with Kilkenny Education Centre.
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Call to Artists & Art Organisations: Children’s Art in Libraries Creative Hubs Programme
Creative Hubs are an initiative of Dublin City Arts Office and Libraries, that sustain high quality arts experiences for children, schools and families to access in their Library and locality, through partnership and engagement.
In co-creating this programme, in each of our three Creative Hubs Libraries – Coolock, Cabra and Ballyfermot – artists create new opportunities for children to engage with the arts through:
The Arts Council’s Creative Schools Initiative Date: 10 – 14 May 2021
Creative Schools Week is a celebration of creativity in schools which includes both In-School Celebrations and Online Celebrations. It is organised by the Creative Schools initiative which supports schools and Youthreach centres to put the arts and creativity at the heart of children’s and young people’s lives. The week is an opportunity to share, showcase, and connect all the exciting creative work that is being undertaken across schools.
Following a consultation process with children and young people the theme for CSW is Brave New Future, celebrating our children and young people’s courage in the face of a tough year, and looking forward towards a bright future.
In-school Celebrations:
All schools and centres across the country can generate and host their own celebration events. These events are a great way to involve and empower young people in the processes of presenting their creative journeys. To help schools/centres organise events, Creative Schools have provided Celebration Packs, full of ideas about creating their own in-school Creative Schools Week.
Online Celebrations:
Tune in to www.artscouncil.ie/creative-schools/celebration-2021/ on the 12-14 May (from 12pm daily) as we will be; highlighting work from a selection of Creative Schools, as well as workshops, interviews and features across a wide range of different artists and arts and cultural organisations. It is a great opportunity to learn about school communities across the initiative as well as their creative approaches to learning and artistic responses to Covid 19. Schools highlighted are a representation of the over 460 schools who have participated in the Creative Schools initiative since 2018 and were selected following a competitive process open to those participants.
Follow #CreativeSchools to see the creative events that schools are sharing on their social media.
Creative Schools is a flagship initiative of the Creative Ireland Programme to enable the creative potential of every child. Creative Schools is led by the Arts Council in partnership with the Department of Education and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
The initiative is also informed by the Arts Council’s ten-year strategy (2016–25) Making Great Art Work: Leading the Development of the Arts in Ireland.
This initiative provides opportunities for children and young people to build their artistic and creative skills; to communicate, collaborate, stimulate their imaginations, be inventive, and to harness their curiosity. More information on how to apply to be a Creative School is available at www.artscouncil.ie/creative-schools/schools-opportunities/.
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Job Opportunity: Creative Schools Programme Director
The Arts Council’s Creative Schools Initiative Deadline: 12 noon, 19 May 2021
The Arts Council of Ireland is seeking to engage the services of a suitably qualified Programme Director for the Creative Schools Initiative.
Scoileanna Ildánacha/Creative Schools is a flagship initiative of the Creative Ireland Programme to enable the creative potential of every child. Creative Schools is led by the Arts Council in partnership with the Department of Education and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
The initiative is also informed by the Arts Council’s ten-year strategy (2016–25) Making Great Art Work: Leading the Development of the Arts in Ireland.
This initiative provides opportunities for children and young people to build their artistic and creative skills; to communicate, collaborate, stimulate their imaginations, be inventive, and to harness their curiosity.
The Arts Council of Ireland currently has an exciting opportunity at Assistant Principal grade for a Programme Director – Creative Schools.
The Programme Director will be engaged on a full-time basis for a 3 year FTC to lead and manage the Creative Schools programme and team. They will be responsible for strategy, policy, project planning and delivery, human resources and contract management, to ensure the effective delivery of the programme.
The closing date for receipt of applications is 12.00 noon, Wednesday 19 May, 2021.
First Cut! Youth Film Festival Dates: 17 April – 9 May 2021
First Cut! Youth Film Festival returns for its 12th year showcasing new films by young filmmakers. Running from 17 April – 9 May 2021, offers an imaginative, thought-provoking and entertaining programme for young people aged 12-24yrs. Audiences from all over Ireland, and from abroad, are invited to join them virtually for a completely free programme of events including: Open call short film and feature film screenings, workshops, panel discussions with some of the leading filmmakers in Ireland, a host of special guest appearances and more.
Workshops include: Puppetry for Film and Television Workshop, Stormtroopers SFX Workshop and more.
The Glucksman Date: Saturday May 22nd, 10:30-11:30am or 12-1pm
The Glucksman presents Natural Creators: Exploring and Creating Soundscapes with composer Karen Power. These free, interactive workshops focus on early years listening, composing and improvising sound. Using found sounds from our natural and constructed environment, these workshops encourage children’s natural openness and curiosity through a series of guided composing, improving, listening and play activities.
Natural Creators workshops are built on slowly integrating sound into children’s everyday lives. This program is designed in an open and improvised manner facilitating every child to engage in the process with their own unique approach to creating sound.
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Opportunity Deadline Extended: Creative Schools 2021 Applications Open for Schools and Centres
Creative Schools Deadline: 17:30, Thursday 10 June 2021
Scoileanna Ildánacha/Creative Schools are delighted to announce an exciting opportunity for schools/centres to apply to participate in the initiative. Schools/centres may apply from 6 April and the deadline is 17:30, Thursday 10 June 2021.
The Creative Schools initiative supports schools/centres to put the arts and creativity at the heart of children’s and young people’s lives. This initiative provides opportunities for children and young people to build their artistic and creative skills; to communicate, collaborate, stimulate their imaginations, be inventive, and to harness their curiosity. It will empower children and young people to develop, implement and evaluate arts and creative activity throughout their schools/centres and stimulate additional ways of working that reinforce the impact of creativity on children and young people’s learning, development and well-being.
Participating schools/centres will be provided with a package of supports that includes working with a Creative Associate, training and networking to support them to create their Creative School Plan, as well as seed funding to begin to implement their Plan.
Creative Associates will respond to each school/centre’s development priorities and needs in order to support them to deepen the arts and creative opportunities for children and young people. They will use their practical experience, to develop partnerships and mechanisms that enable sustained relationships between schools/centres and the arts and cultural sectors.
All Department of Education and Skills-recognised primary and post-primary schools and Youthreach centres who have not already participated in a previous round of Creative Schools are eligible to apply.
Deadline: 17:30, Thursday 10 June 2021
Further information on the Creative Schools application process will be available online shortly. Applications must be submitted online and schools are encouraged to register well in advance of the deadline: https://onlineservices.artscouncil.ie/Register.aspx
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Opportunity: Creative Hub Project Coordinator at The Ark
The Ark
Deadline: 5pm May 4th, 2021
The Ark is now seeking expressions of interest in the provision of Creative Hub project coordination services on a freelance contract basis to coordinate the delivery of their new strand of programming as part of the DCC Children’s Art in Libraries Creative Hubs. This is an exciting opportunity for someone who demonstrates an affinity for the values of The Ark, a talent for delivering multi-disciplinary arts programmes for children, and an ability to connect and collaborate with multiple partners to deliver both artistic and locally relevant aims.
This opportunity provides the right individual the chance to work with The Ark to deliver an exciting new programme for children in a community context working with key partners within the cultural sector for children in Dublin.
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Online Arts Education Resource: TULCA Education Programme
TULCA
New online visual arts education resource for primary and secondary school students.
TULCA is a festival celebrating contemporary visual art, that takes place annually in November across Galway City and County with a programme of multi-venue exhibitions and events. TULCA Education Programme is a unique programme that focuses on looking at and responding to visual art. It is about reaching out and engaging with schools and the wider community to create an increased awareness and a shared understanding of the Visual Arts. The programme engages a process of slow looking, reflection and response.
TULCA’s Education Programme is designed to continue this process of critical thinking by creating a space for dialogue and learning exchange. It draws on individual personal experience and acknowledges that we all have our own set of visual codes, value systems, likes and dislikes.
The online arts education resource caters for primary and secondary school students and uses a mixture of creative activities and videos to explore contemporary visual art.
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Blog 3 – Anna Newell, Theatre Maker for Early Years & Children with Complex Needs
Respond. Re-Imagine. Re-Connect.
The next chapter of my theatre adventures last summer was a re-imagining (or in fact three different re-imaginings) of my show SING ME TO THE SEA – created in 2018, SING ME TO THE SEA is a blissful watery adventure for children & young people with complex needs full of harmony singing, tiny waterfalls, shiny globes and rainbow fish that was created to be performed in hydropools with 3 performers and three audience members, each with an adult companion – with everyone in the water! [https://www.annanewell.ie/work/sing-me-to-the-sea/}
I’ve always said that the heart of my work is that it is flexible, that it is responsive, that it is nuanced moment by moment by our audience. And in Summer 2020, I had to really walk the walk with that one and take that flexibility and responsiveness to a whole new level.
So, with huge support (and flexibility!) from our funders and venue partners, we created a dry-land at-home version of the show. And we hired a campervan. For three weeks in August 2020, we drove around Dublin, Meath, Carlow and Wicklow, taking the show directly to families in their own gardens and driveways. We sang in the rain, we were stared at by milkmen, curious neighbour children gathered – and we were given the extraordinary opportunity to connect with our audiences where they were.
Later in the summer, we took this dry-land version to Baboró International Festival and performed the show in the magical setting of the gardens of the Ardilaun Hotel. And although they were only a few weeks into what must have been the hardest term of their lives, the special schools came in their droves – not only did we sell out the schools’ performances but we had to add more!
And, then, astonishingly, the wonderful pool staff at St Gabriel’s School & Centre called us up and said they’d like to give it a go. So, singing in masks and visors and working within AquaPhysio Guidelines, we were back in the water.
The unforseen adventures that were created by being forced to re-invent, re-imagine, to find ways to re-connect with our audiences at this time of distance and disconnection had a profound impact on me.
And it inspired a whole new show for 2021. More of that in my final blog…
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For Schools: Art @ Home Activity Pack for Primary Schools
Pallas Projects
Pallas Projects have produced an online resource ‘Art @ Home’ for teachers and primary school students.
This year to coincide with Pallas Projects Online Periodical Review X Exhibition, they have teamed up with artist and education curator Liliane Puthod to create an activity pack for students to do at home or in school. Each of the four activities are relevant to all ages, and relate to a work in their online exhibition.
Pallas Projects/Studios is a not-for-profit artist-run organisation dedicated to the facilitation of artistic production and discourse, via the provision of affordable artists studios in Dublin’s city centre, and curated exhibitions. Pallas Projects is dedicated to the making and showing of visual art to our peers as well as a wide and diverse audience: via exhibitions, talks and tours.
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The Everyman & Graffiti Theatre Company Present: This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing
The Everyman & Graffiti Theatre Company
Dates: 1 – 31 May On Demand
On demand audio stream theatre for young audiences 8+ for families or schools.
This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing by Finegan Kruckemeyer, is presented by The Everyman and Graffiti Theatre Company as part of Play It by Ear, a programme of shows performed on The Everyman stage, and available as an audio stream.
Triplet sisters are left in the forest by their woodcutter father. From this fairytale beginning, three resolutions are made – one sister will walk one way, one the other, and the third will stay right where she is. Twenty years later, having circumnavigated the globe, and fought Vikings, and crossed oceans, and tamed wilds, and achieved greatness, the three meet again, as women.
Fun and accessible resources will be available on Graffiti’s website for teachers and parents to support children’s enjoyment of the episodes. These resources – which will be available for the audio stream live date – will include creative prompts and activities to give children a deeper engagement with the piece.
Price: On Demand Audio Stream Family €12 | Schools €65
Age recommendation: 8+, recommended for young audiences and their families
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Opportunity for Young People: Source Arts Centre Online Workshops
Source Arts Centre Date: 24 April
The Source Arts Centre is hosting a series of online workshops until June as part of their ‘Y’ Arts Programme. The ‘Y’ Arts Programme encourages young people aged between 13 and 18 to create new works of art using a task and challenge based approach. The programme aims to encourage an understanding of contemporary art and avant-garde art.
Workshop : Dream Like Maya Deren 12pm-1pm, 24th April 2021
Maya Deren was a Ukrainian-born American experimental filmmaker in the 1940s and 1950s. In this workshop, participants will look at her most famous film ‘Meshes Of The Afternoon’ and examine how dream states or the subconscious are depicted in art.
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Opportunity: Music Generation Development Officer (Fingal)
Music Generation Deadline: 23 April 2021
Dublin and Dun Laoghaire Education and Training Board (DDLETB) invites applications for the position of Music Generation Development Officer (Fingal). They will be responsible for managing a programme of performance music education on behalf of Fingal Local Music Education Partnership. This is a five-year fixed term contract.
The successful candidate will have a broad understanding of the diversity of effective, contemporary approaches across the diversity of performance music education – and will have the skills and experience to develop a programme that responds to the specific needs of young people in disadvantaged communities.
Music Generation is Ireland’s National Music Education Programme that gives children and young people access to high-quality, subsidised performance music education. Initiated by Music Network, Music Generation is co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education and Local Music Education Partnerships.
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Opportunity: Music Generation Callout for Musicians
Music Generation Deadline: 30 April 2021
Music Generation invites individual or groups of professional musicians to tender to lead and develop distinct Communities of Practice with musicians that deliver Music Generation programmes; and to lead, develop and create new work for children and young people with musicians involved in Music Generation Communities of Practice.
Music Generation is Ireland’s National Music Education Programme that gives children and young people access to high-quality, subsidised performance music education. Initiated by Music Network, Music Generation is co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education and Local Music Education Partnerships.
Last week over 100 artists, teachers and arts in education professionals joined us live for the annual Portal Spring Regional Event Series which this year showcased arts in education and creative practise in the Mid-West.
Portal Regional Events have been an opportunity to connect with the community at regional level, to share practice and to find out what initiatives are available in the local area. In these challenging times it’s now more than ever important to stay connected and be inspired.
The first in our series of discussions opened on Monday (22nd March) with one of the 2020 Portal Documentation Award recipients, the Teacher-Artist Partnership (TAP) Project ‘The Lonely Traveller’. Teacher Jacintha Mullins and composer Fiona Linnane brought us on the journey of their collaboration with the pupils of Mid-West School for the Deaf, Limerick.
On Wednesday Adam Stoneman, former Public Engagement Coordinator of ‘The Three Muses’ Programme (now part of the Engagement & Learning Team at IMMA) and The Hunt Museum’s Education Coordinator, Hannah Bloom took us on a dive into Mozilla Hubs an open source VR space. Adam and Hannah shared how they utilised the digital platform to creatively collaborate with school groups to explore the museum’s collection. The discussion was also joined by artist Jo-Anne Hine who shared her perspective of using Mozilla Hubs while working with primary school pupils as part of the project ‘ABC of The Three Muses’.
On Friday and Saturday participants joined artist Éilís Murphy of Folded Leaf for a hands-on creative bookmaking session ‘Stories Unfolding’ were participants where invited to experiment with various materials and book-making techniques. Below is some feedback from participants:
“I loved it because it was both intuitive and reflective, achieving very surprising results in a short space of time.”
“This was great, a practical project that can be applied to my own practice or to future workshops.”
Image credit: Work created by Marie Brett during ‘Stories Unfolding’ .
To close the programme on Saturday (27th March) composer Fiona Linnane explored sound and the nature of listening in a the creative session ‘Éisteacht/Listen’. Participants in this playful exploration were invited to take a sound walk and explore how we interpret sound in our daily lives and how we can become more active listeners. Below is some feedback from participants:
“Using the act of listening to ‘slow-down’, to come into a sense of being and mindful practice. I’ve already embedded active listening into my own daily walks since the workshop, as a practice of self-care”.
“It was a joy to attend this workshop. I particularly enjoyed how each activity was designed to be accessible and transfer easily either to a classroom, a community setting or working with children and young people…. Tuning in to the environment around me, deepened my focus”.
Sound Walk Recording – Julie Forrester ‘Rain Zipper Birdsong’ created as part of ‘Éisteacht/Listen’.
Thank you to everyone who joined us across the week. For those who missed the discussions they will be available to watch back until the end of December on the Arts in Education Portal Facebook page or click on the direct video links listed below.
“A great platform to meet, pool expertise and help. It encourages discussion and sharing”.
Creative Schools is forming a panel of Creative Associate Regional Coordinators across the country. It is envisaged that the Arts Council will engage the services of 8 Regional Coordinators. Both individuals and organisations (who nominate a particular representative) may apply to provide these services.
The main tasks of the Creative Associate regional coordinators are:
– Work closely with the Arts Council’s Creative Schools’ team to support and assist in coordinating the work of the Creative Associates at a regional level.
– Liaise with and support up to twenty Creative Associates and their assigned schools across each region.
– Be required to carry out services for around seventy days per annum, with a minimum of one day per week between the months of September to June.
Deadline for applications: Friday 2nd April, 2021
For more information, see www.etenders.gov.ie/ (select Arts Council in ‘authority’ field of an advanced search on etenders).
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Deep Dive Training – Methods and Mindsets of the Creativity & Change Programme
Creativity & Change Programme
Dates: April – May 2021
Short deep-dives into the methods and mindsets of the Creativity & Change programme.
Deep Dive Training (formally masterclasses): action-focused workshops to unleash your imagination and creativity. Leading to a collective day of creative hopeful action across the country at our Paste-Up Blitz.
This Spring-Summer training programme is centred around the idea of the “Awesome Solution”. This concept is based on research conducted at the COP21 conference about the impact of art on audience engagement and perceptions of the world’s big problems.
Researchers found that:
Artwork that presents an awesome solution to a problem was the most effective at engaging the audience and inspiring them to change their attitudes to take action on a local or global justice issue.
The workshop series offers a deep-dive into the idea of the awesome solution, exploring the concept across a range of disciplines, methodologies, and facilitators, bringing you through a variety of processes that can be adapted and integrated into your own work. Exploring development education topics and global and social justice means covering complex issues, discussing interconnected systemic BIG world problems, things that often feel outside of our control can be overwhelming.
How can we use the arts to inspire hope, to nurture that longing for the brighter future we all know is possible and engage our communities in action?
Are you an educator, youth worker, artist, activist, advocate looking for a new inspiration? Join us to:
Create meaningful spaces online to engage groups in awesome solution based projects that can go on to inspire others to take action for change
Work with the entire Creativity & Change team
Learn skills to tap into the creative potential of groups, be culturally engaging, and contribute to imagining a new and better future for humankind
The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible.
Where: Zoom and online
Who: These workshops are for anyone working in a non-formal learning context with others- youth workers, community workers, artists, activists, educators, dreamers, changemakers.
Commitment to all the workshops is essential
There are five different options for participants to join this workshop series. These five “streams” will run simultaneously from April 10th until May 22nd. All groups will be invited to take part in a national “paste-up” day to bring their ideas into public space. To view the five options and register go to www.creativityandchange.ie/non-accredited-training-previously-masterclasses/
Each group will experience the same workshop flow:
Please contact us if you are unwaged or have financial constraints or with any other questions at: claire.coughlan@cit.ie
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NMI Invites Schools to Learn and Engage with Culture in the Classroom
The National Museum of Ireland (NMI)
The National Museum of Ireland (NMI) has launched its spring/summer 2021 programme of online workshops, activities and resources for schools.
The Museum is inviting schools all over Ireland to enjoy, engage and learn with culture in the classroom this spring and beyond.
From the Crazy Life of Crows to pop-up talks on the Easter Rising, the spring/summer programme explores a diverse range of topics and themes, all inspired by the National Collections across four Museum sites in Dublin and Mayo.
The NMI usually welcomes some 90,000 primary and post primary students on classroom visits each year. Due to COVID-19 public health advice, the Museum has now moved its schools programme online with imaginative workshops, virtual tours and classroom activities, delivering meaningful learning experiences for students.
Some highlights from the spring/summer programme include a family tree workshop with the NMI – Country Life; a virtual tour about the 1916 Rising from the NMI – Decorative Arts & History; an Ogham Code challenge from the NMI – Archaeology; and special virtual classroom sessions exploring extinction with the NMI – Natural History.
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Blog 2 – Anna Newell, Theatre Maker for Early Years and Children with Complex Needs
How Spiderman Inspired Me Last Summer
In 2019 (which now feels like a decade ago), I made a new show for early years audiences called BigKidLittleKid. It’s a wordless physical theatre piece for ages 3-6 years about the complicated world of sibling rivalry. It opened at The Ark for Dublin Theatre Festival and toured to the Mermaid, the Civic and Draiocht.
Through the summer of 2020, I grew surer and surer about my commitment to finding a way to keep a live connection with my very particular audiences.
During what had become my weekly check-in with my wee brother, he was talking about some guy somewhere in England who’d dressed up as Spiderman and spidey-ed his way through his local streets to the utter delight of the children forced to stay at home in these first shut-in weeks of the first lockdown.
I’ve always been interested in making the ordinary extraordinary and believe that if you can literally change the landscape, you make visible the possibility of change and of hope.
So I hatched a plan.
Thanks to the Ready Steady Show programme run by my main producing partner the Civic, a wee pot of money was found to create a PopUp Play version of BigKidLittleKid which we played on a tennis court outside a summer camp, in a massive hall inside another summer camp and outside a nursery.
My favourite picture of the whole summer was the picture of the one pod sitting watching the extraordinary adventure that unfolded in their tiny playground with the second pod who weren’t allowed to share the same space as them, determinedly pressing their noses against the window intently watching the entire show.
For us as artists, being out there with our audiences again, hearing that very particular laughter of children delighted with a new story, a new connection, was extraordinary. Our hearts soared and I’d be lying if I said we didn’t shed a tear or two of hard-won joy and hope.
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Lismore Castle Arts Launches Artifice Online Exhibition
Lismore Castle Arts Online exhibition
Artifice is an annual exhibition by Lismore Castle Arts which presents works of art created by transition year students from across County Waterford. This year’s theme is “Land Art”, based on Lismore Castle Arts’ main exhibition for 2021 “Light and Language” centred around the work of Nancy Holt, a significant figure in the Land Art movement. Students were invited to explore their relationship with the environment and to express their experience of the lockdown, environmentalism and personal identity.
Over 130 students took part in Artifice 2021, creating new artworks using a variety of media including photography, film, sculpture and painting. The five schools participating in Artifice 2021 are Meánscoil San Nioclás (An Rinn), Ard Scoil na nDéise (Dungarvan), Ardscoil na Mara (Tramore), St. Augustine’s College (Dungarvan) and Blackwater Community School (Lismore).
Children in Galway are dancing, leaping and learning with local and international artists this spring, thanks to the RISE programme from Baboró International Arts Festival for Children in partnership with Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture. This March children aged 8 to 13 years are taking on starring roles in two “RISE” projects, combining parkour, circus skills, performance art, sport and more. Making the most of digital opportunities to connect across the globe, the young people are participating at school and at home.
Projects include:
St. Pats Lockdown Olympics: A whacky series of four weekly videos, accompanied by props delivered to students’ homes, to guide them through the creation of their own spectacularly zany sports.
The Streets Are Ours: A collaborative project to create a promenade performance by Galway children combining parkour, contemporary dance and circus skills. The dance performance will be recorded in April and shared with the public as soon as safely possible.
The Veiled Ones: The final element of the RISE programme will be The Veiled Ones, a new dance theatre production highlighting the powerful relationship between grandparents and grandchildren, created by renowned Irish company Junk Ensemble.
This immersive work, currently in development.
In Conversation with Junk Ensemble & kabinet k
On April 23, Baboró will host the digital event, ‘In Conversation with Junk Ensemble & kabinet k’, exploring both companies’ development processes in making work with and for children, and the challenges to creating dance in a global pandemic.
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The Creative Youth Conference 2021: Creativity – the Connection to our Future, Now
Creative Ireland Programme
Dates: 13, 15 April & 13 May 2021
The Creative Ireland Programme has announced details of the Creative Youth Conference 2021. The conference – Creativity: the connection to our future, now – will be hosted online and will comprise three separate events in April and May discussing questions surrounding provision of opportunities for creative engagement by young people both within the school and their community.
As part of a wider deliberation on the Creative Youth Plan – which was published in December 2017 – the Conference is an opportunity for stakeholders to reflect on progress to date and input their views concerning the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
The conference will commence with Creative Youth in the Education System, which will take place on Tuesday 13 April, from 12:30 to 2pm. This will be followed by on Thursday 15 April (also from 12:30 to 2pm) by Creative Youth in the Community.
These two events will feature contributions from a range of people involved in Creatives Youth initiatives – such as the Creative Schools programme and the Local Creative Youth Partnerships – and provide an insight into the roll-out of the Creative Youth Plan to date.
These events will also feed into a high-level conference to be held on Thursday 13 May from 12 noon to 2pm.
This event, which will be opened by the Taoiseach, and will also include contributions from the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin, the Minister for Education, Norma Foley and the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’ Gorman.
The main conference will also feature two panel discussions with contributions from a national and international guests including Andreas Schleicher (OECD), Michelle Cullen (Accenture), Arlene Forster (National Council for Curriculum and Assessment), Bo Stjerne Thomsen (The LEGO Foundation), author Roddy Doyle, Helene Hugel (Helium Arts) and Prof Linda Doyle (TCD).
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2021 Portal Spring Regional Online Events – Programme Announced
Arts in Education Portal
Dates: 22 – 28 March 2021
The Portal Team are delighted to invite teachers, artists, arts managers and anyone with an interest in arts in education to connect with us online for the 2021 Portal Spring Regional Event Series from the 22nd to 28th March 2021.
The programme features a series of sessions sharing experience and best practise from the sector in the Mid-West. It includes a discussion on Monday, 22nd March with the 2020 Portal Documentation Award recipients teacher Jacintha Mullins and composer Fiona Linnane. Jacintha and Fiona will share insights from their experience on the project ‘The Lonely Traveller’, a collaboration with pupils at the Mid-West School for the Deaf, Limerick.
On Wednesday 24th we’re delighted to welcome The Hunt Museum’s Public Engagement Coordinator, Adam Stoneman and Education Officer, Hannah Bloom who will share their experience of how the museum engaged with schools using a virtual collaboration platform.
On Friday 26th and Saturday 27th, artist Éilís Murphy invites participants to two hands-on creative bookmaking sessions. Participants will be introduced to collage and bookmaking techniques, experimenting with various materials, textures and surfaces in this process-led workshop.
Monday 22nd March, 4pm —Discussion: ‘The Lonely Traveller’, a discussion and documentation launch event with teacher Jacintha Mullins and composer Fiona Linnane – Book Tickets here
Wednesday 24th March, 7pm —Presentation: ‘Virtual Workshops & Curation Using Mozilla Hubs’, with Public Engagement Coordinator, Adam Stoneman and Education Officer, Hannah Bloom of The Hunt Museum – Book Tickets here
Friday 26th, 7pm & Saturday 27th, 11am – A Hands-on Creative Workshop: ‘Stories Unfolding’ with bookmaker and artist, Éilís Murphy – Places for this session are now fully booked– Waiting List Registration
Saturday 27th, 11am – A Hands-on Creative Workshop: ‘Éisteacht/Listen’, with composer Fiona Linnane – Places for this session are fully now booked – Waiting List Registration
Please note:
The sessions on Monday and Wednesday will also be broadcast on Facebook Live, however to take part in the discussion on Zoom Live ticket booking is required.
The Creative Sessions on Friday and Saturday have limited capacity. Please note the ticket release date, we advise booking early to avoid disappointment. Materials for these sessions will be posted directly to participants, so home addresses will need to be shared with the portal editor and artist.
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Calling All Creatives: Join Architecture at the Edge Design Lab 2021
Architecture at the Edge
Deadline: 8 March 2021
Architecture at the Edge a new outreach project in collaboration with Matt + Fiona is looking for creative and engaging architects, artists and designers to participate in Design Lab 2021 / a space for belonging.
Join this exciting initiative to empower the next generation to develop their ideas for the future of the local area.
Through Design Lab, you will enable them to develop ideas for a ‘Space for Belonging’ – with AATE and MATT+FIONA’s support. The initiative will involve training, facilitating creative workshops and joining an ambitious ‘Proto-Build’. Starting in April 2021 and culminating with the ‘Proto-Build’ in Autunm 2021, Design Lab is a great opportunity to share your knowledge and creativity with young people and teachers in a fun and engaging way.
If you have good communication skills and are looking for exciting ways to expand your practice, AATE would love to hear from you!
Deadline for applications is Monday 08 March at 12noon.
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Opportunity for Schools: Ennis Book Club Festival Workshops for Schools
Ennis Book Club Festival Dates: 2 – 5 March
Ennis Book Club Festival invites post-primary school students and teachers in County Clare to a series of online workshops scheduled as part of their wider book club festival taking place from 2 – 7 March.
The workshops include:
Fighting Words Creative Writing Workshop, Tues 2 March, 10am-12 noon or 1.45pm-3.45pm
Songwriting and Music Production Workshop with Music Generation Clare, Wed 3 March, 9.30am-12pm or 1.30pm-4pm
Secondary School Audience with author Louise O’Neill, Thurs 4 March, 10am-11am or 2.10pm-3.10pm
Louise O’Neill in conversation with Sarah Moore Fitzgerald, 5 March, 11.30am
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Opportunity: The Practice of Looking, Visual Thinking Strategies Course
The LAB Gallery, Dublin City Arts Office Dates: Wednesdays 4-6pm, 3, 10, 24 March & 14, 21, 28 April
The Practice of Looking is a six-week, online course to learn about Visual Thinking Strategies and its use in Dublin, and to practice its facilitation. It was born out of the growing interest in the adoption of Visual Thinking Strategies at the LAB Gallery and in the partnerships and networks that have evolved around it. The LAB Gallery, Dublin City Arts Office, The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) and VTS Neighbourhood Schools are partnering to host an online course that offers the opportunity to learn from trained VTS coaches in the existing network. The course will have a strong focus on facilitation practice and reflection. You will receive a certificate of attendance after completion of the course.
Please note that to participate to the course, you need to:
Be available for all sessions.
Be a practicing teacher / educator / artist / museum guide.
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New Architecture Learning Resource for Schools: IAF DIY Studio
Irish Architecture Foundation
The IAF have produced an online resource ‘DIYStudio’ for teachers and secondary school students.
DIYStudio introduces you to architecture and is perfect for secondary schools students who might be curious about the process of design. Follow the five stages – Explore, Research, Design, Present, Reflect to design your own architectural space, learning and experimenting along the way. All you need to get started is internet access, paper and a pencil.
Students can start and finish anytime, DIYStudio is an ongoing project.
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Opportunity: Teachers’ CPD: Creativity in the Online Classroom Made Easy
The Ark Date: 25 February 2021
The Ark invites you to ‘Creativity in the Online Classroom Made Easy’ CPD workshop for teachers, where you will learn a range of easy, accessible skills to help you bring creativity into your online teaching. Find out how easy it can be to breathe imagination into an online class, inspiring both your students and yourself. The ideas shared will be useful for both teaching online and when you are back in the classroom.
Perhaps you are overwhelmed with the technical aspects of moving your teaching online, or feeling frustrated with the limitations and struggling to make your online lessons creative and engaging. Or perhaps you are simply looking for some fresh inspiration for ideas that can work well in the online space. Join the Ark for this morning of inspiration and art-making to help you address these challenges, led by artist Duffy Mooney-Sheppard who has been leading online classes for children for the past year.
During this session you will gain valuable time to explore various tools available on Zoom to develop, hone and gain confidence in digital art lessons. Ideas shared will be adaptable and transferrable to other online platforms you may be using also. The possibilities in virtual learning spaces are wide and we are all learning! We will ask questions, share challenges, try things out and build our knowledge as a group.
Children’s Books Ireland and Poetry Ireland are working in partnership to host a series of capacity-building webinars for artists who are delivering online programmes to children and young people. The webinars are free to attend and places are limited. Children’s Books Ireland and Poetry Ireland are committed to supporting artists in the development of their practice and their working conditions.
23rd Feb: Child Protection and Safeguarding Webinar
24th Feb: Cybersafety when working with Children Webinar
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Blog 1 – Anna Newell, Theatre Maker for Early Years & Children with Complex Needs
What. How. Why.
I remember really vividly where I was on 12th March 2020. I was visiting the cast at the end of their 3rd week of a 10 week tour of my show for babies ‘I AM BABA’ and our tiny gorgeous tent was set up in a rather grand hotel ballroom in Trim. We came out of the third show to the news of the announcement of lockdown. We threw the set and costumes back in my storage facility without masses of care – as we knew it was only going to be a couple of weeks.
I know.
For the next 2 months, I was lost, desperately trying to think what to do and how to do it.
And then I worked out that it wasn’t about the what or the how but rather about the why.
When creating ‘BLISS’, the first show I made specifically for audiences of children with complex needs, I was doing some creative consultation in a classroom and over the course of these few days these children revealed to me what I think theatre is – one human being connecting with another. That’s it. And that my job is to create the optimum conditions for that connection.
And for my audiences, the optimum conditions overwhelmingly are that it’s a live experience.
The work has always had at its very heart the live responsive connection and an inherent and crucial ability to nuance and change from moment to moment. And I realised what I had to do was to take this built-in flexibility to a whole new level…
Thanks to the incredible support of funders, venues, audiences and artists and more than a little bit of luck, I managed to tour work live for 8 weeks in the summer, autumn and winter of 2020.
And in my next couple of blogs, I’ll tell you the how and the what.
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Opportunity Deadline Extended: Portal Documentation Award 2021
Deadline Extended: Friday 26th March 2021
The Arts in Education Portal editorial team are pleased to invite applications for a documentation award. Through the award, successful applicants will receive services to the value of €5,000 that will support them in the documentation of a current or upcoming project and a €500 stipend.
The purpose of the award is to support the development of documented outcomes from Arts in Education initiatives in Ireland, which can be shared with the arts in education community and give insights into different processes of engagement. This is part of the Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee’s commitment to supporting and recognising the value of documentation and reflection as a key component within arts in education initiatives.
With many Arts in Education initiatives moving to online engagement in 2020 and that continuing into 2021 the Portal Editorial Committee want to ensure that while the community is adjusting to this form of engagement that the Portal continues to offer support and assisting the community in sharing learnings through this time.
Two awards will be offered through this opportunity.
Outcomes of the documentation process will include: a project video, a project feature to be showcased on the Portal’s Projects/Partnerships, and the option of a critical essay, with a view to also presenting the work as part of the Arts in Education Portal National Day in 2021.
The process will involve meetings with the Portal Team and a schedule of 3 visits over the course of the project to capture video and photographic documentation and support reflective processes among participants. These visits and meetings can be conducted virtually. The portal team will work closely with the recipients to ensure all restrictions and protocols in terms of COVID 19 are adhered to during the process to ensure safety for all involved.
The portal team will edit and produce a project video, and will liaise closely with the project partners to develop the content for the project feature. The critical essay would be sited in the Portal’s Reading Room, and is optional. The author and focus of the essay can be decided by the project organisers in collaboration with the Portal Team.
Criteria
To be considered for this opportunity, projects must:
Have started in autumn 2020 and continuing into 2021, or taking place in 2021 (flexibility will be give to project start dates due to current school closures).
Have a minimum duration of 8 weeks.
Involve a professional artist working collaboratively within an educational setting (early years, primary or post-primary).
Be underpinned by a strong ethos of collaboration and a commitment to excellence. Focus on the creative process, with children having an active and collaborative role
Additional criteria
Successful applicants will be asked to ensure that relevant permissions/consent have been sought for documentation of participants.
Please ensure your application has been approved by all project partners prior to submission.
How to make a submission:
Background on who you are; your professional practice and your ethos or approach towards Arts in Education.
An overview of the project – who is involved, how did the collaboration come about, what processes or approaches will take place, what is the aim or focus of the process?
A statement of interest, explaining why documentation supports would be of value to this project.
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Opportunity for Schools: VISUAL Carlow Online Workshops
VISUAL Carlow
Dates: Throughout February & March
Would you and your class like to participate in an online workshop with VISUAL Carlow’s Curator of Learning, Clare Breen?
Clare will bring your class on a virtual walk through this season’s exhibitions, broadcast live from inside their closed gallery. After the tour she will lead an art activity that can be completed with simple materials children can find at home or in school.
These workshops are suitable for primary school groups from 1st to 6th class. Book your place for an online workshop in February and March, workshops are free but places are limited!
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Save the Date: The Arts in Education Portal Spring Regional Online Events 2021
Arts in Education Portal
The Arts in Education Portal Team are delighted to announce that the 2021 Portal Spring Regional Event Series will take place online during the week of March 22nd, showcasing arts in education projects and creative practice in the Mid-West.
The series aims to connect regional audiences with the Portal. Practitioners can learn more about the Portal and what it offers, tell us about their work, connect with the community, share practice and find out what opportunities or events are available in the region. We welcome teachers, artists, arts managers and anyone with an interest in arts in education to join us for this free series of online events which will include online discussions and creative workshops.
Stay tuned for the full schedule to be announced in February.
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Roundup: A Selection of Arts in Education Online Programmes
A selection of some of the fantastic digital arts in education activities and programmes available for children and young people which support learning at home.
To support teachers delivering arts-based learning to children remotely while they are home due to the COVID-19 restrictions, The Ark have a variety of classroom and at-home activity packs relating to different areas of the curriculum, as well as a selection of recorded shows available to stream for your class privately.
Join The Glucksman online for on daily live art sessions and creative activities you can do at home. A team of facilitators delivers daily art classes and discover a range of art making skills and techniques. These free online sessions will keep children engaged as they learn about drawing, painting, constructing and printmaking using basic art and household materials.
With your family, you can explore specially selected artworks from the IMMA Collection online and their temporary Exhibition Programme, as well as suggested starting points for creative activities related to those artworks. These free online resources cover themes such as abstract painting, collage, land art and more.
Stay connected with the National Gallery of Ireland online, with lots of different ways to engage with their collection – virtual tours, videos, podcasts, downloadable resources, activities for children, online workshops, blogposts, and much more.
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New Video Resource For Schools: ‘Speaking of Which’ Artist Interview Series
The Dock Arts Centre and The Lab Gallery
Eleven Irish artists reveal what inspires them and how they make their art in a free video series designed for use in the classroom.
The Dock Arts Centre in Carrick on Shannon and The Lab Gallery in Dublin have worked together to produce an online resource for teachers and arts educators. This resource is ideal for use in a classroom or online educational setting and features artists speaking directly about themselves and the art making process. View the online resource here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/8094850
As well as connecting young people with some of the rich ideas that inform our visual culture and offering them a unique insight into the arts practices, methods and motivations of practicing artists the series also affords the artists a unique opportunity to speak directly to and connect with young audiences.
In the interviews the artists reveal their reasons for making art, describe the methods they use to make their work but most importantly reveal what is means to them to be an artist and how they transform their desire to create and communicate into the work they produce. The diversity of their individual backgrounds and experiences is reflected in the work each artist makes. They draw inspiration from many sources; the books they read as children, the films they have watched, conversations they have had, the environments that they have lived in and places they have visited.
The artists are Sinéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Eve O’ Callaghan, Jamie Cross, Ellen Duffy, Kate Murphy, Atoosa Pour Hosseini, Gemma Browne, Anna Maria Healy, Austin Ivers, Louise Manifold and Jackie McKenna.
The video series is a starting point to mediate conversations with young people about their own creativity, ideas and inspirations, the videos may also be used as an inspiration for teachers and educators to devise workshop and other practical activities for their classes.
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Embracing Cultural Diversity in the Classroom: Report on Building an Intercultural Museum Programme for Schools
Chester Beatty Library
Chester Beatty launched an Intercultural museum programme for primary and post-primary schools offering students and their teachers the opportunity to explore world cultures in an Irish museum. Participants are encouraged to engage with Chester Beatty’s Islamic, East Asian and European collections through a variety of activities including guided tours, self-guided visits, online learning resources and access to the extensive image gallery.
Intercultural dialogue and learning plays a key role in the museum’s mission and fosters dialogue with the communities represented in Chester Beatty’s unique collections. These collections offer wonderful learning opportunities and support a number of key curricular areas from art history to world faiths. A range of free teaching resources are available to support self-guided visits and inspire activities back at school.
This report includes the background to the intercultural school’s project and includes definitions on intercultural dialogue and relevant policies, strategies and projects in both the formal education, arts and cultural sectors; the development of the intercultural school’s programme; analysis of current practices and methodologies; programme development including the training of volunteer guides, Continuous Professional Development of teachers; and pilot tours and evaluation.
Schools have full access to Chester Beatty’s remarkable treasures through the website www.chesterbeatty.ie thus allowing students and teachers to experience the Chester Beatty from the school desk or from home. In addition, the CB’s new Digital Museum Guide app offers audio tours in 13 languages, virtual 3D walkthroughs of the museum, online browsing of the Chester Beatty’s world-renowned treasures, and a news section to highlight our extensive programme of events and activities.
For more details about the Chester Beatty Learning and Education Department please contact educationservices@cbl.ie
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Opportunity for Artists: ‘You, Fin and the Play Between’ Playwriting Programme for Young Audiences
Baboró International Arts Festival, Graffiti Theatre and TYA Ireland
Deadline: Monday 8 February 2021
Callout for a 6-month playwriting programme led by Finegan Kruckemeyer for established and emerging playwrights based in Ireland who are interested in writing for young audiences.
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children, Graffiti Theatre and TYA Ireland are excited to collaborate with International TYA Playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer to host a new playwriting programme for writers and theatre makers in Ireland who are interested in writing plays for young audiences.
At a time when the world and its distances are both larger and smaller than ever before, a collaboration will occur, spanning half a globe, and half a year, and driven by that most exciting of provocations – to forge something from nothing.
Beginning with a blank page, eight Irish authors will respond to writing aids and impositions both as they explore theatre for young audiences – what makes a TYA play, and what TYA play they wish to make.
But more important than the audience, shall be the idea. And in writing work solemn and silly, foreign and known, as vast as an ocean and as small as a boat which may rock upon it, eight individual voices shall be celebrated, and their plays play out to their ends.
Who is this for?
This opportunity is open to both established and emerging playwrights, residing in Ireland, interested in writing plays for young audiences. Applications are encouraged from artists with a disability, those from minority ethnic communities and those who feel their voices are not commonly represented. There are eight places available on the programme.
Irish language writers are welcome to participate in this project through the medium of Irish. Support and translation will be provided to facilitate a bilingual writing journey with Fin. Samples of writing in Irish can be included in the application.
Cuirimid fáilte roimh scríbhneoirí le Gaeilge páirt a ghlacadh sa togra seo as Gaeilge. Cuirfear tacaíocht agus aistriúcháin ar fáil chun an turas scríbhneoireachta dátheangach le Fin a éascú. Is féidir samplaí Gaeilge a bheith mar chuid den iarratas.
Deadline for Applications is Monday 8 February 2021
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Research Launch: Mapping Youth Arts Provision in Youth Work Settings
National Youth Council of Ireland
Date: 4 February 2021
NYCI commissioned UCC to carry out an independent mapping of youth arts provision in youth work settings in Ireland. Join NYCI at the virtual launch of the research to find out:
What is the nature and scope of youth arts provision in youth work settings in Ireland
What challenges do youth workers, youth arts practitioners and youth organisations encounter in providing opportunities for young people to engage in youth arts
What are the key recommendations from the research
Why Attend?
Hear from a panel of expert speakers.
Learn more about the shift at policy level and significant financial investment needed in order to advance meaningful and sustainable youth arts provision in Ireland, and concrete recommendations to help achieve this.
Get your copy of the research report.
Who Should Attend
Youth work managers, youth workers, youth arts practitioners, ETB youth officers, arts officers and anyone working with young people, academics in the field of youth studies, youth work students, policy makers, stakeholders from relevant government departments.
Who You’ll Hear From Eileen Hogan, University College Cork
Eileen Hogan is a Lecturer in the School of Applied Social Studies, University College Cork. She is Course Director of the Masters in Youth Arts and Sports Education, which won the grad Ireland/HEA award for Best Postgraduate Course (Arts and Humanities) in 2017. Eileen is also Deputy Director of the Postgraduate Diploma in Youth Work.
Through these roles, she is involved in the professional development of youth workers and youth arts practitioners and has strong connections with youth work organisations. Eileen is also a member of the Board of Directors at Youth Work Ireland Cork. She is also Chairperson of the IndieCork Film and Music Festival, which is a volunteer-led organisation that supports youth arts as an element of its broader cultural programme.
NYCI have a an exciting panel lined up to join Dr Hogan in reacting to and dissecting the research and what it means for your work.
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This Is Art! Online Art Competition with RTÉ & Creative Ireland
RTÉ and Creative Ireland Programme
Deadline extended to Sunday 31 Jan 2021
RTÉ and Creative Ireland Programme have come together in partnership to create This Is Art! – a celebration of visual art through the creation of an exciting new online art competition aimed at young people across the island of Ireland.
The competition aims to promote artistic practice among young people and encourage and support creativity, originality and self-expression. Applicants can enter individually or they can enter as part of a group and all visual art disciplines are welcomed. The competition is open for anyone 18yrs and under.
All of the artwork will be included in a digital gallery and considered for the This Is Art! 2021 Grand Prix Award.
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Opportunity for Schools: Your Gallery at School with the National Gallery of Ireland
The National Gallery of Ireland
Deadline: Friday 5 February 2021
The National Gallery of Ireland invites schools to apply to participate in Your Gallery at School, a new holistic outreach programme that brings the National Gallery of Ireland directly to schools.
Over the course of 2021, The National Gallery of Ireland will work with six primary schools that wouldn’t usually be able to visit the Gallery, to create a tailored programme of activities for their students.
Participating schools will be selected via an open application process. Selected schools will not have visited the Gallery in the past three years and will be from one or more of three key groups:
DEIS schools to address socio-economic barriers to accessing culture.
Boys’ schools to address the gender barrier to accessing culture.
Schools geographically far away (over 2 hours away from Dublin) to address the geographic barrier to accessing culture.
The closing date: Friday 5 February 2021
Your Gallery at School aims to break down the barriers that prevent engagement with the arts through holistic programming that ensures children transition to adulthood equipped with the life-changing benefits of art.
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IFI Launches IFI@Schools: Its First Online Nationwide Streaming Library For Schools
Irish Film Institute
The Irish Film Institute today (1st December) launches its comprehensive 2020/2021 IFI Schools’ Programme. For the first time, the programme will be available to view nationwide online on the Institute’s brand-new IFI@Schools
platform at www.ifischools.ie. Films to feature as part of this year’s offering include Greta Gerwig’s Oscar-nominated Little Women, Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade, Neasa Hardiman’s Sea Fever, and three films from Cartoon Saloon, Kilkenny’s beloved animation studio.
The entire programme is available to view for schools through an annual subscription for either the Primary or Post-Primary programmes. With the generous support of the Arts Council Capacity Building Grant, the IFI has been able to heavily subsidise costs so that an annual Primary subscription costs €100, and annual Post-Primary subscription costs €250.
Each subscription allows 10 teachers per school to watch 10 screenings each. Unlike booking student groups for
cinema screenings, the subscription allows the teacher a greater degree of flexibility as to when material is viewed in the classroom and will encourage increased media literacy across a wide range of ages.
The ever-popular Modern Foreign Languages strand, encompassing French, German and Spanish, presents five Irish premieres. Eagerly awaited by teachers and students alike, the films are an invaluable way of promoting language and culture. Included in the 2020/21 Spanish selection is Berlinale prize winner Wolves and classroom drama One For All. French students will enjoy teen comedy-drama Man Up! for Senior Cycle, while Junior Cycle drama Fahim, The Little Chess Prince rides on the coattails of The Queen’s Gambit, and focuses on a young Bangladeshi immigrant who discovers he has a gift for playing chess. The German choices this year are Ulrich Köhler and Henner Winckler’s A Voluntary Year (Das freiwillige Jahr) for Senior Cycle, and Sarah Winkenstette’s Too Far Away (Zu Weit Weg) for Junior Cycle.
Speaking about the launch of the platform, IFI Director Ross Keane said, ‘The advent of IFI@Schools is a truly transformational moment for IFI Education, bringing our hugely popular and successful schools programme directly into classrooms all around Ireland. While Covid-19 has presented huge challenges for arts organisations, it has also made us all examine what we do and how we can continue to engage with our audiences in new and innovative ways. We are therefore delighted to offer this exciting new online platform to schoolchildren nationwide, marking the beginning of a new era for IFI Education’.
Head of IFI Education Alicia McGivern commented, ‘While school trips to cinemas and arts venues may be on hold for the moment, the appetite for quality arts engagement remains undiminished. IFI@Schools offers teachers the opportunity to bring film content directly into the classroom in a smart, affordable and accessible way. We’re very excited to bring the magic of cinema into schools and to continue to foster a love of film in students during these unprecedented times.’
Arts Council Head of Film and Architecture Fionnuala Sweeney added, ‘The Arts Council is delighted to have funded the development of the IFI@schools platform. At a time when cinema doors are closed, this dedicated new platform will bring the world of film into classrooms all over Ireland so that children and young people can continue to collectively experience, explore and enjoy film.’
For English this year, Senior Cycle students can look forward to Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence in Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bone, and Paddy Breathnach’s acclaimed drama Rosie, starring Sarah Greene and Moe Dunford. For Junior Cycle, there’s a hugely entertaining and thought-provoking slate of films including Taika Waititi’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople, The Peanut Butter Falcon starring Shia LaBoeuf, Ken Wardrop’s touching Irish documentary His & Hers, and Saudi Arabian comingof-age drama Wadjda.
IFI is delighted to present a particularly strong line-up of Irish films, and as part of our ongoing commitment to support Irish filmmakers, IFI has confirmed a number of special guests to speak as part of this year’s online programme, including Oscar-nominated animators Nora Twomey and Tomm Moore, documentarians Brendan J Byrne and Ross Whitaker, and Vivarium director Lorcan Finnegan.
Other films available for Senior Cycle include documentaries In the Name of Peace: John Hume in America, Bobby Sands: 66 Days, Iris, Risteard O’Domhnaill’s Atlantic and The Pipe, and drama Black ’47. Transition Year students will be treated to environmental and socio-political documentaries Now, Spaceship Earth, Gaza, Push and 3½ Minutes, Ten Bullets. Art and Geography students will delight in the anime film Weathering With You, while sporting documentaries Katie and Climbing Blind look at the physical and mental hurdles sportspeople overcome to achieve their goals. A special Inclusion and Diversity section for Transition Year Wellbeing/SPHE includes Sundance winner Clemency, powerful civil rights drama Selma, and the funny and tender LGBT+ drama Love, Simon.
This year’s Primary programme features a fantastic range of titles for younger pupils including the charming Little Women with Saoirse Ronan and Emma Watson, Irish drama A Shine of Rainbows, plus animations Minuscule, Dreambuilders, and the Cartoon Saloon trio of Song of the Sea, The Secret of Kells and The Breadwinner.
Finally, the IFI is delighted to announce the 2021 edition of its hugely successful Careers in Film Day events next March, in association with the Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival. IFI will also run special events in association with Screen Skills Ireland, which will allow students to engage directly with filmmakers and their craft; these Q&A and ‘First Steps’ events will be held in January.
For more details and to download a full IFI Education 2020/2021 Programme, please visit www.ifi.ie/learn. For more information and booking, please contact Richard or Amy at schools@irishfilm.ie.
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FÍS Storyboard Storytelling Competition Announced
FÍs Film Project
Deadline Extended to Friday March 26th 2021
Irish primary schools are invited to enter the FÍS Storyboard Storytelling competition, a one-off Covid-19 special initiative open to all primary schools in the Republic of Ireland.
The FÍS Storyboard Storytelling competition provides an opportunity for pupils to visually interpret a story or concept or curriculum topic, use artistic media and different types of shots to convey that story in an imaginative and creative way.
A full brief, judging criteria and how to enter this exciting competition is available at www.fisfilmproject.ie. The brief provides suggested themes and topics, storyboard presentation tips, judging criteria and general competition guidelines for teachers.
Check out the supporting video tutorial ‘How to use storyboards to storytell’.
Entries will be categorised on the basis of class age / level and prizes will be awarded across a variety of categories.
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Arts Council of Ireland Young People, Children, and Education Bursary Award
Arts Council of Ireland
Opens: 15 December 2020
Application Deadline: 28 January 2020
The Young People, Children, and Education Bursary Award supports individual professional artists working with, and producing work for, children and young people across a range of artforms. The purpose of the award is to support professional artists to develop their art practice.
A recording of a webinar session about the YPCE Bursary Award is available for all potential applicants at the link below.
The Arts Council encourages you to view the full 1.5 hour session or move to the time codes of particular interest. If you have questions that are not covered in the webinar session, please contact ypce@artscouncil.ie.
Please make sure to read the Guidelines in full.
Closing date: 17:30, Thursday 28 January 2021
Maximum awarded: €20,000
Apply from 15 December 2020
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The National Arts in Education Portal Virtual Conference 2020 – Round Up
Earlier this month over two weekends 480 artists, teachers and arts in education professionals attended our fifth annual National Arts in Education Portal Day which this year moved online with a series of virtual events.
Over the two weekends the arts in education community came together to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired and interrogate best practice in the field. Although this year we couldn’t meet in person we were overwhelmed with the response and level of engagement. We would like to thank all our guest speakers, artists and all who joined us to engage in the conversation.
Speaking at the event Roundtable Chair Professor Gary Granville said, “We talk about this concept of community, of practice and practitioners but in a very real sense I think what the Charter has facilitated and what the Arts in Education Portal provides is an opportunity to make real that notion of community”.
Video of digital artwork created by artist Julie Forrester as part of the creative workshop ‘A Dive into Digital Art’ with illustrator Wayne O’Connor.
Due to popular demand the Portal Team is delighted to announce details of our Online Creative Workshops Winter Programme taking place this December. This series of hands-on creative sessions aims to support artists and teachers to explore new ideas, approaches and techniques to support their own professional development through creative practice.
We’re delighted to confirm that illustrator Wayne O’Connor and interdisciplinary artist Kate Wilson will be joining us again to facilitate another series of ‘A Dive into Digital Art’ and ‘Sensing into Action’. Digital Artist John D’Arcy will also be facilitating a new workshop entitled ‘You’re Muted’.
Each workshop involves two ninety minute closed zoom sessions taking place over two days. Booking a ticket for these workshops will automatically reserve your place at both creative sessions. Participants must attend both sessions. Ticket bookings will open at 12 noon Wednesday, 2nd December 2020. These workshops have limited capacity so make sure to book your place early!
Please note: Tickets for both ‘A Dive into Digital Art’ and ‘Sensing into Action’ will be offered to those on the waiting list from the November sessions first.
Sensing to Action
Dates: 7pm, Friday 11 & 11am, Saturday 12 December
Kate Wilson has a fine art degree from Slade School of Art and MA with Independent Dance; her practice is both interdisciplinary and collaborative. Sensing to Action offers practical and theoretical insight into creative movement and holistic approaches to dance and theatre practices in the classroom.
A Dive into Digital Art Dates: 11am, Saturday 12 & 12pm Sunday 13 December
Wayne O’Connor is an illustrator, storyteller, writer and arts educator. Using free digital drt software, participants will be introduced to the basics of using digital software to draw and paint. Participants will need to download the free Autodesk Sketchbook art software.
This session is now fully booked but please click through the link below to add your details to the waiting list.
You’re Muted Dates: 3pm, Saturday 12 & Sunday 13 December
Digital artist and researcher John D’Arcy invites participants to explore the problems and potentials of creative engagement online. This workshop contains a mixture of interactive activities that test the limits of online video conferencing, helping to reflect on the nature of online connectivity, communication and creativity.
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‘New Era’ Exploring Climate Change Exhibition: Resources for Schools from Solstice Arts Centre
Solstice Arts Centre
Exhibition running until 22 December 2020
Solstice Arts Centre are delighted to announce two new online resource packs for schools to accompany the exhibition ‘New Era – Exploring Climate Change’.
New Era is an exhibition featuring four Irish visual artists Rachel Doolin, Siobhán McDonald, Martina O’Brien and Méadhbh O’Connor whose work explores different aspects of climate change in the natural world. The exhibition includes new and recent art works by these artist/activists and advocates for both local and global climate change.
Resource Packs:
Look Draw Think Respond – Primary Schools
This fun learning resource, originally designed to be completed in the gallery is now accompanied by a virtual 360° tour of the exhibition New Era, with links and additional information on each of the four artists on our website at solsticeartscentre.ie/ event/new-era-exploring- climate-change.
This resource embraces many subjects across the curriculum including art, geography, SPSE, science and literacy and a personalised tour and virtual creative activities can be arranged for individual classrooms.
Solstice Secondary Resource New Era – Post-Primary Schools
This learning resource is designed to assist Leaving Certificate students and teachers interested in opting for the gallery question on the History & Appreciation of Art paper.
It can be used in conjunction with the virtual 360° tour of the exhibition New Era. with links and additional information on each of the four exhibiting artists on our website at https://solsticeartscentre.ie/ event/new-era-exploring- climate-change for a comprehensive response to this or similar exam question.
Solstice Arts Centre can also arrange a Zoom meeting with any class group to give them further insight into the show and information on the artists involved.
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The National Museum of Ireland Launches New Online Programme for Schools
National Museum of Ireland
From hieroglyphics to harvest knots…the National Museum of Ireland launches a new programme of online events, activities and resources for teachers to bring the Museum to the classroom.
Each year, the NMI welcomes some 90,000 primary and post primary students to its four Museum sites in Dublin and Mayo, providing engaging, hands-on, curriculum linked and creative learning opportunities that underpin classroom teaching.
This year, due to COVID-19 guidelines, the NMI has had to rethink how schools, teachers and their students can engage and learn with the national collections and, in response, has developed a range of virtual programmes to be used in the classroom. The first strand of the new programme is available now including arts in education activities.
The new schools programme 2020/2021 blends live online sessions with Museum educators, and a range of pre-recorded video and printable resources available from the Museum’s website.
In place of Leaving Certificate Art History Tours, Museum educators have developed a presentation containing high-resolution images of the artefacts on display at the Museum that are linked to the Leaving Certificate Art History curriculum. The presentation can be used by teachers as an in-class resource and the notes pages can be used by students as a revision tool.
Explore a range of art and design activities suitable for primary students and art at post primary junior cycle, through short videos and downloadable activity sheets. Students can take a design challenge inspired by Eileen Gray, make their own musical instrument, design and build a Thaumatrope or build their own bird helmet inspired by a Samurai costume.
Join storyteller Fiona Dowling on the grounds of the NMI – Country Life at Turlough Park, Co. Mayo, to hear some nature based stories and some intriguing tales connected to our fairy trail ‘Of Fairies and Fairy Folk’.
Application form and further details are available at: msletb.ie
Closing Date: 12.00 noon, 8 December 2020
Late applications will not be accepted.
Please note that applications must be made through the MSL ETB website. Any queries should be directed to employment@msletb.ie.
Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim Education and Training Board is an equal opportunities employer. Canvassing will disqualify. Shortlisting may apply. Late applications will not be accepted. Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim Education and Training Board is registered as a Data Controller.
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Opportunity: Early Childhood Exploring & Thinking Bursary Award 2020
The Four Dublin Local Authorities
Deadline: 5pm, 11 December 2020
The four Dublin Local Authorities (Fingal County Council, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, South Dublin County Council and Dublin City Council) are delighted to invite submissions for: Exploring & Thinking Bursary Award 2020.
The Bursary Award will support individual professional artists to develop their artistic practice working with and/or producing work for early childhood arts. It is open to individual professional artists who wish to develop their practice in early childhood arts, artists practicing in all artforms, artists resident in Ireland.
Bursary range: €500 – €5,000
The closing date: 5pm, 11th December 2020
Exploring and Thinking is a collaborative framework for early childhood arts in the Dublin region. It came about in 2016 when the four Dublin Local Authorities partnered for the first time to collectively consider early childhood arts provision in the Dublin region.
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National Arts in Education Portal Day 2020 – A virtual conference like no other
The 5th annual National Arts in Education Portal Day 2020 has adapted the annual event into a virtual conference over two weekends this November. The National Arts in Education Portal Virtual Conference will welcome hundreds of professionals from across the arts, education, arts in education and creative sector, who will attend various online events to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired and interrogate best practice in the field.
The event represents an important landmark in the calendar for educationalists and arts and creativity in education sector professionals with a shared interest in quality and access to best practice arts provision for children and young people. This year the National Arts in Education Portal Day has to move online as per government guidelines.
There will also be a broad range of Creative Sessions delivered by artists and creators, Joe Caslin, Wayne O’Connor, Melatu-Uche Okorie and Kate Wilson. These workshops aim to share practical skills and approaches. The virtual conference will culminate with a panel of professionals and practitioners from across the arts in education, education and creative sectors in conversation with Chair Professor Gary Granville, exploring the current landscape of arts in education in Ireland and beyond.
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New Publication Launched: Curriculum: Contemporary Art Goes to School
Art School
Thursday October 29th saw the launch of a new publication ‘Curriculum: Contemporary Art Goes to School’ edited by Dublin-based curator and writer Jennie Guy and published by Intellect Books.
Curriculum explores the intersection of contemporary artistic practice and school education in the 21st century.
At the heart of Curriculum is Art School, an independent curatorial framework founded by Jennie Guy in 2014. Operating throughout Ireland, Art School establishes interfaces between contemporary art and schools as sites of education, inviting students and artists to work collaboratively to question how the conventions of learning – as typically encountered in schools – might be extended or reimagined.
It takes place as a series of workshops, residencies, exhibitions and new writing that explore how contemporary artists can intervene within systems of education in order to inspire and expand might also help to fracture and revise.
Curriculum features contributions by: Clare Butcher, Gerard Byrne (Foreword), Juan Canela, Helen Carey, Daniela Cascella, Fiona Gannon, Jennie Guy, Andrew Hunt, Hannah Jickling & Helen Reed, Alissa Kleist, Rowan Lear, Peter Maybury, Annemarie Ní Churreáin, Nathan O’Donnell, Sofia Olascoaga & Priscila Fernandes, Matt Packer and Sjoerd Westbroek.
The book explores Art School projects by artists: Sven Anderson, John Beattie, Sarah Browne, Karl Burke, Rhona Byrne, Ella de Búrca, Vanessa Donoso Lopez, Priscila Fernandes, Hannah Fitz, Jane Fogarty, Kevin Gaffney, Adam Gibney, Fiona Hallinan, Elaine Leader, Maria McKinney, Mark O’Kelly, Sarah Pierce and Naomi Sex.
This publication was funded by the Arts Council of Ireland and the Arts Office of Wicklow County Council.
CURRICULUM: Contemporary Art Goes to School
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Opportunity for Schools: Ireland’s National School Photography Awards Open for Entries
Ireland’s National School Photography Awards
Deadline extended: 31 May 2021
INSPA 2020/21 sees the fourth open call for Ireland’s prestigious National School Photography Awards [INSPA]. INSPA is a national children’s photography competition and Positive Primaries Programme which introduces Creative Well-being into the lives of primary schools and their communities by engaging with the magic and art of photography.
This year’s theme ‘Accessible Places | Safer Spaces’ is run in association with the Children’s Rights Alliance and is looking for images that focus on giving a voice to children in their new and changing environments. Therefore, we are calling on students and teachers in primary level education, to once again, get creative and integrate the camera into their school day. To begin your Positive Primaries Journey and participate in the awards you must register your school at www.inspa.ie
The INSPA’s are having a massive impact in classrooms across Ireland, helping to boost the well-being of students by simply integrating the camera into your school day. Participating in the awards helps your students increase their Confidence, Resilience, Connection, Kindness and Readiness. It also gives a platform for teachers to creatively explore their wider curriculum, allowing students from all backgrounds to actively engage with subjects in new and exciting ways.
Once you activate your school account, you will be able to upload your school activities, share ideas and engage with other Positive Primaries as they prepare to enter the awards. You will also be able to access our free and easy-to-follow Creative Well-being Activities. These will help you integrate the camera into your school-day and allow the children to lead the way.
This year, the awards are offering a range of fantastic prizes for the whole school community including; Weekend breaks away to the Amber Springs Resort Hotel, free Instax cameras and printers, Positive Portrait fundraising days, certificates and of course your schools Positive Primaries Flag. All entries will be judged by a national panel including Mary Magner (INTO President), Colm O’Gorman (Director: Amnesty International Ireland), Damian White (IPPN President), Karla Sánchez (Curator, Art Historian & Educator), Áine Lynch (CEO of National Parents Council Primary), and Richard Carr (Artist & Partnerships Manager for INSPA).
In whatever way you choose to respond to this year’s theme, be creative, take lots of photos and most importantly have fun. We look forward to seeing all your schools’ entries and all those positive changes you are making in your school. If you think your school could become one of Ireland’s next Positive Primaries, register as soon as possible at; www.inspa.ie
For further information and to apply to go www.inspa.ie.
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Early Years Video Workshop: Shy Mouse & Show-Off Lion with The Ark
The Ark
Available until 31 December
Explore the importance of all creatures small and large in this video drama workshop from The Ark for ages 2-4 with their grown-ups led by Early Years Artist in Residency Joanna Parkes.
Mouse may be small and shy, but does that mean he can’t help the lion? Let’s see!
Using the Aesop’s Fable of The Mouse and The Lion as a starting point, pack your make-believe backpacks, set off to find the proud lion and see where your imaginations can take you.
If you like, you can bring a few things with you:
A cushion
A small bag or backpack
A soft toy (any favourite cuddly animal will do)
Wear an adventurer’s hat of any kind if you want!
Combining drama, story and play, this video workshop invites little ones and their grown-ups to enjoy imagining together. So if you’re a parent, grandparent, uncle, aunty, godparent or carer, join in with a 2 to 4 year old to discover, explore and create together in this delightful workshop adventure.
Recommended:
A clear floor area of about 4 paces square – free of movable furniture and any trip hazards.
Children and adults should wear comfortable clothes and shoes.
For ages 2-4 and their grown-ups
Video duration: Approx. 15 mins, plus pauses for you to pretend and play in your own time at home
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Blog 4 – Jennifer Buggie, Teacher & Lead Facilitator on the TAP Design Team
Growing during Closing
October, falling leaves and creeping numbers. It was a month of growing in a season of closing. My colleague Ciara Heffernan led our school approach to Creative Clusters within our theme, Connecting and Reconnecting. This creative collaboration between Cluster Schools is an exciting new dimension to our arts programme. The extension of the Creative Schools programme with Associate Gabi McGrath has enabled us to develop creative partnerships with artists from a range of different disciplines. Early Years Music Specialist Nuala Kelly returned to complete a partnership with Mrs. Cushen and Ms. Heffernan, while a range of classes from Junior Infants to 2nd Class will work with multidisciplinary fine artist Francesca Hutchinson, dancer and visual artist Kate Wilson and storyteller Thomas McCarthy. It is a privilege to work with and support artists in the current climate.
Teacher Artist Partnership would like to wish all our summer course participants well as they engage in their TAP residency and we look forward to sharing in the work. Our Design Tutor Team are extremely proud of the work and achievements of our National TAP Coordinator Dr. Katie Sweeney, Tralee Education Centre Director, Terry O Sullivan and Administrator Máire Vieux in securing Erasmus + funding to develop our programme on a European level with partner countries Serbia, Austria, Netherlands and Greece. Within this initiative our Design Team have been working on a series of mini-creative moments called Take Ten with TAP which we look forward to sharing with you soon…watch this space!
Thank you, Portal, for this space to share. Thank you, reader, for reading.
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A Celebration of Wintertime – Visual Arts CPD for Teachers with The Ark
The Ark
Date: 7 November Saturday
This half-day visual art CPD workshop for teachers with The Ark which will focus on skills, techniques and processes teachers can integrate into their lesson plans and easily adapt to all ages.
Every season has its own beauty and winter is certainly not lacking. It may not display the soft pastel tones of spring, the bright and bold splashes of summer or the fiery range of autumn’s colours, but the winter season has its own very individual palette.
Through the theme of winter, artist Jole Bortoli will lead the group on an exploration of the visual art curriculum through hands on activities which will be completed in real time via zoom. Together, the group will examine the many manifestations of winter in the diverse environments and habitats found in Ireland. Looking at how various visual artists have interpreted this theme, participants will create their very own artwork, giving them the tools to approach a winter-themed art workshop with children in the classroom.
Each participant will be asked to gather simple materials and tools that they should easily find around the house. They will also be sent a small art pack by post with any speciality materials that they will need during the workshop.
Date: 10.30am-12.30pm, 7 November Saturday
Tickets: €15 (€13.50 for ArkEd Members)
Booking closes at midnight on Thursday 29 October to allow adequate time for your art pack to be posted to you. Postage of the art pack is available within the Republic of Ireland only.
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National Arts in Education Portal Events 2020 – Guest Speakers Announced
The Portal Team are delighted to announce the guest speakers for the fifth annual National Arts in Education Portal Conference which this year moves online with a series of virtual events taking place over two weekends in November – Friday 6th, Saturday 7th, Sunday 8th and Friday 13th, Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th.
This year the programme features a series of three keynote sessions, each exploring and interrogating specific areas of focus to open discussion on these important questions. We are delighted to welcome the following speakers:
Friday, 6th November – 7pm Writer Kit de Waal, visual artist Leanne McDonagh and lecturer Aoife Titley
Writer Kit de Waal and visual artist Leanne McDonagh in conversation with Aoife Titley, lecturer in Development and Intercultural Education (DICE) at the Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education, Maynooth University discussing cultural diversity in the arts.
Saturday, 7th November – 11am Maureen Kennelly, Arts Council Director
Maureen Kennelly, Director of the Arts Council of Ireland will be joined in conversation with a co-presenter (TBC) to explore the challenges of achieving reach and depth. Are they mutually exclusive? What are the hallmarks of quality and can they be attained in large scale programming.
Saturday, 14th November – 3pm Teacher Jennifer Buggie and digital artist John D’Arcy
Teacher and TAP lead facilitator Jennifer Buggie will be joined in conversation with digital artist and lecturer John D’Arcy to explore what role technology can play in supporting and enhancing creative practice.
The full line-up which will be announced in October includes a broad range of practical creative workshops and skills sharing as well roundtable discussion exploring the current landscape of arts in education.
We look forward to welcoming members of the arts in education community from all across Ireland and internationally, to share, learn, talk, get inspired, and continue interrogating best practice in the field.
Full programme details for the events will be announced shortly. For enquiries please contact events@artsineducation.ie
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IFI@Schools New Film Platform
Irish Film Institute – IFI@Schools
Stream new films into your school with a brand new film platform from the IFI@Schools, launching in October.
With school trips on hold and very different learning situations arising in schools across the country, the Irish Film Institute (IFI) is launching an online streaming platform, offering films to support a whole range of subjects and interest areas.
In return for a one-off annual fee to cover film rights, your school can access the complete catalogue, using an easy, user-friendly teacher pass.
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Irish Architecture Foundation: Open House Junior
Irish Architecture Foundation (IAF)
Dates: 8 – 11 October
This years Open House Dublin from the Irish Architecture Foundation is set to take place on the weekend of 8 – 11 October. This year’s event will differ from previous years with a strong focus on online and digital events.
Open House Junior is a programme of workshops and activities for children and young people, with highlights including a Digital Design Challenge, and virtual workshops hosted by the Chester Beatty Library, Irish Museum of Modern Art, National Gallery of Ireland, Fighting Words and others.
With self-guided family ‘Architreks’ and ‘Make your own’ building templates from O’Mahony Pike Architects.
The Baboró team are delighted to announce their 2020 Delegate Programme which this year has moved online. They look forward to continuing to create opportunities to share insights and make new connections at home and abroad.
This year Baboró is a partner in ‘Talking TYA 2020’, a 3-day virtual conference that will bring artists and scholars from across Ireland and the world to discuss participation in theatre for young audiences. Baboró are also partnering with Culture Ireland, TYAI and NUI Galway.
Baboró’s online discussion series will give opportunities to meet some of the artists taking part in the festival. To register for delegate events listed below go to www.baboro.ie/festival/programme/event-type/foradults.
Baboró Insights
Wed 7 Oct at 13.00
Making regional connections: Pathways to production artists meet presenters (By Invitation)
Mon 12 oct | 12.00
Diversifying performance for young audiences
Wed 14 oct | 14.00
Talking TYA 2020
Thu 8 – Sat 10 Oct
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Limerick’s Bualadh Bos Children’s Festival Programme Announced
Lime Tree Theatre | Belltable
Dates: October 2020
Limerick’s Lime Tree Theatre | Belltable team are proud to present a superb programme of events for their annual Bualadh Bos Children’s Festival this October.
Every child deserves access to the performing arts. As always, the aim of the festival is to ensure we continue to inspire children and their families by the safest and most creative means possible.
To achieve this in 2020, the programme has both live and online shows, creative workshops and even a family mystery trail around the Georgian quarter of the city. Plenty for all our small citizens to interact with.
Our schools programme is completely online, this will ensure schools in Limerick and the mid-west region can access our festival programme without travel costs as a barrier.
Louise Donlon, Director of Lime Tree Theatre|Belltable said “We are so glad to be able to announce this year’s Bualadh Bos festival as there were times during the past 5 months when our hopes for it seemed to be dashed.
“We have put a lot of thought into how we can continue and have been so heartened to see that performers and audiences alike are so keen to take part. The wonders of digital technology allow us to present our school’s programme online.
“Indeed, the advantage of online programming means that every school in Limerick can access the wonderful work being created – there are no barriers to all the children in the city and county enjoying the best that is on offer.
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Arts Council, Limerick City & County Council and the JP McManus Foundation, without whose help and support none of this would have been possible.”
Our festival highlights include Michael Ford and Bairbre Ni Chaoimh’s beautiful show The Wilde Garden Adventure, the opening show of the festival on Sunday Oct 4th in Belltable. The show is based on two famous Oscar Wilde books The Happy Prince and The Selfish Giant.
We are thrilled Emma Martin’s Birdboy will tour to the Lime Tree Theatre on Wednesday Oct 7th. This engaging family show premiered earlier this month in the Dublin Fringe Festival to fantastic reviews. We feel so lucky that they tour to Limerick first and then go to 4 other venues in the country.
Cahoots NI have spent the summer converted units in a Belfast shopping centre into various magical rooms for a real live virtual experience with their new show The University of Wonder and Imagination.
Music Generation Limerick presents a new programme of interactive livestreams for schools featuring award-winning Limerick actor Myles Breen, the amazing rapper Denise Chaila, trad star Zoe Conway, guitarist and singer Sean O’Meara and classical violinist with the ICO Diane Daly.
Also, Branar Téatar have an online puppet workshop, Children’s Books Ireland go online with their book clinics for all book worms, Jean McGlynn gets creative with Halloween ideas, there is something for every child this year, now all we need is you to ensure they can join us and have some fun!
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Blog 3 – Jennifer Buggie, Teacher & Lead Facilitator on the TAP Design Team
It’s lovely to do something with our hands, other than sanitise.
Returning to school felt different this year and the children were wonderful. They marched down hallways leaving parents at the gate, washed hands and met the new school measures with their best efforts to work together and keep each other safe. Our school leadership did everything in their power to make children, staff and parents feel as safe and comfortable as possible in school during these uncertain times.
However, and undeniably, Covid 19 has disrupted the familiar flow of school rhythms by adding its own disjointed systems of distancing, washing and vigilance. But the primary focus of our work remains as it has always been, to meet the deepest needs of the children in our care through education and with love. From lower numbers of referrals to Tusla, to a decline in educational attainment for some children, school closures have had a detrimental effect. In my reopening, arts-based learning and the role of embodiment has been crucial to connecting mind, body, and spirit in the classroom. This is especially relevant in Infants, where the teacher’s physical proximity and comfort of touch has been severely limited.
Teaching is about listening, to the body and the words. This September, children have been communicating. From a child who needs to run at full tilt for an entire PE lesson, to a quiet daily request “Teacher, will you read us a story?”. Though I always do, the request is about reassurance and meeting a need. In the absence of a hug or handhold, I have looked to the arts to affirm the place of comfort, grounding, and reassurance. We have used music, dance, visual arts, yoga, stories and meditation, concentrating on the sensory nature of experiences, objects and materials. Twisting, cutting, playing, pasting, moving and focusing, it has been lovely to do something with our hands other than sanitise.
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Job Opportunity: IFI Education Officer
Irish Film Institute
Deadline: 5pm, 12th October
The Irish Film Institute wishes to appoint two Education Officers to contribute to and develop its education programme both onsite and online.
Key Responsibilities for the roles include:
Programme and deliver IFI Education events onsite and online within agreed budgets and in accordance with IFI strategy, curriculum requirements & national arts and education policies
Contribute to the development and delivery of the IFI@Schools platform and promote its take up within schools
Initiate and respond to changes in school learning environments, creating new ways to promote film across curricula
Manage schools physical tours to IFI covering all aspects including administration, costing, operational and safeguarding
Contribute to delivery of IFI Film Clubs project
Contribute to IFI Education digital & online content & IFI Education’s publicity materials for website and social media
Work collaboratively on all education activities as required, with Head of Education
Explore possibilities for out of school engagement with IFI, children and young people
Coordinate TY Work Experience placements and summer volunteering
Provide talks, introductions, supporting materials as required
Contribute to all aspects of IFI Education and wider IFI culture through a growing commitment to film, young people and education
Applicants should forward a cover letter and CV by email to Alicia McGivern, IFI Head of Education, at amcgivern@irishfilm.ie, or by post to Irish Film Institute, 6 Eustace Street, Dublin 2.
Closing date for applications is 17.00 on Monday, October 12th.
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The Irish Museums Association Teacher Survey
The Irish Museums Association (IMA)
Deadline: midnight, 6 October 2020
The Irish Museums Association (IMA) invites teachers to assist them in supporting your work by completing a short survey and enter their raffle to win an Echo Dot (3rd Gen.) smart speaker with Alexa.
As we all adapt to new ways of working, learning and socialising, the museum sector across Ireland is increasing efforts to not only continue to support schools in the delivery of learning but also develop and pilot new resources and services.
Your participation in this survey is extremely important. It will inform and guide the association and its members, allowing them to deliver programmes that complement your work and are both educational and enjoyable.
From your responses, an anonymised report with recommendations will be produced and circulated to museums and stakeholders.
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National Arts in Education Portal Events 2020 – Virtual Conference
We are delighted to announce the dates of the fifth annual National Arts in Education Portal Day which this year will be moving online with a series of virtual events taking place over two weekends in November – Friday 6th, Saturday 7th, Sunday 8th and Friday 13th, Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th.
The full line-up which will be announced shortly includes a series of keynote sessions from artists, teachers and practitioners from across the sector bringing discussion and critical thinking to a range of topics. The programme will include a series of online processed based creative workshops and a roundtable event.
These events bring together members of the arts in education community from all across Ireland, to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired, and continue interrogating best practice in the field.
Full programme details for the day will be announced shortly. For enquiries please contact events@artsineducation.ie
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HOMEGROUND Art, People, Place, Identity Research & Development Mentoring Awards (2020-2021)
Draíocht & Fingal Arts Office
Deadline: 5pm, 18th September 2020
Fingal Arts Office, in collaboration with Draíocht, is delighted to announce an Open Call for HOMEGROUND: Art, People, Place, Identity, five new Research and Development (with mentoring) Awards for artists working in socially engaged and collaborative practice and/or artists working with children and young people.
The call is open to artists from all disciplines across the visual and performing arts.
The artists will demonstrably be either:
(a) currently involved in socially engaged, collaborative project or a project with/for children and young people in Dublin 15 or the wider Fingal county
OR
(b) have the idea, the capacity and the existing relationships to initiate a socially engaged, collaborative project or a project with children and young people in Dublin 15 or the wider Fingal county .
The Award will support the research and development of a pertinent project with attendant mentoring support. The Award does not cover the realisation of a project at this point. In undertaking the researching and development of a project at this point, its realisation may however be envisaged for a gallery, theatre or site-specific space in Dublin 15/Fingal. Subject to resources, Fingal Art Office and/or Draíocht may consider future support for the realisation of one or more of the projects developed through a HOMEGROUND Award.
There are five Research and Development Awards (with mentoring). One award of which will be available specifically for an artist from a minority ethnic or migrant background.
The timeframe of the HOMEGROUND Award is November 2020 – April 2021.
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Blog 2 – Jennifer Buggie, Teacher & Lead Facilitator on the TAP Design Team
“I believe that two lines of poetry can save a life”, Paula Meehan
As a teenager my wonderful English teacher Ms. Meade guided us with heart and skill through the Leaving Certificate poetry curriculum. In subsequent college years, the melancholy, timeless glory of John Keats poems gave solace, comfort, and a lexicon of poetic potential to my growing adult mind and experience. In fact, his anthology became a strange amalgam of thoughts, diary, and scrap book throughout my college years.
Just before Laois went into lockdown, I had the deep, nostalgic pleasure of returning to a house on the coast built by a dear friend’s Grandfather. While standing in his beautifully eclectic functional cobbled kitchen, I listened to a John Bowman interview with John Hume, where he spoke of influential teachers in his young adult life and their impact on the man he became. My friend’s Grandpa passed away in my 3rd year at university. On return home to Stradbally, I found my Keats anthology and there with “On the Sea” was a dedication to Mr. Rafter, a man who shared his home and life perspective with a granddaughter’s friend. It was a powerful blend of comforting memory and poetry. The power and confluence of memory and art.
It packed a punch, because in June I had a miscarriage. Denise Blake, my TAP colleague, and friend introduced me to Paula Meehan’s a most wonderful phrase; “I believe that two lines of poetry can save a life” (www.irelandchairofpoetry.org; www.deniseblake.com). I never really thought poetry was for me, I certainly never expected to write a blog about it, but in June nothing else would fit. It helped. All the learning, loving, yearning, and feeling given by the poetry of others heaved my pain on to the page. John Keats never had a miscarriage, but he knew about loss. The poetry of others gives a window to their soul and a template to the lived human experience that sustains through sharing.
When we, teachers, artists, and humans, give arts-experiences and heartfelt connections, we can never know or ever fully document the possibility and power of that exchange. So, this blog stands in defence of, and to champion the unknowable outcome of arts education to a life being lived.
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Call Out for young people in Sligo/Leitrim area with an interest in LGTBQI+ issues!
Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership
Calling young people in Sligo/Leitrim with an interest in LGBTQI+ issues…
Do you want to be part of a new art and writing project that explores gender and sexuality?
Do you want to stimulate dialogue and capture the imagination of your local community through the creation of strong messages and powerful imagery?
Kids’ Own in partnership with SMILY – offers an exciting creative process in summer/autumn 2020 with a writer, artist and graphic designer that will support you to have a voice and influence on the issues that matter to you.
