Reading Room Development
The Create Reading Room and Archive is a unique resource for the field of collaborative, socially engaged arts. With a history of over forty years, the organisation’s institutional archive alone is rich with learning for artists, academics and more.
Reading Groups and Residencies
In 2019 and 2020 Create worked with Artist Curator Megs Morley to further develop our archive of collaborative practice and Reading Room. In June 2020, Create established an online Discussion Group on Socially Engaged Collaborative Art. The group met twice a month to read and discuss articles, films, and online exhibitions related to different aspects of collaborative, socially engaged arts practice and other relevant social issues.
In September 2022, Create welcomed Critical Friends, a network of professional practitioners with socially engaged, participatory and collaborative practices who have graduated at a Masters level, into a hybrid residency in the Create Archive and Reading Room. Initiated by a group of postgraduates from the MA in Socially Engaged Art and Further Education in NCAD, the group are interested in developing emerging practices through peer-to-peer support, dialogue and collaboration.
The residency was generative for Critical Friends, who entered into a dialogue/ exchange with Create about the nature of emerging practice in the field. This Residency was not just about access to material but about a place to consider the politics and efficacies of such documentation.
Research and Learning
In March 2023 we welcomed Jennifer Fitzgibbon to the team as Research and Learning Manager, following a competitive recruitment process.
Jennifer works to develop Create’s dedicated Reading Room so that it serves as a dynamic hub for learning and exchange between artists and community and civil society partners. She works with the wider Create team to design professional development workshops and research and learning strategies in order to further facilitate cross-sectoral learning both nationally and internationally about collaborative and socially engaged art. Jennifer was instrumental in redeveloping the physical space of the Reading Room and Archive as well as the archival and Reading Room holdings.
Redesign and launch
In 2025, work was completed on a new Reading Room and Archive in the Create office, designed by Plattenbau Studio and constructed by Spaceforms. This provides for an enhanced Reading Room experience with both shared and private work spaces and audiovisual capacity, as well as a new Archive room with support for high-resolution scanning. This project was part funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media.
On the 6th of May 2025, we were delighted to welcome artists, academics, partners organisations, members of our board and more, to launch the new space. This evening was both the culmination of a large-scale refurbishment project, and the beginning of a newly enhanced resource for the sector. On the evening of the launch, outgoing chair of our board Clodagh Kenny announced the Dr Ailbhe Murphy Research Residency, in honour and remembrance of our former Director, Dr. Ailbhe Murphy, who sadly passed away in May 2024. Ailbhe’s commitment to supporting collaborative arts practitioners and to deep and rigorous research have inspired this award.
The Reading Room and Archive is a living space, open to artists, researchers, practitioners, and other stakeholders in the field, offering workshops, private study, group meeting space and more. We look forward to activating the space, supporting artists and communities to engage with the history and theory of the field.
