Art Alongside

Art Alongside is a Visual Arts Programme Funded by Wexford County Council and the Arts Council.

Aim:
Art Alongside aims to provide a dynamic and relevant experience of the Visual Arts to children and adults of County Wexford.  It also aims to establish a formal structure through which professional artists can be paid as professionals to work in an educational/community context, while maintaining their own practice as artists.

Ethos:
1.     The inherent creativity of each individual is central to the philosophy of the project. The project is process orientated in order that each person is enabled to express this creativity in her/his own way.

2.     The project recognises the importance of skills building, so that a broad language for creative expression is developed.

3.     The project believes that schools and rural communities should have access to the work of national and international artists and arts organisations.Without a countywide structure many of these groups and communities would have little or none.

Objectives:
1.     To bring quality educational art projects into County Wexford schools and provide children with a thoroughly creative and enjoyable experience, while building a range of visual skills.

2.     To create access countywide to the work of professional artists through the annual exhibition, which is attended by a wide range of community groups, as well as school children and their parents.

3.     To maintain the process of evaluation through the dialogue between the two project artists, and between the artists, teachers and pupils involved in the project.

Description of the 2009/2010 Art Alongside Project, Abode

Art Alongside will continue to work in partnership  with the Irish Museum of Modern Art National Programme for this project.  

For the projects this year, the Art Alongside artists will work with participating groups, on the theme of Abode.

Any of the following ideas / images could be used to fire the creativity and imagination on the project theme :

• dwelling place
• safe haven
• imaginary personal space
• sanctuary / shelter
• cocoon
• shell
• nest
• hideaway
• refuge
• den
• bolt hole

Many more ideas will emerge from the participants themselves. 

The project artists will facilitate the exploration of  the theme in a variety of  media, e.g. paint, collage, papier mache, clay, photography, resist techniques, fabric, fibre, drawing, design, construction, etc. 

A selection of the work from these projects will be shown in the county-wide exhibition at Wexford Arts Centre, alongside work of the project artists, and works on the same theme from the IMMA collection.

The project artists will mount an exhibition of the work of all participating children in their schools. 

Timescale:

The projects will begin at the start of the spring term 2010 and continue for 15 weeks.
The project artist will work for 2 -2.5 hours per week in each of the participating classes.
A County-wide exhibition of selected works from all participating groups will be held in May at the Wexford Arts Centre, alongside work of the project artists and work selected from the IMMA National Collection on the same theme.

Exhibitions of all participants work will be held in schools in June. 

Age Range:
The project is designed primarily for 5th and 6th class but  can also be adapted to include groups of people with special needs. The project has also worked with parents’ groups.

Description of the 2008/2009 Art Alongside Project, Portable Histories

Art Alongside continued to work in partnership  with the Irish Museum of Modern Art National Programme for this project.  The last project was entitled Portable Histories.  Participating schools visited the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), where Museum facilitators explained some of the works in the National Collection to the class groups. 

The Art Alongside artists then explored the theme of Portable Histories in the classroom. Personal or imaginary histories, memories, journeys and stories were explored in the classroom in a variety of 2D and 3D media. A selection of the work from these projects was shown in the county-wide exhibition at Wexford Arts Centre, alongside work of the project artists, and works on the same theme from the IMMA collection.  The project artists also mounted an exhibition of the work of all participating children in their schools.

Brief  Description of Main Projects in Participating Schools:

Loreto NS Gorey:
The Loreto 4th class girls visited IMMA, and designed and made bags inspired by their favourite IMMA work. They created the ‘contents’, including old letters, shopping lists, diaries, etc., all of which gave an imaginary history of the bag’s owner.

CBS NS New Ross:
The 4th and 5th classes designed time machines, their drivers, and their luggage. 

St Canice’s New Ross:
The 6th classes visited IMMA and saw the work called ‘Alice Liddel’ by Vic Muniz. The children created self portraits out of their own collected objects. They developed this further by texturing and painting papers and cutting them into small pieces and assembled them into large images inspired by the 4 elements.

Barntown NS:
5th and 6th classes visited IMMA.

6th class designed a suitcase for the ‘Journey of the Rest of their Lives’ The suitcases were connected to the Colin Harrison suitcase ‘Portable History of the World’.

5th class designed and painted open top tourist buses and created  imaginary characters for a ‘History of Art Bus Tour’. 

Mercy School John’s Rd.
Both classes visited IMMA.6th class worked on suitcases for ‘Journeys of the Rest of their Lives’ and painted ‘Future Snapshots’, giant self-portraits on tinfoil. 5th class created ’Imaginary Characters’ and filled suitcases to illustrate their ‘Secret Personality’.

Coolcotts NS:
5th class worked on papier mache airplanes decorated with aerial views of an imaginary journey. Themes included fantastic birds, snow landscapes. 

Coolcotts Parents’ Group:
This group worked on a ceramic project beginning with pottery to gain skills and confidence and progressing on to some sculptural ceramics based on personal themes individual to each participant. Each person encountered the creative side of him/herself, which was a new experience for all.