Resources - Create

Create News 39 – De-Centring during the Great Dithering

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Create News 39 – De-Centring during the Great Dithering

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Sophie Hope is a practice-based researcher and teacher. Her work is often developed with others through the format of devised workshops exploring subjects such as art and politics, physical and emotional experiences of work, stories of socially engaged art and the ethics of employability in the creative industries. She was an independent curator for 10 years, working locally and internationally to develop a collaborative, socially engaged curatorial practice. She has been a Lecturer in Socially Engaged Practices at Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London since February 2024 where she is co-developing the Guildhall De-Centre for Socially Engaged Practice and Research.

Sophie shared a provocation to attendees at our 2025 Networking Event: Collaborative Futures. In this issue of Create News, we asked Sophie to expand upon the themes and issues raised by her work in the Guildhall De-Centre and discussed at Collaborative Futures.

published 3 June 2026

related events Create Networking Event 2025
related programme Networking Day

Mentorship Toolkit

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Mentorship Toolkit

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In 2022, Create launched the Artist in the Community Scheme Artist Mentoring Award (AMA) which supports artists who face particular challenges in developing their Practice.

This Toolkit is designed to support everyone who is becoming a mentor or mentee as part of the AIC Scheme Artist Mentoring Award. It was developed to serve as a companion document that you may reference throughout your mentoring journey from before your first meeting to after your mentorship is over. The toolkit includes a collection of information, tips, templates, and resources for mentees and mentors to use at their own discretion.

published 9 March 2026

related programme Artist in the Community Scheme
related programme Sharing Practice

Values Framework

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Values Framework

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The Artist Mentoring Award, established in 2021, is for emerging collaborative socially engaged artists or artists who have a midcareer/established individual arts practice and are transitioning into collaborative socially engaged arts who are seeking support from a critical friend/guide as they develop their practice.

This Values Framework was researched and compiled by Dr. Ciaran Smyth, and outlines Create’s approach to mentorship within the scheme.
Create gratefully acknowledges the Mentors and team members who generously committed their time and thinking to the development of this Values Framework: Michelle Browne, Aisling Byrne, John Conway,
Cathy Coughlan, Aine Crowley, Jennifer Fitzgibbon, Sinead McCann and Kate O’Shea.

published 24 February 2026

related programme Artist in the Community Scheme
related programme Sharing Practice

Museum of UnRest: Community Arts

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Museum of UnRest: Community Arts

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2025 marks 50 years since the Arts Council of Great Britain launched a special funding stream for community arts (1975). In recognition of this anniversary, the Museum of Unrest commissioned this Community Arts Collection, exploring both contemporary practice and historical links.

Image: Beach Party Aon Scéal Festival. Photo: Edel O Braonáon.

published 24 November 2025

Create News 38 – Paper Trail

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Create News 38 – Paper Trail

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The Create Reading Room offers access to a wealth of books, periodicals and pamphlets related to the development of social art practice in Ireland and beyond. Comprising a growing collection of 500+ published titles, the Reading Room is a designated space for research in a newly refurbished state of the art facility.

In recent years, Create’s Research and Learning Manager, Jennifer Fitzgibbon, has expanded both the library collection and the research associated with the institutional archive and holdings, alongside redeveloping the physical space. In this issue of Create News, Jennifer shares her perspective on Create’s history and future as reflected in the shelves.

published 14 October 2025

Zine: Planning, Printmaking and Publishing for the People

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Zine: Planning, Printmaking and Publishing for the People

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This zine builds on the Planning, Printmaking and Publishing for the People workshop event we hosted in 2024, led by gender-based violence activist Mpho Mokotso and artist and activist Kate O’Shea. The zine features contributions from Kate and Mpho as well as participants at the workshop.

published 17 June 2025

Create News 37 – Embedding Structures of Resilience

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Create News 37 – Embedding Structures of Resilience

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One of Create’s core purposes as a resource organisation is to ensure that artists working in the field of collaborative socially engaged arts are supported to operate to the highest possible standards. In reviewing our training offerings, we consistently hear from artists and community members that conflict resolution and working sustainably with difference is an area of anxiety. In response to this we have in recent years hosted two CPD workshops on this topic, drawing on work by Dr Eve Olney alongside her collaborators Krini Kafiris, Spyros Tsiknas and Rachel Botha.

In order to further explore this important issue, we have invited Dr Eve Olney, socially engaged artist, activist, curator, educator and practice-based researcher to share some of her own experiences of collaborative work, addressing them in terms of identifying common issues that arise during social practice, and which frameworks and processes can be used to deal with difference, diversity and conflict in this work.

published 8 May 2025

The People’s Kitchen #1: Hot Compost

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The People’s Kitchen #1: Hot Compost

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Kate O’Shea is an artist and organiser. In 2015, she cofounded The People’s Kitchen, a space where people could come together to cook, eat, build community, and have a laugh as they shared ideas and formulated plans to address the challenges we face as communities today. The People’s Kitchen provides a framework for people passionate about systems change to literally sit around the kitchen table, share information and ideas from different perspectives, combine skills and knowledge, and formulate plans.

