Background to primary teacher in-career courses at IMMA

Background to primary teacher in-career courses at IMMA

Throughout the 1990s, and up until 2007, IMMA ran in-career development courses for primary teachers during July and August. The five day in-career courses were approved by the Department of Education and therefore participating teachers received additional leave (EPV). Most summers IMMA ran at least two courses. The fee for the week-long course was €60.00, which represented good value at the time. In order to achieve the Department’s approval, the courses had to be strictly in line with the primary school curriculum and had to fit within a specified time table. By about 2005, three things became apparent:

·       Attendance numbers for the IMMA courses were dropping as the market place for summer in-career courses had become crowded. On-line courses were rising rapidly in popularity.

·       Many teachers, due to recent training or following the implementation of the 1999 primary school curriculum, were showing signs of increasing familiarity with the processes and ideas covered in the IMMA courses.

·       It became less clear over time how the in-career course integrated into IMMA’s main services and programmes, such as free guided tours for groups or the annual Primary School Programme http://www.imma.ie/en/subnav_7.htm  Throughout the 1990s there had been a clear link between teachers participating in the summer course and then subsequently visiting IMMA with their classes in the following academic year. This link weakened in the new century.

The remit of IMMA is to represent and provide access to significant contemporary and modern art. In 2007 it became necessary to evaluate whether summer courses were still contributing efficiently to fulfilling that remit. One thing was clear to Education & Community staff at IMMA: we had to engage primary teachers with experiences of the continuous evolution of contemporary art because, apart from their own professional and personal development, primary teachers remain key connection points with under-12 visitors to IMMA. We needed to continue offering primary teachers some sort of forum through which they could gain insight into contemporary art ideas, practices and processes. The question was how best to continue this provision, and when to do it.

The Curriculum and Contemporary Art 2008/2009

The Curriculum & Contemporary Art 2008/09

IMMA Education & Community developed a new six part series of talks and workshops for primary teachers called the Curriculum & Contemporary Art.

Launched in September 2008:

·       Each session (roughly one a month, September to March) would take place on Saturdays, 10.00am to 1.00pm.

·       There was no fee and participants could book single or multiple sessions.

·       Each session was linked to a strand of the primary school curriculum, with particular media being the link between a guided tour of a specific exhibition and a practical workshop led by a freelance artist.

·       Tours would be led by a member of the IMMA gallery staff, the Mediators.

·       Artist Claire Halpin had a link role across all sessions, leading some workshops, with guest artists lined up to lead single sessions: John O’Connell, Janine Davidson, Joe Coveney and Lucinda Jacob.

After a promising start in September 2008, the series was disrupted mid-run in January 2009 because IMMA’s galleries were forced to shut unexpectedly due to essential maintenance. By the time IMMA fully reopened in March 2009 too much momentum had been lost, some sessions couldn’t be rescheduled and attendance had dropped significantly. As a result we decided to see if we could realise the potential of this series with a second run in September 2009, following the same format as the previous season.

The second series 2009/2010

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The Second Series 2009/10

All six dates for the second series of the Curriculum & Contemporary Art were fully booked almost immediately after its launch in late August 2009. Such was the demand that a few sessions were hugely oversubscribed. Obviously this was an encouraging start.

Session 1:  DRAWING, Saturday, 26th September 2009

Participants explored contemporary ideas about drawing and visited the exhibition by Terry Winters. Mediator: Evy Richard

http://www.imma.ie/en/page_197019.htm

Session 2: CONSTRUCTION, Saturday, 17th October 2009 

Participants visited the IMMA Collection exhibition Between Metaphor and Object, which included many examples of British sculpture from the 1990s. The IMMA Primary School Programme focussed on this exhibition from October 2009 to March 2010. Mediator: Jenny Hickey

http://www.imma.ie/en/page_197017.htm

Session 3: PAINT/ COLOUR, Saturday, 21st November 2009

Participants experienced contemporary approaches to using colour and paint, after visiting artworks by Lynda Benglis. Mediator: Evy Richard

http://www.imma.ie/en/page_197022.htm

Session 4: COMPLEMENTARY MEDIA (NEW MEDIA), Saturday, 30th January 2010 

Participants visited the very popular exhibition Picturing New York which featured photographs from the MoMA collection. Artist John O’Connell led the workshop afterwards exploring shadows and light projection. Mediator: Evy Richard

http://www.imma.ie/en/page_197023.htm

Session 5: PRINT, Saturday, 27th February 2010

After exploring paper-based work by Patrick Scott and Anne Tallentire, as well as Jorge Pardo’s photo-mural, artist Janine Davidson led a print workshop in the IMMA studios. Mediator: Olive Barrett

http://www.imma.ie/en/page_212185.htm

http://www.imma.ie/en/page_212186.htm

Session 6: FABRIC & FIBRE, Saturday, 20th March 2010

Using the medium of fabric and fibre, Claire Halpin explored some of the ideas of curatorial selection and juxtaposition found in the Collection exhibition What happens next is a secret. Mediator: Séamus McCormack 

http://www.imma.ie/en/page_212177.htm

www.facebook.com search: Whathappensnext Isashecret 

After this series ended in March, it was reviewed from the perspective of IMMA staff and facilitating artists

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After this series ended in March, it was reviewed from the perspective of IMMA staff and facilitating artists:

·       The participants represented a cross-section of professional experience.

·       The series provided some flexibility for the teachers that managed to secure places; they could opt to attend one session or multiple sessions.

·       There was a core group of 8 or 9 teachers who were at almost every session. This gave each session a sense of general progression.

·       This was heightened by the fact that all participants were attending purely out of their own motivation and not due to professional incentives or accreditation (such as EPV for summer courses). Their participation was all the more appreciated by IMMA staff given the particular budgetary situation confronting teachers in 2009/10;

·       Through talking with participants, it emerged some teachers were returning from specialist posts and career breaks, and the series was perceived as a means through which they could ease the transition back into mainstream teaching or enable some up-skilling. Other teachers were interested in the series as it represented something new and relevant to them.

·       There was a strong sense of personal development from the teachers’ interaction with facilitators and artists – the series related to life-long learning and adult education as much as it did to teachers’ professional development and children’s art education.

·       The sessions were spread out over seven months, so those who participated in multiple sessions had time to reflect on their experiences at IMMA and to try out ideas in the classroom in between sessions; as well as having a chance to feedback to Claire Halpin afterwards as to how things had worked out for them.

·       Some teachers reported back that they had taken an idea or process from a workshop, adapted or simplified it (or added to it) according to their own particular classroom context or the time available to them.

·       The period of time between sessions allowed teachers to experience a wide variety of art practices at IMMA – exhibitions came and went. Teachers saw how the same gallery spaces could be transformed each time by the work of different artists.

·       Spreading out the sessions created a more relaxed atmosphere compared to the intensity of a summer course with five consecutive weekdays.

·       Although there was an overarching structure connecting specific exhibited artworks to specific primary school curriculum strands, by the end of the series it was obvious to teachers that any exhibition at IMMA could be a springboard to exploring any strand of the curriculum in the classroom. What was important was that artworks were fully experienced and discussed, and that the artworks’ ideas were identified and really explored. After that, the experience of material processes added understanding and insight into current practices.

Feedback and follow up

IMMA used Surveymonkey.com to get feedback from participants.

About three quarters of the participants responded:

·       Just over half of the respondents brought a class to IMMA in the academic year 2009/10;

·       Almost 80% of respondents found that participation in the workshops was of use in their classroom work; the other 20% felt it was of some use.

