A range of approaches

In his interview for Practice.ie, Gareth Kennedy refers to ‘true collaboration’ as creating a ‘hybrid of something’. The formula he offers to describe the process is ‘one plus one equals three’ wherein it is difficult to separate the individual input of those involved. He has an established collaborative practice with fellow artist Sarah Browne, which embodies this formula. He believes that applying this approach when working with young people, would take a lot of time to develop and also a very open approach on the artist’s behalf. Gareth usually gives ‘parameters and limitations’ to his workshops, therefore providing a framework to the work, within which there are varying levels of input on the artist’s part. Within this framework, he tries to instill a sense of transparency of the process, the aims and the outcome and a sense of ownership. However, because there is a certain amount of leading, he is not comfortable using the term collaboration to describe the exchange.

Conversely to Kennedy’s definition, in a recent discussion amongst the artists working on The Nature of Sligo, it was suggested that collaboration always contains a lead role. Cooperation was offered as a more appropriate term for a joint effort. Yet some artists argued that cooperation indicated adhering to the wishes or rules of others. It is no doubt true that artists involved on projects with young people often have more time than the young people to think about, to develop ideas within and to plan a structure for the exchange. The artist might be said to naturally invest more and therefore to lead to some extent.

In her interview for Practice.ie, Ann Henderson grapples with the extent to which she leads the work with the children in her residency at Ballydown National School. She approached the residency with ‘an open structure’ in order to find ‘points of common interest’. She ‘gives ideas, takes responses, responds’ and the work develops in an more organic than linear way. She describes a two-way system of conversation and ideas between herself and the children. In theory, she sees herself giving the children ‘a universally wide scope’ for input and believes that they should be ‘informing all parts of the project’.

In a recent interview for Practice.ie, Fiona Whelan talks about her investment in the Rialto Youth Project and how she has encouraged a similar level of engagement on the part of the young people and the youth workers she works with. Having built a strong relationship with the local community, she offered a new project idea, “What’s the Story?”, which is based on collecting and responding to stories of those living in the area relating to power sharing. The project idea was advertised on a voluntary basis to youth workers and to young people. In this way, a collective has been established with the artist, a number of youth workers and young people to develop the project through dialogue. Because people have volunteered and the project relates to their personal stories, the level of investment has become more equal on the part of the artist, youth workers and young people. Fiona sees it as successful collaboration when ‘everyone who walks away (from a project) can describe it in a way that makes sense to them individually’.

Image courtesy of The Ark, Cultural Center for Children: "Place of Wonder" created by children from St. Andrew's Resource Center working with artist Yvonne Cullivan