Weekly workshops will take place in Sligo.
This programme is FREE and open to young people aged 13–18.
No previous art or writing experience is necessary.
For further information and to sign up go to www.kidsown.ie.
Youth Theatre Ireland is pleased to announce two grant schemes to offer assistance to Youth Theatres in these challenging times, with the generous support of the Creative Ireland Programme. The first, “Include YT – COVID Relief Inclusion Grant”, is available to affiliated theatres and the second “Join In – Youth Theatre Inclusion Grant” is available to developing Youth Theatres.
The Include YT grant will provide a maximum of €3,000 to help affiliated theatres to increase young people’s access to youth theatre and address exclusion on social or disability grounds. Emerging from Covid-19, youth theatres’ capacity to include new members may be severely challenged as they face additional costs and extended workshop programmes in order to comply with public health measures and social distancing guidelines. This grant is designed to help youth theatres keep social inclusion at the heart of their practice by resourcing approximately 6 youth theatres to engage with young people who have difficulty accessing youth theatre on social or disability grounds.
During these extraordinary times, this once-off grant is designed to support youth theatre inclusion initiatives in the Sept – Dec term 2020 and will assist with many measures including bursaries to cover membership fees for young people whose families are facing challenging circumstances, resources or additional staff to support the participation of members with disabilities or additional needs. The total fund available to youth theatres through this scheme is €18,000.
The “Join In – Youth Theatre Inclusion Grant” will provide a maximum of €3,000 to developing youth theatres operating in areas of social deprivation, to help increase young people’s access to youth theatre. During these extraordinary times, this once-off grant is designed to support the development of new youth theatres that are addressing social exclusion and that aim to affiliate in 2020. The total fund available to youth theatres through this scheme is €15,000.
Rhona Dunnett, Acting Director of Youth Theatre Ireland said, “Youth Theatre Ireland is delighted to be working with the Creative Ireland Programme to offer these once-off grants to youth theatres. Like many sectors, youth theatre is facing difficult financial circumstances in 2020 and these grants will support youth theatres to keep inclusion at the heart of their practice and increase young people’s access to youth theatre in socially disadvantaged areas. In these challenging times, young people need youth theatre more than ever to help them feel connected and give them a safe, creative space to express themselves and their ideas.”.
Deadline for applications is 5pm on Monday, September 14th 2020.
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Take a Rain Walk with The Ark & Dublin Fringe Festival
The Ark in collaboration with Dublin Fringe Festival
Dates: 5 – 20 September 2020
Take a rain walk accompanied by the voices of children from across Ireland and the UK in The Ark’s first ever collaboration with Dublin Fringe Festival.
With their guidance, the rainfall will become your own private theatre, a space in which to observe, imagine and play.
Because The Ark’s team are no better at predicting when it might rain than you are, everything you need to experience the show is contained within a little box that will be delivered to you when you purchase a ticket. Keep it safe until the weather turns.
Then, whether in a drizzle or a deluge, alone or with friends or family, the team invite you to step outside, feel the rain on your face, and think about your place in a world that is changing so swiftly around you.
As a leader in child participation practice, The Ark is excited to join forces with artists Andy Field and Beckie Darlington, whose imaginative performance projects are all about enabling children to interact with adults and voice their feelings about the world they live in and how they would like it to change for the better.
Now, with support from The Ark, Norfolk & Norwich Festival and The Place, London, Andy and Beckie will collaborate with children from across Ireland and the UK, setting challenges that involve thinking, imagining, writing and recording their voices. The results will be combined to create an audio track that will guide you on your interactive walk in the rain as part of Dublin Fringe Festival 2020: Pilot Light Edition.
Recommended for families with children aged 6+ and grown-ups of all ages
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Announcing the 24th Baboró International Arts Festival for Children
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children
October 2020
The organisers of Baboró International Arts Festival for Children are delighted to confirm that the 24th annual festival will take place this October. The festival’s innovative programme for 2020 will bring live performances, creative artistic experiences, visual art installations and interactive digital experiences to theatres, classrooms and homes over an extended period of two weeks, with Bell X1 frontman Paul Noonan’s new family show The Electric Kazoo announced one of the highlight live events. Full programme details will be revealed in early September.
Galway-based Baboró is Ireland’s flagship international arts festival devoted exclusively to young audiences, their families and schools, enabling them to experience the transformative power of the creative arts. The festival will be an opportunity for families to celebrate together, to find creative expression for the upheaval of the past few months and most importantly, to have fun. At its heart will be a recognition of how much has been sacrificed by children and families in recent months and the promotion of kindness to self and to others.
Festival organisers, artists and partner venues have been working together passionately to imagine and co-create innovative ways to deliver meaningful artistic experiences to children and their families.
Aislinn Ó hEocha, the festival’s Executive Artistic Director, says, “So much has been asked of children this year and we want to take a moment to celebrate them through this festival. We have been separated from our friends, teachers, coaches and extended families but yet have found new ways to come together while staying apart. Many of us have found a new appreciation for the people and places close to us and I hope this year’s programme will offer a chance for celebration and expression. The festival will be an opportunity to celebrate the togetherness that has been lost and found in this challenging time. We can’t wait to meet our audiences and share the joy of Baboró once again.”
The festival is delighted to announce that the 2020 programme will include a brand new live music gig for families of all ages, Paul Noonan Presents: The Electric Kazoo, commissioned by the TRACKS Network of Dublin Fringe Festival, Cork Midsummer Festival and Baboró International Arts Festival for Children. Noonan developed online concerts during his own lockdown at home in Dublin, supported by his own children and a legion of big and small fans who tuned in online from all around the world. Tickets for the Electric Kazoo and Baboró’s full programme will be available when the programme is released in early September.
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children will launch its programme in early September, when tickets will go on sale. For the latest programme announcements follow Baboró on social media, subscribe to their newsletter or go to www.baboro.ie.
For Schools: Please sign up to Baboró’s newsletter for updates on school dates here – bit.ly/baboronews.
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Open Call Out for Artist/Facilitator for the Three Muses Arts Education Programme
The Hunt Museum, Limerick Museum and Limerick City Gallery of Art (LCGA)
Deadline: 12 noon, 27 August 2020
The Hunt Museum, Limerick Museum and Limerick City Gallery of Art (LCGA), through its joint arts in education programme, ‘The Three Muses’, wishes to appoint an artist/facilitator with an established track record in the development and delivery of multi-disciplinary and interactive art workshops for primary school children. The artist will design a series of workshops in which participants will engage with and creatively respond to the three permanent collections, using the alphabet as a conceptual frame. Given the uncertainty around schooling arrangements in the months ahead, we encourage candidates to explore alternative online and digital forms of engagement, in the event that physical workshops are not possible.
The Three Muses: Exploring Art and Identity’, is an innovative programme for primary schools, launched in November 2019, which aims to increase access, ownership and enjoyment of the collections of The Hunt Museum, Limerick Museum and LCGA, with a focus on modern and contemporary art. The Three Muses programme is supported by Limerick City and County Council and Friends of the Hunt Museum. ‘ABC of the Three Muses’ is sponsored by Affinity Credit Union.
Mermaid Arts Centre, The Civic & Riverbank Arts Centre
August 2020
Due to tour to hydropools this July and September, this magical watery adventure is now scheduled to tour in August in collaboration with Mermaid Arts Centre, The Civic and Riverbank Arts Centre. Rather than cancel the tour, Anna Newell Theatre Adventures and the partner venues were determined to bring high quality live art experiences to this very particular audience and so the ‘dry land’ ‘at-home’ version was invented. The “at-home” version is specifically for children/young people with PMLD.
Taking the responsiveness of the show to a whole new level, this re-imagined ‘dry land’ version will be performed in the gardens/drives/outside the windows of homes of families of children with complex needs. Still full of ethereal live harmony singing and gorgeous costumes (created by award-winning composer David Goodall and renowned costume designer Susan Scott), reflective silver balls, rainbow fish and water moving through colanders like waterfalls will all happen at an appropriate distance from our audience members, with their accompanying adults mirroring the action to add the up-close sensory element.
A process of a virtual pre-visit will take place to ensure that each different private ‘at-home’ adventure is magical, calm and, of course, safe.
Anna Newell is a Bray-based theatremaker who has been making theatre adventures for many different audiences since 1989. She was the first Irish-based theatremaker to create theatre designed especially for children and young people with PMLD and her work for Early Years audiences has been seen on 6 continents and off-Broadway.
Contact your nearest partner venue for booking details – click on the relevant link below:
SING ME TO THE SEA is co-produced by The Civic, Tallaght and funded by the venues, Wicklow County Council and Sunbeam Trust with additional funding from Arts Council of Ireland
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Blog 1 – Jennifer Buggie, Teacher & Lead Facilitator on the TAP Design Team
Becoming and Understanding Through Partnership…Teachers, Artists, Children
“Art is a fundamental human enterprise…In making art we make ourselves. In understanding art, we understand ourselves”
(Council of National Cultural Institutions, 2006)
A few years ago, Jane O’Hanlon from Poetry Ireland shared the quote above at a Teacher-Artist Partnership planning meeting. It nestled into my soul and over years bore unexpected fruit in unanticipated times. March 2020 was both unexpected and unanticipated.
As a Primary Teacher in Holy Family Junior School, Portlaoise I had been enjoying the roll-out of our 2nd year with Creative Schools, planning a Teacher-Artist Partnership (TAP) Residency with Senior School and visual artist Caroline Conway and asking the Arts in Education Portal if I might blog the process.
Then…global pandemic.
Teaching and learning shoved online, Dojo launched, and Teams formed. Some school relationships wound tighter while others were jettisoned into the unknown…uncontactable, yet still loved and worried about. In the connected isolation of primary teaching in a pandemic, during the seismic refocusing of the Black Lives Movement, the personal and professional values that are lived through teaching felt more important that ever. In this context our TAP Design Team began to rewrite our summer training programme for delivery online.
TAP Online 2020 was controversial for us to commit to as a concept. We strive for a deeply creative, reflective and connecting style of professional learning that hinges on face-to-face interaction. Where we lost this in-room exchange for artists and teachers, we gained a most incredible, technicolour window into the creativity, emotionality, and deep-commitment of teaching professionals to working in artistic partnership with and for the children they teach. The artist-teacher partnerships of TAP 2020/21 will be led by our community to process pain, heal hearts, and build new identities through creativity, connection and love-in-the-arts for the children of Ireland.
“School should foster an environment that allows children access to explore their identity in the sanctuary of ART – I aim to do this in my classroom.” James O’Donnell TAP Participant 2020
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Creativity & Change: Nurturing Change-Makers, Imagining a Better World
The Creativity and Change programme & CIT Crawford College of Art
Application Deadline: 18 August 2020
The Creativity & Change programme targets change-makers, educators, activists, artists, community workers, adult education tutors, youth workers, volunteers and anyone who is interested how creative engagement can nurture global citizenship and empathic action around local and global justice themes.
Amplifying Voices Scholarships
During the unprecedented time of Covid 19, the Creativity & Change team have had to radically rethink how they engage their learners, as the educational work they do is so embedded in a heart connection with others. They don’t yet know what restrictions and guidelines will be in place for the next academic year, but they know that when it is any way possible for learners to engage safely in shared spaces, that’s where they want to be. The team are excited to share that they have acquired funding to purchase a mobile studio classroom, transported on a cargo e-bike so that they can facilitate learning spaces on the move and outdoors. So, much of next year’s course will be on wheels!
They are also excited to share the news of their new Amplifying Voices scholarships. The core of Creativity & Change’s work is to explore and address global justice and they value the perspectives and experiences of a diverse participant group when doing so. They are consistently seeking to improve the accessibility of the programme and would love to provide opportunities to those who may have previously experienced barriers to accessing post-graduate education, such as those in the Direct Provision system, or Travellers. The Creativity & Change team are now in a position to offer a number of free places on their course to those who may not have otherwise been in a position to apply. Application is via the CIT website, Amplifying Voices should be cited in the title of your application statement.
What is Creativity & Change?
The CIT-accredited award is two 10 credit modules combined within a level 9 Special Purpose Award. It ordinarily takes place one weekend a month from September to May in the new campus of the Crawford College of Art & Design in Cork City Centre, but much of the 2020/2021 will take place outdoors around Cork City centre and suburbs, and online.
The first module is an experiential module where you will engage in a wide range of hand on creative processes including visual arts, creative writing and theatre. You will engage in a wide range of global justice topics and reflect on your own identity as a global citizen and on the process of transformative learning. In the second module, you will put learning into practice in designing learning experiences for a range of contexts.
The course fee is heavily subsidised by Irish Aid. Application deadline is 18th August. Please note that places may be offered on a rolling basis, so early application is still advised.
This summer, enjoy a range of delightful online events and experiences in visual art, drama and dance, inspired by creatures big and small, meek and mighty! Through new online workshops, video tutorials, at-home activities and inspiring experiences, children will be encouraged to look closely, listen, imagine and make!
A selection of events are listed below:
Flap, Glide and Soar like a Bird: Online Visual Art Workshop
Date: 17 July, 11am & 2pm
Ages 5 – 12
Under Water Moves: Online Early Years Dance Workshops
Date: 17 July, 10:15am & 11:45am
Ages 2 – 4
Animal Transformations: Online Visual Art Workshops
Dates: 31 July & 7 August, 11am & 2pm
Ages: 5 – 12
Forest of Fun: Online Early Years Dance Workshops
Date: 7 August, 10:15am & 11:45am
Ages 2 – 4
Beautiful Beasts: Early Years Visual Art Adventures
Date: Running until 12 August 2020
Ages: 2 – 4
The Arts in Group Facilitation Certificate (level 8, 10 credits) focuses on the practical skills of planning and running creative workshops with groups in a range of non-formal contexts. Participants learn these skills through experiential learning processes, taking part in visual arts, drama, dance and music workshops and reflecting on the experience. The focus is on acknowledging the individual within learning, recognizing the importance of play and the need for learning to be engaging. There is a strong emphasis on engaging with diversity and learning to adapt a range of arts approaches to meet the varying needs within a group. The course will provide skills face to face in working in physical workshops, classes, centres as well as facilitation creative engagement online.
What will you be doing?
Exploring ways of working with the Arts through experiential workshops where you will experience firsthand approaches and techniques. Peer working will enhance your learning – exploring planning, design and evaluating working with groups. We are adapting to Covid-19 restriction and see the potential of learning in outdoor environments for participants in the programme and for those participants may work with in the future.
We are inviting participants to join us with a bicycle to access outdoor learning environments. The course will provide skills face to face in working in physical workshops, classes, centres as well as facilitation creative engagement online. The programme will be delivered through blended learning, involving face to face experiential learning and online learning. The face to face learning is being designed to maximise the potential of creative learning in outdoor environments.
Why do this course?
Learn approaches to group work that take the emphasis off words and place it on finding your own unique voice within the group through a range of possible arts-based media
Develop your creative skills to work with groups
Develop and promote confidence and sense of belonging in a group
Learn fresh ways to inspire learners in formal and informal learning
Develop practical resources and training to work with a wide variety of groups in community, in more specialised settings and in online spaces
Who is it for?
Of particular interest to those interested in;
Art Facilitator
Arts in Community Practice
Arts in Social Care
Arts in Education
Arts in Health
Applications are recorded on a rolling basis and will close once the course is full so early applications are advised. The course will start in early October 2020.
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Virtual Portal Regional Series Round-Up: Part 2
Arts in Education Portal
Over three days as part of the the first virtual Portal Regional Series last month teachers, artists and sector professionals joined visual artist Maree Hensey in an invitation to explore, question, feel and enquire using a variety of materials during a ‘collective making’ creative process entitled I AM IN THIS.
We share some of the responses from participants:
An emotional release…..Very moving….
It was so nourishing,
a very beautiful intimate, very considered, session… so very exciting and freeing.
I felt like a child playing with new things! It all began with the arrival of a tempting package which came with strict instructions – must not be opened until we are all ‘together’. We Zoomed for an hour. Opening the package revealed a small selection of simple materials – some bright white tissue paper and straws, paper clips and an envelope of white feathers.
We explored the idea ‘I AM IN THIS’. Minimal instruction : tear the paper; carry the feathers outside, let them off on the breeze; except one; create a cocoon for it and a place to secure it. Bring it outside.
Soon I got caught up in the making, aware that there were others there but not concerned about them, a quietness set in as I got on with my own ideas and imagination taking me off! Reflecting on the sense that although we are all in this together each of us is responding in our own personal way.
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Invitation to take part in the Arts in Education Portal Audience Forum
Arts in Education Portal
This year the Arts in Education Portal celebrates its five year anniversary, as part of these celebrations the Portal Team have been undertaking an exercise to assess how well the Arts in Education Portal is working. Strategic Development Resources (SDR), an independent market research consultancy, has been commissioned to assist us with this work.
We would like to thank everyone who assisted us in the first step of this research by completing our audience survey and sharing your views on the Portal’s content and how it might be improved. View the summary report from this survey here – Arts in Education Survey Summary Report 2020
Following on from that survey, the Portal team is now seeking a small number of participants for additional qualitative work through the Portal Audience Forum. This work will comprise a questionnaire which will take 30-45 minutes of your time to complete (with written answers rather than multiple choice), followed by your attendance at a Zoom focus group which will last approximately 90 minutes.
As a token of our thanks for your help with this research, we are offering participants a fee of up to €100. If you’d like to be considered for this research, please click here and complete the registration questions.
A new multi-platform project presented by branar for children of all ages up to 6 years
Tales of teddies, moments of magic, comforting cuddles and worlds of wonder are celebrated in an exciting new collection of poems and nursery rhymes for young children.
Pop Up Poetry for Lil’ Peeps is a new multi-platform project presented by Branar for children of all ages up to 6 years. Irish writers and artists Inni-k, Mary Murphy, Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin and Liz Weir have created new poems and nursery rhymes in Irish and English for this unique project. Audiences can enjoy this work online through vivid audio recordings and new animations by artist Maeve Clancy.
Originally commissioned by the Galway County Council, Creative Ireland Programme led by the Arts Office in partnership with Galway City Council and Roscommon County Council’s Creative Ireland programmes, in association with Children’s Books Ireland and Poetry Ireland.
Originally presented as part of the Criunniú na nÓg 2020 programme.
The Creative Schools team has developed an online support for learners and their families during school closures – Creative Schools TV.
CSTV will bring the work of the Creative Associates right into homes while attendance at our schools is limited by the ongoing COVID-19 situation.
Creative Associates are artists, creative practitioners and educators with an understanding of the arts and creativity and its potential to transform the lives of children and young people.
Each week a different Creative Associate will introduce a new lesson on YouTube. Lessons will explore an area of creativity, from photography, to dance, to drama, to music – depending on the speciality of the Creative Associate.
And Creative Schools want children and young people to share their creativity with them and show them what they’ve learned from each lesson. They can share their creative work to the Creative Schools team using a CSTV Submission Form available at www.artscouncil.ie/CSTV/.
Each week show off all the creativity inspired by last week’s lesson! You can view all the episodes of CSTV on the Arts Council’s YouTube channel. Further supports will be developed in the coming weeks and shared on CSTV.
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Opportunity: Teacher Artist Partnership (TAP) Online CPD Summer Course
Teacher Artist Partnership (TAP) Initiative
Deadline to register: 3pm, 3 July 2020
Teacher Artist Partnership (TAP) Online CPD Summer Course is an arts-in-education initiative where Artists and Teachers train to work in partnership. This programme can lead to opportunities for a TAP trained teacher to host a fully funded TAP artist residency in his or her school in coming academic year.
This Creative Youth, Department of Education and Skills led Primary initiative is a highly innovative, creative and participant-responsive programme that promotes professional learning towards partnership.
TAP Online maximises engagement through a broad range of on and offline activities. Learning activities include practical, multidisciplinary arts experiences through multimedia interactives, video instruction, collaborative posting boards and discussion forums and reflective practices. Tutors, teachers and artists provide responsive feedback and encourage collaborators to reflect on personal and professional development through the co-creation of learning. TAP’s core focus is the development of creative partnership between teachers and artists. Join us in learning together.
Course Dates:
6 -10 July 2020
Register to take part by 3pm, 3 July 2020
Please use the following links to access the TAP Online Summer Course:
Follow the Teacher Artist Partnership initiative on Twitter @TeacherArtistP1pm
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Blog 4 – Kate Wilson, Artist & Lead Facilitator on the TAP Design Team
Online collaborations, TAP’s new online course and ‘busting the myth of the solo artist’
I have been very lucky over the past weeks to have the company of two exceptional dancers, joining me virtually as part of my ongoing research, looping embodied movement and drawing practices. I have been surprised at the level of connection that is felt in these sessions despite the lack of real physical presence and the dodgy internet connections!
Taking time with discussions and reflections along with the moving, writing and drawing are essential parts of the research and perhaps it is this multiplicity of audio and visual modes that has helped to bridge the virtual gap.
Having this research alongside the Magnetise Project, ‘A call for Home’ has been mutually beneficial, with many cross overs emerging. The shift in dynamic from group to one to one has also brought important insights for my virtual platform collaborative practice.
Now that the last of the 360 cameral equipment for the project has finally arrived it is great to be at the stage of exploring this new potential for our collected video works and live interactions.
The last couple of weeks have also been busy ones for the TAP (Teacher Artist Partnership) design team. In particular, for the two members who took the helm and within a very short timeframe have created a fantastic online version of the TAP CPD summer course. Next week we will run the course in its online format for the first time. We are looking forward to the live aspects and forums, and to interacting and assisting participants on their journey through the modules. As part of the course I will host a live dance session mid week and was delighted have the opportunity recently to create a short video with one of my long term collaborators, artist Isolde Carmody. The video is a reflection on arts and diversity and will be featured in the course. Embracing diversity in arts and education, understanding the inherent collaborative nature of practice, and in Isolde’s words ‘busting the myth of the solo artist’, all feel as vital as ever to keep to the fore, in todays wider sociopolitical context.
Art is Life by Kate Wilson and Isolde Carmody
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Curious Minds – Resources for Teachers created by Visual Artists
“Curious Minds” is a series of booklets with lessons for primary school teachers created by professional Visual Artists.
This free digital resource offers more than 16 projects, with 43 lessons in total, divided into five books: one with the foundation; and four with projects for every season (most projects or lessons can be used any time of the year). It also includes various “warm-up” and awareness exercises (including “gymnastics for the brain”).
The content focuses on four main themes: belonging, identity, consumerism, and the environment. It is organised in such a way that allows for flexibility. Most lessons are suitable for a diverse range of ages, from 1st to 6th classes. There are projects of short, medium and long duration (from 1 to 8 lessons). The design of the books will allow anyone to print each project by lesson or in its entirety.
Karla and Els share an interest in multi-disciplinary and holistic education, and invited a group of creatives to collaborate in this endeavor: Clare Breen (who also did the illustrations), Laura Ní Fhlaibhín, Orla Bates, David Begley and Colm O’Neill (graphic designer).
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Opportunity: Musician Educators with Music Generation Kildare
Music Generation Kildare
Deadline: 12 noon, 19th June 2020
Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board (KWETB) are delighted to invite applications from suitably qualified persons for the following:
Musician Educators
Suitably qualified persons to be placed on a panel for part-time Musician Educators for the following Music Generation Kildare Programmes:
Instrumental Music Programme – including, but not only, traditional Irish instruments, strings, brass, woodwind, guitar, percussion, songwriting, composition, band facilitation, conducting and music technology.
Singing Programme – vocal/choral and/or instrumental musicians with experience relevant to vocal music-making in group contexts.
Early Years Programme – vocal/choral and/or instrumental musicians with experience relevant to working with the under-7s.
Closing date for receipt of completed application forms for both positions is: 12.00 noon, Friday 19th June 2020
Kildare has been selected for participation in Music Generation – Ireland’s National Music Education Programme- that transforms the lives of children and young people through access to high quality performance music education in their locality. Initiated by Music Network, Music Generation is co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education and Skills and Local Music Education Partnerships.
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Ireland’s National School Photography Awards – Winners Announced
Ireland’s National School Photography Awards
The INSPA team would like to congratulate every school who participated in the 2019/20 National School Photography Awards. The national winner is Dominika Ilecko from Stepaside ETNS who submitted the photo entitled Two Chairs into the Senior Category of the awards. The winner of the Junior Category is Jack Kelly Sharkey from Courtnacuddy NS with his entry Old Phone Box Library.
Dominika Ilecko, Two Chairs, Stepaside ETNS, Senior Category
INSPA is the national children’s photography competition and online academy which is open to all primary schools in the Republic of Ireland. This year, young creatives from around the country were encouraged to engage with digital technologies and the creative process to explore the theme; Second Life.
The awards are having a massive impact in classrooms and homes across Ireland as they provide an inclusive model for children of all backgrounds and abilities to get involved. Through photography, INSPA introduces creative well-being into the lives of primary school students while building a future generation of people who are confident, resilient, connected, kind and ready.
The awards are free and offer a range of fantastic prizes including trips and stays at the Amber Springs Resort for principals, teachers, pupils and families, cameras for winners and schools, framed photographs, certificates and national recognition as a Positive Primary School. All entries are judged by a national panel of experts and over 300 primary schools have already registered their accounts.
We would like to take this opportunity, once again, to congratulate Dominika from Stepaside ETNS and Jack from Courtnacuddy NS on their recent successes and we look forward to working with all finalist schools when they re-open in September.
If your school would like to begin its Positive Primary Journey and participate in the 2020/21 awards, you can register your school at the INSPA website – www.inspa.ie
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Part 1 – Virtual Portal Regional Series Round Up
Arts in Education Portal
Over 130 artists, teachers and arts in education professionals joined us live across the week for the first virtual Portal Regional Series which showcased arts in education and creative practise in the South East.
Key themes that arose from the discussion were the importance of partnerships, relationships and adaptability; how these values have allowed the project to organically develop and strengthen over its thirteen years.
We were delighted to be joined in the discussion by Wexford Arts Office Liz Burns, Elizabeth Whyte Executive Director/CEO of Wexford Arts Centre and Visual Art Curator Catherine Bowe who spoke about the value of evaluation. How listening and building on the feedback from the children, artists and teachers involved has allowed the project to organically grow and adapt year on year.
Karla also introduced us to ‘Curious Minds’ a resource pack for teachers which was developed this year by Karla and artist Els Dietvorst with the aim of disseminating the learning from the project. Curious Minds will be launched as part of Cruinniú na nÓg in June with a local launch in September.
In Tuesdays session artist, educator and researcher Tunde Toth led us in a presentation exploring co-ownership and participation within a classroom setting, where we truly value children’s questions, responses and doubts.
Tunde introduced us to the idea of taking creative risks and the importance of creating a space where children can make decisions and voice their opinions.
IMMA invites children, young people and their families to join them every week on their social channels for #ExploreratHome.
While IMMA is closed the Explorer at Home art activities are available for children and adults to do and make at home. IMMA’s team share a new art activity every Wednesday afternoon on their social channels. You will find specially selected artworks, inspired by the IMMA Collection Online and IMMA’s temporary Exhibition Programme, as starting points for creative activities.
IMMA invites you to share your creations with them online by tagging IMMA and using the hashtag #ExploreratHome so you can see your work on IMMA’s website.
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Gaiety School of Acting brings a little drama to your home
Gaiety School of Acting
Recognising the struggle so many parents are currently facing as they broach the mountainous task of home schooling their children during the Coronavirus restrictions, the Gaiety School of Acting has released a series of comprehensive and fun lesson plans to inject a little creativity and some POSITIVE drama to your household.
With 34 years experience in drama training, the Gaiety School of Acting teaches over 2000 children across their Young Gaiety schools in Bray, Malahide and Temple Bar annually, in a range of classes from Parent and Toddler Drama to Musical Theatre Company, Acting for Camera to an eclectic offering of seasonal camps.
Our Home Drama Resources have been developed by the GSA’s education team, and in addition to creative drama, provide a selection of science, craft and film-making activities for you and your children to explore a variety of themes, have fun, and escape from reality!
Every Thursday a new resource is released with the following themes already available on the website: The Lion King, Harry Potter, Roald Dahl, Monsters from the Movies, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.
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Opportunity for Artists: Teddy Talks Clinics for Theatre Practitioners with Theatre Lovett
Theatre Lovett
Dates: Late June/July 2020
Theatre Lovett are delighted to announce Teddy Talks; a series of clinics for theatre practitioners with a focus on Theatre for Young Audiences.
Led by Muireann Ahern, Joint Artistic Director of Theatre Lovett, along with invited guests, these sessions will cover:
Pitfalls and pratfalls: Lessons learned.
Who’s who? Cast, creatives and crew – now what to do!
Developing relationships with venues, festivals and programmers.
Touring and budgeting.
Children as performers.
Age pitch.
Taking responsibility for your team and your young audiences.
Child Protection Policy.
Theatre in the time of COVID – discussion
Discussion and feedback.
Any questions left unanswered – ask now!
To Apply: Please send your C.V. or biog with a note outlining why you are interested in registering for Teddy Talks to muireann@theatrelovett.com.
Next Course Dates:
Late June/July 2020 (exact dates and times TBC depending on slots available due to demand). These clinics will be conducted online due to COVID-19.
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Unleash Your Creative Spirit – Cruinniú na nÓg 2020
The Creative Ireland Programme
Date:13 June 2020
Cruinniú na nÓg 2020 is Ireland’s national day of free creative activities for children and young people under the age of 18. Over the past 2 years Cruinniú na nÓg has become a key point in the calendar for children and young people to try something creative, develop an appetite for discovery and acquire new skill, 2020 will be no different.
In light of ongoing public health restrictions the Creative Ireland Programme are inviting young people to celebrate our culture and creativity and to take part in a virtual Cruinniú on Saturday 13th June.
There is an amazing array of 300 + events that will be happening in the run up to and on the day itself, all of which can be accessed on cruinniu.creativeireland.gov.ie.
There are a number of creative “calls to action” which young people – indeed entire families – can create in their own homes and gardens.
Céilí in the Kitchen – A collective call to action for young people and their families to create a Céilí in their kitchen for Cruinniú, with Áirc Damhsa, who will guide us through the Irish tradition of these communal social events that take place in houses.
On the 13th of June you won’t have to leave the house to join a Céilí, you can have one right there in your own home. All you have to do is push back the kitchen table, put the chairs against the wall and you’re good to go. Creative Ireland with the help of choreographer Edwina Guckian, singer Cathy Jordan, musician Thomas Johnston and storyteller Mikel Murfi are putting together weekly video workshops from May 18th that will make sure you have all you need for a great night of traditional music, song, dance and storytelling.
Let’s Go Fly a Kite – A collective call to action for children, young people and their families to make and fly a kite for Cruinniú.
The Design and Crafts Council Ireland have joined forces with Creative Ireland to design a kite that anyone can make at home. All you need is some sticks, some newspaper, some string and a whole lot of imagination. Why not decorate in your county colours, or decorate it with pictures of your favourite pop star? From the 15th May, a series of webinars and videos will guide you and your family through fun ways to make a kite.
Create a Video Game App – If you could click your fingers and create a video game app, what would it be? A racing game or a coin collector? A target game or a platform? The choice is endless and it’s time for you to decide.
In addition, local authorities will also be hosting a range of cultural and creative activities and online events for Cruinniú na nÓg – full details of the 300+ events available on the special Cruinniú website cruinniu. creativeireland.gov.ie/events/
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Opportunity for Schools – Architects in Schools 2020/21 Open Call
Irish Architecture Foundation
Deadline: Friday 19 June 2020
The Irish Architecture Foundation are delighted to announce that applications are open for the 2020/21 Architects in Schools programme.
The Architects in Schools initiative for Transition Year students places architects and architectural graduates in schools across Ireland. Students learn how to research, design and communicate architectural ideas, always reimagining the spaces around them and sometimes even affecting change in their local built environment.
Check out Architect Frank Monahan’s guest blog series here on the Portal about his experience on the initiative.
The Creative School Team is delighted to announce an opportunity for schools and Youthreach centres to be part of the next phase of Scoileanna Ildánacha / Creative Schools.
Creative Schools aims to put the arts and creativity at the heart of children’s and young people’s lives and this year 150 new schools/centres will join the programme. Participating schools will work alongside a Creative Associate who will help them to develop their own Creative Schools plan to understand, develop and celebrate the arts and creativity in their school. Schools will be awarded a once-off grant of €4,000 (in total) to implement their plans over the two school years 2020–21 and 2021–22.
The deadline for submitting applications is 25 June 2020. The window for submitting applications opens on 18 February.
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Have Your Say! A Survey on Music Education Opportunities in Fingal
Calling Young People, Musicians and Educators!
Have Your Say! A Survey on Music Education Opportunities for Children and Young People in Fingal.
Fingal County Council, in partnership with the Dublin and Dún Laoghaire Education and Training Board, invite you to complete a survey that will help us understand your views regarding access to performance music education for children and young people in the county.
This research will support a submission to Music Generation, the national performance music education programme, to extend and enrich the partners’ commitment to children & young people in Fingal.
This step taken by the partners emphasises the importance of retaining support for arts and education initiatives now and in the times ahead as we build connections with one another and ignite hope and inspiration.
Your views are important to this process and will enable the partners to develop and deliver music education programmes that suit the needs of those aged 0 – 18 years, now and into the future.
Should you require assistance or alternative mechanisms to complete a survey please email Fingal County Council’s Youth & Education Officer julie.clarke@fingal.ie
Be in with a chance to win!
Children and Young People are invited to enter a draw to win a gift voucher for one of Fingal’s Arts Centres – Draíocht and the Séamus Ennis Arts Centre, upon survey completion. See information within Children &Young People survey link.
Deadline for survey submission: Thursday 30th of April 2020.
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FÍS Film for Schools Project – #MakeFilmsAtHome
FÍS Film Project
Home Movies Anyone? Let’s Have Some Fun While Learning At Home!
FÍS Film Project would like learners to use the current COVID-19 social distancing policy as an opportunity to learn film-making skills for making really cool home movies!
Their new blog series #MakeFilmsAtHome is aimed at children and their families who might like to try their hand at making a stop motion animation or short live action film during the stay home phase and beyond.
With two separate blog postings per day. 1 for animation and 1 for live-action film-making. Presented in a simple easy to use format, with sample films made by Irish primary school children for the FÍS (film in schools) project and are accompanied by short video tutorials made by undergrad students at the National Film School in IADT.
Film-making is a fun, creative, imaginative and educational process and FÍS hope that families will find the tips and tools provided useful. They are encouraging parents / guardians a child or children who make a film to upload to you tube, vimeo, instagram or similar platform to share.
All you need is a mobile phone or tablet device and lots of imagination!
The Ark are delighted to announce details of The Ark @ Home, a selection of at-home activities and experiences that provide opportunities for children aged 2-12 to discover and love the arts in their own homes.
Sadly, like so many other arts organisations, The Ark has been forced to close our doors and cancel a number of programmes due to take place over the coming month due to the current COVID-19 crisis. But while our building may remain shut for the time being, The Ark @ Home will offer children daily opportunities to explore and discover the arts in their own homes over the next few weeks.
Speaking about The Ark @ Home, The Ark’s Director Aideen Howard said, “At The Ark, we believe in every child’s right to art and culture. Generally, this means visits to our beautiful building in Temple Bar to see shows, exhibitions and concerts, or to take part in our hands-on workshops. Now though, while our audience of children, parents and teachers are all at home, we want to share the work of some of our brilliant Ark artists online. The Ark @ Home is a way for children who are home from school to connect with some of those performances and workshops. Check out ark.ie and The Ark Twitter, Facebook and Instagram pages for more information.”
Each day, different creative content and resources will be made available on ark.ie. Enjoy a taste of some of the programmes which have been cancelled including Fly Me To The Moon, BIG BANG Dublin! and more. You might like to kick back and watch a filmed performance of theatre for children, or get up and make some moves to an archived music performance. You might get creative with a hands-on worksheet or let your imagination soar as you dream up worlds far away. From activity sheets to streams of live performances, The Ark invites children right across the country to take part.
Each Thursday, a different videoed performance of a show commissioned and presented by The Ark will be available to stream online, including acclaimed theatre productions such as The Haircut! by Wayne Jordan & Tom Lane and Peat by Kate Heffernan, as well as wonderful musical experiences such as the magical Tracks in the Snow featuring The Henry Girls.
The Ark is delighted, in this way, to continue offering children exciting creative opportunities across the arts, and to celebrate the work of some of the amazing artists that we have worked with, commissioned and continue to support through these very challenging times.
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Uillinn Connect – Online Activities for Children
Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre
Ongoing
Uillinn Connect – A new programme from Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre responding to the current global situation. The programme seeks to find new ways to connect artworks, artists and the public. Focusing on the Uillinn’s regular programme and also creating new ones that reach out to everyone keeping safe at home.
A selection of activities for children and young people below:
Uillinn Connect – Daily Art Activity
Posted daily on Uillinn’s Facebook event, follow this link
An online connecting activity for primary school-age children and their parents, every morning at 11am from Monday to Friday with Public Engagement Assistant Kate McElroy and intern Stella Gilfert (now interning remotely from Germany).
Taking inspiration from Uillinn’s primary schools exhibition Connecting, Gabhann Dunne’s exhibition Committed to Falling and William Bock’s exhibition Land Walks Land Talks Land Marks, we are sharing a daily art activity for families to create at home.
‘We don’t stop playing because we grow old, We grow old because we stop playing’
George Bernard Shaw
Use the hastag: #UillinnConnect on social media or email photographs of your work to info@westcorkartscentre.com so we can connect the work together! The team will compile all the images at the end for an online exhibition of the work! Shared on social media and archived on the web here.
Uillinn Connect: Play on words, Play onwards
Wednesday Art Club artists have devised a wonderful way to keep the programme running with a postal project designed with each child in mind. Artists Pól Ó Colmáin and Marie Cullen have prepared a special envelope for each child containing a unique poem written for the child by the artists; a selection of art materials; and a letter from Pól and Marie inviting the children to make a visual response to the poem.
The children are asked to return their artwork in the stamped, addressed envelope provided to Pól and Maire, who will then compile a limited edition book with a copy for each child.
Here’s the first verse of one of the poems to give you an flavour:
The Little Earwig
There was a little earwig, I think his name was Liam,
but it didn’t really matter, ‘cos he’d answer just the same.
He lived in the back garden shed in a cosy little house,
a ball of leaves and twigs that he shared with a wood louse.
He loved to go spelunking in each tunnel, cave and hole,
exploring every hollow stem when he was on patrol.
And then, he’d head back homewards and, as cosy as you please,
he’d tell of his adventures and his discoveries.
Uillinn Connect: And We’ll All Fly Together
Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre’s Curiosity project connecting pre-school children with the residents and staff of West Cork Community Hospitals during COVID-19. Sarah Ruttle along with Uillinn’s Programme Manager: Education and Community and Arts for Heath Coordinator Justine Foster, devised a project to connect children with the community hospitals. See here for more information on this project.
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The Three Muses Activity Pack – Learning Resource
The Hunt Museum
The Hunt Museum are delighted to bring you The Three Muses Activity Pack, a learning resource inspired by the collections of The Hunt Museum, Limerick Museum and Limerick City Gallery of Art.
It is bursting with open-ended, creative activities which support Visual Art, History and English curricula, and comes in a full colour version for screens and a reduced colour version for printing at home. Explore and learn from Limerick’s museums without leaving your house – all you need is a pencil, paper and your brilliant imagination!
The Three Muses is a learning programme designed to increase access, ownership and enjoyment of three Limerick museums, with a focus on modern and contemporary visual art. The programme includes workshops and learning resources like this. Watch a short video on the programme here.
The Three Muses programme is supported by Limerick City and County Council and Friends of the Hunt Museum. This Activity Pack is sponsored by Unity Credit Union.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Frank Monahan Architect & Cultural Producer – Blog No. 4
Frank is an Irish designer /cultural producer with an interest in film, the arts & architecture. His professional practice includes the design of buildings, & set design for film/television production. He holds a BA in Architecture, 2008 and a Professional Diploma in Architecture, 2012 both from London Metropolitan University. Prior to this he recieved a B.Des. in Production Design for Film/Television, from IADT. This background has informed his approach to practice, which is collaborative, interdisciplinary and site specific.Interested in the critical potential of design he established Architecture at the Edge in 2017, for which he devised and curated the events programme. He produced an outdoor installation, ‘Ghost Chapel’ for Galway International Arts Festival 2018 in collaboration with the Bartlett School of Architecture.
Growing our Connections – Blog 4
Having taught the National Architects in Schools Initiative for the past three years I find it can still be quite a daunting task when faced with a new group of students.
Many of the students don’t understand the value of their built environment because they have never seen the benefits it can offer them.
It’s difficult for students to learn without experiencing connections as to the concepts we teach them. This can be achieved through providing both context and relevance. Without that connection there is no interest, and interest always precedes meaningful and authentic learning. So it’s essential that we are making strong learning connections to help them develop the thinking habits they need to succeed.
Schools are comprised of the people in the community. Coming from outside it’s important to understand the community your students are a part of. Mountbellew is a quiet rural market town 45km from Galway on the N63 to Roscommon. Once the home of the Grattan-Bellew family, famous Galway parliamentarians during the 18th and 19th centuries. The former demesne is now a delightful wooded area of forest walks and picnic areas, filled with interesting historical items.
Upon my first visit to Mountbellew, whilst seeking out a connection to the place, I was drawn down an inviting avenue of beech trees where I was immediately taken by the sight of a 7m high wall, the enclosure to an extensive eighteenth century Walled Garden which was once part of the large Bellew estate. For a century and a half this walled garden was used in the manner of all such Victorian/Edwardian gardens, although simply because of its size, more than household fruit and vegetables were probably grown.
I learned that the long term aim of the local heritage group here is to rejuvenate, conserve and develop the 18th century walled garden. Developing this existing heritage resource will provide a new amenity for the area. It will also complement other local heritage and recreation assets helping attract visitors to the area stimulating rural tourism.
From the outset I knew it was important to set a clear and engaging agenda with the students and so by way of introduction find something in their common experiences to which the lesson can be attached. Here in the walled garden is a space to explore, walk, discover and feel inspired by all it has to offer; a reminder that as times change natures story goes on. To function as a place to grow food, for pleasure and wellbeing.
Before we launched into making any propositions it was important to give time to the students and allow them articulate their ideas. Topics were selected for the students to share in groups. Investigation into the history and functions of various types of garden generated one starting point for beginning transformational change such as should its use be as a kitchen garden distinct from a decorative one. The many ways we experience gardens were discussed. The pleasure garden, the kitchen garden, the memorial garden and/or as a place to re-connect with nature. A presentation by the local heritage group committee members was followed the following week with a guided site visit.
In speculating on its potential one of the students reminded us that the parents of Anna Kriegel had planted a white cherry blossom at her favorite spot and unveiled a bench which bears an inscription with her name. Another then talked of the seat under a tree at the Mountbellew walled garden which ladies once sat how they might propose to do the same. The sense of a connection to place and how that can relate to our own experience of the world underpinned the project. This is about learning how everything is interconnected and interdependent. Understanding the relationship between things can help people see and understand their community in different ways. That association with people and place is fundamental.
Students learn by exposure to real life examples and their experiences and observations of these examples greatly accelerates their learning. Part of this task required the students to ‘Look Locally’ i.e. Find clear links between the lessons and the things that are transpiring in the local community, and even get them actively involved with community individuals. It’s about teaching and learning that is focused on student centered inquiry.
A second field trip was organized, with a group assigned to conduct an on-site survey which would inform the task of making of a 1:100 site model.
Making the model allowed the re-imaging of the walled garden to take shape. The resulting design links a series of new public spaces/ rooms and reuses an existing building as a community hub / cafe to give purpose and a variety of gathering places to the center of garden.
The aim here was to create space for every young person to be at the center of co-designing their own future, community spaces, projects and campaigns. To give voice of the student and allow them give that voice back to their community.
In working with the students like this I hope that it will stimulate them to become actively involved and engaged in shaping their local built environments and landscapes. Place-based education promotes learning that is rooted in what is local—the unique history, environment, culture, economy, literature, and art of a particular place—and it promotes a place-specific, sustainable approach to living, working and playing in our 21st century rural communities. The main objective is to attract interest and support from the community at large and to help re-educate ourselves about the importance of sustainable and healthy living.
Young people need a space where they can be unafraid to explore. As a result, the sense of place created by a village’s cultural heritage links directly to a community’s sense of identity, which can ultimately enhance people’s overall sense of being and belonging and quality of life. The walled garden at Mountbellew offers this. They need to live it, grow with it, tend to it. For them, it can be a space of hope and promise: if we put in the right effort and intention just about growing our connection to nature, it is essentially growing our connection to each other.
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On Hold – Call for papers, presentations and workshops! National Arts in Education Portal Day 2020
Due to the current COVID situation this call has been places on hold. We will be announcing further details in the coming weeks.
Artists, teachers, academics and arts education professionals… Do you want to be part of the fifth annual National Arts in Education Portal Day?
The fifth National Arts in Education Portal Day will take place in Limerick this Autumn. The event aims to bring together members of the arts in education and creative practise community from all across Ireland, to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired and continue interrogating best practice in the field.
The Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee invites proposals from organisations or individuals who want to give dynamic and inspiring presentations or workshops that can offer sharing of skills, practical approaches, new insights and critical thinking across the field, from a range of perspectives.
This year, the Portal Day will have a special focus on ‘access and inclusion in arts in education and creative practise’. The Committee therefore will particularly welcome applications which respond to this theme.
Do you have a workshop or presentation that you would like to be included in the programme for this day? If so, please send us your proposal.
The deadline for submission of proposals has been extended to 5pm Friday 22nd May 2020.
CoisCéim is heading inside for the coming months and they’ve got some lively new moves to share with you. From performance and participation projects to curated online classes let’s dance to keep our spirits up, stay in shape and reflect on the positive change our strange new world may bring.
Highlights for children and young people include:
Sofa Cinema Series:
Kicking off next week (2 April) and featuring exclusive online private screenings from the CoisCéim archives starting with…
The Wolf and Peter | Live at the Sydney Opera House 2 April | 10am & 4pm
David Bolger’s award-winning work for children and their families was filmed in Sydney and streamed live to 21 schools in New South Wales in July 2017.
BROADREACH | CREATIVE STEPS 28 April – 02 May 4pm & 9pm
A selection of short films from the BROADREACH archive of Creative Steps Youth Dance Theatre and a preview of LANDSCAPE, the latest Creative Steps Project led by Laura Macken.
Online Workshops for Children aged 6 – 10:
CoisCéim are developing a short online series of interactive dance workshops for children aged 6-10 based on DANCE YOUR OWN DANCE that runs in parallel with David Bolger’s Francis Footwork – for more information please contact philippa@coisceim.com.
For further information and to view the full schedule of digital activities go to coisceim.com/digitaldances/
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Part 2 – Announcing the 2020 Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award Recipients
The Portal Team are delighted to announce the second recipient of the 2020 Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award. We are very excited to be working with each recipient in the coming months to document their projects. These projects will be showcased on the portal as the documentation progresses.
About the recipients….
Project title: Crossing the Line
‘Crossing The Line’ is a year long collaboration between 9 early years children, artist Helen Barry, Lead Educator Audrey Fagan and the multi-practice team made up of special needs assistants, therapists and medical staff who support the children attending Pre-School One in the Central Remedial Clinic School. Their collaboration began in October 2019 and together they have been exploring, playing, experimenting, learning and creating through an experiential and multi-sensory programme of creative engagements that responds to the individual and group cognitive, emotional, developmental and medical needs of the children. They are creating enabling opportunities to build the children’s imagination, language and ability to think creatively. The programme’s enquiry will explore the perpetual visual and aural palette of sensations and frequencies through which we interpret the world around us. Helen’s position as artist-in-residence in the CRCS is being supported through her YPCE Bursary, awarded by The Arts Council in 2019 and is also supported by the National Concert Hall.
The ‘line’ we refer to in our title ‘Crossing the line’, is the physical mid-line of the body that needs to be crossed, e.g. the right arm crossing over in the left area of the body and vice versa, this is essential for the development of using both sides of the body together. We are there to grow and support each child to reach their full potential. We are there to give freedom to their investigation. As much as the artist brings the creative know how to this collaboration she too is learning a deeper understanding of the physical and cognitive developmental aims whilst observing the pedagogical practice that enable how these goals can be supported and achieved.
A few words from the artist Helen Barry
Creativity may require the dexterity of the fingertips but it is with every pore of their body that the early years child absorbs, explores and responds to the world around them. Through play they learn and if learning is work, work is play! Why then do some of us continue to learn this way and others take a different direction. My methodology and approach to working with early years children is governed by my preferred learning style; I am a kinaesthetic learner and the early years child is my idea co-creator. We don’t just need to touch it, we need to be in it, outside of it, hear it, wear it and be it to truly understand what it is we are doing or even just thinking about doing. Nothing is impossible there is little separation between the physical and the imaginary.
My belief that children bring with them their own narrative underpins the approach to my collaborative practice. The work evolves through a process of exploring shredding, questioning and observing the children at work. First I observe, I play and I listen to both the children and the adults in this environment. My methodology relies on the knowledge and observations of early years educators, specialists and parents with whom I engage. It is only then that I offer a multi-sensory and multi-disciplinary palette of interactive engagements, tools, sounds and textures that supports the exploration and development of their narrative. It is the children’s responses to the aesthetic and aural palette that I bring that drives the direction of the collaboration and shapes my response back in the studio.
‘I may not be able to hear you, but I can still be listening’.
Hearing impeared Visual/sound artist Alison O’Daniel USA.
My current artist-in-residence with the CRCS is supported through a YPCE Bursary awarded by the Arts Council in 2019. Alison’s words are a driving force to what my ambition is for this YPCE Bursary*. Her work challenges us to look at the worlds of others not from a ‘loss’ or ‘lack’ of sound, sight or motor or cognitive skills considered ‘important’ or ‘normal’ but from the position that everything exists on the horizon; a perpetual visual and aural palette of sensations and frequencies through which we interpret the world around us. This exploration began in early October 2019 and as we play together and create together we shall discover, learn, reflect and be open to where the journey takes us. To date I am having a wonderful time engaging, playing and observing the responses of the children and their relationships with each other. I am astounded by how young the children are yet so acutely aware of their empathy and the care they give to each other. Sometimes it seems that what is emanating from their emotional bond has an actual physical presence that should I reach out I may be able to touch it.
*My ambition is to design and create works that stem from the textured language informed through researching and expanding my understanding of what exists on these horizons through two new residencies, one with the Central Remedial Clinic School (CRCS) primary school facility and the second with the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Unit of Stepaside Educate Together Primary School. ‘Crossing the Line’ involves the CRCS and will focus on the collaborative process in the school and hopefully share elements of what happens during the response time in the studio.
I am a visual artist and a trained dancer. My collaborative work with early years children is intrinsic to my practice. I have over 35 years experience through creativity and play with small babies to older people in residential homes. My work draws from the nuances and disciplines of various art forms through collaborations and interactions with other arts practitioners, e.g. Jessica Kennedy of Junk Ensemble, Alex Petcu of Crash Ensemble. My work stems from the audience it is aimed at yet my ambition is to ensure that this work remains sustainable within the same critical and aesthetic platforms of professional arts spheres.
Children have a natural disposition to wonder, to be curious, to pose questions, to experiment, to suggest, to invent and to explain. The child with additional needs is no different. I trained as a National School teacher and began working in the area of special needs in 1996. I taught all the age groups and it wasn’t until I began teaching the early years students of my school that I really found my purpose. I have immersed myself into their world of learning, exploring and discovery. I have read books to inform my methodologies and children’s learning styles. I have googled the internet for inspiration and like-minded individuals in the fields of education and the Arts. To play and work with children with complex needs, fundamentally, beginning and sustaining positive relationships is the basis for all their learning. Relationships between them and you, between each other and between their parents and you! Building relationships involves creating “an environment in which children feel secure and confident enough to take risks, to explore, to take part in challenging experiences, and to direct and co-direct their own learning” (NCCA, 2009 p.28)
I attended ‘Space Invaders – International Early Years Arts Festival in Farmleigh Estate back in June 2014. I attended as many of the workshops I could and one of them, was Helen Barry’s workshop. To this day I use the many wonderful and intriguing ideas she passionately encouraged us to engage with – threading lengths of wool with various coloured pieces of foam and paper/pasta and then creating a dome-like overhead structure with them, building with boxes and insulating foam piping, decorating clear umbrellas with stickers and/or paint and/or scarves, tracing our body shapes onto coloured paper and sticking these along clear cellophane in the outdoors! Needless to say, I returned home a very happy teacher, discovering like-minded creators who worked with younger audiences to open and ignite their minds through multi-sensory experiences. Since then, I have attended many workshops/seminars/training for the early years, each time asking more questions, making more discoveries, implementing many ideas and adapting them to the special educational needs of the children I am fortunate to work and play with every day.
In September, 2018 I thought of re-connecting with Helen, having read about her project ‘sculptunes’. I learned of ‘The Kaleidoscopic Child’, Helen’s new project and one that would suit the children in the school. Last February 2019, Helen arrived at our School and within an hour had created an amazing, colourful, interactive piece. Many classes, ranging in age from 3 to 12, with multiple disabilities enjoyed and interacted with Helen and her performance. Comments from teachers and SNAs afterwards included – ‘I didn’t know if the children would stay focused for long but they did! There was just enough looking and observing and then they (the children) got to explore’
‘Brilliant! Thought Helen was lovely with the children. She didn’t rush them when they were looking or touching or just listening’
‘There was something for every child – Lewis wanted to figure out how the tubes made sounds with the pump and then Conor was so happy listening to the drum that sounded like the sea. Milly loved the shiny mermaid material and Molly could have beat the dome-shaped metal drum for ages!’
Our children have a primary physical disability but many have multiple disabilities, including ASD, ADHD, emotional and behavioural and a visual or hearing impairment. Engaging with the children requires a multi-sensory approach so each child can participate,explore and enjoy at their pace and level of ability. It is about creating an enabling environment, one that enables all to play and create.
“Relationships are at the heart of early learning and development” (NCCA 2009 p. 27) Creating a rich, learning environment, giving time and space to the children and reminding the adults of ‘being in the moment’, sitting, waiting, being still to catch the glint in the eye, a flash of a smile as a child processes, absorbs, reacts and responds to the creative experience. Teaching children with complex needs requires an holistic, creative approach, all their senses need to be engaged and a trusting reciprocal relationship with their educators enables all involved to be open to this. This is the essence of what we hope to document.
The documentary award will provide us with the potential to show how children living with profound and complex needs are, as with all children, need and want to play, to learn, to engage, to explore, to create, to communicate, to belong, to make and have friends, to be happy and secure. They are, as all children are, mischievous, eager, curious, playful and reckless, have selective hearing and are full of devilment! We as the adults, are there to offer the space and freedom, the creative environment to cross the line.
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Blog 2 – Kate Wilson, Artist & Lead Facilitator on the TAP Design Team
A Call for Home
Magnetise 2020 and collaborative practice in lockdown
In these unnerving times of isolation, connecting through collaborative projects will be an important life line for many artists. And although at times worries may override our ability to work at our best, the possibility to be together, to keep working, inspiring each other and reflecting together may well turn out to be even more important than pasta and toilet roll!
I have spent some time in the last few days considering the possibilities and challenges in this new climate for some of my ongoing projects. As an artist who has continued to embrace the sensorily rich materiality of charcoal and fabric and paint, has veered a little shy of technology and whose performance practice often involves contact dance forms, I find myself looking squarely at the important role online technology will now take going forward. An example is the Magnetise Project. This project, which was selected for both local and national awards last year, has to date centred around week long residencies and workshop periods where the internationally based artists and local community groups have collaborated in a combination of professional development and community based practice. We are delighted to have secured the funding to continue the work this year and build on the existing relationships and themes. The project investigates the potential of renewed attention to gravity, through somatic movement, sound and drawing practices as a means deepening our connections to landscape.
At the end of 2019 we began developing the next phase, ‘Magnetise, a call for home’. This title, (increasingly poignant in the current climate), reflects an interest to explore the connections not just between ourselves and landscape but relationships between land and identity, and the idea of being at ‘at home’; in our body, our community and environment. The six dance artists collaborate with participants from two of the community groups this year, (three adult performers who are wheelchair users and three youth dancers) towards the creation of a joint performance. For now all work will happen remotely and a final performance space may take the form of a split screen video rather than theatre. We will explore the potential of zoom for discussion and workshop facilitation and the website for sharing and reflecting. We will also explore the use of VR sets and cameras for live streamed and filmed work, combining layering and real time interaction.
For now keeping connected in meaningful and creative ways feels as important as ever, as does deepening connections with home and land. Magnetise, like other projects, will, I hope offer a frame to keep a group together and to keep collaboratively making. To read more about Magnetise visit www.undercurrentdancefilmtheatre.com/magnetise
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Creativity at Home: Daily Art Activities Online with The Glucksman
The Glucksman
Join The Glucksman online for creative activities you can do at home.
The Glucksman may be closed but the team will be online during gallery opening hours to help you to get creative at home.
Every day, they will share new art activities on their website, and facebook, instagram and twitter accounts. With video tutorials on their YouTube channel.
Share your images and they will post them to their online galleries.
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Creative Arts in Education Ideas for Primary Level from The Ark
The Ark
If you’re looking for some creative ideas for educational activities (primary level) at home during the school closure then check out some of The Ark’s classroom activities & resource packs. These have been have created to accompany some of The Ark’s programmes, including their ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ season which has been curtailed due to the current closure.
Lots of them work even without having seen the show or exhibitions so do take a look – they are available to download for free and use at the link below:
This is a unique opportunity for directors, dancers, choreographers and performance artists seeking to develop their practice in this area.
This two day workshop, on 12 & 13 June, will be facilitated by Joke Laureyns and Kwint Manshoven, Co-Directors of kabinet k. Kabinet k is a Belgian dance company which creates work with and for children. The company has toured all over the world with their performances and workshops for professionals and for children.
The artistic language of kabinet k has a playful, energetic, yet subtle power. Joke and Kwint will share an insight into their dance vocabulary which is demonstrated in their world-renowned production of ‘Horses’ (view the production trailer here). This practical movement workshop is a playful encounter between the choreographers and the participants, revealing some aspects of how they work with different generations on stage and how a work like Horses was created. It’s about dance in its purest and most essential form: the articulation of a moving body.
kabinet k will challenge the participants to go deeper into their image of childhood and question and develop their own practice.
This workshop will suit professional dancers, choreographers, directors, theatre makers and dance/performance teachers with an interest in producing or participating in theatre made for and with young audiences.
Workshop Dates: June 12 & 13, 2020. Application Deadline: 5pm, Friday, April 3
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2020 Spring Regional Day Programme Announced – Date Postponed
Arts in Education Portal
Update: Due to the current COVID-19 situation this event has now been postponed until Saturday 16th May 2020
The Arts in Education Portal’s regional tour continues with a stop at VISUAL, Carlow on Saturday, March 28th, 10.30am to 3pm. Tickets are free but must be booked ahead on Eventbrite here.
Following on from successful events at the Glucksman in Cork, the LexIcon in Dún Laoghaire in 2018 and the Leitrim Sculpture Centre in 2019, the Carlow Regional Day is planned to be an informal day of sharing experience and best practice from the sector. The programme includes a presentation with curator Karla Sanchez and artist Els Dietvorst discussing their experience on the Living Arts Project, along with an exploration of collective ownership and participation in Primary Schools with artist Tunde Toth.
11:00am — Introduction: VISUAL: Artist Clare Breen
11:15am—The Portal: a brief introduction Emma Kavanagh, Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership (Portal Content Managers)
11:30am—Presentation: The Living Arts Project, a discussion with curator Karla Sanchez and artist Els Dietvorst
12:15pm—Presentation: ‘Danger Art’ Collective Authorship, Shared Ownership and Participation in Arts Projects in Primary Schools with artist Tunde Toth,
Medium, Materiality and Magic: Photography at the National Gallery of Ireland is suitable for both primary and post-primary schools. It provides an introduction to photography, exploring key works in the Gallery’s growing photography collection, along with ideas for students to create their own photographs.
The resource is accompanied by a video tutorial providing an easy step-by-step guide of how to make a photogram. Some of the Gallery’s most popular resources are now also available in Irish: Tuiscint ar Thaispeántas; Céard é Portráid; & Tírdhreacha in Ealaín na hÉireann.
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Kids’ Own Celebrates 13 Years of the Virtually There Project
Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership
Date: 7 March 2020
Kids’ Own is really proud to be celebrating thirteen years of their virtual arts in education project, Virtually There, with a large-scale exhibition and special launch event at Belfast Children’s Festival.
On Saturday 7th March 2020, a new exhibition will open in Belfast to showcase work developed by children, artists and teachers over the past three years. Funded for eleven years by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation since 2016, Virtually There was developed by Kids’ Own with a pioneering approach whereby artists connected virtually from their studios with children in the classroom.
Kids’ Own has partnered with Belfast Children’s Festival, Young at Art and University of Ulster to develop this exciting exhibition for public audiences, which runs from 6th-28th March.
A special exhibition opening event takes place at the Ulster University Belfast Campus on Saturday 7th March, 1pm-3.30pm. This event will include the launch of Open Space: An action research report from the Virtually There project by Dr Bryonie Reid. It will be launched by Dr Ali FitzGibbon, Lecturer in Creative and Cultural Industries Management, Queen’s University Belfast.
There will also be a panel discussion entitled What does collaboration really mean? This discussion will be chaired by Mark O’Brien, director of axis, Ballymun, in conversation with artists and teachers who participated in the project.
Date & Time
Saturday, 7 March 2020. 1pm – 3.30pm
Venue
Belfast College of Art, York Street, Belfast
Refreshments will be provided. Please RSVP to info@kidsown.ie
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Part 1 – Announcing the 2020 Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award Recipients
The Portal Team are delighted to announce the first recipient of the 2020 Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award. We are very excited to be working with each recipient in the coming months to document their projects. These projects will be showcased on the portal as the documentation progresses.
About the recipients….
Project title: The Lonely Traveller (Brenda’s Voyage)
The Lonely Traveller began as a Teacher Artist Partnership (TAP) between teacher Jacintha Mullins and composer Fiona Linnane in collaboration with pupils at the Mid-West School for the Deaf, Limerick, with support from Dr. Carmel O’Doherty director of Limerick Education Centre. The initial aim of the project was simple; make the primary music curriculum more accessible to deaf pupils and explore paths of engagement with music for profoundly deaf children.
The Lonely Traveller is an ongoing project which has grown both legs and wings since its inception. The project drew inspiration from the Immram tradition and, in particular, The Brendan Voyage (however the children gave the story a 21st century update by renaming the main protagonist Brenda).
During this project Brenda, the lonely traveller, has explored the length and breadth of the music curriculum. She has wandered along a cross-curricular path through Music, History, English, Irish Sign language, Science, SPHE, Maths, Drama, ICT and Visual art. She has reached out to both world-famous artists (Dame Evelyn Glennie) and local artists (Puppeteer Emma Fisher) alike. She has challenged teachers to walk behind while she takes the children by the hand and brings them on exciting adventure into the world of creativity. She has given us valuable insight into the amazing creative abilities of children with SEN and shown us how to explore the potential and possibilities that exist in the field of arts in education.
Brenda will take the lead role in a short film which will be written, directed and produced by the children of the middle and upper primary classes at the Mid-West School for the Deaf. Our short film will encompass original song writing, soundscapes, vocal and musical performance as well a shadow puppetry. We will also be introducing the children in our school to digital filming, video editing and sound engineering.
Teacher: Jacintha Mullins
Jacintha qualified from the Limerick School of Art and Design with a degree in Fine Art. She went on to complete a Master of Arts in Interactive Media after which she qualified as a primary school teacher and completed specialised training and qualification as a teacher of the deaf. Jacintha currently teaches children aged 8-12 years at the Mid-West School for the Deaf in Limerick.
As a teacher of children with a wide variety of hearing impairments and special needs Jacintha is constantly employing her artistic skills to deliver the curriculum in a way that is active, engaging and relevant to the children in her classes. Jacintha understands the importance that the visual environment holds for deaf children. She is also acutely aware of the need that these children have to find ways in which they can express themselves.
Jacintha endeavours to provide an arts rich approach to teaching and learning at the Mid-West School for the Deaf in Limerick. In 2019 she undertook the TAP summer course and trained as a TAP facilitator later that same summer. She will be delivering CPD to teachers on the TAP summer course in July 2020 and is also currently working as a creative associate within the creative schools initiative.
Artist: Fiona Linnane
Fiona Linnane is a composer based in County Limerick. Fiona has been working with Primary schools for over 15 years including projects under the Artist in Schools schemes for Tipperary, Clare and Limerick Arts Offices. In 2020 she was appointed to the Heritage Council’s Panel of Specialists for the Heritage in Schools scheme. Her workshops are enthusiastic, energetic and fun while aiming to give students a new perspective on sound, music and composition.
Fiona is very active in community music and is widely sought after for commissions and to lead projects. In 2013 Fiona was appointed composer in residence for Bells Across The Burren, an Arts Council of Ireland Artist in the Community project, which included an exhibition and music trail at the Burren College of Art and commissions for locals music groups.
Fiona was awarded the Limerick City and County Council Individual Arts Bursary in 2018, and again in 2019, for work in the field of opera and Art song. Current projects include development of an opera inspired by No.2 Pery Square, Limerick in collaboration with Opera Workshop and funded by the Arts Council of Ireland.
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Blog 1 – Kate Wilson, Artist & Lead Facilitator on the TAP Design Team
Diversity and Every Duck is Different
In October last year I was invited to attend the Europe in Perspective conference in Dortmund with Dr Katie Sweeny and the TAP (Teacher Artist Partnership) design team.
Teacher-Artist Partnership CPD focuses on enabling teachers and artists to jointly develop their understanding, expertise and creativity in ‘arts in education’ work with children and young people. The initiative was developed under the Arts in Education Charter and has run since 2015 and is now delivered each year first week of July in Education Centers under the Creative Ireland Programme. To date in excess of 1,000 teachers and Artists have been trained under TAP CPD in Ireland. There is now a big interest at EU and international level on Teacher-Artist partnership as a model for enhancing Arts education in Schools.
The conference in Dortmund, ‘Every Duck is Different, Challenging our perspectives on Europe and Culture’ was the final conference/ training in the Transnational Training on Diversity and Cultural Learning.
This conference was developed to explore how diversity can be addressed by arts and education practitioners. The two days were packed with thought provoking group activities and presentations from speakers including Dr Ipek Demir and Szilvia Németh. Two young activist groups, Europe Fiction and Polotics of Hope, had been invited to close the conference. The fresh perspective, intelligence and passion of their interventions added an incredible further dimension.
I’ve been thinking about how I address diversity in my own practice. Cultural diversity is increasingly part of the rich fabric of our communities and schools, and it is important to keep checking in with established frameworks and methods, being conscious of the need to be flexible in this context. Diversity is about recognising that ‘every duck is different’. That we support each other to grow through recognition of the strength of our individuality, and our ability to think critically and independently. To fully enjoy difference, finding interest and inspiration in this so that we can move towards a world where not just cultural, but also intellectual and physical difference is truly supported and celebrated.
It was great to bring some of the learning and inspiration from the conference to the TAP lead facilitators up skilling day in February. Many of the lead partners have a new residency this year which is a fantastic opportunity to keep bringing the theory in to practice.
An exciting development for TAP since the conference is the creation of international dimension to TAP, (ITAP). Building on relationships with new partners from the conference, we are in the process of developing a European programme of shared practice and exchange.
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The Gallery as a Classroom – CPD for Primary School Teachers
Solstice Arts Centre
Date: 7 March 2020
Primary school teachers, artists and those working within the classroom are invited to a one day CPD at Solstice Arts Centre, Navan to experience the potential of the gallery as an educational resource for the primary school curriculum and how this can be applied to the classroom context.
Exploring ‘You are Made of Stardust’, Solstice’s current exhibition by George Bolster participants will engage in a responsive workshop led by professional artist/educator Jane Fogarty. Supporting and enhancing artistic skills through discussions on art and a hands-on printmaking workshop. This CPD is suitable for those working with all primary class years and has links to the print and drawing modules from the visual arts curriculum.
€25 including lunch in Solstice café, places are limited.
10am – 3:30 pm, no prior art experience necessary.
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Early Years Arts & Play Education CPD Masterclass for Early Childhood Educators
CIT Crawford College of Art & Design
Dates: 29 February, 28 March, 9 May 2020
Early Years Arts & Play Education workshops, delivered by Artists/Educators, Rachel Doolin and George Hannover. CIT Crawford College of Art & Design, Grand Parade Campus, Cork.
This series of CPD Masterclasses at CIT Crawford College of Art & Design will focus on early years experiential and creative play methodologies, with each workshop exploring a different material theme such as: LIGHT Play, PAPER Play, CARDBOARD Play and POP UP Play. ‘Simplicity’ and ‘wonder in the ordinary’ are at the very core of this holistic series of workshops. Artists will guide, offer ideas and materials to inspire and ignite curiosity in a fun and relaxed atmosphere. Participants will be encouraged to activate their imaginations and to explore ‘ways to play’ that encourage and embrace spontaneity, open-ended exploration and unpredictable impulses!
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Barnstorm Theatre presents ‘Alice and the Wolf’ – a new production for primary school students
Barnstorm Theatre Company
Dates: 4th, 5th, 6th – 9th of March 2020
Barnstorm Theatre Company is delighted to present its new production of ‘Alice and the Wolf’ by Tom Swift.
Alice spends virtually all her time in Wolf Wood. You know, the world’s deepest, darkest online game. Why not? Her dad isn’t around, her mother’s gone to Canada to meet a lumberjack and her best friend’s dumped her for a YouTube star.
But what happens when the people you meet online come looking for you in real life? Who can you trust, and who is the Big Bad Wolf? This re-telling of the Little Red Riding Hood story is a digital fairy tale that’s deliciously funny and full of dangerously dark twists.
Workshop
For County Kilkenny schools attending the play, we offer two in-school workshops:
A pre-show session using the poster image and model-box of the set to explore the children’s expectations of the upcoming theatre experience;
A post-show session using a critical response method that encourages the children to articulate their experience of the production. (Comprehension & Oral Language Development)
These sessions are optional and capacity is limited, therefore they will be offered on a first come, first served basis.
Teachers’ Resources
A resource pack will be provided to participating teachers. Linked to the SPHE syllabus, the pack will provide a focus for exploration and discussion of themes raised through the play.
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Opportunity to be part of the Creative Schools’ Creative Associate Panel
Update
The Arts Council’s Creative Schools Initiative
The Arts Council will shortly begin the tender process for a panel of Creative Associates to support the delivery of the Creative Schools programme for the academic year 2020-21 onwards.
The Contract Notice, 2020 application forms and all relevant documents will be available to download from 13th February 2020 on www.etenders.gov.ie/
The Arts Council of Ireland will tender for a panel of Creative Associates to support the delivery of Creative Schools/ Scoileanna Ildánacha for the academic year 2020-21 onwards. The Arts council will publish relevant tender documents in February 2020.
This is an exciting opportunity for artists, creative practitioners and individuals working in organisations in the arts and cultural sector.
Creative Schools is a flagship initiative of the Creative Ireland Programme to enable the creative potential of every child. Creative Schools is led by the Arts Council in partnership with the Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.
Further information about the programme and the work of Creative Associates can also be found here www.artscouncil.ie/ creative-schools/, including information Booklets and FAQs.
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Schools & Early Years Groups are invited to ‘Art in Action’ at Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre
Uillinn WestCork Arts Centre
Date: 11 – 20 February
Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre invites toddler groups, playschools, junior and senior infants to a guided experience of Art in Action. An interactive exhibition where artists have used images, objects, actions to communicate with their surrounding world.
An interactive, multimedia exhibition for children with work by Basia Bańda + Tomasz Relewicz, Ewa Bone + Ewa Kozubal, Tomasz Madajczak, Krzysztof Matuszak, Aleksandra Ska and Hubert Wińczyk. Curated by Bartosz Nowak in collaboration with MOS: Municipal Art Centre, Gorzów Wielkopolsk, Poland. http://www.mosart.pl/ wystawy-2019/detail,nID,6164
This exhibition is a meeting of children and artists. The eight visual artists included in the exhibition have created interactive artworks that involve children in the co-creation of the works presented in the gallery. Encouraging children to participate in their construction and reconstruction allows them to experience artistic processes in action.
The exhibition and accompanying events are focused on enabling children to develop creativity, self-confidence and curiosity, explore the world, to communicate and to think critically, demonstrating that art is primarily a way of experiencing and building mutual relations with the environment, other people and oneself
Your group can book a guided experience led by one of the exhibiting artists Tomasz Madajczak. Group bookings are free of charge and can be made by telephone on 028 22090 or email info@westcorkartscentre.com
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School Opportunity: Better Words – A Field Guide to Contemporary Art and Culture for Primary Schools
EVA International
EVA International is delighted to announce the release of free copies of Better Words, for primary school libraries nationwide. It is a new book that offers an introduction to contemporary art and culture through the eyes of 8 – 12 year olds.
It features new artistic terms, words and word-forms, that describe many aspects of contemporary art today, all of which were invented by children through a workshop process that took place across 5 schools in County Limerick, in Spring 2019.
Organised into thematic sections, Better Words offers an introduction to key themes in contemporary art practice today, while also reflecting the cultural curiosity, creative energy and humourous irreverence of the participating school children.
Published by EVA International the book features contributions by acclaimed author Kevin Barry and notes on the workshop process by curator Maeve Mulrennan.
Please contact Eimear Redmond (Better Words Programme Coordinator) at eimear@eva.ie, to redeem a free copy of Better Words for your school library.
Please note that a small nominal fee of €3 for post and package will apply, one copy per school while stocks last.
This event, aimed at Senior Cycle second-level students aged 15 to 18, is an opportunity for students to hear from a whole variety of film industry practitioners, to learn about their work, how they got there and what advice they might give to young people starting out. Whether it’s the craft side of the industry, working in front of the camera or behind, as well as other areas such as production or casting, there will be something for every interest.
A number of third-level institutions will also be on hand to offer guidance on the day.
Last year’s guests included director Lenny Abrahamson, producer Ed Guiney, costume designer Consolata Boyle and DOP Cathal Watters.
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Date Announced for the Arts in Education Portal Spring Regional Day 2020
Arts in Education Portal
Date: Saturday, 28 March 2020
The Arts in Education Portal Team are delighted to announce that the 2020 Spring Regional Day will take place in VISUAL Carlow on Saturday, March 28th 2020 from 10.30am to 3pm.
We invite regional audiences to connect with us during a series of events, where practitioners can learn more about the Portal and what it offers, tell us about their work, connect with the community at regional level, share practice and find out what opportunities or events are available in their local area. We welcome teachers, artists, arts managers and anyone with an interest in arts in education to join us for this free event.
Stay tuned for the full schedule to be announced in February.
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Artists & Teachers invited to the International Conference in Intercultural Education for Primary Schools
Grow from Seeds Programme
Date: 17 January 2020
The Grow from Seeds project intends to provide a programme designed to foster intercultural dialogue in Primary Schools recognising European Parliament priorities to address anti-social behaviour through social cohesion and inclusion, active citizenship and the empowerment and participation of pupils. The methodology used to deliver this education programme adopts multiple strands of Creative Drama, storytelling and performing arts which are proven to be highly motivating, multi-sensory and active learning tools. The Grow from Seeds project engages partners from Ireland, Germany and France, and is supported by Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership.
Teachers, policy makers, researchers, artists, drama practitioners and academics are invited to attend the International Conference in Intercultural Education for Primary Schools to explore new ways of understanding Intercultural Education in Primary Schools and the use of the creative arts as a tool to foster intercultural dialogue in primary schools..
Keynote Address
The conference event will include a keynote talk from Joe Little, RTÉ Religious and Social Affairs correspondent. The event will also showcase the work from the Grow from Seeds project as well as presentations and contributions from practitioners and educators through a panel discussion.
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Schools are invited to Branar Téatar do Pháistí’s Sruth na Teanga
Branar Téatar do Pháistí’s – Galway 2020
Dates: 2 – 29 March 2020
Sruth na Teanga: an adventure through the story of the Irish Language
As part of Galway 2020, Branar Téatar do Pháistí’sSruth na Teanga is an epic and unique immersive theatre show that imaginatively tells the story of the evolution and life of the language. Branar will transform the terminal building of the old Galway Airport for a walk-through performance in which one class group of thirty pupils will enter at a time. Experience a true sense of adventure with cinematic levels of detail as you travel through four worlds experiencing live performance, puppetry, music, design and beautiful imagery. The children’s journey will culminate with an opportunity to explore a response room that will enhance and deepen their engagement with the show.
Branar’s world-class brand of storytelling will enchant audiences aged 8-plus and adults alike.
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Early Years Seedlings Workshops at The Ark: If at first you don’t succeed…
The Ark
10 – 11 January 2020
As the fun of the festive season fades and the new year sets in, this early years drama workshop for little ones aged 2-4 will explore how to cope when things go wrong. Part of First Fortnight festival and led by The Ark’s Early Years Artist in Residence, Joanna Parkes.
Oh dear! Elliott the Dragon is having a bad day. It’s a cold, snowy day and he’s fed up. Everything’s going wrong and he doesn’t know what to do. He says he’s going to give up and not try anymore but… maybe we can help him? Maybe we encourage him to try again? Maybe we can help him bounce back?
Join in to discover, explore and find out if you can help Elliott figure out how to be resilient in this delightful workshop adventure.
Combining drama, story, play and props, this interactive drama workshop invites little ones and their grown-ups to enjoy imagining together. So if you’re a parent, grandparent, uncle, aunty, godparent or carer, come along with a 2 to 4 year old and join in the fun.
The Arts in Education Portal editorial team are pleased to invite applications for a documentation award. Through the award, successful applicants will receive services to the value of €5,000 that will support them in the documentation of a current or upcoming project and a €500 stipend.
The purpose of the award is to support the development of documented outcomes from Arts in Education initiatives in Ireland, which can be shared with the arts in education community and give insights into different processes of engagement. This is part of the Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee’s commitment to supporting and recognising the value of documentation and reflection as a key component within arts in education initiatives.
Two awards will be offered through this opportunity.
Outcomes of the documentation process will include: a project video, a project feature to be showcased on the Portal’s Projects/Partnerships, and the option of a critical essay, with a view to also presenting the work as part of the Arts in Education Portal National Day in 2020.
The process will involve meetings with the Portal Team and a schedule of 3 site visits over the course of the project to capture video and photographic documentation and support reflective processes among participants. The portal team will edit and produce a project video, and will liaise closely with the project partners to develop the content for the project feature. The critical essay would be sited in the Portal’s Reading Room, and is optional. The author and focus of the essay can be decided by the project organisers in collaboration with the Portal Team.
Criteria
To be considered for this opportunity, projects must:
Have started in autumn 2019 and continuing into Spring 2020, or be due to start in Feb 2020.
Have a minimum duration of 8 weeks.
Involve a professional artist working collaboratively within an educational setting (early years, primary or post-primary).
Be underpinned by a strong ethos of collaboration and a commitment to excellence. Focus on the creative process, with children having an active and collaborative role
Additional criteria
Successful applicants will be asked to ensure that relevant permissions/consent have been sought for documentation of participants.
Please ensure your application has been approved by all project partners prior to submission.
How to make a submission:
Background on who you are; your professional practice and your ethos or approach towards Arts in Education.
An overview of the project – who is involved, how did the collaboration come about, what processes or approaches will take place, what is the aim or focus of the process?
A statement of interest, explaining why documentation supports would be of value to this project.
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The National Arts in Education Portal Day 2019 Roundup
On November 9th the fourth annual National Arts in Education Portal Day took place at the Institute for Lifecourse and Society (ILAS), National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) in partnership with ILAS and Babóro. The national portal day is building momentum as a very significant event in the arts and education calendar in Ireland, and this year the portal day coincided with the Creative Schools week-long celebration of arts and creativity in schools.
With over 150 artists, teachers and arts in education professionals in attendance with 20 workshops and lectures across the day by a range of presenters from the sector. An opening address from Professor Pat Dolan and inspirational insights from our guest speaker Professor Bill Lucas exploring the importance of creativity in schools. Thanks to all involved in making day a huge success!
Speaking at the event, Minister Kyne said, “This annual event presents a wonderful opportunity for teachers and other creative practitioners to come together to explore the area of arts in education. The Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, along with the Department of Education and Skills, are working together to promote creativity among our children and young people”.
To view Professor Bill Lucas’s presentation from the Portal Day click below:
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Opportunity for Schools: The Three Muses: exploring art and identity programme
The Hunt Museum
School bookings open from 21 November for spring and summer terms 2020
The Hunt Museum, Limerick Museum and Limerick City Gallery of Art are delighted to invite primary schools to take part in ‘The Three Muses: exploring art and identity’ programme.
Through this innovative visual arts programme for primary schools, pupils from schools across Limerick will engage with modern and contemporary visual art from the collections of three Limerick museums. Through workshops and activities participants will develop their confidence and understanding in visual art, while exploring the theme of identity.
The programme also includes one-off events such as children-led tours of the collections, training sessions for teachers and a summer showcase.
This programme is underpinned by Visual Thinking Strategies and links with Arts Education, History and SPHE curricula, giving participants an opportunity to connect in a relevant way with three Limerick museums and to generate an understanding and appreciation of the importance of visual art.
This programme is supported by Limerick City & County Council and Friends of The Hunt Museum.
School bookings from 21 November for spring and summer terms 2020.
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Careers in Screen: First Steps Event for Post-Primary students at the Irish Film Institute
Irish Film Institute (IFI)
Date: 18 December 2019
In advance of the Irish Film Institute’s (IFI) annual Careers in Screen Day, 2020, IFI Education, in partnership with Screen Skills Ireland, is offering a First Steps morning event, to introduce participants to the world of short filmmaking, through presentations from three flourishing filmmaking companies.
Presenting samples of their work and talking about their paths into the industry, guest speakers from Paper Panther Productions, Tailored Films and Failsafe Films, will each discuss their own career and answer participants’ questions relating to their work and their roles in the industry. The event is ideally suited to young people who are exploring different career options, perhaps considering third level courses in film, media or TV, or keen to learn from Irish filmmakers about working in the thriving screen industries.
Admission costs €5 per person and tickets are strictly limited. Suitable for ages 15-18. Event will last approx. 75 mins.