Also in this feedback survey, we asked about the factors that would affect teachers when they were deciding whether or not to attend a similar series again (factors were listed on an 8 point scale from “least important” to “most important”):

·       Respondents were fairly evenly split on whether Department of Education accreditation was of major or minor importance;

·       Over half thought that getting ideas for classroom activity is the most important factor;

·       50% felt that art appreciation and personal creative activity is quite an important factor, while personal development scored highly in importance for all respondents; 

·       50% also felt that the venue, its location and facilities was an important factor;

·       Although half the respondents thought the social aspect of the workshops was either quite or very important, nearly a quarter of respondents thought it was a less important factor.

The Follow Up 2010/11

Due the amount of oversubscription for the 2009/10 series, there definitely seems to be enough interest to run a very similar series next year (obviously those that couldn’t attend any session will be interested, but so will teachers that missed particular sessions). We also have to think about teachers who attended all sessions this year and now want something extra.

Boys don't dance?

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“In male-dominated cultures it is often problematic for young males to take up theatrical dance. Despite the development of gender-specific approaches to get more boys involved, dance education appears to be a prime site of oppression”

Preface to ‘Stepping Queerly?’ Discourses in Dance Education for boys in late 20th century Finland. 

Running since February 2008, Company B is a dance company for boys, run by Ciaran Gray and supported by Dance Ireland.  It developed out of Ciaran’s thesis ‘Boys Don’t Dance’, part of his Masters in Dance with University of Limerick which drew on the work above (aswell as others) as part of his research.

I went along one Saturday afternoon and found a gang of 10 to 12 year olds crossing the floor, spinning, working through sequences….  ordinary boys in Premier League football tops! I had my preconceptions about the boys shift away from under me a 2nd time during the afternoon when I presumed some of the boys were missing because Ireland were playing Wales in a Six Nations Match – no, it was because it was one of the members was having a birthday party!

The ethos and values of Company B are inclusiveness, excellence, a feeling of belonging and a right to be there.  When asked how a company girls can’t join promotes inclusiveness, Ciaran says it does this in the spirit of positive discrimination. There are a number of outlets for girls, other avenues for them to experience dance.

The challenge to be still

Ciaran says the dynamic among the boys is freeing, there’s a willingness to be open, they are good at working together. They sometimes get caught up in vying for seniority with girls, and are freer without that.  Also there’s novelty to it for them. 

What I noticed in the session I attended, and it reminded me of trying to sit in a room with my brother when he was pre-adolescent, was the inability of the 10-12 year old boy to stay still! They itch to move.  And stillness is a vital part of dance, so how are these things brought into harmony?  Ciaran admits this is a challenge. Workshops are harder than a classroom situation, keeping everything on track, the methodologies in voluntary, out of school contexts are very different.  Common across both contexts though, according to Ciaran, praise is a huge motivator, the response of a child to a compliment creates more opportunities for compliments. When we are honest about how much praise matters to us as adults, (Ciaran used the example of grown adults welling up on Masterchef when their dish was praised), we realise how important praise at just the right moment might be to a child.

Thinking beyond the obvious

There’s been a lot of research done on utilising the physical vocabulary of bravery, warriors, soldiers etc in order to provide a way into dance for boys, one way of channeling the overflow of energy young boys come to class with anyway.  Ciaran is wary of falling into these through-lines, and where they might sometimes be used, he likes the group to interrogate beyond the obvious. For example last year in a piece depicting a battle, the group explored the idea of some of the participants not making it off the battlefield, so they don’t always go for the obvious answers. 

Creating the demand

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During the 2nd phase of the company (the phase after MA research), Ciaran ran taster sessions with 400 boys in local schools in the North City. Out of this, 150 took the flyer information home to their parents, and this resulted in 15 participants signing up…. So something happened between being interested in participating, and actually signing up. These reasons might not be complex or even anti-dance, they could be very straightforward challenges for parents, such as commiting to a project that takes place in the city centre on Saturday afternoons, already a very busy time in a family’s schedule.  Still, 15 out of 400 isn’t encouraging. 15 out of 150 isn’t much more so.  Often when developing projects, this is the kiss of death after the action phase, or the thing we’d be nervous revealing to funders: The take up versus the amount of effort we put in shows there isn’t the demand for this project.  In an effort to respond to the needs of a group, a community, a sector, we adapt the project, try something else or admit defeat.  There is something really interesting for me about not taking no for an answer… About asking why there isn’t a demand for this, challenging that and creating one.

Creating the context

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In Dance Ireland’s 2008 document ‘Youth Dance -Towards Best Practice’ , it says ‘Encourage young people to participate in activities that are outside their immediate experience. Offering activities that are accessible, yet challenging will impact beyond the project, and contribute to their personal and social development.’

Findings from research in the UK echo this.  If young people can’t self select for dance, if, for example, they are offered a dance project after they’ve had 6 weeks of mandatory dance as part of PE, they are more likely to sign up to optional dance classes.  Working with schools, clubs and other organisations (as Ciaran does with his taster sessions) works better than self selection – young people take  time to change their opinion or be open to dance as an artform they might enjoy. This is trickier in youth work where a fundamental principle is that participation is voluntary.  And it’s a big investment: relationships, practice, routine take time to establish – time we don’t often have when the funding clock is ticking!

There is no context for dance in schools for boys, Ciaran says, there is a context for sport.  If someone says ‘I am staying late after school for sport’, there’s a context for that, we know what that means.  It’s different saying ‘I’m staying late after school for dance’.  To try and establish a context, and provide boys with a physical vocabulary for dance, Ciaran thinks it’s important that the company is 1)a dance company, 2) working in DanceHouse (Dance Ireland’s purpose built state of the art rehearsal space in Dublin City Centre) 3) under the auspices of DanceIreland.  Company B takes on the terminology rather than shying away from it (eg calling the work ‘Creative Movement’ etc). Company B is proud of what it is and unapologetic!

What do boys like about dance?

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It is Ciaran’s opinion (and he stresses that it’s just his opinion) that in his experience, girls enjoy the satisfaction of working on or completing sequences and tasks, and boys enjoy more the moment of activity (which would explain the need to always be moving!) They love spinning and jumping. I think this has to do with being a child, and not being a boy or a girl – that moment of defying gravity and reconnecting with the child inside is an attractive aspect of dance for all of us.

Because he’s a teacher, and the teacher of some of these participants, he has the opportunity to see them in different contexts, and I wondered about whether this presented an opportunity to see the impact that this project might be having on them in other areas of their lives.  With some certainly, he says there seems to be an increased confidence, a coming out of themselve,  implying the ability of the arts to unlock particular aspects of ourselves, previously locked away.  There are new opportunities opened up also, as one participant was recently invited to perform in a production which is part of the Dublin Dance Festival.

I asked Ciaran about any blocks or prejudices that the boys might have had around dance and masculinity, but it just doesn’t seem to be an issue. Maybe because their teacher is male and a dancer so those who’ve come from Ciaran’s school have already been exposed to dance in some way, or have not been used to narrow definitions of masculinity.

A couple of things come out this for me I think. The need for particular methodologies which challenge the energy and edginess of pre adolescent boys and encourage contemplation and reflection (the powerful time before the creative movement)   aswell as allowing them the joy of their body moving through time and space.  Broadly, and I know I’m generalising, but I wonder if girls of that age need to be brought out of themselves, and that it’s possible boys need to be brought into themselves.

Protecting the new idea

Dance Ireland supported this project when it was still only an idea and this is important:  the critical moment before something becomes successful, or isn’t able to demonstrate ‘a demand’.  Pixar Animation call this ‘throwing a forcefield around projects when they are at their most vulnerable’ and we can learn something from that.  DanceIreland threw this forcefield around Company B when it needed it.

