Collective Creators

Schools Project

1 January — 31 July 2021

This project is presented by The Dock in partnership with Carrick-on-Shannon Community School.

This year, 2021, The Dock is working with students and teachers to encourage them to discover more about the arts and their own creative potential through a series of focused workshops, talks and collaborative projects. This partnership will be looking at contemporary art and exhibitions at The Dock through a series of projects developed to examine creative thinking and learning that supports the school's TY syllabus.

The first stage of the project took place at the end of 2020 with workshops in the school with artist David Smith. The students examined portraits, compositions, lighting, and mediums through photography, drawing, and painting. Discussions around barriers, distance and the traces we leave behind, encouraged the students to make space to express themselves and discover how elements of their school syllabus such as Geography, English, and Physics can relate to art and creativity. The students worked with three artists with different skills who led online workshops and collaborative projects during school time to create a short-term project.

The Three Artists

Exploring the rich colours of winter with artist David Smith, the students discovered the process of colour mixing using science, theory and nature as a starting point in paint and digital media. A collaborative painting installation was created as part of the online workshops.

Musician Stephanie Pawula worked with the students on exploring music and its possibilities by creating recordings of the world around them and recordings of day-to-day objects, voices, and instruments. By listening to and examining their own unique sound recordings and language, students created a collection of newly composed musical works.

Artist and storyteller Wayne O'Connor worked with the students as they created a world of adventure and myth. A colourful book to showcase the mix of both art and creative writing, The Created World, is in the process of being planned. Drawing inspiration from the English school syllabus, stories, books, games, and films the students created fictional settings, and from those settings made fantasy world maps, creatures, crests, and stories.

This project was developed with discussions and evaluation of the first stage of this new partnership led by Laura Mahon, The Dock Visual Arts & Education Manager; Joseph Bambrick, TY Programmes Coordinator; and teacher, Maeve Cormican.

HEAR FROM THE TEACHERS:

Thank you to Laura Mahon and to the artists, David Smith, Stephanie Pawula, and Wayne O'Connor for facilitating this unique learning experience! This a wonderful opportunity for the Transition Year students and teachers of Carrick-on-Shannon Community School. These workshops provide some escapism and relaxation for our students and allow them to hone in on their musical, artistic and literary skills.

Stephanie is leading the students (and teachers!) to make music from items around them. Saucepans, wooden spoons and other kitchen utensils have all been used to play harmonious music. David is encouraging the students to take photographs of samples of 'winter colour'. After the last workshop, the students will make a painted colour study from their photograph. Students are also encouraged to document life during lockdown, through photography. Wayne is guiding the students on a world of adventure (within the 5km limit, of course!). The students looked at different types of maps and will design their ideal world map. Wayne told the students that the art they create will be published in a book.

Teacher Maeve Cormican.

It is exciting for the Transition Year students of Carrick on Shannon Community school to have the opportunity to work on this collaboration project. The fostering and developing creative skills is a key component of the Transition Year experience in the school. It is wonderful to have artists of this calibre share their creative talents with our students and for our students to develop their creative skills and showcase them to others. Thank you to all in the Dock for making this possible.

Joseph Bambrick, TY Programmes Coordinator

About the Artist(s)

David Smith is an Irish artist and educator based in Sligo. He works primarily in painting and also in music, film and photographic projects. He has recently held solo shows in Hong Kong, The U.S. and Ireland. He is currently artist in residence at The Dock in County Leitrim.

Stephanie Pawula is a French percussionist and music facilitator. For the past two years, she is part of 'Resonance Project' working with Echo Echo Dance Company from Derry exploring the connection between improvised music and contemporary dance. Her band The Hunter, are working on their second album and are featured in the short film “Ebb and Flow” by the Wild Atlantic Women Collective.

Wayne O Connor is a Sligo based creative working as an illustrator, storyteller, writer and arts educator. Having graduated in the mid 90’s, he embraced the digital medium to create his work becoming proficient in a variety of digital software. His work is predominantly influenced by Myth, Fantasy and storytelling. These inspirations have led to his work on a variety of board games and books.