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Theatre for Early Years: Moon Woke Me Up by Little Bigtop
The Ark
Dates: 14 – 29 December 2019
Little Bigtop in Association with The Civic
Escape into space in this fantastic interactive theatrical adventure for ages 3-5 from Little Bigtop in association with The Civic.
Moon Woke Me Up Nine times
It was still 4am
So I built a rocket with my friends
And went on a journey that never ends
Come up and away with us. Come and play with us.
You are invited to come and build a rocket that will BLAST OFF and take us on a magical adventure. Once inside their homemade rocket children are treated to a magical shadow show as they journey to the moon! Come with us all the way, up there, into outer space!
I wonder if it smells of cheese?
I wonder if it will make me sneeze?
Let’s find out!
Inspired by a Haiku of the same title by Basho Matsuo, Moon Woke Me Up is an interactive theatrical adventure to space for ages 3-5, using a wonderful blend of performance and interactive drama, construction play and sensory explorations.
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Invitation to The Classroom Museum Exhibition at The Glucksman
The Glucksman
Dates: 14-26 January 2020
The Glucksman is delighted to invite you to the ‘The Classroom Museum’ exhibition.
The Classroom Museum enables schoolchildren in rural Ireland to participate in an imaginative programme of creative learning based around contemporary artworks from the UCC art collection. In Autumn 2019, with the support of Kerry County Council and Creative Ireland, the Glucksman brought the Classroom Museum initiative to Caherdaniel NS and Portmagee NS in South West Kerry.
Through the short-term loan of artworks and collaborative activities, the children and their teachers had the opportunity to interact with artworks by Irish contemporary artists Dara McGrath and Fiona Kelly.
The Classroom Museum is built around the value of providing children with an opportunity to engage with works of art in a personal and continuous way. The initiative facilitates the loan of artworks into the classroom space, and includes a visit by the artist to the school, a collaborative art project by the children and an exhibition of this work in the Glucksman.
The students from Caherdaniel and Portmagee will visit the Glucksman in January 2020 to see their artworks on display. The exhibition is open to the public and runs until January 26th.
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Opportunity: Music Generation Development Officer, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown
Music Generation
Deadline: 4pm, Thursday 28 November 2019
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown (dlr) County Council invite applications for the position of: Music Generation Development Officer
A Music Generation Development Officer will be appointed by dlr County Council and will be responsible for managing an extensive performance music education programme on behalf of dlr Local Music Education Partnership.
Music Generation dlr is part of Music Generation – Ireland’s National Music Education Programme, which is co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education and Skills and Local Music Education Partnerships.
Temporary five year fixed term contract (Salary range: €47,588 – €58,157 per annum)
Application forms and full particulars are available online at – www.dlrcoco.ie
Based on the volume of applications received short-listing may apply. Short-listing will take place on the basis of the information provided in the application form. Depending on the qualifications and experience of applicants, short-listing thresholds may be significantly higher than the minimum standards set out.
dlr County Council is an equal opportunities employer.
Deadline: 4pm, Thursday 28 November 2019 (Late applications will not be accepted)
Job reference: 008488
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Blog 4 – Liz Coman, Assistant Arts Officer Dublin City Council & VTS Facilitator
“Observation is more than one thing – we use our eyes to analyse an image, and we also use thinking, and our senses and emotions to interpret what we are seeing” – Erasmus+ Permission to Wonder
A Conversation with Primary School Teacher, Jane Malone
For this fourth and final blog about Erasmus+ Permission to Wonder, it is timely for me to reflect on some of our learnings from the VTS training pathway for educators. Over 150 educators, from classroom and museum settings, were supported to access the VTS training pathway with VTS/USA. This happened, through a partnership approach that allowed a range of partners across local, national and European to fund a unique training programme.
The research evaluation framework for Erasmus+ Permission to Wonder will capture the ‘impact’ of the VTS training pathway on educators training and practicing VTS in schools and museums across. Findings will be presented by VTS Nederland at our Erasmus+ Permission to Wonder Conference on 21 April 2020 in Dublin Castle.
Between now and then, we are considering what is next for our work with VTS. What are the existing mainstream teacher and artist training pathways that could offer support to the VTS training pathway? How do we hold on to the value of peer to peer learning across a the mixed cohort of educators – artist, art educators, secondary (art) teacher and primary school classroom teachers? How do we support mixed groupings of trainees to continue to access enjoyable and deep VTS learning experiences about art, learning, classroom and community where every individual voice is valued and heard?
The cross-disciplinary potential for VTS is striking. Art is the starting point and the transferrable skills for the trained VTS educator and for the participating group become more and more obvious with regular practice. For me, the most obvious win for VTS practice is within the primary school or early years classroom. In these classrooms, multiple subject areas sit alongside each other, but objectives for building patterns of learning, thinking and communicating are overarching priorities. This is approach to learning is more and more mirrored in the modern workplace. Artists, lawyers, farmers, employees and entrepreneurs across all disciplines must show flexibility in their thinking and their approach to running their business/getting their product out there/meeting their client needs. Problem solving and team communication skills are key in order to do that. Teams must use their observational skills and thinking skills in tandem with a bigger picture approach which is supported by being open to differing points of view, to allow for benefit from other people’s experience along with their own.
Below, Jane Malone, a primary school teacher from St Catherine’s NS, Donore Avenue, talks about how VTS has strengthened her practice in facilitating students’ learning; how this practice is a tool for communication skills, such as deep listening and respectful discussion; how it is a tool for opening students up to their own thinking processes to support how they learn, access knowledge and problem solve; how this practice can transfer from art, to maths, to science to SPHE, to oral language development, to project development.
What do you find VTS brings to your practice as a primary teacher?
In a primary school classroom of today, we are facilitators of learning, more so than the traditional idea of teachers. VTS definitely highlighted to me the skill of being a facilitator. You facilitate the thinking skills you want them to have or the writing skills you want them, but where they take it is theirs, as long as it’s appropriate.
I find our VTS sessions are a great tool for demonstrating and practising active listening. When someone is making their observation, and when I’m paraphrasing back, they are all listening. Their hand isn’t up with their point, it’s a shared listening experience where they can see what the speaker is seeing. That has really helped in terms of general classroom management, but also for turn taking in terms of respectful conversation. This is something that can’t be explicitly taught. At the same time, it permeates all the other lessons, because we all get so used to the process.
I also find our VTS sessions very inclusive, because it’s not about ability, it’s about the picture or the piece of art that you were looking at, and ‘my opinion’ is not the rightopinion, it may vary very differently to what ‘your opinion’ is. It’s accessing art on all levels for all children of all abilities, not just for the ‘arty’ children or the people who like that piece of art. It takes how art used to be untouchable, it was in galleries, behind frames, it’s opening it up to multiple possible interpretations.
For me, VTS impacts all the curriculum areas, particularly the language elements and the social and emotional aspect of things as well. I use it with ‘Number Talks’, and with anything I’m doing in SESE where I’m facilitating project-based learning and they’re determining where they’re going to take the project. VTS fits well in particular, with the New Language Curriculum, with Irish and English, and how it describes the role of paraphrasing the students comment, that no comment is incorrect, but the paraphrase back is the teaching and learning moment. The children are becoming more aware of how I am teaching them, more familiar with the paraphrasing process, and this gives them the confidence to make the comment, in a language lesson, without worrying about being right or wrong.
What have you noticed happening in your work in the classroom with VTS?
The group I have this year is sixth class. I had them in fourth class, when I started practicing VTS in the classroom. So this year, when I do VTS with the children, I begin a session by talking with them about the broad concept of thinkingthat happens when we do VTS – ‘what is observing?’ We talk about using our eyes, and the role of listening. We go deeper with an art image and talk about how we use our senses to observe, and also how our emotional response informs our thinking.
I began this year’s science curriculum with an exercise where we took a roll of Sellotape and passed it around the room. Each child had to make an observational comment about it, as it was passed from person to person. The reason why I blended VTS with this exercise, is because in VTS with art images, you are naturally talking about story, setting, materials, bringing in previous experience and knowledge. So, in this Sellotape exercise, I was really conscious that it can push them to build more sophisticated language for what they are describing. I keep my paraphrasing conditional and label the thinking processes so that the children can recognise that their thinking processes can transfer from the VTS exercise we do with art, to this exercise, which is more about introducing scientific language for observation. It’s a really successful exercise because you can hear them talking about texture of the Sellotape, using language to describe it based on their senses, describing it’s shape based on their knowledge of maths, making metacognitive statements that are bringing information from other bodies of knowledge.
I see that this is how I am going to bring my VTS practice forward. In the classroom, I’m trying to create an atmosphere of STEAM versus STEM. VTS is one of the methodologies that supports me to do this. I use mind maps and Elklan (a process to meet the speech, language and communication needs of children) with topics where we build vocabulary and language. I find VTS coming into play more for the more technical curriculum subject areas such as the literacy skills of breaking down a language, looking at and attempting maths problem solving, and also for science.
How important do you think that silence at the beginning to observe is?
Very. But we do that in another form in our ‘number talks’ as well, so you put up your number sentence and then you literally wait. It’s very hard when you’re initially doing it as a teacher, to wait long enough, standing in silence is quite difficult. Because we had been doing it in ‘number talks’, I was then able to marry it, so I give them quite a bit of time. It does occur to me each time I do it “I wonder how long everybody else gives?” Sherry Parrish is the number talks guru, so if you watched one of her videos you’d understand the similarities. It’s “how would you do this?”, “how did you come to your conclusions?”, “now, tell the rest of the class how you got that answer or why you went that way” or “what does everybody else think of the way X did that sum?”. So again, it’s similar a similar process of supporting thinking and social learning.
Can you recall a favourite VTS Image Discussion?
One of my favourite VTS sessions was when I was practicing on the Permission to Wonder training in Helsinki. I was looking at the image for the first time and not sure where it would go with the group. There were many different interpretations of the image from individuals and so I had to really concentrate on my paraphrasing. It showed me that my paraphrasing was really working well for me, I was hearing as I was speaking. It was really challenging, but there seemed to be a flow. I remember this as I learned so much from it.
Another one that sticks out in my mind, with sixth class last year, they kept on trying to identify the images as being staged. ‘Oh this has been deliberately set up as though it was in the 1960s and it was deliberately provocative because….’ – they were really cynical about the image and it felt like there was an inflexibility of their engagement with it. They were more about creating the backstory about why the artist did it, than observing what it was in front of them. I found that really interesting.
One other one, was a picture of a woman in a subway surrounded by a lot of men. She is to the foreground, and one of the children that has anxiety identified it as her experiencing great anxiety and nobody around her knowing it. So that kind of projecting their own emotional states onto the images we are looking at, I find that really interesting.
It sounds like for you, in a VTS image discussion you are observing the ‘thinking’ going on – either your own thinking or the students thinking?
It definitely would be part of my practice as a teacher. We are here to teach skills, in particular to understand that there are thinking processes and to help them to figure out how to support these processes for themselves in the future. So they can access the facts. Who remembers all the rivers and mountains of Ireland, it’s more about how you going about researching that information and your thinking process around researching the question that’s important.
How did Erasmus+ Permission to Wonder support you to develop your VTS practice?
It greatly supported me to put aside my learning and experience and become open to a new way of engaging with languages. I found that really interesting as languages are ‘my thing’. I have a degree in French and Italian, English and Gaeilge are my favourite subjects to teach, and I love grammar, so it was fascinating to me how I struggled with the VTS questions at first. They felt so American and strange to me but when I saw the huge body of research behind them and experienced firsthand how effective they were in keeping a rein in on the facilitator’s natural bias, I was completely converted. It was also really comforting to work with such experienced artists and art professionals and see how my lack of experience did not impede my ability to facilitate a VTS session. Finally, it was an exhausting but really wonderful experience on a personal level. I really feel I grew as an individual and my love of learning was reignited. So thank you to all involved.
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Opportunity: Early Childhood Exploring & Thinking Bursary Award 2019
The Four Dublin Local Authorities
Deadline: 5pm, 4 November 2019
The four Dublin Local Authorities invite submissions for: Exploring & Thinking Bursary Award 2019.
The Exploring & Thinking Bursary Award will support individual professional artists to develop their artistic practice working with and/or producing work for early childhood arts. This award is open to individual professional artists who wish to develop their practice in early childhood arts, artists practicing in all artforms, artists resident in Ireland.
Bursary range: €200 – €10,000
The closing date: 4th of November 2019
Exploring and Thinking is a collaborative framework for early childhood arts in the Dublin region. It came about in 2016 when the four Dublin Local Authorities – Fingal County Council, Dublin City Council, South Dublin County Council and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, partnered for the first time to collectively consider early childhood arts provision in the Dublin region.
Please find the Application Guidelines & Criteria in the attached document.
Download the Application Guidelines & Criteria here
For further information and queries contact Orla Scannell, Arts Officer, South Dublin County Council, E: oscannell@sdublincoco.ie
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Schools Opportunity: 2020 Music for Schools Competition!
Waltons Music for Schools Competition
Entry Deadline: 24 January 2020
Founded in 2012, the Waltons Music for Schools Competition is a non-profit national event celebrating and supporting music in Irish schools. The Music for Schools Competition is produced by Waltons New School of Music and generously supported by RTÉ lyric fm. All primary and post-primary schools in the Republic of Ireland are eligible to enter the Competition, and schools from all 26 counties have participated.
Each year’s Competition culminates in a gala Finalists Concert, in which twelve Finalist school music groups (six primary and six post-primary) perform before their peers and two distinguished adjudicators. At the end of the Finalists Concert, the adjudicators announce six winning primary and post-primary schools, which receive awards totalling €7,000 worth of vouchers for musical instruments and equipment from Waltons Music Ireland, including two First Prizes of €2,000 vouchers.
The Process
Schools create an ensemble piece or song, based on the year’s Competition theme, and performed by an instrumental, vocal or mixed group from the school (maximum 40 performers). The piece or song can be performed by any combination of singers or instrumentalists you choose. This year’s theme comes from Hans Christian Andersen, ‘Where words fail, music speaks’.
Schools submit an online entry form and send a video of the group’s performance as well as a jpeg photograph of the group.
The initial entries are judged by a team of first-round adjudicators, and twelve Finalist groups (six primary and six post-primary) are selected.
The Finalists are announced by Liz Nolan on RTÉ lyric fm.
Groups not selected as Finalists but displaying real merit are designated as either Commended or Highly Commended, and certificates are produced for the schools and all student performers.
The twelve Finalist groups perform in a gala Finalists Concert at the National Concert Hall, at the end of which the six winning schools are announced.
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New Primary School Creative Programme at the Museum of Literature Ireland
Museum of Literature Ireland
The Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI) are excited to offer a free primary school creative programme ‘Shut your eyes and see’ to Irish primary school teachers and students in 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th class. Workshops explore Irish literature, past and present, hoping to inspire the next generation to read, write, and unlock their creative potential in whatever form it takes.
Developed in collaboration with students from our learning partner schools, teachers, educators, administrators and librarians, our programme is designed with different learning styles in mind.
We offer a two-hour experience in MoLI from 10am–12pm, during term time. Teachers and students participate in a creative workshop and a tour of our exhibition space and gardens.
Connecting to our exhibitions and gardens, and reflecting elements of the school curriculum, workshops seek to develop critical thinking and research skills as well as visual, verbal and information literacy.
When booking, primary school teachers can choose from one of three workshops:
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Final Call for Registration for a CPD Opportunity for Primary School Teachers
Fingal County Council Arts Office
Date: 29 October 2019
Artist Jane Fogarty will introduce primary school teachers to Estuary – an exhibition of artworks from Fingal County Council’s Municipal Art Collection, as a starting point for generating ideas for use with students back in the classroom.
Teachers will be supported to enhance their artistic skills and expand their approach to teaching in the classroom by exploring the potential of the gallery context as an educational resource for the primary school curriculum. There will be an emphasis on looking and responding to contemporary artworks, group discussion, and identifying curriculum links.
This event is Free to attend. Lunch will be included.
There are limited places available. Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis.
About Estuary, Sept 12th – Nov 16th at Draíocht
Fingal County Council presents this significant exhibition to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the council and its Municipal Art Collection. Curated by Una Sealy (RHA), James English (RHA), Joshua Sex and Sanja Todorović, the selected artworks represent an evolving collection of painting, print, photography, literature and sculptural work by some of Ireland’s most prolific artists. There is a strong theme of nature flowing through much of the selected works chosen by the curators specifically with Fingal’s landscape in mind. We hope that you enjoy the exhibition and participation in the public engagement programme. www.fingalarts.ie
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Early Years Seedlings Workshops at The Ark: Who Loves the Whirly, Swirly Wind?
The Ark
Date: 1 & 2 November 2019
Embrace the wonders of the wind in this fun drama workshop for little ones aged 2-4, led by The Ark’s Early Years Artist in Residence, Joanna Parkes.
It’s a whirly, swirly, windy day and the Wind Wizards are busy at work. Not everyone likes the wind though, as it whips up fallen leaves and tousles their hair. Can the wind wizards help people see how wonderful the wind can be?
Join in to explore, imagine and discover your own secret love for the whistle and whoosh of the whispering wind.
Combining drama, story, play and props, this interactive drama workshop invites little ones and their grown-ups to enjoy imagining together. So if you’re a parent, grandparent, uncle, aunty, godparent or carer, come along with a 2 to 4 year old and join in the fun.
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National Arts in Education Portal Day 2019 – Full Programme Announced
Update: Minister Kyne T.D. to attend 4th annual National Arts in Education Portal Day
The Portal team are delighted to announce that the fourth annual National Arts in Education Portal Day will be attended by Seán Kyne TD, Government Chief Whip and Minister of State the Irish Language, the Gaeltacht and the Islands.
We are pleased to announce our full programme of presentations and workshops for the National Arts in Education Portal Day 2019. The programme was selected following a call for submissions in summer 2019 and reflects a broad range of projects, approaches and art forms from within the arts and education sectors; both practical and theoretical.
The day will culminate in a special performance by members of Symphonic Waves Youth Orchestra with group leader and soloist Mary Duggan.
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The Ark invites schools to a new production – The Haircut!
The Ark
Dates: 10 October – 2 November 2019
The Ark invites schools to the world premiere of a brand new show by Wayne Jordan and Tom Lane for Ages 8+.
Labhraidh Loingseach has a secret. He wears his hair long and he has it cut only once a year. Once a year on the same night in the same place and in the same style. But never by the same barber.
The Haircut is a cautionary tale with a live musical soundtrack. The Haircut is a fairytale remixed and retold.
The Haircut is a play about secrets and about creativity stifled. About fighting for what you believe in and standing up to power.
About music and magic and hair.
Set in a magical modern day Ireland, The Haircut is a new commission written by Wayne Jordan, delivered with ineffable charm by bright new talent Thommas Kane Byrne and accompanied by Tom Lane’s vibrant score played by three outstanding musicians.
Classroom Activity Pack
A new Classroom Activity Pack is available for teachers is available to download to accompany the production. Created by Joanna Parkes and Anita Mahon – renowned specialist facilitators for educational drama and music programmes – the pack uses the show’s rich themes and ideas as a starting point for a range of engaging classroom activities and is a useful resource to teachers, whether or not they have seen the performance.
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Guest Blogger: Joan Whelan, Chairperson of the Irish Forest School Association – Blog No.4
The Irish Forest School Association (IFSA) was founded in 2016 and is engaged in the promotion and development of the Forest School (FS) movement in Ireland. We bring Forest School practitioners together to inspire inclusive, playful learning for all, in nature. We want to build resilience and relationships, through our connection with each other, and the natural world, while inspiring creativity and supporting wellbeing. More information can be found on our website www.irishforestschoolassociation.ie.
This final blog post is from Joan Whelan, the Chairperson of the Irish Forest School Association. She reflects on the opportunities within Forest School for adults to reaffirm their own creativity in their approach to teaching, drawing on her experience of introducing Forest School to the primary school where she was principal and on her current PhD research on the distinctiveness of Forest School as a pedagogical approach.
“Lie down, lie down, that way is best” – Blog 4
Participating in a Forest School (FS) session recently with a group of senior infants, I had one of those ‘light-bulb’ moments that happen every now and again and give pause for thought. Our eyes had been drawn towards the tree canopy by the fleeting sight of a grey squirrel bounding up the trunk of a scots pine.
‘Lie down, lie down,’ urged one of the children in a commanding but quiet voice. ‘That way is best’.
And we did. We lay down. Three 6-year olds and myself, flat out on the damp slightly muddy floor of a small and not very loved corner of woodland in Dublin city. And there was quiet, as we searched the tree canopy for the elusive squirrel, for perhaps a minute. Later that same day, having made charcoals from the leftover embers of the fire, a child asked to finger paint stripes on my face…and I had no hesitation. The experience remained with me.
I realised that in 36 years of teaching, I had never fully encountered this kind of immersive, embodied, child-initiated experience that felt very powerful and right. And I thought myself progressive and innovative as a teacher. What made this possible? Was it being in nature? Was it being suitably attired? Was it the small group? Was it the opportunities for child-led activity? Was it the leadership of the FS leader? Was it the safety that the session provided to explore and to ‘be’? Was it all of these?
It seems to me that a very profound opportunity exists for adults to reflect on their practice through participation in FS. We cannot promote creativity in children without being open to making new connections for meaning as adults. FS gives us permission to take a step aside, unlocking a more playful approach to learning which in turn promotes curiosity, exploration and innovative cross curricular connections that surely comprise the possibility for deep and creative connection and meaning making across the curriculum. FS seems to enable us to move from being teachers and pupils to being learners together.
In the context of the Arts in Education, FS provides a foundational, cross curricular pedagogical approach. The woodland provides the tools to enable risks to be taken safely, curiosity to be satisfied and boundaries to be tested. The transformative nature of this kind of learning for wellbeing, creativity and innovation is not easily accessible elsewhere in formal learning contexts. In an era of increasing focus on outcomes, rather than process, FS can help re-position children and adults, not the curriculum, at the core of deeper learning in the primary school. FS pedagogy can help to promote a deeper understanding of the relationship between the human world and the natural world, a theoretical thread that can be traced back to Rousseau, who regarded a connection to nature as fundamental to optimal human functioning. However, FS must be approached within a theory of change perspective. In other words, the importance of school communities articulating a vision for their pedagogical approach, based on their educational purpose, is non-negotiable.
And when was the last time you placed your hands in wet mud?
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Early Years Seedlings Workshops at The Ark: Howie Hedgehog Needs a Home
The Ark
Dates: 4 & 5 October 2019
Get cosy for the autumn in this early years drama workshop for little ones aged 2-4 led by The Ark’s Early Years Artist in Residence, Joanna Parkes.
Autumn is here, leaves are falling and the animals in the woods are preparing for their long winter sleep. But Howie Hedgehog is not ready. He has no food supplies and no shelter to sleep in. He will need some help from the wood elves to collect food and build himself a warm and cosy den.
Join in to discover, explore and find out if you can help Howie build his den in this delightful workshop adventure.
Combining drama, story, play and props, this interactive drama workshop invites little ones and their grown-ups to enjoy imagining together. So if you’re a parent, grandparent, uncle, aunty, godparent or carer, come along with a 2 to 4 year old and join in the fun.
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National Arts in Education Portal Day 2019 – Guest Speaker Announced
We are delighted to announce the guest speakers for the fourth annual National Arts in Education Portal Day on November 9th at The Institute for Lifecourse and Society (ILAS), National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) in partnership with ILAS and Baboró. Our day begins with a welcome from Professor Pat Dolan, UNESCO Chair for Children Youth and Civic Engagement, and Director of the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre and Dr. Katie Sweeney – National Director for the Integration of the Arts, Department of Education and Skills (DES).
We welcome guest speaker Professor Bill Lucus, Director of the Centre for Real-World Learning and Professor of Learning at the University of Winchester. The full line-up which will be announced shortly includes a broad range of practical workshops and skills sharing as well as theoretical and critical thinking in the area from artists, teachers and practitioners from across the sector.
This event brings together members of the arts in education community from all across Ireland, to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired, and continue interrogating best practice in the field.
Full programme details for the day will be announced shortly. For enquiries please contact events@artsineducation.ie
Professor Patrick Dolan, UNESCO Chair for Children Youth and Civic Engagement, and Director of the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre at The Institute for Lifecourse and Society (ILAS), NUI Galway
Professor Pat Dolan holds the prestigious UNESCO Chair in Children, Youth and Civic Engagement, the first to be awarded in the Republic of Ireland. The UNESCO Chair delivers a comprehensive programme of work towards the objective of promoting civic engagement and leadership skills among children and youth. The programme is built around core strands of research, teaching, policy and good practice and is underpinned by a range of national and international collaborations. Prof. Dolan is also joint founder and Director of the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre at the National University of Ireland, Galway. He has worked as a practitioner and academic for over 30 years. Prof Dolan has completed an extensive body of research on children youth and family issues including longitudinal research on adolescents, their perceived mental health, resilience and social support networks and has published in a wide range of international academic publications. His major research interests are Civic Engagement in Children and Youth, Family Support, Youth Mentoring Models, Empathy, Resilience and Social Networks. Prof. Dolan has also extensive practice and policy experience, both nationally and internationally.
Dr, Katie Sweeney, National Director for the Integration of the Arts, Department of Education and Skills (DES)
National Director for the Integration of the Arts in Education (DES) – appointed by Minister for Education and Skills Ruaraí Quinn T.D. in 2013. Previously Katie has worked as a Research Scientist, Senior Lecturer in Dublin City University, Dublin Institute of Technology, Karolinska Institute of Health Sciences Stockholm in Sweden. She was a former Head of GMIT @Castlebar, CEO of Mayo VEC and CEO of Mayo Sligo and Leitrim Education and Training Board.
Professor Bill Lucas, Director of the Centre for Real-World Learning and Professor of Learning at the University of Winchester
Bill is a member of the academic team on the Durham Commission on Creativity in Education, adviser to the OECD’s Centre for Educational Research and Innovation, chair of Eton’s research and innovation centre, a patron of Pegasus Theatre in Oxford and a member of the LEGO Foundation’s advisory board.
In 2017 Bill was appointed co-chair of the strategic advisory group for the new PISA 2021 Test of Creative Thinking. Bill is currently advising the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority on the implementation of critical and creative thinking and has worked extensively across Australia.
A prolific writer, Bill has authored more than 100 books and research reports. With Ellen Spencer he has recently explored how key dispositions for learning can best be cultivated in Teaching Creative Thinking: developing learners who have fresh ideas and think critically.
His acclaimed critique in 2015 of education systems, Educating Ruby: what our children really need to learn, written with Guy Claxton, asks challenging questions about the future of schools. Zest for Learning: Developing curious learners who relish real-world challenges, to be published in Autumn 2019, continues this theme.
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Minister McHugh announces launch of Arts and Culture in Education Research Repository
Launch of archive to preserve Arts in Education content and showcase the work of creative organisations in Ireland
The Minister for Education and Skills Joe McHugh T.D. on Monday September 23rd announced the opening of a new free-to-access online archive to showcase creative activity of teachers, artists, researchers and others.
The Arts and Culture in Education Research Repository (ACERR) will be open to people working in education and the public, allowing them an insight into the inspirational ideas being developed for schools.
Some of the work available in the archive includes an essay from the UCC School of Digital Humanities on using Minecraft as a tool for creative engagement in the classroom and a project on using rap music as a creative method in research with children and young people.
The repository also details the experiences of Lisa Cahill, a dance artist in residence at Maynooth University in 2016. The repository has allowed for videos of Lisa’s work to be recorded and uploaded for the public to view.
It is hoped the archive will be expanded as teachers, schools, arts and cultural researchers, academics, colleges and universities and artists offer resources including video, music, dance, drama and art.
The repository will also help to overcome traditional barriers to publication for arts and creative practitioners.
Making the announcement, Minister McHugh said: “This Government is doing huge work to put creativity to the fore of a child’s education and development, not least with the 300 schools in the Creative Ireland programme or the growth of Music Generation.
“The new archive will grow over time and help to cement the great work already being done every day in our classrooms as well as giving researchers and parents and others an insight into how we can inspire the next generation.”
The ACERR has been developed as part of the Creative Ireland Programme and has been supported by the Dormant Accounts Funds.
Are you an artist with an interest in creating work with or for children?
The Ark invites you to pop in for a welcoming cup of coffee or tea and meet with other like-minded artists.
Suitable for artists new to work with children and those with more experience with this unique audience, this event will be very relaxed – and there may even be cake!
There will be time to chat to other artists as well as some of The Ark team.
No booking required. Just turn up – the kettle will be on!
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Opportunity for Schools: Ireland’s National School Photography Awards Open for Entries
Ireland’s National School Photography Awards
Deadline: Tuesday 21 January 2020
INSPA 2019/20 sees the third open call for Ireland’s prestigious National School Photography Awards [INSPA]. INSPA is a national children’s photography competition which is open to all primary schools located in the Republic of Ireland. This year, the awards are brought to you by the INSPA team in partnership with ReCreate.ie, FujiFilm Instax Camera’s and the Amber Springs Resort Hotel.
The awards aim to encourage young creatives in primary level education to engage with both digital technology and the creative process to create striking visual images. They will inspire and ignite passion in students, increase engagement with digital arts within primary level education while at the same time educating students about the importance of the creative process.
The awards are offering a range of fantastic prizes for finalists, winners and their schools including; Free entry to the Amber Springs Easter Train Experience for the overall winner and their classmates, FujiFilm INSTAX cameras for winners and their schools, a year’s membership for the winning school to ReCreate’s ‘Warehouse of Wonders’, a two night stay in the Amber Springs for the Principal of the winning school, a one night stay in the Amber Springs for the teacher of the winning class, INSPA certificates, framed photographs and an #INSPAsmiles School Photography Fundraising Day in aid of the 2019/20 charity theme partner; ReCreate.ie
This year’s theme is titled ‘Second Life’ which asks both teachers and their students to integrate the camera into the school-day, allowing their students explore their classrooms, corridors and schoolyards. We are specifically looking for fun images that focus on the wonders of waste while utilising the creative techniques of photography to transform spaces/places or give a new lease of life to familiar objects/things.
All entries will be judged by a national panel including Cristín Leach (Art Critic: The Sunday Times Ireland), Feargal Brougham (INTO President), Cathy Baxter (Manager: Green Schools), Páiric Clerkin (CEO of IPPN), Anya von Gosseln (Curator & Co-Founder of Kamera8 Gallery), Ángel Luis González Fernández (CEO Photo Ireland Foundation), Mandy O’Neill (Visual Artist) and Richard Carr (Artist & Partnerships Manager for INSPA).
If you think your school has Ireland’s next top creative, all you have to do is register your school at the INSPA website – www.inspa.ie. The deadline for entries is midnight on Tuesday 21st January 2020. However, make sure you register your school asap to give yourself time to activate your school account and upload your students’ entries.
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Primary Teachers Masterclass at The Glucksman
The Glucksman
Date: 19 October 2019
Join curators, academics and artists as we explore the new Glucksman digital toolkit for educators. In this masterclass, teachers will investigate ways to engage their students in artistic processes that creatively encounter, explore and understand our responsibility towards the environment.
Current issues of education and communication of climate change and sustainability are complex, multi-faceted and potentially overwhelming unless the problems can be scaled down and re-framed. This masterclass focuses on peatlands, an important part of our biodiversity and an example of ways that individual and collective effort can be valuable for climate action.
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Creative Dance in the Classroom CPD at The Ark
The Ark
Date: 16 November 2019
The Ark are delighted to invite Primary School educators to join dance educator Emma O’Kane for this enjoyable CPD course that to deepen and expand the understanding of Dance within the P.E. curriculum with an emphasis on creativity. In a relaxed and playful atmosphere teachers will be provided with the necessary tools to deliver dance activity with confidence for all ages and classes. The course will demystify dance for teachers and focus on the exploration, creation and performance of dance through easy exercises and manageable approaches.
Working within an integrative approach the course will explore how dance can also support learning across the curriculum in relation to SPHE, English and other subjects.
Suitable for all levels of confidence. No experience necessary.
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Music Generation appoints Paula Phelan as Head of Quality, Support and Development
Music Generation
Music Generation is delighted to announce that Paula Phelan has been appointed as Head of Quality, Support and Development within the National Development Office. In this new senior role, Paula will drive the implementation of a new national Music Generation Quality Framework, support the planned growth of the national network of Local Music Education Partnerships (LMEPs), and lead on professional development and learning programmes and initiatives for Music Generation over the coming years.
Paula brings a breadth of experience to the role, spanning the worlds of arts and corporate management, music education leadership and practice. Most recently she held the position of LMEP Support Manager at the Music Generation National Development Office. From 2013-2018 she was Programme Director for Music Generation Carlow. In addition to her extensive work with Music Generation, she was previously General Manager of the Irish Baroque Orchestra, a Post-Primary Teacher, Freelance Musician Educator and General Manager of Belvedere Youth Service.
A native of Kildare, Paula completed her undergraduate BAmus degree in NUI Maynooth. She holds an MA Baroque Performance Practice from Queens University Belfast, an MA in Arts Administration and Cultural Policy from University College Dublin, a Postgraduate Diploma in Education from NUI Maynooth and a Postgraduate Diploma in Early Childhood Music from Birmingham City University.
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Opportunity: Musicians / Music Tutors with Music Generation Kilkenny
Music Generation
Kilkenny and Carlow Education and Training Board
Deadline: 12 noon, Friday 27 September 2019
Kilkenny and Carlow Education and Training Board wishes to recruit and place on a panel suitably qualified and experienced part-time musicians/music tutors to deliver the following Music Generation Kilkenny programmes:
Small group tuition in vocal (including choral) or instrumental learning (any music genre)
Large-group tuition (vocal and/or instrumental) in early years and primary school settings
Ensemble (instrumental/vocal), band facilitation, mentoring in any genre of music, including, where applicable, song-writing/creative composition, music technology etc.
Musicians/music tutors will work with children and young people in group/classroom contexts and may work on one or more programmes at any given time. A willingness to deliver programmes in more than one location in County Kilkenny would be desirable.
The closing date for receipt of applications is: 12 noon, Friday 27th September 2019
Late applications will not be considered.
Provisional interview date: Week commencing 7th October 2019
For further information and application forms go to www.kcetb.ie
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Blog 3 – Liz Coman, Assistant Arts Officer Dublin City Council & VTS Facilitator
“We Are Mirrors” – Erasmus+ Permission to Wonder
A Conversation with Visual Artist, Kathryn Maguire
Visual Thinking Strategies is a research based method, founded on the doctoral work of Abigail Housen(Co-Founder of VTS) and her research on aesthetic development. Housen’s research focused on the question – ‘What Happens Cognitively When You Look at a Work of Art?’ Her methodologydevised an ‘Aesthetic Development Interview’ to understand how a spectrum of differentviewers understand and interpret the same artwork. With this data,and drawing on constructivist learning theories, in particular Lev Vygotsky and Jean Piaget, she designed a stage theoryfor aesthetic development. Her stage theory tracked common features of five stages. According to Housen, each stage is inherently important. No stage can be rushed or bypassed. Growth occurs with repeated and regular exposure to viewing art. In her collaboration with Philip Yenawine and MOMA, New York, Housen’sresearch identified that the majority of visitors attending the museum and its programmes were stage 1 & 2 viewers. Stage 1 & 2 viewersjudge an artwork is based on what they know and like, their observations may appear idiosyncratic and imaginative, and they have their own sense of what is realistic and this standard is often applied to determine value. Stage 1&2, as aesthetic learners, are storytellers. Storytelling is a universal means of making meaning. Meaning making requires critical thinking, personal reflection, the consideration of multiple possibilities, communication and respectful debate.
Part of the challenge for me was unlearning earlier teaching practices. I had to…learn a new paradigm, one that put people ahead of art, one that focused on enabling not just engaging people. I had to step back from what I thought people should learn, to create a teaching/learning method that would help them realize their full potential at any given moment. – Philip Yenawine
Professional visual artists, that have trained in Visual Thinking Strategies with us, tell us that VTS can offer them a useful framework to critically appraise their own artwork in development. It is a tool that can inform their understanding of a diversity of interpretations that audiences will bring to the artwork. This can be a valuable input into an artwork’s development before it arrives into the gallery or public space. Visual artists that have trained with us, and been implementing VTS as part of their practice, specifically in schools, report that the neutrality and rigour of the VTS method is their biggest challenge. For me, this is completely understandable. When you love art and have dedicated your life to its study and practice, you want to share all your knowledge and skills with your audience. The visual artists we work with are very generous and committed to sharing with their audiences. However, the time and appropriate support to do this is usually very limited.
Within schools, there may only be one shot – the one class visit to a gallery in a year. Or a school or artist might get support for a suite of sessions or a medium-term residency. Following Housen’s theory, we can propose that more consistent and supported time for art and artists to work with students allows greater opportunity for embedding aesthetic growth and learning. In addition to the time limitation, there are very few training opportunities for artists in understanding pedagogy, curriculum and developmental stages of children and young people according to age, ability and cultural tradition. Therefore, the skill of facilitating meaning making with visual art and children and young people, for many artists, is based on their own process of discovery and how discovery emerges in their practice.
Kathryn Maguire’s practice is inspired by science, history and the social world. She works in the field of socially engaged art, therefore, contrary to making an artwork in isolation, she develops artwork with a community in a way that honours both her areas of inspiration and a community’s vested interest in their neighbourhood. Kathryn has effective collaboration skills that allow space for experts and knowledge from varied backgrounds and sources to inform the development of her work. She is a sculptor, and in particular, specialises in social sculpture. She uses mirrors regularly in her work and understands the value of using mirrors as a reflective tool, that can work equally well in the gallery/museum and also outside, in nature. An example of this is Kathryn’s artwork is ‘Us’ Again – a floating mirrored shed, created in 2013, in collaboration with the Men’s Shed Group based in Rialto’s St Andrew’s Community Centre as part of Maguire’s residency at 468, Common Ground.
Image of ‘Us’ Again -Kathryn Maguire
The shed, made completely of mirrors, journeyed along the Grand Canal, Dublin, to celebrate the impact the waterway has had on labour and leisure in Rialto and as demonstration and reflection on community and commonality. Kathryn’s mirrored shed informs her practice today, as she continues to investigate what is the common between us and our environment.
What do you find VTS brings to your practice as an artist?
As an artist, I feel like an investigative journalist in some ways. I gather knowledge and information and transfer it into an artwork. VTS is a powerful tool for me, as a learner. I’m constantly learning so VTS allows for my knowledge to be fluid. It is really important to me, in my life, and as an artist, that there is more than one answer. Facilitating VTS allows me time to listen to the different ideas coming from each person, to stay neutral, and not buy into one opinion or another. It is really important to stay listening to all the different facets of the conversation. We all come with so much ancestral knowledge. Perhaps allowing time and space for different perspectives, hopefully we can find our way to some common ground. This is what ultimately keeps me motivated – the search for our commonality. It’s why I still work with mirrors – we are mirrors. As an artist, I feel now is an important time. Artists have an incredible opportunity to look more closely, then take that knowledge and make it into an artwork and then take that artwork and go to the audience – it’s a gentle, fluid, domino effect.
What have you noticed happening in your work with schools and galleries in VTS image discussions?
I am currently Artist in Residence with Rathfarnham Educate Together National School (RETNS). I recently did a VTS facilitated discussion the school’s 5th class children at The LAB Gallery and Anita Groener’s incredible exhibition ‘The Past is a Foreign Country’. I observed that the children were highly environmentally aware and were able to articulate very clearly their understanding that if our environment is not harmonious, then that is not good for us either. They mirrored, for me, my own thinking that we are all part of the same ecosystem. This is an emotionally charged exhibition, exploring migration and the migrant crisis in Syria. I didn’t have to tell the children what the work was about. I didn’t have to give them a script. The script was inside them already. It just needed a gentle prise open. VTS allowed us time, and slowing down, deep looking, being comfortable in the silence. There is so much chatter, phone or screen time in our lives that just listening and communicating with each other is an amazing thing. This amazing thing happens when we communicate in a VTS session and I’m still not sure what the ‘thing’ is. This ‘thing’ is what Permission to Wonder has given to me as a person and as an artist.
Can you recall a favourite VTS Image Discussion?
I have been testing the VTS Image Curriculum and the Permission to Wonder images for the project image bank. I have been practicing VTS with test images in Scoil Mhuire, Marino and St Vincents BNS.
Some feedback on the VTS sessions with Kathryn from the 3rd class boys of Scoil Mhuire, Marino, gathered from teacher, Jennifer Gormley
‘It was very enjoyable and I liked that it wasn’t just based on one artist. I liked the way we got asked to say what we thought of the picture.’
‘It was really nice and I liked the way it was arranged, like the questions we were asked.’
‘It was really fun. I liked looking at the pictures and telling what I thought of them.’
‘I thought the paintings were really good and it was fun answering questions.’
Another memorable experience was a Wonder Club session with a Patrick Scott artwork in The Hugh Lane Gallery. The discussion went from a very religious metaphorical discussion into a more polarised religious and political debate. This was surprising as the beautiful abstract painting was a vehicle for adults to vocalise knowledge, and equally prejudices, that the group and I had to negotiate. Perhaps most valuable with adults, you get to access people’s wealth of knowledge due to their lived life.
** Wonder Club is monthly VTS sessions for adults that take place in Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane and The LAB Gallery
How did Erasmus+ Permission to Wonder support you to develop your VTS practice?
I would describe VTS practice like muscle that needs to be exercised. In Permission to Wonder, the trust within the group of educators, and the care within the partner group was really special. There was a silent strength in this support that was very nurturing for me to help me push me out of my comfort zone and become more confident in how I facilitate a VTS session. The logistical supports that were put in place for me were really important. Financial access to the training in Europe and then also being supported to practice at home in the schools and galleries allowed me to build this confidence. On foot of it, opportunities for me to work with galleries and schools have been increasing. In the past year, I’ve been really lucky to work with The LAB Gallery, The Hugh Lane Gallery, IMMA, The Butler Gallery, Kilkenny and all have been very supportive of me using VTS as a strand of my sessions with school groups. I use VTS at the beginning of my sessions almost as a way to bring students into a space where they will absorb the artists’ intentions by osmosis and then the session will evolve from there. I usually do a VTS session, followed by an observational drawing, followed by more formal object making in the education room. I find that the students, when they are sketching after the VTS image discussion, are not copying each other, they are more confident in how their own ideas are coming out of the artwork.
What would you like to work on next in your VTS practice?
The most important thing that I feel I need to work with most is staying neutral. I think that art can bring up a lot of stuff for people, very strong opinions are aired, a lot of debate and also emotional responses. I have to be careful to manage my own assumptions about why somebody might make a particular remark. I have to remember, that it’s okay if a group member does not want to contribute or may pull back or be quiet in the discussion. The strength of the silence may indicate that there may be a reason why somebody remains silent, something may be triggered for that person within the image or the discussion. There is learning in discomfort, but also learning to keep in mind safety and care for the group, and also keep in mind self care for me. I will always talk to a teacher at the outset of a session to find out if I need to be mindful of a member of a group. It’s that communication that needs to happen between us as educators – between teacher and artist – in order that the viewer is allowed to be silent or to be heard, depending on their need.
I would envision that I would like to push my VTS practice further. To move my VTS facilitation outside of art, into other areas such as science, history, mathematics. That I can move it out of the artworld and into other areas of education. I think VTS sits in the artworld but also has the flexibility and ability to move beyond the artworld.
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School Box Office Now Open for the 2019 Baboró International Arts Festival for Children!
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children
Dates: 14 – 20 October 2019
Baboró are delighted to announce that their Schools Box Office is now open for this year’s festival, which takes place in Galway 14-20 October. To plan your school visit take a look at the dedicated schools section of their website to find everything you need to make your booking request.
How to Begin
You should receive a Festival Programme in the post this week (an online version will be launched 2 September).
Decide which performance, literature or free event you would like your class to attend.
Consider ‘Making a Day of It’ by combining a show or literature event with one of our free Creative Connections sessions or a free Visual Art guided tour. These must also be requested on the online booking form (limited availability).
Complete the Online Schools Booking Request Form by Wednesday 11 September. You will be asked for your top-3 preferences, or you can have the Baboró team select a show for your group to attend. Please complete one form per group.
Recommended performances and events have been identified as suitable for groups or schools with additional needs. Baboró have developed an information pack to accompany these shows, which includes information about the venues, access, and what to expect during the performances regarding light, sound, etc. You can find this pack and more helpful information online on the Baboró website (www.baboro.ie )from 2 September.
Ticket & Subsidy Information
Performance ticket prices: €6.50 per child & €5.50 per child for registered DEIS schools.
Literature Event ticket prices: €5 per child.
Creative Connections sessions: Free.
Visual Art guided tours: Free.
Free Teacher/SNA Tickets: 1 per 10 children. Preschools – 1 per 5 children. Additional Needs – as required.
Bus Subsidy Scheme: Claim back some of your bus hire costs after the festival. You will receive further details about this with your booking confirmation.
Important Dates Wednesday 11 September: First Round Booking Deadline.
Requests after this date are considered, however, likelihood of attending one of your top 3 preferences is greatly reduced.
Week of Monday 23 September: Notification of Allocation.
Schools will be notified of their allocation with a Baboró schedule, invoice, and a pre-engagement pack including venue information via email. Please do not call for information on your booking before this date, as it takes one week to complete the allocations for all schools.
Wednesday 9 October: Payment Due in Full.
Cash is not accepted. Payment methods will be outlined with notification of your allocation. Bookings are not considered complete and confirmed until full payment has been received.
For school enquires or further information please contact Kirsty on 091 562642 or email schools@baboro.ie.
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Job Opportunity: Music Generation Development Officer, Meath (Re-advertisement)
Louth and Meath Education and Training Board
Deadline: 12 noon, Friday 13 September 2019
Louth and Meath ETB is now inviting applications for the position of Music Generation Development Officer, Meath.
Post Reference Number: C218
A Music Generation Development Officer will be appointed by Louth and Meath ETB and will be responsible for managing an extensive performance music education programme on behalf of the Meath Local Music Education Partnership.
Five year, fixed-term contract (€46,771 – €57,157)
Application form, job description and person specification and other details available from – www.etbjobs.ie
Closing date for receipt of completed application forms is: 12 noon, Friday 13th September 2019
Late and/or incomplete applications will not be accepted.
Based on the volume of applications received short-listing may apply. Short-listing will take place on the basis of the information provided in the application form. Depending on the qualifications and experience of applicants, short-listing thresholds may be significantly higher than the minimum standards set out.
Louth and Meath ETB is an equal opportunities employer.
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Opportunity: Call for Artists in Residence – School of Arts Education and Movement DCU
Dublin City University
Deadline: Wednesday 4 September 2019
Practicing professional artists are invited to apply for a residency opportunity at DCU Institute of Education for the academic year 2019-2020. Applications are welcome from individual artists who work in an interdisciplinary form, or from an ensemble of artists. The closing date is Wednesday September 4th 2019 at 5pm.
The residency is hosted by DCU Institute of Education’s School of Arts Education and Movement. This opportunity is one of a number of artist residencies supported by the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon in the context of Initial Teacher Education. Each residency aims to:
Provide future teachers with opportunities to engage meaningfully with the arts as part of their initial teacher education;
Support future teachers to develop the skills and confidence to facilitate meaningful arts experiences for their students, and to champion the arts in schools;
Provide opportunities for artists to develop their skills and experience in education settings, and to develop their artistic work in a collaborative and supportive environment.
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Creative Careers Day for post-primary students at National Gallery of Ireland
National Gallery of Ireland
Date: 14 November, 2019
Save the date! Join the team at the National Gallery of Ireland for a day of inspirational talks, activities and practical advice to get you thinking about what a creative career might mean for you!
Meet gallery staff members and learn about careers in areas such as curatorial, conservation and education. Special guests from other creative fields will also talk about their work and how they got to where they are today.
Suitable for post-primary students (4th Year – 6th Year).
More details to follow, and tickets available from September.
Contact codonnell@ngi.ie for more information.
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Upcoming Teacher Network Evening at National Gallery of Ireland
National Gallery of Ireland
Dates: Thursday 10 October 2019, 4pm – 6pm
The National Gallery of Ireland work with all teachers – to encourage confidence and agency in using art as a tool for learning. To support this they collaborate with DES and teaching practitioners to run accredited CPD courses, study days and conferences, and provide a wide variety of resources online.
Join Catherine O’Donnell, Education Officer for Teachers, Schools & Youth, for an evening exploring three very different exhibitions: Bauhaus 100: The Print Portfolios, Sorolla: Spanish Master of Light, The Zurich Portrait Prize, and The Zurich Young Portrait Prize 2019.
Learn more about their current schools programme, how you can utilise the Gallery’s collections and exhibitions for cross-curricular learning, and network with colleagues. Attendees can avail of a free ticket to a lecture about Sorolla by Christopher Riopelle, Neil Westreich Curator of Post-1800 Paintings, the National Gallery, London.
This event is free, but booking is required. To book, follow this link or contact education@ngi.ie
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Blog 4 – Sinéad Ní Bhrádaigh, Creative Schools Coordinator and Teacher
Reflecting on the first year of Creative Schools
Alongside the workshops that we held during May and June, the Creative Schools Teacher committee had come up with a Menu of Activities to accompany the workshops. The Children’s Panel also came together to add their suggestions for the Menu. This Menu was designed to be a list of easy classroom activities that the teachers could engage in at times and days of their choosing, to compliment activities that they may have been thinking of doing anyway. All of the activities were based on our theme of Food, Cooking and Nature. Some of the activities included links to Food Science websites; inviting parents into classroom to engage in cooking activities; ideas for nature based art; healthy shared lunches and forest and beach picnics. A copy of this Menu was delivered to each classroom for a four week period and all teachers were encouraged to engage with the programme.
During the last week of term, we invited our children’s panel to come and give us some feedback on the programme and how it was for them. Yvonne laid out big sheets of paper and had specific questions to provide information she was looking for. This proved a very fruitful if not a humbling experience. Each classroom and each class level had experienced varying levels of engagement with the programme, depending on each classes packed schedule. Therefore, the children all had varying feedback. As we all know children to be, the feedback was honest, and some of it wasn’t all that flattering!
As a whole jigsaw piece, the Creative Schools programme was successful in its aims and objectives for this year. But when you break the jigsaw into individual pieces, it didn’t feel that that success had filtered down to all of the children in all of the classes. This was disappointing for both myself and Yvonne, as there had been a huge investment in the programme all year. It’s all about the children at the end of the day, and if the children didn’t benefit, well then there were questions to be asked. Myself and Yvonne had a good chat about it all, and agreed that if we had decided to focus in on one class grouping for example, and showered all of our Creative Schools programme on just those children then undoubtedly the feedback may have been different, but that is not what we chose to do. Instead, we needed to focus on the whole completed jigsaw, celebrate the success and look ahead to how we can build on it next year.
We intend our focus next year to switch to teachers professional development in creative practices. We see a great opportunity next year to spend our time researching cross curricular creative practices, as we feel that in order for maximum children to benefit from the Creative Schools Programme, we need to up skill our own practices and thus all children will benefit. We feel very excited about this new aspect to the programme and we are looking forward to continuing this creative journey next year
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Opportunity: Programming and Co-ordination of Children’s Art in Libraries Creative Hubs
Dublin City Council Arts Service
Closing date for receipts of tenders: 12 noon, Friday September 6th
Dublin City Arts Service has just announced an opportunity to tender for multi-party framework for Programming & Coordination of Children’s Art in Libraries.
Dublin City Arts Service is working to increase opportunities for children and young people to access quality arts experiences through partnerships with city departments and complementary arts and cultural organisations. The Children’s Art in Libraries Programme (CAL) seeks to provide innovative high quality arts experiences for children of all ages. Since 2010, the CAL Programme – an initiative of the Dublin City Arts Office – has worked in partnership with Dublin City Public Libraries to deliver innovative programming for children across a broad range of art forms.
In more recent years the CAL Programme began to develop its Creative Hub initiative. Creative Hubs seek to sustain high quality arts experiences for children, schools and families, enabling access in their library and locality through the development of enhanced educational, community and cultural partnership. In 2017 CAL began to develop its first Creative Hub in Ballyfermot Library this has been followed by a second Hub in Cabra Library in 2019.
Interested parties can find the e-tender notice on www.etenders.gov.ie , tender reference: RTF ID 155564
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Opportunity for Schools: Contemporary print exhibition available for loan to schools
Tipperary County Council Arts Service
Dates: Ongoing
Tipperary County Council Arts Service offers schools in Tipperary the opportunity to borrow and display an exhibition of thirty-two contemporary prints by Irish artists. The prints from twenty two artists include works by Cecil King, Alice Hanratty, Patrick Hickey, Gene Lambert, Suzannah O’Reilly and Des McMahon. Print mediums include monoprint, relief print, etching, silkscreen, lithograph, collograph, and dry point. An informative exhibition catalogue for educational purposes is included with the print exhibition.
A one-day printmaking workshop in the school is also available as part of this opportunity. The prints are specially packed for easy handling and transport.
Teachers and schools can arrange to borrow the exhibition by contacting the Tipperary Arts Office by phone at 0761 06 5000 or by email at artsoffice@tipperarycoco.ie.
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Deadline Extended: Call for papers, presentations and workshops! National Arts in Education Portal Day 2019
Deadline Extended: 5pm Friday 9th August 2019
Artists, teachers, academics and arts education professionals….Do you want to be part of the fourth annual National Arts in Education Portal Day?
The National Arts in Education Portal Day will take place at The Institute for Lifecourse and Society (ILAS), National University of Ireland Galway(NUIG) on Saturday 9th November in partnership with ILAS and Baboró. The event aims to bring together members of the arts in education and creative practice community from all across Ireland, to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired, and continue interrogating best practice in the field.
We are inviting proposals from organisations or individuals who want to give dynamic and inspiring presentations or workshops that can offer sharing of skills, practical approaches, new insights and critical thinking across the field, from a range of perspectives.
Do you have a workshop or presentation that you would like to be included in the programme for this day? If so, please send us your proposal.
Deadline for submission of proposals has been extended to 5pm Friday 9th August 2019.
Ciara has a PhD in English from Maynooth University. She has worked as researcher on the National Collection of Children’s Books (TCD) and “Gender Identity: Child Readers and Library Collections” at the Centre for Children’s Literature and Culture, DCU. She has taught English in various universities and currently works at Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership as Administrative and Development Officer.
Blog 4 – On Practising Creativity and Change
The second half of the Creativity and Change course focused on “application to practice” – on applying the forms and modes of creative engagement we had experienced and worked with in the first half of the course. Over numerous weekends, we practiced creativity across a variety of forms. In small teams, we co-facilitated creative workshops to critically focus on important local and global justice issues with our peers. We created a 60 foot piece of street art – participating in the entire process from beginning to end. We planned and designed a number of creative street actions to engage the public in Cork city in support of Climate Case Ireland.
A core part of the Creativity and Change course is its focus on connecting learning that occurs through the head, hand, and heart – through reflection and critical thinking, through doing, making and taking action, and through affective learning and creating connections. Each weekend, each activity, actively engaged all three modes of learning. Not only did we practice the application of creativity and creative processes to encourage a critical reflection and action to change on global justice issues, we also built a community, a collective, however temporary, within which these experiences became all the more meaningful.
This head, hand, and heart model is not just something to apply to just certain learning experiences, but something that can inform so many areas of our lives, our learning, our teaching, our living. This too, like creativity, is something to practice each day and to continually build on.
Now, perhaps more than ever, it seems like the time to take action in our world, to resist retreating into apathy. The scale and persistence of the global justice issues that we face can make taking action seem like an impossible task. What the Creativity and Change course encourages is a sense that this continually coming back to these issues need not feel futile, or as evidence that things do not change despite our best efforts. That instead, circling back to social justice issues in new, creative, and diverse ways, is also something to live, and to make part of our lives.
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Blog 4 – Yvonne Cullivan Creative Associate for Creative Schools & Visual Artist
Blog 4 – Reflect and Refine
My first year working as a Creative Associate on the Creative Schools Programme with my three allocated schools has ended. Nothing feels finished however; it feels as if we are just starting. While creative activities took place in each school as a direct result of the consultation process, I view this years work as research and development and I won’t be surprised if year two feels like more R&D. The consultation process in each case was very thorough and the conversations with the coordinators and, less frequent but equally important, with management, were robust and wide-reaching. Through evaluation with a selection of children from each school, for the most part, they report having both enjoyed and learned from their participation in the programme so far.
In my mind, the role of the Creative Associate is to assist in embedding creative approaches to teaching and learning (one could say to thinking and being) within the school environment. Reflecting on this, it would be easy to be disappointed with the years work, it falls far short of achieving that aim. There were small disappointments; not all teachers participated in the organised activities, not all children made the connection between the opinions they put forward in the consultation process and the resulting activities that they participated in, some of the planned activities didn’t materialise, some people didn’t enjoy the activities. There were larger logistical issues at play too; the late commencement of the programme combined with the lengthy intensive consultation process meant that most activities took place at the very time of year when schools are most busy. This had the most impact at G.E.T.N.S. where we developed and implemented an ambitious whole school programme of activities in May and June. The whole school cohesiveness we needed to realise the holistic nature of this programme got lost in the end of year ether. I choose to reflect on all of this as learning.
My three schools and I are building relationships together, we are reaching levels of understanding, finding out what works and what doesn’t in each setting. We are journeying. As a result of this long-term attitude and shared vision for trying to go a level deeper into creativity within the school environment, we have clear pointers for 2019/20. A large part of our work together will be investing in creative professional development for teachers. This would appear to be the most necessary and sustainable use of our time together. Our main challenges will be freeing up staff time and reaching beyond the arts curriculum. G.E.T.N.S. will engage in a Per Cent for Art project that will hopefully build, in a very exciting way, on our work together this year; the boys at Athenry are leading us toward a programme around creative play and the outdoor environment; Eglish are going to further their digital skills acquisition. The process is creative and child-led and this makes sense to me.
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Guest Blogger: Frank Monahan Architect & Cultural Producer – Blog No. 3
Frank is an Irish designer /cultural producer with an interest in film, the arts & architecture. His professional practice includes the design of buildings, & set design for film/television production. He holds a BA in Architecture, 2008 and a Professional Diploma in Architecture, 2012 both from London Metropolitan University. Prior to this he recieved a B.Des. in Production Design for Film/Television, from IADT. This background has informed his approach to practice, which is collaborative, interdisciplinary and site specific.Interested in the critical potential of design he established Architecture at the Edge in 2017, for which he devised and curated the events programme. He produced an outdoor installation, ‘Ghost Chapel’ for Galway International Arts Festival 2018 in collaboration with the Bartlett School of Architecture.
Learning from the power of place – Blog 3
“I walk because it confers- or restores- a feeling of placeness …I walk because, somehow, it’s like reading …”
― Lauren Elkin, Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London
Charles Baudelaire and Walter Benjamin wrote a while ago about the modern man, who walked the city in order to explore its history, the architecture, the changing environment.
That idea of exploring and thinking is about making sense of things, the places and people we encounter, and this approach can also be applied to adolescence children in their world, by interacting, investigating, questioning, and forming, testing and refining their ideas.
Place-based education promotes learning that is rooted in what is local— the unique local history, environment, economy, culture, landscapes, and architecture of a particular place – in mapping the students’ own “place” or immediate schoolyard, neighborhood, town or community. And walking is like mapping with your feet. It can promote a place-specific, sustainable approach to living, working and playing for all.
Following an introduction to the IAF Architects in Schools Programme to the TY students at St. Raphael’s College, Loughrea we started by asking the students a little about the town, the whereabouts of where they live and by what means had they travelled to the school that day. I wanted to find out about their lived experience and connection to the place. From this informal survey it soon became clear that the majority lived in either peripheralhousing estates or ribbon development on the towns fringes – the exception a few living on farm settlements in the environs of the county side. Not one it seemed lived within the town itself. I suggested walking the town together would allow us to stop – take a detour – and explore the form of that built environment.
Finding a historic street map from the local library and placing a glass, rim down, onto the map, we drew round its edge. We then instructed the students to pick up the map, go out into the town, and walk the circle, and keeping as close as they can to the curve, record their observations. This also helped them to get an idea of where we were in the context of the place. Loughrea town is compact and so in short, the walk would show us all the key places in the town, and help us see some hidden gems in the process. By walking – not only do you get great exercise – you won’t miss details and you’re much more likely to go in different buildings, squeeze down alleyways, etc.
Loughrea lies at a number of boundaries, both historic and geographic and its pattern and form of development has been shaped by these features at the various stages of its development. The lake and medieval moate are wonderful but one could easily pass through Loughrea without noticing either. Its existing street plan closely follows that of a medieval layout. Many tall narrow properties on either side of the Main Street occupy burgage plots laid out in the 13th century.
The Temperance Hall / Barracks road complex is a palimpsest in which the layered history of Loughrea is revealed. Signs of the walled town, the original Gate House and successive military occupations are evident at even a quick glance. Behind the Temperance Hall, built c1780s as a Cavalry Barracks, we found a complex of buildings enclosed by fragments of a defensive wall. The site backed up to the lake with picturesque views out to the crannogs and surrounding landscape beyond. Student research later revealed the arrangement had once also included a hospital, infirmary and forge. Part currently provides social, cultural and educational services for the people of the town. This was the chosen site for the student’s design project. One of the first tasks we set in carrying out the survey was to photograph and to draw these buildings.
The aim, to adapt the assembly of buildings and introduce / incorporate new housing typologies into it to form a new ‘piece of town’. One that faced the lake but which also utilized the existing network of lanes which connect back from here into the town proper. The project was somehow about revitalizing this forgotten space, repopulating it and in so doing, assist in remedying the vacancy seen in the adjacent streets at the town center.
Adopting this strategy, the workshops which followed were designed to place the student at the center of this process, and resulted in propositions for a new linear public park, a café on the crannog and a new mixed residential community. All this, a clear demonstration for the potential of architecture to enhance the experience of living and working in the 21st century Irish town, coming from the students themselves.
It goes to show that if we start with small steps …. to support novice viewers become more observant and more thoughtful about what they are looking at then this can empower them to present an alternative vision for their existing built environment. It is so vital that our towns are living vibrant places, of social and cultural exchange, community and interactions and so they must be constantly maintained as adaptive changing entities.
We see that legacy of bad planning in towns like Loughrea. It’s one symptomatic of the challenges facing many small communities in Ireland – contradictory forces in the commercial landscape due to changing consumer behavior patterns, with resultant accepted sprawl of housing leading to vehicular predominance, and the changing demographics – have pulled and shaped the town, and continue to do so resulting in increased vacancy at its core. In the context of climate change walkable and compact small towns have so much to offer us. The aim must be to shift the narrative from ‘conserving’ or ‘preserving’ small town settlements to ‘re-thinking’ and ‘championing’ them.
The students demonstrated an understanding of how these challenges faced by smaller communities can be overcome through sensitivity, creativity, collaboration and long-term stewardship. The projects demonstrate the possibilities of working in historic fabrics, re-connecting town centers to their surroundings and integrating a mix of uses into town centers. They arrived at a way of living which might suggest a more flexible approach to the town plot. It’s about creating a learning experiences that leverage the power of place. In fostering students’ connection to place, help their understanding of where they live and how taking action in their own backyards helps to take care of the world around them.
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Blog 3 – Sinéad Ní Bhrádaigh, Creative Schools Coordinator and Teacher
In full Swing
School days in May and especially June are incredibly busy. It always seems to creep up unexpectedly, but yet every year is the same! This business presented our biggest challenge when it came to implementing our Creative Schools programme. Starting up a creative programme for the whole school community at the same time and at this time of the year isn’t ideal. Myself and Yvonne had made a conscious decision that every single child would have access to the creative programme, and thus we spread it over 15 classrooms and over 400 children, rather than focusing in on a smaller cohert of children, and delivering a more comprehensive, focused programme. We decided this because we felt it was in line with our ethos of equality and inclusion and we didn’t want there to be a feeling that some children were accessing the creative schools programme when others were not. The reality of this decision was that we had to try hard to fit everything in to what was an already packed end of year schedule. There were successes, but undoubtedly there were also some disappointments.
The stand alone workshops were a great success. The infant classes had workshops with Down to Earth Forest schools, who demonstrated wonderfully creative ways to use our outdoor school environment to engage the children. First Class had workshops related to the importance of bees and pollination. Second Class went to visit an organic farm and brought back with them a box of organic vegetables that they cooked up creatively. Third Class designed nests for bees, and designed an outdoor area for sowing wildflower seeds. Fourth and Fifth classes visited woods near our schools and managed to forage over 15 different types of plants growing in our woods. Afterwards, they made some tinctures and elderflower cordial from their pickings. Sixth class had a workshop with Yvonne, discussing food production and the methods that Yvonne used to create her visual short film.
The workshops brought a great buzz to each class level and certainly opened the children’s minds to environmental issues as well as seeing how to creatively utilise the resources that we have easy access to in our immediate environment. Feedback for the workshops was universally positive from the children. We held a feedback meeting with the children’s creative committee and I will discuss the outcomes from this feedback meeting in the next blogpost.
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Early Years Seedlings Workshops at The Ark: Saving Selma the Seal
The Ark
Dates: 2 & 3 August 2019
The Ark continue our monthly early-years programme Seedlings with a special workshop perfect for children ages 2-4 to get creative with their older relatives.
Come on an imaginative journey to the beach! It’s a fine sunny day and the children are having fun playing in the sand. Then some unexpected visitors arrive and seem to behaving in a suspicious manner.
What is going on? Join in and explore what happens in this delightful workshop adventure by the sea.
Combining drama, story, play and props, this interactive drama workshop invites little ones and their grown-ups to enjoy imagining together. So if you’re a parent, grandparent, uncle, aunty, godparent or carer, come along with a 2 to 4 year old and join in the fun.
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Creative Music & Drama in the Classroom at The Ark
The Ark
Dates: 19 – 23 August 2019
Back for a fourth summer, The Ark are excited to present this really popular engaging arts summer course focusing on the two curriculum areas of Drama and Music.
This is a five day Department of Education and Skills and EPV-approved summer course for teachers.
Working with two outstanding creative practitioners, you will enjoy a week of experiential learning and development. Your confidence and skills in both music and drama will increase through highly participative and inspiring course content.
Using themes drawn from SPHE, English and other subjects, participants will explore a variety of imaginative approaches to integrated curriculum delivery. Teachers of all levels of experience will be able to fully engage in this rich week of professional development.
Course content and highlights will include:
Developing confidence and skills to deliver all aspects of the primary school music and drama curricula
Using music and drama to imaginatively respond to themes and concepts in other subjects
Working in teams and individually to bring themes to life through a range of creative approaches
Vocal development: both musical and dramatic voice use
Imaginative approaches to literacy and empathy, using both music and drama
Applying creative, reflective and evaluative practices used by musicians and theatre practitioners to teachers’ individual professional practices and to school self-evaluation.
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Applications are now open for the – Baboró GROW 2019 Pathways to Production Programme
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children
Deadline: 4pm, Friday 12th July 2019
Pathways to Production is an artist support programme led by Baboró, who has partnered with Druid, the Mick Lally Theatre, Branar Téatar do Phaistí, The Irish Theatre Institute (ITI) and Galway Theatre Festival, to support artists and young companies to develop their ideas with a view to presenting a full performance piece.
What GROW ‘Pathways to Production’ offers:
Space and time allowing artists to develop their ideas in a supportive environment.
Successful applicants will receive a bursary of €2,200 to further the development of their project.
Access to world-class work for children at Baboró International Arts Festival for Children, October 2019.
Opportunities to attend professional workshops and industry discussions at the Baboró Festival.
Access to venues, audiences, marketing and fundraising expertise.
Opportunities to share ideas and concepts in a safe, supportive environment.
Feedback via Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process Method – a widely-recognised method that nurtures the development of artistic works-in-progress through a facilitated dialogue between artists, peers, and audiences.
Access to support with recording your work via photography and videography
The exciting scheme involves workshops, sharing of works-in-progress with peers, as well as support in developing funding strategies. Baboró, Druid and the Mick Lally Theatre, Branar Téatar de Phaistí, The Irish Theatre Institute and Galway Theatre Festival will make our collective organisational experience and resources available to participants.
The Pathways to Production programme runs from October 2019 to October 2020.
Who is it for?
Open to all artists at any stage of their career who wish to develop work for children and young people (0-18 yrs).
Artists/companies based on the island of Ireland.
A maximum of two artists/companies will be chosen for October 2019 – October 2020 period
Deadline for submissions is 4pm, Friday 12th July 2019.
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Guest Blogger: Angie Kinsella, Irish Forest School Association – Blog No.3
The Irish Forest School Association (IFSA) was founded in 2016 and is engaged in the promotion and development of the Forest School (FS) movement in Ireland. We bring Forest School practitioners together to inspire inclusive, playful learning for all, in nature. We want to build resilience and relationships, through our connection with each other, and the natural world, while inspiring creativity and supporting wellbeing. More information can be found on our website www.irishforestschoolassociation.ie.
Angie Kinsella of Nature Way (www.naturway.ie) is a passionate Forest School leader and sustainability teacher who have a firm belief in nature pedagogy. Angie feels that connecting with nature on an experiential level and encouraging learning in the outdoors is becoming ever more important in this increasingly digital age. Angie also works for Heritage in Schools.
Creative Experiences in a year at Forest School – Blog 3
Creative experiences this year at Forest School took on a slightly different feel for me and the children. I chose to fully immerse myself into celebrating and living with and through the Celtic calendar, also known as the Celtic Wheel. The Celtic calendar is focused on the cyclical change of seasons. Seasonal changes were very important to the Celts, who depended on the Wheel of the Year to dictate when to plough, sow, harvest, and rest. The turning of the Wheel represents the continuing birth, death and rebirth of nature. I felt the integration of this ancient way of being was appropriate for how I wanted to work in Forest School this year. I felt it was a helpful tool to inspire us to re-member, re-claim and re-weave our ancient heritage and what better place to share this than within the holding of the forest.
September was the return to school for children and also the month where we begin a new cycle around the Celtic Wheel. I started a long-term Forest School programme in the West of Ireland at the beginning of September. The first few weeks we entered into the woods and the children started to get to know the lay of the land. The forest floor still had plenty of flora present and the trees were full of leaves. The days were mostly warm and bright which helps, I feel, on many levels for myself, the children and their teachers.
I was met with a huge diversity of cultures within this group of children, which was such a delight; to witness the universal language of play that softly unfolds in a natural setting with the support of the Forest School principles. I witnessed children whose language skills may have been a challenge in a classroom setting blossoming in this environment. Some of these children had never been to a forest although it was only 10 minutes away from their school.
One girl joined us each week in her wheelchair with the incredible support and encouragement of her school teachers who were determined to make Forest School all-inclusive.
She would often spend time with other students crafting, or sometimes just take time out to relax in the hammock. There was always allocated time for free play. To climb trees, build forts, whittle sticks, or simple take time to be in the forest, alone or in groups, to relax in the hammock, to enjoy the canopy of the trees.
As we moved into October, I began to share and explore through fireside stories and crafts the meaning of Samhain, more commonly known as Halloween. I shared with the children how on this land we once celebrated ‘New Year’ at this time, how we honoured our ancestors, and how it was time to prepare ourselves for the winter ahead.
We made incredible sand helters stick skeletons. We whittled wands and swords and bows and arrows. We developed our fire lighting skills. We learned about wild foods and how to prepare wild foraged teas and cook feasts on the fire. We also explored how the fauna and flora of the land are preparing themselves and responding to the changing seasons. We crafted hapa zome (eco plant printing) with autumn berries, an explosion of colour. We also made nature journals so we could take note of the changes in the woods through drawing and words.
Each week that we met I asked the children to keep a close eye out and to feel the changes they noticed. As the leaves started to change colour on the trees and drop, I could certainly sense Nature starting to drop back into the underground. As the months passed and the darkness grew, I observed a shift in all our energy.
And then through Spring and now as the wheel continues through this time of blossom where we come close to Summer solstice. I feel the calling to play more energetic games and crafts that weave in the summer flora and fauna. I have learnt and continue to grow through this creative journey in the forest, in rhythm with the Celtic Wheel.
I recently received this feedback from a teacher who attended some of these sessions with her class. “The children grew mentally, physically and emotionally. They laughed and cried and sang and screeched and splashed and pushed themselves and explored and shared and learned so much about themselves and each other.” I feel this is a wonderful summary of our time in Forest School and the possibility it offers for creative expression for children, and for adults.
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Blog 3 – Yvonne Cullivan Creative Associate for Creative Schools & Visual Artist
Blog 3 – Meaningful Actions
At this stage in the process, my role as Creative Associate on the Creative Schools programme is one of support. Here is an outline of the activities underway at each school and the decisions that informed them.
The boys at Athenry N.S. voted for the medium of construction and vocalised a desire for greater creative autonomy within activities. Staff voted to explore environmental arts and expressed an interest in professional development around the arts curriculum and cross-curriculum creativity. Both commented on the need for greater cohesion across the school community. Tom Meskell led a willow project, involving the whole school in a large-scale collaboration, with additional CPD for staff. Creative sustainability is encapsulated within the experiential process; the school sees that a whole-school project is possible and how it might work, the staff undertake a tailored exploration of creative collaboration with cross-curricular linkage, the children collectively shape a participatory experience that brings them together as a creative community, and everyone learns a new skill. The resulting work was celebrated with a magical installation at the school for Cruinniú na nÓg. 150 native tress were also planted on the school grounds.
Everyone at Eglish N.S. voted for up-skilling in Digital Media, specifically film and animation. The school has a very creative approach to curricular delivery, but the staff wished to expand on the creative confidence of everyone at the school toward greater self-expression. Again, the children vocalised a need for more creative autonomy and decision-making. Louise Manifold has been engaging the whole school in an exploratory journey of what creativity looks like, using accessible software such as green-screen and stop-motion on the school’s i-pads, and incorporating the children’s interests in movement, performance and nature. Staff are participating in customised professional development sessions that compliment the work with the children. The aspiration is to create a digital ‘guide to creativity’ informed by the children for children, which will be shared with families and peers and used by the school into the future.
Forest School Workshop by Down to Earth at Galway Educate Together National School
A programme of activities around food and nature, considering sustainability, regeneration and wellbeing, and involving talks, events, workshops and screenings, is in flow at Galway Educate Together N.S. The children voted overwhelmingly for cooking; a category that a voluntary children’s panel added to my long list of creative media. The staff showed a preference for nature-based activities. There was a shared desire to interact with external partners and off-site activities and an overall ambition to recognise, celebrate and communicate creative activities within the school and across the school community. The fifteen classes are each engaging in specialised workshops and choosing from an additional menu of activities around the expanded theme. Examples include foraging, farm walks, herbal tincture making, pollinator workshops, documentary screenings, wildflower sewing and forest school activities. The consultation process and this devised programme are also providing valuable research for an upcoming Per Cent for Art project for the school.
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Blog 2 – Liz Coman, Assistant Arts Officer Dublin City Council & VTS Facilitator
Stepping Back – Erasmus+ Permission to Wonder in a Post Primary School Art Room
A conversation with Anne Moylan, Art Teacher, Hartstown Community School, Clonsilla, Dubln15.
My experience with VTS has taught me that supporting authentic VTS practice, for our educators, our students, and myself is not a linear process. It thrives on a spirit of collaboration, time, and some resources to access training and share understandings of the method.
In 2016, Dublin City Arts Office piloted a partnership approach with the NCCA to test the VTS training pathway with a group of Irish educators from different backgrounds – professional educators who are from early years settings; primary school classroom teachers; secondary school (art) teachers; art educators (freelance museum and gallery educators, including teaching artists). It supported professional educators to train in Visual Thinking Strategies via Beginners and Advanced Practicums, with VTS/USA Programme Director, Yoon Kang O’Higgins. Erasmus+ Permission to Wonder extended this approach to six European partners, allowing us to deepen our understanding of the educators’ VTS practice journey through a research evaluation framework led by our partners, VTS Nederland. The intended impact is that, through supporting educators, children and young people will have access to opportunities for critical thinking & thoughtful citizenship; will be actively encouraged to trust their own perceptions and be open to the thoughts of others; will feel their observations are valued and valuable when dealing with visual expression.
Change has been apace in secondary school curriculum re-design in Ireland in recent years. The ‘new’ Junior Cycle places an emphasis on students’ holistic development, linking subject areas, and turning a titanic history of ‘information giving’ towards scaffolding students’ life skills to equip them for a rapidly changing technological and global world. This is a welcome change, and long awaited by us in the field that bridges arts, education and learning. It also invites challenging questions. I wonder what really happens in the classroom when we ‘step back’ and support our students to take the lead? In my conversation with Anne Moylan, a secondary school art teacher, and educator participating in Permission to Wonder, we discuss how her training in VTS has supported a shift in her teaching practice and heightened her awareness of the value of “stepping-back” for her students.
How does VTS inform your teaching practice?
For me, the method is very much about stepping back. It has definitely simplified down the process of looking at a painting, an object, a sculpture, piece of assemblage, for the first time. To ask the question – what is going on in this work? – and then to actually hear what the students can see and what they are thinking about it. You always come with your own knowledge but in a VTS image discussion you have to step back out of that. It is about allowing them to take you on any sort of a journey with their observations.
It is surprising when they point out something that you haven’t thought about or know already. You have to be prepared to go with the flow and therefore, your role completely changes with your students. You can make connections, bridge comments and themes, always developing the journey of their observation of the artwork. At the beginning, I found this difficult. Sometimes, as teenagers, you will find they are quiet or are afraid they are going to make a mistake. That really gets easier with experience and practice as the students get used to the process over time.
We are not looking at images on the art history course. These are images from the VTS/USA website or the Permission to Wonder project, chosen specifically for use in a VTS image discussion. They are images that I am not familiar with myself. So, I am out of my comfort zone. I find this invigorating.
*Permission to Wonder partners are building and testing a European based image bank specifically for use within the project by the educators. This will be available shortly on the project website www.permissiontowonder.com. Other images we have practiced with are drawn from the VTS/USA image curriculum for specific age groups available on https://vtshome.org/
What have you noticed happening for your students in a VTS image discussion?
Often, in a VTS session, you will find that students, who are very quiet usually, will begin to have a lot to say about a work. Some of these students would never talk, even in a practical art class. Then you show them an image, something will strike them in that image, and they really want to let you know what they see in it.
I have a number of students whose first language is not English. They have difficulty trying to say what they are looking at in their second language. Yet VTS gives them the space to do this. The atmosphere is very calm. That is the shift for me. Instead of giving them facts, dates and information about artwork, you are waiting to find out what they want to say about it, first and foremost.
With VTS, you really are connecting with their world. VTS allows the space for their world to connect with an artwork and indeed with me, as somebody from a different generation. You just see into their minds. Therefore, you could show them an image and the theme of mental health or family issues might come through from them. Of course you have to be careful and manage the discussion, not to flinch or be surprised. You might be flummoxed by what might come out of them. So holding your neutrality, and keeping the space safe for students, is important. VTS training helps you learn to do this effectively. You sometimes think they might be talking about their own lives, and yet they are not, they are talking about an artwork.
Your role becomes very much the facilitator of the discussion. Often I would have students, saying to me ‘When can we do this again?
Have you practiced VTS with images that are on the art history course?
Yes, for example, with Jan Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Wedding. When you ask the first question – what is going on in this work?- you get “I know all about this, we studied this in religion / we studied this in history”. This is an image that is a little bit recognisable to them. They are able to share what they have been taught. However, when you manage the discussion with conditional paraphrasing and ‘What more can we find?’ it deepens their engagement with the work. Even though they think they know as much as there is to know about it, it refocuses their attention back on the image. It deepens their concentration and gets their eyes back on the key elements of the picture.
As part of teaching art history, I take the opportunity to bring the students into galleries in Dublin. The guides tend to lead the tour with one voice- the guides voice. As an art teacher, I just want them to know you can walk into a gallery in any city, you do not have to pay, you can go in, see two pieces, and go back out again. With VTS and the three questions, it is a framework for them to use for looking at artwork, no matter where they are or what artwork they are looking at.
Can you recall a favourite VTS image discussion?
I have used VTS with all the year groups. However, I particularly remember a VTS discussion with a group of sixth years, at the end of the year, in May. We were finished the practical side of the preparation for the exam. With sixth years, you do not want to make anybody have to speak. It is fine if they don’t want to say anything. However, in this session, there was one boy from China. He had so much to say about a particular image. He related it back to his own country. It was a painting, with a bright yellow palette and all the children depicted had these red neckerchiefs. The Irish children read them as the scouts, or being members of a group, or a club. This boy went in a completely different direction. He described that this is what it is like in China, in school. He talked about his own experience. He spoke for a few minutes and got a round of applause from the other students. A girl in the group said to him ‘in all the years that you have been in the school, that is the most, I’ve ever heard you say’. So that is the kind of profound experience I remember coming from my VTS image discussions.
How do you think VTS complements the Junior Cycle art curriculum?
In the new junior cycle art curriculum, student voice is very important. It means stepping back and letting the student do the work, lead their learning process. This does not mean that your job is easier. Within the structure of classroom-based assessment, a lot of reflecting, verbalizing and building the visual vocabulary for teachers and the students, is required. The change is that you are putting the ownership for their learning and describing their learning process back on the student. Therefore, you need to facilitate the classroom environment more in order to achieve that.
What we are all nervous about is that it this is difficult to assess. For students and parents it is difficult to understand this change in emphasis. I gave my students a VTS image discussion as a piece of homework to try out with their parents. They took the framework and used it to look at any artwork or any piece of visual information with their family. The students were surprised with their parent’s observations and the conversations about the art work at home. I use it with my own family and it works very well!
How did Erasmus+ Permission to Wonder help you develop your VTS practice?
I really value that I have been involved in Permission to Wonder. As an art teacher in a school, you might be the only art teacher. You could be on your own, in your creative world. You are so busy day to day with project work. It is amazing to step out of it with VTS and to have an opportunity to meet other educators-to look at artwork with them using a different format. It is really quite enlightening and refreshing. There are four of us educators from Dublin and we are all coming from completely different backgrounds – gallery, artist, primary school and secondary school. Being involved in our own Irish group was brilliant. We helped each other to explore our own context and look at theirs. I really enjoyed the collaboration and it was invigorating to explore art with others.
The training practicums were very well paced out. In the Beginners Practicum, you had the three questions. But you have to get them right, and in the right order, remember the exact wording, and that was tricky for me in the beginning. It was also a challenge to learn to paraphrase accurately. That requires a lot of skill. In the Advanced Practicum, I loved learning about linking and framing comments. How you, as facilitator, can connect comments and really build the learning in the group. I enjoyed the training and understand that it is also up to me to support my own practice and keep motivated in using VTS.