What does support look like:

Support doesn’t have to be huge and it doesn’t have to be money. Ciaran donates his time for free and DanceIreland provide workshop space and other supports – such as performance space and support during showcases etc.  The fees paid by participants go towards paying for any extra expenses which may be incurred during the year – costumes, extra workshops and so on, without having to revert back to participants.

That said, when we dig deeper and quantify the total cost, I think it’s true that most fledgling projects in Ireland require personal sacrifice on the part of the instigator. Research by NAYD around youth theatre leaders would back this up.  Having taught from Monday to Friday, to commit every Saturday to Company B is a sacrifice on Ciaran’s part and having a passion project will require you to steal the time from other areas of your life.  (Actually it’s funny that I’ve just written that, because it’s Good Friday, I’m writing on the couch in my pyjamas and I’m supposed to be on annual leave) On a more material level, it’s easier to volunteer your time if your income comes from a different area. This kind of model isn’t sustainable, or very fair. One’s livelihood in one area subsidises the project.

Ways of evaluating this kind of work are new too – quantatitive/statistical research doesn’t allow for the beauty/artistry/individual stories of creativity and growth – and qualitative research pushes young people into describing and analysising changes, thoughts, feelings and reactions that they are still coming to terms with – they may still be processing the dance project: Dance is enough of a new vocabulary for them without also having to articulate and reflect on it too.

Following on from this it can be difficult even for practioners and project leaders to articulate expectations in a project so new and we should allow in projects of this type for ‘diversity of expectation’.

Finding 'the one'

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Across many different youth arts projects it seems that the personality of practitioner is key: The energy and personality coupled with the right skills and practice can be what really engages young people who are new to contemporary dance – that’s what encourages them to give it a go, take risks etc.  Young people respond better to one practioner – they feel safer in the process and also associate that practioner with it.  But, and it’s a big but, there is the danger that the project can become personality driven, there’s a lot of pressure on that one practitioner, and also there’s a lack of sustainability in such a process.

Challenging the idea of ‘identified need’ is very interesting to me.  We talk a lot in the sector about gaps in provision, we don’t talk so much about vision.  It takes vision to see beyond what groups or projects think they want, or we think they want, and challenge the presumptions, cultural norms or mechanisms which might be underpinning that.

It makes me think, what other wonderful opportunities are we missing, because we don’t know we might want them?!…

Developing Collaborative Practice

Fiona Whelan discusses her art background and the pivotal points that have assisted the development of her practice. She shares how and in what capacity she initially began engaging in Rialto and describes the main elements of the communication process with the Rialto Youth Project that have led to a collaborative, collective practice.

Building Relationships and Communication Processes

Fiona Whelan reflects on the relationships between the collective on 'What's the Story?', with particular reference to her communication with the Youth Workers involved and to the investment involved on all sides. She also shares how she has communicated her areas of interest and her particular approach to working with the collective, which has enabled a collaborative project to develop that is of equal interest and personal importance to all involved.

Meeting the Public

Fiona Whelan discusses the ways in which the ongoing work of the collective on 'What's the Story?' is brought to a public audience and some of the responsibilities that arise when this happens. She also considers the need for developing a language which can be used by all those involved, artist, youth worker and young person, to describe their experience and the processes being undertaken.

Measuring Success

Fiona Whelan talks about the evaluation and documentation processes involved in her work with the Rialto Youth Project. She explains how she measures whether or not the collective has reached true collaboration, as she defines it. She also names some of the key elements that make this collaboration work successfully.

Integrating Studio and Community

Ruby Wallis has developed a more collaborative process through her current residency in Rathcabbin National School. This process had led to overlaps between her work with the children, Ruby's own practice and her current MA research project.

Ruby discusses her thoughts on collaboration, her general process and recent developments toward a more integrated practice in the videos below.

Responsibilites and challenges

Ruby Wallis has worked with groups of varied backgrounds including with women from the travelling community, with the elderly and with children and young people. She considers that she has particular responsibilities as an artist to those she works with and is constantly finding new ways to deal with some of the challenges that various groups and projects present.

In the videos below, Ruby outlines the values that underlie her work in this area and talks about some of the responsibilities and challenges involved.

Expectations and Outcomes

Ruby Wallis discusses what she expects from a project, for herself and from those involved. Within her expectations are potential outcomes. She talks specifically about the creative process moving from the private realm, of those involved in the project, to the public world and the difficulties, values and issues of ownership that result.

Ruby discusses expectations, potential outcomes and ownership of work in the video excerpts below.

Approaching Art in Education

In the video excerpts below Ruby Wallis discusses how she thinks about art in relation to working with children in an educational setting. She explains how she communicates this approach to the adults she works with, particularly in regard to her current residency at Rathcabbin National School.

In the video excerpts below, Ruby also shares her interpretation of a successful or positive project.

An improvisatory approach

Cathal had no formal training as a saxophone musician, or as a teacher of musical instruments. Improvisation, therefore, has always been part of his process and remains a consistent element of the work. As a jazz musician, he often plays in an improvisatory capacity with other musicians. When teaching music, Cathal prefers to be led by a student initially and to respond by pushing further exploration in particular directions. He tailors lessons to suit individuals’ interests and changes direction to reflect the students’ natural tendencies. He would say that a lack of preparation is a necessary element, however this type of approach requires a lot more work and a lot more energy. This approach can also creates problems in terms documentation.

Cathal applied this methodology to the class of seventeen children and their teacher. Working with such a large group, he felt it was important to do some preparatory work in advance, in order to build a structure to work within. However, in doing so, he did not create a strict course for any particular session but left room for freedom of improvisation. Rather than viewing preparation as creating a particular path, Cathal sees it as an opportunity to create a puzzle or obstacle that has to be worked around or solved in order to move forward. The puzzle or obstacle prevents the children from easily moving from one activity to the next and causing himself and the children to have to work together to find a way forward, leaving room for many variable solutions.

From the outset of the project, Cathal was faced with an obstacle himself. In discussion with the teacher, a theme arose that he felt initially uninspired by. Cathal had to find areas within the theme of transport, which both interested him as a musician/artist and would be challenging for the classroom. As the project structure encouraged cross-curricular involvement, Cathal realised that he could use information from a number of areas to create an interdisciplinary structure to present to the children. The theme of transport revealed artistic, musical, historical, geographical and even political sides. These connections across normally unrelated subjects broadened the theme, which he felt he could then explore through sound installation and performance. Given that the children were studying these subjects, they would have the required tools to apply to solve any puzzle he could create for them.

A symbiotic relationship

Cathal and the teacher he worked with developed a symbiotic relationship, which, if not in tune, would have prevented the progress of the project. She became central to the work, having an intimate knowledge of each child in her classroom. Her relationship with the children gave her an awareness of whether or not they understood the work they were making or what Cathal was presenting to them. If the children were with her in their understanding, then they were also with Cathal. Good communication between Cathal and the teacher was therefore essential. She remained always in the classroom during session, which allowed Cathal to maintain one role as an artist/musician rather than a duel role of artist/musician and teacher.

Cathal and the teacher would meet every week after a session. He would respond to the interests she raised in relation to what had gone on that day. They would take the time to discuss how individual children had responded to the session, with the teacher giving insight into how individual children may have progressed that Cathal would not have noticed. They took this time also to plan what would happen the following week, using the teacher’s knowledge of the school structure to arrange for various subjects or activities to be explored.
 
Cathal became aware of a political element to the work being made. He felt that there was a potential for drawing awareness toward the issue of decentralisation and local transport services which was of particular interest to him and which, he felt, might benefit the children in the future. The role of the arts and the artist is often that of social commentator and it can often be a function of the work produced to draw attention to important issues. While the agreed that it was an important question, she felt that the children should be given a balance of information rather than asserting a strong opinion on the issue. Cathal recognised this as the trait of a very good collaborator; who raises an issue, but does not push forward a personal agenda.
 
