Summer School

Summer School on Collaborative Practice and Social Change

In a world increasingly shaped by displacement and uncertainty, the Summer School on Collaborative Practice and Social Change, offered by Create in partnership with Learning Lab Agency, is framed by global and trans-local frameworks. It is influenced by the diverse practices and experiences of participating artists and the mentoring and organisational frameworks of visiting international facilitators.

Collaborative and socially engaged arts practice lies at the heart of the Summer School, in the context of exploring different forms of social interaction produced through cooperative methods of working with and alongside communities, and the building of intersectional partnerships. The summer school is interdisciplinary both in curriculum and composition of participants, presenters and facilitators

The Summer School on Collaborative Practice and Social Change takes the form of a multi-day residency enabling a ‘think and do’ approach, utilising a combination of skills training workshops, critical and comparative case studies, a creative group challenge, one-to-one mentoring and reflection.

Summer School on Cultural Diversity and Collaborative Practice

The Summer School evolved from the Artist in the Community Scheme Summer School on Cultural Diversity and Collaborative Practice, first held in Carlingford in July 2018. A partnership between Create and Counterpoints Arts, this four-day residential summer school welcomed fourteen artists, thinkers, activists and practitioners with a shared goal to explore the concept of cultural diversity and its applications, through the lens of the AIC Scheme. The Summer School was directed by Áine O’Brien and co-facilitated by Mary Ann DeVlieg and Khaled Barakeh. The second Summer School took place in Killary in July 2019. In 2020 and 2021, the School moved online in response to the Covid 19 pandemic.

In 2023, the Summer School became part of Create’s core programme of work, rather than an aspect of Artist in the Community Scheme. This reflects the key importance of the School to our developmental work.