What would you like to work on next in your VTS practice?
I did a VTS session with a society and politics class. None of these students were art students. We looked at images I selected specifically looking at politics and society – race, childhood issues, gender etc. VTS worked so well in this class. Students had so much to say and the images stimulated insightful conversations. I am interested in how VTS could be used in other subject areas and how I might help other teachers integrate VTS into their subjects in our school.
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Early Years Seedlings Workshops at The Ark: The King’s Beautiful Garden
In this workshop, little ones will meet a king who loves spending time in his gorgeous garden surrounded by flowers, bees and butterflies.
One day he learns that other kings have wardrobes full of shiny cloaks and crowns so he buys himself a new cloak, and another, and another. Soon he has lots of dazzling cloaks of many colours but what about the garden? He has no money left to pay the gardeners and the garden is overgrown, the flowers are dying and the bees have gone.
Maybe you can make the King see sense and save his garden before it’s too late!
Combining drama, story, play and props, this interactive drama workshop invites little ones and their grown-ups to enjoy imagining together.
Dates & Times
Friday 5 July at 10.15am & 2pm
Saturday 6 July at 10.15am & 11.45am
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Teachers Summer Course at The Ark ‘A Visual Arts Approach in the Classroom’
The Ark
Dates: 12 – 16 August 2019
The Ark, Dublin are delighted to be presenting this course for the fifth year in a row. This hands-on, creative course focuses on a visual arts approach to exploring narrative, literacy & other subjects.
This is a five day Department of Education and Skills and EPV-approved summer course for teachers.
The aim of the course is to enable participants to start the new school year with an enhanced tool box of skills and knowledge, in order to effectively deliver the visual arts curriculum in the classroom. Participants will be engaged ‘hands-on’ throughout this course so learning will be through doing. Working in teams and individually, you will cover a range of curriculum strands including drawing, painting, print, 3D construction, fabric and fibre.
A strong emphasis will be on building skills and confidence. The group will also explore how visual art can be used to engage with aspects of the English, SPHE, History and Maths curriculum, as well as to promote visual literacy approaches. School self-evaluation exercises will be incorporated as an integral part of the course.
This course will appeal to teachers of all levels of experience and will be facilitated by the visual arts and education specialist and founder of Art to Heart, Jole Bortoli. This is a continuing professional development opportunity not to be missed!
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Opportunity: Join the National Gallery of Ireland’s Teacher Network
National Gallery of Ireland
Deadline Date: 12th July 2019
The National Gallery of Ireland this year are developing new resources and outreach programming, taking the Gallery off-site to schools across the country that may find it difficult to travel to Dublin. To help shape this programme, the Gallery will be forming a national network of teachers who will guide their research, planning and evaluation.
The Gallery are looking for teachers from across the country to be part of this network. They want the network to be as inclusive as possible, with every county represented, and a good mix of rural and urban, and primary, post-primary and special schools.
The network will primarily exist online, but each year we will hold programme-development workshops at the Gallery, where participants will help co-produce new programming. The Gallery also hope that members will host local events, helping to share learning and resources with their peers.
Fiona Lawton has been teaching secondary students in Scoil Bernadette Special School for the last ten years. She graduated with a Masters in Drama and Theatre Studies in UCC in 1999. During that period Fiona has been involved in writing, directing, acting and producing plays around Cork. In 2005 she played the part of the Magistrate in the award winning film ‘The Wind that Shakes the Barley’. In 2008 Fiona returned to UCC to complete a Postgraduate Diploma in Guidance and Counselling and subsequently in 2013 completed the Higher Diploma in Primary Education with Hibernia College. In school Fiona teaches a variety of subjects but has a passion for drama. Each year she works with a group of LCA students to devise, produce and perform a play. Fiona strongly believes in the importance of educating through the arts where creativity and collaboration are central to the learning process.
Creative Schools: Celebration Time – Blog 4
As the end of the school year approaches we have been looking forward to celebrating all our creative work that we have engaged in throughout the year.
On the 31st May all students in Scoil Bernadette participated in our Creative Schools Celebration Day. All students arrived in the hall to participate in eight different creative stations in small groups. There was a doodle corner, a lego station, a dance station, jenga, hook a duck, incredibox and a card making station. Everyone got a chance to try out each station to create, dance and play! A lot of fun was had and we all enjoyed ourselves.
In the afternoon, we all assembled in the hall to see some creative performances. In our school this year, our first years participated in the Music Mash Up programme where they learned to play different instruments and sing in a band. Music Mash up provides access for young people of all abilities to music in a fun, relaxed and inclusive way. This project was facilitated by Eamonn Nash. For more information see musicmashup.ie/about. We were lucky to see two performances by this group.
Our next performance we saw a dance piece that a selection of students from throughout the school were involved in. These students have been attending dance workshops every Thursday in the school with dance artist Lisa Cahill. The dance piece was part of the international movement of Global Water Dances. More information can be found on the website globalwaterdances.org/It was clear that the students had put in a lot of work and practice into their performance and it was a pleasure to see them express themselves so creatively.
We then saw a dramatic re-enactment of Johnny Cash’s song ‘A Boy Named Sue’ by the LCA 2 class. The group devised and performed the piece themselves. The play was entertaining and funny and the audience really enjoyed it.
Our main focus this year as a Creative School was to offer students additional Visual Arts Workshops for students across the school. These workshops culminated in a friendship tree which is proudly displayed outside our school. Each student coloured and drew on a series of discs which formed part of this collaborative picture. To conclude our Celebration Day we watched a photo story which documented these workshops. We saw the process of the work which involved a lot of teamwork and collaboration. These workshops were facilitated by Rosaleen Moore and Ailbhe Barrett, and led by Mairead O’Callaghan of Crawford Supported Studios. For more information see crawford.cit.ie/supported-studio-project-with-gasp-and-c_ig-artists/.
All of the participating students received a certificate from the principal for their role in the Creative Schools project this year.
This year we have developed existing relationships and also we have made new links and friendships with a lot of artists and organisations outside of our school. We were privileged to have all the artists who have worked with our school this year as guests on our Celebration Day.
The Creative Schools Project has ended for this year but creativity continues in Scoil Bernadette. Towards the end of the June we will be running an X Factor Competition where all students will again be taking to the stage to sing and dance. We are looking forward already to next year when we can get planning for our next Creative School project. Students already have an abundance of ideas of what they would like to do. We are delighted that we took part in the Creative Schools project this year and are proud of our participation and achievements.
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Job Opportunity: Music Generation Development Officer, South Dublin (Maternity Cover)
Music Generation
Deadline: Thursday, 20 June 2019
South Dublin County Council (SDCC) is now inviting applications for the position of Music Generation Development Officer.
A Music Generation Development Officer will be appointed by SDCC and will be responsible for managing an extensive performance music education programme on behalf of South Dublin Local Music Education Partnership. Music Generation South Dublin is part of Music Generation – Ireland’s National Music Education Programme, which is co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education and Skills and Local Music Education Partnerships.
Specific Purpose Contract (Maternity Cover) (Salary range: €46,771 – €57,157 per annum)
Application form, job description and person specification available online at – www.sdcc.ie
Closing date for receipt of completed application forms: Thursday, 20 June 2019
Late applications will not be accepted.
Based on the volume of applications received short-listing may apply. Short-listing will take place on the basis of the information provided in the application form. Depending on the qualifications and experience of applicants, short-listing thresholds may be significantly higher than the minimum standards set out. SDCC is an equal opportunities employer.
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Blog 2 – Sinéad Ní Bhrádaigh Creative Schools Coordinator and Teacher
Getting the Show on the Road
This second part of the process, putting together a programme of events on our theme of Food, Cooking and Nature, is a really exciting and energising process. It felt like it took such a long time to get to the point of settling on a theme that reflected the needs and wants of the children, their parents, and school staff. There was so much to choose from, the net was very wide. When we finally settled on the theme, it was really exciting to be able to brainstorm and come up with ideas that would reflect the needs of the school community in a programme of activities.
Yvonne had been busy behind the scenes putting the feelers out and getting in touch with artists and professionals working in these circles. All of the professionals that Yvonne contacted were very enthusiastic about participating in the Creative Schools Programme and delighted to link in with our primary school in a sustainable way. We have now arranged for every class level to have a workshop/trip off site, which could only have been achieved as a result of the funding we received as part of this process. We are very grateful to have had access to this funding and it’s a wonderful asset to have for our second year programme as well. Through these workshops the children will be bug hunting, foraging in our local woods, making tinctures, becoming Bee Aware and making our school grounds pollinator friendly, visiting an Organic Farm and a workshop with Yvonne on some short films she made around the butter making process.
Our Creative Schools panel of teachers and children also brainstormed together and came up with a “Menu of Activities” (pardon the pun!) that every classroom can engage with over the next few weeks. These activities range from Science experiments with food items, setting classroom up as a restaurant and having a healthy shared lunch; inviting parents in to classroom to bake with the children or to share their skills, screenings of food related programmes and documentaries. We are hoping to document the activities that the children are engaging in over the next couple of weeks so that we can celebrate this creativity when we come back after the summer holidays. It’s going to be an action packed few weeks and we are looking forward to it immensely!
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Guest Blogger: Lucy Elvis Director of Curo & Visual Arts Curator – Blog No. 2
Lucy Elvis is a director of CURO, a not-for-profit organisation committed to public philosophy. CURO helps communities think together more effectively by inviting them to become Communities of Philosophical Inquiry. CURO works in schools, libraries, galleries and festivals as well as organising clubs and camps that include scholarship streams for children from less privileged socio-economic backgrounds. They like to get people thinking in places where they least expect it and to listen to the ‘big ideas’ that matter to groups who often aren’t given a voice.
When Lucy isn’t engaged in public philosophy, she is completing her PhD thesis and lecturing in Philosophy at NUI Galway. She is also an independent visual art curator and a board member of the TULCA Festival of Visual Art.
Talking about thinking and thinking about Talking – Blog 2
Sometimes, our young philosophers’ work can appear deceptively low tech. Walk in on a CPI (a community of philosophical inquiry) and you’ll find children sitting in a circle, some speaking, some listening and sometimes a cuddly toy, or a ball being used to indicate who should be talking. But, in these seemingly straight-forward talking shops, mind-bending ideas are explained, exchanged, and even worlds reimagined.
So far, so not-so-different from ‘circle time,’ right? However, there’s much more happening in philosophical dialogue than ‘talking.’ Unlike conversation, where I might share some news, and then hear from someone else, content in the CPI is anchored in a philosophical question (a ‘big’ ‘tricky’ ‘contestable’ and ‘open’ question) that the community have voted on together. In the CPI our learners are trying to solve ‘big problems’ together. This requires careful critical thinking before making a contribution. In answering big questions like ‘Should we always be punished for stealing?’ I have to decide my overall position (yes/no) and the reason why I think so.
If the only goal of a CPI were sharing opinions, then the result would be a straight-forward debate. But, undertaking philosophical inquiry together, means finding the best possible answer we can to our ‘big question’- a tally of yesses and nos won’t cut it. We will have to test the consequences of any overall position we adopt, and this might mean imagining scenarios, (‘what about stealing something small from your sister?) adjusting them, (‘what about stealing something back?) or clarifying what you mean by using analogies to point at similarities and differences (‘stealing something back is like creating fairness.’*)
The creativity described here needs critical thinking too, to support the new possibilities it imagines, and to create boundaries for creative thinking to ‘go-beyond.’ Because of the ways being critical and creative work together, the CPI allows our young learners to see how thinking from radically different areas of the curriculum work together, and how, scientific discovery and creative expression are both united by care and curiosity that powers our passion to ‘find out more.’
The CPI is a place for talking through, exploring and building possible answers together. Making thinking about concepts or big questions’ share-able’ can be a challenge, and demands creativity, and a rethinking of what ‘being creative’ can be, if we can move from just sharing ideas to making and revising them together.
*The examples here are based on a workshop with Ballyroan National School, at Ballyroan Library, who asked the question: ‘Should we be punished for stealing’ after they read ‘The Whopper’ by Rebecca Ashdowne together.
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Blog 1 – Liz Coman, Assistant Arts Officer Dublin City Council & VTS Facilitator
Setting the Scene for Erasmus+ Permission to Wonder
My first encounter with Visual Thinking Strategies was at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) in 2001. I was on a public tour of the collection and the guide stood us in front of an artwork by Jackson Pollock and said ‘What is going on in this picture?’. I was challenged by the question. I was also surprised by the long, silent pause that followed it! The group discussion began slowly. All opinions offered by the group were considered by the guide, validated and acknowledged as a valuable contribution to the meaning of the work. But in truth, I was disappointed that the guide did not offer any explanation about history of the artwork. Being a graduate of history of art, I had visited a lot of museums and always enjoyed the experience of being told information and stories about the artwork and the life of the artist. The Pollock work was figurative, with references to native American iconography. I wanted to be told the ‘right answer’ about its intended meaning.
Soon after, I began an internship with SFMOMA and discovered that the discussion-based approach used on public tours was called VTS – Visual Thinking Strategies. I began to think more about visual learning and constructivist pedagogy. I was introduced to the basics of VTS facilitation – three questions – what’s going on in this picture? – what do you see that makes you say that? – what more can we find? – backed up with carefully considered paraphrasing on the part of the facilitator. I then did a piece of action-research with a group of adult learners with literacy difficulties from San Francisco Public Library which deepened my understanding of the role of the art museum as an active learning space which could harness rich opportunities for literacy/language development.
Visual Thinking Strategies is a teaching framework and a practice. It was devised in the late 1980s by Philip Yenawine, art educator and Abigail Housen, cognitive psychologist. At the time, Yenawine was Director of Education at The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City and was primarily concerned with making museum education programmes more effective. Yenawine and Housen’s research found that most viewers participating in museum programmes (specifically MOMA’s education programmes) were novice viewers, meaning that they had little experience looking at art, and their interpretations were relatively naïve.
VTS is based on three questions that aim to support novice viewers become more observant and more thoughtful about what they are looking at. This approach seems deceptively simple. However, with regular practice and when implemented effectively with a group, by a trained VTS facilitator, the (educational) outcomes are strong. Participants learn to acknowledge that every idea is important as they concentrate on justifying their idea with physical elements present in the work they are observing. This improves observation skills and builds confidence in understanding works of art, giving participants a sense of ownership and empowerment over their opinions about art. VTS involves no art-historical information and it does not require that the VTS facilitator have the answers to questions that arise in the course of discussion. However, it does require educators to accept that they are not teaching aboutart. Rather they are facilitating critical debate and thinking about art and indeed the bigger themes that emerge from an artworks’ powerful mirroring of the world. I have learned from my own training with VTS/USA, that while VTS is a valuable method in my arts in education toolkit, my VTS practice requires consistency and reflection to genuinely support students’ thinking, learning and aesthetic growth.
While art museums are increasingly more open to audience centred approaches in mediating art, historically, this has not always been the case. French sociologist, Pierre Bordieu, went so far as to claim that the “true function” of the art museum was to “reinforce for some the feeling of belonging and for others the feeling of exclusion” and his research highlighted a public perception of art institutions as a type of holy shrine for artwork to be admired but not necessarily understood. [i] The opposite is the agenda for the durational work with VTS at Dublin City Council’s LAB Gallery. As a contemporary art space for experimentation and risk taking in the visual arts in Dublin, The LAB Gallery has played a critical role in giving professional development, time and space for contemporary art, educators and local children in Dublin 1 to collaborate in a shared investigation of VTS. Sheena Barrett, the LAB’s Curator, highlights the importance of VTS in providing a safe space to practice discussions that support our capacity to ‘wonder’ as opposed to moving too quickly to judgement about an artwork and/or complex social issue.
Artist Claire Halpin, Art Teacher Kieran Gallagher and Liz Coman at the MACA Contemporary Art Museum Alicante
Erasmus+ Permission to Wonder aims to widen the network of VTS peers through training and sharing learning. The project focuses on supporting ‘educators’ to develop a Visual Thinking Strategies practice over time. Over the course of this blog series, I hope to introduce you to the Irish educators who participated in Permission to Wonder. Kieran Gallagher is a secondary school art teacher based in St Oliver’s Community College, Drogheda and is a member of the visual arts Junior Cycle training team. Claire Halpin, is a professional artist and art educator and is the co-ordinator of the VTS Neighbourhood Schools Programme led by Central Model Senior School. Anne Moylan is a secondary school art teacher based in Hartstown Community College, Dublin 15. Jane Malone is a primary school teacher based in St Catherine’s National School, Donore Avenue, Dublin 8. Sile McNulty Goodwin is Education Curator at Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane. Kathryn Maguire is a professional artist and art educator.
Assistant Arts Officer Liz Coman, Teacher Anne Moylan, Education Curator Sile McNulty , Teacher Jane Malone and Artist Kathryn Maguire in the David Museum, Copenhagen
[i] As quoted in Stephen E. Weil, Esq, “On a New Foundation: The American Art Museum Reconceived,” in A Cabinet of Curiosities: Inquiries into Museums and Their Prospects (Washington, D.C. : Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995), 106.
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Blog 2 – Yvonne Cullivan Creative Associate for Creative Schools & Visual Artist
Blog 2 – Collate and Prioritise
I collected a lot of information from the schools I have been working with as part of my role as Creative Associate on the Creative Schools Programme; written notes, visuals, statistics, survey information. The biggest school (Galway Educate Together on Newcastle Road) has over 500 pupils and 50 staff. Regardless of the size of the school, everyone was asked for their opinions. This took time and investment from myself, the coordinators, staff, voluntary Children’s Creativity Panels and, at G.E.T.N.S., a voluntary Staff Creativity Panel. Questions were asked such as: What are the challenges to being creative in the classroom? What are the opportunities for this Creative Schools Programme? If you were the principle of this school and had money to spend, what creative things would you spend it on? Age-appropriate surveys were completed with in-depth questions regarding the level of engagement with creativity in the classroom, staff planning, allocation of funding, parental awareness of creative activities etc. There were votes, by all parties, in relation to areas of interest and creative media to explore. Everywhere I went I brought colored sharpies and hundreds of colored post-its, blue-tack and masking tape, large sheets of paper and visual aids. The workshops were active and inclusive and very enjoyable.
I then worked through the valuable information, stored on sheets and post-its or documented through photographs, in the same way that I would with research for any project; by laying it all out and finding the overlaps and patterns within it. I moved post-its around, joined them with arrows and written notes. Through this process of collating and prioritising (staff were involved to a certain extent during workshops), I produced a visual mind-map for each school. I returned to present the findings and discuss suggestions as to how we might address the prioritised information. My hope in each case was to find a way to marry the medium / media of choice with a methodology through which prioritised learning could be imparted and to also encompass the larger contexts, aims and ambitions, outlined by each school. Context, method, medium, not necessarily in that order, are the three strands that merge to inform and form my own artistic practice and individual projects and are the main elements of my teaching methodology.
There followed a consultative process involving staff, staff panels, children and children’s panels, through which my suggestions were padded and shaped collectively. In each case we made decisions on ‘projects’. These projects have a beginning, middle and end, however they are not stand-alone. Rather, they have been devised as a way to carry experiential learning on a number of levels and to keep this learning open so that it can be expanded upon. They have also been devised in collaboration with specific artists; the ‘who’ is as important as the ‘how’ and the ‘why’. In each case I approached particular people and engaged them in conversations, alone and then with the schools, to further shape what might happen. We are now at that wonderful point where the work is starting to unfold.
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Guest Blogger: Frank Monahan Architect & Cultural Producer – Blog No. 2
Frank is an Irish-born designer /cultural producer with an interest in film, architecture & the arts, design and technology. An honors graduate in Production Design for Film, TV and theatre, he spent the best part of a decade in this sector. Coming from a film and set design background, he has always been passionate about the power of buildings and spaces to tell stories and he developed this interest further when he later moved into interior and architectural design work setting up practice in London in 2001. This experience led to a decision to study architecture at London Metropolitan University where he was awarded an BA Honors’ Architecture in 2008 and a Professional Diploma in Architecture 2012.
His professional practice includes the design of buildings & set design for film and television production. This has informed his approach to practice, which is collaborative, interdisciplinary and site-specific. With a long term interest in the critical potential of design he established the Architecture at the Edge Festival in 2017, for which he devised and developed the events programme through all stages: planning, development and administration, including the curation and production of an annual symposium on Placemaking & associated workshops. He recently produced an outdoor built installation, ‘Ghost Chapel’ for Galway International Arts Festival 2018 in collaboration with Bartlett School of Architecture.
Cities Need Old Buildings – Blog 2
‘Cities need old buildings so badly it is probably impossible for vigorous streets and districts to grow without them…. for really new ideas of any kind—no matter how ultimately profitable or otherwise successful some of them might prove to be—there is no leeway for such chancy trial, error and experimentation in the high-overhead economy of new construction. Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.’
From; The Death and Life of Great American Cities , Jane Jacobs
In my last blog I described how we extended the Irish Architecture Foundation (IAF) – Architects in Schools learning programme at The Bish into engagement beyond the school gate. Incorporating urban sketching on Nuns Island and other activities within the workshop itinerary in an attempt to encourage and allow the students an opportunity to examine their city from another perspective … to be creative. To be imaginative.
With the school located on part of the under-utilized parcel of land at the edge of Galway City center, the regeneration of Nuns Island lands need careful and detailed consideration it being directly between the City and NUI Galway it easily facilitates an expansion of the University campus or an expansion of the City creating a civic space to carefully bring both City and University together. NUI Galway and Galway City Council recently launched a public consultation for this very purpose. The aim here is to transform Nuns’ Island into a new quarter that will enable the city to capitalize on its creativity, enterprise and quality of life. The masterplan is being prepared by internationally-renowned planners BDP, business strategy advisors Colliers International and quantity surveyors AECOM. It is supported by the Government’s Urban Regeneration Development Fund. Focusing on this regeneration of Nuns Island we were delighted that Gareth McGuire, Architect Director BDP agreed to lead the students on a mapping exercise.
So we took a walk through their Island, mapping the existing spaces and their functions, recording the grain of the place and also seeking out opportunities for future interventions.
Amongst the key programmatic functions identified by the students in this process a number of themes evolved;
The adaptive reuse potential for abandoned or ‘forgotten ‘ spaces – such as vacant former industrial buildings now in ownership of the NUI Galway.
The Island as a Place of Sanctuary in the middle of the city – the Island being the location of the Cathedral, the former Bish School Monastery and Poor Clare Nuns Convent.
An Urban Garden – utilizing the natural elements at the island location i.e. the surrounding canal / river waterways and incorporating open green spaces such as the Fisheries Field.
Amongst these functions one of the activities identified by the students is the sight every July of the Big Blue Tent at Fisheries Field, erected for the duration of GIAF Arts Festival. It’s a signifier of the festival status which is core to the public life of the city and a landmark for the summer. We discussed with the students about this ‘creative arts entertainment’ intervention and the potential for other spaces on the island, such as the old derelict Persse’s Distillery Building for adaptive reuse purposes. What might those buildings and spaces become? Student accommodation? With the meeting of ‘Town and Gown’ perhaps a shared library building for the city would be useful? Or a new Distillery? A Contemporary Art Gallery? Co-working spaces to foster a creative community? The students could quite readily foresee that in the creative use of these spaces lies the key to regeneration for the entire masterplan.
GIAF Big Top
During the process I was reminded of a famous line from the late great urbanist Jane Jacobs: “New ideas must use old buildings.” So how to interpret and translate that into a way which might allow the students to engage directly in the process of reimaging Nuns Island?
Attending the Galway International Arts Festival 2019 programme launch last Thursday, the Artistic Director Paul Fahy, referred to the lack of cultural infrastructure in the city, reaffirming the festivals need to ‘Adapt old spaces and turn them into something new … ’he announced that as in previous years having utilized the former Connacht Tribune Printworks for the Festival Gallery, and this now being is no longer available, (again its being repurposed but now as an indoor food market), GIAF is out of necessity appropriating and re-adapting the old GPO Sorting Office for the Festival Gallery 2019. Situated just off William street this building is just one other city center site which has lain vacant and idle for many years. Out of sight and just screaming for rejuvenation!!
The GIAF festival have always been the cultural pioneers in this city whom out of necessity occupy overlooked and abandoned spaces and transform them into vibrant active places. They understood that a former printing works, or an GPO sorting office can accommodate exactly the kind of framework needed for a creative hub /district. Both examples demonstrate a pragmatic response, creating flexible public buildings that give scope for further development. That kind of loose-fit re-apportion of space does not dictate how it should be used, the potential for revival is already there in the infrastructure and Galway has the cultural riches to attract people in the first place. It’s a matter of turning it to the right purpose. To look at the seeming familiar from another perspective …
As Architects we are often challenged to respond to these kinds of circumstances by conceiving new ideas for the design or re-design of existing spaces. In this process architects can become both activist and educator, championing the cause and helping to galvanize the support of the local community.
This was the approach taken with the students at the Bish. Bringing the class out into the town to explore and experience spaces and familiar places on their door step. To invite them to contribute and make decisions on what buildings or spaces they would like to create in their own local area. You could sense the excitement among the student participants in engaging as stakeholders themselves in that process which shapes their environment, in opening up new ways of looking and engaging with the world, and just perhaps pathways to creative careers as master planners or cultural pioneers for a few.
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Art in the Primary School Making and Appreciation Skills – CPD for Primary School Teachers
National Gallery of Ireland
Date: 1 July – 5 July 2019
This CPD course offers a unique opportunity for primary school teachers to expand their artistic skill set in a national cultural institution.
Join facilitators Claire Hall and Sinéad Hall for this National Gallery of Ireland CPD course comprising a series of presentations focusing on the six strands of the primary school visual arts curriculum, followed by workshops in drawing, painting, print, fabric and fibre, construction and clay. The sessions will involve hands-on, practical activities, and lessons that can be used at all class levels, with direct references to related works of art in the Gallery’s collection.
The course will cover all strands and strand units of the visual arts curriculum; the elements of art; linkage and integration across the curriculum; and assessment and self-evaluation. The course will also focus on the centrality of looking and responding and process throughout the strands. Course attendees will participate in tours of the Gallery’s current exhibitions, and some workshops may take place in gallery rooms.
All attendees will receive an information pack detailing all that the Gallery has to offer primary schools. Produced by the National Gallery’s Education Department, the information pack will include advice on visiting galleries and cultural institutions with students; suggestions on how to introduce primary school children to art and art history; and details on how to access online resources.
The course fee covers all materials, handouts, equipment and supplies. All art work completed during the course may be photographed and/or taken home at the end of the course as a reference for classroom use.
Dates and time: Monday, 1 July – Friday, 5 July | 9.30 am – 2pm Course Fee: €90.00 Max. number of participants: 25 Suitable for: Primary school teachers
For information and to book, please email: sineaddehal@gmail.com | claire.hall3838@gmail.com
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Guest Blogger: Kerry Walker, Irish Forest School Association – Blog No.2
The Irish Forest School Association (IFSA) was founded in 2016 and is engaged in the promotion and development of the Forest School (FS) movement in Ireland. We bring Forest School practitioners together to inspire inclusive, playful learning for all, in nature. We want to build resilience and relationships, through our connection with each other, and the natural world, while inspiring creativity and supporting wellbeing. More information can be found on our website www.irishforestschoolassociation.ie.
In this second blog post, Kerry Walker talks about how the Forest School principles can be used to unlock creative potential in children (and adults!)
Kerry Walker is a passionate Forest School Practitioner and Art Therapist. Her appreciation for nature and art has brought her on creative journeys around the world. She has facilitated creative arts programmes with a focus on using art and nature as a tool for integration, connection and awareness. Kerry is the co-founder of Down to Earth Forest School, a nature based educational programme where children are supported to learn and create through nature. (www.downtoearthforestschool.com)
Unlocking Creativity through the Forest School Principles – Blog 2
The wider the range of possibilities we offer children, the more intense will be their motivations and the richer their experiences. – Loris Malaguzzi
The Irish Forest School Association follows six guiding principles set out by the Forest School Association in the UK in 2011. These principles form the foundation that gives the learner the freedom to choose how they approach challenges and activities in natural spaces. Forest School, based on these principles, creates a space to encourage and support us to think critically and creatively. I am going to look at each of the principles and highlight how they are key to unlocking and supporting the creative development of children, as well as promoting resilient and independent learners.
In short, Forest School:
takes place in a woodland setting
is a long term process of regular sessions
creates a community for learning and development
promotes holistic development
provides the opportunity to take risks
is run by qualified FS practitioners
By using a woodland setting for Forest School sessions, we are providing an open-ended natural environment for the children to explore. The Forest School setting is abundant with sticks, leaves, soil, stones, and many more natural objects. They are materials that can be carried, moved, combined and redesigned – they are what Simon Nicholson (1971) referred to as loose parts. He proposed that access to loose parts encourages children’s creativity and provides a greater range of opportunities (Nicholson, 1971).The woodland setting is also providing the learner with continuous access to the natural environment where they are able to immerse themselves in the creative stimulation that nature so freely provides.
Ensuring that Forest School is a long term process of regular sessions is an important factor. As the sessions are continuous, the children are given time to return to their woodland site on a weekly basis throughout the seasons. With this time, they are afforded the opportunity to work on a certain craft or skill at their pace, and develop and share their own ideas. They are not rushed or told to have a final product; they get to experience the process of creating something over time.
By using a range of learner-centred processes, Forest School aims to create a community for development and learning.It provides a platform for all learning preferences. Play and choice are an integral part of the Forest School learning process, and play is recognised as vital to learning and development at Forest School (FSA, 2011). Child-led play is central to Forest School and play facilitates a creative response in us all.
Promoting holistic development and opportunities for supported risk taking are considered central to Forest School and also to enhancing creativity. Forest School aims to develop, where appropriate, the physical, social, cognitive, linguistic, emotional, social and spiritual aspects of the learner (FSA, 2011). It encourages children to lead activities, it can help improve fine motor skills, promotes self-awareness and gives the child ownership of the sessions. Forest School encourages children to step out of their comfort zone. In doing so, the children are able to become more aware of their physical and mental limits and are more able to assess situations. They are supported to think creatively and to trust themselves.
Qualified FS Practitioners are aware of the importance of child-led activities and so they do not teach or tell children what to do. Instead they provide ideas, activities and resources and facilitate opportunities for children to pursue their interests. Over time this supports the children’s confidence and fosters creative thinking.
By providing children a long-term learning process within a woodland setting, while supporting risk and holistic development, and by creating a community for learning with a qualified practitioner the Forest School principles are key to unlocking and supporting creativity in children.
Gill, Tim, (2007) No Fear: growing up in a risk adverse society
Nicholson, Simon (1971) The Theory of Loose Parts, An Important Principle of Design and Methodology. Open University.
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Opportunity: Music Generation Development Officer(s) Kerry, Kildare, Longford, Meath and Tipperary
A Music Generation Development Officer will be appointed by each education and training board and will be responsible for managing an extensive performance music education programme on behalf of the Local Music Education Partnership in each county.
All five counties have recently been selected for participation in Music Generation – Ireland’s National Music Education Programme, which is co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education and Skills and Local Music Education Partnerships.
Five year, fixed-term contract (€46,771 – €57,157)
Application form, job description and person specification and other details available from –
The Music Generation Development Officer will be appointed by MSL ETB and will be responsible for managing an extensive performance music education programme on behalf of Sligo Local Music Education Partnership.
Five year, fixed-term contract (€46,771 – €57,157)
Application forms, job descriptions and person specifications available online at – www.msletb.ie
Applications on the official MSL ETB Application Form are only accepted by email to: employment@msletb.ie
It is vital to insert the Reference Number of the Post in the subject line of your email.
Closing date for receipt of completed application forms: Friday 7th June
Late applications will not be accepted.
Based on the volume of applications received short-listing may apply. Short-listing will take place on the basis of the information provided in the application form. Depending on the qualifications and experience of applicants, short-listing thresholds may be significantly higher than the minimum standards set out. MSL ETB is an equal opportunities employer.
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Drama Tools for the Classroom – CPD for Primary School Teachers with Baboró
Baboró
Dates: 1st – 5th July 2019
Baboró releases final spaces for ‘Drama Tools for the Classroom’, an EPV approved Continuous Professional Development (CPD) course for educators, therapists and artists.
A limited number of tickets are now available for Baboró’s annual Continuous Professional Development (CPD) course, Drama Tools for the Classroom, taking place from Monday 1st to Friday 5th of July at the O’Donoghue Centre, NUI Galway.
Develop practical, fun and engaging teaching methodologies in this EPV approved CPD course; delivered by teacher, dramatist and facilitator Irene O’Meara, B.Ed., LLSM, MA Drama & Theatre Studies.
The week-long course of workshops is designed for primary school teachers but is also open to educators, therapists, artists and facilitators. It is for those who value the art of communication, empathy and co-operation, and wish to use drama and the creative arts to effectively engage children in teaching a range of topics.
The course will cover all the required teaching methodologies such as Active Learning; Problem Solving; Collaborative Learning and Discussion and Use of Environment, while also developing skills that can be used in a multitude of settings with many subject areas. Participants will then be guided through the processes of using drama as a methodology that supports the Using, Understanding and Communicating as per the New Primary Language curriculum.
Booking and Event Details:
Course cost of €70.00.
Taking place from 9.30am – 2.00pm Monday 1st to Friday 5th of July at the O’Donoghue Centre, NUI Galway.
Tickets available on Eventbrite at bit.ly/2JbUBG0. Places are limited and advanced booking is required.
This is an EPV Department of Skills and Education approved course and participants will receive a certificate of completion. For further information contact admin@baboro.ie or call 091 562 667
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Music Generation announces expansion into five new areas of Ireland
Music Generation
Kerry, Kildare, Longford, Meath and Tipperary have been announced as the next five counties to join the Music Generation programme.
As part of Music Generation, each of the five new areas will receive funding to create access to affordable performance music education for children and young people in their communities. Minister for Education and Skills Joe Mc Hugh T.D. welcomed this next big step on Music Generation’s road to nationwide expansion by 2022:
‘Giving our young people access to high quality musical education is a key element of Creative Youth, part of the Government’s Creative Ireland plan.
‘Music and the arts inspire us all and Music Generation is having enormous impacts in communities, with young people having instrument, ensemble, voice and choral experiences that simply wouldn’t be possible without this programme…’
Music Generation projects are benefitting from €3.485 million funding from the Department of Education and Skills in 2019.
Responding to the news, U2’s The Edge said: ‘Every milestone reached on this journey is a source of great pride for the band as well as everyone who has worked so hard to make it happen. With this latest announcement, the finish line is firmly in sight and our dream of an accessible music education for every young person in Ireland is getting ever closer. We are beyond excited.’
In addition to artists of the past, such as George Barret, Paul Henry and Jack B. Yeats, it includes contemporary practitioners like Dorothy Cross, Willie Doherty, Kathy Prendergast and Sean Scully, as well as Niamh O’Malley, Caoimhe Kilfeather, Samuel Laurence Cunnane and others.
Encompassing a range of artistic media and perspectives, this exhibition examines different land types and uses, revealing the significant role artists have played in visualising aspects of human impact on the environment.
Shaping Ireland for Schools
The exhibition presents an opportunity for cross-curricular learning, and the accompanying schools programme focuses on the environmental issues raised by the exhibition.
School Tours
Dates: Tuesday – Friday in May & June
Schools from across the island of Ireland can avail of free tours of the exhibition in English and Irish. To book, email tours@ngi.ie or phone + 353 1 663 3510 Primary Schools Workshops
Dates: Tuesdays & Wednesdays in May & June Time: 10am – 12pm Cost: €150 per workshop (Max. 30 students per group)
Explore the exhibition with artist Emily Robyn Archer, and discover the important role of bees and other pollinators in the Irish ecosystem. This cross-curricular workshop will take students outside into Merrion Square to creatively explore the local environment. Students will make seedbombs to take home and help spread flowers across Ireland! To book click here.
Primary Schools Resource: Art and the Environment
Teacher Sinéad Hall has developed a resource pack inspired by the exhibition, and designed to be used in the classroom, showing how art and creativity can be embedded across the primary curriculum. To download click here.
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Schools invited to apply for the Architects in Schools 2019/20 initiative
Irish Architecture Foundation
Deadline Date: Friday 31 May 2019
Applications are now open for schools to participate in the Irish Architecture Foundation’s Architects in Schools 2019/20 initiative. An initiative aiming to encourage collaboration between architects and teachers, giving Transition Year students a hands-on design experience.
Now in its seventh year, Architects in Schools has been delivered in over 80 schools nationwide to date, with students exploring how design and architecture affect their school and local environment, learning a range of skills and gaining insight into a range of career options. The initiative begins with a skills sharing day for all participating teachers and architects in late September, projects/workshops are delivered in classrooms in terms 1 and/or 2 and the initiative culminates with a national exhibition in mid April.
Places on the initiative are limited to 30 schools per year, and the IAF selects schools through an application process, aiming for a broad geographic spread, a mix of school types and a balance between new and returning schools. To give your school the best chance of participating, apply online by Friday 31 May.
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Opportunity: Call for Musicians / Music Tutors for Music Generation Cavan/Monaghan & Kilkenny
Music Generation
Deadlines: 8th & 10th May 2019
Music Generation Cavan/Monaghan: CMETB invites applications from suitably qualified and experienced persons to be placed on a panel for part-time musicians/music tutors for the following Music Generation Cavan/Monaghan programmes –
Closing date for receipt of applications: 12 noon, Wednesday 8 May 2019.
Music Generation Kilkenny: KCETB on behalf of Music Generation Kilkenny wishes to recruit suitably qualified and experienced part-time musicians/music tutors to deliver the following programmes –
Closing date for receipt of postal applications: 12 noon, Friday 10 May 2019.
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Blog 1 – Sinéad Ní Bhrádaigh, Creative Schools Coordinator and Teacher
Creative Schools: An Exciting New Journey
Our school was delighted to hear about this new Creative Schools initiative and were eager for our school to participate. Our school has traditionally been very lucky to have creative teachers and parents who have shared their talents with the children over the years. Schools have changed dramatically over the years, the advent of technology means that the wider world has become much more accessible to children, and any amount of content is now available at the other end of their fingertips. The information presented on the training day for Creative Schools was so relevant and interesting. The notion that 65% of jobs our current cohort will be doing as adults have not yet been created blew my mind. That the World Economic Forum lists Creativity third in the top ten list of skills that our young people will need to navigate their future highlights how much skills development is now required in schools into the future.
We have been working in close collaboration with Yvonne Cullivan, our Creative Associate all year and this has been a great experience for our school. Yvonne has been successfully able to help us as a school identify the relationship we have with creativity through the eyes of the teachers, the children and the parents. What emerged out of that process was that as a school, we have a lot to celebrate, much to communicate and a great roadmap for how we can develop further as a school. There was a huge amount involved in the information gathering stage of the project, due in part to our large school population – surveying, collating and analysing over 1000 opinions was a long process. We were relieved to hear that there would be another year to engage with the project, as we felt that we would need a lot more time to embed the learning from the information gathering, and having another year next year will allow us to do that.
The outcomes for our school are that all members of the community wish to engage more with creativity and the arts, we wish to engage with each other and the wider community more, we wish to see more cross curricular creativity and we wish to communicate and celebrate the many wonderful aspects of creative work that we already engage in. The children voted to do more work around cooking, nature and horticulture, so myself, Yvonne and the other wonderful teachers on our Creative School committee are currently working to put together a programme to run over the course of May and June. I look forward to sharing how we are getting on in the next blog post!
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Guest Blogger: Frank Monahan Architect & Cultural Producer – Blog No. 1
Frank is an Irish-born designer /cultural producer with an interest in film, architecture & the arts, design and technology. An honors graduate in Production Design for Film, TV and theatre, he spent the best part of a decade in this sector. Coming from a film and set design background, he has always been passionate about the power of buildings and spaces to tell stories and he developed this interest further when he later moved into interior and architectural design work setting up practice in London in 2001. This experience led to a decision to study architecture at London Metropolitan University where he was awarded an BA Honors’ Architecture in 2008 and a Professional Diploma in Architecture 2012.
His professional practice includes the design of buildings & set design for film and television production. This has informed his approach to practice, which is collaborative, interdisciplinary and site-specific. With a long term interest in the critical potential of design he established the Architecture at the Edge Festival in 2017, for which he devised and developed the events programme through all stages: planning, development and administration, including the curation and production of an annual symposium on Placemaking & associated workshops. He recently produced an outdoor built installation, ‘Ghost Chapel’ for Galway International Arts Festival 2018 in collaboration with Bartlett School of Architecture.
Threshold – Blog 1
TY students from schools around the country completed their IAF Architects in Schools project this month with a presentation at GMIT’s Cluain Mhuire campus to IAF, GMIT staff and Architect Dermot Bannon. Devised and delivered by the Irish Architecture Foundation, this initiative provides students with first-hand experience of the design process under the guidance of design professionals.
This was my third year participating in the programme, and alongside architect Sybil Curley returning to my alma mater at St. Josephs College, ‘the Bish’, Galway we undertook to deliver a series of workshops which might allow the students to develop their visual spatial skills. Art is not taught as part of the curriculum at the school, so it was important that we find a way to allow the students the opportunity to express their inherent creativity. The teacher was keen for us to assist the students to work on design concept development that would prepare them for Design Communication and Graphics (DCG) subject challenges. To this aim, prompting visual research was very important as it helped the students investigate that process. Taking steps to intentionally address any lack of confidence in their own creativity the students surveyed areas of the school and recorded observations on materials, light levels, circulation etc. Critical thinking and visual awareness was encouraged throughout the course. Exploratory site visits further increased the students’ visual vocabulary and ability to convey design concepts through sketching.
In the first year we explored the idea of ‘Threshold’ in creating an aedicule, between the school institution and the city. There are plans to relocate the school away from Nuns Island and out of the city to a new site in the coming years so the idea was to think about designing a ‘gateway’ into the new institution. Starting with an exercise to create their own school motto to place above the entrance to the existing school building we brought the students out to sketch the Spanish Arch and other historical approach’s to the city. Following mapping exercises of the schools existing entrances and reception areas as well documenting the access roads/bridges onto the Island in which the school is located the students constructed a 1:100 physical model of the school upon which they could place designs of their own ‘aedicule’ interventions.
The following year we continued this exploration of that kind of creative flexibility which extended into how we can engage with the city beyond the school. Inspired by dePaor Architects refurbishment of Druid theatre, the students reimagined the adaptive reuse of their existing school building, turning it towards the river, and incorporating the adjacent Nuns Island Theatre into the schools buildings programme. Careful consideration was made to how best retain the character of this building, a former Methodist Church repurposed as an arts venue, and how this might give greater flexibility for improvements throughout the entire schools built infrastructure.
The design brief encouraged them to practice a culture of sustainability in our built environment through adaptive reuse of existing building stock located in and around the school’s current location at Nun’s Island. This initiative has the potential not only to encourage the students to better understand their built environment and gain skills in design, sketching, photography, model making & computer graphics. But also to encourage them to explore their local history & geography, engage in environmental studies, develop knowledge of material & construction studies as well as a practical use for ICT skills. The ability to spot problems and devise smart solutions—is being recast as a prized and teachable skill.
I find that these experiences have not only reinforced my belief in the importance and benefits to be found in ‘learning from making’ for a student’s development, but it has enabled them develop their own identity/interests, skills, sense of self confidence, and the possibilities for integrating this into all aspects of their learning process.
When we think about communicating something essential about the world be it through art/drama/storytelling etc. to young people in particular, it does not help to be didactic, to focus on technical or technological skill. I would encourage an emphasis on the enjoyment and the value of the process of making more than the result or final product. What is of benefit to the youth is found in the freedom, experimentation and exploration that went into their creation. Expect to make mistakes. There is no right way or wrong way. It is in finding solutions that make the value of creative imagination most valuable. My approach would be to get something across playfully. To equip students with valuable life tools which enhance their public speaking and communication skills, social development, emotional development as well as the cognitive benefits. Actually, to get playfulness itself across.
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Guest Blogger: Lucy Elvis Director of Curo & Visual Arts Curator – Blog No. 1
Lucy Elvis is a director of CURO, a not-for-profit organisation committed to public philosophy. CURO helps communities think together more effectively by inviting them to become Communities of Philosophical Inquiry. CURO works in schools, libraries, galleries and festivals as well as organising clubs and camps that include scholarship streams for children from less privileged socio-economic backgrounds. They like to get people thinking in places where they least expect it and to listen to the ‘big ideas’ that matter to groups who often aren’t given a voice.
When Lucy isn’t engaged in public philosophy, she is completing her PhD thesis and lecturing in Philosophy at NUI Galway. She is also an independent visual art curator and a board member of the TULCA Festival of Visual Art.
We thought we’d never ask…. – Blog 1
Often in our haste to increase engagement in arts education, we want to get children making. This is a liberating process: they meet makers, learn about their practice and have a go at creating work in that way these experiences are exciting, motivating and arguably help to create our future artists.
But, what about our future art audiences? Visual Thinking Strategies have dominated museum and gallery education programmes, and these have value too. They focus on looking slowly and carefully, getting lost in the work itself and wondering what it’s all about by answering the questions ‘What do you think is happening in the picture?’ and ‘Why?’
What happens though, when you allow young audiences to take charge? What new understanding can emerge by allowing them to frame the questions they are really wondering about after experiencing a play, roaming an exhibition, absorbing a story, watching a film or listening to some music?
This is what CURO aims to do when we think about art with our communities of young learners. Our focus is on reconnecting the experiences of art, with our experiences in and with the world using them to think deeply about questions that matter for everyone. So, where visual thinking strategies stay within the edges of the canvas and practice-oriented art interventions are focussed on making something, we encourage our communities to run with the work by devising a common, contestable and enduring question that it sparks for them.
In this process the group votes on one such question and enters into a structured dialogue to find a collective answer. Questions we’ve explored with communities include: ‘Is everyone creative?’ (inspired by the work of Sam Basu and Liz Murray), ‘Are there more than two genders?’ (sparked by Bassam Al Sabbah’s Walking, Walking with The Sun Upon my Back) and ‘Could we exist without negative emotions?’ (prompted by the experience of Richard Profit’s The Shortcut: Don’t Follow the Black Dog).
These fascinating questions are just the start of a process of exploring possible answers, the reasons for them and the imagined worlds where ‘that’s the case.’ In our next post, we’ll talk about the ‘how’ of structured dialogue and the creative thinking skills it can foster through the context of our work in Galway County Libraries.
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Guest Blogger: Claire Murphy, Irish Forest School Association – Blog No.1
The Irish Forest School Association (IFSA) was founded in 2016 and is engaged in the promotion and development of the Forest School (FS) movement in Ireland. We bring Forest School practitioners together to inspire inclusive, playful learning for all, in nature. We want to build resilience and relationships, through our connection with each other, and the natural world, while inspiring creativity and supporting wellbeing. More information can be found on our website www.irishforestschoolassociation.ie. Some of our members will describe their engagement in Forest School in this series of blog posts. First up is Claire Murphy:
MarieClaire (Claire) Murphy is a primary school teacher, forest school leader and a PhD researcher in Mary Immaculate College, Limerick. Thanks to funding from the Heritage in Schools scheme, Claire is currently working collaboratively with a Forest School Leader to bring a high-quality learning experience to primary school children.
Exploring the Visual Arts Curriculum in Primary School the Forest School Way – Blog 1
We know that one in six Irish parents don’t think it’s safe for their five-year-old child to play outside at home during the day (Early Childhood Ireland 2019). So opportunities to explore and to be in natural environments are increasingly limited for young children. Forest School inspires learning through interactive games, activities, songs, stories, nature crafts, foraging and sensory nature meditations. The sensory exploration deepens the children’s connections to nature as a result igniting curiosity and questioning, a fantastic gateway to learning about nature.
Forest School occurs as a weekly session in the child’s standard preschool or primary school context. The primary aim of Forest School is the development of children’s self-esteem, self-confidence and independence skills. A second aim is to encourage children to appreciate, care for and respect the natural environment (Maynard 2007). Taking risks is also an important element of this approach. The learners engage in activities such as building shelters, cooking on camp fires and identifying plant and wildlife (Harris 2017). The focus is on the whole child and their experiences developing the child’s independence and self-esteem through their engagement with the natural environment (Murray and O’Brien 2005).
The Visual Arts Primary School Curriculum presents a range of activities for the child to perceive, explore, respond to and appreciate the visual world, this involves ‘looking with awareness and understanding of the visual elements and their interplay in the environment and in art works’ (NCCA 1999, p. 2). One of the general aims of the Arts in Education includes the development of the child’s awareness of, sensitivity too and enjoyment of visual, aural, tactile and spatial qualities in the environment (NCCA 1999, p.4).
I explored the Visual Arts ‘Construction’ strand through this Forest School approach in a small-scale study. This was conducted in a 1st Class in a large, urban, DEIS status school. Overall, I found that there was a positive response as the majority of children noted that they ‘liked’ the lessons. There was evidence that children were engaged in the learning process and they displayed a development of new vocabulary associated with Forest School. I observed enthusiasm and engagement in the visual arts making process. I also found some unanticipated results of the study; I tended to structure group work in the classroom, but I found that this occurred more naturally during the Forest School sessions. Children had space to move from group to group, some enjoyed working in small groups of 2 or 3 children, while others preferred larger groups. Children had control of their social space. One child in particular tended to become frustrated with children at his group in the classroom. I observed that he moved away from the group for certain periods of time to work on his own, returning to the group when he was ready. There was a change of attitude towards the outdoors and the creatures found outdoors. One example of this is the class’ decision to protect an earthworm from the sunlight with leaves.
I am now continuing this research in a larger scale study. I am investigating the impact of the introduction of weekly Forest School sessions in an Irish Primary School setting. The Forest School sessions will take place in four mainstream classes, ensuring that there are observations of each of the curriculum levels as delivered in the Irish Primary school system. This is being conducted over the period of an academic year which ensures that each class engages in Forest School sessions for 10 weeks. The impact will be explored through the perspective of the teacher and the child to explore whether the teaching and learning methodologies used during Forest School sessions are consonant with teaching and learning methodologies advocated in the Irish Primary School Curriculum
Further reading of the integration of the Irish Visual Arts curricular objectives through the Forest School approach can be found in Claire’s paper in The Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning;https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14729679.2018.1443481
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Blog 1 – Yvonne Cullivan Creative Associate for Creative Schools & Visual Artist
Fresh Eyes
One of the aspects that I love most about working as an artist, particularly when engaging with a group or community, is the unknown. When I begin a project, nobody really knows what is going to happen, including me! This can be daunting. However, it is also a wonderful space to hold; one that allows for active listening and open response, intuitive exploration and discovery.
What I do know and trust entirely, is the creative process in which all my work is embedded. There will always be a thorough, considered and inclusive engagement. This will have a loose starting point; like a question, intention or broad theme. It will involve research, discussion, observation, documentation, and collection of information. As my sole agenda is usually to create an artwork of some description, I like to get a sense of the ‘bigger picture’ with all its nuances and particularities, whatever the situation. As the engagement unfolds, I constantly review and refine the information that comes to me, slowly shaping a response without feeling any obligation to make it fit a particular form. Eventually, as a result of this entire process, an outcome manifests. Usually it is one that is reflective and relevant, and will take a form that is both surprising and no surprise at all, because it was taking shape throughout the process. The pattern is always the same. Time and time again I doubt the process, usually when I am in the middle of it. Then, when I reach the end, I am reminded that it absolutely works. This is how I work as an artist and as an educator and this is how I am approaching my current role as Creative Associate on the Creative Schools Programme.
Schools are extremely active places. There are enormous pressures of time and workload on staff, pupils and management. The arts subjects are the easiest to squeeze out or the hardest to fit in. However, I am finding an overwhelming desire, from staff and from young people alike, to have more creativity, more freedom and experimentation and play within the curriculum and within school life. There are challenges around this of course, and there are some fears too. I have been engaging in active, visual and collaborative ways with my school coordinators and communities to unearth these challenges and fears and to also explore the opportunities and wishes around a ‘creative school’. Through workshops, surveys, activities, discussions and votes, I have been capturing all relevant voices; from those of the youngest pupils to that of the principle. We have been considering all aspects of the question of creativity in schools, from small practicalities to large visions.
The three schools that I am working with are thoroughly invested in this programme and are bringing great enthusiasm and honesty to the table and placing complete trust in the process that we are undertaking together. They are three very diverse schools, and three very different shapes are beginning to emerge…
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Opportunity: Head of Quality, Support and Development with Music Generation
Music Generation
Deadline: 5pm, Thursday 9th May 2019
Established in 2010, Music Generation’s ambition is to transform the lives of children and young people through local access to high-quality, subsidised performance music education.
To enable Music Generation to reach its next stage of development, the National Development Office is now seeking to appoint a Head of Quality, Support and Development. This new senior role within the organisation will be key in the implementation of Music Generation’s Strategic Plan during a significant period of growth, planned from 2019 to 2022.
The successful candidate will be a skilled professional with a demonstrable track record of delivering results, high standards and achievement in music education development. The position requires someone with leadership and senior management experience that can support the planned growth of the national network of Local Music Education Partnerships, and enable the stated priorities for Quality in line with the organisation’s Strategic Plan.
The current strategy maps out an exciting period of growth and change for Music Generation and this role provides a rare opportunity for an experienced and dynamic music education development professional to contribute to and shape those ambitions.
For a job description and details of the application process, please contact John Deely at Pinpoint:
Email: Recruit@pinpoint.ie
Phone: +353 1 642 5721
Closing date for applications: 5pm Thursday May 9, 2019
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Schools invited to work together on Creative Projects – Creative Clusters Initiative
Creative Clusters
Deadline Date: 10th May 2019
Minister McHugh invites applications from schools for second year of Creative Clusters initiative as part of the Creative Ireland programme.
Participating schools will help students learn through a lens of creativity
The Minister for Education and Skills Joe McHugh T.D. this week invited applications for Creative Clusters, an initiative taking place as part of Creative Ireland and under the Schools Excellence Fund.
Each school will enjoy access to a specialist facilitator, artist or creative expertise in whatever their own chosen area of interest or theme might be. These resources will help the schools build a programme of learning and activities tailor-made for their students. In addition, clusters will receive up to €7,500 funding to help bring their plans and ideas to fruition.
Making the announcement, Minister McHugh said: “This is another fantastic opportunity for schools to work together on a project of their choice. Schools are given complete freedom to design and develop their own project, with support from a local facilitator and their local education centre.
“I hope that this initiative will help schools enhance creativity in their classrooms. It is important that our children are allowed to express themselves and learn to adapt and collaborate. Opportunities such as Creative Clusters are perfect to give students the opportunity to develop these skills.”
The first year of the Creative Clusters initiative has seen schools around the country work together to develop creative projects and collaborate on new ideas based on their local experience and unique perspective. In Kilkenny, St John’s Senior School, St John’s Junior School and Loreto Secondary School are working together using coding to develop innovative projects and support the transition from primary to post-primary school. This project involves students learning a variety of different coding methods and working on coding projects to develop their problem-solving and logical-thinking skills.
St Michael’s Post Primary and St Joseph’s Secondary School in North County Kerry are also collaborating on an interesting project exploring “the hidden history of North Kerry” using modern technology. This project tasks students with investigating and researching the main tourist sites of the North Kerry region. The students will use modern technology including drones to gather footage which will then be used in a documentary regarding the history of North Kerry. Students will be trained in the appropriate use of technology in the classroom and will also be able to learn valuable skills in the making of the documentary including directing, photography, narrating and producing.
The Schools Excellence Fund is an initiative in the Action Plan for Education. It sets out to encourage and recognize excellence and innovation in our schools. This initiative will help deliver on the Creative Youth pillar of Creative Ireland, which sets out a commitment that every child in Ireland has practical access to tuition, experience and participation in music, drama, arts and coding by 2022.
The closing date for applications is May 10th 2019.
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Call Out for Artists: Teacher Artist Partnership CPD & Residency 2019
Teacher-Artist Partnership (TAP)
Deadline dates vary per region – please contact Local Authority Arts Service
Announcing a wonderful opportunity for Artists to broaden their practice, receive training and project fees, develop creative partnerships with teachers, and transform the lives of children in every County in Ireland
Open to artists, working in any art form, who are committed to sharing their practice with children and teachers in a modern primary school environment
Specialist, week-long training (1st– 5th July 2019) to prepare the artist for the unique requirements of working harmoniously in partnership with a teacher within the modern Irish classroom
A training allowance of €150 per day over the initial 5-day training/induction week (€750 in total), plus travel with daily lunch provided.
Brokerage and development of partnerships with creative teachers, in schools committed to contemporary arts learning and practice and creativity
Guarantee of a paid, follow up in-school-residency within a local primary school (Fee €800, plus €100 travel plus €100 materials) to carry out a 20-hour project (14 contact hours plus 6 preparation hours) in partnership with your teacher partner throughout the 2019/2020 academic year
Information, learning and networking opportunities for further freelance work within the education system.
Artists must
have a track record of a minimum of three years professional practice in any art form
demonstrate an interest in / commitment to: the principles of Arts-in-Education and Creativity and to enhancing the lives of children through arts practice
be willing to learn about modern classroom culture and to work in equal partnership with teachers
Combine a sense of fun, joy and collaboration with professional dedication and high artistic vision
Be willing to undertake child protection training as part of the induction week, and undergo standard Garda vetting
before taking up project placements.
Artists can apply to be part of the programme in the first instance via the Arts Officer of the Local Authority in which the full-time Education Centre is located. Expressions of interest should then be sent to the relevant address of the Local Full-time Education Centre.
Expressions of interest should be in the form of a letter of max 600 words, accompanied by a CV or short Bio with links to images or samples of relevant work. The letter should set out:
Where you trained
A very brief description of your practice
Why you might wish to work in partnership with a teacher and with children in a school setting
What you think qualifies you to take up this opportunity.
Places on this national Creative Ireland CPD initiative, taking place in the local full-time Education Centre training programmes, are limited to four artists per year – 4 Artists per Summer Course. Final decision on offers of places will be taken by the Director of the local Education Centre in collaboration with the Local Authority Arts Office.
For further information including the relevant deadline date for applications contact your Local Authority Arts Service – a list and contact details are available on the Portal Directory here.
All completed Expressions of Interest/Applications must be returned to your Local Education Centre – Education Centre contact details can be found here.
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Invitation to Celebrate The Classroom Museum Project at The Glucksman
The Glucksman
Date: Friday 29th March 2019
The Glucksman is delighted to invite you to join them to mark the culmination of ‘The Classroom Museum’ a project with rural schools in Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford on Friday 29th March at 11am. The celebration will be marked by Professor John O’Halloran, Deputy President and Registrar at University College Cork and will be followed by a meet and greet with the participating school students, teachers and with artists Billy Foley, Fiona Kelly and Dara McGrath.
The Classroom Museum initiative enables school children in rural Ireland to participate in an imaginative programme of creative learning based around contemporary artworks from the UCC art collection. Through the short-term loan of artworks and collaborative activities, the children and their teachers have the opportunity to interact with art in their own surroundings and to develop the skills and confidence to express themselves in educational and public contexts. The initiative facilitates the loan of artworks into the classroom space, and develops the presence of this original work through a structured programme of activities with the schoolchildren overseen by the Glucksman’s Senior Curator of Education + Community. The programme includes a visit by the artist to the school, a collaborative art project by the children and an exhibition of this work in the Glucksman.
This event is an opportunity to recognise the creativity of the young participants and to hear about their journey of creative learning.
Fiona Lawton has been teaching secondary students in Scoil Bernadette Special School for the last ten years. She graduated with a Masters in Drama and Theatre Studies in UCC in 1999. During that period Fiona has been involved in writing, directing, acting and producing plays around Cork. In 2005 she played the part of the Magistrate in the award winning film ‘The Wind that Shakes the Barley’. In 2008 Fiona returned to UCC to complete a Postgraduate Diploma in Guidance and Counselling and subsequently in 2013 completed the Higher Diploma in Primary Education with Hibernia College. In school Fiona teaches a variety of subjects but has a passion for drama. Each year she works with a group of LCA students to devise, produce and perform a play. Fiona strongly believes in the importance of educating through the arts where creativity and collaboration are central to the learning process.
Creative Schools: Working Together – Blog 3
As Spring slowly emerges with its brighter days and new beginnings, we too are delighted to get started with our new creative project in Scoil Bernadette.
After lots of planning and negotiating with calendars, our first visual arts workshop started on the 8th March with ten enthusiastic students, one from each class group, ready to pick up their pencils and get drawing.
During our first workshop we were introduced to our facilitators, Ailbhe Barrett and Rosaleen Moore who showed us some of their work and told us about their professional careers as artists. Ailbhe and Rosaleen are two artists who work in a supported studio as part of the Gasp programme. Gasp artists meet on Tuesdays in the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork and are facilitated by Mairead O’Callaghan (More information on supported artists and this project can be found here (www.crawfordartgallery.ie/Learn-and-Explore-Crawford-Supported-studio-Artists) We were certainly impressed to see their beautiful paintings and to hear of their celebrity appearances on the Late Late show.
We played a few icebreaker games to settle the nerves and to get to know each other a little better. Soon we were ready to get down to the busy work of creating. We each chose a word that represented the feeling of being at the workshop. Some of the words chosen were ‘happy’,’ listening’,’ together’, and ‘Cork’. It was the first step in expressing ourselves within the group. We then drew our words on paper, decorating them to our liking.
We finished the workshop with another fun game where in a circle we threw a ball of string from one person to another. We ended up with a visual representation of a very connected group. As one student remarked, it was all about ‘teamwork’.
The following workshop re-enforced this theme of working together. We were divided into two groups. Each group had to build a structure as high as they could. It was challenging, stressful, but lots of fun!
On the 22nd March the group set off for the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork City to get some inspiration. Here we met with Julie who gave us an extensive tour of the gallery where we viewed and interacted with the current exhibitions. We met with Ailbhe and Rosaleen there and got to visit the studio space where they work. We were lucky enough to have time to do some drawing in the Art Gallery at the end of our tour, taking inspiration from the paintings and installations we had seen.
So far the project is going well. The students look forward each week to having extra time in the school timetable to draw, build and create, taking inspiration from each other and the work of professional artists. After three weeks of working together, I feel that the group has bonded well and there is a collegial and supportive atmosphere which adds to the enjoyment of the workshops.
We have three weeks left to continue this work of creative collaboration. We are eager to continue to develop our skills and to discover our talents. We hope to have a day of celebration in the coming months to display the finished and unfinished work to parents, friends and the rest of the school community. We are proud to be a creative school.
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Guest Blogger: Ciara Gallagher Creativity and Change programme participant – Blog No. 3
Ciara has a PhD in English from Maynooth University. She has worked as researcher on the National Collection of Children’s Books (TCD) and “Gender Identity: Child Readers and Library Collections” at the Centre for Children’s Literature and Culture, DCU. She has taught English in various universities and currently works at Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership as office administrator.
Beginnings – Blog 3
The Creativity and Change course continually pushes its participants, encouraging us to engage, act, and reflect in new and different ways. One of the most fundamental ways it stretches its participants is simply through giving students the opportunities to start something new – to begin new actions, challenges and experiences, and in the process, to unearth new confidence for future beginnings.
At each of the course weekends, we participate in intensive workshops on different creative forms. For example, one weekend focused on poetry and theatre. We moved from creating poetry as a collective to individual creative writing and finally into spoken word performances and a poetry slam. The following day, performance and action were channelled into theatre as we engaged with some of the techniques of Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed. Throughout the course of the weekend we moved through reflection and action; from our own words to shared action and performance through poetry, and from the action and movement of the Theatre of the Oppressed to reflection again. Not only did we experience this as participants, we considered this process as facilitators – thinking through ways we could engage people through these creative forms in a manner that encourages interaction with beginning to write and enact change.
Our next task on this weekend was putting this cycle of reflection and action to use in a new context as we moved from the safe space of the Creativity and Change workshops to the public space of the city. Part of our challenge for the afternoon was to engage the public in some way, encouraging people to contribute to creating something as a group. My group set about getting people to contribute to a line poem, written in chalk on the street, beginning with the line “I know I am home when…” I was surprised at how readily and generously people got involved, moved by their openness and warmth. Individuals and small groups contributed their lines, writing on the pavement, marking the city space out as theirs a little bit more. Groups of people contributing collectively take away some of the pressure and open up new possibilities. The same was true for our groups, as our styles of interaction with the public crossed and intersected, and we reflected on and learned from each other’s actions. Even though our engagement with the public was small and transient, we learned it is possible to bring people together to create something worthwhile, that people care and will get involved.
The willingness and want to be part of a collective is encouraging in these times when we need it most. Now to find all our different ways of starting.
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Guest Blogger: Naomi Cahill Creative Associate for Creative Schools & Director of Bespoke Productions – Blog No.4
Naomi Cahill works as a Creative Associate for Creative Schools and is founder and director of Bespoke Productions. She is an experienced and qualified drama teacher of primary, second level and adult education as well as children with special needs and adults with physical and intellectual disabilities. Naomi graduated with a degree in Drama & Theatre Studies from University College Cork. She further completed the Higher Diploma in Arts in Drama Education and was awarded‘Highest Academic Achievement’ from the Leinster School of Music & Drama. Through Bespoke Productions, Naomi leads drama courses in Ireland and abroad which are aimed at building confidence, self-esteem and developing communication skills. She most recently directed a modern version of ‘Romeo & Juliet’ at Teatro Re Grillo, Licata, Sicily. Having performed both on stage and in film, she enjoys sharing her experience with her students. She is delighted to be working as a Creative Associate for the Creative Schools programme.
Creative Schools: An Insight into the Creative Schools Project: Barryoe National School – Blog 4
My schools are at a very exciting stage of the Creative Schools Project. Plans are being brought to life in all schools. At this stage, I thought it would be interesting to give you an insight into the project so far in one of my schools: Barryroe National School. The school is located on the Ibane peninsula and is surrounded by beautiful beaches and countryside. It has 176 pupils enrolled and a speech and language unit. The school is very lucky to have a wealth of creative local people and staff who are open to new ideas and projects. Parents strive to give and provide the best all round education possible for their children and encourage involvement in the arts. The school was delighted to receive entry to the Creative Schools Project this year and are thrilled to be accepted again next year. Their enthusiasm for the project is evident and they are very much making the most of this fantastic opportunity. They have dedicated a lot of time to the project and I have had the opportunity to engage in meetings with all staff and students. There is a core team of staff within the school working on the project including: the Creative Schools Coordinator, two teaching members of staff and local artist: Eilbhe Donovan.
Puppetry:
All students in the school were lucky enough to attend ‘Dowtcha Puppets’ performance of ‘Listen Janey Mac’ in the school. They were given this opportunity to inspire them to create their own work.‘Dowtcha Puppets’ are a renowned puppet specialist company based in Cork. They came to the school and did three separate performances of their show for different class groups. It tells the tale of a character called ‘Janey Mac’ and her puppy ‘Pepper’. They make a wish in a magical stone circle in their aunty Megan’s back garden and find themselves transported back in time, trying to find each other and their way home. One aspect of the Creative Schools project is the importance of finding ways in which the arts/creativity can be linked with and used to enhance the teaching of other subjects. Along with giving the students an appreciation for puppetry, the show produced by ‘Dowtcha Puppets’ also provided students with a history of Cork and Ireland. All students really enjoyed the experience:
“It was great to see the puppet show before we did our own one”. (Student)
“The setting and the props were great and how they showed the puppets when they were far away –it was a very funny story”. (Student)
“It was strange working behind the puppet stage. The lighting made it exciting. The show was great the way the characters were going to another dimension”. (Student)
Voice of Young People:
As I mentioned previously there is an importance emphasis on ‘The Voice of Young People’ in the Creative Schools Project. At the beginning of the year, I was given the opportunity to do a workshop with a group of students (with representatives from each class). I also met with all class groups and teachers to gain a further understanding of student’s artistic/creative interests. We regularly consult with the ‘Creative Schools Student Advisory Group’ when making plans. Having gained inspiration from watching ‘Dowtcha Puppets’ performance, a group of students (from all classes) worked with their drama teacher Annemarie to write their own devised puppet show piece. Other classes had the opportunity to make stick puppets and perform in puppet shows linked to fairy tales for their fellow students. Students are also very lucky to have the opportunity to work with renowned artist: Eilbhe Donovan to create their own air dough puppets. It is evident from their feedback that the process is very much child led:
“It was great fun – we were in charge of what we wanted to do. It took a long time but it was worth it when you saw how it played out in the end. We would love more time to work on it!” (5th Class Student)
“We did all the work”. (3rd Class Student).
“We could make up our own story, make up our own characters”. (3rd Class Student)
“Our characters could talk or not e.g. our castle was the narrator. We used objects that don’t normally speak and gave them voices”. (3rd Class Student).
“We added jingles. We were free to decide everything ourselves e.g. I had a potion and it didn’t have to be a certain colour – I could choose”. (3rd Class Student)
“We could move around and work in small groups. There was no right or wrong information and it was exciting that we could add props”. (3rd Class Student)
“We were working together and we weren’t fighting – we were laughing”. (2nd Class Student)
“We could act out the characters – perform and add music”. (2nd Class Student)
“While making the puppets it was difficult to get everyone working together”. (2nd Class Student)
“We made puppets in afterschool together”. (2nd Class Student)
“We could make up our own story, make up our own characters”. (3rd Class Student)
“Our characters could talk or not e.g. our castle was the narrator. We used objects that don’t normally speak and gave them voices”. (3rd Class Student).
“We added jingles. We were free to decide everything ourselves e.g. I had a potion and it didn’t have to be a certain colour – I could choose”. (3rd Class Student)
“We could move around and work in small groups. There was no right or wrong information and it was exciting that we could add props”. (3rd Class Student)
“We were working together and we weren’t fighting – we were laughing”. (2nd Class Student)
“We could act out the characters – perform and add music”. (2nd Class Student)
“While making the puppets it was difficult to get everyone working together”. (2nd Class Student)
“We made puppets in afterschool together”. (2nd Class Student)
Sustainable Creative Teaching:
It is important for all arts and creative activities undertaken by the school to be as sustainable as possible. Teachers in Barryroe National School are learning about puppetry as a new art form which they can incorporate into their teaching into the future. Teachers have been enabled to develop experience and expertise in this new creative area and implement their acquired skills across the curriculum with confidence. Here is some feedback from teachers about the puppetry workshops.
“It really encouraged turn-taking and team work. Children had to change their voices to suit the characters”. (Teacher)
“We had less control over the output. Junior Classes needed more scaffolding to bring the story to life using the puppets. Senior pupils lead the classes”. (Teacher)
“One class was completely child lead – teacher only had to facilitate. Children took on the responsibility and worked on their stories at home”. (Teacher)
“Without a lot of effort, I worked on puppetry, which I was not comfortable with, and found once the idea was suggested to the pupils, they took ownership of it and followed through”. (Teacher)
Stop Motion Animation:
The sixth-class students are also learning about how to create their own stop motion animations. They created a fantastic animation piece called ‘Jack and Jill Cycled Down the Hill’ which was very exciting to see.
“We were so excited. We were looking forward to the lesson as it was so different to anything we had done before. I had never done anything like animation before”. (6th Class Student)
“Taking the pictures and when they were all moving having put it all together was so cool”. (6th Class Student)
“It wasn’t like being told what to do and how to do it. You could make up your own story and put it together whatever way you liked. Our stories were brought to life through animation”. (6th Class Student)
Creative Schools Continues:
I was delighted to hear a recent announcement from Creative Schools which indicated that the schools currently involved in the project will have the opportunity to continue next year. Furthermore, there will be a further one hundred and fifty schools added to the project. Things really are going from strength to strength for the Creative Schools Project. The project is having a ripple effect across Ireland as there is an increased recognition of the importance of the arts and creativity in the lives of young people.
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The Artful Classroom – CPD for Primary School Teachers
A partnership project by Fingal County Council & Superprojects
Date: 1st – 5th July 2019
The Artful Classroom is facilitated by Aoife Banim, Anne Bradley, Clare Breen, Catriona Leahy and Beth O’Halloran
This CPD programme The Artful Classroom facilitates primary school teachers to enrich their work in the classroom by exploring contemporary art and architecture, as fascinating resources ripe for use as inspiration and departure points for creative enquiry. Together, the group will explore the national and international practices of artists and architects, through imagery and discussion, and playfully consider how they can be applied to the primary school classroom. Workshop sessions will take place in Draíocht Arts Centre Blanchardstown and The Irish Museum of Modern Art Kilmainham where participants will have an opportunity to explore the work of exciting contemporary artists.
The learning focus will be on processand creative thinking; rather than producing fixed outcomes. Facilitated by Clare Breen, Catriona Leahy, Beth O’Halloran, Anne Bradley and Aoife Banim, the course draws on the expertise of both teachers (with experience of art/architecture) and artists (with experience of education). Each day will be led by a different course facilitator who will share their experience of working creatively with children and demonstrate how they translate their own creative/artistic interests into classroom practice in visual art, and other areas across the curriculum. Participants will creatively explore these practices daily, through a diverse range of hands-on activities.
Schedule and session descriptions
Monday: Aoife Banim, Construction ; Draíocht
Tuesday: Beth O’Halloran, Paint & Colour; IMMA
Wednesday: Clare Breen, Clay (with ICT) and Fabric & Fibre; IMMA
Thursday: Anne Bradley, Drawing, Looking & Responding; Draíocht
Friday: Catriona Leahy, Print; Draíocht
Dates: Monday 1st – Friday 5th of July 2019
Time: 10am – 3pm daily
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Fidget Feet presents ‘Hatch’ – a new production for primary schools
Fidget Feet Aerial Dance Theatre
Nationwide tour begins March 30th
Fidget Feet Aerial Dance Theatre tour their new children’s show Hatch, focusing on the transformational cycles of life with a special educational resource and activity pack has been developed for the show linking to the curriculum and is available to primary schools.
Hatch tells the story of Bláithín, she loves caterpillars, moths and butterflies. She joins her Uncle Rusty on an adventure to find Pearl, the most extraordinary butterfly with the most exquisite colourful wings. Learn all about two little caterpillars and their journey to fly as moths and butterflies.
Hatch weaves Irish language, Irish dancing, music, comedy, theatre, contemporary dance and aerial dance into this wonderful story for 4 – 10 year olds.
The show tours nationwide from March 30th, tour dates and venues can be found at www.fidgetfeet.com/touring/
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Part 2 – Announcing the 2019 Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award Recipients
The Portal Team are delighted to announce the second two recipients of the 2019 Portal Documentation Awards. Starting next month, these projects will be showcased on the portal as the documentation progresses.
About the recipients….
Project – Gaelscoil an Chaisleáin with contemporary dance artist Lisa Cliffe
Lisa Cliffe (Cahill) is a contemporary dance artist, movement facilitator and educator. Lisa is working with Gaelscoil an Chaisleáin in Ballincollig, Co. Cork. Lisa and class teacher Sinéad Joy and school principal Máire Uí Shé are interested in creative engagement and active learning in and with the natural environment of a school site.
In October 2018, Lisa received an Arts Council Bursary Award to examine frames and methods of facilitating ‘experiential engagement’ with the natural environment through active exchange and performance appreciation. This research is taking place in partnership with Gaelscoil an Chaisleáin.
In partnership with the staff, children and wider community of Gaelscoil an Chaisleáin, they have developed a seasonal programme of activity, exchange and performance at the school site. A seasonal approach feels important to the partners in this project as they wish to slow down their engagement in the ‘artist/ teacher/ children’ partnership over the period of a year. The intention of this seasonal approach is to offer time to learn about, respond to and engage creatively with the changing environment of the school site in each season.
Developing the body’s sensory attunement through engagement with the natural environment is a key element of Lisa’s performance and facilitation practice. In partnership with Sinéad and Máire, Lisa wishes to make visible the processes, moments of joy and learning as part of this arts in primary education engagement.
This project stemmed from the Teacher and Artist Partnership and the “Creative Cluster Initiative”. Four schools in Kerry; Firies N.S, Killahan N.S, Dromclough N.S and Lenamore N.S, have come together to form a creative cluster. Each school has been paired with one of the following artists; Silke Michels – visual artist, Zoe Uí Fhaoláin Green – dance artist, Nicholas McLachlan – Writer and Fiona Ladden Loughlin – Textile artist; under facilitator Nikki Roberts.
The children’s work will be showcased in the national folk theatre, Siamsa Tíre on 3rd April 2019. There are 94 children involved in the project. The stimulus for the project is bees and each school has used different forms of art to portray the importance of bees in our world. The partners aim is to develop the creative potential of every child and to give participating children a high quality experience working with an artist and expert in their fields leading them to an appreciation of the interaction between artistic genres.
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New Music Generation Development Officers appointed in Cavan/Monaghan, Galway City and Mayo
Music Generation
Music Generation is delighted to share news of the appointment of three new Music Development Officers in Cavan/Monaghan, Galway City and Mayo.
Mairéad Duffy has taken up the position at Music Generation Cavan/Monaghan, one of the most recent Local Music Education Partnerships (LMEPs) to commence participation in Ireland’s national music education programme, led by Cavan and Monaghan Education and Training Board with support from Cavan and Monaghan County Councils.
Karen Dervan has commenced the role at Music Generation Galway City, another new LMEP under the leadership of Galway and Roscommon Education and Training Board together with Galway City Council.
One of the first LMEPs established as part of Music Generation, Mayo now welcomes Laurie Barrett as new Music Development Officer. Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim Education and Training Board is the lead partner on this programme.
In their new posts, Mairéad, Karen and Laurie will have responsibility for developing and managing affordable and accessible local performance music education programmes for children and young people ages 0 to 18.
This will include the coordination of music tuition services within the counties, working in partnership with schools, community music groups and centres in the formation of choirs, ensembles, multi-genre performance initiatives, and more.
Initiated by Music Network, Music Generation is co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education and Skills and Local Music Education Partnerships.
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Opportunity: The Digital Repository of Ireland seeks an Oral Historian
Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI)
Deadline: 19th march 2019
DRI are seeking applications for the role of Oral Historian, a 14-month fixed-term contract with the Digital Repository of Ireland’s Atlantic Philanthropies Archives project. This project is a partnership between The Digital Repository of Ireland, Atlantic Philanthropies, and Cornell University Library to explore the impact and legacy of time-limited grant making. It will be based in the Royal Irish Academy.
Closing date for applications is 12 noon on Tuesday 19th March 2019.
The project has two main aspects
to host a curated digital archive of select business records and ephemera related to Atlantic’s grant making in Ireland over the last 35 years,
to build digital exhibitions around these archives, through the collection and curation of new oral histories from individuals involved in social change activities funded by Atlantic. This is a creative and intellectually stimulating role that requires excellent research skills, people skills, and demonstrated competency in all aspects of oral history.
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Opportunities to be part of the Creative Schools’ Creative Associate Team
The Arts Council’s Creative Schools Initiative
Deadline: 1st April 2019
The Arts Council of Ireland is seeking to expand its panel of Creative Associates to support the delivery of the Scoileanna Ildánacha/Creative Schools initiative. Creative Associates are artists, creative practitioners and teachers with a deep understanding of creativity and its potential to transform the lives of children and young people. They come from a range of creative professions, such as artists, designers, teachers and craftspeople. Whether from the arts, culture, heritage, creative industries, education, science or other sectors, they challenge, support and sustain new practice in schools in the field of the arts, culture and creative learning.
Creative Associates will match the needs of schools to arts and creative opportunities in their locality. They will identify potential areas for improvement and will inspire, energise and drive schools forward in addressing these. Through this pioneering initiative Creative Associates will have the chance to shape the place of the arts and creativity in Irish schools.
Creative Associates can be:
Creative Associates – Individuals engaged by the Arts Council as individual artists or creative practitioners in the arts, culture, heritage, creative industries, science or other sectors.
Creative Associates – Organisations in the arts, culture, heritage, creative industries, science of other sectors. They are engaged by the Arts Council with named nominees, who have an arts or creative practice and are employ by the organisation.
or Teacher Creative Associates selected by the Arts Council to work on a part-time basis with Creative Schools. These applicants will be fully qualified and registered teachers who are working in a Department of Education and Skills recognised post.
Creative Associates work in partnership with participating schools/Youthreach centres to understand, develop and celebrate the arts and creativity in their schools, putting the arts and creativity at the heart of the lives of children and young people.
How to apply:
Step 1 – Visit our website and read their relevant Information Booklet today
Step 2 – Check if you are eligible as an individual artist, organisation nominee or teacher working in school
Step 3 – Complete and return the correct application form by 5pm on Monday April 1st 2019.
Creative Schools is a flagship initiative of the Creative Ireland Programme to enable the creative potential of every child. Creative Schools is led by the Arts Council in partnership with the Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. Creative Schools, formerly Arts Rich Schools/Arís, draws on the commitments set out in the Arts in Education Charter.
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Schools are invited to ‘Princesses can be Pirates’ Nationwide Tour
Touring Nationwide
What is considered “typical” or “normal” behaviour for girls and for boys? Highly energetic, fun and whimsical,Princesses can be Pirates, playfully questions our gender preconceptions.
Two versatile performers join forces as they journey into unknown territory, where play is everything and everywhere. In a series of hilarious scrapes and lively escapades, they swap toys and activities in their quest to defy stereotypes and break the norm.
The world holds endless possibility for us to discover who we are and who we want to be, and this duet celebrates it all. A dynamic and humorous dance performance – created for children but inspiring for all. Talks and workshops will follow the performance to engage with children and teachers.
School Performances
25th March: Riverbank Arts Centre Kildare/ School Performances 10 am and 12 pm
28th March: The Source Arts Centre Thurles/ School Performance 11 am
2nd April: Firkin Crane Cork/ School Performance 11 am
4th April: West Cork Arts Centre Skibbereen/ School Performance 11 am
9th April: The Civic Theatre Tallaght/ School Performance 10:30 am
11th April: Dunamaise Arts Centre Portlaoise / School Performance 12 pm
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Conference on Drama & Theatre in Education at Trinity College
The Arts Education Research Group (TCD) and the Association for Drama in Education in Ireland (ADEI)
Dates: 9th & 10th March 2019
The School of Education in Trinity College will host an exciting international conference on drama and theatre in education on March 9th and 10th.