The teacher’s role was very supportive, but she also challenged Cathal’s practice. The theme that she brought to the table, gave Cathal opportunities for further work that was about participation, social engagement and creative thinking. As the teacher was open to suggestions and directions, Cathal, in turn, gave more in terms of ideas and possible ways forward.

Respectful collaboration

Stubbornly pushing a project through, because of a deadline, because you wish to see your own ideas materialize, or because you want to assert control over the work has little benefit in Cathal’s eyes. Either the children on this project were to become collaborators or Cathal felt he would become a composer or a musician who was using the children in a way to create something he would not have been able to propagate alone. While he recognises that there are many ways in which an artist/musician can engage with children on a project and that there are merits in many varied approaches, he personally feels it is important to let children know that they are active participants on a project. This allows a project to move away from the traditional sense of being an art project and more into the realm of being an education project. On this particular project, Cathal feels that he became a collaborator in the education system.

By opening up and sharing his own practice and all of the work that is involved, labour intensive hours of plotting, building and constructing, Cathal gained the trust of the children. In turn he learned more about their own talents and personalities. He felt that he was still learning about their systems of communication right up to the final moments of the ultimate performance. This learning about the potential of decisions and actions takes time. When Cathal considers making a collaborative work with eighteen artists, the feat seems impossible, regardless of his experience in collaborative performance and theatre and his ongoing, shared practice with dancer Kate Wilson. However, it is possible in a school setting, providing there is support and relevant resources. Leaving his own input to the side a little was also important in this collaborative journey, in that it allowed the teacher or the children to dictate what would happen sometimes – and sometimes it provided Cathal with a lesson from the children or teacher which informed his own practice, or brought a solution to a problem he could not solve alone.

For Cathal, mutual respect underlies a successful collaboration. It is vital not to dismiss or close off the input of a teacher or the children, although it is easy to do so, intentionally or not, when large groups are present. Suggestions should always be considered and not questioned, never rejected. The importance is on participation and contribution without the fear of rejection or not being as good as another. Cathal attempts to balance out involvement of all the children by considering and listening to everyone’s voice. Respect also involves recognising that individual children work in different ways, while thinking aloud or thinking silently for example. Trying to allow these individual tendencies in an environment is important for the individual child’s expression. Cathal feels that he also has a responsibility to challenge and to create problems within a project, even when things are running smoothly, to propagate an atmosphere of creative thinking.

A spirit of creative thinking

When Cathal considers evaluating the sound installation and performance created during this project, he is unsure of the necessity or the most appropriate approach to doing so. The work has been recorded. Cathal feels he may need to work further on the presentation of the material. Then again, if he considers it as a site specific, once-off performance, perhaps it is complete in itself. If pressed to evaluate the outcome, he could consider the technical performance; comparing seventeen different players of an instrument to determine individual skill.

He was aware during the project that one consistent sound would not easily happen. Therefore diversity of sound was necessary; he had to keep a very open mind in terms of what he was hearing when each child interacted with the instrument. Should he then edit these discrepancies of sound to present a polished finish? Should he live up to an external expectation placed on his skill as a musician and music teacher to put a piece together with absolute precision? Should the children learn about music and the playing of an instrument in a technically precise way? Cathal decided during the project, to suspended this type of evaluation in order to instead learn about how each child was integrating with the instrument.

Often children and adults will hold back their own musical input by pre-evaluating aspects of their ability, which may not be precise or pleasing to the ear. Cathal encouraged the variety of individual input, for example, one child used a timpani mallet, which is designed to produce a soft sound, to bang quite loudly on the chimes. Although this challenged Cathal as a sound engineer, he made the choice to encourage this experimentation rather than point out that the mallet should be used softly to create the sound he himself expected or to allow the child to experience the relationship of a musician and a composer. This banging became a detail in the work and a part of the sound as much as any other child’s input. Cathal does not consider consistency of sound as necessarily superior to the individual voice; often in the history of music the role of the composer has been challenged by the musicians themselves. Often children will explore an instrument in all kinds of ways, without classical tuition, that a professional musician will not expect. As a musician, he himself prefers to explore something new, which is borne in the moment.

Cathal didn’t put the project forward as a music project, it was scientific, mathematical, related to engineering, it was cross curricular. However, he did pass on skills such as concentration, responsibility of the performer and reading a musical score whether visual or written. Cathal feels that while there are merits to teaching consistency and precision, a spirit of creative thinking and participation is the way to bring everyone into the arts. Every child is a communicator, a technician and a sound producer, subconsciously or consciously, he feels, so music education should be about encouraging listening and excepting rather than criticizing.

Motivation and Continuing Development

What draws you to work with children / young people?

I find the space that is created between artist and child/children very creative, spontaneous, immediate, true, and innovative.  The inventiveness and problem solving that occurs in this space cannot be replicated in an artist’s studio or between artists.

Can you describe your process in studio from initiation to completion? Can you describe your process on a project from initiation to completion?

I’m afraid I can’t comment on these two questions separately. These processes always converge.  I never create a performance piece without researching and developing the work with my audience, children, and more so now, children and parents.  I usually first spend some time researching, and preparing props and or puppets in the studio.  I then have an engagement/play phase with the audience to explore themes, ways of working, etc.  Then, I return to the studio to develop a work-in-progress, which involves puppet and prop making.  The work-in-progress is then tested on the audience and feedback recorded.

Has your process changed / developed over time? Can you describe how? 

Very much so: my audience has now become central to my performance work.  I now perform for very small audiences in intimate and interactive, engaging environments (like the bed the children sit in for The Bedmaker, or the parasol the parent and babies sit under in Infant Imaginings).  I would always consult and engage with my audience in the development of the piece.  Whereas before entering the field of art and health, and working as a puppeteer, I would perform in more traditional ways, where the audience is not central, or as involved.

Do you have opportunities to share your experiences? 

Yes, I try to go to as many networking events as possible. I try to attend and speak at conferences.  I have written about my work in published articles and online.  I have had volunteers working with me alongside projects.

In what capacity, if any, is technology used?

Technology is used as a means of documentation/reporting and dissemination i.e. Practice.ie project profile and blog, and also podcasts of the Infant Imaginings Forum and Discussion. For this project, it has assisted in dissemination and sharing of practice and will hopefully encourage others in geographical areas to comment and feed-into the work.

Collaboration or Participation?

How do you define collaboration?

I am still figuring this out, but I see it here in the way I work, as a dialogue, an exchange, or collectively creating. It is about understanding the 100 languages of children. This involves listening very closely to the child, their language, and importantly allowing space for them to respond in their own way and time.  This may involve creating gaps or silence, or waiting quietly which may seem strange for an adult.  It means tuning in to the child’s world.

How do you apply this definition on a project?

I think that my practice is more participatory than collaborative at the moment. I understand collaborative arts to mean artwork that is created within a group or collective of people that is unique, processed based, and non-attributed to one person.  The origin of ideas or 'who thought of what' among the group becomes irrelevant and second to the final piece of work.  (I spent some time trying to find a definition of collaborative arts on the Internet.  There is not much information out there.)  I suppose for my work practice to be more collaborative, the final piece of work (the performance) would need to incorporate more of the children's original ideas, as opposed to my interpretation of them. 

Can you comment more on the dialogue between you and the children / young people working with you? 

