Youth Arts Gallery
Kids' Own Publishing Partnership
Trading Places / C.R.E.A.T.E Programme
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Trading Places/CR.E.A.T.E. Project was a three-year artists-in-schools programme with a strong focus on professional development. This took place in 10 schools involving eleven artists north and south of the Irish border. The aim of the project was to develop creative partnerships that utilised the power of new technologies and the visual arts as a vehicle for exploring and communicating cultural diversity.This uniquely flexible project brought each artist’s working process to the core of his or her collaboration. At this core, the boundaries were blurred between artists studio work and their collaborations in the classroom. For many artists and teachers this was a transformative experience.
From our experience, we have found that artists in schools programmes can have lasting impact on children, teachers and artists’ practice; especially when the partnerships between child, artist and teacher are attended to. This requires building a framework for training, support and group interactions to reflect on shared experiences.
From this project, participants- including the children, teachers and artists collaborated on a publication to share their experience called ‘Beneath The Surface’. This publication showcases the work of the partnerships, promoting this way of working and inspiring and guiding others to work in this way. Findings from this programme were presented at the UNESCO World Conference on Arts and Education in Lisbon 2006.The framework developed during this programme is being built on to become an Ireland-wide artists-in-schools initiative.
The Trading Places/CR.E.A.T.E project was supported by The Arts Council Northern Ireland lottery, The European Union INTERREG IIIA programme Ireland/Northern Ireland, Through the Irish Central Border Area INTERREG IIIA Partnership (ICBAN)
Throughout the programme we held open days in each school. At the end of the programme we held regional exhibitions that showcased a selection of work by each participating school. The exhibition provided the opportunity for each school community to meet each other. Here we see the young people from Ballydown School in Co. Down visiting their exhibition at the Dock Art Centre in Carrick on Shannon, Co. Leitrim.
Artists Response
A core element within this programme was supporting artists to be artists rather than just facilitators of a process. We did this by allocating time for artists to develop their own work alongside the work in the school. We called this time RESPONSE. The response was an invaluable element to the programme and raises the level of engagement in terms of the dialogue-taking place between the teacher child and artists. One artist commented that the response allowed him to return to the in-class collaborations ‘ with enthusiasm, purpose and a vision rather than going through the motions.”
The work created during this time was showcased at the Millennium Court Arts Centre, all the children were invited in to see and engage with the work.
Through the introduction of contemporary arts practices, classrooms were transformed into studios. Artists, children and teachers were continually challenged to interrogate their ideas, negotiate the creation of meaning, and strive for authentic collaboration. Teachers witnessed their students working with great motivation and inspiration as they explored questions about their own identity, the world and their place in it.
Each Child was asked to make a drawing interpreting the project in the form of a journey. They only had two 45 minutes slots. One to think back and make notes and sketches, the other to make black and white A3 drawing. A drawing from a young artist, Camin sums it up, with the inclusion of all the individual fingerprints and initials in the class and visually articulating the experience never finishing.
In conjunction with the Beneath the Surface Exhibition held at The Ark in February 2007, in partnership with the Ark, kids’ Own hosted a day-long seminar for teachers and artists which focused on key issues and best practice with regard to the developing area of artists working, with pupils and teachers, in schools. The format of the day provided the opportunity for teachers and artists who worked together on this programme to co-present and to discus their real experiences. This seminar was offered to artists and teachers interested in collaborating together