This is a timely event in today’s world, and explores the theme of the social and political in children’s and young people’s drama and theatre. This conference will be of interest to teachers, artists and anyone working at the cutting edge of drama, theatre, education, creative and cultural studies, arts education, sociology and social policy, political science and education, psychology, and related fields.
The conference features an impressive line-up of speakers who will explore the conference theme with reference to their own practices in different parts of the world. With subsidised rates available for attendees (€105,) and a bursary scheme available for full time students (€38 for the 2 day event).
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Arts in Education Spring Regional Day 2019 Roundup
Arts in Education Portal
Teachers, artists and other interested members of the sector gathered in the beautiful Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Manorhamilton on Saturday last for a day of sharing experience, gathering new ideas and networking with colleagues. This, the third of our Portal Regional Days, focused on best arts in education practice in the Northwest, after having had well-attended events in Cork and Dún Laoghaire last year. After a morning of sharing practice (from Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership, the Irish Architecture Foundation and Teacher – Artist Partnership artist Kate Wilson) the group enjoyed a fab lunch catered by local Dromahair-based Edergole Kitchen.
The afternoon session was led by artist Vanya Lambrecht-Ward— a fun, sometimes challenging, hands-on activity using folded paper to create shapes, which opened up endless possibilities for further use in classrooms and farther afield. Read Vanya’s essay ‘The Value of Folding’ in the Portal read room – artsineducation.ie/en/reading-room/
Well done to all!
Portal Spring Regional Day – Q&A Panel Discussion with Aideen McCole & Stephen Gilmartin from the Irish Architecture Foundation, Jo Holmwood & Mary Branley from Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership, Artist Kate Wilson from the Teacher – Artist Partnership (TAP)
Participants during the hands-on workshop: Spatial Exploration Through Folding Vanya Lambrecht-Ward
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Part 1 – Announcing the 2019 Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award Recipients
The Portal Team are delighted to announce that we have been in a position to award four Documentation Awards in 2019. Here we announce the first two recipients of the award. These projects will be showcased on the portal as the documentation progresses.
About the recipients….
Project – Táim (Trail of Art in Midleton)
We are two visual artists based in Cork who have joined forces to collaborate with children and staff at Midleton College under the initiative entitled TÁIM. TÁIM (Trail of Art in Midleton) is also the Irish expression for ‘I am’. As such, we seek to instigate a collaborative and participatory conversation with students, which not only situates, but also explores and expands upon the theme of identity and place within our locale.
Belinda Walsh, Visual Artist
Belinda is one of the founders and coordinators of Midleton Arts Festival, which is a celebration of creativity in the community where she lives. She enjoys the surprises and wellbeing benefits of bringing together artists and community groups in participatory projects. One of her special interests is the use of stop motion animation techniques to encourage both children and adults to communicate stories, ideas and concepts in a creative and original way.
She graduated from Crawford College of Art and Design, Cork in 2012 and lectures on Arts in Education and ICT in the Early Years in St Nicholas Montessori College.
She also works part time as an arts facilitator with East Cork Music Project.
Lucia is a social Entrepreneur with excellent communication and administration skills. She has over 20 years experience of community arts facilitation, engaging with a broad spectrum of individuals and groups. Her strong coordination skills are underpinned by a strengths based, person centered approach. She is highly committed to the core principles of community development and the arts. She graduated from Crawford College of Art and Design, Cork in 2003, after which she received a research and development award from Social Entrepreneurs Ireland. In 2015, she co coordinated an Erasmus+ project to take twenty five young ECMP course participants to Sweden to take part in a music and arts project.
In 2016, herself and Belinda Walsh received an award from Cork county Municipal districts Creative communities Scheme to co-ordinate an art project entitled RAW in the local area of Midleton – view the video.
She is currently working in East Cork Music Project as an assistant coordinator leading the art department.
Project – Future Forms Activate Citizenship
Future Forms is a creative engagement project that invites Cork schools, third-level students and community groups to work with artists to create artworks that imagine what their city and urban environment might look like in 200 years time. Participants will explore future visions of Cork through a focus on active citizenship, encouraging all of us to think about ways in which we can get involved in positively influencing the form of our own city.
The Glucksman
The Glucksman is a contemporary art museum in the historic grounds of University College Cork. It was opened by President Mary McAleese in October 2004 and since then has won numerous awards for its architecture and creative programmes. The Glucksman presents ambitious exhibitions of Irish and international art in tandem with a wide range of events and activities designed to encourage participation from all visitors, whether an art professional or first time gallery-goer.
The Glucksman is a place of creative connections between people and disciplines, and is committed to providing world- class art and architecture for all ages and abilities. Enabling access to, and creative engagement with, contemporary art is one of the central pillars of our work, and the team has a strong record of arts in education at every level from primary to postgraduate to professional development. The beautiful setting of the museum in the historic lower grounds of the university as well as a dedicated education space and restaurant, mean that the specific provisions necessary to provide a fully supported experience for people of all ages and abilities can be delivered directly on site.
Do you believe the arts help children and young people to thrive in school and in life?
Would you welcome support to develop innovative creative projects in your school?
If your answer is yes to any or all of these questions then read on…
Creative Schools aims to put the arts and creativity at the heart of children’s and young people’s lives.
Participating schools will understand, develop and celebrate their engagement with the arts, empowering them to bring about real change in the way they work. They will draw on the range of resources within their school and wider community, developing new ways of working that reinforce the impact of creativity on student learning, development and well-being.
Schools will be allocated a Creative Associate, who will support the school for a maximum of nine days over the 2019–20 school year. The Creative Associate will support the school to develop a Creative School Plan and will assist in creating or developing links between schools and with artists and arts and cultural organisations locally and/or nationally. In addition, schools can avail of a grant of €2,000 to implement their plans in 2019–20.
All Department of Education and Skills recognised primary and post-primary schools and Youthreach centres are eligible to apply. 150 new schools will be selected to participate in the initiative in the 2019–2020 school year.
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Barnstorm Theatre presents ‘Boy with a Suitcase’ – a new production for primary school students
Barnstorm Theatre Company
Dates: 6th – 9th of March 2019
School Shows: 10am & 12.30
Barnstorm Theatre Company is delighted to present its new production of ‘Boy with a Suitcase’ by Mike Kenny. Directed by Philip Hardy, the play deals with migration, focusing on the stories and cultural touchstones that sustain a young boy on his perilous journey to Ireland. The play has been written specifically for children aged 8-12 but is an interesting and thought-provoking piece that can be explored by all.
Like his hero, Sinbad the Sailor, who undertook many perilous voyages in search of his fortune, Naz must travel half-way around the world to reach the safety of his brother in Dublin. Naz teams up with Krysia, a young girl in similar circumstances, who helps him dodge soldiers and find safe passage over mountains, across seas and through the mire of a city slum.
A gripping tale of adventure and stories, Naz’s journey throws a spotlight on the real dangers faced by children in other parts of the world, and the lengths to which they must go to reach safety in the relative security of a country like Ireland.
A resource pack, developed in association with Ann Murtagh (Teacher/Tutor at Kilkenny Education Centre) , will be provided to participating teachers. The pack with provide a focus for exploration of the themes that arise throughout the play.
For more information or to obtain a resource pack, please contact Barnstorm Theatre at admin@barnstorm.ie, or call us on 056 7751266
Performances of Boy With a Suitcase will take place at the Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny from the 6th-9th of March.
Fiona Lawton has been teaching secondary students in Scoil Bernadette Special School for the last ten years. She graduated with a Masters in Drama and Theatre Studies in UCC in 1999. During that period Fiona has been involved in writing, directing, acting and producing plays around Cork. In 2005 she played the part of the Magistrate in the award winning film ‘The Wind that Shakes the Barley’. In 2008 Fiona returned to UCC to complete a Postgraduate Diploma in Guidance and Counselling and subsequently in 2013 completed the Higher Diploma in Primary Education with Hibernia College. In school Fiona teaches a variety of subjects but has a passion for drama. Each year she works with a group of LCA students to devise, produce and perform a play. Fiona strongly believes in the importance of educating through the arts where creativity and collaboration are central to the learning process.
Creative Schools: Making Connections – Blog 2
Since our return to school in the New Year, we have begun the next stage of our Creative Schools journey, which is developing our school plan. In mid-January, I met with Naomi Cahill (Creative Schools Associate) to discuss our aims and objectives for the near future as a creative school. Using the framework provided, we were enabled to assess our current strengths and weaknesses in the following areas: Teaching and Learning; Leadership and Management; Children and Young People and Opportunities and Networks.
The process of writing the school plan has renewed our school’s commitment to the creative arts and also has highlighted the areas we would like to develop in the near future. We have committed to providing CPD (Continued Professional Development) for teachers in the next academic year. We will receive training on how best to use drama as a teaching methodology which can be integrated with all subjects across the curriculum.
Scoil Bernadette has a strong focus on the arts already and is involved in a number of extra-curricular creative projects including, dance, music, and theatre. In keeping with our overall objective, which is to enable all students to access a broad range of creative activities whilst in school, we have decided to organize additional visual arts workshops this year.
As Scoil Bernadette is a special school it is vital that all activities are accessible and inclusive for all students. Naomi has been invaluable in providing the school with links with a variety of organisations and practitioners that have experience in working with students with disabilities. It is important for us a school to expand our community network and provide as many opportunities as possible for our students to participate in activities that will aid their journey as lifelong learners.
On 14th February 2019 Naomi, Mairead and I met to develop a plan where a series of six art workshops could be run in Scoil Bernadette during March and April. The workshops will be led by Mairead and co-facilitated by Rosaleen Moore and Ailbhe Barrett, two supported artists that attend the Crawford each week.
It is envisaged that this project will be collaborative and student-led. A group of ten to twelve students from Scoil Bernadette, one from each class, will attend each Friday in the school. The workshops will also involve a visit to the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork City. Together the students will decide on how the project will take shape. We hope to document the process with photographs which can be used to form part of an exhibition to be held in the school.
The workshops will begin on 8th March. We are looking forward to welcoming Mairead, Ailbhe, and Rosaleen to our school and beginning this new adventure.
We are excited to make new links with our local community which hopefully will expand both current and future possibilities for students in Scoil Bernadette.
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CPD for Teachers: Explore Contemporary Visual Art at IMMA
IMMA
Date: 2nd March 2019, 10:00am to 12:30pm
Explore contemporary art, particularly construction, during a studio workshop and enjoy a guided tour of IMMA Collection: ‘A Fiction Close to Reality’. Artist Rachel Tynan will lead this practical workshop during which primary teachers will discover multiple links to the visual art curriculum.
This workshop is free. Booking is essential. Places are limited; booking is on a first come, first served basis. No prior knowledge or experience of art-making is needed. This is the final CPD workshop for primary teachers at IMMA during this academic year.
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Eva International announce ‘Better Words’ a new arts in educational initiative
Eva International
EVA International is delighted to announce ‘Better Words’, a new educational initiative which seeks to empower children’s access and understanding of contemporary art through creative language.
Over the course of a five week programme of workshops between March and May 2019, school groups aged 8 to 12 will develop new word-forms that articulate their experience and encounter of contemporary art. Led by workshop coordinator Maeve Mulrennan and developed in consultation with Patrick Burke (Dept. of Language and Literacy Education, MIC, Limerick) the workshops will involve visits to galleries and meetings with practicing artists, in addition to classroom-based activity.
The selected schools are:
Corpus Christi Primary School (Limerick City),
Knockainey National School (Hospital),
Limerick School Project (Limerick City),
Our Lady Queen of Peace (Limerick City),
St. Senan’s National School (Foynes).
A publication of new art terms developed through the workshop process will be published by EVA International in Autumn 2019, featuring a foreword by author Kevin Barry. Better Words is developed with support from Creative Ireland’s National Creativity Fund.
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Opportunity: Call for Musicians from Fingal County Council
Fingal County Council
Deadline: 8th March 2019
Fingal County Council is announcing a new opportunity titled Musician-in-Residence Programme 2019 ~ and is inviting expressions of interest from Musicians who wish to be included on a Musicians’ Panel, with a view to delivering high quality music lessons to children in primary schools during the academic year 2019 – 2020. The application deadline is March 8th 2019.
For further information go to www.fingalarts.ie/education to download the Application Guidelines & Criteria and Application Form.
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School Opportunity: Uillinn invites Schools to engage with ‘Mapping the Divide’
Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre
Deadline for bookings: Friday 29th March 2019
Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre is delighted to offer West Cork Primary Schools an opportunity to engage with our Dance Artist in Residence, Mairéad Vaughan in a short summer project – Mapping the Divide.
Mapping the Divide is a creative exploration into the effects of technology on our body, mind and environment.
Uillinn invites three primary school groups to take part in a short series of workshops at school and at Uillinn. Two will take place in the school and one at Uillinn and will creatively investigate the impact that technology, and in particular the use of mobile phones, can have on us.
Students will be invited to journey into the body and out to the landscape, to bring awareness of the direct sensory and kinaesthetic relationship we have with our environment. Using gathered materials chosen from the landscape, they will explore textures, patterns, smells, sights and sounds. Then movements will be choreographed from this investigation to create a site-specific, pop-up performance.
About Mairéad Vaughan
As an artist, I am passionate about the transformational power of dance and creativity. My teaching practice highlights the need to reconnect with body-mind, specifically through cultivating sensory awareness (sight, sound, touch, smell, taste). I teach a practice called ‘Attuning’ which develops all of these aspects. This practice is the result of my PhD research and highlights the need for inclusive arts education.
Project Details:
Ages: The workshops are suitable for 5th and 6th class groups, aged 10 to 13 years. Limited to 22 children.
Venue: Your school for two workshops and Performance Space at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen for one workshop.
Dates / Times: Workshops will take place on Wednesday afternoons during May / June, duration 60 to 90 minutes. Dates and times to be arranged to suit the schools involved.
Clothing: Children should wear loose clothing like tracksuit bottoms, rather than school uniform when taking part in the workshops.
Booking Details:
Fee for series of three workshops is €2 per person
Closing date for bookings is Friday 29 March 2019
To find out more or to book your class please contact Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre on 028 22090 or email info@westcorkartscentre.com
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CPD for Teachers: Gaming in The Classroom at The Ark
The Ark in partnership with Mark Create Innovate
Date: 9th March 2019
This engaging workshop will provide you with an introduction to hands-on, simple creative technology tools that support cross- curricular learning through play for STEAM subjects at Primary level – particularly in Science, Technology, Arts and Maths.
You will work in teams with Make Create Innovate to design and develop your own prototype games. You will be introduced to creative technology such as MaKey MaKey and learn about more advanced uses of software such as Scratch. You will see first-hand how games can teach students about competition and cooperation as well as supporting the development of concentration, perseverance and other skills through ‘fine-motor play’. For students, including those with special needs, the design of games and the process of rule- making are ideal ways to explore ethics. It gives the opportunity to reflect on their own values, motivations and behaviour as well as society’s. This can reinforce the strands within history, geography and SPHE relating to human intervention.
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Grown Up Talk: A Year of Early Years Visual Art at The Ark
The Ark – Lucy Hill & Christina Macrae
Date: 28th March 2019
Join artist Lucy Hill, our inaugural John Coolahan Early Years Artist in Residence, and her residency mentor Dr. Christina Macrae from Manchester Metropolitan University to celebrate, reflect on and discuss their experiences together as Lucy’s residency draws to an end. The fascinating discussion will include illustrations of key moments and learnings during the residency, the mentoring process, as well as research and ideas in early years and visual arts practice more generally.
Thought-provoking for parents, preschool and primary teachers, artists, arts managers and anyone with an interest in art and children.
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Schools Opportunity: 2019 Music for Schools Competition
Waltons Music for Schools Competition
Entry Deadline: 22nd March 2019
Running since 2011, the Waltons Music for Schools Competition is a non-profit national event celebrating music in Irish schools run by Waltons New School of Music and generously supported by RTÉ lyric fm. All primary and post-primary schools in the Republic of Ireland are eligible to enter the Competition, and schools from all 26 counties have participated.
Each year’s Competition culminates in a gala Finalists Concert, in which twelve Finalist school groups (six primary and six post-primary) perform before their peers and two distinguished adjudicators. At the end of the Finalists Concert, the adjudicators announce six winning primary and post-primary schools, which receive awards totalling €7,000 worth of vouchers for musical instruments, accessories, books, music technology or PA equipment from Waltons Music, including two First Prizes of €2,000 vouchers.
The Process
School groups create an ensemble piece or song, based on the year’s Competition theme, and performed by an instrumental, vocal or mixed group from the school (maximum 40 performers). The piece or song can be performed by any combination of singers or instrumentalists you choose. This year’s theme is Music=. (What it equals is up to you!)
Schools submit an online entry form and send a video of the group’s performance and a jpeg photograph of the group.
The initial entries are judged by a team of first-round adjudicators, and twelve Finalists (six primary and six post-primary) are selected.
The Finalists are announced by Liz Nolan on RTÉ lyric fm.
The twelve school groups perform in the Finalists Concert at the National Concert Hall, and the six winning schools are announced at the end of the concert.
Friday, 22 March 2019, 5 pm • Entry Deadline Friday, 29 March • Announcement of Finalists Tuesday, 7 May • Finalists Concert, National Concert Hall
The Arts in Education Portal’s regional tour continues with a stop at the Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Manorhamilton on Saturday, February 23rd, 11am to 3pm. Tickets are free but must be booked ahead on Eventbrite here.
Following on from successful events at the Glucksman in Cork in March 2018 and the LexIcon in Dún Laoghaire in October 2018, the Leitrim Regional Day is planned to be an informal day of sharing experience and best practice from the sector. The programme includes a presentation by Aideen McCole of the Irish Architecture Foundation and participants in the IAF’s National Architects in Schools programme as well as a hands-on, experiential workshop on folding and creating three-dimensional space led by artist Vanya Lambrecht-Ward.
1:00pm—Lunch & networking (catered by The Edergole Kitchen, Dromahair)
1.45pm—Hands-on Workshop: Spatial Exploration Through Folding Vanya Lambrecht-Ward
3:00pm—wrap up
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Guest Blogger: Naomi Cahill Creative Associate for Creative Schools & Director of Bespoke Productions – Blog No.3
Naomi Cahill works as a Creative Associate for Creative Schools and is founder and director of Bespoke Productions. She is an experienced and qualified drama teacher of primary, second level and adult education as well as children with special needs and adults with physical and intellectual disabilities. Naomi graduated with a degree in Drama & Theatre Studies from University College Cork. She further completed the Higher Diploma in Arts in Drama Education and was awarded‘Highest Academic Achievement’ from the Leinster School of Music & Drama. Through Bespoke Productions, Naomi leads drama courses in Ireland and abroad which are aimed at building confidence, self-esteem and developing communication skills. She most recently directed a modern version of ‘Romeo & Juliet’ at Teatro Re Grillo, Licata, Sicily. Having performed both on stage and in film, she enjoys sharing her experience with her students. She is delighted to be working as a Creative Associate for the Creative Schools programme.
Creative Schools: New Beginnings in 2019 – Blog 3
Step Two: ‘Develop’
2019 has been great so far with the continuation of the Creative Schools Project. Having completed the ‘Understand’ stage, I have moved onto the next stage: ‘Develop’. Using the planning framework, I work with schools to firstly develop a ‘Creative Schools Vision’. This is a long-term vision for placing the arts and creativity at the heart of the school. It should be aspirational but realistic. It is used to enable the school to develop aims, success criteria and activity plans. The aims state what the school ideally hopes to achieve by introducing the plan. As I previously mentioned, the voice of young people is of key importance to all stages of the project. The school must outline the role of young people in the development of their plan. The success criteria must then be detailed which states how the school will know if their plan is having the desired impact on the school and wider community.
The next step I take is to work with schools to develop a ‘Creative School Plan’. This plan is used to support the ‘Creative Schools Vision’. It includes key areas for development which should be implemented over a number of years. It is used to support the following areas for development: children and young people, teaching and learning, leadership and management & school environment, opportunities and networks. The work completed to date in the ‘Understand’ stage is used directly to the benefit of the ‘Develop’ stage.
I also work with the school to develop an activity plan. The school uses this plan to detail the exact arts and creative activities they wish to undertake this year. A series of questions must be answered which ensure schools think thoroughly about the long-term benefit of chosen activities for example: Which areas of the curriculum are involved (including the potential for collaboration/integration across subject areas)?
Linking Schools to Opportunities:
Every school is unique and they each have particular strengths and arts/creative areas which they wish to develop. I am now working to link schools to relevant opportunities according to their plans. Some activities which have come up so far include: staff undergoing CPD training in drama education to learn how process drama can be used in a cross-curricular fashion as a means to enhance learning in a practical, engaging way. Another includes: students working with a street artist over a series of weeks to create their own work. There has been a fantastic response from arts/creative organisations and artists to the project. Some of the links I have made so far include: artists (in a variety of disciplines), Arts Officers, Creative Ireland Officers, Education Officers (from arts organisations), art galleries, university drama department, music organisations and dance companies.
Student Advisory Group:
To ensure students play an active role in the implementation and evaluation of the project I work with schools to set up a ‘Student Advisory Group’. This is a cross-section of students from different class groups that I engage with on a regular basis. These students give us a valuable insight into their own artistic & creative interests. Their views must be taken on board in the development, implementation and evaluation of the project.
Arts in Education:
This project is raising the level of importance of the arts and creativity in education across the board. It is not only creating opportunities for schools but also for artists that are highly skilled and trained with vast experience. Personally speaking, my career to date has revolved around creativity. On a regular basis, I hear about the benefits creativity has to mental health and well-being. Exposure to the arts and creativity is something which needs to be made possible through the education system in order to ensure equal opportunity to young people. In a world that is constantly changing, creativity is needed more than ever.
Fiona Lawton has been teaching secondary students in Scoil Bernadette Special School for the last ten years. She graduated with a Masters in Drama and Theatre Studies in UCC in 1999. During that period Fiona has been involved in writing, directing, acting and producing plays around Cork. In 2005 she played the part of the Magistrate in the award winning film ‘The Wind that Shakes the Barley’. In 2008 Fiona returned to UCC to complete a Postgraduate Diploma in Guidance and Counselling and subsequently in 2013 completed the Higher Diploma in Primary Education with Hibernia College. In school Fiona teaches a variety of subjects but has a passion for drama. Each year she works with a group of LCA students to devise, produce and perform a play. Fiona strongly believes in the importance of educating through the arts where creativity and collaboration are central to the learning process.
Creative Schools: Creative Coordinator – Blog 1
My Name is Fiona Lawton and I have been teaching in Scoil Bernadette for the last ten years. Scoil Bernadette is a special school in Cork that caters for students with mild general learning disabilities. The school aims to make each student be as independent as they can be.
We do this by providing a secure, caring and supportive environment through the provision of a broad curriculum of social, personal, academic, sporting, vocational and relevant life-skills programmes.
I teach a range of subjects in Scoil Bernadette and have a keen interest in drama, I am a graduate of the Masters in Drama and Theatre at UCC. My learning there has taught me the value of creativity in an educational setting. As teachers in Scoil Bernadette we are consistently looking for new ways to engage our students and make learning fun.
We have a strong focus on the arts in Scoil Bernadette. We have a choir that performs in school, at fundraising events and in an annual Christmas Concert each year. Our students are involved in a Samba drumming group and they participate in the Music Mash Up community arts programme where they learn instruments and singing. We have an annual visit from GMC rapper who works with our final year students in creating their own rap. We are also very involved in the dramatic arts. We are good friends with the Everyman Theatre in Cork and attend their musical theatre productions each year. We also regularly attend workshops and performances with Graffiti Theatre and Cyclone Productions. Our Fifth years create their own drama production where they devise, produce and perform their own show over a period of four months.
This is just a small selection of the creative activities that we are involved with. As you can imagine we were delighted to be chosen to participate in the Creative Schools programme. For us, it provides us with a forum to celebrate and consolidate the work we have been doing and it also gives us an opportunity to take stock, evaluate and plan how we can develop our school as a creative learning community.
Attending the in service for the Creative Schools Coordinators was an exciting and encouraging start to the year. It was great to meet all the other teachers and youth workers who are involved in the programme. The day was informative, hands on and great fun. The enthusiasm showed by the facilitators and participants was infectious. It was a great reminder of how we learn best when we are active and collaborating. This belief is one of the core teaching methodologies that we would like to promote in Scoil Bernadette as a creative school.
I did my best to recreate the days learning (albeit a condensed version) at our own staff planning day. We all did the envelope activity which required us to think ‘outside the box’ and engage with our creative sides. We don’t always have the opportunity to consider these things together so it was nice to discuss and share ideas about what creativity means to us as a staff. We also did an inventory of the creative activities that we are currently doing. It was great to acknowledge the many creative activities we are involved with already.
It was a pleasure to finally meet our Creative Schools Associate, Naomi. Naomi came up to meet with a group of our students and did a fantastic workshop with them where they were given an opportunity to consider what creative activities they are currently involved with and what they would like to do in the future. Naomi also distributed surveys to the staff so that we could give our thoughts on our current strengths, challenges and hopes for Scoil Bernadette as a creative school. Naomi’s enthusiasm for the project is evident and we are delighted we have her expertise to guide us through the planning process.
I feel that the wheels have been set in motion and we are off to a good start. I am looking forward to the next stage of the process where we can start planning and making decisions about where to go next.
It will be exciting to make links with other schools and expand our thinking and share experiences. We are delighted to be involved with this project and are looking forward to the rest of the year.
Read Naomi Cahill, Creative Schools Associate blog series at the links below:
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Blog 4 – Chris McCambridge, Special Educational Needs Teacher, Virtually There
Christopher McCambridge is a Special Educational Needs teacher at St. Colman’s Primary School, Lambeg. St. Colman’s Primary is a mainstream school of 400 pupils with two learning support unit classes. Christopher is also an active member of the Belfast art scene. He co-founded the arts organisation Belfast Platform for the Arts (Platform Arts) in 2010, which continues to provide an exhibition space and studios for artists.
In 2016 Christopher and his Primary 6/7 class were chosen to take part in the Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership ‘Virtually There’ project. ‘A virtual artist in residence project which explores the potential for creative engagement between artists working from their studio and children and teachers in the classroom using video conferencing technology’. (Orla Kenny, Creative Director of Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership). Now in their 3rd year, artist John D’Arcy has been working collaboratively with Christopher and his class at St Colman’s P.S as virtual artist-in-residence.
Away Day – Blog 4
2018 marked the completion of my 2nd Year working as part of the Kids’ Own, Virtually There project. The two years have flown in and I have found that the pupils throughout those years have been given an enjoyable and unique experience. This project has also helped me to develop creatively as a teacher and an individual. This development was furthered through the ‘creative away day’ that the Kids’ Own organisation offered to all the teacher – artist groupings. Each teacher-artist grouping would be able to organise their own creative away allowing us the opportunity to re-charge our creative batteries, broaden our horizons and prepare for the next project year.
After much discussion, John D’Arcy (Artist) and I decided to take a day trip to Dublin to view a number of exhibitions that we both found of interest. These exhibitions included Land / Sea / Signal at RUA RED in Tallaght and ‘Prototypes’ by Doireann O’Malley, Rachel Maclean ’Just be yourself’ in The Hugh Lane gallery. The exhibitions involved the use of digital technology, an aspect that has been integral to our project.
The journey to Dublin provided us both with an opportunity to reflect on the project from the previous year. Discussing aspects such as the pacing of the individual elements of the project, aspects of planning, pupils’ enjoyment, as well as discussing what we felt worked well or could be improved. This time, especially outside of term time, was invaluable as it allowed us to discuss the project without any other distractions.
In Year 2, the central theme of our project was Hacking. This word was the starting point from which all other ideas would develop from. I felt this worked particularly well as it meant we could develop ideas from this central theme, allowing ideas to either develop as stand-alone lesson or develop into their own mini-project . This flexible approach, gave me more confidence in allowing each idea to develop at its own pace, with the children developing and realising their ideas across a number of weeks. Thus, allowing for a greater insight into the work. This is an aspect which I hope we further refine, allowing the children to critically reflect on their workings within each session.
During our first two years working together, technology has played an important role within our projects. This year the use of apps had allowed the children to explore hacking in a variety of ways. In one of the mini-projects we focused on the ‘hacking of time’, exploring how we could speed up or slow down different movements from the mundane, the children completing work, to the more exciting, running a race. This mini-project was achieved through the app Hyper-lapse. I felt the variety and use of different apps had engaged the children. These apps were later used by the children to create a ‘coded film’ which the viewer was required to hack, using a code developed by the children during our sessions. Due to an interest in technology, I was interested in viewing these exhibitions in Dublin.
The exhibition, Land / Sea / Signal, was a group show featuring artists, Alan Butler, Gregory Chatonsky, John Gerrard, Nicolas Sassoon & Rick Silva and Santa France. The exhibition brought together these artists whose practices ‘mediated on the materiality of internet infrastructure and the complex socio-political conditions that are embedded within them.’The exhibition examined our modern day relationship with the internet, particularly how we ‘maintain, update and adjust our relationships … and reconfigure ourselves through technologies and with one another.
Image copyright artist Alan Butler – Land / Sea / Signal at Rua Red
As with any exhibition, there were artworks which held my interest longer than others. In Land / Sea / Signal, the artist Alan Bulter piece was one of these. The artist documented the lives and experiences of the homeless … within the video game, Grand Theft Auto V. Upon first viewing I had initially mistaken these photographs as documenting real people in the outskirts of rundown cities. Once realising my error, I was taken aback by the uncanny resemblance to the real-life and how unfortunate circumstances can lead to these positions for people.
After exploring RUA RED, we moved on to the Hugh Lane gallery to view the exhibitions by Doireann O’Malley and Rachel Maclean.
Dorieann O’Malley’s exhibition Prototypes was a multi-screen film installation exploring ‘transgender studies, science fiction, bio politics and psychoanalysis, AI and experimental music. She skilfully ties these to phantoms of modernist utopias, epitomised by the post-war architecture of Berlin, which serves as a dreamlike scenography for the main, protagonists’ ghostly actions’ [Jury Statement, Edith Russ Haus fur Media Art Stipendium, 2016]
Some of the work of Doireann O’Malley was as a result of collaborative methodology, using a combination of CGI, film and Virtual Reality of interest. This was of interest to both John and I, as we have discussed the use of Virtual Reality as a line of enquire in Year 3 of our project.
Rachel Maclean’s exhibition ‘Just be yourself!’, also at the Hugh Lane gallery, was a series of video installations and digital artworks. Her work uses “satire to critique consumer desire, identities and power dynamics … she parodies fairy tales, children’s television programmes, advertising, internet videos and pop culture … combining her interests in role-play, costume and digital production in works of cinematic collage.
Image copyright Rachel Maclean – ‘Just be yourself!’, at the Hugh Lane gallery
I would like to thank Kids’ Own and their funders for giving John and I the opportunity to organise this creative away day. It has provided us with the opportunity to discuss and critique our project work to date and allow us to view exhibitions that could influence our thinking for future ‘Virtually There’ projects.
Year 3 of our ‘Virtually There’ project is currently underway, and as documented in my previous post, we are exploring the theme of ‘Radio.’ We have developed our own radio identity, WECHO FM. Since my last post, the children have created their own DJ names, such as Smooth T, Aidan Big Shot, Jump Bam Sam and Charley KAPOW to name a few. They have also used these names to design portraits, using a variety of different materials and techniques, which reflect their radio personalities.
As the project continues to grow and develop, the children are beginning to record talk shows, news stories, weather reports and create music and jingles, advertising WECHO FM and their own individual shows. At the end of the project, we intend to visit a local radio station, where we will have the opportunity to play our content to a live audience.
The ‘Virtually There’ project continues to allow the children the opportunity to express themselves artistically, as well as giving me the confidence to step outside my comfort zone and develop as a teacher.
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Opportunity for Teachers: CPD Visual Art Workshop at IMMA
Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA)
Date: Saturday 2nd February, 10:00am to 12:30pm
Explore print-making during a studio workshop and enjoy a guided tour of the exhibition IMMA Collection: Freud Project, Gaze. IMMA guided tours for primary schools are focussing on this exhibition until May 2019.
Artist Rachel Tynan will lead this practical workshop during which primary teachers will discover multiple links to the visual art curriculum.
This workshop is free but on-line booking is essential. Places are limited and booking is on a first come, first served basis.
You don’t need any prior knowledge or experience of art-making.
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Schools are invited to ‘PEAT’ – a new theatre show for children at The Ark
The Ark
Dates: 28th February – 31st March
The Ark presents ‘PEAT’ the world premiere of a brand new theatre show for ages 8+ by Kate Heffernan. Directed by Tim Crouch.
Delivered with lightness and humour, this new play for children asks big questions about life, death, time and history. A conversation between two 11-year olds who find themselves standing on top of everything that has ever happened, it is a story of friendship, loss, and finding our place in the world. The production will be performed by Curtis Lee Ashqar and Kwaku Fortune. The creative team includes lighting by The Ark’s Franco Bistoni alongside set & costume design by Lian Bell and sound design by Slavek Kwi, two acclaimed artists making their debuts at The Ark. The Ark invited consultation with children at several junctures throughout the process. The childrens’ input, including input from The Ark’s Children’s Council, greatly influenced the direction of the piece and has been at the very heart of this production.
School Days
6th -29th March (Wednesday-Friday) @ 10.15am & 12.15pm. (No show Wednesday 20th March)
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Uillinn invites schools to ‘Elemental’ – an exhibition where children are the primary audience
Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre
Date: Until 2nd March 2019
Elemental an exhibition with interactivity, tactility and spacial enquiry, where children are the primary audience.
School Group bookings available.
Aimed especially at children aged 4-12, Elemental is an exhibition that invites children and people of all ages to encounter contemporary art through touch and movement, as well as sight. Leading artists Caoimhe Kilfeather and Karl Burke are transforming the galleries with their interactive, tactile sculptures and installations that explore scale, texture, space and light.
Primary school groups of all levels are encouraged to come and experience this artwork throughout the exhibition. A tour of the work is not necessary, teachers can bring along their school group to spend time in the galleries interacting and investigating the artwork and then take time to The Make Space – by practising primary school teacher and trained artist Anne Bradley – a calm room where children can take time to creatively respond to the themes and materials of the works on exhibition; using materials such as sand, small objects, pieces of wood and fabric to explore pattern, visual order, touch and more.
Charlotte Donovan, Uillinn’s Artists in Residence for Learning and Engagement will be available for schools on Friday’s to facilitate a workshop where the children can respond to their experience in the gallery and make their own work to take away.
Elemental contains a major commission from Caoimhe Kilfeather, with artworks that suggest an imagined forest of both indoor and outdoor elements. One element, created from hundreds of metres of green Indian silk, hanging 3 metres high, will offer pockets of space for children to inhabit. A tree house will perch 5 metres high overlooking the exhibition space, and the floor will be covered with cushions and ‘leaves’ fashioned from organdie, with brooms and sweeping brushes to tidy up. In the upstairs gallery, children will be able to walk around and through a steel sculpture by artist Karl Burke (entitled ‘Taking a Line’), which stands 2.5 metres high, and creates a very subtle optical illusion that implies density in empty space. Both Caoimhe and Karl have also each made interactive works that speak to children’s oft held desire to creatively arrange objects found in nature.
During the final weeks of the exhibition, a number of additional artworks will be exhibited throughout the gallery. These commissioned works will be made collaboratively by local primary school children from Dromore National School Bantry and artist Siobhán McGibbon, who will be working together over eight sessions in Uillinn to research, experiment and create their own artworks, responding to the exhibition themes.
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Guest Blogger: Ciara Gallagher Creativity and Change programme participant – Blog No. 2
Ciara has a PhD in English from Maynooth University. She has worked as researcher on the National Collection of Children’s Books (TCD) and “Gender Identity: Child Readers and Library Collections” at the Centre for Children’s Literature and Culture, DCU. She has taught English in various universities and currently works at Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership as office administrator.
Making Connections – Blog 2
The Creativity and Change programme meets once a month for one full weekend, each weekend bringing new experiences, challenges, and connections. These full weekends allow participants a depth of experience in learning, critical thinking, and creativity. There are also spaces for pause, reflection, and making connections woven into the structure of the course, and I begin to appreciate the space for reflection that the weeks between each course weekend allow too.
The idea that creative engagement is key in facilitating transformative learning experiences that might effect change in the way we see, exist, and act in the world is at the core of the Creativity and Change programme. With this focus, new possibility is discovered within seemingly simple, everyday acts. Listening, speaking, and observing, core components of many adult education courses, are first given renewed attention. For example, as part of our learning in a day dedicated to transformative learning and the creative process, participants pair up and take turns speaking and listening without interruption. The experience of listening intently and actively, and that of speaking uninterrupted demonstrates perhaps how often we take these acts of speaking and listening for granted in teaching, in facilitation, and in learning, and in simply communicating with others.
Consideration of communication and creativity is furthered in a weekend dedicated to the exploration of visual facilitation, which broadly refers to a process of facilitating meetings, seminars and other exchanges in visual form using images, words and symbols. As someone used to working only in the written word, this was a challenge for me. We began by visually representing sounds and playfully making marks on the page in groups. Once those daunting first marks were made on our paper canvases, the temptation to overthink into inaction was removed, at least temporarily. As we gradually built toward the challenge of visually documenting the conversations of other participants, the merit of incorporating creatively challenging work into my own facilitation and my learning became clear. A completely different part of my thinking and concentration was engaged. I gained new insight into the process of how I listen as well as how I order and create meaning. Just as the exercise on speaking and listening drew attention to the dynamics of dialogue, this act of visually representing the groups’ words brought a new attention to how I interpret and document, as well as a feeling of responsibility to accurately reflect and honour the group’s conversation.
Developing new ways of seeing and interpreting continued throughout the weekend on visual facilitation, which concluded with the class working in small groups, each tasked with creatively representing different sets of data. Groups worked on visualising data relating to the deficiencies of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme, the difficulties people with disabilities face when trying to access social housing, and on numbers of people on housing lists against the units of social housing available – important data that can become meaningless in spite of its devastating reality. From an assortment of seemingly random materials, groups created stop-motion animations, made clay models, assembled sets, and designed performances incorporating material to represent this data. What emerged from the varieties of modes and forms through which this data was visually represented was perhaps the force of that which could not be measured or visualised, the shock of what this data represented that could not be contained or incorporated numerically. Through this creative process, the groups began to find new ways to see and explore some of the most pressing justice issues in our contemporary moment.
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Exploring And Thinking: Presentations On Early Childhood Arts Commissions
The Four Dublin Local Authorities in association with the NCH
Date: 24th January 2019
Exploring and Thinking is a collaborative framework for early childhood arts in the Dublin region. It came about in 2016 when the four Dublin Local Authorities partnered for the first time to collectively consider early childhood arts provision in the Dublin region.
The project partners made a successful application for Arts Council funding under the Invitation to Collaboration Scheme 2016. The joint proposal focused on commissioning and touring new artwork to the four Local Authority areas with local engagement programmes, in arts and non-traditional arts venues.
The Exploring and Thinking framework culminated in the commissioning of two unique projects:
Anna Newell, I Am Baba – A new immersive theatre piece for babies aged 0-12 months. A full commission for the development, creation and tour of I Am Baba to the four Local Authority areas.
Helen Barry and Eamon Sweeney, Sculptunes – A modular interactive music-producing sculpture. A research and development commission, which supported the artists to develop one piece of the original sixpiece Sculptunes proposal and test this musical sculpture with children and early childcare practitioners.
The Local Authority partnership in association with the National Concert Hall (NCH) now wish to share the commissioned work and invite you to hear from the commissioned artists. A publication capturing a review of the commissioning process, outputs and impacts of the collaborative framework, alongside additional research conducted among the artists and key personnel will be presented on the day. Dr. Michelle Downes has been invited as keynote speaker to share some of her insights and findings on brain and behaviour development in the first years of life.
The inclusion of a space for reflection and discussion is included in the day’s events in the form of a focus workshop. Attendees are invited to communicate their experience of working in the early childhood arts sector with the local authority partners.
If you are hoping to inject some creative change into your 2019 then look no further than the Creativity & Change Masterclass programme. They start off next month, Feb 9th and 10th with a weekend of creative writing.
Creativity and Change masterclasses are an opportunity for inspirational, intensive and in depth engagement over one or two days. Delivered by facilitators with specific expertise and experience, the programme is designed around the identified gaps and expressed interests of practitioners. Each masterclass is a deep dive into a specific method that can be used to explore change-making, global citizenship and social justice. Fees are subsidised by our partner Irish Aid in order to make these courses affordable and accessible to all. They will all take place in inspiring locations around Cork City.
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Job opportunity: Creative Technology Facilitator with Make Create Innovate
Make Create Innovate
Deadline: 5pm, Wednesday, January 23rd 2019
Make Create Innovate is an exciting educational start-up working with creative technology across many education sectors. We offer learners the opportunity to make, build, create and explore in hands-on workshops. We are passionate about developing high quality STEAM- based education experiences for learners of all ages in both formal and non-formal educational settings.
They are now inviting expressions of interest to join a panel of freelance facilitators from which we will draw upon for our upcoming series of workshops 2019-2020.
Role Specifics:
Job type: freelance / contract – paid hourly or by the day
Location: Usually Dublin, occasionally outside Dublin
Availability: Usually Monday – Friday, sometimes weekends
The successful candidate must have easy access to Dublin and have own transport
The Arts Council of Ireland is seeking to engage the services of a suitably qualified Programme Manager for the Creative Schools Initiative.
Scoileanna Ildánacha/Creative Schools is a flagship initiative of the Creative Ireland Programme to enable the creative potential of every child. Creative Schools is led by the Arts Council in partnership with the Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. Creative Schools draws on the commitments set out in the Arts in Education Charter. Creative Schools will give expression to this goal as part of an integrated implementation plan for arts in education. Drawing on the commitments set out in the Arts in Education Charter, Creative Schools (formerly ARIS/Arts Rich Schools) aims to understand, develop and celebrate the arts, as a core aspect of school life, and to foster children and young people’s creativity and participation in the arts as an integral part of their education in Ireland.
It will establish a range of collaborative opportunities for schools and will develop and strengthen the relationships between schools and the broader cultural and community infrastructure within which they operate. The long-term aim is for every school to be supported to fully embrace the arts and creativity, ensuring a positive experience and strong outcomes for children and young people.
The initiative is informed by research that tells us that young people’s participation in the artsleads to a range of positive outcomes for children with regard to their cognitive development, socio-emotional wellbeing and attitudes to school. Children who participate in the arts in school are more likely to participate outside of school, including reading for pleasure. (Arts Council/ESRI, 2016)
The Arts Council is seeking to engage the services of a suitably qualified Programme Manager.
The Programme Manager will be engaged on a full-time basis and will work as part of a core team, made up of two full-time Education Advisors seconded to the programme and the Creative Schools Project Leads. The Programme Manager will be responsible for policy alignment, project planning and delivery, to ensure the effective management of all key policy, operational and logistical elements of the initiative, liaising internally to ensure effective integration with Arts Council systems, policies and procedures where required; as well as assisting with the design and implementation of new systems and processes specific to Creative Schools. The Programme Manager will work with the Creative Schools Project Leads and will report to the Arts Director, Performing Arts.
Full details and application available through etenders at the direct link below:
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Kids’ Own publishes new book by children experiencing homelessness, aged 8–12
Kids’ Own has published a brand new book by children experiencing homelessness. The book was launched in partnership with Focus Ireland on Friday 9th November, and offers a rich resource for teachers and schools to explore themes of social justice, children’s rights and SPHE topics. The book was developed by 15 children, aged 8–12, during the summer – through a creative process with writer Mary Branley and artist Maree Hensey –and includes a beautiful mixture of artwork, photography, poetry and personal stories.
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Early Years workshop at The Ark: The King Who Finds Feelings Confusing
The Ark
Date: 19 January 2019
Meet the King who has banned feelings and colours from his Kingdom in this fun and interactive workshop for 3 to 5 years olds and their grown-ups at The Ark, Dublin. In partnership with First Fortnight.
The King finds feelings confusing so he says no one can laugh or cry when he’s around. Feelings of happiness, sadness or anger are not allowed. He wants everything and everyone to be grey and gloomy all day long – so he’s banished colours as well.
Be part of a group of brave, young adventurers who decide this can’t be right, so go an a mission to collect the missing feelings and colours and bring them back to the Kingdom.
About Joanna Parkes
Joanna Parkes is a freelance drama facilitator and theatre practitioner working in Primary Schools and Teacher Training Colleges. As well as devising and delivering drama programmes in schools she has also written a number of teacher’s resources packs and publications. She has been running workshops and teacher-training at The Ark since 2013.
About First Fortnight
First Fortnight is a charity that challenges mental health prejudice through arts and cultural action. The First Fortnight Festival creates a consistent space in the cultural calendar where citizens can be inspired through arts events and experiences to talk about mental health issues in a non-scripted manner. This year they are delighted to host the European Mental Health Arts & Culture Festival in Ireland. Find out more at www.firstfortnight.ie.
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Guest Blogger: Ciara Gallagher Creativity and Change programme participant – Blog No. 1
Ciara has a PhD in English from Maynooth University. She has worked as researcher on the National Collection of Children’s Books (TCD) and “Gender Identity: Child Readers and Library Collections” at the Centre for Children’s Literature and Culture, DCU. She has taught English in various universities and currently works at Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership as office administrator.
First impressions of the Creativity and Change programme, (CIT) Cork – Blog 1
I’ve always had a keen interest in the creative arts and concepts of creativity. Issues of social justice have also always been to the forefront of my concerns, very much connected with my interest in creativity and literary forms, and informing much of my research. It’s not surprising then that the Creativity and Change course, a programme aimed at “anyone who is interested how creative engagement can nurture global citizenship and empathic action around local and global justice themes”, piqued my interest. However, having spent most of my career to date firmly on the analytical and critical side of creativity, and perhaps on issues of social justice too, it took some courage and the making of some pros and cons lists before I applied. Though I’ve invested much time in thinking about how literature can help us think about, see, and shape the world in different ways — in other words, how engaging with a form of creative expression might form new pathways of understanding — I haven’t spent much time on what is perhaps the more uncomfortable side of creativity.
From the very beginning of the course, I was struck by the emphasis on doing, on movement, on activity. Introductory ice-breakers were conducted by participants physically orienting ourselves at different points in the room according to different prompts. Each new topic was prefaced by games involving movement and reflection. Instead of beginning by talking about our interests and experiences related to global justice, we explored these ideas through working with watercolours, pencils, markers — objects unfamiliar to the adult me. We worked silently in groups on numerous activities. In one instance, groups of participants were given a block of clay, to shape and mould any way the group saw fit, without speaking or communicating. Working with paint and clay in silence allowed me to experience quiet contentment in the process, with “doing” for its own sake, rather than focusing on my lack of competence or confidence in these activities. I think I also reflected more deeply on ideas of teamwork and leadership as a result of these experiences than through many of the designated courses on these topics that I’d attended as part of training for previous jobs.
One full day of our first weekend was spent at the “creative fair”. Course participants were let loose in a room with numerous stalls with various familiar and unfamiliar art materials, books, newspapers, magazines and much more. For the first part of the day, we were given no instruction — only to enjoy, play, or create something from the materials at hand. After a couple of hours of being absorbed in activity, we were tasked with making something that somehow engaged with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, and were given some instruction on how to use the material at each stall. This, for me, and I think for many other participants, completely and perhaps deliberately changed the earlier atmosphere of experimentation and engagement. I attempted to make a postcard based on the fourth SDG, quality education. Though it’s an issue that I feel strongly about and have given thought to, attaching the logo for the SDG of quality education made the postcard feel like a flimsy exploration, expressing an easy platitude without depth or engagement. And so, the first weekend of the course ended with numerous reflections and realisations about the relationship between creativity and issues of global justice.
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Guest Blogger: Naomi Cahill Creative Associate for Creative Schools & Director of Bespoke Productions – Blog No. 2
Naomi Cahill works as a Creative Associate for Creative Schools and is founder and director of Bespoke Productions. She is an experienced and qualified drama teacher of primary, second level and adult education as well as children with special needs and adults with physical and intellectual disabilities. Naomi graduated with a degree in Drama & Theatre Studies from University College Cork. She further completed the Higher Diploma in Arts in Drama Education and was awarded‘Highest Academic Achievement’ from the Leinster School of Music & Drama. Through Bespoke Productions, Naomi leads drama courses in Ireland and abroad which are aimed at building confidence, self-esteem and developing communication skills. She most recently directed a modern version of ‘Romeo & Juliet’ at Teatro Re Grillo, Licata, Sicily. Having performed both on stage and in film, she enjoys sharing her experience with her students. She is delighted to be working as a Creative Associate for the Creative Schools programme.
Creative Schools: The Journey Continues – Blog 2
Creative Schools Coordinators:
In every Creative School there is a Creative Schools Coordinator. The coordinator is my first point of contact with each school and I liaise with them in regular meetings. I have now met all coordinators in my corresponding schools. In some schools the coordinator is a member of the teaching staff and in others it is the school principal. There has been a great response and enthusiasm from all coordinators and schools as a whole to the project and a strong belief in the positive impact it can make on putting the arts and creativity at the heart of young people’s lives.
Completion of Step One: ‘Understand’:
I am continuing to work with schools on the process of gaining an understanding of the school’sengagement with the arts and creativity. Having completed workshops and meetings with relevant parties and staff, I am liaising with Creative Schools Coordinators to complete the documentation for this section. All schools are provided with a document called ‘Understand’ complete with four sections: 1) Children & Young People 2) Teaching & Learning 3) Leadership & Management & 4) School Environment, Opportunities & Networks. In each section there are a series of statements which are rated on a scale of: 0-5 (0 means: the statement is ‘Not at all true’, 5 means: the statement is ‘Very true’). For example: “Pupils/students are involved in decision-making on existing arts opportunities and are able to shape their learning experiences in school” (Section 1: Children & Young People). Using age specific surveys designed for appropriate parties and information gathered from staff discussions I work with coordinators to rate all statements (using an average from the individual ratings). The following individuals are consulted with in this process: the school principal, deputy principal, coordinator, teachers (including resource staff & S.N.A.s), staff with a responsibility for the arts, parent’s association and board of management. These findings will support the development of the Creative Schools Plan which will be carried out in step two: ‘Develop’.
What is Creativity?
As I mentioned in my previous post the voice, opinions and views of young people is of key importance to this pilot project. Through ‘The Voice of Young People’ workshop I collected lots of useful information which I use as data for the ‘Children & Young People’ section and to influence my work with schools going forward. I go through this information, document and analyse it. I found it inspiring to read young people’s understanding of the word ‘Creativity’. From my experience, all young people have their own individual understanding of creativity. It is very interesting and uplifting read their definitions:
“I think it is about showing who you are and what you like to do”. “I think if you’re creative, you have a big imagination”.
“It’s about expressing yourself”.
“Imagination”.
“Like your dreams are what you feel & draw & do”.
“Do what your mind tells you”.
“Creativity is free! When you break rules, you are being creative”.
I believe it is important to let young people come up with their own understanding of creativity rather than provide them with a set definition. This is similar to the constructivist approach I often use in my own teaching. Using constructivism, students are actively involved in constructing their own meaning and knowledge as opposed to passively receiving information.
Through the workshop, I also gathered information on student’s individual artistic and creative interests. Students listed: the creative activities they are currently engaged with inside and outside school. They also listed the creative things they would like to do if they had the opportunity. It is very interesting to hear their responses. The answers vary greatly from school to school. The school’slocation and the cultural and artistic opportunities in close proximity of the school also have an influence on the responses given.
Meeting Teachers:
I have commenced meeting all teaching staff in my corresponding schools. It is very important that staff are fully aware of what is involved in Creative Schools and are able to contribute their ideas in order for the project to be of benefit. The staff are of key importance to ensure the sustainability and longevity of the project. In these meetings I initially provide staff with a thorough understanding of Creative Schools. I then explain the different components of the programme including the first step: ‘Understand’. I design posters listing the following questions as headings:
What are the creative strengths of the school? What creative areas can the school develop? What creative activities can the school implement to develop these areas?
I then facilitate a discussion with staff where they are given the opportunity to provide answers/ideas to questions listed. We pass around the posters and everyone makes a written note of their contributions. I also ask staff about their own individual areas of expertise for example: Is there a staff member that is a particularly skilled/trained musician/dancer? etc. This is very beneficial for all staff to be aware of going forward. I have found that a lot of schools are interested in working collaboratively together to share their creative skills and knowledge.
New Beginnings in 2019:
I am looking forward to a new year of opportunities for Creative Schools and excited to move on to the next stage of the project.
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Members of the Portal Editorial Committee pay tribute to Orla Kenny
As 2018 comes to a close, members of the Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee have paid tribute to Orla Kenny, long-time Creative Director of Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership, who passed away in July. Here, members of the committee remember their first encounters with Orla and reflect on their experiences of working with her in different capacities within the arts and education sector. As director of Kids’ Own (the organisation that won the tender for leading the development of the Portal in 2014) Orla was instrumental in the stakeholder consultation process, design, development and management of the Arts in Education Portal in close consultation and collaboration with the Editorial Committee.
Remembering Orla
I first met Orla when Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership won the tender to advise on the building of the Arts in Education Portal in 2014. I had been aware of her work and publications prior to that. Apart from her vast knowledge I was instantly struck by her skills and expertise in working with the Portal Advisory Committee who were a heterogeneous group of people from education, arts and technology backgrounds. No question posed was too basic and her warm encouraging smile led to great working relationships. She took the concept of the Portal from concept phase to its official launch in the Printworks in Dublin Castle on the 19th May 2015. The Portal is now the key national digital resource for arts and education practice in Ireland, and thanks to Orla and her team, underpinning the continued development of the Portal is a strong and implicit shared belief amongst all stakeholders of the intrinsic value of the arts in the lives of children. She was a passionate advocate for the integration of the arts in education and she championed the voice of the child and the rights of all children to fulfil their creative potential. She is sadly missed by the large community of practice which has developed over the last six years and amongst whom she was a shining star. The last time we met she was with her beautiful son Oscar. I count myself very lucky to have worked with Orla.
Katie Sweeney, Chair of the Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee
I recall my first meeting with Orla when Simon Spain introduced her as the new Director at Kids’ Own and his successor (he was departing for Australia). He chose well! – as the legacy of his and her work will ultimately prove. Orla worked with us in 2003 on their first exhibition to share the innovative work that they were developing in schools north and south of the border – Multimedia Maps (the result of a three-year project initiated and run by Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership) The project placed artists in school communities in the border counties in Ireland to investigate the use of new technologies as tools for creativity and the exchange of ideas. From 2000 to 2001 over 500 children in the border counties of Armagh, Cavan, Donegal, Down, Sligo and Tyrone, worked with six artists – Owen Crawford, Julie Forrester, Angela Ginn, Rachel Glynne, Ann Henderson and Sharon Kelly – in a series of residencies as part of the project. Orla was a perfectionist and knew that to show the quality of engagement that was happening in the artists’ residencies she had to have this reflected in the exhibition as well.
Seeing how the work of Kids’ Own developed since then and talking with artists who were nurtured by her supportive process has been wonderful. She will be missed by so many and it was a privilege to work with her over the past few years as a member of the Portal Steering Group.
Helen O Donoghue, Senior Curator Engagement and Learning IMMA
I first encountered Orla when we were both working towards a Postgraduate Teaching Diploma in Art and Design Education in Limerick School of Art, which she embraced with energy, ambition and inquisition. Some years later, our paths crossed again, soon after I started working in Kildare County Council and Orla, in Kids’ Own, when we collaborated on ‘Can’t Loose Cant’, a stunning pictionary with words in English, Irish and Cant. I admired her commitment to creating something with a strong aesthetic, while ensuring that the children involved were immersed in the process and that the local Traveller community were consulted on the use of Cant. In recent years, Orla and Kids’ Own led a series of artists workshops in Kildare (and further afield) on documentation, reflection and evaluation of work in education contexts – a much needed discipline that many artists neglect and that Orla was a huge advocate for. More recently again, Orla put her shoulder to the wheel on www.artsineducation.ie.
My children are a similar age to Orla’s son and over the years, we compared the usual milestones and dramas. My heart hurts at the idea of a child loosing a parent. I’m not sure that there is comfort to be found when a vibrant young woman dies. But if there is comfort, let it be in a life lived to the full, jam packed with passion, creativity and a desire to share what is good.
Lucina Russell, Arts Officer, Kildare County Council
The first time I met Orla was in The Model in Sligo. In spite of wearing a suit and tie, by the afternoon, she had me sitting in the lotus position, in a circle with artist Maree Hensey and others reflecting on the art work we had completed. She smiled when she saw me. With that smile she was able to disarm everyone of their inhibitions and positive work ensued. This sense of humour combined with a vision for the arts witnessed her bringing Kids’ Own Publishing on to a national and international stage. One of her great legacies will be the first ever Arts in Education Portal in Ireland. She was taken from us all too soon. It was wonderful to have known and worked with her.
Dermot Carney, Arts Officer, National Association of Principles and Deputy Principle
My overriding memory of Orla is of her great positivity, her humour and her practicality. You always laughed a lot in her company but she was completely serious about the work of Kids’ Own and its impact on children and young people. The depth of her knowledge was incredible and you can see this in the Arts in Education Portal which is her great legacy to us that she built with such passion with her wonderful team. It was a privilege to know her.
Deirdre Behan, Strategic Development Director, The Arts Council
Orla was the sort of person who lit up a room, whom you smiled to see when she walked into a meeting. She was fun and funny, and knew that levity was never mutually exclusive to serious intent. You knew she took her work and your work and especially children’s work very seriously. She respected it all alike, and made you feel valuable by that respectful attention. And she was a very attentive and bright presence, responsive, quick to pick up on people’s feelings and concerns. Jo and she came to teach us about documentation once at the Abbey and she was a clear and patient teacher, eager to involve us in the learning and to build on what existing skills we could bring to the process. It was in that session I realised how enormously skilled she was and how lightly she could deliver it. Personally I liked her very much and felt grateful that such a dynamic and visionary figure was part of the Arts in Education Portal and so we would work together regularly. Quietly I’d started to use her as a measure for what artistically inspired project leadership looked like. Her loss hurts but I hope she can be continuously celebrated by keeping her standards of commitment and joyful engagement alive in our work.
Phil Kingston, Community and Education Manager, The Abbey Theatre
What I loved most about Orla was her passion for the Arts and Education – a marriage which offers children and young people experiences which open up their lives and their creativity. She was always a pleasure to work with – her expertise and her dogged determination underpinned by humour, compassion and joy brought us all pathways to investigate, express and take delight in the work we all try to do. We will sadly miss her inspiring presence but will continue to celebrate the Kids’ Own legacy created by herself and Jo and carry her inspiration with us.
Emelie Fitzgibbon, CEO Graffiti Theatre Company
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Invitation: Arts and Culture in Education Research Repository – Symposium
Arts and Culture in Education Research Repository
Date: 1pm Thursday, 6th December
The Arts and Culture in Education Research Repository (ACERR) are delighted to invite you to this Symposium addressing critical research infrastructural issues for Arts and Culture in Education research in Ireland.
The recent launch of the EOSC (European Open Science Cloud) and the Vienna declaration: https://eosc- launch.eu/declaration/ reaffirms the EU Commission’s commitment to “a research data commons, inclusive of all disciplines and member states, sustainable in the long term”.
ACERR presents a solution for Ireland in this emerging EU research environment.
Venue: National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks
Date & Time: December 6th at 1.00pm.
Please RSVP to this email address o.murphy@ucc.ie for catering purposes.
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Opportunity: Open Call announced to review the National Architects in Schools Initiative from IAF
Irish Architecture Foundation
Deadline: 10am, Monday 14 January
The National Architects in Schools Initiative has been devised and delivered by the Irish Architecture Foundation since 2013. In order to establish the impact of the programme and identify areas for improvement, revision, expansion etc. the IAF wishes to conduct a comprehensive independent review of the programme in 2019.
The IAF would like to welcome tenders from experienced consultant(s) to review the programme through research, surveys, focus groups, observation and/or other methods, engaging with those who participate in the programme (students, teachers and architects), those who devise and deliver the programme and those who fund the programme, in order to achieve a 360° view on the programme’s strengths, deficits and opportunities for improvement.
The deadline for applications is Monday 14 January at 10am and the IAF intend to recruit the consultant(s) by end of January, with final reporting occurring in April 2019. The fee for the project is €9,500 inclusive of VAT. Tenders, and any queries, should be sent to education@architecturefoundation.ie
A Music Generation Development Officer will be appointed by GRETB and will be responsible for managing an extensive performance music education programme on behalf of the Roscommon Music Education Partnership. County Roscommon has been selected for participation in Music Generation– Ireland’s National Music Education Programme, which is co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education and Skills and Local Music Education Partnerships.
Three-year, fixed-term contract.
Application form, job description and person specification available online: galwayroscommon.etb.ie
Closing date for receipt of completed application forms: 12 noon, Monday 17 December, 2018
Late applications will not be accepted.
Based on the volume of applications received short-listing may apply. Short-listing will take place on the basis of the information provided in the application form. Depending on the qualifications and experience of applicants, short-listing thresholds may be significantly higher than the minimum standards set out.
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Guest Blogger: Naomi Cahill Creative Associate for Creative Schools & Director of Bespoke Productions – Blog No. 1
Naomi Cahill works as a Creative Associate for Creative Schools and is founder and director of Bespoke Productions. She is an experienced and qualified drama teacher of primary, second level and adult education as well as children with special needs and adults with physical and intellectual disabilities. Naomi graduated with a degree in Drama & Theatre Studies from University College Cork. She further completed the Higher Diploma in Arts in Drama Education and was awarded‘Highest Academic Achievement’ from the Leinster School of Music & Drama. Through Bespoke Productions, Naomi leads drama courses in Ireland and abroad which are aimed at building confidence, self-esteem and developing communication skills. She most recently directed a modern version of ‘Romeo & Juliet’ at Teatro Re Grillo, Licata, Sicily. Having performed both on stage and in film, she enjoys sharing her experience with her students. She is delighted to be working as a Creative Associate for the Creative Schools programme.
Creative Schools: The Start of the Journey – Blog 1
Creative Schools is a pilot initiative of the Creative Ireland Programme. It is led by the Arts Council in conjunction with the Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Culture Heritage and the Gaeltacht. The aim of this initiative is to put the arts and creativity at the heart of children and young people’s lives. My job as a Creative Associate is to enhance and shape the place of creativity in schools. I work to inspire, energise and drive schools forward in developing creative opportunities in the school and wider community. I enable schools to understand, develop and celebrate young people’s engagement with the arts and creativity.
Getting to Know Schools:
I work with a number of schools throughout Cork and Kerry. At the beginning of November, I began engaging in meetings with the Creative Schools Coordinators from my designated schools. There are a series of objectives I aim to achieve in these meetings. Initially, we go through the Creative Schools Planning Framework. We then begin to discuss the first step of the programme: ‘Understand’. This allows schools to understand their current engagement with the arts and creativity. It also enables them to assess the creative interests of students and the resources which are available in the school and wider community. We talk about the school’s current involvement with the arts and artistic areas which they wish to enhance. Through this meeting I develop a better, more thorough understanding of the school as a whole.
In each school I run a workshop with students on ‘The Voice of Young People’. All creative associates were lucky enough to have the opportunity to undergo training in Hub na nÓg. This is a national centre of excellence which supports us to give children and young people a voice in decision making. I use the Lundy Model to ensure the voice of young people is a priority. This model indicates that young people should be provided with a safe space and appropriate information to enable them to express their views. It is also important to make sure that their views are communicated with someone with the responsibility to listen, taken seriously and acted on where appropriate.
Workshop:
Giving young people the opportunity to actively participate in a workshop is a great way to hear their views. Let me give you a brief insight into ‘The Voice of Young People’ workshop. I use two different methods in this workshop called: ‘Open Space Method’ and ‘World Café Method’. The‘Open Space Method’ involves me asking student three questions as follows: 1) What is creativity? 2) What kind of creative things do you currently do? 3) What kind of creative things would you like to do? Students write their answers on post-its and stick them on three different parts of the wall. Students then divide these answers into sections according to what kind of arts activity they are e.g. music, dance etc. This leads to a very effective visual portrayal of student’s artistic interests. We then move on to ‘World Café Method’. Students are provided with a poster on which they are asked a series of questions containing blanks: 1) What is …..? 2) What kind of …… activities have you done/do you do? 3) What kind of ….. activities would you like to do? The young people use the arts activities they came up with in the previous exercise to fill in the blanks in these questions. Students then design the poster using a series of words and illustrations in order to answer these questions. I like using these methods as students take ownership of the kinds of arts activities they would like to explore and they are decision makers from the offset. I also give students surveys which are specific to their age and ability which allow them to express their opinion on their experience of the arts. These are important to give me concrete data to work from. If you want to know what young people want the best thing is to ask them. This workshop enables me to do that.
Further action I have taken in my role as Creative Associate is to create links between the school and local arts opportunities. So far, I have met people such as the local arts officer, programme manager from arts centre etc. These links are important to make to ensure the sustainability of the Creative Schools Programme.
The next step for my work as Creative Associate is to develop a Creative Schools Plan schools. Finally, schools will celebrate their experience with the arts and creativity by sharing their experience as a school, community and beyond.
Onwards & Upwards:
I firmly believe that providing young people with improved, sustainable arts opportunities will benefit them now and into the future. I am delighted to be working as part of this exciting new programme which allows us to make a positive difference in the lives of young people through the arts & creativity.
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Teachers Masterclass – Art + Mental Health at The Glucksman
The Glucksman
Date: 12th January 2019, 10am – 1pm
Artists have long used visual methods of expression to consider and interrogate personal experiences and challenge mental health stigma.
Join curators and artists as we explore the new Glucksman digital toolkit for educators – Art and Mental Health. In this masterclass, teachers will investigate ways to engage their students in artistic processes that creatively encounter, explore and understand our mental health using artworks from the University College Cork art collection.
The new toolkits are designed for educators from Primary to Third level and uses the artworks of The Project Twins to look at projects about art and mental health that can be re-imagined in the classroom.
The Art Teachers Masterclass is run as part of the First Fortnight 2019 programme. First Fortnight utilises arts and culture to challenge mental health stigma while supporting some of Ireland’s most vulnerable people through creative therapies.
Cost €25 – Booking required. For online booking go to www.eventbrite.ie/e/teachers-masterclass-art-mental-health-tickets-52432269329
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Date Announced for the Arts in Education Portal Spring Regional Day 2019
Arts in Education Portal
Date: Saturday, February 23rd 2019
Following on from the success of the first series of Portal Regional Days in 2018, the Arts in Education Portal Team are delighted to announce the 2019 Spring Regional Day to take place in the Leitrim Sculpture Centre on Saturday, February 23rd from 10:45am to 3pm.
We invite regional audiences to connect with us during a series of events, where practitioners can learn more about the Portal and what it offers, tell us about their work, connect with the community at regional level, share practice and find out what opportunities or events are available in their local area. We welcome teachers, artists, arts managers and anyone with an interest in arts in education to join us for this free event.
Stay tuned for the full schedule and booking details which will be announced in the coming weeks.
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Opportunity: PhD Opportunity with Imaginate – Valuing Young Audiences
Imaginate
Deadline: 5pm 30th November
Valuing Young Audiences: Fully Funded PhD opportunity with Imaginate
Imaginate is seeking prospective doctoral students to work with them on an AHRC-funded PHD exploring the value for children of experiencing live theatre and dance as audience members. This is an exciting new collaboration between Imaginate and the University of Aberdeen, as part of the Scottish Graduate School of Arts and Humanities’s (SGSAH) Collaborative Doctoral Awards Programme. The PhD student will be supported to engage with children, parents and teachers on three Imaginate projects: Inspiring Schools, Theatre in Schools Scotland, and the Edinburgh International Children’s Festival. The research will be supervised by Professor Amy Bryzgel (Visual Culture, University of Aberdeen), Dr Jo Vergunst (Anthropology, University of Aberdeen) and Imaginate’s Chief Exec Paul Fitzpatrick.
The successful applicant will work with the supervisory team to prepare a final proposal to SGSAH in February 2019, with notification in April. If successful the studentship will commence on 1 October 2019.
Imaginate warmly encourages applications from researchers with a background in the performing arts, arts-in-education or research on the value of the arts, but this is not a prerequisite.
Autumn has been a busy time for Creative Schools with lots of focus on training and development. The team have been meeting with and training 47 Creative Associates and over 350 representatives from the 150 pilot schools. The commitment shown by schools in the training to putting the arts and creativity at the heart of school life was very obvious and they are excited about the possibilities that learning in and through the arts will bring to their respective school communities. A key aim of the initiative is to give children and young people a central role in the process, to support this Creative Associates were given a day of training from the amazing team at Hub na nÓg – Young Voices in Decision-making, Department of Children and Youth Affairs. Over the coming weeks Creative Associates will meet with their schools and begin the first stages of their work together.
To view the full list of the 150 schools selected to participate in the pilot phase of Creative Schools go to www.artscouncil.ie/pilotschoolslist
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Blog 3 – Chris McCambridge, Special Educational Needs Teacher, Virtually There
Christopher McCambridge is a Special Educational Needs teacher at St. Colman’s Primary School, Lambeg. St. Colman’s Primary is a mainstream school of 400 pupils with two learning support unit classes. Christopher is also an active member of the Belfast art scene. He co-founded the arts organisation Belfast Platform for the Arts (Platform Arts) in 2010, which continues to provide an exhibition space and studios for artists.
In 2016 Christopher and his Primary 6/7 class were chosen to take part in the Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership ‘Virtually There’ project. ‘A virtual artist in residence project which explores the potential for creative engagement between artists working from their studio and children and teachers in the classroom using video conferencing technology’. (Orla Kenny, Creative Director of Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership). Now in their 3rd year, artist John D’Arcy has been working collaboratively with Christopher and his class at St Colman’s P.S as virtual artist-in-residence.
WECHO FM
A new school year, a new ‘Virtually There’ project!
The majority of the children were meeting John for the first time. They were unsure what to expect as a lot of them had never experienced or used video-conferencing technology before.
After a few technical difficulties on my end, we finally connected to John. Introductions were made by John and the children, we got straight into introducing our new project theme … RADIO!
The children discussed their knowledge of radio … Tyrell said that it was “where you could listen to things, like a music box.” Aidan said he thought of it as a “jukebox” to listen to songs. Sam stated that different types of sounds could come from it, not only music but also advertisements. Daniel, Adam and Charley thought that even though it played music there were other programmes on the radio such as the news, weather forecasts or traffic reports. Adam also said that he had listened to documentaries on the radio. The children were asked what they thought we would be creating during the project, to which they replied, “A RADIO SHOW!”
Not only were we going to create a radio show, we were going to create our own Radio Station.
We discussed the different programmes that could be on our radio station, ideas for programmes included Music, Documentaries, Cartoon or comedy shows, discussions about the news and about our interests such as gaming. With an idea of the content, we were set the task of developing our visual identity. John displayed a number of symbols that the children all were able to recognise easily, e.g. the Nike swoosh, the golden arches, the apple mac symbol.
He told us that we would begin the process of developing a visual identity through the exploration of sound. The children began this process by listening to a variety of sounds that John had created; they then had to interpret them as a drawing. They generated a lot of great ideas, which included random symbols and jagged lines that varied in sizes. John then asked us to interpret drawings that he had created as sounds. Kevin, Sam, Daniel and Kyle all had a go at trying to interpret these drawings, with lots of different and random sounds and noises being made.
In the final part of the process, the children had to name each of the sounds that John created. He explained that the name could be a made-up word or a series of letters. The children found this extremely entertaining and generated a lot of random words for the sounds, including wobe, weeoloublue, breeeeee, dweenen, dulllung, dener, dedzen, wecho, bler and weow. After a short selection and voting process, the children picked WECHO, as our radio station name. WECHO FM was born.
The children were then set the task of creating our visual identity and the background for our radio station. We had to choose two colours, one would be for our background and the other colour would be used to create our visual interpretation for the sound of WECHO.
Each child explored the sound WECHO in their own unique way. This session was great fun and challenged the children’s ideas on what art could be. As the project develops, we hope to explore different aspects of the radio station such as, DJ names and identities, jingles and radio sweepers, sound effects and different radio programmes. At the end of the process we hope to visit a local radio station to gain a better understanding of the inner workings as well as possibly playing our own jingles and songs.
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Early Years Seedlings Workshops at The Ark
The Ark
2 – 3 November, 2018
Early Years Artist in residence Lucy Hill presents ‘Seedlings’ a series of workshops for children as part of the The Ark’s John Coolahan Early Years Artist Residency. The Seedlings workshops offer opportunities to explore materials and the world around them through playful and engaging activities – ideal for getting little ones (and their grown-up!) imagining and creating together.
Join Lucy Hill for ‘Plaster Caster’
Plaster is amazing! Its transforms from powder to liquid to solid, it warms up as it transforms and it can take as many shapes and forms as we ask it to. It’s a messy but exciting business!
To start, we will press things into brown clay to leave an impression (toys, fingers, shells), then we mix the lovely powder plaster with water and pour it onto the clay.
The plaster warms and then ‘sets’ (goes hard), we then peel the clay away from the plaster, to find a new plaster impression of our objects to paint and to take home! We can also try using other things as ‘moulds’ like orange peel, avocado skins, chestnuts.
Lucy Hill is the inaugural recipient of The Ark’s John Coolahan Early Years Artist Residency and will be devising and delivering an exciting workshop programme for children in the early years at The Ark from May 2018 until April 2019.
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Opportunity for Teachers: CPD Training with Narrative 4
Narrative 4
Narrative 4 is inviting post-primary school teachers in the Mid-West to take part in their innovative story based CPD training, enabling teachers to run their creative wellness and storytelling module “The Story Exchange” in their classrooms. This module has already been delivered in 18 schools in the region, and has been piloted in Gaelcholáiste Luimnigh for the last 2 years. It was developed in the USA as a means of building empathy and breaking down social boundaries through personal stories, and is now also in schools Mexico, Canada, the UK, Palestine, Israel and South Africa.
The Arts in Education Portal editorial team are pleased to invite applications for a documentation award. Through the award, successful applicants will receive services to the value of €5,000 that will support them in the documentation of a current or upcoming project and a €500 stipend.
The purpose of the award is to support the development of documented outcomes from Arts in Education initiatives in Ireland, which can be shared with the arts in education community and give insights into different processes of engagement. This is part of the Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee’s commitment to supporting and recognising the value of documentation and reflection as a key component within arts in education initiatives.
Two awards will be offered through this opportunity.
Outcomes of the documentation process will include: a project video, a project feature to be showcased on the Portal’s Projects/Partnerships, and the option of a critical essay, with a view to also presenting the work as part of the Arts in Education Portal National Day in 2019.
The process will involve meetings with the Portal Team and a schedule of 3 site visits over the course of the project to capture video and photographic documentation and support reflective processes among participants. The portal team will edit and produce a project video, and will liaise closely with the project partners to develop the content for the project feature. The critical essay would be sited in the Portal’s Reading Room, and is optional. The author and focus of the essay can be decided by the project organisers in collaboration with the Portal Team.
Criteria
To be considered for this opportunity, projects must:
Have started in autumn 2018 or be due to start in Jan/Feb 2019.
Have a minimum duration of 8 weeks.
Involve a professional artist working collaboratively within an educational setting (early years, primary or post-primary).
Be underpinned by a strong ethos of collaboration and a commitment to excellence. Focus on the creative process, with children having an active and collaborative role
Additional criteria
Successful applicants will be asked to ensure that relevant permissions/consent have been sought for documentation of participants.
Please ensure your application has been approved by all project partners prior to submission.
How to make a submission:
Background on who you are; your professional practice and your ethos or approach towards Arts in Education.
An overview of the project – who is involved, how did the collaboration come about, what processes or approaches will take place, what is the aim or focus of the process?
A statement of interest, explaining why documentation supports would be of value to this project.
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Blog 4 – Muireann Ahern & Louis Lovett, Joint Artistic Director Theatre Lovett
Muireann Ahern is Joint Artistic Director of Theatre Lovett. For Theatre Lovett she has directed and designed multiple shows. Muireann has over twenty years’ experience working in theatre for young audiences. Previously, she was Theatre Programmer and Producer at The Ark. She programmed the Family Season of the Dublin Theatre Festival and The Dublin Dance Festival. Muireann has worked with The Abbey Theatre’s Outreach Department, TEAM, part time lecturer at St Patrick’s teacher training college, and is a regular guest speaker on theatre for children at other third level colleges. She has led several Professional Development courses and was a member of the core working group on the published Artists~Schools Guidelines: ‘Towards Best Practice in Ireland’. She has been guest speaker at national and international conference focusing on ‘quality’ in theatre for young audiences. She is a graduate of the Samuel Beckett Centre for Drama and Theatre Studies, Trinity College Dublin and also holds a HDip Education from TCD.
Louis is Joint Artistic Director of Theatre Lovett. Theatre Lovett make work for all ages and tour extensively both nationally and internationally. For Theatre Lovett he writes, composes and performs. Work includes They Called Her Vivaldi (Abbey Theatre, National tour, USA tour 2019), The True Story of Hansel and Gretel (Dublin Theatre Festival 2015). Mr. Foley, The Radio Operator (national tour), A Feast of Bones (Dublin Theatre Festival, UK tour), The House that Jack Filled (Dublin Theatre Festival, Irish tour) and The Girl who Forgot to Sing Badly (Irish, US/AUSTRALIAN tours). Louis has also worked with The Abbey Theatre, The Gate Theatre, The Corn Exchange, Siren Productions, Performance Corporation, Barabbas and others. Louis has also performed in and directed several productions at The Ark, A Cultural Centre for Children. Television & Film includes Moone Boy, Stella Days, Anseo, Killinascully, The Tudors, Showbands, Story Lane, The Morbegs and others.
Theatre Lovett make theatre for all ages, child and adult, young and old, chicken and egg. They were nominated for a Judges Special Award at The Irish Times Theatre Awards 2017. If you seek theatre that can amuse, involve and sometimes scare, we offer you theatre as adventure www.theatrelovett.com.
FRNKNSTN
FRNKNSTN has come and gone, perhaps to return next year and tour. At Theatre Lovett, we were happy with our monstrous creation and relish the chance to play with its constituent parts again. As with all shows, a future opportunity to remount a show will allow us to tweak and try improvements.
Most satisfying was the combination of the talents within our creative team. It was important to the project that our creative designers could meet and discuss the project on many occasions before rehearsals began with the director, writer and actor.
Preparation began a year previously with three weeks of development with director, writer, actor and lighting designer. This was followed by a further week and one public showing on the Peacock stage with the support of the Abbey Theatre. This year, the full team had the opportunity to come together in the Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray for two weeks of development in advance of rehearsals to explore our teams’ different specialities and approaches. Thank you to Niamh O Donnell and her team there.
Pay for preparation, for preparation pays.
Cajoling, coercing and corralling the creative team’s work alongside happily wrangling and wrestling with the writer and the solo actor required director Muireann Ahern to enter the arena and persevere for months. She held her nerve with some particularly tough calls along the way as she whittled this beast down to its beautiful, bony exterior.
Playing for your audience
Theatre Lovett’s Actor Training with a focus on playing for audiences Young and Older
Following on from FRNKNSTN, and now in its eighth year, Theatre Lovett have just completed another two weeks of our Actor Training course ‘Playing for your Audience.’ Working in the Gate Theatre Studio, the participating actors also had the experience of presenting aspects of the work to students from two local primary schools from the Gate Theatre stage.
This live experience is integral to the week. Here, on the fourth day of the week, the actors have a chance to put into practise, before that young audience, techniques newly acquired. Freshly minted. Hard to grasp and not yet understood.
The only stories, stimulated by the movement of several beings in a space aware of and silently responding to one another. (Plenty of story detail is provided by the individual imaginations of audience members). No script, no story but a structure and techniques, techniques centred around connection, clarity and simplicity.
Eyes (and ears) for each other and for your audience. Breathe. Make the person next to you shine. Thrown into the real experience of having no prescribed ‘material’ and yet ‘presenting’ themselves to an audience of expectant, eager children, the eye contact between these actors who met each other for the first time four days ago undergoes a resonant transformation. “I am here for you.” “I am as lost as you are.” “What happens next?” “Not sure. Let’s find it together.” Their connection deepens.
To negotiate the space with fifteen other actors, to maintain the engagement of this active audience, to search for the next moment, find it… together, allow it to live and then the next and the next and to continue to engage this audience and together bring it to a close… this requires us to slow down with calm, focused energy. Our energy is the audience’s energy. Not the other way around. Slowly, the actors approach clarity and the audience sees the pictures we make.
Sixteen or so actors sing together a song in a language newly learned. “What’s the next line?” “When do we breathe?” “Do we start now?” “Is this right?” “I think it’s completely wrong” “Keep going.” “Together.” The actors look at each other. Watch each other’s breathing, eyes and mouths, conduct each other through these signals. Not with gestures or hand signals, no pictures of anxiety, no unnecessary movement. Keep it simple. Do the simple thing. Breathe and sing. Together. The children are there for them.
I will not go into the techniques used here. That requires a little time and an audience. Underlying the week is the credo that we are playing for our audience. Take care of our audience, young and older. Do not cause them anxiety. Allow them fully relax in order to be fully engaged. They should sense that they’re in good hands. Easier said than done.
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Blog 4 – Róisin O’Donnell Young Playwrights’ Programme
Róisin O’Donnell is a 19 year old leaving cert survivor and writer. She was a participant in the first ever Young Playwrights’ Programme. Her play ‘Bernie’ premiered through the programme. She lives in Cork, where she spends her time writing fiction and plays, obsessing over books and her dog.
The series is a joint guest blog series with two participants of the Young Playwright Programme, Jessica O’Brien and Róisin O’Donnell.
College has changed the way I write… – Blog 2
I write this blog like a stereotypical college student, with a deadline looming, on a tiny computer, in a big academic library. Eight months ago I was accepted into the Young Playwrights Programme and four months ago my first play took to life on the stage. Do I miss the programme? Short answer: Yeah.
In college, I am constantly reminded of the time I spent at Graffiti – not to jinx it. Just like then I am surrounded by people I like with my trusty keyboard only a stretch of my arm away.
A lot of things that I did not expect happened when I became a first-year student at UCC.