This dialogue involves improvisation, being in the moment, and trusting and going with children’s ideas, even though at the time, we may not be sure about where it may end up.  I was just listening to my mentor speak at the forum, and he refers to this as ‘political aspect’, i.e. in working collaboratively with children, we give them a voice, validate their language and interests and issues.  We become advocates in a way I guess.  He suggests this is very endorsing and empowering for children.  For instance the show The Bedmaker, involves many gaps and spaces for the children to speak, to comment, to input, and I as a performer I respond, either physically or verbally, accepting their addition to the story.  Of course, I need to learn to contain this in a framework, and bring the audience back to listening otherwise the artistic integrity is consumed by chaos.  

Who do you consider to be responsible for the work produced?

I would be ultimately responsible on the practical production side of
things, while partners and funding bodies would be responsible for
making it happen.  Without the funding I received for the last two
projects, The Bedmaker and Infant Imaginings, they would not have
happened.

Who do you consider has ownership of that work?

The intellectual property remains with me, but I always recognise the input
from the children, but avoid calling it collaboration….I’m not
un-flexible with this, and feel I am still learning what collaboration
is, but I don’t want to call my work collaboration with the children if
it isn’t…..I would maybe call it more participatory.  I would always
also recognise the partners, and funding bodies and supporters
connected to the work, and would always acknowledge them at all times.

What is the copyright status of the work produced?

I have to say that I avoid saying in any publicity material that the work
I finally make is in collaboration with children.  I guess because I
make the final performance often in collaboration with other artists,
and we perform this.  The children don’t perform it.  Only that the
performance often is very hard to rehearse because it isn’t complete
and can’t be performed without the audience. 

The Role of the Arts in a Health Environment

How would you describe what you do?

I provide a safe and vibrant space for creativity and imagination to flourish, and through this to nurture artistic creation. I see a safe space as one that is not impeded by too much formal structure, which allows for moments of free play, spontaneity, improvisation and, if possible, stimulates all the senses.  I think one of the ways to create this kind of space is by showing the children that you speak and understand their language, the language of play, story, imagination, curiosity, and discovery. In the case of very young children, like the under two's, the language is very multi-sensory. 

So for example, if I am facilitating a workshop, I often begin through an imaginative exercise.  I might tell a story about a character, who we then find as a puppet in the workshop space.  This puppet character then engages the children and through this engagement, the making activity is introduced.  Or in fact what often happens, is that the children are so caught up in the imaginative activity that they suggest the making activity themselves.  In the case of The Bedmaker, which is a performance that travels from Bed to Bed in the hospital, I play the character, and we transform the immediate environment.  The Bedmaker encourages children to recreate their bed space into an imaginative landscape using puppetry, storytelling and simple clowning.  In the case of the very young children we have been working with in Infant Imaginings, creating a safe space for the child means creating a space, which includes the parent, is highly interactive and multi-sensory.

How do you consider your role as an artist and the role of the arts in a Health context?

My role as an artist in the health settings I work is multi-layered. It is about audience building and connecting with my audience on a  meaningful level. I am often engaging with people who have had little or no quality experience with the arts.  It is very much about  bringing the artistic experience to those people who have little or no access to the arts, bringing it to those who need it most.  The health centres are an ideal setting for an artist to work in terms of creating access.  Health settings in general are non-discriminant, and here an artist can work across social and cultural divides. In reference to the Infant Imaginings Project, I felt that one of my roles was to make the performing arts accessible enough and reproducible enough (while still maintaining artistic integrity) that the parents could replicate some of the techniques at home.  Often parents were very surprised at how their baby responded, in terms of engagement and attention span. Many commented on the new ideas they learned to take and try at home.

My role (and the role of the arts in health) is also about improving   the healthcare environment and the experience of healthcare, for  clients, parents/family, and staff. It is about assisting to promote  a holistic view of health, one that includes the arts, and recognises that the arts make a valuable contribution to well-being.  Within the  Infant Imaginings Project, while working in the health centre, the  nurses have commented on how the babies and mothers are much more relaxed coming into them.  This has made the nurses' job easier, and more relaxed also.  The nurses need to test the child's development by observing the babies reactions and responses.  They have found the young children much easier to engage after a performance with the musician and myself.

I think the role of the arts in these settings has huge potential for  creating shared, creative experiences between children and their  parents, as they are often together.  These creative experiences have  increased potential for being sustained, reinforced, and integrated  into the daily life of the child, at home with the parent.

As an artist working in arts and health, I also have the opportunity to create a new relationship with my audience, a different relationship from a performer on stage.  I now make performance work for the public which is for a very small audience, highly interactive, and potentially reproducible.  My arts practice developed in this way only because of my creative engagement with health settings.

Also, I believe that the Arts and Health field provides a creatively  charged environment with which artists can engage, art practices can  develop, and where art-forms can be challenged, enriched, and  extended to produce ground-breaking, inventive new work in their own right.

Do you sometimes have to deal with areas/situations that you are not qualified to or are not necessarily wishing to deal with?

I try to make it clear from the beginning of a project that my role is as an artist and not as a therapist.  I generally wear a name badge with my name and 'Artist' written on it, or 'Artist in residence' so to avoid confusion.  Staff turnover in a hospital can be quite high, so reiteration of my role is important.  I have been called the play therapist or art therapist, sometimes, when not wearing my badge, so I am aware how easy it is to confuse the roles.  I try to do a presentation or at-least a quick introduction to staff before a project starts so that they are clear about my role and what I am doing. 

Staff may choose to refer me to work with certain children for particular reasons, but I don't always know what this is.  This is fine.  I generally report to a member of staff who acts as my liaison and to whom I relate any issues or problems.  I do remember being asked on different occasions for my opinion on a patient's psychological state, but I refuse to comment.  I explain that this is not my area of expertise.  I do offer information on how a child responds to the creative activity, from an art facilitator’s point of view, i.e. if they were engaged or not, what materials they were interested in, how they used the materials, or what choices they made in storytelling. I offer the child the creative activity as a creative and artistic engagement first and foremost.  I do not set about to solve any psychological problems.  The positive effect on their health and situation is a natural effect of engaging the creative side of the brain. 

Evaluation and Outcomes

In what way to you prepare for a project?

Fundraising is a large part, and the first part, so is securing project partners

Can you comment on the dialogue between you and the adults working with you?

Always inclusive, and consistent: they would be involved in the planning process, before meeting the children.  The parents are always encouraged to feedback in many ways, whether by words or drawings, or creatively, like making the baby book in Infant Imaginings.

How do you trace the process?

Artist’s diary, photographs, drawings, video, recordings

How do you document the resulting outcomes?

In Infant Imaginings one of the mothers happened to be a professional photographer, so she became involved, and was hired to document the process, which is something I couldn’t do, when I am playing/devising.  A video making friend also came to the health centre on the last day to record the work in process.  Collect PR, like newspaper articles.

How do you archive the resulting outcomes?

Computer, send to the arts council as a report.  I would like the next project, the Puppet portal project to end in a publication.

Working closely with organizations as you mention, in financial and
supportive roles, do you meet with any  expectations of limitations in
relation to your work?

Nothing that hinders the development of a project. I try to be as clear and specific as possible about what I would like
to do from the very beginning.  I try to keep communication as open as
possible between partners.
In Infant Imaginings, I had an unexpected limitation and had to change the location for the project.  Although disappointing at first, this created the opportunity to try the project in a variety of health settings, to great success.  In the end, the project impacted on more people, created more partnerships, and provided more experience and learning for me.

How do you evaluate?
 
Through documenting, collecting comments from parents in a comment book, from collecting feedback from staff, through evaluation forms given to staff, through feedback at the performance of the work-in-progress, by holding a public forum, I also ask: what kind and how much publicity did the project get?

What do you evaluate?

Children’s response (in the artist’s diary), parents’ response (in a type of comment book), and staff input at the end of most sessions. I haven't yet kept a diary with the children, but hope to in the future.  I keep a diary and record their responses to the artistic activity in my diary.  I also video and photograph the sessions.