I can stare/glare/laugh at the ‘world’ now. And feel comfortable enough in it. John and Katie always encouraged us to say what we are- writers. An obvious title. But up until this new chapter of my life, I was waiting. Waiting for proof that I could post on Instagram and make everyone stop scrolling for a second and think- wow, Róisin… she’s not average… every negative thought gone…
I am not going to type bullshit if my time with the journalism society has taught me anything. The doors did not open present my ambitions to me.
My personal life turned into the Titanic on speed when the Leaving Cert came around. And the neat blue lines of the exam booklets had no sympathy marks to give. I didn’t get the results I wanted. The State Examinations Commission said you’re not good enough, the days, the months, the YEAR you spent was as worthless as the paper the results are printed on.
I got my dream course because I got lucky. Any other year… let’s not think of that.
My Leaving Cert is worthless now. Lecturers don’t mention it and us students squint and cringe about it, rarely.
I have learned to stop wishing and writing sloppy coming of age stories that made me sick with boredom. I write about my life now and the world around me. I send my drafts to the UCC Express or the Motley to connect with other students. So far I haven’t got a no, just edits. and ‘you can do it.’ And I am happy. The tiny achievements college has offered me have given me more than six years and two exams ever could.
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Opportunity for Artists: John Coolahan Early Years Artist Residency 2019/20 at The Ark
The Ark
Deadline: 5pm on Tuesday 30th October 2018
The Ark is delighted to invite professional artists from the fields of dance, theatre or music to apply for their second 12 month Early Years Artist Residency, running from May 2019-April 2020.
This artist residency opportunity has been established in honour of John Coolahan, who sadly passed away earlier this year. John was a longstanding member of The Ark board and a leading champion for arts education in Ireland.
Beginning in 2018, this residency aims to honour the legacy of Professor Coolahan by providing the selected artist with a yearlong opportunity to develop his/her early years arts practice in association with The Ark.
This opportunity recognises the importance of the arts in early childhood and aims to nurture and support the development of professional artists working in this emerging sector of arts practice.
The inaugural John Coolahan Early Years Artist in Residence at The Ark is visual artist Lucy Hill who will be in post until April 2019. As The Ark wishes to establish the residency as an annual opportunity, we are now seeking a new artist from the fields of dance, theatre or music who will take up the residency for a year from May 2019 when Lucy’s tenure comes to an end.
The selected artist will have a strong vision for how they would like to deepen the range of their experience, knowledge and practice with this age group through the unique context of this residency in collaboration with The Ark.
Completed applications must be received by 5pm on Tuesday 30th October 2018
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Arts in Education Portal Autumn Regional Day Roundup
Arts in Education Portal
The Arts in Education Portal’s tour of regions continued last Saturday, October 6, with a jam-packed day of activities and presentations at the LexIcon in Dún Laoghaire.
Artist and early years practitioner Helen Barry and creche manager Rosheen Kemple presented on their work using movement and music with early years children and babies in Monkstown. Principal of the Central Model Senior School Deirdre Gartland and artist Claire Halpin demonstrated Visual Thinking Strategies in the LexIcon’s Art Gallery and spoke on the numerous teaching applications for the VTS method across the curriculum. The day was topped off by a hands-on activity using natural materials foraged by artist Liz McMahon who shared her depth of experience with Forest School approaches. Thanks to all involved in making day a success!
Look out for our next Regional Day, planned for early spring 2019 for the Northwest. More details coming soon!
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Job Opportunity: Music Generation Development Officer (Clare)
The post is being offered on the basis of a fixed-term contract for a period of three years. The closing date for receipt of applications is 12 noon, Monday, 15 October 2018.
Application form, post details and applicant requirements are available online from the LCETB website at limerickclare.etb.ie or by email from recruitment@lcetb.ie.
It is proposed to conduct interviews at the earliest opportunity following the closing date.
Please note that shortlisting may apply. Canvassing will disqualify. LCETB is an Equal Opportunities Employer.
About Music Generation Clare
Music Generation Clare is a performance music education service for children and young people in County Clare that provides opportunities for children and young people to access a range of vocal and instrumental tuition in their local area.
Established in 2014, it is among the 11 MEP Areas that were selected for participation in Phase 1 of Music Generation. Locally, Music Generation Clare is supported and funded by Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board, and Clare County Council. Visit www.musicgenerationclare.ie
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Barboró International Arts Festival 2018 – Events for Schools & Teachers
Baboró International Arts Festival
Dates: October 15 – 21 2018
This year’s Baboró International Arts Festival for Children takes place in Galway in just over two weeks’ time (October 15-21) and there are a number of cultural experiences for school children to enjoy. Whether you’d like to bring your class to see a show, take in a workshop or visit an exhibition, Baboró has it covered.
One of the cornerstones of Baboró’s foundation is the right of each child to enjoy arts and culture. Baboró believes the encouragement of creativity from an early age is one of the best guarantees of growth in a healthy environment of self-esteem and mutual respect.
Baboró enables children to experience first hand the transformative power of the creative arts, while at the same time developing their creative, problem-solving and collaborative skills; skills that are necessary for developing fully rounded young people.
Artists and companies from Ireland, Australia, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Scotland and England will present shows at this year’s festival. Full schools programme is here https://www.baboro.ie/festival/programme/event-type/schools
For full details of how to apply to bring your school to Baboró see here
Are you a teacher who would like to explore ways of connecting theatre back into the classroom or would you like to learn some tricks of the trade on how to foster an environment of imagination in the classroom? The following workshops might be of interest to you:
For further information and bookings go to www.baboro.ie
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Blog 3 – Jessica O’Brien, Young Playwright Programme
Jessica O’ Brien is a 16 year old student and aspiring writer from Cork. As part of the Young Playwrights’ Programme with Graffiti Theatre, she along with eight other young people wrote and staged plays in The Everyman as part of the Midsummer Festival in 2018. She is currently writing her first book and hopes to have a career in writing novels or journalism.
The series is a joint guest blog series with two participants of the Young Playwright Programme, Jessica O’Brien and Róisin O’Donnell.
Why I Write – Blog 3
I write for a reason, though I know that most of it is just instinct. Since I was a kid I would fill these hardbacks with creative writing and acrostic poems and I would fill my suitcases with my favourite books for the summer holidays – to the despair of my Mom. (my case was always overweight) I distinctly remember the first Young Adult novel I read, ‘The Fault In Our Stars’, and immediately being hooked. I couldn’t get enough of these characters and worlds that were realistic, these people I wanted to be friends with. Within two years my room was unrecognisable, with massive shelves to facilitate my little library.
When I started studying for the Junior Cert I was taught to read and look at other forms of art critically. I am very grateful for the English class, classmates and teacher I had. Instead of just spewing out whatever Ithought was good, I took criticism from others. I listened to the other girls and realised I could be as good at writing answers as them if I tried. It was then I realised just how much I loved writing. I loved being able to start writing and forgetting about where I was and having that right word come to me. Suddenly I was in love with cinematography, the meaning behind words and I began to read and write differently. Now I couldn’t just read any YA book, I would scan the fonts and blurbs and as I read, I would add things to my mental list of what I liked or disliked. My journals became a source of comfort, and they still remain so.
But as I have gotten older and learned more about myself and the world, I realised that I had never truly been able to find myself in a book. There is such a lack of diversity, there are so many cliche stories with happy endings and straight romances and I got tired. One day I was walking home from the bookshop with my Dad and he asked me what the books I had bought were about. I explained, and I guess he was surprised because the books had strong themes in them. ‘I thought you read to escape reality,’ he said, with his bag of crime novels. ‘I guess I write to help change my reality,’ I thought.
I write because I can’t not write. I write to tell people what I can’t say or to get my feelings out on paper. My journals are almost like scrapbooks in a way. But most importantly, I now write because I have stories I need to tell. There are people in the LGBT community like me who’s story never gets told. People of colour. Different religion. Disabilities. Those love stories that don’t work out and real life teenager scenarios. We are all hot messes. It is so much nicer to read a book and relate to it rather than read a book and strive to be like it.
I write for myself, and everyone who ever deserved a voice. One day, maybe I’ll be scrutinising the YA section and I’ll see my own name there. That’s the dream I have for this reality.
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Primary Teachers Masterclass at The Glucksman
The Glucksman, University College Cork
Saturday 20 October 2018, 10am – 1pm
Join curator Tadhg Crowley and artist Fiona Kelly for a masterclass that explores our new Digital Toolkit (www.glucksman.org/discover/digital/toolkits) for teachers. The session will focus on the environment and how online resources can enable creative activities for your classroom.
Join artist Clare McLaughlin for a non-visual exploration of art at The Glucksman, University College Cork. This masterclass for educators of all backgrounds will provide entry points to the understanding of artwork for students who are visually impaired or blind.
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Opportunity: Music Generation Development Officers (6 Posts)
Music Generation
Deadline: 12 noon, Friday 28 September, 2018
Cavan & Monaghan ETB; Galway & Roscommon ETB; Kilkenny & Carlow ETB; and Mayo, Sligo & Leitrim ETB each invite applications for the position(s) of Music Generation Development Officer.
A Music Generation Development Officer(s) will be appointed by each Statutory Agency and will be responsible for managing an extensive performance music education programme on behalf of the Music Education Partnership in each area.
All areas have been selected for participation in Music Generation – Ireland’s National Music Education Programme, which is co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education and Skills and Local Music Education Partnerships.
Three-year, fixed-term contract.
Application forms, job descriptions and person specifications available online at the links below –
The Portal Team are delighted to announce the full programme for the Autumn Arts in Education Portal Regional Day which takes place in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown at the dlr LexIcon on Saturday, October 6th. We invite teachers, artists, arts managers and anyone with an interest in arts in education to join us for this free event. Ticket bookings now open!
Places are limited – booking is essential
Schedule
10:30am—registration & coffee
11:00am—Introduction – Alice Lyons, Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership (Portal Content Managers)
11:30am—Presentation – Visual Artist Helen Barry and co-presenter on Early Years Work with Childcare Facilities
12:15pm—Presenation – Visual Artist Claire Halpin and Deirdre Gartland, Principal, Central Model Senior School on Visual Thinking Strategies Project
1:00pm—Lunch & networking
1:30pm— Breakout & Creative Session – Liz McMahon, using natural materials/Forest School approaches
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Opportunity for Schools: Ireland’s National School Photography Awards Open for Entries
National School Photography Awards (INSPA)
Deadline for Entries: Midnight Friday 25th January 2019
INSPA 2018/19 sees the second open call for Ireland’s prestigious National School Photography Awards [INSPA]. INSPA is a national children’s photography competition which is open to all primary schools located in the Republic of Ireland. This years’ awards are brought to you by Image Masters Photography in partnership with LauraLynn; Ireland’s Children’s Hospice, INSTAX Instant Photography and the Amber Springs Resort Hotel.
The awards aim to encourage young creatives in primary level education to engage with both digital technology and the creative process to create striking visual images. They will inspire and ignite passion in students, increase engagement with digital arts within primary level education while at the same time educating students about the importance of the creative process.
The awards are offering a range of fantastic prizes for finalists, winners and their schools including; Free entry to the Amber Springs Easter Train Experience for the overall winner and their classmates, FujiFilm INSTAX cameras for winners and their schools, a two night stay in the Amber Springs for the Principal of the winning school, a one night stay in the Amber Springs for the teacher of the winning class, INSPA certificates, framed photographs and an #INSPAsmiles School Photography Fundraising Day in aid of this years’ charity theme partner; LauraLynn.
This years’ theme is titled ‘CONNECTIONS’ which asks both teachers and their students to integrate the camera into the school-day, allowing their students explore their classrooms, corridors and schoolyards, seeking out new found or old connections. For example ‘Pen & Paper’, ‘Socks and Shoes’, ‘Black & White’, ‘Rough & Smooth’ or ‘Parent & Child’. All entries will be judged by a national panel including Joe Kileen (INTO President), Tanya Kiang (CEO: Gallery of Photography), Liam Magee (President: Cumann na mBunscol), Linda Shevlin (Curator: Roscommon Art Centre), Michael Fortune (Artist, Folklorist, Filmmaker, Researcher), Niamh Doyle (Community Fundraising Executive: LauraLynn) and Richard Carr (Artist, School Liaison & 2018 Cultural Ambassador for Co. Wexford).
If your school would like to get involved they can request their schools access codes from the INSPA website – www.inspa.ie – here you will be able to activate your school account and begin uploading your students’ entries. The deadline for entries is midnight on Friday 25th January 2019 so make sure you have activated your school account well in advance of this date.
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New Children’s Publication available for Schools – ‘A Strong Heart’
Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership
Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership are delighted to announce the publication of “A Strong Heart – A book of stories and dreams for the future by Syrian and Palestinian children living in County Mayo”.
Over five weeks, in April and May 2018, the group of children, who live in communities in County Mayo, came together with artist Vanya Lambrecht Ward and writer Mary Branley at the Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar, to develop the body of work that was to be brought together in their book.
Initiated and developed by Kids’ Own – and supported by the St Stephen’s Green Trust, Mayo County Council and South West Mayo Development Company – the project was part of a vision to offer a space for migrant children to develop their creativity and self-expression through an artistic process, and to publish a book that would foreground and give credence to their voices, lives and experiences.
In relation to the project, Kids’ Owns Acting Director, Jo Holmwood, says:
“Kids’ Own is deeply committed to publishing and developing children’s work in Ireland. We believe that children’s contribution to our culture and our society, as artists and writers, needs to be more widely valued and recognised. Kids’ Own is delighted to publish this brand new book, which is such a rich celebration of children’s resilience, ambition and cultural identity.
Image copyright Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership – Minister Zappone presenting ‘A Strong Heart’ to Louise Arbour, UN Special Representative for International Migration.
In July, Kids’ Own were thrilled when the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Katherine Zappone shared the stories from ‘A Strong Heart’ at her UN Security Council address on ‘Children in Armed Conflict’.
“As Minister I am particularly proud that half of the 1,883 persons accepted into Ireland under resettlement and relocation programmes are children fleeing war and conflict.
In addition Ireland is providing care for 79 children who arrived alone at our ports and airports.
All of these children, from countries experiencing conflict such as Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea, are making Ireland their home.
They speak for themselves in a collection of stories and art created by Syrian and Palestinian children now living in Mayo in the West of Ireland.
Through the book ‘A Strong Heart’ they tell of the beauty of their new home-towns, the local rivers, mountains and even the world famous salmon.
They express their passion for Irish sport, their sense of fun and their hopes and dreams.
12-year old Khaled in Claremorris writes, “My Dream for the future is to be a footballer first and play for Ireland. When I’m thirty-three I will be a teacher and go back to Syria to teach English.”
Khaled and his classmates, Irish, Syrian and Palestinian, are flourishing. They are our future”.
Minister Zappone also presented the publication to Louise Arbour, UN Special Representative for International Migration, following a discussion on child migrants.
Post details and applicant requirements are available to download from www.lcetb.ie. The closing date for receipt of online applications is 12 noon, Wednesday 29 August 2018.
LCETB is an Equal Opportunities Employer
Music Generation Clare is part of Music Generation, Ireland’s national music education programme initiated by Music Network, co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education and Skills and Local Music Education Partnerships. Locally, Music Generation Clare is managed by Clare Music Education Partnership, led by Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board in partnership with Clare County Council, University of Limerick and Clare Education Centre.
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Opportunity: Music Generation Laois & Laois School of Music seeking a Violin Tutor
Music Generation Laois and Laois School of Music are now seeking submissions from an experienced Violin Tutor to deliver their programmes. Training in whole-class string tuition will be provided to the successful candidate. Music Generation Laois works in partnership with Laois School of Music to deliver whole-class, group and one-to-one violin lessons in Co Laois.
Closing date for completed submissions: 12 noon, Wednesday 29 August, 2018
Interviews are scheduled to take place on: Wednesday 5 September, 2018
Music Generation Laois is a performance music education service for children and young people in Co Laois, part of Music Generation – Ireland’s National Music Education Programme, initiated by Music Network and co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds together with, The Department of Education and Skills and Local Music Education Partnerships. Locally, Music Generation Laois is funded by Laois County Council, Laois-Offaly Education and Training Board and Laois Partnership Company.
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Explore Visual Art & History at the Solstice Arts Centre
Solstice Arts Centre
Date: Thursday 11th & Friday 12th October
As part of the Patrick Hough exhibition programme at the Solstice Arts Centre, primary school students are invited to take part in an intriguing exploration of the exhibition. Students will investigate the meaning of art, object and replica whilst touring the exhibition and examining The Bronze Age Handling Box, based on the Museum of Archaeology’s Bronze Age collection. This workshop is designed to promote curiosity, understanding and discussion about visual art and history.
A curriculum linked Primary School resource and activity will be available to download.
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Explore Prop Building & Design at the Solstice Arts Centre
Solstice Arts Centre
Date: Friday 28thSeptember, 9.30am & 1pm
As part of the Patrick Hough exhibition programme at the Solstice Arts Centre, post-primary schools are invited to take part in a curriculum linked visual arts workshop. Join Creative Arts Facilitator and Prop-Maker Caitriona McGowan for an intriguing tour of the exhibition and create a 3-Dimensional bust using a variety of techniques such as templating and plaster casting. Caitriona will provide students with a unique insight into the model-making industry and her own career as a prop-maker working in film, theatre and street performance.
This workshop comes with an additional resource that covers the Gallery Question of the Leaving Certificate, Art Appreciation course and can be downloaded from the Solstice Arts Centre website.
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Scoileanna Ildánacha / Creative Schools Pilot Begins
The Arts Council’s Creative Schools Initiative
Chosen from over 400 applicants, 150 schools across Ireland will participate in the new Creative Schools pilot which aims to put the arts and creativity at the heart of children and young people’s lives. The schools chosen include primary schools, secondary schools, Youthreach centres, special schools, DEIS schools, co-educational schools, rural, urban, single-sex and Irish-language medium schools. Their work will begin in the new school year and run through to the summer of 2019.
The enthusiastic response to the call for applications suggests just how vital the arts and creativity are within schools across the country. In their application, schools had to explain how their participation would support learning and development in the arts and creativity, their capacity to engage as a school and their plans for ensuring that children and young people play an active role in developing, implementing and evaluating their work as a Creative School. Through the programme, the Arts Council is engaging with children and young people across the country to develop their creativity and linking them to the arts and creative infrastructure in their locality and nationally.
Schools selected for the pilot will benefit from a package of support which includes funding and expertise from a Creative Associate to help them to understand, develop and celebrate the impact of the arts and creativity on school life. With the support of their Creative Associate, schools will develop a Creative School Plan and design a unique programme that responds to the needs and priorities of their school. This process will support children and young people to challenge themselves in new ways, to gain in confidence and to take a more active role in learning.
The Creative Schools team within the Arts Council will be travelling the country in September and October training and inducting Creative Associates, School Co-ordinators and other teachers from each of the 150 schools.
Future opportunities for Creative Schools will be included in the Arts Council’s newsletter which you can subscribe to at the following link: www.artscouncil.ie/about-us/newsletter/. They will also be posted on their website where a full list of the 150 schools participating in the pilot can also be found: www.artscouncil.ie/creative-schools/pilot-schools/
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Date Announced for the Arts in Education Portal Autumn Regional Day
Arts in Education Portal
Date: Saturday, October 6th 2018
Following on from the success of the Spring Regional Day for the Arts in Education Portal held at the Glucksman in Cork, we announce the Autumn Regional Day to take place in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown at the dlr LexIcon on Saturday, October 6th from 10:45am to 3pm.
We invite regional audiences to connect with us during a series of events, where practitioners can learn more about the Portal and what it offers, tell us about their work, connect with the community at regional level, share practice and find out what opportunities or events are available in their local area. We welcome teachers, artists, arts managers and anyone with an interest in arts in education to join us for this free event.
Stay tuned for the full schedule and booking details which will be announced in the coming weeks.
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Blog 2 – Róisin O’Donnell Young Playwright Programme
Róisin O’Donnell is a 19 year old leaving cert survivor and writer. She was a participant in the first ever Young Playwrights Programme. Her play ‘Bernie’ premiered through the programme. She lives in Cork, where she spends her time writing fiction and plays, obsessing over books and her dog.
The series is a joint guest blog series with two participants of the Young Playwright Programme, Jessica O’Brien and Róisin O’Donnell.
Youth, the Internet and Fiction – Blog 2
There are millions of stories on Fanfiction.net. 791K of those stories alone are listed under Harry Potter.
Meaning: Thousands of mostly young people around the world using their keyboards to enter the writing world. All because of words someone else has written.
I think that sounds amazing.
But attach the label ‘fanfiction’ and people start cringing.
Why?
Using the incorrect form of ‘your’ and ‘you’re’ shouldn’t automatically make you a joke. Writing isn’t easy. And I can relate.
On my way to becoming a writer, I went through the terrible years of primary and early secondary school feeling average. I had nothing in front of me, so much energy and nowhere to put it.
According to school there are only three categories to slot into. Athletic, brainy or social butterfly and if you aren’t a superstar at one of those things – tough shit. To the end of the pecking order, please!
One day, out of boredom, I typed 500 words on my phone and called it a first (bad) chapter. I wanted nineteen years later to be more than a just happy ending at a train station. Those 500 words turned into 230,000 words and counting. And that, I can safely say, drew me to more books, made me see things from multiple perspectives and start to question things. English class didn’t improve my editing skills, get me into the Young Playwrights Programme or give me the opportunity to write this blog. Writing something I loved did.
Yes, there are the scandalous stories but isn’t there Mills and Boons lining the shelves of every library? You just need to know where to look. The most followed stories on the site are under the genre adventure and are longer than any of the books I have on my shelf.
The readers and writers work together. They learn to improve their writing technique by editing and even beta-ing. People constructively break down each other’s work and work together to build each other up. Even the reviews are kind and supportive for the most part.
You wouldn’t believe the number of teen writers testing the waters and spreading their wings. They are trying to teach themselves. They want guidance and acknowledgement.
If you type fanfiction into any search engine late-night talk show segments will show up trying to get a cheap laugh and articles trying to teach parents what it is like in the depths of the community will appear. No one on the sites cares. That’s the outside world. The writers and readers do what they do with confidence. Confidence that would be benefitable to schools and societies in this cynical world.
And I’ll end this first blog with the lessons online writing has taught me. Lessons I should’ve learned in school:
Ability, even a magical ability like creativity takes works.
And
The only way to really succeed is to push forwards through the shitty phase every writer goes through and post that next update.
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Creativity & Change: A Unique Accredited Course in Creative Change-Making at CIT
The Creativity and Change programme & CIT Crawford College of Art
Application Deadline: 15th September 2018
The Creativity & Change programme targets change-makers, educators, activists, artists, community workers, adult education tutors, youth workers, volunteers and anyone who is interested how creative engagement can nurture global citizenship and empathic action around local and global justice themes.
This part-time accredited course takes place over 8 weekends from September to May.
Course Modules
Module one ‘Thematic Creative Engagement’ considers the role of creativity in learning and its contribution to enabling engagement with knowledge, attitudes, values and behaviours of global citizens. It engages learners with a range of models and concepts of learning related to Development Education and Education for Global citizenship. Learners will engage with a range of global justice themes and topics related to local and global interconnectedness. They will also engage with a wide range of creative tools and methods. The module will require a deep critical personal engagement and self-reflection, developing personal perspective as a global citizen and connecting with values and themes. The learners will critically engage with the learning environment of the programme and their personal approach and style as learners in view of applying this learning to their practice.
Module 2 ‘Application to Practice’ builds on on the experiential learning process of the ‘Thematic Creative Engagement’ module. Learners will consider the application of their learning in professional practice. They will apply their learning in design and delivery of live projects that provide learning experiences for others and be given space for personal and peer reflection on their practice.
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Blog 3 – Muireann Ahern & Louis Lovett, Joint Artistic Director Theatre Lovett
Muireann Ahern is Joint Artistic Director of Theatre Lovett. For Theatre Lovett she has directed and designed multiple shows. Muireann has over twenty years’ experience working in theatre for young audiences. Previously, she was Theatre Programmer and Producer at The Ark. She programmed the Family Season of the Dublin Theatre Festival and The Dublin Dance Festival. Muireann has worked with The Abbey Theatre’s Outreach Department, TEAM, part time lecturer at St Patrick’s teacher training college, and is a regular guest speaker on theatre for children at other third level colleges. She has led several Professional Development courses and was a member of the core working group on the published Artists~Schools Guidelines: ‘Towards Best Practice in Ireland’. She has been guest speaker at national and international conference focusing on ‘quality’ in theatre for young audiences. She is a graduate of the Samuel Beckett Centre for Drama and Theatre Studies, Trinity College Dublin and also holds a HDip Education from TCD.
Louis is Joint Artistic Director of Theatre Lovett. Theatre Lovett make work for all ages and tour extensively both nationally and internationally. For Theatre Lovett he writes, composes and performs. Work includes They Called Her Vivaldi (Abbey Theatre, National tour, USA tour 2019), The True Story of Hansel and Gretel (Dublin Theatre Festival 2015). Mr. Foley, The Radio Operator (national tour), A Feast of Bones (Dublin Theatre Festival, UK tour), The House that Jack Filled (Dublin Theatre Festival, Irish tour) and The Girl who Forgot to Sing Badly (Irish, US/AUSTRALIAN tours). Louis has also worked with The Abbey Theatre, The Gate Theatre, The Corn Exchange, Siren Productions, Performance Corporation, Barabbas and others. Louis has also performed in and directed several productions at The Ark, A Cultural Centre for Children. Television & Film includes Moone Boy, Stella Days, Anseo, Killinascully, The Tudors, Showbands, Story Lane, The Morbegs and others.
Theatre Lovett make theatre for all ages, child and adult, young and old, chicken and egg. They were nominated for a Judges Special Award at The Irish Times Theatre Awards 2017. If you seek theatre that can amuse, involve and sometimes scare, we offer you theatre as adventure www.theatrelovett.com.
Theatre Lovett in the Rehearsal Room
Into week two proper of FRNKNSTN rehearsals. The focus in the creative space at present is on unlocking the gate way between the words of Michael West’s script and the actor’s physical, vocal and spiritual interpretation. Director Muireann Ahern, stage manager Clare Howe and actor Louis Lovett set up stall in a creative marketplace where ideas are unloaded, laid out, prodded for texture, freshness, flavour, tried out for size, weighed, assessed, refused, balked at, laughed at (in a bad way), laughed at (in good way), and once or twice a day, but usually just once, a string of ideas are spooled out in an order sufficient to please and perhaps, for a critical second, to impress. These ones are marked down for memory and promptly asked to take one more twirl around the room, and again and again. If they stand up to scrutiny and pass muster after repetition, then they are stamped for approval and requested to present for duty the next day to undergo the same drill again. Mr. Lovett accepts the challenge on their behalf. They will then be pushed for improvement. This string of ideas might comprise one short section of one scene whereby these firm, fresh ideas might be leaned upon to point the way forward and assess the way we have come so far.
These ideas are the precious gifts we intend laying at the precious feet of our fine audience. It is essential that they are the best we have to offer. Their providence is obscure in parts, clearly archived in others. Some are like midges on a summer’s evening that have become tangled in our hair for no reason but pure chance that we had decided to cycle in the park. But now we’re overdoing it…
Time hurtles towards tech week and first audiences. Our rehearsal time, our time strolling (racing!) the aisles of our ideas market is being whittled away. Always other demands pull us from the business of ideas.
Muireann Ahern directs and Louis Lovett performs in Theatre Lovett’s next production of FRNKNSTN by Michael West, a modern mutation of Mary Shelley’s classic novel FRANKENSTEIN at The Abbey Theatre. This daring adaptation re-imagines Victor Frankenstein as a gene-splicing molecular biologist who creates human life from his own DNA with catastrophic results. Speaking from a holding cell, Frankenstein is desperate to set the record straight. A modern ghost story and psychological thriller, this version of Frankenstein aims to chill us with the darkness we hold within our DNA — and our hearts. Age Guidance: Not suitable for under 16s, www.abbeytheatre.ie/whats-on/frankenstein/
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Applications Now Open for the Baboró GROW 2018 Programme – Artists Support & Professional Development
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children
Deadline: Friday 24 August
Baboró are delighted to announce applications are now open for the 2018 GROW Programme, supporting artists in making work for children and young audiences.
Baboró has a long history of mentoring and supporting artists, creatives and educators who are exploring and developing theatre, dance, music and visual art for young audiences, or are interested in doing so. Whether you are an emerging artist, a student or an established artist interested in making work for children, Baboró’s GROW programme is here to support your development.
The GROW programme includes a number of strands which interested candidates can apply for. Two of the recently introduced strands are Pathways to Production and Festival Mentoring.
Pathways to Production
The programme aims to facilitate artists development from the kernel of an idea and initial concept development to project planning, help developing funding strategies and the development of the work for a sharing with peers and the sector. It is hoped that artists/companies will eventually go on to full production of their new piece of work.
The objective is that by making available our collective organisational experience, resources and areas of expertise, Pathways to Production will support artists and companies to make excellent work in Ireland for this very special audience. The emphasis of the programme is on the process of development of new work and artist development, rather than the end product. We hope that this capacity-building initiative will contribute to the development of sustainable careers and creative opportunities for artists in Ireland. Find out more at www.baboro.ie/about/work/grow/pathways.
Festival Mentoring
A small group of participants will be lead through a curated programme of festival shows and industry events including discussions, presentations, workshops, networking events etc. The group will navigate the programme with mentoring from two highly experienced individuals from the sector, Phil Kingston, Community and Education Manager at the Abbey Theatre and Maria Fleming, Chair of Theatre for Young Audiences Ireland (TYAI) and General Manager of Dublin Theatre Festival, during the Baboró 2018 Festival. Find out more at www.baboro.ie/about/work/grow/work-grow-mentoring.
Baboró’s Executive Artistic Director Aislinn Ó hEocha commented, “We were delighted with the response to our new GROW programme in 2017. The artists involved in Festival Mentoring and Pathways to Production find the schemes really beneficial to their practice. opportunities to see a range of international work, build Irish and international networks and learn from each other and the partners have proven invaluable. We are really looking forward to seeing who emerges from the 2018 open call.”
Deadline for applications is Friday, August 24 with successful candidates being announced on Monday, September 17. Application forms and guidelines can be downloaded from www.baboro.ie/about/work/grow.
GROW is funded by the Art’s Council’s Strategic Funding.
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‘Bringing STEM alive in the classroom through Drama’ at The Ark
The Ark, Dublin are excited to present a new five day arts-science summer course led by scientist and theatre-maker Dr. Niamh Shaw, aimed at primary teachers of 1st-3rd classes.
Discover STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) anew through a range of enjoyable and accessible creative drama processes designed to lift these subjects off the page and bring them to life for both teachers and students.
The course is created and led by the inspiring Dr Niamh Shaw – an engineer, former science academic and a theatre maker as well as one of Ireland’s leading science communicators and STEAM specialists. Niamh’s scientific knowledge and warm engaging style will help you in finding exciting new ways of communicating science themes to your students.
This practical hands-on course will improve your confidence in teaching STEM subjects as well as Drama and how to meaningfully link and integrate these in the classroom. A range of relevant STEM curricular areas will be explored through Drama including Mathematics, Geography, and of course Science.
The course is aimed at teachers of all levels of STEM and drama knowledge and experience.The course content and aims include:
Enhancing your confidence across a range of STEM curricular areas using highly participative and accessible creative drama methodologies.
Engaging and highly active course content delivered by an outstanding artist-scientist facilitator with unique expertise in both STEM and theatre-making/drama.
STEM areas which will be explored during the course include distance, time and heat across the subjects of mathematics, geography (planets and solar system) and science curricula (heat, gravity).
Teachers will build a tool kit of accessible and exciting new ideas and approaches to teaching both STEM and the drama curriculum using an integrated cross-curricular approach to planning and delivery.
Irish science history and heritage will also be explored relating course content to local and national science heroes to help teachers and their students connect to the subject matter and will inform some of the drama narratives developed during the course. Leading Irish scientists and engineers including Robert Boyle, Kathleen Lonsdale, Ernest Walton, William Hamilton and others will be reviewed.
The use of drama approaches will ensure the course also supports literacy and language development through devising performance and narratives for example stimulation of imaginative and creative language to create characters and scenes.
Participants will experience a range of practical creative methods that will develop their teaching in line with national priorities including STEM, numeracy and literacy.
The course will include time for teachers’ to reflect on individual, group and school performance in the areas of STEM and drama and devise creative ways to engage with the SSE 6 stage process.
The course will provide ample support material and a field trip to Science Gallery Dublin will present the teachers with an interdisciplinary approach to presenting STEM subjects.
Over five days this hands-on, creative course at The Ark, Dublin focuses on a visual arts approach to exploring narrative, literacy & other subjects.
The aim of the course is to enable participants to start the new school year with an enhanced tool box of skills and knowledge, in order to effectively deliver the visual arts curriculum in the classroom. Participants will be engaged ‘hands-on’ throughout this course so learning will be through doing. Working in teams and individually, you will cover a range of curriculum strands including drawing, painting, print, 3D construction, fabric and fibre.
A strong emphasis will be on building skills and confidence. The group will also explore how visual art can be used to engage with aspects of the English, SPHE, History and Maths curriculum, as well as to promote visual literacy approaches. School self-evaluation exercises will be incorporated as an integral part of the course.
This course will appeal to teachers of all levels of experience and will be facilitated by the visual arts and education specialist and founder of Art to Heart, Jole Bortoli. This is a continuing professional development opportunity not to be missed!
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Blog 1 – Jessica O’Brien, Young Playwright Programme
Jessica O’ Brien is a 16 year old student and aspiring writer from Cork. As part of the Young Playwrights’ Programme with Graffiti Theatre, she along with eight other young people wrote and staged plays in The Everyman as part of the Midsummer Festival in 2018. She is currently writing her first book and hopes to have a career in writing novels or journalism.
The series is a joint guest blog series with two participants of the Young Playwright Programme, Jessica O’Brien and Róisin O’Donnell.
Let Creativity STEM
All my life I have been aware of what subjects defined me as ‘intelligent’ and what made me ‘subordinate’ by the education system.
Since I made the jump from primary school to secondary school I have become increasingly aware of the differences between myself and the students who excel in STEM subjects. It’s pretty clear what careers are portrayed as sensible, high intelligence careers, as careers in the arts are simply never discussed. STEM subjects include science, technology, engineering and mathematics- and recently I have noticed what a huge effort is being made to promote careers in these subjects, especially as my school is all female. We have been visited by countless representatives encouraging us to begin a career in a STEM subject and we have had several different weeks in school dedicated to science and maths. I believe this is hugely positive and will inspire us girls with the message that we too can hold positions of power in careers dedicated to these subjects- but I do think that those who are genuinely not interested in these subjects are being tossed aside.
Despite science being a choice in my school, I am constantly made to feel like it was never my choice to drop it. There have never been weeks dedicated to the students that excel in the arts. Yes, there are classes available, but they were hard fought for and aren’t treated as important by those who don’t participate in them. I spoke to my art teacher at an open night once, and she told me that parents would approach her, and ask her if ‘art was really that hard.’ My music teachers have only recently been given time slots for practicing for our carol service that is one of the biggest events on our school calendar. This would never happen with any other subjects. I was at a meeting being on our school’s magazine team. Our teacher didn’t show up to the meeting, which was a regular occurrence, but we decided we were going to power through on our own and show the school what we could do. But that couldn’t happen now. We were told the school didn’t have the funding for the 6 extra pages we wanted to produce. Yet our school bank gets hundreds to rent in famous guests to hype up their work. Our school has an annual run to pay for a new running track for sport. Our science labs are always stocked for experiments and our art classrooms are used as supply cabinets whenever people need to make posters. If you want to work hard in schools in a subject to do with the arts, you are pretty much on your own. I feel that the way people who work hard in these creative subjects are treated is really offensive. Music, art, and all other creatively based subjects are also fulfilling and big earning careers. The world needs them just as much as it needs scientists and engineers. Would you turn around to a world famous actor and chastise them for not becoming a mathematician?
Jessica was a participant in the Young Playwrights’ Programme with Graffiti Theatre which was a recipient of the Arts in Education Portal 2018 Documentation Award.
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Blog 4 – Dan Colley, Dramaturg & Director of Collapsing Horse Theatre
Blog post 4: Rights Museum
The Rights Museum is a participatory art project that attempts to allow our objects to tell our story through the medium of a museum. Its subject is the lives of students in Larkin Community College and how the rights enshrined in the UNCRC intersect with their actual lived experience. Or don’t.
In my last blog post I detailed how I worked with a group of first year CSPE students and asked them to invest in the stories behind their rights – and learn about their rights in reality.
In our next session, I presented a simple everyday object to the group – I used a shoe. I like to gather the participants around the object in a circle. First I asked them to make objective observations: what can we say for certain just by looking at it? For example; “it’s a shoe”, “it’s got white laces”, “it’s black” “there’s dirt on it”. I kept this going, correcting them if they brought in any subjective observations (eg. “They look like they’ve been used to go running” or “They’re ugly”). Keep it to the facts that you can tell just by looking.
Once I’d just about exhausted this, I asked them to make subjective observations. I prompted them; who might have owned these shoes? What might they have used them for? Did they value them? And with each answer, I asked them to support their claim with evidence that they can see.
Then I placed the shoes on a raised platform (I used a bin but asked them to imagine it was a plinth in a museum!) and I asked them if that changed the way they saw it? Did it make it seem more important? Why? What could possibly be so important about this pair of shoes that they would be in a museum? I asked them to imagine that there was a label on it that said “Plastic and canvas shoes. Shoe size 5. 2017. Syria.” and then I asked them what they thought of them then. What would they think about the story of these shoes and who wore them?
I put the shoes away and then put another object on our “plinth”. This one was of personal importance to me – a pair of cufflinks displayed in their box. But I didn’t tell the participants anything about them yet. Again I asked them to make objective observations, then subjective observations (“is this important to the owner? Why do you say that?” “Are these expensive? Why do you say that?” “When were they made?” etc.) I then told them what they were, the story behind them and why they were important to me. Then I asked them all to bring in an object that was important to them, look at their UNHCR which we’d been working on, and relate what was important to them about the object back to an article in the charter.
Now we were facing the task of putting together an exhibition in the National Museum of Ireland at Collins Barracks. Our questions for this were; how do we represent the work and the participants’ learning in that space for members of the public to see? And how do we invite the public to actively engage with the ideas within it?
We decided to keep it simple; we photographed all the participants with their chosen object and asked them why it was important to them and what right(s) it related to. We then got Sarah Moloney, a graphic designer (although this could have been done by me or someone who had time to learn Photoshop) to lay out the photographs with quotations from the students laid over the image, along with the text from the UNCRC that were relevant. Each of these was printed on A2 card and was displayed on the walls of the exhibitions space. This allowed all of the students who had taken part to be represented in the exhibition.
There were three large windows in the space; the middle one we printed the text of the UNCRC and on the two sides windows we wrote “What would be in your Rights Museum?” and invited the public to write on the windows in liquid chalk pens which we provided. This allowed the public to actively engage in the ideas that the Right Museum was provoking.
The Museum kindly lent us a display case, for which I chose eight objects that were representative of the whole group, to be displayed for the duration of the exhibition. This was the centre piece of the Rights Museum and showed the seemingly everyday objects, contributed by young citizens, enjoying the prestige and equal importance that is given to the treasured objects in the National Museum’s collection.
The power of this statement seemed to resonate with those we told about it and we had an enthusiastic response to our invitation to the opening of the exhibition. The opening was attended by the Minister for Education Richard Bruton, Director of the National Museum Raghnall Ó Floinn and the Ombudsman for Children Niall Muldoon, as well as national media including RTE news and the Irish Times. Two students from Larkin Community College, Ciarán Hayden and Isabella Anthony, spoke about their experience of the process at the podium, alongside the Minister, Director, and Ombudsman for Children. A number of students led guided interpretive tours of the exhibition for our guests.
I’d count among the Rights Museums successes; the way that it was able to facilitate learning about children’s rights in an active and personal way, that it succeeded in placing, on equal footing, the objects and stories of the young people alongside the artefacts of the National Museum, and the wide reach that the Rights Museum had to the public, through the media and from those who visited it.
The main challenges were in finding time and space with the young people to work in a way that was outside of the curriculum – although there are important curricular subjects being addressed. I am eternally grateful to the staff of Larkin, particularly Máire O’Higgins for facilitating that. Another challenge I found was a lack of understanding, of and buy-in to, the idea of human rights by the young people that I worked with. I picked up on a prevailing perception, before I started working with them, that human rights were a
My takeaways from this projects are many but the main ones that jump to mind
1. That artists have a different approach to working that the students can benefit from that perspective. The artists way is often a more circuitous, process and enquiry based approach than students are used to in mainstream education. It’s one that’s comfortable with the state of ambiguity you find yourself in while you’re working, one that allows one to say “I don’t know what this is yet” and for that not to be a bad thing. That’s not to say artists are the only people who can demonstrate that way of working, but it is something that artists can do because of the way many of us work.
2. That as an artist working in a school, it’s important that that’s what I remain – an artist. My job is to be an artist, not an Art or CSPE teacher or anything else. The job is artist and that has value.
3. That the framing of work by young people has a profound impact on how it’s perceived by people, but most importantly themselves. The way their work (whether it be a copy book, or a sculpture or a story told in class) is handled by the people in the world around them, subconsciously tells them something about it’s value. And my feeling is there is a huge artistic and social potential in subverting expectations of that value – as we did in small way by displaying “ordinary” objects in a museum. The Ombudsman for Children’s Office has commissioned an education pack that features a guide on how to create your own rights museum in your school or community, and it will be available from their website in the autumn 2018 term.
If I may, I’d like to thank the Arts in Education portal for offering me this chance to share the process; Rebecca Mclaughlin and Niall Muldoon in the OCO for their support and vision in making this happen; Helen Beaumont and Lorraine Cormer in the National Museum’s Education Department for all that they did in hosting the exhibition, giving it a platform and providing expert facilitation on museum curation to the students; Richard Bruton for officially opening the exhibition; the students at Larkin Community College, and staff Siobhán Mckenzie, Declan Quinn, Emma O’Reilly, and Principal Thomas Usher. In particular I would like to thank Assistant Principal Máire O’Higgins, without whose drive, vision and passion for education and art, this wouldn’t have started and would have fallen at the first hurdle.
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Opportunity: EdD Research Degree at DCU for Educators and Artists
DCU Institute of Education
Application Deadline: July 10th, 2018
The EdD is a research degree for experienced professionals from education and related fields who would like to extend their professional understanding and develop skills in research, evaluation and high-level reflection on practice. The programme, offered within DCU’s Institute of Education, aims to foster professional development through research as well as meeting the requirements of rigour and originality expected of a doctorate. It includes assessed taught courses, research-focused workshops and supervised original research. It offers participants the opportunity to take modules in and complete a research study in one of the following eight Areas of Professional Focus:
Arts, Creativity and Imagination in Education
Assessment, Learning and Teaching
Digital Learning
Inclusive and Special Education
Leadership and Evaluation
Religious Education
Teacher Education
Values Education
Through a strong group dynamic, the intention of the programme is to foster cohort solidarity, develop inter- and intra-personal skills that are critical for teamwork, while simultaneously developing writing, research, critical, analytical, communication, leadership and collaborative skills to the highest possible standards. The intention is to educate an existing emergent educational leadership in the Irish context to the highest possible international standards.
The Doctor of Education programme (Ed.D) at the Institute of Education is currently running with a cohort which started their taught modules in July 2016. The next cohort is currently being recruited with a view to their starting their studies in August 2018. Further details and confirmation of dates will be added to the website as they become available.
Please note that the Areas of Professional Focus on offer can differ between one intake and the next.
Some Areas of Professional Focus have already reached capacity. Applicants for these areas will be placed on a waiting list and contacted in the event of a place becoming available.
Application due by July 10th and those interested should contact regina.murphy@dcu.ie with an expression of interest.
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Documentation Award Update – Playwright & Actor John McCarthy & The Young Playwrights Programme
The Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award recipient project, the Young Playwright’s Programme, culminated on Friday, June 22nd in a presentation of staged readings involving professional actors and directors at the Everyman as part of the Cork Midsummer Festival and in association with Landmark Productions and The Everyman’s staging of Louise O’Neill’s award winning novel Asking For It.
Between January and June 2018, the nine young playwrights selected over a series of Saturday workshops, had the the opportunity to work with professional playwright mentors John McCarthy and Katie Holly at Graffiti Theatre Company as part of Fighting Words Cork to help them create the short dramatic pieces that were staged last week. In addition, the young playwrights were invited by The Everyman to attend selected performances throughout the programme, to inspire and inform their work.
Award-winning Cork author Louise O’Neill is a patron of Fighting Words Cork, and Asking For It has been described as “one of the most important books for young people ever written. Deeply moving, incredibly written.”
The Fighting Words programme was developed by Roddy Doyle and Séan Love in 2009 in Dublin to provide a space to support creative writing among children and young adults. In January 2017 the programme was launched at Graffiti Theatre Company.
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Blog 2 – Muireann Ahern, Joint Artistic Director Theatre Lovett
Muireann Ahern is Joint Artistic Director of Theatre Lovett. For Theatre Lovett she has directed and designed multiple shows. Muireann has over twenty years’ experience working in theatre for young audiences. Previously, she was Theatre Programmer and Producer at The Ark. She programmed the Family Season of the Dublin Theatre Festival and The Dublin Dance Festival. Muireann has worked with The Abbey Theatre’s Outreach Department, TEAM, part time lecturer at St Patrick’s teacher training college, and is a regular guest speaker on theatre for children at other third level colleges. She has led several Professional Development courses and was a member of the core working group on the published Artists~Schools Guidelines: ‘Towards Best Practice in Ireland’. She has been guest speaker at national and international conference focusing on ‘quality’ in theatre for young audiences. She is a graduate of the Samuel Beckett Centre for Drama and Theatre Studies, Trinity College Dublin and also holds a HDip Education from TCD.
She will next direct Theatre Lovett’s production of FRNKNSTN at the Abbey Theatre on the Peacock stage.
Theatre Lovett make theatre for all ages, child and adult, young and old, chicken and egg. They were nominated for a Judges Special Award at The Irish Times Theatre Awards 2017. If you seek theatre that can amuse, involve and sometimes scare, we offer you theatre as adventure www.theatrelovett.com
Muireann Ahern, Joint Artistic Director Theatre Lovett
As we hurtle towards another new production with a new creative team and endless days of rehearsing, ‘teching’, and sweating the small stuff (each and every grain of it), I ask myself again why do we do what we do? Why do we need theatre at all? Do we need to create meaning through stories? Whether a child or an adult? The oldest of societies have had theatre-like rituals where meaning has been communicated through story. I do believe theatre can give children an arena to stimulate creative paths within their growing brains, paths on which they might meet themselves coming and going, carrying new skillsets with which to enhance their understanding of the world. And perhaps change it too.
The live exchange of theatre is increasingly important as children are more and more ‘face down in screen mode’. However, let us not demand their attention. As audience members, they have the right to switch off and tune out if they so desire. Also, if they are engaged by the piece, let’s gift them the choice to be alone in their experience or to share it with fellow audience members and like wise with their connection with the onstage players. As theatre-makers we hope our work will attract and hold their attention and win their engagement. Of course, we hope and work hard for this but again, let’s not force the issue. We concentrate on ensuring that what we create for the stage is different each time. And we hope – full of moments of wonder, skill and surprise. Our audiences might be wowed by the work asking themselves “How did they do that?” The “Why?” can come later but for now “How?” is good. It rhymes with “wow”.
Let us hope that children and young people, whether on an outing with their class or with their families, can come to think of the theatre space as a place separate from expected outcomes. Rather, let it be different to their norms. Different from the classroom or kitchen. Different possibilities emanating from the actions of the players up there on the stage. Different synapses firing in different parts of the brain. Different outlooks on a world that, once we leave the theatre, might look different.
Playing for your Audience
There are many fine theatre artists working today with a focus on children and young people. Younger theatre-makers are turning their heads towards work for children too. More people becoming involved is a good thing. When we invite artists from the ‘adult theatre world’ to bring their craft to work for young audiences or introduce younger practitioners to this audience, we must ensure they are supported in the process. If misguided or misdirected both audience and artists can end up at sea or up the proverbial creek. Most important here is accuracy in terms of the age pitch of a theatre piece.
At Theatre Lovett, we run our actor training courses entitled Playing for your Audience. Our underpinning philosophy is to encourage actors to address where their egos are in this process. Walk hand in hand with your ego, bring it with you, leave it at the door, teach it to “Sit!”. Yes, like puppy training for the Ego. Give it a cuddle but remember who’s the boss. In our training, we focus on ‘making the person next to you shine’ and strive to create work that will shine from the stage.
Happily, we have a healthy interest from artists, with all levels of experience, wishing to participate. There is definitely a growing desire to know more about this area. I love to see actors bridging the divide between playing for young audiences and playing for adults. It is, however, a particular joy to find actors who are at ease interacting with their audience and who are at ease with what children might offer them during performance. It concerns knowing when to engage and when not to, yet at all times with that lovely sense that every child’s offering is wholly, yet subtly, embraced. My Co-Artistic Director, Louis Lovett, is known for this kind of interaction. He has a real desire to upskill other actors in this area. He surfs his audience beautifully and his audiences are rarely left unheard or with their contribution left hanging in the air. This is a very skilful thing to be able to do effectively and as a director, this is a very satisfying component of the shows I direct (thanks to the actors’ skills). There is a whole methodology behind if or when an actor acknowledges or includes offers that come spontaneously from a young audience. To be able to do so, without putting the brakes on the momentum of the show, is what can really set theatre for children apart from the grown-up variety.
Muireann will direct Theatre Lovett’s next production of FRNKNSTN an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic novel FRANKENSTEIN at The Abbey Theatre. Pitched at 16+ https://www.abbeytheatre.ie/whats-on/frankenstein/
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Opportunity for Schools: Take part in SHORELINE with CoisCéim BROADREACH
CoisCéim BROADREACH
Primary Schools in the Dún Laoghaire – Rathdown area are invited to apply to participate in SHORELINE
A Choral Song And Contemporary Dance Project For People Aged 8 to 80+
Led by CoisCéim BROADREACH Director Philippa Donnellan and renowned composer Denis Clohessy, in association with the DLR LexIcon Library and Pavilion Theatre, SHORELINE invites people from Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown to embark on an oceanic journey of discovery – to share their stories and experiences about the sea.
The project begins in September 2018 in a creative dance/song workshop project that brings together children from 1 primary school, a local choir, and people aged 50+ and culminates in 3 sea-themed performances by participants at the DLR LexIcon Library on Saturday 25 November 2018 at 2pm, 3pm, and 4pm.
What’s Involved
The project begins at the end of September and includes:
1 Collaborative planning session with Project Leader Philippa Donnellan, the School Principal and selected class teachers
Led by the 2 artists | 6 weekly in-school dance/song workshops – day/time/duration tbc
2 Rehearsals with local groups at dlr LexIcon – 23/24 November
3 Performances of SHORELINE at dlr LexIcon – Saturday 24 November
1 Feedback & evaluation session
Application Requirments
Key to participation in SHORELINE is your school’s active support for the arts and creative learning in education including:
Use of school hall or similar for 6-7 dance/music workshops – day/time/duration tbc
Class teacher attendance at all planning sessions, workshops and performances.
2-3 adult volunteers to accompany children – dlr LexIcon rehearsals & performances
Use of basic resources such as: percussion instruments, stationary, sound equipment etc
Selection Criteria
Selection will be made by CoisCéim BROADREACH and criteria are based on articulating a clear rationale as to why your school
would like to participate in SHORELINE – and a demonstrable ability that you are able to:
Engage and contribute to the artistic process through – facilitating collaboration between the teachers, children and guest artists – and developing a cross-curricular approach to maximize thematic exploration and participation.
Maintain effective communication and liaison with CoisCéim BROADREACH and Project Leaders at all stages of the project
Provide necessary practical/logistical/administrative support as relevant to the demands of the project in your school
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Baboró ‘Drama Tools for the Classroom’ CPD for Teachers & Educators
Limited Places Left
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children
Date: July 2nd – 6th 2018 from 9.30am to 2.00pm
Would you like to build on your ability to use the creative arts to aid learning in the classroom? This July 2-6 Baboró International Arts Festival for Children presents a five-day, EPV Department of Skills and Education approved summer course, which has been specially designed to explore the use of drama, both as a subject as well as a methodology. The aim of this CPD course is to inspire and augment learning in the classroom and enrich the professional practice of teachers and educators. A limited number of tickets remain.
The course provides participants with an opportunity to gain insights and practical tools to explore drama in the classroom in a safe and relaxed environment, supported and mentored by drama specialist and primary teacher Irene O’Meara. The emphasis is on process drama and enhancing teacher and child experience in the classroom.
Who is it for?
This professional development course is suitable for teachers and professionals working with children, who are enthusiastic about gaining useful drama tools to support their teaching via an integrated approach within the primary curriculum, and using drama games and strategies to enable their students to become directly involved in their own learning.
What will you learn?
The course has a practice-based approach, and offers participants 5 days of rich, fun and engaging learning, enabling them to enjoy engaging in drama activitieswith students in a confident manner while exploring a broad range of stimuli for the creation of drama. It will also help participants to feel better equipped to deepen students’ experience of the arts via simple exercises in pre and post engagement.
About the Facilitator
Irene O’Meara is a Drama specialist and primary school teacher, who has been facilitating In-Service for over two decades, and has designed and delivered programmes in Drama, Integrated Arts, Literacy, and Early Childhood Education. Irene has worked in the Drama Department at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick and is currently a tutor and assessor with Hibernia College.
Course Details
Baboró CPD 2018 ‘Drama Tools for the Classroom’
July 2nd – 6th 2017 from 9.30am to 2.00pm
The O’Donoghue Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance, NUI Galway
Course Cost €70 per person
Places Limited to 23
Attendees Receive: Certificate of Participation
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Documentation Award Update – Young Playwrights’ Programme Showcase at the Cork Midsummer Festival
The Young Playwright’s Programme
Date: 2pm 22nd June, 2018
The Arts in Education Portal Documentation Award recipient project the Young Playwright’s Programme to showcase at The Everyman as part of the Cork Midsummer Festival.
The Young Playwrights’ Programme brought together nine aspiring young writers to develop and hone scriptwriting skills, supported by professional playwright mentors John McCarthy and Katie Holly at Graffiti Theatre Company as part of Fighting Words Cork.
The project culminates in a presentation of their work as staged readings at the Everyman for Cork Midsummer Festival. The process which these young people have engaged with was truly transformative, far more powerful than the simple assembly of words on pages. This enriching collaborative environment has acted as a catalyst for the unique voices of the Young Playwrights and led to the creation of these nine compelling pieces.
Graffiti/Fighting Words Cork are really proud to be working with these wonderful young people in collaboration with The Everyman, Landmark Productions and The Cork Midsummer Festival as part of a programme of events in connection with Asking For It funded through the Arts Councils Open Call Awards.
This event is free but ticketed.
To RSVP you can just call the Everyman box office at 021 450 1673 or emailing info@everymancork.com
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Arts Council of Ireland Information Clinic for the Young People, Children and Education Bursary Award
Arts Council of Ireland
Clinic Date: 19th June 2018 from 1.30 – 4pm
Application Closing Date: 17:30 on Thursday 12th July 2018
The YPCE Bursary Award is open to individual professional artists and practitioners working with, and producing work for, children and young people across a wide range of artforms. The award provides artists with the time and resources to think, research, reflect on and develop their artistic practice. Applications for the 2018 YPCE Bursary Award open on June 12th and will close at 17:30 on Thursday 12th July 2018.
The purpose of this session is to share the objectives and priorities for this award and to offer practical guidance on the application process. There will also be an opportunity to hear from previous recipients about how they have used the award to develop their practice.
Agenda
Event begins at 1.30pm, with refreshments available
Introduction and the objectives of the bursary award
Experience of previous recipients
Application process
General Q&A Session
Event closes 4pm
Please register to attend the information session by email ypce@artscouncil.ie
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Chair of the Arts in Education Portal Committee pays tribute to Professor John Coolahan
Professor John Coolahan R.I.P.
Chairperson of the High Level Implementation Group for the Arts in Education Charter, Professor John Coolahan, passed away last Sunday 3rdJune 2018, surrounded by his loving family. He had been ill for the last year and fought his illness in the same way he lived his life, with dignity.
John was a pivotal figure in Irish education policy for more than 50 years and was often referred to as the “Father of Irish Education”. He was an academic, a researcher, an author, a primary and second-level teacher and an adviser to successive governments on the drafting of educational policy. John Coolahan, who was Professor Emeritus of Education at Maynooth University, lectured extensively in Ireland and abroad. He wrote three books, including Irish Education, its History and Structure (1981), and published more than 120 articles in Irish and international journals. He is widely credited with shaping a modern vision for Irish education, underpinned by legislation, and he also chaired the Irish Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the primary sector. He was a “colossus in Irish education” and his life was an inspiration for all who care about teaching, learning and research.
He was a founding member and president of the Educational Studies Association of Ireland and was editor of Irish Educational Studies. He had numerous public service roles and served on a range of Ministerial committees and on the boards of educational and cultural bodies. At international level, he was a member of the OECD’s review team on education and was vice-president of the EU committee on education. He was also a consultant to the World Bank and the Council of Europe, a member of the review body on education in Northern Ireland, and the co-founder and co-chairman of the standing conference on teacher education, North and South.
To us associated with the Arts in Education Portal, he will be remembered as the Chairperson and the voice of the Arts in Education Charter. He was jointly appointed in 2013 by the then Minister for Education and Skills Ruarai Quinn and Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Mr Jimmy Denihan as Chairperson of the High Level Implementation Group for the Arts in Education Charter. He was a passionate advocate for the integration of the arts in education both within and outside of the school environment and he championed the rights of all children to fulfil their creative potential. He was so delighted and proud of the achievements of the Arts in Education Charter which included initiatives such as the launch of the Arts in Education Portal, Teacher-Artist Partnership as a model for CPD, Irelands Arts Education Research Repository and various other initiatives. He believed in dialogue, collaboration and mutual respect for all organisations and stakeholders in the area of arts in education.
I had the privilege of working with John as a member of the High Level Implementation Group for the Arts in Education Charter since 2013. I count myself very lucky to have had this experience and be mentored by John on the integration of the arts in education. I learned so much from him and all the fantastic people and committee’s we met over the last five years. I was proud to call him my friend as was everyone we encountered. He was a gentleman, a scholar and the kindest and most modest person I have ever had the pleasure to work with. Ní bheidh a leithéid arís ann.
Dr. Katie Sweeney, Chairperson of the Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee & National Director for the Integration of the Arts in Education.
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Job Opportunities with Dance Theatre of Ireland
Dance Theatre of Ireland
Deadline: 15th June 2018
Dance Theatre of Ireland seek applications for the positions of Programmes Manager and Centre and Outreach Coordinator to join their team in Dún Laoghaire.
Dance Theatre of Ireland is a professional contemporary dance company based in a beautiful, purpose-built Centre for Dance in Dún Laoghaire. With extensive Arts & Health, Community & Educational Outreach and Arts Participation programmes in dance, DTI works locally, nationally and internationally. Over 3500 people of all ages are engaged in participatory dance activities throughout the year, and the Company delivers over 200 Educational Outreach workshops annually.
Programmes Manager
DTI are looking for an experience and dynamic Programmes Manager to manage and develop the Company’s growing Dance & Health programmes, Community and Educational dance participation programmes and performance projects. This is a new position, involving the overall business management and development of Dance Theatre of Ireland, working closely with the Artistic Directors, and core staff.
The Programmes Manager will have the responsibility to manage the business and financial development aspects of the Company’s activities, and progress the deepening and expanding Arts Participation direction of the Company. They will be responsible to devise and deliver a business growth plan for the Well-Dance for Seniors and other Dance & Health programmes, develop partnerships, seek performance opportunities for Vintage Youth Ensemble and work with DTI’s core staff in managing the Centre for Dance and Educational Outreach programmes, coordinating the complex moving parts and key relationships. They will monitor and meet the financial and attendance targets, maintain financial diligence, diversify and secure new income streams, lead PR and Marketing, and report regularly to the Artistic Directors.
Centre and Outreach Coordinator
DTI are looking for an experienced and dynamic individual for a multi-faceted, full-time position, managing DTI’s Centre for Dance programme of classes and its nation-wide Educational Outreach programme. This role is very active and varied both in client facing and financial aspects. The Centre Coordinator’s primary responsibility is managing the enrollment / attendance/ financial tracking of all activities and facility use, interfacing with classes participants and Outreach clients and agencies, liaising with DTI teachers, and managing a wide range of key relationships working closely with the Artistic Directors.
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Graffiti Theatre Company & The Cork Midsummer Festival Present Seoid: An Opera for Babies
Graffiti Theatre Company & The Cork Midsummer Festival
Dates: 15th-17th June & 22nd-24th June at 11am & 2pm
Seoid/Jewel will be Graffiti’s first Opera for Babies devised by the team who brought you Blátha Bána/ White Blossoms and Gile na Gealaí/ Melody of the Moon. Seoid promises a musical and visual treat for an important audience.
Seoid will have its world premiere at the Cork Midsummer Festival and will be the first baby opera commissioned and performed in the Republic of Ireland. Performed in Irish and English it is a treasure not to be missed.
Seoid is a gentle musical journey though the seasons and through love.
Seoidín is looking through a box of memories (her baby clothes, a much loved toy), when she comes across her own childhood drawing of her Mother and Father. Memories stir and she sings. As she sings, she recalls her parents’ voices. They join her on an adventure through the seasons as Seoidín searches for the bright jewels of memories.
Starring: Linda Kenny (Soprano), Chloe Kiely (Soprano), Damian Smith (Baritone) and Chris Schmidt Martin (Cellist)
Composer: Fiona Kelleher
Director: Emelie FitzGibbon
Assistant Director: Síle Ní Bhroin
Set Designer: Deirdre Dwyer
Lighting Designer: Aoife Cahill
Production Manager/Set Construction: Olan Wrynn
Venue: Graffiti Theatre, Blackpool, Cork
Tickets: €8 per baby/child/adult
From:15th-17th June and 22nd-24th June at 11am & 2pm
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Blog 1 – Muireann Ahern & Louis Lovett, Joint Artistic Director of Theatre Lovett
Muireann Ahern is Joint Artistic Director of Theatre Lovett. For Theatre Lovett she has directed and designed multiple shows. Muireann has over twenty years’ experience working in theatre for young audiences. Previously, she was Theatre Programmer and Producer at The Ark. She programmed the Family Season of the Dublin Theatre Festival and The Dublin Dance Festival. Muireann has worked with The Abbey Theatre’s Outreach Department, TEAM, part time lecturer at St Patrick’s teacher training college, and is a regular guest speaker on theatre for children at other third level colleges. She has led several Professional Development courses and was a member of the core working group on the published Artists~Schools Guidelines: ‘Towards Best Practice in Ireland’. She has been guest speaker at national and international conference focusing on ‘quality’ in theatre for young audiences. She is a graduate of the Samuel Beckett Centre for Drama and Theatre Studies, Trinity College Dublin and also holds a HDip Education from TCD.
She will next direct Theatre Lovett’s production of FRNKNSTN at the Abbey Theatre on the Peacock stage.
Louis is Joint Artistic Director of Theatre Lovett. Theatre Lovett make work for all ages and tour extensively both nationally and internationally. For Theatre Lovett he writes, composes and performs. Work includes They Called Her Vivaldi (Abbey Theatre, National tour, USA tour 2019), The True Story of Hansel and Gretel (Dublin Theatre Festival 2015). Mr. Foley, The Radio Operator (national tour), A Feast of Bones (Dublin Theatre Festival, UK tour), The House that Jack Filled (Dublin Theatre Festival, Irish tour) and The Girl who Forgot to Sing Badly (Irish, US/AUSTRALIAN tours). Louis has also worked with The Abbey Theatre, The Gate Theatre, The Corn Exchange, Siren Productions, Performance Corporation, Barabbas and others. Louis has also performed in and directed several productions at The Ark, A Cultural Centre for Children. Television & Film includes Moone Boy, Stella Days, Anseo, Killinascully, The Tudors, Showbands, Story Lane, The Morbegs and others.
He will next appear on the Peacock stage in Theatre Lovett’s production of FRNKNSTN.
Theatre Lovett make theatre for all ages, child and adult, young and old, chicken and egg. They were nominated for a Judges Special Award at The Irish Times Theatre Awards 2017. If you seek theatre that can amuse, involve and sometimes scare, we offer you theatre as adventure www.theatrelovett.com.
The Theatre Lovett Process
At Theatre Lovett we are acutely aware of the tone of our own shows. All too often, in our opinion, the tragedy part for children is ignored. Our menu covers comedy and tragedy. But it is a skilful expedition to take children to darker places and then bring them back again unscathed and, hopefully, exhilarated. We hope that our chosen material and staging will stretch our audiences. It need not be a replication of what they already know and have a handle on. We hope never to underestimate a child’s capacity.
Happily, we see less and less of the default, high-octane, kiddy-theatre actor with unbridled energy bounding onto the stage in brightly coloured clothing. This often misplaced energy is a bit like giving children a sugar overload before the main meal. Deep down, let’s be honest, we know it’s not terribly good for them.
If we had a penny for every time we’ve heard: ‘Oh, they’re a tough audience, they’re very honest, and they’ll tell you exactly what they think’. Contrary to popular belief, and what we have found is that children do not always tell you what they think. They are, for the most part, quite polite. After the show, they will also tell you what they think you want to hear. Especially, if you’re waving a feedback form under their nose and stand between them and the exit/lunch/playtime/home.
What should children get from theatre, we ask ourselves? What any adults strives to get – a good day out, hopefully. Or hour. And that experience might be funny, insightful, provocative, moving or challenging. However, there is often a belief that children must learn something. Muireann is with Brecht who says “all good theatre is educational” if it opens up some new understanding. Simply because the adults in their lives have gone to the trouble of taking them to the theatre does not mean that the children have to be wowed by the piece. Heavens to Murgatroyd, Batman! it might not be any good. As with adults, children have the right to discard a theatre experience from their memory as soon as they exit the auditorium. It might be the wisest move. Let’s not doorstep them as they leave with questionnaires about their ‘favourite parts’ or ‘the best bits’. Who is this kind of questioning for, really? For Theatre Lovett, those moments after we leave the theatre are some of the most important moments in the whole experience. Give it breathing space, allow it to land or not to land. Give the children space to process.
Sometimes in the latter stages of rehearsal we will invite an audience in to see the work in progress. A Questions and Answers session afterwards helps us measure our rates of success or failure in audience engagement. Louis will often get things underway with:
“So, there were some really boring bits in that show, weren’t there? Can you remember any of the particularly boring parts?” And off we go. Try it. It can be enlightening.
Scarily enlightening.
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Calling Artists & Educators – Share your views on the Fingal Arts Office County Arts Plan
Fingal Arts Office
Deadline: 5pm Friday 1st June
Fingal Arts Office invites you to have your views heard in the development of the next County Arts Plan in Fingal by this Friday! The County Arts Plan is the roadmap for developing the arts service in Fingal over the coming years. As an advocate for Arts in Education / Children & Young People it’s important that you have your say.
Fingal Arts Office asks if you could please take ten minutes to complete the online Survey and have your voice heard.
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School Screenings and Education Pack for The Breadwinner
Cartoon Saloon
Screenings running Nationwide throughout May/June 2018
Cartoon Saloon are delighted to announce a series of upcoming screenings for schools of ‘The Breadwinner’, a powerful story of hope and resilience set on the streets of Afghanistan. The screenings are accompanied by a comprehensive education pack containing questions and activities to guide your class through the film.
THE BREADWINNER is a powerful story of hope and resilience set on the streets of Afghanistan and is based on the beloved book of the same name by Deborah Ellis which is currently on the curriculum. The heroine is Parvana, an 11-year-old girl whose family struggles for a better life under Taliban rule. Parvana disguises herself as a boy to help her family survive following the wrongful arrest of her father. Twomey’s powerful film drew the attention of UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie, who is an Executive Producer.
There a number of upcoming screenings suitable for schools for ages 10+, with a comprehensive education pack containing questions and activities to guide your class through the film. The education pack can be downloaded directly here and is a free resource for teachers.
The key points of interest in The Breadwinner include:
Arts education in the form of Cartoon Saloon’s beautiful animation
Social and personal health education reflected in Parvana’s resilience and good actions;
Diversity and inclusion explored through the representation of Afghan people and women in Afghanistan;
Politics, history and folklore referenced in stories of Afghanistan;
Language, reading and writing is represented as important skills in The Breadwinner. The students will also have the opportunity to discuss their feelings and opinions through the activities in the education pack.
The Breadwinner is available in English and in Irish language and has received a 12A certificate. It is recommended for Senior Primary Level and Junior Secondary Level students.
There is a full list of cinemas screening The Breadwinner online here: https://bit.ly/2ImyBmT
To book please fill out this booking form: https://goo.gl/forms/ EGO92EbalUaoVFmB2 or contact your cinema directly. Ticket prices are subject to the cinema’s school prices.
For any further queries, please contact Sarah Ahern, Schools Coordinator on thebreadwinnerfilm@gmail.com or ring The Breadwinner Team on 01 6185032.
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Blog 3: Kevin Gaffney Artist & Filmmaker
Primary School Links
School Links is a programme run by Dr. Michael Flannery which brings students from local DEIS primary schools into the Marino Institute of Education to participate in a visual arts project.
I worked with 4th class students from St Joseph’s Primary School, who came to MIE for four two-hour sessions. As the students had been exploring the use of food in art, I screened two excerpts of my films that deal with this topic. The first was a scene where a young woman eats a flower, and the students responded to this by creating their own flowers through collage and assemblage.
The second clip I screened was a scene where a performer emerges from a large fake cake with a hat of fruits on her head, and then another scene where she sifts flower onto her own head. The students responded to this by sculpting their own fruit, vegetable and other foods from memory out of modrock, which will be painted the next week. The students will decide if they wish to appropriate these materials to make their own hats and costumes, or if they would like to make another sculptural form with them.
In between these activities, students from the class interviewed me about the life and work of a contemporary artist:
Student: Why do you think art is important? KG: For me, art is like music or literature, and I think going to the an art gallery or museum is like going to the library. We are always expected to be so productive and busy, and art allows us to be quiet and reflective… it’s a different way of thinking. But, do you think it’s important?
Student: Yes, I think art is important because it brings so much colour to people’s lives.
Student: Do you make mistakes? KG: Yes, all the time! On my newest film, I spent so long making one scene… the art department spent ages on the set, there were a lot of props and it actually cost a good bit of money. But, then, when editing I realised it wasn’t working. It wasn’t fitting with the rest of the film at all… so I had to cut it out, and that’s so disappointing. It wasn’t anyone’s fault except mine!
Student: How long does it take you to make a film? Do you have people helping you? KG: Yes I have lots of people helping me! It’s impossible to be good at everything, and I’ve accepted the things I can do well and the things that I definitely can’t!
Student: How do you know if something you make is especially good? KG: It’s hard to know… sometimes you make something you really believe in, but it doesn’t connect with people. And sometimes the opposite happens. I just try to follow me intuition and not worry about what everyone else is thinking or doing… but I know you can’t really do this in school.
Student: When you’re making a film for a gallery, do you feel very pressured? KG: Yes, it’s a lot of pressure and it can be very distracting. On one hand, you are trying to be very sensitive and focused on what you are making, but then there is a professional pressure that seeps in. And it’s taken me ages to learn how to deal with that.
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Invitation to Schools – Celebrate 25 years of the UNCRC
To mark this significant anniversary a national invitation has been extended across Irish society including schools and their communities of staff and students to join with in the celebrations, raising awareness and understanding of children’s rights and listening to children and young people ensuring their voices are highlighted and heard. The aim is to provide creative and innovative ways to mark the 25th Anniversary and to enable educators to start the ‘Rights’ conversation in school – across many subject areas.
How to Get Involved
Get Animated About Rights
The OCO has teamed up with the Irish Animation Industry in a unique way to invite young people to create an image of the right that means most to them and have the opportunity to have it animated by one of Ireland’s leading animators.
Five winning artworks will be chosen by a panel of judges (including Oscar nominee 2018 Nora Twomey ‘The Breadwinner’, Best Animated Feature) for animation and winners will be offered an exclusive ‘behind-the-scenes’ tour of the hugely successful Brown Bag Studios (home of Give Up Yer Aul Sins, Doc McStuffins, Angelas Christmas and Octonauts). The animations will feature permanently on the OCO website.
Closing date is 16th June.
The Rights Museum
A cross-sector collaboration between OCO, National Museum of Ireland and Collapsing Horse Theatre. From September 2017 the OCO has been piloting this new education resource with Larkin Community College in Dublin (the first Rights Museum exhibition launched in March 2018 in the National Museum, Collins Barracks and runs until 29 June 2018). The Rights Museum resource will be available online on www.oco.ie from September 2018 inviting Junior Cert students to explore the UNCRC, choose and curate objects representing rights to exhibit in a pop-up Museum in school or in the local community.
The process of creating a Rights Museum offers schools opportunities for co-curricular co-operation, increased professional collaboration and students possibilities to apply learning in different contexts, engage in research, be creative and learn new skills. Collapsing Horse and Larkin’s pilot of the resource will be available as a short video piece.
Exhibition runs until 29th June
Check out Dan Colley, Collapsing Horse Theatre director guest blog series for the Arts in Education Portal on the project Rights Museum Project – artsineducation.ie/en/guestblog/dan+colley
Act Your Rights
Take part in the national ‘Act your Rights Drama’ competition in partnership with The Abbey Theatre.
Running until 30th May the OCO invite teachers and students to complete the ‘Act your Rights’ online resource. Make a short play, email a 3 minute taster and enter the competition to get the opportunity to perform on stage in the Peacock in September 2018.
The ‘Act your Rights’ online resource available here is a joint collaboration between the Ombudsman for Children’s Office and the Abbey Theatre. Act Your Rights aims to help children to become more aware of their rights and explore how rights are reflected in their everyday lives. It offers an innovative and enjoyable way to talk about rights with 4-6th class students through discussion, drama and art activities.
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Invitation to teachers & practitioners to attend the Theatre Connects Symposium
University College Cork
Date: 25th May, 2018
Performative Pathways between Schools, Universities and the Wider Community
The invited speakers will offer their perspectives on why theatre should be introduced and established as a subject in primary and secondary schools, why universities should embrace performativity within and across academic disciplines, and why leading theatres should continue to embrace and increase their outreach activities and aspire to employ theatre education specialists. The symposium should be of special interest to those who aim to form stronger links between theatre and education, including teachers, lecturers, theatre students, directors of theatres and theatre companies, applied theatre practitioners and policy makers.
Symposium organisation: Manfred Schewe and Fionn Woodhouse, Department of Theatre, School of Music & Theatre, UCC
Venue: Creative Zone, Boole Library, Main Campus, University College Cork
Date & Time: 25th May 2018 (12 a.m. to 4.30 pm.) – attendance free of charge, please confirm by May 24th
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Arts in Education Portal National Day 2018 Roundup
“Be assertive in making space for the arts in education” Professor Gary Granville
On April 21st the third arts in education portal national day took place at Maynooth University in partnership with Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education. The portal national day is building momentum as a very significant event in the arts and education calendar in Ireland. With over 100 artists, teachers and arts in education professionals in attendance with 22 workshops and lectures across the day by a range of presenters from the sector and inspirational insights from our guest speakers Professor Gary Granville and Paul Collard. Thanks to all involved in making day a huge success!
Baboró is seeking an innovative and experienced Communications Coordinator to join its small but ambitious, year-round team. The successful candidate will be responsible for Baboró’s internal and external communication including promoting the annual Baboró Festival, its year-round work, communicating Baboró’s mission and developing the organisation’s profile and brand. The role also incorprates supporting the Baboró’s operations by maintaining office systems and managing effective and efficient internal communications. This is a dynamic role which offers excellent opportunities for the successful candidate to develop their own unique skillset and areas of interest..
Essential Requirements
Excellent verbal, written, oral and digital communication skills
Strong visual communication skills with an eye for detail
Dynamic and resourceful self-starter
At least 3 years’ relevant work experience at management level
A track record in initiating strong and effective marketing/promotional campaigns
Strong organisation and planning skills with the ability to work under pressure in a challenging environment while managing workload and competing priorities
Proven ability in collecting and analysing data and in producing management reports
Experienced in managing budgets
Excellent interpersonal skills with a proven ability to work effectively in a team and build and maintain effective working relationships
Ability to effectively manage staff
Proven ability to manage processes, develop standards and promote process improvement
Excellent IT skills
Desirable Criteria
3rd level qualification relevant to marketing/communications
Knowledge of Baboró’s mission and remit
Knowledge of the arts sector
Understanding of Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA)
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Opportunity for Schools: Sybil Connolly Fashion workshops at The Hunt Museum
The Hunt Museum
Until 31st May 2018
As part of the Hunt Museum’s Sybil exhibition programme, primary and post-primary schools are invited to take part in a series of curriculum linked workshops at the Museum. These will enable students to examine Sybil’s highly innovative use of traditional Irish fabrics, including linen, lace, tweed and her design processes.
Sybil Connolly was the first Irish female designer to become successful internationally. She took her inspiration from Ireland and its people, creating “clothes using Irish fabrics made by Irish hands.” The Friends of Limerick Lace will introduce students to Limerick and Carrickmacross lace which are used in her fashion designs. Students will then learn how to create some basic stitches.
Using the Past Projections Future Fashion display in the exhibition students will also create a Sybil inspired t-shirt design which must give consideration to the importance of technology and ethics in contemporary fashion.
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Blog 3 – Dan Colley, Dramaturg & Director of Collapsing Horse Theatre
Blog post 3: Rights Museum
In my last blog post I detailed “Phase 1” of the process in which I facilitated drama and storytelling workshops with the 2nd year Art students at Larkin Community College, and the work-in-progress of the Rights Museum project which we presented in Croke Park for the OCO’s UNCRC25 Launch.
Although the presentation in Croke Park was supposed to be a “work-in-progress”, any readers who have done works-in-progress themselves will know there’s an inevitable sense of completion that sets in afterwards. Our challenge for “Phase 2” of the Rights Museum project was finding something new in executing the same idea. At the same time, the Art teachers Declan Quinn and Siobhán Mackenzie (who had been an essential energetic and creative force through the process from the beginning) started to feel the gravitational pull of the curriculum on their time, and thought that to continue with the process would be consume more time than they could afford to give. So, it was with some difficulty that we decided to draw a line under the phase 1 with the second year art students. This, I’m sure is a challenge and a decision many educators reading this will understand.
In order to continue, Máire O’Higgins, Deputy Principal and coordinator of artistic partnerships, needed to find an enthusiastic teacher and a group students who could benefit from the work. This she found in abundance in Emma O’Reilly and her first year CSPE class.
The task now was to recreate the process of phase one with a new group. This time, given that they were a CSPE class, we decided to find our way in through the UNCRC. Emma O’Reilly gave an introduction class to the United Nations Charter on the Rights of the Child, supported by me and Máire O’Higgins. Human Rights is one of the core pillar concepts of their CSPE course which they would normally cover in second year, so there was a curricular link there.
In our next session we asked the students to pick what they considered to be the most essential article in the UNCRC and to say why. We found their answers tended to cluster around the articles relating to family (and this was a theme we saw bare out in the objects they chose for the museum later). As the students told us which articles they thought were essential , my job as facilitator was to foment debate and dissent.
I used an exercise called “The Continuum” in which we cleared away the tables and chairs, nominated one end of the room to be “strongly agree” and the other side to be “strongly disagree” with “unsure” in the middle. When I said a statement, the students had to place themselves in the room, depending on how they felt about the statement. So, for example I might say “’Article 24; you have the right to healthcare’ is the most essential right” and the students would place themselves in the room depending on whether they agreed or strongly disagreed or somewhere in the middle. Then I would call on people who had taken the most extreme positions to say why. As they listened to the conversation and opposing points, students were encouraged to change their positions in the room as they changed their minds.
In this way, the students learned, from each other, the importance of their rights through the personal anecdotes they shared; they learned about their rights in reality. Choosing extreme statements to polarise opinion at the start and then allowing them to tease out the nuances among themselves.
In my next, and final, blog post I’ll describe how we applied this knowledge to museum curation; how one can tell stories and create meaning through selecting and placing objects. I’ll describe the process of working with the National Museum of Ireland, the launch of our completed Rights Museum exhibition in the National Museum at Collins Barracks and the Education Pack being commissioned by the OCO based on the Rights Museum.
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Job Opportunity Music Generation: Music Education Partnership Support Manager
Music Generation
Deadline: 12 noon, Friday 4 May, 2018
To support the current and future development of both new and existing Music Education Partnerships, Music Generation is now inviting applications for the role of Music Education Partnership Support Manager.
Established in 2010, Music Generation’s ambition is to transform the lives of children and young people through local access to high-quality, subsidised performance music education. Music Generation has recently embarked on a new phase of expansion into 9 new areas of the country, building towards nationwide rollout by 2022.
This new role at the Music Generation National Development Office presents an exciting opportunity for an experienced professional who combines strong expertise in music development and management with excellent interpersonal and leadership skills, initiative, and determination for results.
Music Generation is a Music Network initiative, co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education and Skills and Local Music Education Partnerships.
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Blog 2: Kevin Gaffney Artist & Filmmaker
Diorama construction and collaborative filmmaking
In the first semester of my residency at the Marino Institute of Education, I worked with the first years on the Professional Masters in Education programme. I had previously given workshops and lectures at university level at the Dublin Institute of Technology and Kyung Hee University in Seoul, and taught art classes for children at Taipei Artist Village and at primary schools in Roscommon as part of the Art School project run by Jennie Guy. However, this was my first time working with preservice teachers and, so, was the first time I was not just teaching art but also trying to impart how to teach art from the point of view of a contemporary artist.
I devised a workshop that would introduce the class to the process of filmmaking, and that could be replicated in a classroom with few resources. Students worked in groups, collaborating to make a film concept, visualize it, and realise this through constructing a diorama which would show the set/location of their film idea, the characters and any scene changes. I wanted to focusing on the storytelling and visualisation aspects of filmmaking, and my overall aim was that, from doing the workshop, students would have learnt that filmmaking is an enjoyable and achievable process, reliant more on imagination and communication than it is on expensive equipment.
In order to contextualise this project, I showed examples of contemporary animation sets, maquettes for theatre set design, and artists whose work uses collage or photomontage (John Stezaker, Hannah Hoch, David Hockney, Peter Kennard), and contemporary Irish artists working with animation techniques (Aideen Barry, Vera Klute).
To begin the project, each group had to select four random words that designated: (a) a genre; (b) a location; (c) a main human character; (d) an animal character. Then, together, they had to knit these into a coherent concept. After deciding on how to combine the elements, each group works on making a diorama. In a collaborative effort to realise their visualisation, decisions are made on colour palette, mood, materials and scale.
After their sets were made, students began to make their characters from armature and plasticine. We then began a simple stop-motion animation process using free apps on the students’ phones and school ipads. The result was that each group created a short silent animation using readily available materials and technology and each group created a unique project that can be appraised in relation to the concept they created and the parameters they set for themselves.
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Learning through Creativity – Summer Course for Primary Teachers at The Glucksman
Learning through Creativity is a 5-day course accredited by Drumcondra Education Centre that enables primary teachers to consider how an engagement with visual art can enhance learning in other strands of the curriculum. The course offers a blend of art appreciation, art interaction and art making exercises and participants will have the opportunity to work with professional artists and curators throughout the week.
Join curator Tadhg Crowley and artist Inma Pavon to look at projects that can be re-imagined in your classroom. This season’s masterclass will look at learning beyond the classroom and how educators can capitalize on this when designing their own lesson plans. Inma Pavon will introduce participants to movement, dance and performance exercises that can be developed for students of all ages and abilities.
Participants will receive a certificate of attendance from the Centre of Continued Professional Development at University College Cork.
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Music Generation Job Opportunity: Administrator, Waterford & Wexford
Waterford and Wexford Education and Training Board
Deadline: 5.00pm, Tuesday 1 May 2018
Waterford and Wexford Education and Training Board (WWETB) invites applications from suitably qualified persons for the positions of Administrator, Music Generation Waterford (1 post) and Administrator, Music Generation Wexford (1 post).
Both posts are full-time, 37 hours per week, and the successful candidates will be employed on fixed-term contracts for a period of three years.
Post details and applicant requirements are available to download from www.wwetb.ie/vacancies
The closing date for receipt of applications: 5.00pm, Tuesday 1 May 2018
WWETB is an Equal Opportunities Employer
Music Generation Waterford is part of Music Generation, Ireland’s national music education programme initiated by Music Network, co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education and Skills, and managed locally by Waterford Music Education Partnership, led by WWETB in partnership with Waterford City and County Council.
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Opportunity for Schools: Creative Engagement invite applications for 2018/19
At the core of the Creative Engagement scheme is the collaboration between student, teacher and artist as set out in Artist~Schools (Arts Council 2006). It’s about tapping into the imagination of the young person while giving both an incentive and a framework for the work to thrive.
To encourage imagination, creativity, initiative and expression in student
Students must be at the centre of the creative process
To compliment curricular learning in the arts, culture and heritage
The selection criteria:
Student engagement in and ownership of the creative process
Evidence of partnership between the students, teacher and visiting artist.
Originality and viability of the proposal.
Clear plan of action.
The costing of the proposal.
The school leadership must be members of NAPD.
The school must be a second level one.
Financial considerations
The availability of the grant funding for Creative Engagement and number of applicants will determine the amount of the grant per school. We aim for €2000 euro per school.
Where possible schools will supply evidence of matching funding.
Artists are paid through the school, which will receive two cheques during the school year from NAPD, the final one following receipt of the Evaluation of the project.
Partnerships:
Since 2005 NAPD has established working partnerships with The Department of Education and Skills, The Department of Culture Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Poetry Ireland, The Heritage Council, Poetry Ireland, The National Museum, The National Gallery, IMMA, Amnesty International, Local authority Arts Officers and Cavan Monaghan ETB local arts in education Partnership.
Deadline October 25th 2018
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Opportunity for Schools – Creative Clusters Initiative Invite Applications
Department of Education and Skills & Creative Ireland Programme
Deadline 11th May 2018
Creative Clusters is a pilot initiative of the Department of Education and Skills, led by, and in partnership with, the 21 full-time Teacher Education Centres (ATECI) and funded through the Schools Excellence Fund – Creative Clusters Initiative.
Creative Clusters is an important initiative of Creative Youth – A Plan to Enable the Creative Potential of Every Child and Young Person (View the full Plan here), which was published in December 2017 as part of the Creative Ireland Programme. The Creative Youth Plan aims to give every child practical access to tuition, experience and participation in art, music, drama and coding by 2022.
A Creative Cluster will typically consist of between three and five schools collaborating on the design, implementation, evaluation and dissemination of an innovative arts and creative learning project which supports them to address a common issue or challenge.
Each Creative Cluster will receive funding of €2,500 for one year to implement their project in the 2018-2019 school year. It is anticipated that all schools in the cluster will have a say in how the budget is allocated and spent to support the implement of the project
Paid substitution will be provided for the Regional Cluster Training event and two/three local cluster meetings.
How To Apply
Schools can apply as part of a cluster which may be an existing network of schools or a potential cluster. Each cluster must nominate a lead school and a Creative Cluster Coordinator. Substitution costs to the equivalent of 1 day per term for the duration of the pilot project will be provided for the Lead School Creative Cluster Coordinator
Schools can apply individually and if successful, they will be placed in a cluster with other applicant schools. The local Teacher Education Centre will have a key role in identifying and supporting a Creative Cluster for their local area.
The closing date for receipt of applications is 11th May 2018
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Arts in Education Portal National Day 2018 – Full Programme Announced
We are pleased to announce our full programme of presentations and workshops for the Arts in Education Portal National Day 2018. The programme was selected following a call for submissions in December 2017 and reflects a broad range of projects, approaches and art forms from within the arts and education sectors; both practical and theoretical.
The day will culminate in a special performance by members of the Irish Youth Training Choir, conducted by Eunan McDonald.
In September I began my role as artist-in-residence at the Marino Institute of Education (MIE), an initiative for artists to work in institutions that provide initial teacher education funded by the Arts Council. The aims of the residency are: for the artist to develop their skills and work in a supportive education setting; for preservice teachers to have a meaningful engagement with the arts; and to support preservice teachers in developing confidence and skills in passing these meaningful experiences onto their students.
Working closely with Dr. Michael Flannery (Head of Art & Religious Education at MIE), we decided on a programme of formal inputs into courses and ways to disseminate my work to students and staff. In the first few months of the residency, I then set about on a mission to ‘activate art’ on campus with a programme of talks, exhibitions and screenings, alongside giving formal inputs into classes.
I decided to turn the lobby and windows of the Nagle-Rice building into an exhibition space where students and staff could spend a few moments looking at my work. During October I exhibited two films here: Everything Disappears which I made in Taiwan, and is in Mandarin with English subtitles; and Our Stranded Friends in Distant Lands which I made in South Korea and is in Korean with English subtitles. Photographic prints in the window space deconstructed the films into still images and accompanying scripts in English.
I then gave a lunchtime artist talk discussing these projects, the research behind them and the process of making them. As well as making the campus aware of my work as the new artist on campus, I also wanted students to encounter the work in a way similar to when they are installed in a gallery, before we began to work together in a lecture.
In October, I brought a group of 12 students on an excursion to my studio at Fire Station Artist Studios on Buckingham St, Dublin 1, and then continued on to see an exhibition that dealt with mediating art to primary school groups at Dublin City Council’s The LAB gallery on Foley St. My aim was for students to become aware of the visual art spaces in the North city centre, and also for them to see ‘behind the scenes’ of an artists studio and sculpture workshop, and then a final installation in a gallery.
For a number of evenings in November and December, I held a series of screenings to introduce video art and experimental filmmaking. As the series spanned from the beginnings of video art (Nam June Paik) to surrealism (Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí) to current practices (Hito Steyerl), I gave the context of the works and topics in art history and then led informal discussions following the screenings. I hope the series encouraged students to engage with artist film and experimental film, and to feel confident discussing such works on school trips to galleries and museums in the future.
Next year I’m looking forward to continuing this work on campus and being involved with the Masters in Education Studies (Visual Arts).
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Blog 2 – Chris McCambridge, Special Educational Needs Teacher, Virtually There
Christopher McCambridge is a Special Educational Needs teacher at St. Colman’s Primary School, Lambeg. St. Colman’s Primary is a mainstream school of 400 pupils with two learning support unit classes. Christopher is also an active member of the Belfast art scene. He co-founded the arts organisation Belfast Platform for the Arts (Platform Arts) in 2010, which continues to provide an exhibition space and studios for artists.
In 2016 Christopher and his Primary 6/7 class were chosen to take part in the Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership ‘Virtually There’ project. ‘A virtual artist in residence project which explores the potential for creative engagement between artists working from their studio and children and teachers in the classroom using video conferencing technology’. (Orla Kenny, Creative Director of Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership). Now in their 2nd year, artist John D’Arcy has been working collaboratively with Christopher and his class at St Colman’s P.S as virtual artist-in-residence.
Art as a Gateway
A recent article in the Guardian newspaper, discussed the importance of prehistoric art. In particular, that of the Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. The art critic, Jonathan Jones, was examining the significance of the findings that Neanderthals had painted on cave walls in Spain 65,000 years ago, tens of thousands of years before Homo sapiens. The Neanderthal artwork in question was a stencilled red ochre handprint on rock. It wasn’t the discussion about whether or not Neanderthals were the first true artists or if this honour should belong to another early human species, Homo erectus, or because of the quality of the representational artwork by Homo sapiens, they should be considered the first ‘true’ artists, that piqued my interest, it was the significance that art had on moulding a species. That ‘art’ constituted the beginnings of intelligence, the “capacity to imagine and dream” and within our own species Homo sapiens “the birth of the complex cathedral of the modern mind … [opening] the way, in modern human history, to everything from writing to computers” (Jonathan Jones, 2018). – read the full article www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/feb/23/neanderthals-cave-art-spain-astounding-discovery-humbles-every-human
Within the education sector, the Northern Ireland Curriculum has been developed to cater for all subjects, allowing children access to a varied education. The reality is, that as children progress through primary school, teachers can be under pressure delivering the curriculum, often focussing on the areas of numeracy and literacy to the detriment of other curricular areas, particularly art. This can be evident in Primary 6 and the first term of Primary 7, when a substantial amount of time is spent preparing the children for the GL and AQE transfer tests. These pressures can sometimes be self-imposed, a teacher perhaps feeling that it is important for the children to develop these skills and after the tests have been completed, delivering those other areas or perhaps they can be pressures by other stake-holders within the school community. Regardless of this, the Guardian article reinforced my own view that Art should be on-a-par with those supposedly ‘key subjects or areas.’ If, works of art have been “held up as proof of the cognitive superiority of modern humans,” this should mean that art can play an important role in the curriculum.
As a Special Educational Needs teacher, teaching Primary 6/7 pupils, the pressures of the GL and AQE tests are not applicable to the children that I teach. Like all primary teachers the delivery of the Northern Ireland Curriculum is still essential. However, without these testing constraints, there is an opportunity to embed art throughout the curriculum to a greater extent. It does not need to simply be an add on or linked to a world around us topic. My project work with Kids’ Own has been successful in facilitating this. As I detailed in my last post, I am now in my second year of working within the Kids’ Own project and in-particular working with the artist John D’arcy.
At the beginning of Year 2, we set about choosing a word that would encompass everything. The word we chose was Hacking. This would be the jumping off point, from which all mini-projects or lessons would stem from. John and I found that this liberated our planning, allowing for greater flexibility. When we discussed the word with the children, it ignited their enthusiasm, prompting new avenues of learning that John and I had not previously considered.
Throughout the Hacking project, we have included aspects of numeracy and literacy. A particular favourite being a session exploring ‘codes and language’. This session included: Semaphore, Morse code, the phonetic alphabet, emoji’s and Makaton. After the session had been completed, I was amazed to see children with difficulties in sequencing the alphabet testing one another on the use of Makaton and the symbol to letter correspondence. The project has also allowed the children to develop their creativity and problem-solving skills. They have become more expressive when discussing topics, themes or their own work. This has had an impact in other avenues such as their social and emotional well-being.
I began this post, examining the importance that art had on our evolution as a species. So, I feel it is relevant to question, if it had such a bearing on our evolution, then why can it not have the same impact upon our education of young children?
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Artist Opportunity with the Improvised Music Company in partnership with The Ark
Improvised Music Company & The Ark
Deadline: Thursday 29th March
Fun Size Jazz – Performance and development opportunity for jazz and improvising musicians and ensembles from IMC in partnership with The Ark
Improvised Music Company in partnership with The Ark are looking for applications from professional artists and ensembles in jazz and improvised music for short ‘scratch’ performances aimed at young audiences. The chosen artists will have an opportunity to devise, create and deliver their short live performances for audiences of children at The Ark this summer 2018.
This new initiative, jointly presented by Improvised Music Company and The Ark, stems from an original production developed between 2014 & 2016, called Monster Music Improv, which toured across Ireland and the UK in 2016.
Applications should present considered, innovative and engaging approaches to creating memorable and enjoyable performances of between 15-20 minutes duration designed to specifically appeal to young audiences aged between 4 and 12 years.
Fun Size Jazz will result in 2 performances taking place on the May and August Bank Holiday Mondays respectively (7th May & 6th August 2018).
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Arts in Education National Day 2018 – Guest Speakers Announced
We are delighted to announce the guest speakers for the third annual Arts in Education Portal National Day on April 21st in Maynooth University in partnership with Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education. Our day begins with a welcome from Professor Gary Granville, Emeritus Professor of Education at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) & Dr. Katie Sweeney – National Director for the Integration of the Arts, Department of Education and Skills (DES).
We welcome Josepha Madigan T.D, Minister for Culture, Heritage & the Gaeltacht to speak on the day along with guest speaker Paul Collard, Chief Executive of Creativity, Culture and Education (CCE). The full line-up which will be announced shortly includes a broad range of practical workshops and skills sharing as well as theoretical and critical thinking in the area from artists, teachers and practitioners from across the sector.
This event brings together members of the arts in education community from all across Ireland, to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired, and continue interrogating best practice in the field.
Josepha Madigan T.D, Minister for Culture, Heritage & the Gaeltacht
Josepha Madigan was appointed as Minister for Culture, Heritage & the Gaeltacht on 30th November 2017. She is an award-winning Family Lawyer, a qualified mediator and is passionate about mediation. She published a book entitled “Appropriate Dispute Resolution in Ireland” and served as Specialist Liaison Officer for Family Mediation with the Mediators’ Institute of Ireland, lectured in the area of family law and has written newspaper articles on this subject.
The Minister believes in a society that is progressive and creative, and is passionate about using both her business and legal skills in assisting citizens.
Professor Gary Granville, Emeritus Professor of Education at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD)
Gary Granville is Emeritus Professor of Education at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD), Dublin. He served as Interim Director of NCAD after spending some sixteen years as Head of School of Education. The School of Education NCAD is the leading centre of research in art education in Ireland, with graduate programmes in arts leadership, in socially engaged art and in doctoral research in arts education.
He was formerly Assistant Chief Executive of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) in Ireland. In that capacity, he oversaw the design and introduction of national programmes, including the Leaving Certificate Applied, the Junior Cycle Schools Programme and initiatives in citizenship education, in enterprise education and in the arts. In recent years he has chaired the NCCA Development Group for Art at junior cycle and more recently, the design of a new programme for Leaving Certificate Art.
Dr. Granville has been a member of the Higher Education Authority and of specialist committees of the Teaching Council, NCCA and other national and international bodies. He has worked on international projects in Europe and Africa. His research interests are in the fields of education policy, art and design education, curriculum and assessment, and educational evaluation.
Dr, Katie Sweeney, National Director for the Integration of the Arts, Department of Education and Skills (DES)
National Director for the Integration of the Arts in Education (DES) – appointed by Minister for Education and Skills Ruaraí Quinn T.D. in 2013. Previously Katie has worked as a Research Scientist, Senior Lecturer in Dublin City University, Dublin Institute of Technology, Karolinska Institute of Health Sciences Stockholm in Sweden. She was a former Head of GMIT @Castlebar, CEO of Mayo VEC and CEO of Mayo Sligo and Leitrim Education and Training Board.
Paul Collard, Chief Executive of Creativity, Culture and Education (CCE)
Paul Collard is Chief Executive of Creativity, Culture and Education (CCE) an international foundation dedicated to unlocking the creativity of young people in and out of formal education. CCE was established to design and manage the delivery of the Creative Partnerships (CP) programme in England from 2002-11. The success and impact of the programme attracted considerable international attention and CCE now supports the delivery of programmes modelled on CP across a wide range of European countries including Norway, Lithuania, Holland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Romania, and Hungary. In Wales, CCE is advising the Arts Council of Wales and the Welsh Government on its £20 million Creative Learning through the Arts Plan, which now has over 550 schools enrolled and in Scotland, it is piloting its Art of Learning programme in partnership with Creative Scotland and Education Scotland.
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The Ark and Dublin Dance Festival are delighted to present ‘Hocus Pocus’
The Ark & The Dublin Dance Festival
Schools Performances Fri 18 May @ 10.15am & 12.15pm.
Created by Philippe Saire (Switzerland), this magical children’s show for ages 7+ explores how images conjure vivid emotions, sensations and experiences.
Taking the audience on a fantastical voyage, two brothers dive into dreamlike adventures: a contortionist’s escape from a spider’s web; a journey in a damaged flying machine; and underwater encounters with fabulous aquatic creatures.
The unique set design creates a playful game of appearance and disappearance. As light is painted across the stage to reveal everything it touches, the dancers’ bodies seem to emerge from a black hole before being swallowed up again. These visual mysteries cast a spell, suspending our disbelief and unleashing our imagination.
The morning session at The Hunt Museum will be led by artist Sam Walsh, whose exhibition The Segment & Apple Drawings is currently on display. Sam will deliver two demonstrations; the first will incorporate nine different drawing techniques. The second will focus specifically on cross-hatching and its ability to create texture, form and value. Teachers will then experiment with these techniques to create their own drawings of objects from the collection.
After lunch tutors at Limerick Printmakers will introduce teachers to the printing processes of drypoint and chine-collé. With their guidance teachers will review the suitability of their drawings for these media.
This CPD will enable art teachers to plan schemes in print making for Junior and Senior Cycle students, as well as providing them with a new outlet to express their own creativity and to develop new technical skills.
Booking is essential. ATAI membership number required.
Price: Free to ATAI members or €40 for non-member. Includes all materials. Lunch not supplied
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Documentation Award Update – Artist Clare Breen & Breadfellows’ Chats
The Arts in Education Portal editorial team have begun visiting sites of the recipients of our Documentation Award.
Earlier this month, we visited St Ibar’s National School, in Castlebridge, Wexford where artist Clare Breen has been working since October 2017 with 3rd and 5th classes. Each Wednesday she has worked in 2 sessions, responding to the work of 10 different international artists, including her own. The project is titled Breadfellows’ Chats with the Living Arts Project. The Living Arts Project was established in 2013 as a long-term visual arts education scheme, supporting the existing partnership between Wexford Arts Centre and the Arts Department of Wexford County Council.
The question “what does an artist do?” is at the center of this project. Breen selected 10 artists whose work is very diverse, and she has introduced the children to as wide a spectrum as possible of contemporary material processes. They have worked with painting, collage, sculpture, performance and the body, textiles, writing, film, photography, ceramics and sound. It was also important to Breen that the activities would cover the 3rd and 5th class art curriculum during the weekly sessions.
In week one the children made tunics to wear each week to protect their clothes. The tunics are painted with images responding to the question
If you were not a human, what would you like to be?
This could be an animal or an object, an alien or a monster, anything you can think of, but it should reflect some of your best qualities. (If this question is very difficult you can ask your friends for some help!)
This question was formulated as an alternative introduction that is not based on nationality, age, gender etc. to leave space for improvisation, allowing all to introduce themselves on their own terms. Working collaboratively, the children drew around one another while lying on the ground to find their shape; the traced figure became the outline for a tunic. Each child then painted on the tunic’s ‘tummy’ the animal/ object/ monster/ alien they had selected to wear over their uniform for the coming weeks.
The accompanying photos show the children in their tunics working on a painting project responding to the work of artist Sarah de Wilde.
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Blog 2 – Dan Colley, Dramaturg & Director of Collapsing Horse Theatre
Blog post 2 -Rights Museum
The Rights Museum is a participatory art project that attempts to allow our objects do just that. Its subject is the lives of the second-year Art students in Larkin Community College and how the rights enshrined in the UNCRC intersect with their actual lived experience. Or don’t.
I began work on “Phase 1” of the project in September 2017 with two second-year Art classes, along with teachers Siobhán McKenzie and Declan Quinn. I facilitated four weekly hour-long workshops on Wednesday afternoons outside of class time. I also worked with the students in their art classes with their teachers.
The workshops used drama and storytelling techniques to three main aims; to surprise and entertain, to get them cooperating as a group, not just individuals; and to introduce new forms of self-expression. That work included a simple ball throwing and catching exercise (acknowledging the stress that it causes, allowing ourselves to drop the ball, and focussing on the thing that mattered; that we were all working together calmly to the get the ball around the circle). We also stood in a circle and played what I call “Kung Foo” (of which there’s many variations including “zip, zap, boing”) We also played a game in which 5 participants sit in a row, and then take turns standing up and saying “My name is X” followed by something that’s true. The aim is to always have someone standing and sating something, to act on the impulse to fill a gap where it occurs and to say anything that’s true, however mundane, that come into your head. This exercise allows for back-and-forth conversations to emerge, (eg. “My name is Dan and I have two brothers” followed by “My name is Stacy and I also have two brothers”) and for the participants to get to know each other better and have a way of expressing themselves through the exercise.
In two Art classes a week, I focussed more directly on the task of creating a Rights Museum. That time was devoted to introducing the concepts of the UNCRC (supported by a workshop delivered by the Ombudsman for Children’s Office) and a focus on objects and what story they can tell (supported by a “If Objects Can Talk” workshop in National Museum of Ireland).
The students were asked to pick an object that was meaningful to them and to bring it in to class.
They were asked to “free-write” about it.
They were asked to stand up and share why it was meaningful to them and what articles in the UNCRC it referred to.
This process lead the students to share among the following objects with their class:
One student shared his grandad’s blue stone and mass card. It reminded him of special times shared with his grandfather who used to take him to football matches and tell him historical stories of his involvement in the IRA. This related to Article 31, right to access leisure, play and cultural activities.
Another student shared a necklace that her mother gave her before she and her father moved to Ireland from Romania. Articles 9 and 10; family separation and reunification.
Another student shared a photo of her and her grandmother when she was a small child. The photo was taken in Bangladesh before she moved to Ireland. Articles 9 and 10.
Another student shared his dancing trophies. He’d won many dancing competitions and values his achievements as represented by the trophy. Relating to Article 31, acces to cultural activities.
Another student shared his passport. His passport is from Poland and he recently had to go back to Poland to renew it. Article 7; right to a name and a nationality.
In their other session each week, Ms McKenzie’s class divided into 4 groups. Each group took a theme of the UNCRC and created a large mind-map illustrating that theme and the rights that it represented. Mr Quinn’s class also divided into 4 groups and created interactive paper fortune tellers which illustrated the four themes.
The culmination of phase 1 was a work-in-progress presentation of the Rights Museum took place in Croke Park as part of the OCO’s launch of the UNCRC25 celebrations in September 2017. It featured :
Some the students objects presented in display cases and on plinth with their stories and the rights they relate to, handwritten and presented beside it.
The mind maps were mounted on the walls.
There was an installation of a bedroom with everyday objects from the children’s bedrooms, labelled with the rights they relate to.
There was an interactive “writing wall” in which the visitors wrote what would be their Rights Museum.
There was a slide show of some students photographed alongside their passports.
The participants reported their surprise and delight at how their objects and artwork were displayed just like in a professional museum. They also reported experiencing a thrill at seeing other people coming to view their objects and read their writing, and a great sense of achievement in what they’d produced.
The work-in-progress was intended to mark the end of phase 1 and the beginning of another, but we were soon to discover that it had the sense of an ending in and of itself. For phase 2 of the work, we would be starting again with a new set of students and finding a way to join the work that both groups had done.
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The Arts in Education Portal is touring to Monaghan!
Arts in Education Portal
Date: 24th March 2018
The Arts in Education Portal is going on tour!
In 2018, we invite regional audiences to connect with us during a series of regional events, where practitioners can learn more about the Portal and what it offers, tell us about their work, connect with the community at regional level, share practice and find out what opportunities or events are available in their local area.
The second of these distinct events will be held in The Garage Theatre, Monaghan on Saturday 24th March. We welcome teachers, artists, arts managers and anyone with an interest in arts in education to join us for this free event.
The second regional event takes place at .
Places are limited – booking is essential Schedule
10:45am—registration & coffee
11:00am— Introduction
11:30am— Presentation – dancer/choreographer Mary Farrelly
12:15pm—Presentation – Paddy Red Downey and the Voice in the Dream project
1:00pm— lunch & networking
1:30pm— Creative Session: Breadfellows’ Chats with artist Clare Breen
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The Arts in Education Portal is touring to Cork!
Arts in Education Portal
Date: 10th March 2018
The Arts in Education Portal is going on tour!
In 2018, we invite regional audiences to connect with us during a series of regional events, where practitioners can learn more about the Portal and what it offers, tell us about their work, connect with the community at regional level, share practice and find out what opportunities or events are available in their local area.
The first of these distinct events will be held in The Glucksman, Cork on Saturday 10th March, 2018. We welcome teachers, artists, arts managers and anyone with an interest in arts in education to join us for this free event.
Places are limited – booking is essential
Schedule
10:30am—registration & coffee
11:00am—Introduction
11:30am—Presentation – John McCarthy and participants, Youth Playwrights Programme, Fighting Words at The Graffiti Theatre, Cork
12:15pm—presentation – Tadhg Crowley and participants, Blueprints Project, The Glucksman, Cork
The second regional event will take place at The Garage Theatre, Monaghan on Saturday 24th March, 2018.
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A Maker Approach to Art & Interactivity for Artists, Makers & Educators
Make Create Innovate
Date: March 24th & 25th
An introductory workshop to electronics for creative projects
In collaboration with The Digital Hub, Make Create Innovate offer this hands-on, jargon-free two day workshop that will introduce you to physical computing using conductive materials, MaKey MaKey and Arduino with some basic sensors. Our artist-maker-educator approach is all about tinkering with art, electronic and everyday materials to learn through experimentation and discovery.
By the end of the weekend you will have a basic understanding of the principals involved in easy-to-make light and sound responsive systems and the materials required. You will also have collaborated with other workshop participants to create an electronically triggered soundscape or an interactive environment/artwork.
This workshop is for creative people (professionals and non-professionals) and educators, who want to do something different; whether it’s programme a touch-activated sound effects on the theatre stage or design a cross-curricular STEAM project at school. It is especially suitable for anyone involved in engaged arts that support arts participation and/or invite audience interaction.
Opportunities for schools to apply to participate in the Creative Schools pilot open on Tuesday 20th February, 2018. Selected schools will have the opportunity to deepen the impact the arts and creativity can make on school life and on the lives of children and young people. Schools selected for the pilot will be partnered with a Creative Associate, who will support them in planning and implementing a creative programme that can be sustained in their school. Creative Associates will be artists, creative practitioners and educators who will help schools to draw on the range of opportunities within their school and wider community. Each school will also receive €2,000 to help them implement their programme.
Following an application and selection process 150 schools will participate for the 2018/19 school year across Ireland. All Department of Education and Skills recognised primary and post-primary schools and Youthreach Centres will be eligible to apply. A diversity of school settings will be selected, with a strong focus on inclusion. The long-term objective is that all schools will have the opportunity to participate. Schools are encouraged to get on line and register today. Demand for places is expected to be high and this is an opportunity schools are not going to want to miss.
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Creative Associate Opportunities with Creative Schools
The Arts Council’s Creative Schools Initiative
Deadline: 5pm 5th March, 2018
Scoileanna Ildánacha /Creative Schools is seeking a team of Creative Associates to support the delivery of the pilot initiative. This is an exciting opportunity for artists, creative practitioners, individuals working in organisations in the arts and cultural sector and for teachers currently working in schools who have a creative practice.
Creative Associates have a deep understanding of the arts and creativity and its potential to transform the lives of children and young people. They are dynamic agents for change uniquely placed to form sustainable partnerships between teachers, school staff, learners and other partners. They will work with a number of schools, inspire and energise them to create new connections and approaches that will develop and sustain arts and creative practices in their schools.
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Blog 1 – Chris McCambridge, Special Educational Needs Teacher, Virtually There
Christopher McCambridge is a Special Educational Needs teacher at St. Colman’s Primary School, Lambeg. St. Colman’s Primary is a mainstream school of 400 pupils with two learning support unit classes. Christopher is also an active member of the Belfast art scene. He co-founded the arts organisation Belfast Platform for the Arts (Platform Arts) in 2010, which continues to provide an exhibition space and studios for artists.
Virtually There Year 1 – Blog 1
In September 2016, my Primary 6/7 class were chosen to take part in the Kids’ Own Virtually there project. The Virtually there project is an innovative virtual artist in residence project … exploring the potential for creative engagement between artists working from their studio and children and teachers in the classroom using video conferencing technology (Orla Kenny, Director of Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership).
Our class were paired with artist, performer and composer, John D’Arcy. John’s work focuses on the use of sound and voice in intermedia art events. As a primary school teacher, teaching children with special education needs, the art mediums that I tend to explore within the curriculum include drawing, painting, ceramics, printing and 3-D sculpture. The use of sound as an art form or event, outside of musical lessons and choir, was an intriguing concept that I was eager to engage with.
Throughout the course of the fourteen weeks the pupils explored natural and man-made sounds in a variety of different environments and locations. Initial sound explorations focused on our school environment and ranged from birds chirping, the wind howling to high-heel shoes walking down the corridor or the buzzing of the whiteboard and the hum of the lights. These discussions concentrated on getting the children to describe the sounds they heard and attempt to recreate them using their voice. Throughout the sessions the children began to show greater confidence and clarity when describing different sounds.
“How could you tell it that the sound was high-heel shoes? Can you describe the sound?
“It went clip clop … the sound was spaced apart … the sound was short and repeated … it was getting quieter as the woman walked down the corridor … it sounded like my Mum’s shoes in the kitchen.”
As the sessions progressed, John began to ask the children to interpret the sounds we could hear as drawings. He taught the children to understand the concept that a drawing of lines, symbols or both can represent a sound, an abstract idea that the children loved because it frees them from trying to make a realistic drawing. After a visit to the Belfast Zoo, John asked the children to interpret the animal sounds that they heard and recorded through drawings.
He discussed with the class, what might the sound of an animal or bird look like?
The parrots talking resembled a curved line to Kevin because the ‘sound went from low to high and it was a short sound’.
Daniel drew a series of circles of different sizes joined by lines for the sound of the parrots. The sounds ‘went from loud to quiet … it was like the parrots were talking to each other.’
Caitlin – Monkey
“I was imagining the monkey making ‘oh, oh’ sounds, that is why I picked an O [to draw]. I drew a line because it was joining the sound together. I the red sound was an angry sound and the purple sound was a lower sound
Oscar – Parrots
“I drew this shape because it looked like a parrot’s beak. The triangle is getting bigger as the sound is getting louder and angrier.”
The project continued to evolve developing drawings and sounds into graphic scores, which would later be performed and recorded by the children as an abstract musical performance pieces. The children’s confidence grew as they began to interpret drawings that John had given them as sounds. The children were then able to use the sound recording app Keezy, to record eight sounds and arrange them into an abstract sound piece or follow a graphic score that John had arranged. Throughout the project it was a delight to see children that were initially reluctant to take part in the performances and recordings began to grow in confidence and express themselves through sound, drawing and performance as well as being able to articulate their thoughts and descriptions with greater clarity.
We have now entered into the second year of working within the Kids’ own project. John and myself are continuing to explore art mediums, that as a class teacher I would have been reluctant to try without his assistance. The first year and a half has been an extremely worthwhile experience not only for myself, but more importantly for the children in my class.
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Blog 1 – Dan Colley, Dramaturg & Director of Collapsing Horse Theatre
Rights Museum
Can our objects tell us about the state of our rights?
Can they show our rights upheld? The rights we’re denied?
The Rights Museum is a participatory art project that attempts to allow our objects do just that. Its subject is the lives of the second-year Art students in Larkin Community College and how the rights enshrined in the UNCRC intersect with their actual lived experience. Or don’t.
The project is led by me, in my capacity as Director of Collapsing Horse. I am an artist, a producer, director and writer for theatre. Collapsing Horse is a theatre and festival production company that makes work that arises out of collaboration and purposeful play. Sometimes the work we make is for and with young people.
It originated when I was approached by Máire O’Higgins, Assistant Principal at Larkin Community College and asked if I would be interested in working with the students there, if I had an idea of what I would do. She described examples of some of the remarkable work that had been created by the students with professional artists. I was familiar with Larkin from work I had done there with the Abbey Theatre’s Community and Education Department and had admired the school’s commitment to the arts as a key part of the holistic development of their students. This commitment is upheld in the face of frequent adversity. Máire made no bones about it – Larkin is a school that is on the front lines of a community that has experienced generations of lack of opportunity and neglect.
Around about the same time Rebecca McLaughlin, from the Ombudsman for Children’s Office (OCO), approached me with the idea of collaborating on something for the 25th anniversary of Ireland’s ratification of the UNCRC. It seemed serendipitous! It was obvious to put the two ideas together – I would lead the Rights Museum project in Larkin Community College, which would also serve as pilot programme that could be written about in an education pack and replicated in other schools and communities for the OCO’s 25th Anniversary celebrations. Later, the National Museum of Ireland came on board as enthusiastic supporters, making it clear they would help in whatever way we could.
The goal from the outset was clear. We would empower a group of young people to create an exhibition illustrating their experience of their rights enshrined in the UNCRC. What wasn’t clear, was how we were going to do it.
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CPD for Teachers at The Ark: An Drámaíocht sa Seomra Ranga
The Ark
Date: Saturday 10th March
Teachers are invited to enjoy a morning exploring a range of simple and accessible drama processes for the classroom using the Irish language. Using The Ark’s season theme of Me & the City and aspects of the primary curriculum as a bouncing off point, you will have the chance to develop confidence and skills in working thematically through drama in Irish. The workshop will focus on activities suitable for 2nd-6th class. It will be presented bilingually and is suitable for teachers at all levels of confidence in working through Irish.
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Me & The City – A Visual Art Programme for Schools at The Ark
The Ark
Date: 6th – 22nd March 2018
In Me & The City your class will discover and explore how a city is planned, created and developed. Working with artist Jole Bortoli, they will learn how architects work and look at artists who have created landmark sculptures and colourful big-scale street art.
On arrival your class will visit The Ark’s gallery, which will be full of displays that will explore the structure of cities, their architecture and diverse habitats. You will see plans that show the design process of urban spaces as well as architectural drawings and sketchbooks, photographs and 3D models. Inspired by what they have seen, the class will then take part in a practical mixed media workshop led by artist Jole Bortoli.
Me & The City is an ideal opportunity to explore the Looking and Responding unit of the Visual Arts curriculum and the workshop is strongly linked with the Construction, Fabric and Fibre, Drawing and Paint and Colour strands.
The workshop also has strong linkage with other curricula including Geography (in particular the Human Environments strand), Science, Mathematics and SPHE.
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The Civic Theatre – Tenderfoot performances for schools
The Civic Theatre, Tallaght
Schools Performances – Thursday 25th at 12 pm & Friday 26th January at 10am and 2pm
Original plays, written by 15/16 year old playwrights, provide a unique glimpse into the world of our young people; articulating their experience and their reality.
TENDERFOOT, meaning neophyte, newbie, greenhorn, is The Civic Theatre’s apprentice theatre programme for transition year students. Now in its eleventh year the programme provides students from eight different schools in the South County Dublin region the opportunity to create and perform original work for the stage. From January 25th to 27th this work can be seen in The Civic Theatre. Plays written by young people, telling their stories, presenting the world as they see it. These diverse and exciting plays, the work of young theatre makers, include –
The End of the Beginning by Tadhg Slye, an exploration of male friendship in a world of exams and first girlfriends and exploding toasters.
Plastic by Jordan Lee, a supernatural chiller guaranteed to make you jump out of your seat.
Seaside Story by Aidan Kelly, a comedy about families, holidays and global warming.
And Just for the Cracked by Chloe O’Flaherty which takes a fly on the wall look at a group of young people who find their friend unconscious and unresponsive at a party.
Tenderfoot Performances 2018
Schools Performances Thursday 25th at 12 pm & Friday 26th January at 10am and 2pm
This spring Roscommon Arts Centre will host a series of films for schools:
Goodbye Berlin – IFI TY/Senior Cycle German Film
Maik is a daydreamer who goes unnoticed by his classroom crush; Andrej is an oddball kid from Russia with an eccentric taste for Hawaiian shirts. The two form an unlikely bond when Andrej shows up at Maik’s door with a “borrowed” blue Lada, and the prospect of an impromptu road trip beckons. Based on the bestselling German novel Why We Took the Car by Wolfgang Herrndorf, Tschick is a funny, endearing, coming-of-age film with fresh verve of its own. TUESDAY 20th FEBRUARY | 11am | €2
My Life As A Courgette – IFI TY/Senior Cycle French Film
Nine-year-old Icare, nicknamed Courgette, moves to a foster home, a place full of rejected kids fighting for survival among the rest of the bullies, loners and misfits. Adapted from a YA novel by Girlhood director, Celine Sciamma. TUESDAY 24th APRIL | 11am | €2
The Golden Dream – IFI TY/Senior Cycle Spanish Film
A group of Guatemalan teenagers attempt to make their way to the U.S.A., dreaming of the better life that the country promises, but they are ill equipped, both physically and emotionally, for the challenges they face getting there. This is an absorbing and suspenseful drama, excellently acted by its three non-professional leads. TUESDAY 20th MARCH | 11am | €2
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Theatre for schools and early years at Roscommon Arts Centre
Roscommon Arts Centre
This spring the Roscommon Arts Centre have planned a host of children’s events for families, schools and crèches to enjoy. We hope you will come along and join us in some fun!
Roadworks
In 2016 theatre maker Paul Curley was awarded Roscommon Arts Centre’s “First Edition Commission” to create new work for young audiences as part of the Bookworms Festival and “Roadworks” was conceived. Since then, the production has enjoyed further periods of development with the support of Theatre Lovett and Irish Theatre Institute and this season, we are delighted to welcome it back home as a fully fledged show.
From the team that brought you BAKE! a brand new show is coming to town…and you’re invited to be amongst the first to see it. Designer Ger Clancy and performer Paul Curley present a work-in-progress of their innovative new theatre show for young audiences called ROADWORKS. In collaboration with theatre artist and director Andy Manley, with music by Jack Cawley and movement by Emma O’Kane, ROADWORKS digs up an exciting new telling of a very old tale. Mac the road engineer is digging at the crossroads until unexpectedly he finds a rare and beautiful artifact. Will he turn it in or will he keep it all for himself? A visual feast with road-signs, music and…..a wolf!
THURSDAY 18TH JANUARY | 10am & 12pm | Free Admission | Suitable for ages 4 – 7
The House of Oedipus –Roscommon County Youth Theatre
An epic Greek Tragedy following the story of one man’s family who are doomed from the beginning. Are pride and stubbornness the cause of Oedipus’ downfall or did he commit some unknown sin against the Gods? He committed a crime but did not know it was a crime, was he guilty? Bringing four Greek tragedies together, this full-length play brings us three generations, two countries, five kings, two plagues and one war.
U00, Mee, Weee – Baboró International Arts Festival for Children & Branar Téatar do Pháistí
Uoo and Mee walk the same, talk the same, do everything the same…until one day one of them decides to do something different!! This playful show explores what happens when things change in a humorous tale of finding your feet and having the courage to be different. This non verbal show is directed by Lali Morris & Marc Mac Lochlainn with original music score by Michael Chang.
WEDNESDAY 7th FEBRUARY | 10am & 12pm | €5 I Ages 3 – 6
Welcome to the beautifully strange world of White. Full of birdsong and birdhouses, it gleams and dazzles and shines in the night. Two friends look after the birds and make sure the eggs stay safe. We watch, we help. The world is bright, ordered and white. But high up in the trees, all is not white. Colour appears. First red… then yellow… then blue…White is a playful, highly visual show for little ones – a perfect first time theatre experience.
TUESDAY 27th FEBRUARY | 10am & 12pm | €5 I Ages 2 – 4 year olds
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Barnstorm presents Barney Carey Gets His Wings – a new production for primary school students
Barnstorm Theatre Company
Wed 21st – Fri 23rd February
Rooting through an old trunk, Barney and his dad find more than they bargained for and a few things that set them wondering. Who makes the rules? What happens if you break the rules? And who is the lady with the beard?
Join them as they spread their wings in this comic tale of forgotten memories and future possibilities.
Written by award-winning children’s writer Brendan Murray and directed by Martin Drury, founder of The Ark – A Cultural Centre for Children.
‘Barney Carey Gets His Wings’ is a world-premiere of a new play for children in 1st to 4th classes, their teachers and families.
Duration: 60 mins approx.
Venue: Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny
Dates: Wed. 21st to Fri. 23rd February – 10am and 12pm
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‘Wide Eyes’ European Celebration of Performing Arts for the very young
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children
1 – 4 February, 2018
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children will host an exciting and imaginative programme of theatre and dance shows for babies and children aged 0 – 6 years, presented by Irish and international artists. Wide Eyes is a one-off four-day European celebration of Performing Arts for very young children that will take place in Galway from 1 – 4 February, 2018.
As well as an extensive workshop and performance programme for schools and early years groups, Wide Eyes will feature a range of talks and workshops for early years professionals, including a talk for early years educators and artists, Celebrating the Creative Arts in Early Years Setting, presented in collaboration with Early Childhood Ireland. There are also a limited number of delegate packages available for the event.
Wide Eyes is the culmination of a four-year ‘Small size, Performing Arts for Early Years’ project with European partners from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, UK and Ireland.
Wide Eyes will see 140 arts professionals from 17 organisations and 15 countries gather in Galway to present an extravaganza of new dance and theatre shows for 0-6 year olds developed specifically under the project’s overarching theme of ‘Wide Eyes’. The concept for Wide Eyes, developed by Project Leader, Roberto Frabetti of La Baracca – Testoni Ragazzi in Italy, is rooted in the belief that children are never too young to quite literally have their eyes opened wide in amazement while they experience the performing arts. The programme will feature performances for schools, crèches and families, produced by some of Europe’s finest creators of Early Years work, as well as professional development workshops and industry symposia.
Schools performances will take place on Thursday, 1 February and Friday, 2 February. We welcome bookings from early years groups such as; preschools, crèche and Montessori, junior and senior infants and those with additional needs.
The showcase and exhibition were a great success. The discussions after each showcase were enlightening and exciting. It was heartening to hear what young people thought about their own education. It was poignant to hear what older adults remembered about their often limited creative engagement with education.
Did we succeed with this partnership project? Yes, on so many levels.
The work was a celebration of a year of hard work and focused engagement with the theme of reimagining education. It gave a voice to young and old and allowed them to express their opinions about education. Students developed skills in independent research, collaborative learning, planning an event, Theatre Making and curation. Students mirrored the world of work by modelling best practice in curation and theatre making.
However a lot of the good work that was done to ensure a strong aesthetic standard in performance and in curation, was done in teachers’ and facilitators’ own time. And that is not sustainable. This sad reality shines a light on what is currently the reality in our education systems at second level, in particular in second level DEIS schools (a DEIS school is a school that receives more funding from the Department of Education and Skills to deliver equality of opportunity in schools).
I hope that in naming what that reality is, we can help to reimagine a new and exciting DEIS model.
In the year of our partnership project with the Gaiety School of Acting, teachers and facilitators had two classes a week for one hour at a time, to research, devise, rehearse and produce a showcase about reimagining education. They also had two classes a week for one hour at a time to create exhibits and a catalogue for an exhibition. Outside of this time teachers met with each other and with facilitators from the Gaiety School of Acting in their own time, to plan and reflect on processes and prepare for the exhibition and showcase. We loved the experience but it took its toll.
The key to the project’s success was twofold:
firstly, the regular meetings we held to connect with each other and the project;
secondly, the critical development of our own passions around the project.
We all bought into the vision for the project and we were able to check in with each other as we progressed, to make sure that we were all still clear on that vision.
This work as I have stated was done in our own time. We were happy to give of our time voluntarily but this way of working is not sustainable in a wise education system. Volunteering in a school community is important but it should not form the core work of creative engagement in education. If the core work relies on volunteerism it will quickly move to adhoc provision of best practice in education.
Sadly for this project, none of what the students did could be formally assessed in education last year. This year with the new Junior Cycle, we can thankfully now record similar processes and outcomes and formally acknowledge this type of work. That is great news.
However for us to continue to engage creatively in education with partners is challenging for a myriad reasons.
For instance, teachers are often now on year to year contracts. This makes it difficult to plan a project with a colleague until we know that they will be working with us the next year.
We cannot apply for funding until we know who may be engaging with the projects.
Funding then does not often come in to the school until the middle of the first term.
All of this means that is really hard to plan projects for the academic year.
An exciting model for education would be one where teachers and artists are supported and empowered to create a strategic direction for a school for five years. This would allow us to deepen practices and develop innovative programmes that can nurture creativity in education for stakeholders and for young people.
It is hugely time consuming trying to fundraise and plan and build experience amongst teachers so that we can best serve young people.
Working in a DEIS school, we work with young people from areas of socio-economic disadvantage. One of the factors that contribute to instability in the lives of the young people we work with is the often chaotic patters they encounter in their personal lives. These include constant changes in the home, breakdown of family relations as well as addiction outcomes such as unpredictable behaviour in the home. Change happens too frequently and causes instability for our young people. It is a real pity then that they find that their school life mirrors this with a high turnover of staff annually due to employment structures in education. Offering five year contracts to those who work in DEIS schools would support wise planning and sustainable structures in DEIS schools and create stability for our young people. Teachers and partners could plan, fundraise, build research components and evaluations, reflect and reiterate best practices in creative engagement. I firmly believe that this would begin to address equity and equality in some of our most deprived communities in Ireland.
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Call for papers, presentations and workshops! Arts in Education National Day 2018
Artists, teachers, academics and arts education professionals….Do you want to be part of the third annual Arts in Education Portal National Day?
The Arts in Education National Day will take place at Maynooth University – Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education on Saturday 21st April. The event aims to bring together members of the arts in education community from all across Ireland, to share, learn, talk, network, get inspired, and continue interrogating best practice in the field.
We are inviting proposals from organisations or individuals who want to give dynamic and inspiring presentations or workshops that can offer sharing of skills, practical approaches, new insights and critical thinking across the field, from a range of perspectives.
Do you have a workshop or presentation that you would like to be included in the programme for this day? If so, please send us your proposal.
Deadline for submission of proposals is Friday 2nd February 2018. .
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Creative Ireland launches the ‘Creative Youth Plan’
Creative Ireland
On the 7th December Creative Ireland delivered on one of it’s key promises by publishing Creative Youth: a Plan to enable the Creative Potential of Every Child and Young Person. This now represents the core work programme for Pillar 1 of the Creative Ireland Programme. Michael O’Reilly from Creative Ireland discusses the plan development and implementation.
Michael O’Reilly – Creative Ireland
Developing the plan was an interesting and not entirely pain-free process: it is no secret that the 2018 budget didn’t allow as much scope for new investment as had been hoped. But in the end, a creative engagement between the Department of Culture Heritage and the Gaeltacht, the Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs produced a plan with a long-term vision – cultural and creative education for all – a strategic approach to the further development of pillar 1, and 18 implementation actions.
The two headline actions are implementation of Scoileanna Ildánacha / Creative Schools – an Arts Council led project, which is a development of the Arts in Education Charter initiative, Arts Rich Schools – ARIS, and the extension of Music Generation countrywide during the lifetime of the Programme.
There are several entirely new ideas in the plan but in the main it builds on existing initiatives. For example there will be a significant research project, and a culture and creativity-mapping project, but both will build on existing work.
From our point of view the most encouraging aspect of the plan is the acceptance of the long term vision of cultural and creative education for all: Cultural education that enables young people to explore and understand their own and other people’s cultural assumptions, viewpoints, beliefs and values, and Creative education that uses the innate creative skills of children and young people as a powerful instrument of learning.
The plan is not static. A Pillar 1 expert advisory group will be appointed shortly which will guide the further development of pillar 1 and also monitor the implementation of Creative Youth. A cross-departmental working group and a senior officials group will ensure that implementation stays on track.
We now have a clear agenda and cross-government support for its implemenation. The next few years will be both testing and exciting.
Appointed by WWETB, the Music Generation Development Officer will be responsible for managing an extensive performance music education programme on behalf of Wexford Music Education Partnership.
Closing date for receipt of completed application forms: Mondy, 15 January 2018
Late applications will not be accepted.
Based on the volume of applications received short-listing may apply. Short-listing will take place on the basis of the information provided in the application form. Depending on the qualifications and experience of applicants, short-listing thresholds may be significantly higher than the minimum standards set out.
Waterford & Wexford ETB is an equal opportunities employer.
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Blog 4 – Julie Forrester, Visual Artist
Blog 4
In my final blog I would like to describe my response to an invitation to lead a workshop.
I have been asked to focus on the interaction between the identities of maker and educator…
– exciting!
and to begin by submitting a 50 word blurb for the workshop
– challenging!
Settling in to task I find that I am a little ill at ease with the label, educator. Learning in arts practice comes about from the creative encounter, and the excitement of discovery, we all know that even when a ‘discovery’ has been made a thousand times before by others our own personal experience is the vital thing. So, by setting a path and then looking for traces, following these and generating some excitement about where they might lead, I feel more like a Companion tracker than ‘educator’: we find our own routes of discovery in the world about us.
The richness of arts practice means that discoveries may be found in just about anything: the way a particular material behaves, or by becoming aware of a new sensitivity to sound or colour, or in the places a mind might wander while creating a rhythm with a lump of charcoal. And in the education setting, where there is a wealth and breadth of experience, sharing these discoveries with others is a particular pleasure which doesn’t happen in the studio.
Often in the education setting a theme is superimposed onto the art process, this theme might be drawn from with the school curriculum. So for example one might begin with a broad parameter called “Ecology.” We look for a jumping off point and so we may begin by a brainstorming activity – perhaps the naming of all of the plants we know, then perhaps by making a collection of indigenous species of plants – the way one might approach the creation of this collection is diverse and this approach will often set the methodology for the project.
MAKER
When I am alone, in studio I have my radio tuned, usually to Lyric FM, it may be day or night, music and light discretely setting mood and contributing to context. The starting point for work is incidental to me, and the farther it is from any kind of reasoning, or logic, the better. The first mark in the void, needs to be unattached, innocent. Throw up a coin and watch it land. After that there is something to respond to. This initial mark is like a lodestone attracting whatever is buzzing in the air, it expands the possibilities of the moment.
Work becomes a series of acts, of making and responding of adjusting and reinterpreting, slipped in with memory and carried out with a heightened sensitivity to coincidence and connection. The work evolves, parts are discarded, parts are advanced, the whole becoming gradually orchestrated into some edited, arrived at, Thing/Series of Things. If this all sounds rather vague perhaps it is in this part, a conjuring; a cloud of energy seeking form. A theme will arise midway through a project, the beginnings are tentative, arbitrary and blind. The way is felt.
(EDUCATOR)//TRACKER
One of the privileges of working in education settings is to be working with the curiosity of young collaborators. Collaborators, in addition to being creators in their own right, contribute much to my practice, becoming part mirror, part joker and part external eye on process. It is this working in tandem that allows flow and mutual enrichment between my practice and the project’s unfolding. Feeling my own way in the dark I am able to see more clearly what others do with the same criteria, what gets thrown up: Whatever the seekers find, and how they communicate their findings will lead us deeper into the project, and into the next phase. It is in the observation of this process that reflection becomes a driving force.
I try to encourage a commentary from participants. The voicing of observations aired during the making process are witness to a wider sensibility. When a maker becomes commentator on the work both commentator and audience are led into an observational position that opens up a reflective dimension. Process becomes foregrounded, motivations become more clear, particular sensitivities and attractions are voiced and often more subtle and unusual connections are made between image, outcome and intention.
A drawing of a dandelion might lead to a conversation about yellow, or sunshine, first experiences of the bitter sap staining hands, folkloric warnings about bed wetting or other knowledge latent within the imaginations of a group of participants. A conversation about a dandelion may begin with its name – what a strange name this flower has! We might research and find that the name is middle English and comes from French dent-de-lion, meaning ‘lion’s tooth’ that’s another image straight away. Discussions might find other routes, the gardener’s phrase that “a weed is a plant out of place” may throw up extended conversations about migration and belonging. We could think of dandelion seasons, perhaps about how a dandelion might support an ecology. An observational drawing of a dandelion before such a discursive process will be very different from a drawing from the imagination, made after these wanderings (and this is just me thinking aloud).
By recording this commentary we deepen and extend the reflective process. The recording of those observations involves an echoing and a a translation, from an initial drawing, to spoken word to written report, photograph or other kind of document. The choice of media for documentation influences this enquiry. It’s fun to play with different recording methods. …the pressing of the flower, the crushing and collection of sap, the particular material properties and behaviours of dandelion seed heads, stories about dandelion experiences, the folklore of a dandelion, actions with a dandelion.
Translation from one media to another will involve further images, references, words, actions or sounds, and will also throw up different kinds of problems, seeking creative solutions, all of which will augment and colour the work leading it on to new places. Curiosity will drive this process along. I try to remember the voice, I scribble things down on scraps of paper, transferring them later to a notebook. I find that multiple translations help my process, a hasty scribble is wildly different from a concentrated drawing out of an idea, but each has their own qualities. I use notebooks for ideas that I might try out in studio and I use blogging as a kind of scrapbook for documentation and references to other realms, a blog post might include a bit of research arising from the work in progress, it may be a fragment of video, a link to another artist’s work, something I am reading about, a piece of music, or a random image or connection found online.
Blogging is a perfect space for holding these observations and documenting the process. It is a shared space. Maker, student and teacher can refer to the observations held in the blog, an audio visual record of the territory, a map.
I arrive at my wording for the blurb:
WORKSHOP
The idea is a spark – the spark can be as volatile or as contained as you decide. There will be some parameters which will guide the explorations. Shared knowledge is rich, we will tap into this. The imagination is wild and we will allow this to roam. Other peoples’ ideas are always interesting. Roaming between our own perception, responses to peer work and free expression we will explore the territory together. (71 words)
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‘Monsters in the Museum’ at The Glucksman
The Glucksman, UCC
Date: January to March 2018
From Frankenstein to the Hulk, Shrek to Beauty and the Beast, monsters who seem to be really frightening often turn out to be misunderstood. This Spring, the Glucksman presents a monster project that invites schools, community groups and children living in Direct Provision to take over the museum with fabulous creatures of their own making. In Monsters in the Museum workshops, participating children will explore ideas of difference and respect, working collaboratively to create artworks for an exhibition that will take over all of Gallery 1. The renowned illustrator Chris Judge will visit the Glucksman to see all the monster artworks on display and to launch the exhibition with a special event for participating children.
If your school or community group would like to get involved in Monsters in the Museum, please email education@glucksman.org.
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Art Teachers Masterclass at The Glucksman, UCC
The Glucksman, UCC
Date: 10am -1pm, Saturday 24th February, 2018
Art can help us understand and address difficult issues. Artists have long used visual methods of expression to consider and interrogate societal problems such as homelessness and discrimination. In this masterclass, teachers will investigate ways to engage their students in artistic processes that creatively explore global and local challenges. Join curator Tadhg Crowley and artist Cassandra Eustace to look at projects about art and social change that can be re-imagined in your classroom.
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Creativity & Change Masterclasses for educators & artists
Creativity and Change programme
2018
For 2018 the Creativity & Change programme have an exciting line up of masterclasses for educators and artists including:
Street Art – March 24th -25th
Street Art-Using creative expression in the street to communicate justice messages and to practice active citizenship with artists Claire Coughlan and Helen O’Keeffere from ‘Splattervan’.
Theatre – April 21st and 22nd
Theatre workshop, from the Personal to the Public: using theatre to explore understand issues of power from the micro to the macro, local to global with Peter Hussey, Artistic Director of Crooked House and Kildare Youth theatre.
As the weather turns ice-cold on the run up to Christmas, I feel it is fitting to remember the warm days of Summer and reflect on a collaborative project between Mayfield Arts Centre and biologist and educator Darragh Murphy that took place for Summer In The Park 2017.
Summer In The Park is an programme of events, organised and supported by Cork City Council, that takes place annually at Fitzgerald’s Park. The programme, which boasts music, art, dance, performance, food and film is developed following a public call out to animate the park over the summer months. We at Mayfield Arts were keen to get involved and began to think of ways of temporarily transporting the creative energy of the arts centre to the grounds of Fitzgerald’s Park. I caught up with Darragh, Mayfield Arts arts worker Brían Crotty and Cúig artists Ailbhe Barrett and Angela Burchill to chat about their experiences of the project.
Surrounded by beautiful organic gardens, Mayfield Arts Centre has always fostered an active relationship with the natural environment. The many groups that pass through the space frequently explore the grounds for inspiration in the form of plants and leaves, looking for pattern, colour and small details often overlooked. The arts centre is also home to the Cúig artist in the studio project. Here artists are supported by two arts workers to create artworks that are wholly their own. The five artists are Bríd Heffernan, Stephen Murray, Ailbhe Barrett, Angela Burchill and John Noel Kennealy.
Although each of the five artists’ practice is unique, nature is a frequent theme, with animals, insects, plants and flowers appearing as regular subject matter in the studio over the years. There is a natural inquisitiveness and curiosity that comes with being an artist and for Summer In The Park, Mayfield Arts were keen to explore ways of sharing this innate spirit of investigation in an inclusive way.
We at the centre were also eager to learn more about the park and its rich variety of natural diversity ourselves. We got in touch with biologist, environmental educator and photographer Darragh Murphy and invited him up to visit the Cuig artists’ studios. Darragh designs and leads nature tours & workshops to people of all abilities, combining photography, ecology & history to illustrate the beauty & value of our local wildlife. Darragh and the artists hit it off and ideas for a collaboration formed quickly.
A Walk In The Park: Art and Ecology was a series of guided ‘art walks’ through the grounds of Fitzgerald’s Park, co-facilitated by Darragh Murphy, Brían Crotty and artists from the Cuig studios. As Darragh describes, the idea for this project was a simple one; ‘exploring nature through art – exploring art through nature’. Generously supported by Cork City Council, these art walks took place over two Fridays during summer 2017, with a series of hour-long tours taking place each day. The tours were free to join and were open to participants of all ages and abilities.
Equipped with sketchbooks and a range of art materials, groups of fifteen participants set off from the park Pavilion and were guided in discovering, observing and visually recording the park’s diverse plant and wildlife through fun and accessible drawing and mark making.
Brían describes the day: ‘We choose five different locations in the park and discussed the trees, patterns, wildlife and ecology and then responded using a different artistic method in each. We learned about the patterns of trees and took rubbings of the bark and the leaves. We also did things like blind drawing and observational drawing.’ Artist, Angela Burchill, whose practice usually involves working from found imagery says she really ‘enjoyed drawing the trees and leaves’ in the outdoors.
There was a great diversity in age and background of participants on each of the walks which enriched the experience for everyone. Darragh reflects on the activity of the groups; ‘Through the tours, we found that each participant had an individual starting place and pursued our idea on their own path. As the team biologist, I tried to give the biological basis for the kinds of shapes, patterns & textures we observed around us, & the artists helped to explore these structures using chosen artistic techniques.’ Darragh also sourced attachable smartphone lenses for the tours, allowing participants to use their phone cameras to zoom right into places of interest and capture these scenes through photography. Brían remembers how participants began to investigate ‘the other little worlds that exist in the little cracks and corners of the park’.
The walks were as much a social event as an educational one. Cúig artist Ailbhe Barrett recalls how ‘people really enjoyed it, they were all chatting and drawing’. For Darragh, witnessing the wide range in output from participants on the walks was where the success of this project lay; ‘Through considering the same information & landscape before us, the innate & personal experience of each participant was revealed on the page as they sketched.’
Underpinning the art walks was also a belief that if people increase their direct experiences of being out and about in nature, they may show more interest in it’s survival. ‘As a biologist/environmental educator, it is very important for me that people engage with their natural environments under their own steam. My role is only to help highlight why the world may be interesting & worth paying attention to. I cannot tell anyone to conserve the birds or the rainforests, I can only express why I think they’re interesting. Engagement comes from within the individual.’
Darragh also commented on the inherent links between his work as an environmental educator and that of the Cúig artists; ‘We all see the world’s beauty & make attempts to highlight this beauty. We all drew the same trees but what was drawn was the personal connection to the trees.”
To find out more about the Cuig artists and Mayfield Arts please visit www.mayfieldarts.ie Mayfield Arts wish to thank Cork City Council for their generous support of this project.
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Blog 4 – Milica Atanackovic, Training & Practice Manager Early Childhood Ireland
The Art of Storytelling
“People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it’s the other way around.” Terry Pratchett
The art of storytelling allows children and adults to express themselves. A written story, an illustration and the spoken word can provoke an immediate connection. For very young children stories can have no words, a story might have clear meaning, but a story may also remain unclear – their play is the story. A teacher needs to tune in and listen to how even the youngest child is expressing their story, through for example their voice, actions, interactions, and hands-on experiences. The child needs tools to provoke a story, opportunity and time to share their thoughts. For older children exploring deeper questioning, their inquiry can be helped by the child and adult enquiring together.
Like a writer telling a story when a child can represent their ideas and words through creative processes, they can express thought and emotion. Expressing these emotions in a symbolic or abstract way. We do not have to draw, paint or photograph for children. Older children can be shown a variety of illustrative techniques that can inspire and provoke a representation of their individual ideas, but it is not a necessity. By providing the tools, we support children to explore and contextualise their thought processes independently. Through hands-on investigation and illustrative techniques children can develop an understanding of themselves and the world around them. Children can challenge and extend their own thinking, create new knowledge and engage individually or collaboratively in processes.
The creative child is encouraged when materials are presented for free uninterrupted exploration. By using art to tell stories, children are given the opportunity to problem solve, share, explore and communicate through the arts. Active involvement changes what they know and can do, developing creativity and storytelling concepts enables children to participate in and give voice to their thoughts, transferring and adapting what they have learned from one context to another.
One way Early Childhood Ireland encourages early childhood teachers to share children’s stories, is through our Book Club, the aim is to create a space where stories are shared with other children, teachers and families. We store them in our online Children’s Library, encouraging children as authors and illustrators. The book club is not about a product it is about seeing the beauty in what children say, think and create. A child’s story does not need to be planned, it does not need to follow a sequence, children have an innate ability to take us on such amazing unexpected and inspiring adventures.
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Graffiti Theatre present ‘Walking Man’ by Jody O’Neill
Graffiti Theatre Company
Touring: November – December 2017
‘The world may be in miniature but the story is universal …’
Walking Man tells the tale of a man who has spent his whole life in pursuit of success. He has always rushed headlong through life, determined to follow in his father’s footsteps to the best job on the top floor of the tallest building in the whole city. And when he has done all that, with Walking Woman and little Walking Baby at his side, something doesn’t feel quite right …
So, Walking Man must go on an entirely new journey, which takes him far from home.
Walking Man is a charming allegory, which will captivate its audience. With the help of an original live music score, the actor brings us into the miniature world of the Walking Man, a tiny wooden figure.
Walking Man is designed for 1st, 2nd & 3rd classes and performs to one class at a time (up to a maximum of 35 students). The accompanying Teacher Resource Book (available online) links carefully with the curriculum across a range of subject areas.
Please note: Graffiti Theatre can give your school the exciting opportunity to attend a performance in their fully equipped Theatre on Assumption Road. If the performance is booked to take place in your school please contact Graffiti for space requirements.
Cost: Thanks to their funders, Graffiti Theatre Company can offer this production for just €150 per performance (and €100 for a second performance on the same day).
The Arts in Education Portal editorial team are pleased to invite applications for a documentation award from organisations or individuals who are leading arts in education initiatives. Through the award, successful applicants will receive services to the value of €4,000 that will support them in the documentation of a current or upcoming project.
The purpose of the award is to support the development of documented outcomes from Arts in Education initiatives in Ireland, which can be shared with the arts in education community and give insights into different processes of engagement. This is part of the Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee’s commitment to supporting and recognising the value of documentation and reflection as a key component within arts in education initiatives.
Two awards will be offered through this opportunity.
Outcomes of the documentation process will include: a project video, a project feature to be showcased on the Portal’s Projects/Partnerships, and the option of a critical essay, with a view to also presenting the work as part of the Arts in Education Portal National Day in April 2018.
The process will involve meetings with the Portal Team and a schedule of 3 site visits over the course of the project to capture video and photographic documentation and support reflective processes among participants. The portal team will edit and produce a project video, and will liaise closely with the project partners to develop the content for the project feature. The critical essay would be sited in the Portal’s Reading Room, and is optional. The author and focus of the essay can be decided by the project organisers in collaboration with the Portal Team.
Criteria
To be considered for this opportunity, projects must:
Have started in autumn 2017 or be due to start in Jan/Feb 2018.
Have a minimum duration of 8 weeks.
Involve a professional artist working collaboratively within an educational setting (early years, primary or post-primary).
Be underpinned by a strong ethos of collaboration and a commitment to excellence.
Focus on the creative process, with children having an active and collaborative role.
Additional criteria
Successful applicants will be asked to ensure that relevant permissions/consent have been sought for documentation of participants.
Please ensure your application has been approved by all project partners prior to submission.
How to make a submission:
Please submit the following to the Arts in Education Portal Team:
Background on who you are; your professional practice and your ethos or approach towards Arts in Education.
An overview of the project – who is involved, how did the collaboration come about, what processes or approaches will take place, what is the aim or focus of the process, what are the dates of engagement?
A statement of interest, explaining why documentation supports would be of value to this project.
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Children’s voices: Are we listening? – Kids’ Own celebrate 20 years with 2 days of events
Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership
8th & 9th November 2017
Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership, as part of its 20-year anniversary celebrations, will host 2 days of sectoral activities, in partnership with Dublin Book Festival and The Ark, exploring the value of publishing with children, and interrogating how we can support children to be seen and heard within our literature, culture and society. With the ambitious vision of current policy to reach all children through cultural tuition by 2022, Kids’ Own seeks to ask how we make space for quality and depth of engagement to support children as cultural makers and creators in their own right.
8th November 2017 Round table discussion (10.30am – 4pm) Chaired by Martin Drury
Through a series of presentations and discussions hosted by Kids’ Own Creative Director, Orla Kenny and Kids’ Own co-founder Victoria Ryle, the day will involve explorations and case studies of the Kids’ Own archive, followed by discussions involving a chaired panel of guest speakers, and focused conversations, where participants will be invited to explore and interrogate how we make space for quality and depth of engagement, the role of the professional artist working with children and young people, and how we give children’s work greater visibility and recognition within mainstream culture.
This event is free but booking is essential.
9th November 2017
A day of practical exploration and creativity
Workshops for artists, teachers and arts education practitioners
11am – 1pm All That We Are: An artist-led public participatory workshop with Simon Spain (Australia)
Kids’ Own co-founder and artist Simon Spain returns to Ireland to share his practice with Irish artists, teachers and practitioners. Through this practical workshop where participants will make figures from wood and plaster that will be joined to create a gathering, Simon will discuss key elements of his current practice-based PhD enquiry about working as a socially engaged artist. The work is centred around a strong theory of collaborative making environments that create liminal spaces for individual input while leading to a shared outcome celebrating difference.
Workshop fee: €10
2pm – 5pm Print and book-making workshop with Alain Regnier (Belgium)
In this workshop, printmaker and art teacher (and founder of Motamo International Biennial of Children’s Books) Alain Regnier shares his way of working and will support participants to make books that include print and text, inspired by the work of his second-level students in Belgium. Copies of the books made during this workshop will be taken back to Belgium to be shared with a European audience.
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‘It’s the Taking Part That Counts’ – Celebrating Ireland’s School Choirs & the Feis Ceoil
13th December 2017
On December 13th The Mansion House will play host to celebrate 120 years of school choirs in a special event ‘It’s the Taking Part that Counts’.
The event will celebrate and highlight the positive impact of school-based choral participation on both choir members and the wider school community and will feature prize-winning Irish school choirs alongside a community outreach school choir formed ‘from scratch’ specially for the celebration. This ‘scratch choir’ involves one of Ireland’s DEIS schools – St. Vincent’s GNS, Dublin who is being trained by Wesley College choral conductor Helen Doyle for this their debut concert, and beyond. Joining them will be the Feis Ceoil prize-winning school choirs, along with members of two of Ireland’s leading professional choirs.
Additional choirs ‘from scratch’ will attend the event as they begin their year-long journey, culminating in the celebration of Christmas in their own schools in 2018. With a keynote address from Assistant Professor in Education Marita Kerin, Trinity College, the event will celebrate school-based choral activity while demonstrating its powerfully transformative effects on school communities, thus encouraging every school in Ireland to get involved in choral singing.
The Mansion House event, ‘It’s the Taking Part that Counts’, takes place on Wednesday, 13th December at 2.30pm. Please lend your support to this project and attend this choral celebration of our school choirs.
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The Plough and the Stars – Curriculum co-production by Barnstorm Theatre Company with Watergate Theatre
Barnstorm Theatre Company & Watergate Theatre
Wed 29 November to Sat 2 December
Post-primary schools in the south-east are in for a theatrical treat this November and December!
Due to the success of last year’s first Curriculum Play Live co-production with the Watergate Theatre: Brian Friel’s Translations, Barnstorm Theatre Company’s second Curriculum Play is Seán O’Casey’s ‘The Plough and the Stars’.
These productions are in response to requests over the years from post-primary schools to produce a curriculum play and to give students the opportunity to see the play that they are studying as live theatre, and not solely as a text to be studied in the classroom.
The Plough and the Stars is one of the greatest in the Irish canon and one that Barnstorm and the Watergate are proud to present as the second Curriculum Play. (Barnstorm values input from teachers about our next curriculum play.)
Watergate Theatre:
Wed 29 November to Sat 2 December; performances nightly at 8pm.
School performances:
Thursday 29 November – 10.30am
Friday 1 December – 10.30am
Due to the volume of applications, only shortlisted candidates will receive further contact.
Please note that no CVs – only official application forms – will be accepted. Application forms and further information can be found online at: http://bit.ly/2g4vBCY
LMETB is an equal opportunities employer.
Essential requirements:
Candidates must demonstrate a strong passion for teaching and learning, and for nurturing the musical development of children and young people of all ages and abilities. Qualification in Music is essential.
Closing date for receipt of completed application forms:
This year sees the inauguration of Ireland’s prestigious National School Photography Awards [INSPA]. INSPA is a national children’s photography competition which is open to all primary schools located in the Republic of Ireland. These awards are brought to you by Image Masters Photography in partnership with Dublin Zoo, The Alzheimer Society of Ireland and MummyPages.
The awards aim to encourage young creatives in primary level education to engage with both digital technology and the creative process to create striking visual images. They will inspire and ignite passion in students, increase engagement with digital arts within primary level education while at the same time subtly educating students about the importance of the creative process.
The awards are offering a range of fantastic prizes for finalists, winners and their schools including; Free Entry to Dublin Zoo for the overall winner and their classmates, digital cameras for winners and their schools, framed photographs, certificates of achievement and school photography fundraising days in aid of The Alzheimer Society of Ireland.
This years’ theme is titled ‘Making Memories’ which asks both teachers and their students to integrate the camera into the school-day to generate discussion and understanding around the idea of memory/memories. All entries will be judged by a national panel including John Boyle (INTO President), Ronan Smith (Chair of ASI Irish Dementia Working Group), Aideen Howard (Director: The Ark, Dublin), Catherine Bowe (Visual Art Manager: Wexford Art Centre) and Richard Carr (Artist & School Liaison).
If your school would like to get involved they can request their schools access codes from the INSPA website – www.inspa.ie – here you will be able to activate your school account and begin uploading your students’ entries.
The deadline for entries is midnight on Friday 19th January 2018 so make sure you have activated your school account well in advance of this date.
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Teachers Preview Evening at The Glucksman, University College Cork
We welcome educators from all backgrounds to join us for a curatorial tour of our exhibitions Now Wakes the Sea and Deep Maps. The evening will include light refreshments and an opportunity to discuss upcoming Glucksman projects and events.
Join Curator of Education Tadhg Crowley and artist Carol-Anne Connolly for a morning masterclass that looks at art projects ready to be re-imagined in your classroom. This season the masterclass will look at techniques and approaches to helping students develop personal projects and establish individual ideas through sketchbooks and drawing exercises.
Trinity College Dublin is calling on the nation to get creative this autumn and be inspired by one of Ireland’s greatest cultural treasures, the Book of Kells. Get your pens and paint brushes out, and write a poem, short story or create a drawing or painting based on the images from the world’s most famous medieval manuscript. Our judges will be looking for modern and innovative interpretations of the Book of Kells from participants. There are fantastic prizes to be won for individuals, schools, clubs and groups nationwide.
Closing date for entries Thursday 30 November 2017
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Theatre for schools this term at Roscommon Arts Centre
The month of October at Roscommon Arts Centre means it’s Lollipops Children’s Festival time! We’ve planned a host of children’s events here at the arts centre for families, schools and crèches to enjoy. From theatre performances, music events, workshops, and exhibitions, the month of October is all about our youngest audience members! We hope you will come along and join us in some Lollipops fun!
Four Go Wild In Wellies – A whimsical adventure featuring bobble hats, scarves, tents that have a life of their own and, of course, lots of fun in wellies! FRIDAY 6th OCTOBER 10am, €5, Ages 3 – 5
The Locksmiths Song – Set in the dusty world of an old locksmith’s shop in this tale is full of action and adventure. TUESDAY 17th OCTOBER, 10am, €5 Ages: 7+
They Called Her Vivaldi – Family favourites Theatre Lovett return with this upbeat comedy-adventure. WEDNESDAY 25th OCTOBER, 10am & 12pm, €5, Ages: 7+ and Adults of All Ages
And coming up in November!
The Ugly Duckling – In a nest at the edge of a pond a flock of baby ducklings find an enormous egg in their midst and here our story begins…. of the most unusual duckling the pond has ever seen. TUESDAY 28th NOVEMBER, 10am & 11.45am, €5, Ages 3+
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A Maker Approach to Art & Interactivity for Artists, Makers & Educators – An Introductory Workshop to Electronics for Creative Project.
Make Create Innovate
Date: 7 & 8 October 2017 at The Digital Depot, James St, Dublin 8
In collaboration with The Digital Hub, Make Create Innovate offer this hands-on, jargon-free two day workshop that will introduce you to physical computing using conductive materials, MaKey MaKey and Arduino with some basic sensors. Our artist-maker-educator approach is all about tinkering with art, electronic and everyday materials to learn through experimentation and discovery.
By the end of the weekend you will have a basic understanding of the principals involved in easy-to-make light and sound responsive systems and the materials required. You will work in groups to create an electronically triggered soundscape or an interactive environment/artwork.
This workshop is for creative practitioners and educators, who want to do something different with non-screen based technology; whether it’s programme a touch-activated sound effects on the theatre stage or design a cross-curricular STEAM project at school. It is especially suitable for anyone involved in engaged arts that support arts participation and/or invite audience interaction.
As the new year unfolds into Autumn I would like to reflect on that heady time, a few short months ago, when the holidays stretched ahead and routine was being dissolved into the long days of summer.
My summer usually begins with a week of creative activity with teachers, as part of their Continuing Professional Development. This CDP Programme run by CRAFTed and the West Cork Education Centre takes place in different host primary school each year and the number of participants is 25. So teachers find themselves in a familiar setting where their roles are reversed, the tables are turned, teacher becomes pupil, and, I have found, they make this switch naturally and with gusto!
Teachers are on a giddy high at this busy time, there is a sense of release as they wind down into the summer and also sense of self evaluation and reflection as they are packing up after a year in the classroom. The CPD programme must address this ‘end of year’ dynamic and the structure and content of the programme allows for this valuable teacher time together, peer to peer, sharing ideas, catching up, meeting new friends and enjoying each other’s company. After a year of routine and responsibility, it is time to be on ‘the other side’ and a chance to allow for loosening up, and a complete freedom to adopt a “what happens?” approach. Our CPD programme allows plenty of time for interactive play while opening up opportunities for sharing, testing and evaluating individual classroom procedures and preferences. It is a place where a process of ‘discovery towards’ something is the modus operandi for all activities, where there is no such thing as a ‘here’s one I made earlier’ format to fall back on/aspire to/comply with/copy. For many teachers, who have a profound sense of responsibility, and who are expected to be in control at all times, and must who achieve measurable results across a classroom of pupils, this artist’s approach can present a daunting task and a leap into the unknown. The discovery approach involves great faith in process and requires some practice, it can meet with both enthusiasm and resistance in a classroom full of disparate personalities and performance pressures. The reward for this open ended practice is a confidence in the ability of the child to meet the challenge of the task at her own level.
So in the spirit of a new term I would like to share here one of my favourite loosening up activities for drawing. This activity comes from copying, or, more grandly put, from observation, and celebrates the capacity for invention. It is a drawing game in the spirit of an old party favourite, Chinese Whispers. In my example the source material came in the form of photographs I had collected of extinct and endangered Irish wild flowers (but the source could easily be from any other kind of ‘category’ and is ideal for focussing closely on any area of research). Each individual is invited to fold their A2 sheet into 8 sections and numbered 1 to 8 (in a room of lively teacher/pupils it quickly became evident that this was a task in itself!)
In the first section, numbered “1” they must make a drawing from their photograph. I set a time limit of 5 minutes for each drawing. Each artist then passes the sheet to the person on their right who must copy their predecessors drawing in the next section. Participants may only look at the previous drawing and must work from the information contained in that section. The drawing goes around the table and comes back to the original draughts-person.
Results are always interesting, we can see the corruption from one drawing to the next we can note changes, omissions and exaggerations and we can think about evolution, design, glitches, copying, originality, perception, imagination, preference and progression that affirm each artist’s hand in the final work. It can be the beginning for al kinds of enquiry and further artwork. This activity touches on the relationship between perfection and invention, itself a profound enquiry. There is no right or wrong and its impossible to dictate a ‘correct’ outcome. Many rules are broken. I love this activity especially because it celebrates copying – one of the cardinal sins of the child’s universe and often the bane of the teacher’s classroom! What’s more, it celebrates copying badly, turning a vice into a virtue. It celebrates collaboration and corruption and all that deviates from the original. It celebrates the original.
After this exercise drawing becomes a whole lot easier for everyone.
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Blog 3 – Jean Tormey, Curator Early Years & Families at Tate Modern & Tate Britain
Blog 3 – EYF programme
In this penultimate blog post I’d like to talk about what we currently programme for early years audiences at Tate Modern and Tate Britain, reflecting on the history of the programme and its current ‘non-negotiables’ of agency, curiosity, diversity and openness – which reflect the influence of the Reggio Emilia philosophy.[1]
By designing an open programme with artists, we aim to encourage the agency of a diverse group of children and carers to use their curiosity to explore the social space of the gallery together – inclusive of art and architecture – to co-construct meaning relevant to their lives.
Children of an early years’ age come to Tate with parents or guardians if they are in a family unit or early years’ practitioners if they are with their nursery, and our programme needs to speak to these adults as much as to the children. We are keen to acknowledge the expertise and inherent knowledge these adults hold in relation to the children in their care, and for our resources and events to draw this out and build on it. We offer a range of self-led resources that can be used independently for people to use in their own time and in their own way. Through their openness, our self-led resources aim to evoke the unique interests, abilities and motivations of visitors under 5.
An example of one of these resources at Tate Britain is ‘Swatch’.[2] Swatch takes its name from a colour swatch and is a palm-sized collection of cardboard pieces with images of details of the gallery (one of which has a raised texture, another a hole through which to look), a mirror piece and an orange-coloured perspex piece. Developed by artist Abigail Hunt [3] with the Early Years and Families’ team over 5 years ago, it has a long history with the programme.
Its language-free, sensory and tactile nature means it’s accessible to children with special education needs, and it has been used succesfully as part of projects for children with speech and language development needs as a communication tool in the gallery.[4] When facilitating the resource, we try and offer it to the child rather than the adult so that they can choose the images or materials that excite them to act as a catalyst for their collective experience of the gallery.
For many families a resource is not enough. An event, where parents/ carers know that other families will be present and more guidance will be offered, is far preferable. Our artist-led and staff-led events are aimed at either parents/ carers or early years’ practitioners and aim to support people to have confidence in using their own expertise and knowledge of the early year’s children in their care to support a very individual, child-led experience.
In the last year a new monthly event was launched by the Early Years and Families team at Tate Britain entitled Under 5s Explore the Gallery.[5] Taking the learning from the aforementioned Big and Small programme as well as borrowing a format similar to our 8-14s Studio programme at Tate Modern[6], this relatively new strand works with a different artist every 3 months and explores their practice in the galleries with families through different choices of artworks or spaces, materials and processes. This strand considers the environment of the gallery as educator, capitalises on the social experience of the gallery for families, and ensures early years audiences are visible and evident to other audiences.[7]
Another strand worth mentioning is our seasonal Early Exchange event for early years’ practitioners.[8] Building on previous experiences trying to work with partners in a reciprocal, equitable way through programmes like Big and Small and the Early Years Open Studio[9], this social event invites practitioners to come together, view an exhibition with early years audiences in mind, and engage in a discussion about the benefits and challenges of working with early years in the gallery. As well as being an opportunity for practitioners to find out what we do, it’s a great way for our team to find out about the challenges facing this audience and remain relevant to the sector. We invite these practitioners to return with groups of under 5s and lead their own visit of the galleries based on our advice and the learning from this event.
My next blog will consider the artists’ practicies being explored through our early years programme.
[1] Up to date listings of what’s on for families at Tate can be found here –
[3] Abigail Hunt is an artist who we work with again and again on our early years programme and who has been pivotal in shaping what it is today. More information about her work can be found here –
[4] A major example of this is when it was used as part of projects for the Big Lottery funded Big and Small programme of long-term projects, veents and resources. More information and a film explaining the aims and different facets of this programme can be viewed here – http://www.tate.org.uk/about/projects/big-and-small.