Is there a mechanism within the project to evaluate the experience?
I usually have monitoring forms sometimes, so I can keep track from session to session. Or an exercise at the end of a session, like drawing a response to capture the child's or the parents’ response.  I learnt about monitoring forms when studying hospital play specialism. Monitoring forms record basic daily observations and data quickly, like:

• How many children I worked with that day
• How old they were
• What their response was
• Any staff interaction, etc.

How do you measure the success of a project personally?

Through feedback from parents, children, staff, and peers who have observed the process at different stages.

What do you consider necessary for a project to be successful?

• Involvement of everyone from start to finish, including staff
• A good planning period, and evaluation period
• A way to share the projects outcomes, (like a publication, talk or forum)
• Quality artistic outcome

What do you consider ‘quality artistic outcome’?

What I mean here in the context of best practice, is that the artist's final work (created through engagement with young people) is quality artistic work which has a place not only within the  collaborative arts practice or participatory arts practice, but it also has value and can be validated within the field of contemporary  children's theatre or the field of puppetry in Ireland.

I also mean that the creative engagement with all participants is a  learning experience, and that through the artistic process of the  project everyone has 'grown' including children, family, staff, and  the artist.

Potential Function of the Artist

While his works are born in the studio, part of the artist’s process is getting them out into the world, finding a place for them. Kennedy sees his engagement in workshops as an extension of this. His involvement with young people in Leitrim is a specific function of his presence as an artist in that County. His interest lies in mechanisms for connection, for building a sense of community within the area. Organizing workshops provides the opportunity to forge links with a wider range of people than his studio work would normally permit.

Kennedy is motivated to share his skills, knowledge and interests in a way that is accessible to the community and can possibly contribute to the society in which he is immediately located. Finding a way for his work to fit within a community context and adapting ideas to working with young people is also challenging. He values the energy young people bring to the process. Working with them creates a looser, playful, more dynamic atmosphere that it is refreshing in its variation from his studio work. He finds that play space very important as a basis for good practice.

His self-initiated projects provide experiences for young people that vary from the normal curriculum approach, being more holistic in nature. They challenge the authorship of individual work and are more socially cohesive than normal experiences of schoolwork, bringing people together to explore collective creativity. Kennedy is keen that his projects offer engagement with or learning about the world and issues in a vital and valid way to their participants. Concept is of greatest importance: encouraging participants to develop their own ideas and materials skills, perhaps leading to a place where materials can lead to discoveries. Kennedy hopes to open up enquiry and that those he engages with go away with a shift in perception.

Flexibility: Fears & Challenges

Kennedy’s definition of collaboration is the creation a ‘hybrid’, which cannot be dismantled in terms of any one contributor’s idea or influence. Although he aspires to this within a workshop context, he has some trepidation about opening up his own practice to this extent. Yet on exploration we find that in fueling what participants are doing – researching, adopting challenges, exploring, learning from experts - there is an informal translation of the artist’s own process. His work with young people is inevitably invested with how he himself makes sense of world.

As most of his projects have been self-initiated, the artist has invested solely in developing the ideas and structures. To encourage investment by others, the artist has to give sense of what the project and its potential outcomes can be. Over time this percentage of ownership can shift.

The Future of Ice involved making ice forms to launch on a local lake. The materials and processes were in place before the project began, giving little room for collaboration. Kennedy was working on a similar project and so there was a sense of ‘working through the process’ with the children. But the engagement was more about building a positive relationship with the place where future work would be presented. This sense of transparency of agenda and outcome is important to Kennedy.

Macneanscapes attempted to empower young people by making the structure open and user-led. Blog-based and GPS technologies were employed to encourage online conversations. This decentralized the artist’s position, allowing him to become a facilitator, rather than leader of the young people’s work. Such an open approach can be difficult to manage being contrary to the education system, which has a definite stand and deliver approach. There are also challenges for the artist in terms of preparation. While it is exciting and challenging to hand over ownership, it can be emotionally trying and highly pressurized.

Defining Outcomes

Kennedy’s projects have less emphasis on material outcomes than on the collective experience, the energy generated, the territory covered and the story of that journey. However the artist feels that outcomes are positive and valuable and that it is important not to leave one behind without other. He also aspires to supporting a sense of pride in the community, which often comes from a public event or presentation.

Sense of ownership over the process and project are also important. But what is ownership? It can refer to a material form that has been collectively worked on, or to a material form that an individual takes away. In considering this, Kennedy defines participation as taking part in but also taking part of.

Kennedy finds it difficult to gauge how much of the information and the approach to working the participants take in, particularly in the case of young people. Evaluation is qualitative rather than quantitative; informal and intuitive. Success is simply judged by smiles on faces and perceived levels of fun. While he has used evaluation sheets, at the end of a project the artist will usually sit down to converse. This conversation is often with assistants or supervisors rather than participants, but Kennedy feels it is most valuable when with the group.

His intention is to make more time within his project structures for this feedback and to straddle it within each workshop to provide phases of considering and moving forward. Kennedy talks about slowing the pace of workshops, winning the space within his own process and the group’s process for discussion, attempting to remove a perception of pressure to get things done. Evaluation is a function of time: it is important to manage the metabolism of the process to allow even ten minutes within each gathering for discussion as a part of the workshop structure – asking questions such as: What do you think? How is this going?

Contracts & Commissioning Processes

In the majority of projects, Kennedy has sourced funding himself. A drawback is that the artist can feel an obligation to his sponsors. What am I funding here? What’s it going to look like? If these questions are being asked of the artist at the outset of a project, Kennedy feels, it is not a good indication that the project can be exploratory in nature. This pressure to produce can stultify the work.

He also fears the institutionalized language sometimes employed by commissioning bodies in artist’s briefs and contracts. Cultural strategies are often at play behind the scenes and the artist can become a pawn in this situation. Often high expectations are placed on the artist, without a full understanding of what an artist can be or of what art can be, for example to play a duel role of artist as social worker.

Contracts can be contrived to legally cover authoritative bodies for all eventualities but with no real support for the artist, for example in terms of insurance for damage to or loss of equipment. A shift in perception is required: of art as a creative process and a functional, tool that has applications in the exploration of the world, the environment and general issues. Contracts and commission briefs should be reasonable and relevant to the artist’s potential and with respect to their potential function.

Kennedy enjoys the challenge of meeting a brief, coming up with a design for a project within a context and the conversations involved in this. Designing a project from the beginning with the participants would be a welcome challenge, but one that requires support and faith in the process. Ideally, the artist needs to feel facilitated going into a situation, that his/her function is valued and that the time, energy and investment is not taken for granted.

When sourcing funding, Gareth seeks to cover his own time, which he breaks down into contact time and development time. He feels that artists' development time, which includes research and preparation, is never accurately financially compensated for. He also includes meetings, time to collect materials, set-up time for the studio or workshop and would look for travel expenses if necessary, post production fees if necessary and materials costs.

Artists Motivation

Initially, Ann’s engagement with people through art served as a means of earning a living. She now feels that this work has become part and parcel of her practice and that, in fact, she needs interaction with people in order to continue to work as an artist. She enjoys the journey of developing work with young people; their feedback, input, vision, open mindedness, enthusiasm and excitement. Henderson reflects on the importance of her own primary education on her approach to life and way of thinking. As an artist engaging with children and young people, she aspires to assist children to find a way of working or thinking that suits them and that may benefit their development as individuals.