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Baboró announces GROW programme to support artists in making work for children and young audiences
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children is delighted to announce details of its GROW programme, which aims to support Irish-based artists who are currently active in making work for children and young audiences, or who have an interest in doing so. Now in its 21st year, Baboró already has a long history of mentoring and supporting artists and educators who are committed to placing the creative development of children and young people at the heart of their work.
The GROW programme will continue to build on Baboró’s existing supports, and this October will also introduce two new strands; Pathways to Production and Festival Mentoring. Applications are now open for these new initiatives. The GROW programme hopes to solidify and support the development of artists and the TYA (Theatre for Young Audiences) sector in Galway and throughout the country. Baboró is delighted that the Irish Theatre Institute (ITI) will partner on GROW in an advisory capacity on the Pathways to Productionand Festival Mentoring strands.
The GROW programme includes a number of strands which interested candidates can apply for. Two of the recently introduced strands are Pathways to Production and Festival Mentoring.
1. Pathways to Production: Pathways to Production is a new initiative led by Baboró, which will commence in October 2017 and is funded by the Arts Council’s Theatre Artist Development Scheme. This scheme will see Baboró partner with Druid and the Mick Lally Theatre, Branar Téatar de Phaistí and Galway Theatre Festival to support artists and young companies to develop their ideas with a view to presenting a full performance piece. The scheme will involve workshops, sharings of works-in-progress as well as support in developing funding strategies.
The Pathways to Production programme will run from October 2017 to October 2018. This is a pilot programme and will be reviewed on an annual basis. Closing date for receipt of applications is 21 September 2017. Successful applicants will be notified by 29 September. For more details and to apply please see www.baboro.ie/grow
2. Festival Mentoring: Another new initiative from Baboró is the Festival Mentoring programme aimed at artists and creatives at any stage of their career, including those with an established career, who have never before made work for children. As part of the programme, participants will receive mentoring from two highly experienced individuals from the sector; Phil Kingston, Community and Education Manager at the Abbey Theatre and Maria Fleming, Chair of Theatre for Young Audiences Ireland (TYAI) and Freelance Producer. The four successful candidates will have an opportunity to attend shows during this year’s Baboró International Arts Festival for Children, which runs from 16 – 22 October in Galway, and will also attend industry and networking events.
The Festival Mentoring programme will run for three days during this year’s Baboró International Arts Festival for Children from 16– 22 October. Exact dates to be confirmed. Closing date for receipt of applications is 21 September 2017. Successful applicants will be notified by 29 September. For more details and to apply please see www.baboro.ie/grow
The GROW programme is open to artists at any stage of their career throughout Ireland. For more information about these exciting new initiatives see www.baboro.ie/grow or call 091 562 667.
Baboró would like to acknowledge the support of The Arts Council for funding the GROW programme through The Arts Council’s Theatre Artist Development scheme.
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Guest Blogger: Vicky Donnelly, Education Coordinator at Galway One World Centre
Exploring Refuge and Migration Issues With Young Children: notes from Baboro’s Primary In-Career Course, Drama Tools for the Classroom.
You know you’re in good hands when the facilitator of a week-long course for primary teachers, can guide a roomful of strangers from the polite stiffness of a Monday morning, to improvising scenes at a horse fair, and tracking the thoughts of a young character’s deepest fears and longings, all before lunch on the first day.
For the first week in July I had the good fortune to spend a week participating in Baboro’s ‘Drama Tools for the Classroom’, facilitated by the truly remarkable Irene O’Meara, who drew effortlessly from her vast experience in theatre, music, visual arts, a Masters in Drama and Theatre Studies, and all refined through years of real life experience in the classroom. In addition to a number of primary school teachers, our diverse group included a youth mentor, a Spanish teacher, a Community Circus coordinator, an after-schools programme animator, a couple of play therapists, and me; a development education worker with the Galway One World Centre.
GOWC’s function is to provide workshops for schools, youth and community groups addressing a range of local and global justice issues, including refuge and migration; poverty; and anti-racism perspectives. Since 2012, GOWC has been delivering the Global Teachers Award programme in Ireland, offering training around the country for teachers who wish to bring a greater global justice perspective to their work.
In that time, the issue of rights for people fleeing danger and persecution has become increasingly urgent, along with the need to create opportunities to explore it in the classroom. But how? There are real challenges involved in addressing a crisis of this scale, in the context of rising Islamophobia, racism and right-wing sentiments, and a crushing accommodation crisis at home. And even greater challenges emerge when working with young children. There are numerous teaching resources available, and some of our own materials developed in-house, but I came looking for fresh ideas and inspiration about how Drama might offer ways of engaging younger children. In particular, I was seeking an age-appropriate approaches, that would allow for deep exploration of thoughts and feelings, and build empathy, without overwhelming children, but also, without trivialising the issues.
Over the course of the week, Irene shared numerous insights, tips and practical examples from her vast knowledge and experience, taking us through a number of drama conventions and sharing ideas about books, poems, artefacts and images for prompts. For my purposes though, most useful was her reminder of the 3 prerequisites for drama in the classroom: a safe environment; appropriate content; and a fictional lens.
While these are, of course, essential for approaching any theme, they provided me with a helpful framework to guide and anchor the design of classroom activities and lesson plans on the theme of refuge and migration.
The safety of the environment, beyond the practical need to ensure that the space is free of hazards, may also include considerations about working in smaller groups, to avoid intimidating ‘high-focus’ attention, or to ensure that consent is sought in advance before ‘spotlighting’ individuals. This concern for a safe environment also spills over into the need to make sensitive choices about the content being presented: is it age appropriate? Whose perspective is being shared? Are the characters portrayed as having agency, or as helpless victims?
Then comes the fictional lens. At a time of unprecedented crisis – over 65 million people are now displaced from their homes by war, conflict and persecution – I found myself gently steered away from the stark world of statistics and terrifying news reports, to the more accessible world of fiction.
Irene’s frequent reminders of the power of the fictional lens to explore potentially ‘difficult issues’, were peppered with quotes from the likes of Emerson and Camus (“Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth”) and were accompanied with examples from the classroom, using storybooks, such as the beautifully illustrated When Jesse Came Across the Sea (Amy Hest and PJ Lynch) and Oskar and the Eight Blessings (Tanya and Richard Simon). Though perhaps removed, geographically and temporally, from today’s crisis, the issues raised in these stories have much in common with the contemporary crisis, and provide opportunities for children to make those connections for themselves, and to explore the values, tensions, conflicts and opportunities attached to each. Even seemingly whimsical storybooks, such as The Lighthouse Keeper’s Rescue (Rhonda and Simon Armitage), were opened up as spaces for young children to consider how it might feel to be displaced, or to need help from the wider community, as well as celebrating the diversity within a community that makes change possible.
While the news from Syria, Sudan or Iraq may be overwhelming for children (and, frankly, for many adults), the story of one child, or one family, will contain some universally recognisable details and concerns, and may be more relatable for pupils. All children love to play. All children want to feel safe.
This was the thinking behind German author, Kirsten Boie’s decision to base her book Everything Will Be Alright, on the experiences of a young Syrian girl, Rahaf, and her family. In Kirstens’ book, the family’s luggage, containing Rahaf’s doll, is stolen by people smugglers on the journey across the Mediterranean. “She’s very unhappy about losing her doll that way. The children here always start by asking, ‘Has she got her doll back?’ I think the reason for that is that this is something that they can imagine [happening to] themselves, whereas all the bombs and fighting and nights on the Mediterranean… they can’t imagine that happening to themselves. “Stories,” she explains, “…always make it much easier for children to understand something more than theoretical knowledge. I think that’s the chance we have…”
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Blog 1 – Deirdre Sullivan is a writer and SEN teacher
I signed up for a five-day CPD course in The Ark with one summer course already under my belt. I had brought my class to The Ark on a number of visits and they have always been very supportive and accommodating. I’m a special education teacher, and my students really enjoy the sensory elements of the visual arts, so I also wanted to build my skills and learn a few new tricks.
The course facilitator was Jole Bortoli, whose warmth and insight made the workshop space very welcoming. I am very aware of my limitations when it comes to the visual arts, I’m not a “good drawer”, but the emphasis was very much on the engagement and practice rather than the end result, though many of my classmates blew me away with their talent and creativity. There are some very lucky classrooms and libraries in Dublin!
We started with drawing, and spent time making a collaborative project with lines and curves, on big rolls of paper. This was displayed on the ceiling during the course, so we could take it in. It was a simple and practical exercise, and the result was lovely. We then worked to Jole’s instructions, but interpreted them in our own way, so the results were very different. I was already seeing the potential for linkage with SPHE and maths.
We then took the time and space to visit the exhibition of animal sculpture in The Ark, and used sketches we had taken to inform the final project of the day which was based on work that Jole has done with a range of children. She was incredibly passionate and enthusiastic about the young people she works with, and showed us examples of ways she adapts her activities for different age ranges and abilities. She also showed us some video footage of a project she had done with Saplings in Rathfarnham, where a team worked with children with autism.
Day two was paint and colour, and the bright shades were really welcome after (the mostly black and white) day one, and we made another collaborative project, this time a riot of shape and colour. We were introduced to a range of different materials. I was particularly taken with paint-sticks, which were like glue-sticks but with paints. We painted with our eyes closed to music and again with our eyes open. Particularly popular was making our own egg tempura paints, and exploring a range of textured paints that can be made at home or in the classroom, depending on your setting. This activity would link in well with the science curriculum, as well as being a lot of fun.
Day three was 3D! We focused on construction, and engaged in collage, work with different types of clay (on the theme of rural and urban space and the wildlife within) and most interestingly sculpture. We used soap and a knife to whittle seals (and one sparrow), and it was a really interesting activity. The knives were safe (blunt), and this activity could be done in a class. It made me think a lot about shape and space, and the clay-play seemed really easy in comparison. Again, Jole and the other facilitators were supportive and gave us inspiration and space to create, and the results were impressive.
On Day 4, we worked on Fabric and Fibre, and spent the day making hats and masks. The hats were made from cardboard, fabric, beads and natural objects such as driftwood and feathers, and Jole once again drew inspiration from the First Nations artists of northern Canada to prompt our creative activity. This drew in the “Looking and Responding” part of the visual arts curriculum really nicely. The masks were two-sided, one animal on the outside and another on the inside, and they were made with paper on cardboard. These two projects were time-consuming, and some people were so enthusiastic they worked through their coffee break to get them finished, which is a good sign.
Friday was our final day and we worked on map-making- with a range of different activities, relief-painting and ink-dripping. The results were interesting, and Jole gave us some pointers on the correct materials to use for the best results with a class.
We kept reflective journals throughout, and Jole took time to explain where each exercise was coming from, and how it could be developed. There was a lovely mix of learning and creating, and I came away full of excitement to share some of my new skills with my students over the coming year. Highly recommended.
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Guest Blogger, Leanne Troy, Primary School Teacher
I am very enthusiastic about visual art and its impact on education. I challenge myself to try and be as creative as possible in all my approaches to teaching each subject area. Thematic teaching allows me to integrate subjects more freely and use more hands on visual methods. An example of this is the Craft Ed project I recently undertook through my local education centre (a fantastic scheme that unfortunately very few teachers know about). For this project I was paired with a local artist who came to my school to complete a six week project. The wood carving artist and I team taught my class in 2 hour blocks. The children from my 1st class were delighted to be handed chisels and pieces of wood! We based the project on a trip to Lough Boora Sculpture park in Co.Offaly, where the children learned all about the local wildlife and the history of the bog . Each child chose an animal to write a report on and also drew an accompanying image. This image was then transferred onto the wood and carved out. The results were amazing. We created our very own ‘Sky Train’ which is proudly on show at the front of our school.
My experiences with Craft Ed have even further heightened my interest in art education and so I am constantly on the lookout for new ideas and ways to upskill and develop my artistic abilities. I try to attend as many local art workshops as I can in areas such as ceramics, mosaics as well as art education classes in the Glucksman Art Gallery in University College Cork. A particularly strong influence is the art classes I attend with Hazel Greene in Shinrone Co.Offaly, where we paint mostly landscapes using acrylics. We also complete silk paintings and palate knife paintings. I also gain a lot of experience and inspiration from the childrens’ summer camp I run each year. I am the co-founder of an art and alternative sports camp, named Da Vinci’s Frisbees, with my partner Liam. Our camp is in its fourth successful summer and it is based in Offaly and Cork. The art activities focus on the process of art making and creativity.
So this week I was delighted to get the opportunity to attend my own summer camp, in the form of the Learning through Creativity educational course run by Tadhg Crowley at the Glucksman Art Gallery. The bright, airy spacious gallery is the perfect space to facilitate our week long voyage of discovery. Even with the end of the summer holidays looming, I was very excited. Throughout the week we have looked at art and the possibilities for integration with other subject areas on the primary curriculum. We have explored various examples of artists that could be used to facilitate the creative combination of Art with Maths, English, History, Science and SPHE. Each afternoon we were also lucky enough to work with different artists to put into practice the theory from the morning session.
Initially we started off our discussion on the impact of art on education. Just like when you read a good book, art education allows you to develop empathy, different points of view and it awakens your senses. Tadhg introduced the concept of creativity to us as an essential part to education and a unique human factor which allows us to show case our individuality. Everybody is creative in some shape or form whether it’s through your sense of fashion or how you hang the clothes on the washing line! Creativity is even fast becoming one of the most desired characteristics for employers who are seeking to employ innovative problem solving employees. Children are the future so let us prepare them as best we can!
I particularly enjoyed the caricature depicted by Ann Bamford, the art educator, which really highlighted the importance of teachers developing creative teaching methodologies in order to differentiate for the children in their class. There is a line of zoo animals in front of a tree. Maybe there was an elephant, a lion, a monkey, a seal and a zebra. The teacher tells the class, ‘Now climb the tree’. We discussed how as educators, we sometimes ask all of our class to do the same thing, using the same method, when there are many different capabilities and skills present in every classroom. By making the effort to offer a variety of imaginative approaches we will have a much more beneficial impact on the education of our students. We were also told about the impressive project in Harvard Medical school, ‘Training the Eye: Improving the Art of Physical Diagnosis’. In this project a group of doctors were split into two groups. Group A received an art education course and group B didn’t. Both groups were observed during their medical careers and it was found that group A had a much higher diagnosis rate with their patients. We discussed how art education can make you become more aware of your surroundings and awaken your senses and this was clearly evident for the doctors in group A who were demonstrating these skills.
I also thoroughly enjoyed working with Cork based artist, Cassandra Eustace, who outlined numerous invaluable creative activities linking art and language. These simple tasks included drawing simple still life objects using a blinder on the pencil. This took all of the stress out of drawing and some of the control. It really made you focus your attention and become aware of the lines and what you were looking at. We also used a view finder and an acetate sheet to draw our hands. Both of these tasks took a lot of concentration but they were fun and you did not have to be ‘good’ at drawing. Everyone can find their artist! Following this we then had to pick an object in the room and write a description about it without giving the name of the object away. For example, I chose a fire extinguisher and described it as a hard, cold, bright metal object with a beak that made me feel safe. These descriptions were then swapped with a partner. Based on the descriptive piece of writing that you received, you then had to create a collage of words and images, which made for some very interesting results! Another appealing activity was highlighting the use of drawing as a way of communicating and expressing ourselves. Using simple notebooks we had to respond to words that Cassandra said, firstly through non representative lines and then using symbols or images. A series of words were used like, bored, angry, peaceful etc. All of the activities used very little materials and took very little organisation or tidying up, which will make them attractive to a lot of teachers. But also they provided a chance for children to express themselves in very creative ways.
Artists such as, Josef Albers, Sol Lewitt and Bridget Riley provided inspiration for our maths based art activities with artist, Dominic Fee. Dominic has an excellent website which links numerous artists to the world of maths and he outlined links to various strands in the curriculum, especially around the area of shapes, spatial awareness and tessellations. I enjoyed layering 2d shapes using textured wallpaper and ink. This was then passed through a printing press. For most schools, there is not the luxury of a printing press, so Dominic showed us how the taped down acetate sheet and paper can be covered in paper and a poly pocket and then a wooden/metal spoon can be rubbed vigorously on top to create the print.
We then examined the links between art and history. Tadhg outlined how art works can tell us about the clothes, politics, social situations and living conditions at different periods of time. As a cross curricular activity we had to arrange a number of paintings into a time line (which I found very challenging!) Tadhg went on to highlight William Kentridge, Rita Duffy and Kerry James Marshall as artists who could be used to discuss themes such as conflict and human rights. This approach would be an imaginative visual way of tackling history in a classroom.
Later in the week with the guidance of artist Kevin Mooney, we studied some pictures of ancient artefacts and responded to the various images through painting. It was interesting to mix the various patterns seen in the images and collaborate African statues, the Book of Kells and New Grange into the one piece. One of my favourite activities that Kevin outlined was painting in response to a text. This simple idea could be used with any age group. We underlined the adjectives in a descriptive section about Cuchulainn and then depicted the words through painting and mark making.
As we were in the renowned architecturally designed gallery, it was only fitting that we also had a tour of the current exhibition, Now Wakes the Sea. I really feel that the pieces of art would mean little to me if I did not get the history and background of them and begin to fully appreciate the process that went in to making the piece of art. I was very impressed by the stories that went with each piece. This led to some interesting discussions for the group, for example, we discussed who decides what art is worthy of hanging in a gallery. I think that an established artist can justify his/her pieces through outlining the process of the production and the idea behind it’s creation which in most cases turns out to be fascinating, even if the end piece sometimes does not seem impressive. Without the tour and information I feel that I could have been staring mindlessly at the art wondering what I was supposed to be looking at! This experience made me become more aware of my surroundings, engaging all of my senses in the process of looking at the art. Perhaps most importantly as a teacher it further developed my sense of empathy for the art making process, as opposed to just the final piece of art. This outlook allows me to appreciate art, (and life more generally) from different viewpoints and perspectives, a skill which I feel would be hugely beneficial for the children in my classroom.
The gallery tour also made me question what is it that can be described as art, the possibilities are endless. I am starting to develop a broader concept of more non-traditional examples of art work. As a very interesting activity we had to choose a piece of art from the current exhibition, Now Wakes the Sea, and develop a set of questions that could be used with children. This process of really looking at the art, identifying how it was made, the materials used, the colours, shapes and lines present in the piece as well as the whole thought process behind the piece, made me become much more aware of what I was looking at. My list of questions for my class became longer as I thought about what the children might see and how I could broaden their perspectives when studying a piece of art. For example, what is your first impression when you look at this art, how does it make you feel, what is the mood/tone, does it remind you of anything, what is the focal point, what title would you give this piece etc.
Tadhg went on to discuss the benefits of using a 3d object like a sculpture or an artefact to initiate a lesson. An object would make for an interesting starting point for engaging the children in a lesson. A visual stimulus like this could be multi-sensory and accommodate various learning needs in the class. It would also help to develop visual literacy in children as well as their capacity for careful critical observation of their world. I think that I would have to practice this approach myself to build up my confidence before introducing it to my classroom. However, I can see how it would create a buzz of excitement in the classroom to place some strange sculpture on the table and start the journey of exploration through the senses.
A highlight of the course was working with Killian, when we were integrating Art with Science. We developed photograms! In the dark room, I arranged my jewellery on a special sheet of light treated paper and placed a lamp directly above it for about five seconds. The piece of paper was then put in a tray of water with the chemical developer until the image appeared. The paper was then lifted into the water mixed with the chemical fixer for thirty seconds, before being rinsed off. I was both shocked and amazed at how simple the process was to create such a cool piece of art. I was so delighted to realise how cheap and easy it would be to set up a dark room in a school store room. My third class are in for a treat this year! Bring on September, I can’t wait to try out some of my new ideas!
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Blog 2 – Tom Dalton, Artist & Arts Worker
‘Parting Memories’: St. Patrick’s Girls National School Mural
Making the move from Primary to Secondary School can be a big deal. In 6th class you’re the big fish in the pond – you know the school like the back of your hand, younger kids look up to you and you have mastery of your environment. When I meet the 6th Class year group of at St. Patrick’s Girls National School, Gardiners Hill, the countdown to the end of the school year is underway. There is a buzz in the air – mostly of excitement, but with a little trepidation stirred in also. As eager the girls are to be approaching summer holidays there is an understanding that this is the last few weeks of their time within the walls of the school. The girls will surely miss this place – the colourful hallways, the sounds of the playground, the generosity of their teachers, the friendships they’ve formed. While many of the girls will continue on with their education just a short hop across the yard at St Patrick’s College, others are enrolled in other schools across the city – It’s the last few weeks they will all be together as a group.
Principal of St. Patrick’s Girls National School, Mrs Eileen Kelly, got in touch with us at Mayfield Arts to help devise an art project that would engage the 6th class girls creatively in this time of transition in their lives. There is a strong ethos of the holistic development of all children in St. Patrick’s Girls National School; ‘Our school is a happy, active, safe environment where we include, encourage and respect each other.’
Mrs Kelly wished to involve her students in something that would pay tribute to those ‘pupils and staff who have passed through our school, each making a difference.’ Mrs Kelly led me to a light filled corridor in the school and proposed it as the site of our project.
‘Parting Memories’ is a three dimensional wall mural composed of hundreds of origami butterflies individually created by the girls. A key motivation in designing the project was to provide an opportunity for reflection on time spent in the school; to recall, recount and visualize shared memories. It was hoped that this process of shared reflection on time spent together could make this time of change smoother for the girls; the process of remembering acting like a talisman for the crossing into the next phase of their lives.
Arts workers Wayne Ford and I, with support from Cuig artists Ailbhe Barrett and Bríd Heffernan made four trips to the school over the month of May, conducting workshops with Ms Dunne and Ms Conran’s classes of twenty five students. Each student was asked to design and make two little paper butterflies. Each butterfly contains a memory between its folds – this could be a story, a memory or a wish for the future.
Origami can take a bit of time to get the hang of. Some of the girls mastered the butterfly shapes quickly, while others took more time. Once one or two had gotten the hang of things it was lovely to see the girls offer help to others in the group. The learning of this new skill spread and soon the tables and floor were scattered with little paper butterflies.
Once the technique was learned, each person was handed two squares of thick paper – one lined in either blue or red, reminiscent of copy book paper, the other blank. Instructions were simple; on the lined paper the girls were asked to recount a story or memory from school. Students were encouraged to ‘write outside the lines’, incorporating the lines of the page into their designs. Some stories spiralled through the lines, others fanned out in multiple directions. Once folded into shape the lines of the paper form geometric patterns, with the stories and memories tucked up inside.
On the second sheet the girls had free reign in visualising a memory from the past six years. Some of the work represented their involvement in school activities such as sport, drama and science, others depicted the forming of friendships, the natural surrounding the school or patterned abstraction. Once completed each butterfly was coated in a hardening medium and affixed to the wall. The installation resembles butterflies taking flight, symbolising the girl’s departure from the school – flocking together, yet moving on their own path through life.
The mural was kindly opened by Micheál Martin TD during a visit to the school in June. He told the girls that the mural reminded him that art is for everybody and is a reminder that it is the individuality of each of the girls that makes the school so special.
The real magic in this project for me is in witnessing what emerges when people are provided with time and space for reflection and exploration. There was a hum of conversation throughout the workshops as the girls drew out stories from one another. The success of the mural lies in the collective; the coming together of individual parts to make a whole. Mrs Kelly tells me that ‘every time I look at the mural a new butterfly stands out’. I think that’s lovely.
This project was generously funded by St. Patrick’s Girls National School, Gardiner’s Hill.
Mayfield Arts would like to thank principal Mrs Kelly, and teachers Ms Conran and Ms Dunne for their support during this project.
In my last blog post I outlined the DCC Neighbourhood Schools Visual Thinking Strategies project with which I am co-ordinator and VTS Facilitator. The aim and structure of the VTS: Neighbourhood Schools project is to continue to use Visual Thinking Strategies to add to the knowledge of the arts and build on the sense of place and experience that the children in Central Model N.S have and to share that experience with their neighbours through working in close collaboration with two schools (St. Mary’s N.S, Fairview and St. Vincent’s B.N.S, Ballybough) with trained VTS practitioners in each of the schools.
As mentioned previously I completed the VTS Beginners Practicum Training in September 2016 and was very enthusiastic about trying out VTS facilitation with a class group over a number of sessions. With the support of DCC Arts Office I approached St.Mary’s N.S, Fairview. The aim of a series of sessions was for me to practice VTS in its pure form in St Mary’s N.S., Fairview – a school where I have been working as artist in residence for 5 years practicing art making with the children. The purpose of this was to model the VTS method for the class teacher and to evaluate how VTS works for me as practicing artist in education, the children, and the classroom teacher, in order to inform the school Principal and DCC Arts Office.
Eibhlín McGarry, Principal and Evita Coyle, 4th Class teacher were hugely supportive and enthusiastic about the project and from the outset we agreed that at least half of the sessions would be exhibition visits to The LAB, Hugh Lane Gallery and exhibitions of contemporary art.
In a lot of ways this project differs to how the VTS Programme’s are run in the US. And as the project is developing we are encountering these differences and complexities. A VTS Programme in the US with a beginners group would usually comprise six sessions with a class group over 6 months – ie. once a month. The VTS facilitator would work from the “curriculum” of carefully selected images that have been “tested” for VTS facilitation with groups in the classroom and would include just one museum or gallery visit.
With St.Mary’s N.S and the VTS Neighbourhood Schools Project, the emphasis is on exhibition visits and encountering the best of contemporary art by Irish artists and using VTS to look at this work. From the initial sessions where it felt more like a guessing game of “Did we get it right?” with observation and notation of imagery, subject in the artwork and little reading of the work beyond that to sessions now with engaged discussions around content, materials, scale and artists intent. From my initial introduction to Visual Thinking Strategies it was explained that people like to tell stories, people like to tell you what they know, their experiences. With a 4th Class group you might think that they would have limited experience and reference points. But bearing in mind this is a 4th Class group from Dublin 3, mainly living in Eastwall, Summerhill, Ballybough and the inner city with a demographic of 24 nationalities in the school – the social and cultural diversity and extent of their references and experience is far reaching.
As a practicing visual artist it has been hugely enlightening and enriching to experience exhibitions with a group through facilitating these VTS sessions. It has made me reflect on my own artworks in a different light and how I view artworks and exhibitions. I am intrigued by the observations, theorising and discussions that happen in the sessions. Also seeing the development within the classgroup – their oral language, articulation, observations as well as confidence. This has quite naturally spilled over into other subjects in the classroom. Evita (class teacher) has observed that the class are now very naturally using “I agree with” and “I think that because”. More importantly they are recognising acknowledging there can be more than one meaning, and multiple perspectives on a subject.
The wider impact of the VTS Project with this class group is a work in progress. The project is twofold – it is a Visual Thinking Strategies Project but also a project where the class are visiting, experiencing and familiarising themselves with the best of contemporary Irish art in contemporary galleries. They encounter artworks with an engagement and enquiry that is refreshing and inspiring. The exhibitions and works that we are viewing and experiencing are challenging and complex – the girls are undaunted by this and comfortable and confident in discussing works and visiting galleries and meeting artists and discussing their work as recently with Aideen Barry at The LAB.
We are looking forward to meeting with the other class groups, teachers and VTS Practitioners from St. Vincent’s BNS and Central Model Senior School to share and exchange experiences in the next stage of the project commencing in September 2017.
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Blog 3 – Milica Atanackovic, Training & Practice Manager Early Childhood Ireland
Creativity through materials, space and time
‘There is no substitute for exploration, unconstrained by rules or expectations when it comes to generating creative solutions to our problems.’ Alison Gopnik
More and more research hints at simple, open-ended objects as ones that are most likely to be used continuously, over and over to stimulate the imagination of children regardless of their age. These are objects such as cups, tubes, fabric, natural elements including bark, sticks, stones, feathers. These are materials that can be used in multiple ways, and are activated and defined by the child’s exploration. Three settings – Creative Kids Walkinstown, Corduff Childcare and YMCA Childcare Kidsworld Creche – were selected to participate in a sensory project with ReCreate* and Early Childhood Ireland, and use open-ended materials within their existing environments. The project was based on the strategic approach of ReCreate and Early Childhood Ireland to support the arts in early childhood education, and focused on the marriage of the arts and pedagogy – the arts as a language of inquiry, a way of communicating, exploring and thinking (Aistear 2009) in early childhood.
The sensory project took reusable open-ended materials from ReCreate to engage children’s senses through play. The artist Deirdre Rogers from ReCreate set up each room with objects intended to spark curiosity, imagination and exploration. The focus was the process of exploration – allowing children to be with the materials, to create without seeking a result. It positioned the environment as the ‘third teacher’ – an ECE environment can bring hope and inspiration to the child and educator, or it can be lack lustre and leave them frustrated. Seeing the environment as a teacher reminds us that our spaces should provoke learning and stretch the mind.
Children need to be given the opportunity to realise their potential as thinkers and creators. Open-ended materials and unstructured play encourage them to devise their own challenges, problem-solve and be immersed in their thoughts. Children in the throngs of self-directed creative play are too often interrupted. Creativity is nurtured when adults master the skill of quiet observation, answering questions from children when requested to. In the sensory project, educators were positioned as observers and co-explorers, not instructors, to support each child’s creative spirit.
One goal was for children to use the materials to develop their own problem-solving abilities through trial and error. Through observation, the educators made additional sensory provocations available and incorporated these into the spaces as extensions of the children’s exploratory processes. Photography was used to document the processes children engaged in. Photographs help boost children’s memories by revisiting their experiences and reminding them of the process. During the project, the children were confident, resembling scientists in the depths of problem solving and questioning. As Alison Gopnik has discovered, children are like ‘scientists testing theories’, expressing their intelligence through connections with the every day, with people and objects. Explicit teaching can interfere with what comes innately to young children.
By giving the children more time to exhibit their independence and engage with each provocation, and have a say in what was going on around them, they started to develop the sense that their own ideas and opinions matter. The children moved bubble wrap through the space, popping it using their hands and feet, the technique of jumping was applied and the couch was used as a prop to bring more height to the experience. They explored, for example, light and shadow using projectors, tasted the bitterness of lemons, constructed and deconstructed a wide variety of objects. The camaraderie oozed from each small group as experiences strengthened their play communities. Masterful negotiations were witnessed as the children’s play was extended.
We sometimes unintentionally limit children’s ideas and creativity by assuming they are aiming for a specific outcome or result. Our role is to offer encouragement, rather than instructions. The child’s sense of agency was encouraged by welcoming and responding thoughtfully and respectfully to their questions and ideas. One of the best aspects of inquiry-based approaches is that they often lead to unexpected surprises and extended ongoing investigations. One goal of the project was to support educators in using open-ended materials in their environments, to develop sensory spaces that extend beyond one-off activities. However, the overarching goal was to ensure each child is given the space to engage uninterrupted and unquestioned, tuned in to each precious moment in time.
*ReCreate: recreate.ie/Recreate is a thriving social enterprise making art materials and educational supplies affordable and accessible to every sector of the community.
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Blog 1 – Éadaoin Quinn on the Creative Writing Course at The Ark
This course sounded like just what I was looking for: “Creative Writing in the Differentiated Classroom”, I was excited by the chance to be in Temple Bar in Dublin in the middle of Summer and better again to work from The Ark.
As a school librarian, working in a Deis school as part of the JCSP Demonstration Library Project, I have been running an after school creative writing group for the past eight years. I am always looking for new ideas to inspire my students and to develop their writing. Too often I am looking for these bright ideas at the end of a long and tiring day.
Poet Nell Regan delivered the course, as Nell has worked as a teacher and continues to teach writing to children, this was a course grounded in the reality of the day to day of school life and not high falutin theory. The course was fun and we deserved fun at the end of the school year, especially the primary school teachers who had only days before waved goodbye to their students.
Practical playful activities were described by Nell from her experience, we were invited to try each exercise ourselves and then to reflect on how we would work it in to our classrooms or libraries. This generous sharing of ideas led to wonderful discussions among us. There was a great buzz and spirit of collegiality between all of us participants. It was especially interesting to share experiences between primary and secondary level. We had a lot to learn from each other and Nell having experience of both made the course relevant to all of us.
The project room on the top floor of The Ark is a beautiful creative space, we explored it thoroughly during one exercise leading each other blind folded on a sensory exploration around the room and out onto the balcony (eek!). We were brought on a tour of The Ark’s exhibitions and learned of the rich programme of visual and performing arts. I found it a stimulating environment, just being there you felt creative.
By Wednesday afternoon I was exhausted and was so happy to sit back and listen to Children’s author and guest facilitator Patricia Forde. Patricia was a ball of energy, she told a hilarious and personal story of growing up on Shop Street in Galway City and how she began to write. It brought home to me the huge influence an adult, especially a teacher or librarian, can have on a child’s sense of themselves as a writer. An engaging conversation followed on children’s and young adult’s books with much scribbling down of titles and authors.
Nell organised a visit to The Chester Beatty Library on Thursday afternoon. We used the exhibits of the library as the stimulus for some writing and for ideas for Friday’s book making workshop. On Friday we were up to our oxters in glittery paper, glue and ribbon as we made our own notebooks. Having had trouble that week folding up my paper lunch carton from a nearby trendy café this was not an easy task. Some of the results were gorgeous, I’m filing it under “student led activity”.
I’ve come away from the week with a stack of ideas, some “just hints” of ideas and some half fledged lesson plans. I have a list of online resources recommended by Nell and fellow participants and I have more confidence and enthusiasm for teaching creative writing next year.
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Opportunity for Action Researcher on the Virtually There Project
‘Virtually There’ Project – Opportunity for Action Researcher
Kids’ Own is pleased to invite applications from suitably qualified individuals for the role of ‘Virtually There’ Action Researcher.
Kids’ Own seeks an Action Researcher to join the ‘Virtually There’ project, which takes place in Northern Ireland. This is a long-term piece of work, running until 2020. This phase of this project is funded through a ‘More and Better’ Grant from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s Arts-based Learning Fund.
Deadline for receipt of applications is Weds 23rd Augustat 5pm. Shortlisted applicants for the post of Action Researcher will be invited to interview on 31st August or 1st September 2017, with a view to starting work in September. The successful applicant will be required to attend a two-day creative planning meeting in Belfast on 28th and 29th September 2017.
More information and a full brief for the role can be found here
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Blog 2 – Jean Tormey, Curator Early Years & Families at Tate Modern & Tate Britain
Blog Post 2:
This post looks at some of the key parallels between the Reggio Emilia philosophy and the ‘non-negotiables’ or values of Tate Learning’s Early Years and Families’ programme. It’s worth noting just how different the conditions of each context are before launching into this. While the early years’ schools of Reggio Emilia are formal educational settings, Tate offers an informal, flexible learning setting not restricted by the demands of curricula, but inextricably linked to the Tate collection (sometimes exhibitions) and the buildings artwork is housed within. In Reggio Emilia, the pedagogistas, atelieristas and others who run the schools have an opportunity to get to know children and families well, meeting them daily and going on a journey of at least an academic year with them. At Tate, the Early Years and Families’ team are usually dealing with a transient, fleeting audience who drop in to the programme occasionally – sometimes by accident. Despite this, there are many correlations that can be made between our approaches to learning.
Agency
In the Early Years and Families’ team, we are passionate about treating children as equal gallery visitors and as an audience of the here and now rather than a developmental audience of the future. Similar to Reggio, this is about treating every child as an individual and programming in a way that recognises their unique interests, abilities and motivations.
One of our key values as a team is agency. We aim to design a programme that invites families of all ages from many different backgrounds with a range of experiences and knowledge to participate and find their own personal route through the gallery via our programme. Our resources and events should be an opportunity for families to co-construct meaning together (which also relates to the Reggio approach). In order for this to be successful, activities need to speak to and attract both adults and children in a very open-ended way.
Art and artists
The status of artists on our programme and the way we work with them can be compared to the Reggio approach. When we engage artists in the work we do, it’s about agreeing on where we would like to get to in terms of audience engagement, without knowing exactly how we’re going to get there.[1] This makes it an exciting but often complex relationship that needs to be continually managed and reflected upon.
Like in Reggio, we view artists as experts in their own practice and as having a very particular view of the world which can be very different to ours, but we do not expect them to be experts in working with children or the Tate collection – which is where our expertise comes in. At the heart of this is a discussion about their studio practice and how the materials and processes might relate to engagement with the Tate collection and our audience.
Curiosity
When working with an artist, our approach to the framing of an activity and to the use of materials we employ can be compared to the Reggio approach too. We believe in using high quality materials that relate to artists’ studio practice, ones that cannot be found in conventional educational settings. We aim to present these materials in a way that engages children and families’ curiosity (another of our non-negotiable) and imagination through introducing materials and processes in layers that unfold, rather than introducing everything all at once. This relates to the Reggio Emilia belief in ‘environment as educator’, and we would include the setting and location of our activity in this – the galleries and architectural spaces of Tate.
A social space
By its very nature the gallery environment is a public, social space. It is a space where families have the potential to view each other in a very different light, where they can encounter (and sometimes collide with!) other visitors, and where they can communicate about ideas and issues they may not have explored before. I think this aspect of our work relates to the importance Reggio places in children forming relationships with other people in order to learn. We are keen to make our programme as visible as possible in the gallery so that families and our programme can be seen and heard rather than tucked away in a studio space.
In my next blog post I’ll consider some specific examples of programming for early years audiences at Tate.
[1] I always find a quote by artist Jeremy Deller useful when thinking about this – “A good collaboration is like going on a long journey without a map, never knowing quite where you will end up.”
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Blog 2 – Carmel Brennan, Head of Practice Early Childhood Ireland
The art of play is the art of living life to the full.
I’m a huge fan of Colwyn Trevarthen’s work. I think he constantly brings us into the real world of the human drives and dynamics and reminds us just how amazing we humans are. I’ve grouped the above photo and quote together because the photo, for me, speaks to the art of sharing fantasies of action and experience. This huge tractor tyre is now the edge of a ravine and the children dare to plunge into its fearsome waters – sharing fantasies of action and experience. Their story draws on other stories, on experiences and possibilities. I’m reminded of what Alison Gopnik describes as the most uniquely human characteristic, the ability to imagine. I’m thinking about Bruner’s contention that we imagine ourselves into being – that children are in the process of encountering and creating possible selves through the stories they create – possible mothers and fathers, possible big sisters, possible builders, astronauts, teachers, shopkeepers, doctors, dinosaurs and, here, ravine divers. And Carl Jung’s premise that the creation of something new is not achieved by the intellect but by the imagination. And Winnicott’s (1971:54) who says that
‘It is in playing, and only in playing, that the individual child or adult is able to be creative and to use the whole personality, and it is only in being creative that the individual discovers the self’.
Is it any wonder that play has survived evolution across all species? Is it any wonder that humans have brought it to such a fine art? There you go – the words play and art in one sentence! I’m interested in the relationship between play and art.
There is a recognition of this relationship in recent research in Ireland. The ESRI/Arts Council report (2016) ‘Arts and Cultural Participation among Children and Young People: Insights from the Growing Up in Ireland Study’ recognises ‘the mosaic of ways in which children and young people express themselves and interact with the world of culture’ and so their definition of art includes young children’s engagement in creative play and make believe games. There are some interesting findings. Just as with literacy and numeracy and all forms of development, they find that make-believe play is a precursor to the development of an artistic and creative imagination. I welcome this recognition for play. I don’t like the term precursor – it belongs to that school of giving priority to adult forms of maturity. We need to remind ourselves that children do some things better than adults, among them is play and the easy shift into the imaginary and creative world. Creativity is at its peak in early childhood – not a precursor to better things. Creativity is at its peak because children need to learn so much in such a short time and the innate creative drive makes it possible.
Another interesting finding is that, according to their parents, five year olds engage in pretend play while 3 year olds don’t. How could that be? I have no doubt that all these parents play pretend games with their children from the moment they are born. They pretend to be surprised, shocked, overjoyed, lost, found, toe eaters, belly guzzlers. They look for their children’s lost heads and hands as they pull on a vest or encourage them to wriggle through sleeves. They drive buggies with engine sounds. They pretend to be dogs and cats and any animal that makes a sound. They play hide and go seek. They feed teddy and put him to bed. They do all these things to help children to manage, and to engage, entertain and humour them because nature tells us that the dramatic, emotional, fun filled world of play is the way to bring children into the dynamics of human communication, into the rituals and routines of life, into cooperation and competence. These are all art-full interactions, full of drama, emotion, movement, big gestures and, of course, creative meaning making. That’s why people like Stern and Trevarthen call it a dance. It is an art form.
Of course, children do not engage in play to create art. The primary purpose of play, according to Sutton Smith (1997), is simply to enjoy and become better at playing. The baby’s exploratory body movements, exercising vocal cords, moving backwards and forwards, rolling and swinging are all done for their own sake, for the excitement and pleasure of movement itself. And the wonderful trick of nature is that the leap from a rock not only pleases but develops the body and, at the same time, teaches about gravity and, most importantly, exercises the brain so that it stays sharp, flexible and innovative. Body and brain are being sculpted in play.
Drawing on another art form, children add story to their play. Adding narrative brings children together and generates companionship, adds excitement, and sustains the play. Play narratives require certain creative skills – ideas, improvisation, role enacting, imagination, plot development, dialogue in keeping with the persona – all very demanding skills. Players need to present as authentic, convincing, trustworthy as well as innovative and challenging. Being an active participant in play stories is important if your voice is to be included in the view of the world being constructed. Children, as Stainton Rogers (1995) says, are creating the ‘narratives through which we render ourselves and our worlds intelligible’ – a shared frame for seeing the world. I’m a collector of those narratives and I wallow in them because they speak to me of children’s empathy and kindness, of their fears and consolations, of their experiences of the adult world and its rules, rituals and power struggles. Gussin Paley tells us that play is like theatre with universal themes such as someone is lost and finds a friend, is unloved and finds love, confronts life and death, is weak and then strong. Think of these themes as you read this play story:
A group of 5/6 children come running up to me screaming and laughing. I kneel and ask what’s happened. They talk about the Dragon living behind the shed. We go to have a look and once again they all run away screaming. Rob’s suggestion that they get swords and shields to fight the dragon meets with agreement so off they go in search of useful material. They come back with brushes, spades, buckets and bin lids to fight the dragon. Eventually they decide that the dragon is too powerful and they must find another way to fight him.
Katie then puts her sword down and goes behind the shed, much to the shock and resistance of the others. She returns moments later explaining that “it was a mammy dragon” who was protecting her “baby dragons”. Everything changes. The children decide to keep the dragon as a pet. They name her “Arnold the Dragon”, and have great fun taking turns to fly around with her. Once inside, the children draw pictures of Arnold and even go to the gate at home time to say goodbye to her.
It seems to me that these children are also working on a very important moral – and that is, that perspective changes everything. Perspective can change an invincible dragon into a pet to be cared for. And Katie demonstrates that changing perspective takes leadership and courage – and caring is comforting for everyone. The children have co-constructed an experience, generated strong feelings and developed a story – each element in itself is an artistic experience.
So, is play art? Does it involve a desire for meaning, curiosity, wonder, feeling, thinking, imagining, relating, expressing? Does it involve active participation in creating something new? Is it about finding joy? These, according to people such as Ann Pelo, Vea Vecchi and Deb Curtis, are the key indicators of an art experience – and children’s make-believe play ticks every box. Don’t be fooled by the lure of teaching young children lessons that they can repeat and show off to adults. We can train children to do routine things –say hello, please and thank you, eat with a spoon, dress themselves, recite the ABC, sound out words, count to ten, learn multiple times tables etc. but.. for children to be alert, responsive and intelligent thinkers they must engage in the art of free play. Nothing is as important as the experience of play for the sake of play – for the fun of it – for the very fact that through play we learn the skills needed for play and we get better at them – such skills as the serve and return of interaction, the mind reading, the intersubjectivity, formulating ideas, running with the ideas of others, being fun to be with, being a cooperative, giving team player, generating energy and enthusiasm, problem solving on the hoof. The most important thing that children learn through play is how to play well -they are the traits that make for a healthy and successful life across the social, economic and health spectrums. Like all the important things in life, they generally only get assessed when they’re missing! Play is improvisation, drama, design, creative use of materials, symbolism, dance, story-creating and telling, characterisation, fantasy, imagination and real life enquiry. The art of play is the art of living life to the full.
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Music Generation to complete its 2nd phase of expansion thanks to investment by U2 & The Ireland Funds
Music Generation has announced that it will expand into nine new areas of Ireland within five years, thanks to the ongoing support of U2 and The Ireland Funds who together will have raised a total of €6.3m for the programme’s second phase. This combined investment in ‘Phase 2’ of Music Generation will include donations from the proceeds of U2’s The Joshua Tree Tour 2017, as well as donations previously raised for Music Generation through the band’s iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE Tour in 2015, alongside further philanthropic investment by The Ireland Funds. A grant from Bank of America, through the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, forms part of The Ireland Funds’ investment in this second phase of Music Generation.
Phase 2 of Music Generation has been assured of long-term sustainability through a commitment by the Department of Education and Skills to co-fund the new areas into the future, together with Local Music Education Partnerships.
To encourage imagination, creativity, initiative and expression in student
Students must be at the centre of the creative process
To compliment curricular learning in the arts, culture and heritage
The selection criteria:
Student engagement in and ownership of the creative process
Evidence of partnership between the students, teacher and visiting artist.
Originality and viability of the proposal.
Clear plan of action.
The costing of the proposal.
The school leadership must be members of NAPD.
Financial considerations.
The availability of the grant funding for Creative Engagement and number of applicants will determine the amount of the grant per school.
Where possible schools will supply evidence of matching funding.
Artists are paid through the school, which will receive two cheques during the school year from NAPD, the final one following receipt of the Evaluation of the project.
Partnerships:
NAPD has established working partnerships with The Department of Education and Skills, The Department of Arts Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Poetry Ireland, The Heritage Council, Poetry Ireland, The National Museum, The National Gallery, IMMA, Amnesty International, Local authority Arts Officers and Cavan Monaghan ETB local arts in education Partnership.
Deadline October 24th 2017
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Blog 1 – Carmel Brennan, Head of Practice Early Childhood Ireland
Living Art with Young Children
‘Accepting – or at least acknowledging all the children offer is a real key into the endless realms of imagination that are only waiting for our bravery’. Martin Brunsden, Musician
We have long known that young children are intent observers of the workings of the world and compulsive meaning makers about everything they see around them but, somehow, we are only beginning to understand their capacity to teach us about life.
The painting tells a story of first encounter. It represents the squashed and decayed apple that he saw on his way to preschool with his mother, according to the artist. It speaks to me of wonder, of beauty, and of sadness – all of which gives food for thought, for some questions. Did the painter set out to paint what he saw? Or was it something that emerged in the encounter with the art materials that subsequently surfaced the story? Maybe his painting started life as another idea or just a series of brush movements and like so many children’s paintings, layered with paint, turns into a brown circle. Maybe the circle evokes a memory of something experienced, something observed. The question is where is the art in this whole experience? Is the art in the representation or in the first encounter with the decayed apple? Is the art in his wondering, in the conversation, in the enquiry with his mother, in that moment of connection, of sharing? We can easily imagine a lovely moment when his mother looks to his wondering – and explains, as you do, something of the cycle of life – apples fall and decay. We can imagine the questioning and the dawning understanding in the child’s eyes – something significant has landed in his consciousness and leaves an impression that lingers there – so much so that he feels the need to express it with paint. He paints the story. Is the art in what is etched in his memory? Imagine an educator who stops to listen, feels the connection, experiences the beauty and joins in the wondering. Is this an aesthetic experience? The point is that depending on our capacity to see, or the lens we use, we can see art in almost everything children do – because children’s exploits have the key ingredients of enquiry, wonder, awe and emotional connection. The product is just a small part of the art process.
Young children, by the very nature of coming to know the world, live the creative life. They are meeting the world for the first time and creating new perspectives. They bring something new to the world. Alison Gopnik calls early childhood ‘the research department’ of life, when children, untethered by information and obligations to get it right, are free to wonder and engage with multiple possibilities – not defined by end results. Working with the early years requires us to let go of prescribed expectations and traditional norms, milestones and measurements. Instead we think of the encounters that allow the new personhood of each child to emerge and register itself in the community. As Educators, we are called on to exercise our sense of wonder, imagination and playfulness. It requires us to be present to – to listen with our eyes and ears and hearts to children’s explorations and discoveries – and with them to see the world anew. The learning is in the listening, the being with, the co-experiencing, the conversation, in the
‘the feeling of being present with one another’ (Trevarthen, 2001:20).
Vecchi’s (2010:5) says that art is ‘an attitude of care and attention for the things we do, a desire for meaning; it is curiosity and wonder; it is the opposite of indifference and carelessness, of conformity, of absence of participation and feeling…..’.
In the end, that is why what children do is art – they bring a new perspective to the world – a new way of seeing things.
This all came home forcefully to me on a day that I spent with the artist, Maree Hensey and musician, Martin Brunsden on the Lullaby project, an art project with babies, a few years ago. It was all so simple. The scene was set by stacking all the plastic toys in a corner and creating a space in the middle of the room where beautiful materials were introduced, sand, ribbons, boxes, feathers, musical instruments. The children were invited to play with them. Something descended on that space – an atmosphere that held the experience of a lullaby,
‘a stillness… this lull…this lullaby essence..…we have achieved it several times and sometimes with such force that the room becomes tender and emotional and yet still safe and supportive’ (Martin Brunsden)
Everything slowed down. We watched with keen interest – so interested in how these babies thought and felt and responded. Nothing was more important than the present moment – the looking, touching, feeling, tasting, wondering, questioning, pulling, pushing, listening, smiling, mouth opened, eyes agog, hands and legs vibrating, and the sounds of wonder, gurgling, hands clapping – just what happens in each moment.
As Educators, we commonly use the term ‘art’ to refer to static objects such as paintings, sculptures and songs but Vea Vecchi (2010) tells us that art can simply be a way of being in the world. Art is in the experience of encounter, the movement of the body, the narratives we create, the beauty we perceive, the eye of the beholder. In the early childhood sector, we think of art as a process to be lived – a process that includes to explore, sense, action, think, feel, express, communicate, create. It’s in the moment.
Were there moments in your experience today?
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Arts Council call out – Creative Schools Project Team
The Arts Council’s Creative Schools Initiative
The Arts Council is establishing a project team to lead Scoileanna Ildánacha/Creative Schools – a partnership initiative with the Department of Education and Skills. This initiative is being developed in the context of the Creative Ireland programme 2017–2022 and with the support of the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.
Scoileanna Ildánacha/Creative Schools is an ambitious national initiative, which sets out to understand, develop and celebrate the arts in Irish schools, and to foster children and young people’s creativity and participation in the arts as an integral part of their education in Ireland.
The project team will be based in the Arts Council, 70 Merrion Square, Dublin 2.
The Project Lead will be procured by an EU public tender process and will be responsible for the development and implementation of the first phase of this important national initiative, and future phases, subject to agreement.
In addition, up to two Advisers will be recruited on a secondment basis from the Department of Education and Skills on an initial one year basis. These secondees will be qualified and registered teachers. A Primary and Early Childhood Education Adviser and a Post-Primary Education Adviser will work alongside the Project Lead and will contribute to the design and development of the Scoileanna Ildánacha/Creative Schools initiative as it relates to primary and early childhood education; and to post-primary education respectively.
Further information
For more information on the Project Lead tender and required services, please visit the Arts Council’s tenders page.
For more information on the roles of Primary and Early Childhood Education Adviser and Post-Primary Education Adviser please visit the Arts Council’s jobs page.
(Note: Scoileanna Ildánacha/Creative Schools is a working title. This initiative was formerly known as ARIS/Arts Rich Schools.)
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Blog 1 – Jean Tormey, Curator Early Years & Families at Tate Modern & Tate Britain
Inspiration for Tate’s EYF programme – the Reggio Emilia approach
“The child is not a citizen of the future; they are a citizen from the very first moment of life and also the most important citizen because they represent and bring the ‘possible’… a bearer, here and now of rights, of values, of culture… It is our historical responsibility not only to affirm this, but to create cultural, social, political and educational contexts which are able to receive children and dialogue with their potential for constructing human rights.” Carlina Rinaldi, In Dialogue with Reggio Emilia: Listening, Researching and Learning
When I took up the post of Early Years and Families (EYF) Curator at Tate, most of my experience was with families’ programming aimed at 5-12 year olds, with under 5s included as part of an intergenerational group, or where activity was primarily aimed at parents with an understanding that early years are welcome.[i]
I was introduced to the theory influencing Tate’s EYF programme – the Reggio Emilia approach[ii] – by the Convenor of the programme, Susan Sheddan[iii], and through working on the programme have learnt about the potential of the gallery to be used as an important site of learning and communication specifically for this agegroup.
The infant and toddler schools of Reggio offer places to 0-6 year olds and consist of a mixture of municipal, state, public and private schools. The aims of the schools are to involve their community in participatory consultation in all aspects of their running, to be transparent and shared in this approach, to give substance and voice to the rights of children, parents and teachers, and to improve the quality of life of children in the city overall. Each centre has a pedagogista, teacher, atelierista and cook. Children and parents are involved in the running of each centre, which is closely connected to its context. The process of how people communicate and when is of utmost importance to the streamlined running of the centre.
The learning principles of Reggio are that children must have some control over the direction of their learning, be able to learn through experiences of touching, moving, listening, seeing and hearing; have a relationship with other children and with material items in the world that they must be allowed to explore, and have endless ways and opportunities to express themselves. I had the opportunity to visit Reggio Emilia for a study week in spring 2014 and came away with the following highlights relevant to my work at Tate. These are reflected in the EYF team’s current values or ‘non-negotiables’ of agency, curiosity, diversity and openness.
“The best we can be”: Carla Rinaldi, president of Reggio Children, talks about childhood as a quality (not just a stage of life), and about it representing ‘the best we can be’. She describes children as being in a constant state of searching for meaning and understanding in the world – interpreting their surroundings to find answers in life. The Reggio approach sees children as keen, sensitive observers with the potential to fill flexible contexts and generative environments with meaning.
Diffused atelier: There is an atelier (studio) and atelierista (studio artist) in every Reggio school. Atelieristas are considered to have heightened awareness of contemporary culture, know how to interpret art, and have a unique perspective on learning. They work as co-constructors with teachers, students and parents to create contexts for learning a range of different subjects – the process for which can be compared to an artist developing work in their studio. The atelier, a metaphor for the Reggio approach as a whole, pervades the public space of the school so that everyone involved can influence the atelier and come together to co-construct meaning.
Co-researchers: The role of the teacher is as researcher alongside the children (with parents and artists). This might include exploring existing theories together, but also developing new theories and going to new places of learning as a result of exploration. Parents are involved as much as possible in the building of shared value.
Traces of learning: In order to research alongside children, observation (of and by children) is a key process used by Reggio teams – with drawing being used as a consistent tool for this, revealing traces of learning. Active listening, consulting with and talking to children about what they have noticed or observed develops critical thinking skills among children.
Exchange: The Reggio approach is highly influenced by Lev Vygotsky and the belief that psychological development occurs through interpersonal connections, actions and play in small groups. Children have a predisposal to creating relations and engaging in exchange. This is encouraged in Reggio schools by adults offering their point of view ready for children to offer theirs, using a range of the so called ‘100 languages’ Reggio deem children to have.
Education is political: Reggio is a political project, ultimately trying to change the status of EY schools nationally in Italy from service providers to education centres. They consistently refer to the rights of children and to some children as having ‘special rights’ (rather than special needs). In Reggio Emilia itself, the schools played an important role in welcoming and involving immigrant communities from Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and China.
‘Shaped by the city but also shaping the city’: The city of Reggio plays a leading role in the school – it is referred to as a protagonist, with schools visibly present in the city/ their local areas. Bringing the school and children to the city and making the culture of children more public strengthens the school’s alliance with their context.
In the next post I’ll explore how the Reggio Emilia approach influences the EYF programme at Tate.
[1] The Reggio Emilia approach emerged in the small northern Italian city of Reggio Emilia after it was badly affected by World War II. A visionary educator named Loris Malaguzzi (1920-1994) along with parents from the locality wanted “… to bring change and create a new, more just world, free from oppression” urging people to “gather their strength and build with their own hands schools for their young children.” Influenced by early childhood psychologists and philosophers such as Dewey, Piaget, Vygotsky, Gardner and Bruner, the educators of Reggio Emilia, inspired by their already existing community-centred culture, went about setting up a new form of early years learning for the children of the city.
In 1963, with great economic and social development taking place across Italy, the first municipal preschool was opened. In the late 1960s the schools were transferred to the city government for operation and financing. There was a feminist focus to the setting up of the schools as it enabled women to go back to work and tried to garner more respect for early years educators, usually the responsibility of women (formally/ informally). By the 1980s the Malaguzzi method was known and appreciated by many educators including thanks to an exhibition at the Modern Museet in Stockholm. At this time, the National Group for Work and Study on Infant Toddler Centres was formed in Italy.
In 2003 the municipality of Reggio Emilia chose to manage the system and the network of school services and toddler centres by forming the Istituzione Scuole e Nidi d’Infanzia. Municipal schools and preschools had their own independent programs and activities, but were supported by the public sector. The political roots of the approach and its continued political engagement in campaigning for the importance of governmental support for early years education is important to acknowledge.
In February 2006, the Loris Malaguzzi International Centre opened in Reggio Emilia for professional development and research of the philosophy. The foundation was officially established in 2011 with the aim of “Education and research to improve the lives of people and communities, in Reggio Emilia and in the world”.
[ii] The Reggio Emilia approach emerged in the small northern Italian city of Reggio Emilia after it was badly affected by World War II. A visionary educator named Loris Malaguzzi (1920-1994) along with parents from the locality wanted “… to bring change and create a new, more just world, free from oppression” urging people to “gather their strength and build with their own hands schools for their young children.” Influenced by early childhood psychologists and philosophers such as Dewey, Piaget, Vygotsky, Gardner and Bruner, the educators of Reggio Emilia, inspired by their already existing community-centred culture, went about setting up a new form of early years learning for the children of the city.
In 1963, with great economic and social development taking place across Italy, the first municipal preschool was opened. In the late 1960s the schools were transferred to the city government for operation and financing. There was a feminist focus to the setting up of the schools as it enabled women to go back to work and tried to garner more respect for early years educators, usually the responsibility of women (formally/ informally). By the 1980s the Malaguzzi method was known and appreciated by many educators including thanks to an exhibition at the Modern Museet in Stockholm. At this time, the National Group for Work and Study on Infant Toddler Centres was formed in Italy.
In 2003 the municipality of Reggio Emilia chose to manage the system and the network of school services and toddler centres by forming the Istituzione Scuole e Nidi d’Infanzia. Municipal schools and preschools had their own independent programs and activities, but were supported by the public sector. The political roots of the approach and its continued political engagement in campaigning for the importance of governmental support for early years education is important to acknowledge.
In February 2006, the Loris Malaguzzi International Centre opened in Reggio Emilia for professional development and research of the philosophy. The foundation was officially established in 2011 with the aim of “Education and research to improve the lives of people and communities, in Reggio Emilia and in the world”.
Then we are looking for you! We would love to hear from teachers who are taking part in a Summer Course and would like to document their learning throughout the week, as part of our Guest Blogger series.
If you are interested in being a guest blogger for the Arts in Education Portal then contact us at editor@artsineducation.ie for more information.
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Blog 1 – Tom Dalton, Artist & Arts Worker
“What I Do When I Feel Blue”
The teenage years and early adulthood can be particularly tricky times to navigate in life. According to the ‘My World’ National Survey of Youth Mental Health one in three young people have experienced mental health difficulties at some point (Headstrong and UCD School of Psychology, 2012).
Developing coping strategies and building self-esteem can offer a strong protection as young people move into adulthood. A secondary school setting offers an opportunity to reach young people in their formative years and provide tools for mental and emotional resilience, equipping them with skills to cope with the bumps in the road into adulthood and beyond. Funded through Creative Engagement (NAPD) and St. Patrick’s College, “What I Do When I Feel Blue” is a collaborative animation project between Mayfield Arts Centre and St. Patrick’s College in Cork.
June McCarthy, Transition Year coordinator, identified a desire on behalf of the school to engage students in areas of mental health, wellbeing, peer support, community and belonging. St. Patrick’s College has a strong history with Mayfield Arts, having engaged in many Creative Engagement Projects over the years. An introductory meeting with June allowed us to get a sense of the student group as a whole, learn about their previous experiences with art and to get an idea of what they and the school hoped to achieve through this project. Film was something previously unexplored in St. Patrick’s College and seemed particularly appropriate for a project of this kind. Video and stop-motion are communicative, accessible and fun mediums to work within. The potential to share their film through social media and Youtube also gives potency to the work of the students.
Every Friday for six weeks, a group of twelve transition year girls made the short journey up the road to Mayfield Arts. For most of the girls it was their first time inside the building. On day one students were introduced to basic principles of filming and stop-motion using slideshows, demonstrations, examples and warm-up exercises. Once the group was familiar with the process, we all sat together, drank tea and chatted about their ideas for the project. Students were invited to name and respond to important issues that impact their lives and that of their peers. I was taken by the openness of the girls in sharing their stories. Through facilitated discussions, it became clear that the group wanted to create something positive that could help their friends and others experiencing difficulties.
We went about compiling a list of things they do when they are feeling down; things that can help lift them out of difficult times. We quickly filled an entire blackboard with suggested actions; ‘go outside!’, ‘eat chocolate!’, ‘Ring your friends!‘ Through a voting system the group arrived on the six top things they do to make themselves feel better when feeling down. We then brainstormed how we might illustrate these suggestions through animation. Roles within the group formed naturally; some were eager to be in front of the camera, while others prefered ‘out of frame’ activities like setting up cameras, framing shots, controlling light and directing actors. The girls worked great as a team, generating ideas, sharing equipment, helping each other and discussing their outcomes. Footage was collected and reviewed in groups with editing carried out with support from facilitators. Regular feedback was sought from groups to access progress and offer support where needed.
The final film, a three-minute animation that acts as a ‘tool-kit’ for resilience, was launched and screened during the school’s Transition Year closing ceremony. A couple of the girls introduced the project, sharing their ideas, methods and processes with their peers, teachers and parents. Once uploaded to Youtube, the film and its message began to spread beyond the school grounds.
Feedback from the group was really positive and there was a tangible sense of pride in what had been achieved.
“I liked everything about this project but especially that we could do it all by ourselves with just a little bit of help.”
“I wouldn’t change anything, it was very interesting and fun.”
This project was funded by Creative Engagement (NAPD) and St. Patrick’s College, Gardiner’s Hill. For more information visit mayfieldarts.ie
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Blog 1 – Claire Halpin, Visual Artist, Curator & Arts Educator
As a visual artist, curator and arts educator I work on many different projects across different contexts over a range of timescales. It is a juggling act with no days or weeks being the same – something that any working artist is familiar with as their profession, way of life and the challenges, opportunities and rewards it brings. Over the next four blog posts I am going to focus on one or two arts in education projects I am working on as they develop. Since March 2017, I have been working as project co-ordinator and Visual Thinking Strategies facilitator on the DCC VTS Neighbourhood Schools project. VTS Neighbourhood Schools is a visual thinking strategies project funded by Dublin City Council Arts Grant in collaboration with The LAB Gallery, Central Model School, St. Vincent’s B.N.S, Ballybough, St. Mary’s N.S, Fairview. It is part of Project 20/20 – a visual literacy initiative with children living in Dublin 1 led by Dublin City Council, the City Arts Office and The LAB Gallery.
Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) is an educational curriculum and teaching method which is designed to enable students to develop aesthetic and language literacy and critical thinking skills. It is a discussion based methodology for looking at art. The method is the result of more than fifteen years of collaboration between cognitive psychologist Abigail Housen, a Harvard trained educator and psychologist and veteran museum educator Philip Yenawine. The current Irish Primary School Curriculum places emphasis on developing a child’s sense of wonder and facilitating the child to be an agency in his or her own learning. VTS allows space for these aims as well as for other core ideas of the Curriculum such as creating space for the child’s own knowledge to be a base for learning- the VTS facilitator scaffolds what the child’s responses are rather than the opposite way around.
Since 2014 Central Model Senior School has worked with VTS facilitator, Lynn McGrane, funded by Dublin City Council Arts Office and The LAB Gallery using VTS to look at contemporary Irish art both through visits to The LAB Gallery and classroom sessions. IAWATST – Interesting And Weird At The Same Time was an exhibition of work from the OPW Collection and Department of Finance, Northern Ireland Collection, selected by this class group, using VTS in the selection process. The aim and structure of the VTS: Neighbourhood Schools project is to continue using Visual Thinking Strategies to add to the knowledge of the arts and build on the sense of place and experience that the children on Central Model N.S have and to share that experience with their neighbours through working in close collaboration with two schools (St. Mary’s N.S, Fairview and St. Vincent’s B.N.S, Ballybough) with trained VTS practitioners in each of the schools.
In September 2016, I completed the Visual Thinking Strategies Beginners Practicum with Yoon Kang-O’Higgins, VTS Programme Director along with teachers from Central Model School (Deirdre Gartland and Bridget Kildee) and St. Vincent’s B.N.S (Orla Doyle), funded by Dublin City Council Arts Office. In this first phase of this project (March – June) the VTS Practitioners have facilitated 6 sessions with four class groups – Junior Infants to 3rd Class. These sessions happened at The LAB Art Gallery, Hugh Lane Gallery, ArtBox Gallery and classroom based looking at contemporary Irish art. As a team we have met for peer to peer mentoring and support sessions and Liz Coman DCC Assistant Arts Officer and VTS Trainer facilitated coaching sessions with each VTS practitioner. In June we will have a Reflective Practice Session with Yoon Kang-O’Higgins – an opportunity to see where we are all at this stage of the project and where we are going with Phase 2, building capacity, modelling VTS for teachers and observing teachers, image selection, potential trainees for VTS Beginner’s Practicum in Autumn 2017. In this blog post I have only had the chance to lay out the structure and background to the project. In the next post I will relate back from the class groups themselves and their teachers, their responses, experiences and my own experience as a practising visual artist using VTS.
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Creativity & Change Accredited Award now open for applications
The Creativity and Change programme targets educators, change-makers, activists, artists, community workers, adult educators, youth workers, volunteers and anyone who is interested how creative engagement can nurture global citizenship and empathic action around local and global justice themes.
This is a Level 9 CIT Special Purpose Award offered over 8 weekends of the academic year, September – May.
Are you passionate about change?
Do you believe that you can make a difference in the world?
Do you believe that we need creativity to think in new ways about the challenges that face the world?
Are you curious about how creative processes and learning environments can transform how people engage with the world around them?
Do you want to build skills to bring others on a journey of transformation and growth as global citizens?
This course is for you if you can say ‘Yes!’ to these questions.
Find out more about the Accredited award, hear the stories of previous participants and how to connect to CIT online application here
Find out more about the Creativity & Change programme and what else it has to offer with master classes, Creative fairs and training for youth workershere
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Film Premiere and Website Launch of Room 13 Inquiry
Room 13 Inquiry is a dynamic investigation into the potential of shared art studio spaces in school settings. It has evolved in two primary schools in Fingal since its inception in 2014 and includes the provision of a dedicated art studio space, an artist in residence and a series of exhibition and artists’ studio visits for the students.
We engaged filmmaker Kilian Waters to capture the activities of the students and artists over the course of six weeks this academic year and commissioned a website to share some of the intelligent and honest conversations held by the students over the past three years. The website www.room13inquiry.ie will go live on Tuesday 20th of June at 12noon.
My mother describes a picture of me age 4, she shows me a photograph, there I am sitting, legs spreadeagled, on the floor in front of me is “Julie bear” (my childhood teddy bear), in the diamond of floor encompassed by me, my legs and my bear is a piece of paper and on that paper I am making a drawing. Now I look at the photograph, I see it as my mother describes, I can’t get back to that place, I see it now outside of myself – a child absorbed. But I know that feeling.
I have a drawing my daughter made, age 6, it has the date on the back of the frame, in her own writing the legend reads: “My dog Under the table 23.12.97. Annie”. Annie doesn’t remember doing the drawing, and nor do I. I do remember the events around this picture, and where we were living at the time. Our dog was Miko, a stray we homed, and Miko had puppies, nine in all. The Daddy was Bart, our housemate’s dog.
The drawing shows an inky black shape with multiple extremities which seem to be leaking out from the body. On closer look you can make out the 4 black legs and 6 elongated teats, the mother’s tail is curled backward, awkwardly echoing the arc of her body. At her back are 3 leggy blobby pup shapes, there are 2 more at her front. There are five puppy shaped blobs in all: 4 are missing.
I look at the picture and I see the repeated arcs of dogs back, ringed over and over and framed finally within the square and capped by a border on three sides. I see the mother’s pink tongue haloed by exclamations of blue spittle, I see her ears askew, her eyes, which are barely visible, have obviously been drawn into the black silhouette at later stage, and this action has left a bleachy green rim where one marker dye acts on another. I see the mother dog held within the horse shoe form of the yellow basket bed she had, I see a turquoise ring with turquoise triangles pointing in and pointing out, this jagged, joined up ring form is contained within the orange square of ‘under the table’, a liminal floor/table space. Here the angle changes from top view to sideview and I see the table holding it all together. The table has two pink drawers. There is a large fruit bowl on top of the table, it is a bowl we still have, made by her Granny (It clearly shows the apple design of Bandon Pottery) The bowl contains stalked fruits. Beside the bowl is the most mysterious object in the picture – is it a yellow door?
This drawing contains a concentrated world, a complex mixture of emotion, observation, invention and imagination. It is a brave drawing, it is a necessary drawing and it is a mysterious drawing. It is a drawing that describes an event long forgotten by its maker. It is a drawing that gives me a glimpse into another world and one that I know is real, even if I wasn’t there.
When children draw they bring forth worlds, turning the inside out. This way of processing of experience is something that continues to fill me with awe, it still draws me. I love the word Draw, it has so many meanings, encompassing ideas of pulling, attracting, taking in and letting out, one can “draw breath” and one can “allow tea to draw”, “draw a pistol”, or a bath, as well as a line, it has a particular tension between hiding on and letting go. One time when I was a teenager I went with my father to the mart, we brought our sketchbooks. Later an acquaintance politely asked us what we were doing there, when I said “drawing” he said, looking at my father slightly puzzled, “drawing cattle to the mart?”
In the previous blog, I spoke about some drawing we did together at the Virtually There project in Killard house. This was not exactly a collaboration, we hadn’t agreed on making a ‘work of art’ together, it was a live action conversation. The whiteboard was the testing ground where our dialogue took place. It was a space where images were placed, excavated from our archives, grabbed online, or captured from life, they were uploaded, they were drawn out and drawn upon, discarded, elements were shrunken, enlarged, obliterated and moved about by one person or another, threads were created and broken over the course of a conversation, it was often hard to keep track. The drawing happened one mark or image beside another in a space which became layered and sequenced over time. We were celebrating together the act of drawing.
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AOIC International Choral Conducting Summer School
The Association of Irish Choirs presents its 38th International Choral Conducting Summer School from 6th-12th August 2017, for conductors, teachers, music students, choral singers and musicians. The only one of its kind in Ireland, this seven-day intensive course offers a wealth of expertise from international tutors, all of whom are active conductors and experienced teachers of conducting. With courses designed to meet the needs and abilities of every student — from beginners to experienced and established conductors — participants at all levels will develop and refine their core conducting skills, with more advanced classes focusing on areas such as rehearsal technique, interpretation, vocal technique, style, and pronunciation of languages. EPV accredited.
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Arts in Education Portal National Day video is now live!
“The arts transformed my love of learning and are the reason I’m standing before you today” Prof. Anne Bamford
On May 6th the second arts in education portal national took place at St Patrick’s Campus, DCU. The portal national day is building momentum as a very significant event in the arts and education calendar in Ireland. Just under 200 people registered to attend the event with 17 workshops and lectures, an inspiring keynote from Prof Anne Bamford and a policy update from the Arts Council and Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional and Gaeltacht Affairs, Heather Humphreys. We are already excited about next years event. Have a look here to see the video from the day. Thanks to all involved in making day a huge success!
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Blog 1 – Julie Forrester, Visual Artist
Blog 1 – Art enables a magical way of being in the world
A conscious turn from routine can transform one’s approach along a spectrum from lacklustre ennui to one of tantalising attention. Objects take on significance, the ordinary becomes enriched, moments collide in fascinating ways. Sharing these ideas connects us in new and interesting conversations. We notice things that lead us to explore the nature of things and we are led on an adventure at once wild and exciting. Our senses connect to our brains our perceptions change…….but there is no need to say any of this here – suffice to say that I am motivated and captivated by a magical sense of being. Working with children expands the possibilities here. A sense of discovery leads into new territories for both myself and the child.
Working with teachers in the classroom is a very privileged place to be. The teacher is the holder of the space (s)he creates the environment for learning. (S)he is also a creative partner. The collaborative relationship between teacher and artist gives the structure to support and wings to let loose the children’s explorations.
This 3 way relationship is at the heart of the Virtually There residency project run by Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership. Here the Artist/Teacher roles are very much foregrounded by the challenges and limitations of online presence. In Virtually There the artist is not in residence in the classroom but in a virtual space that hovers between classroom and studio. Her visual presence is contained in a frame, on a screen. Aurally her presence can be heard through a speaker, often as gremlins or in delay. Like wise the artist’s experience of the classroom is on screen and remote, tiny moving ants, often backlit by classroom windows, occasional face to face conversations and a virtual whiteboard. The teacher often takes up the role of mediator between screen and room. Gremlins come and go ransacking the airwaves. It’s today’s technology but it feels archaic. Two distinct worlds form at either end, in parallel. I imagine being in a submarine at the periscope communicating by radio control, sometimes it even feels like we are feeling our way via sonar echolocation, at once remote and intimate.
One develops strategies to incorporate this technology, it becomes another collaborator, the fourth partner in the equation. Experiments often begin with instructions as jumping off points, and in the sense of a Chinese whisper, one is anticipating the return of something wild and wilful from the original.
The interactive whiteboard becomes a shared ground where ideas are thrown up and moved about. During my residency at Killard House I worked in one to one conversation with children from year 10, using the whiteboard as our ‘visual speech bubbles’. I captured this activity using screenshots. Digital capturing does not at all represent a record of the session. It creates its own truth through a punctured narrative where elisions reign, occluding vital moments, replacing them, punctuating them with knots of captured stasis, warping time and concentrating attention in offbeat places. Human fallibility has its place of honour here, turning the machine/system into poetry or farce. The children’s voices push dynamically through the images they share and the sequencing of their thoughts. For me it is the perfect medium to test the narrative capabilities of stop motion animation.
Meanwhile classroom activity continues with teacher, the dynamic Ms Davey, elaborating on our prepared activities, the children coming up to webcam at intervals to intercept the dialogue with some extraordinary observation, discovery or piece of work to share.
In Virtually There time with the teacher between sessions is invaluable, here we are able to explore and adapt our project, pushing out ideas, extending chance encounters and developing these into a mutual understanding for creative play, the collaboration is always live, as we share our differing approaches, responses and strategies to all that is thrown up. There is also a hovering of all that I have missed from my submarine.
For more on the Virtually There Killard House Blog please click here
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Teacher/Artist Partnerships: Summer course at your local Education Centre
Teacher/Artist Partnerships: supporting and enhancing Arts Education in Primary Schools
This is a unique summer course offering teachers the opportunity to explore the nature and educational value of partnerships between teachers and artists in supporting arts education in schools.
This course, which has the potential to improve literacy, numeracy and well-being in all schools including DEIS, will be offered across the Education Centre Network in 2017. It is supported by the Department of Education & Skills and the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural & Gaeltacht Affairs. Many schools across the country are engaged in projects with artists, in a variety of art forms, ranging from one-off artist visits to longer term projects. If you are currently engaged in such a project, or are planning one for the coming year, then this course will be of interest to you. This course looks at the ways in which working with an artist in school can be enhanced in order to provide meaningful experiences for children and a lasting impact on school practice. Particular emphasis will be on the role of the teacher and artist, their unique contributions to projects and the significant benefits that can accrue from a dynamic teacher/artist relationship in the planning and implementation of projects. Placing the teacher/artist project within the overall Arts Curriculum in schools and exploration of related practical issues will be central to the course.
The course draws on research in the field and looks at practical teacher/artist projects and partnerships that have been undertaken in schools recently. Various art forms will be explored and participants will have opportunities to explore their own creativity throughout the week. Course tutors are teachers and artists who have been involved in such projects and participants on the course will include both teachers and local artists. Artists participating in the summer course are nominated through their local authority arts offices.
Are you looking to improve your understanding of arts education, to improve Arts Curriculum integration in your classroom, to work with a partner in the field of ‘The Arts’, to engage with a professional artist as a way of improving your own arts teaching skills? Would you welcome the input and insight of a practising artist while teaching the children in your care?
Schools Principals might consider this course in the context of the Government’s Creative Ireland Programme 2017-2022, featuring “Enabling the Creative Potential of Every Child” in Pillar 1 (creativeireland.ie), the upcoming launch of a Creative Children plan in September 2017 and the overall development of arts education your school community. It may be useful to consider more than one teacher attending from a school or even whole school participation.
A Teacher/ Artist Residency programme will be available to a limited number of the schools which participated in this summer course in the school year 2017-2018. While there is no guarantee that your school will have access to a residency in 2017-2018, this course will provide you with the skills and knowledge to support you and your school in your implementation of the Arts Curriculum.
Date & Venue: Please contact your local Education Centre (Teachers will receive EPV days). The course is free.
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Teacher Summer Courses at The Ark
The Ark presents an engaging selection of arts summer courses for primary school teachers and a concert for school groups.
For more information please contact (01)6707788/boxoffice@ark.ie
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Launch of CREATIVE DANCE TALES – A Digital Resource for Teachers and Dance Artists
CREATIVE DANCE TALES is storytelling through dance. It began as a pilot workshop project in 2015 which ran in parallel with CoisCéim Dance Theatre’s THE WOLF AND PETER by David Bolger and its three year-long residency at DCU (formerly St. Patrick’s College).
Supported by The Ireland Funds, CoisCéim BROADREACH conducted 26 workshops in 8 primary schools at 6 locations around Ireland with over 300 children taking part. Two specialist seminars for educators were held in Dublin and Galway. CREATIVE DANCE TALES gave children an imaginative, kinaesthetic learning experience in dance and highlighted the power of storytelling through performance.
Emerging in part from requests made by teachers, the CREATIVE DANCE TALES DIGITAL RESOURCE was developed together by BROADREACH and the Physical Education Unit, The School of Arts Education and Movement, Institute of Education, DCU, and funded through the residency by the Arts Council of Ireland.
It is a celebration of the work of children, students, teachers, teacher educators and dance professionals. Distributed free of charge through the Arts in Education Portal in Ireland and www.dcu.ie, the lesson plans are designed to act as a starting point to stimulate creative thinking for teachers and children alike.
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Writers in Schools: Republic of Ireland & Northern Ireland
Writers in Schools Scheme
Poetry Ireland’s Writers in Schools scheme part-funds visits by writers and storytellers to primary and post-primary schools in the Republic of Ireland (funded by The Arts Council) and Northern Ireland (funded by Arts Council Northern Ireland).
Over the past 22 years, the scheme has given more than 500,000 children the chance to work closely with writers in the classroom. Poetry Ireland believes that the creative energy sparked by these first-hand encounters with writers can trigger an appreciation of the emotional and intellectual power of language that lasts a lifetime.
Writers in Schools single visits are:
Suitable for primary and post-primary school groups
Available in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland
Available with a range of artists including poets, novelists, storytellers, teen fiction writers, children’s writers and screenwriters
2 hours with a selected writer, which can be divided into shorter sessions for different class groups (eg two/ three sessions during one visit).
€100/£85 per visit. This is half the writer’s fee, paid by the school. Poetry Ireland funds the balance plus travel expenses.
B type visits (4 hours/ cost €200/ £170) are reserved for special projects, with more information available upon request.
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The Irish Forest School Association (IFSA) was founded in 2016 and is engaged in the promotion and development of the Forest School (FS) movement in Ireland. We bring Forest School practitioners together to inspire inclusive, playful learning for all, in nature. We want to build resilience and relationships, through our connection with each other, and the natural world, while inspiring creativity and supporting wellbeing. More information can be found on our website 
The Irish Forest School Association (IFSA) was founded in 2016 and is engaged in the promotion and development of the Forest School (FS) movement in Ireland. We bring Forest School practitioners together to inspire inclusive, playful learning for all, in nature. We want to build resilience and relationships, through our connection with each other, and the natural world, while inspiring creativity and supporting wellbeing. More information can be found on our website 
Fiona Lawton has been teaching secondary students in 
Lucy Elvis is a director of 
The Irish Forest School Association (IFSA) was founded in 2016 and is engaged in the promotion and development of the Forest School (FS) movement in Ireland. We bring Forest School practitioners together to inspire inclusive, playful learning for all, in nature. We want to build resilience and relationships, through our connection with each other, and the natural world, while inspiring creativity and supporting wellbeing. More information can be found on our website 
Naomi Cahill works as a Creative Associate for 
Fiona Lawton has been teaching secondary students in 
Christopher McCambridge is a Special Educational Needs teacher at 
Muireann Ahern is Joint Artistic Director of Theatre Lovett. For Theatre Lovett she has directed and designed multiple shows. Muireann has over twenty years’ experience working in theatre for young audiences. Previously, she was Theatre Programmer and Producer at The Ark. She programmed the Family Season of the Dublin Theatre Festival and The Dublin Dance Festival. Muireann has worked with The Abbey Theatre’s Outreach Department, TEAM, part time lecturer at St Patrick’s teacher training college, and is a regular guest speaker on theatre for children at other third level colleges. She has led several Professional Development courses and was a member of the core working group on the published Artists~Schools Guidelines: ‘Towards Best Practice in Ireland’. She has been guest speaker at national and international conference focusing on ‘quality’ in theatre for young audiences. She is a graduate of the Samuel Beckett Centre for Drama and Theatre Studies, Trinity College Dublin and also holds a HDip Education from TCD.
Róisin O’Donnell is a 19 year old leaving cert survivor and writer. She was a participant in the first ever Young Playwrights’ Programme. Her play ‘Bernie’ premiered through the programme. She lives in Cork, where she spends her time writing fiction and plays, obsessing over books and her dog.
Jessica O’ Brien is a 16 year old student and aspiring writer from Cork. As part of the Young Playwrights’ Programme with 