Ann has come to realise that what excites and interests her as an artist has to be woven into her work with people in order for a project / residency to be positive and meaningful. Space and Place grew out of an earlier residency in the school; the Kids’ Own CR.E.A.T.E./Trading Places Programme. As this project came to an end, both artist and school felt they would like to continue to work together. The point of departure for Space and Place involved Ann and a partner teacher sitting down together to find common areas of interest within the curriculum that both would have an interest in investigating with the children. They then approached the principle of the school and the other staff to gauge their interest in being involved in the project and their commitment to this participation.

Henderson suggests that taking time to find out what you want to investigate as an artist and why you want to work with children and young people is an essential starting point to finding the right kind of project or residency.

Communication Processes

Ann enjoys the challenge of finding ways to communicate the things that excite her as an artist, whether it is through practical process or through discussion. The communication process in general helps her to understand what she does more clearly.

Dialogue is central to this project. When the artist and the children meet, at least half of the day is spent talking. Because this is an agreed process-based project, the space is created for this discussion to take place and it is of equal importance to making – there is no sense of pressure to produce during the day, rather the interaction is relaxed and organic with the making or doing following the discussion. The children remain vocal and active and are encouraged by the artist and the partner teacher to listen to each other’s suggestions and decide collectively, through a voting system, on a course of action. Henderson feels that it takes this discussion to make the work purposeful - without understanding why or without everyone being involved; the point of making work would be lost.

The partnerships that have been established between the artist and the individual teachers are crucial. Henderson relies heavily during a contact day on the enthusiasm, physical involvement and orchestration of the teachers. If the artist and teacher are not working toward the same goals the point of the project can be lost and the project can possibly become a negative experience.

A strong commitment to investing time and dedication to a common vision on both artist’s and teacher’s behalf ensures that a good working relationship and environment is established and maintained. Making time for planning, on an ongoing basis, between Ann and the teacher and also within the classroom is the key ingredient to developing the project positively, with continued enthusiasm and with everyone’s voice heard.

The Nature of Collaboration

Henderson’s approach to working is open-ended and exploratory. She does not come to a project with a determined plan. Instead she brings the intention of communication and discussion to find common points of interest at the outset and throughout the development of a project. The process-oriented nature of this approach allows the residency to develop in an organic rather than linear fashion. Ann finds it quite difficult to define the nature or percentage of direction. She struggles to clarify who is responsible or in ownership of the work; given that sometimes she directs the work and where the ideas come from and sometimes the children do so. In conclusion she suggests that what the artist does and makes belongs to them and equally with the children. Ultimately, however, it is the discussion and journey that she deems of utmost importance. Establishing ownership or copyright should be determined only when necessary and guided by the motivation.

On a practical basis, putting time aside for communal evaluation of every contact day helps to inform the next contact time – the parts of the day that fell apart being equally informative as those that worked positively.

On witnessing the artist and the children together in the classroom, I noted the amount of discussion; about the work that had been made, what it was about and how it should be continued. I also witnessed the voting system that the artist and the children put in place in order to come to decisions about the context or future of work. This system allows all of the children to voice an opinion and to have an input but also allows for a clear democratic result.

Through the provision of a web journal dedicated to the residency, the artist, the teacher and the children can continually keep abreast of each other’s thoughts and discoveries.

http://journal.kidsown.ie/spaceandplace

Creative Uses of Technology

This project uses remote access communication between the artist in her studio and the teachers and children in the school. This opportunity was provided by C2K whilst piloting Marrateck software. Henderson has no formal training in the use of technology and admits that she was quite a technophobe in the early days. Both she and the teachers took the time to experiment with the technology before introducing it to the children. They also adapted the technology to the abilities of the particular classes, giving each class the opportunity to use it as a tool or as an element of the work itself. In tandem, the artist, teacher and children continued to discover possible uses for the technology as time passed. Henderson has since found that technology enhances her thought process and her communication with her working partners; that it can provide a way of clarifying thought and creating new work as well as a documentation and communication tool.

The on-line journal and the digital documentation of imagery becomes part of the communication process; with the artist, children and teachers maintaining connected web journals that allow the opportunity to both document and to share thought processes, informing how the work develops.

The dialogue with the children via remote technology has provided opportunities for children to approach the artist on their own terms and in their own time on an individual basis. Henderson reflects that being removed physically from the classroom gives her room to clarify her ideas and focus to communicate her ideas while still being connected to the children.

Schedule

Schedule:

• 14.00 – 14.15 Registration & welcome
• 14.15 – 14.25 Introduction to Kids’ Own ethos and methodology
• 14:25 – 14.40 Introduction to Practice.ie rationale, aims and objectives, functions and features
• 14:40 – 15.40 Artist-led Activity in two groups
• 15:40 – 16.00 Tea
• 16.00 – 16.20 Feedback from activities by groups
• 16.20 – 17.20 Chaired discussion with Sarah Searson
• 17.20 – 17.30 Summary

Activities

For the first session, artists were asked to lead an activity on the day that would communicate either a method of practice or a concern within their practice that they were currently exploring.

Activity A

Working Innately with Materials: Jole Bartoli led an activity based on the Wissa Wassef Weaving School, Egypt, whose approach is to allow participants to explore materials and processes without direct demonstration or instruction. Jole believes that as adults we can intellectualize the creative process, which can be frustrating for children whose innate creative forces are at their most powerful.

Activity B

Establishing and Communicating Common Ground: Ann Henderson led an activity exploring collaboration. At the outset of her current residency, Ann and partner teacher had to find a common point of departure within the curriculum, bridging their different backgrounds and outlooks while maintaining excitement and interest for both. The positive experience on this residency is due to the strength of the working partnerships between those involved.

Questions & Answers

Over tea before the Questions & Answers Session artists were asked to note down one question or point that reflected a concern for them as an artist working with children and young people and that they would like to see discussed by the group. The questions below were those discussed by the group.

• What type of artists work with children? Why do artists work with children?
• How do you promote the work you do with children?
• How do you best involve working partners in the process to get a collaborative system going?
• How do you evaluate the work you do with children? Who should evaluate this work?

There was general agreement that some artists work in this area for financial reasons;

‘There are people out there who are not trained and don’t have experience and are artists first and foremost and pushed into this kind of work because they are not getting reward from their own work or from other places and they see working with children as an easy option for a [relatively] steady income. Unfortunately I’ve seen from groups I’ve worked with that there are artists out there who misrepresent us because they are lacking in skills and not in it for the right reasons.’

A strong contingency in the room felt that these were the wrong reasons for working with children and young people and that in the long run a lack of innate passion for working in this field caused more damage than good to all those involved including other artists who work with children and young people out of genuine enjoyment and enthusiasm.

"Now there is, in the last ten years, a healthy group of artist who chose to work with children. I’m one of those. I have never exhibited although I paint, and am not part of the gallery scene; I’m not interested in that. The work I do myself is connected with the work I do with the children. There is a constant conversation between me and children and others with whom I work and it is helping me and freeing me in an incredible way. Why I work [with children] is that, creatively, the children in early years and as they grow, given the right environment, are at their maximum power of innate creativity and therefore I find it very inspiring and it nurtures me a lot to work with them."

"But I would hope that artists would, like the Michelangelo effect, see the potential in the child and if they are not linked in with that vision they shouldn’t’ be in the system. They should be drawing out the innate (creativity) and if not in it for that (reason)….."

This raised questions on monitoring and establishing recommendations for quality of engagement and toward best practice. It was stated that there is no formal body to monitor artists practice with children and young people and to act as an advisory board.

"Exploring the whole idea of legitimizing good practice of artists working with young people, identifying good practice; this needs to be reviewed. There is a collective obligation on us in this field to make a difference and create an awareness of our own practice; to look at our own practice"

"I would like to see us develop resources by artists for artists for evaluating good practice. To get people to reflect on their practice - why you're doing it? If you don't have an inherent passion about it, why do it? If there is a body looking at practice we can give out something – markers; what is good practice? Have some way to talk about negative experiences in a positive way and enhance practice."

Action points for further discussion:

• Can we as artists who work with children and young people, look at what makes good practice and identify the key elements that underpin good practice with a view to developing resource by artists for artists?
• If there is a to be a body established to monitor artists engagement with children and young people, who should form this and what form should it take?

How do you promote the work you do with children?

Some of the words used in response to this question were: networking / showcasing practice / databases of contacts / resources. The question sparked a discussion about communication between artists. There was an expression of interest toward skills-sharing in order to improve practice, of forging links through meeting both face-to-face and virtually with a view to collaborating and therefore mutually benefiting everyone’s practice.

The isolation…. this is a real platform for mentoring each other and bringing concerns, working through issues that you feel you need to work through.

Reference was made to the Artslinks project; a joint initiative by six counties for the professional development of artists practice, not in a youth context. This project is a successful resource for artists and shows a potential model for Practice.ie.; there is a huge level of dialogue present between artists who are directive about what they want

Action points for further discussion:

• Practice.ie will provide a space where artists can showcase their work, this is currently the only platform in the country for showcasing work by artists who work with children and young people. The only stipulation is that you have to be engaged with children on a programme. It will act as a ‘bank’ of all the good work going on presently. The format of this will be informed by registered artists
• Kids Own is developing a series of professional development session with the VAI that will focus on sharing and exploring practice. The format of this will be informed by previous meetings
• What should further meetings focus on? Can we improve on the structure and content of the first meeting?

How do you best involve working partners in the process to get a collaborative system going?

We talked about isolation; what it’s like to be an artist, how we relate to the organisations and communities we work with and the difficulties we face doing that…. usually you’re very much alone between two groups, all of you with very different expectations of what your doing.

The main consensus here was the importance of establishing communication before a project begins. There may be very different expectations placed on the project and on the levels of involvement by all those partaking. There may also be very different outlooks by all those involved; different views on what is possible formed through past exposure. Building communication leads to a transparency: an understanding of the people who are working together and therefore a mutual respect and trust.

"What really worked was offering the idea we were interested in to the teacher. Recognizing that artists have a different perspective than teachers; finding the common ground between – what artist and teacher can be exited and interested in. We found teachers who wanted to take the project on board from the beginning, which made successful collaboration. The teachers had a choice. They were quite clear what would be demanded from them in terms of time commitment. They were involved in the shape and nature of the project."

"Time is essential in forming relationships and establishing a trust that will carry the project forward; the time to discuss and to develop the project both before it begins and while it is in progress. Unfortunately this time is not always factored into the budget of a project."

"There is a huge amount of work going on underneath the surface; a great deal of skill and artistry is involved in the communication: working within a timetable, deadlines, exams, other teachers outside the project and their suspicion and hostility - why is this group getting this? It’s not just about money, but about time and expertise. The children have time to muse over what it is they could do in a non-threatening space. Time is very valuable - that has to be costed in. "

"So how do you bring that time for dialogue into a fixed structure, how do you change perspectives to put value on that time? Generally the group agreed that it can be very difficult to bring working partners on board, it takes confidence and persistence to show people the benefits of working in a collaborative and communicative way. Some suggested physically involving those partners in the work; taking the time to work with the partners separately to the children and offer them a first had experience of the collaborative creative process by choice. Others preferred to continue without them, although difficult, and focus on the work with the children. Others again preferred to adhere to their preferred way of working, giving partners the time to change their perceptions and hopefully being lucky enough to see that happen or to work with partners who from the outset wanted to be involved."

"You need to be prepared to adapt, things may not physically go the way you want them to, but if you have some idea of what you want in advance. It takes quite a bit of confidence. You finally learn through experience. You just can't go in unless you're very flexible. You have to be prepared to throw it all out the window! It is about people skills and the whole thing is about communication; you have to be a listener."

Action points for further discussion:

• We were discussing how this might work – the bringing together of people in talking and sharing; because talking is often from an administrative perspective, this process may affect the creative process of the administrators and the strength of this could be in effecting change in the commissioning of work as well.
• How can we best go about changing perspectives with the commissioning and grant awarding bodies to allow time for communication to become a valuable entity within a project brief / structure?
• Is there a need for peer mentoring among artists in relation to building communication skills / clearly defining and communicating your approach to working with children and young people / successful ways in which collaborative partnerships can be formed? In what form would this kind of mentoring most effectively take place?

How do you evaluate the work you do with children? Who should evaluate this work?

While there was general agreement that evaluation should take place, the artists had a number of different approaches to the process and different views as to who should evaluate. There was general agreement that the most effect way to personally evaluate what happens within a project is through the reactions of the children; if the children are having fun and are engaged in the work, if they can see themselves in the work, if other children from other classrooms [if working in a school setting] are at the door peering in and asking questions. One artist also felt that success could be measured by what happened when you left the project, if the enthusiasm for and the perspective toward working continued in your absence.

"I’ve done questionnaires, but the real evaluation was watching their reaction to the final pieces. You can’t always put it down in paper, but if they see themselves in what you've done; that’s a real indication for me."

"While it is often the organisation who requests and formats the method of evaluation, it was agreed that they were not necessarily the best angle to evaluate from, being unable to catch what actually happened during a project and in being too formulaic in their method of evaluation. Some artists suggested that they themselves are the best person to evaluate what has happened and how successful the outcome has been.

"You were the one involved; the evaluation should come from you, the artist. I worked in one centre and when they looked at the final work they said; you can't see all the development that has gone on this particular area. The understanding of the organisation about what took place was different from mine – that wasn’t why I was there. But if you were listening to the children, they could see themselves in the work. It was based on what the kids were exploring, so it has to come from the artist."

"Some schools want an evaluation. Its easy to listen to what they want and then give them what they want; tick the boxes so everything is OK for inspection. For the schools that don't ask me for evaluation, i have my own Performa that shows what I really feel happened and I discuss it with the principle. I find that valuable and it’s exciting to say if it didn’t work: in a more structured evaluation it is just ticking boxes - that's a game."

Others suggested that evaluation should happen collaboratively – between the artist, the children and perhaps also the partners. It was agreed that written evaluation and ‘ticking boxes’ on evaluation forms was not an engaging way to evaluate with the children and not a reflective way to evaluate and therefore wasted valuable time within a project. It was also proposed that collaborative evaluation was more beneficial if it was continuous throughout the life of the project; therefore leaving the project open for change and development in reflection of the needs of all those involved.

"You can tweak and change things if you evaluate along the way – something can be done if the evaluation is not just at the end, something can be done to direct the project. You can make evaluation fun and creative. It can mean extending your repertoire of skills to get people or even getting children involved in the evaluation, making sure everyone is involved and has a voice, that's important. Does it have to be written down all of the time?"

Often there is an evaluation process for the adults and then one for the children. We make assumptions but was it a success for them? In secondary school maybe it is easier for the kids to describe what we are doing, to express themselves. But every couple of weeks we ask what they think about what we are doing and sometimes we find amazing things; we realize we were going by assumptions. For e.g.; an artist came in to make a comic book. The artist made a series of assumptions. We assumed because they were students they would like comics books. For three sessions the artist talked at the children rather than with them. Then we talked with the children without the artist and found that some didn't like the project. Then the children chose who wanted to work and who didn't, then we continued. We make our assumptions. We constantly think we know what the children want and we don't ask them!

Action points for further discussion:

• Can we as artists who work with children and young people identify important areas for evaluation within projects and develop guidelines for evaluating, which are collaborative and continuous?
• How can we meet organizations and working partners, including children, in the evaluation process so that the needs and voices of all parties are reflected?