The People’s Kitchen focuses on the energy of collaboration and mutualism—rather than individualism, isolation, and competition—to get things done. Connection and building relationships make work more enjoyable, more nurturing, and more productive. Link, exchange, imagine, do. And have fun doing it.

The People’s Kitchen, North Main Street is funded by the Arts Council’s Artist in the Community (AIC) Scheme.

published 1 April 2025

related programme Artist in the Community Scheme

The People’s Kitchen 2: Growing in Public Flower Beds

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The People’s Kitchen 2: Growing in Public Flower Beds

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Kate O’Shea is an artist and organiser. In 2015, she cofounded The People’s Kitchen, a space where people could come together to cook, eat, build community, and have a laugh as they shared ideas and formulated plans to address the challenges we face as communities today. The People’s Kitchen provides a framework for people passionate about systems change to literally sit around the kitchen table, share information and ideas from different perspectives, combine skills and knowledge, and formulate plans.

The People’s Kitchen focuses on the energy of collaboration and mutualism—rather than individualism, isolation, and competition—to get things done. Connection and building relationships make work more enjoyable, more nurturing, and more productive. Link, exchange, imagine, do. And have fun doing it.

The People’s Kitchen, North Main Street is funded by the Arts Council’s Artist in the Community (AIC) Scheme

published 31 March 2025

related programme Artist in the Community Scheme

The Peoples’ Kitchen 3: John’s Front Garden

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The Peoples’ Kitchen 3: John’s Front Garden

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Kate O’Shea is an artist and organiser. In 2015, she cofounded The People’s Kitchen, a space where people could come together to cook, eat, build community, and have a laugh as they shared ideas and formulated plans to address the challenges we face as communities today. The People’s Kitchen provides a framework for people passionate about systems change to literally sit around the kitchen table, share information and ideas from different perspectives, combine skills and knowledge, and formulate plans.

The People’s Kitchen focuses on the energy of collaboration and mutualism—rather than individualism, isolation, and competition—to get things done. Connection and building relationships make work more enjoyable, more nurturing, and more productive. Link, exchange, imagine, do. And have fun doing it.

The People’s Kitchen, North Main Street is funded by the Arts Council’s Artist in the Community (AIC) Scheme

published 30 March 2025

related programme Artist in the Community Scheme

SALMAGUNDI feature film

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SALMAGUNDI feature film

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SALMAGUNDI is a collaborative film project commissioned by Hugh Lane Gallery and Create and awarded to film-maker Jijo Sebastian in 2023. The aim of the project was two-fold: to bring a culturally diverse group of people together to make a feature-length collaborative film and, through this process, to create a transcultural community which would outlive the film and go on to engage in other creative endeavours.

Comprising six interwoven stories, the film reflects themes and issues central to the participants’ lived experience, celebrating a collective voice that underscores the power of community across cultures.

published 9 January 2025

related programme Artist Residencies and Commissions

SALMAGUNDI Feature Film – The Process

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SALMAGUNDI Feature Film – The Process

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SALMAGUNDI is a collaborative film project commissioned by Hugh Lane Gallery and Create and awarded to film-maker Jijo Sebastian in 2023. The aim of the project was two-fold: to bring a culturally diverse group of people together to make a feature-length collaborative film and, through this process, to create a transcultural community which would outlive the film and go on to engage in other creative endeavours.

Comprising six interwoven stories, the film reflects themes and issues central to the participants’ lived experience, celebrating a collective voice that underscores the power of community across cultures.

This film shares the process behind the work, as the artist and community members explored and learned together over an 18 month period.

published 8 January 2025

related programme Artist Residencies and Commissions

AIC Scheme FAQs

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AIC Scheme FAQs

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FAQs (PDF)

Here you will find Frequently Asked Questions and Answers regarding the Artist in the Community Scheme.

published 14 November 2024

Create News 36 – Abundant Futures: Building Equity in a Divided World

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Create News 36 – Abundant Futures: Building Equity in a Divided World

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Create’s work has always been to support artists, academics and activists working in community contexts to tackle important social issues. While the principles of this work remain largely the same, the context in which it takes place is ever-evolving.

We invited artist Dana Olărescu to reflect on the contemporary issues of divisive information and the division of communities and to discuss how collaborative socially engaged artists can navigate these challenges in their work.

Dana is a socially engaged artist working at the intersection of installation, performance, and social design, who focuses on challenging minority exclusion and environmental injustice. Through participatory methodologies that democratise access to art and knowledge, she aims to give underserved migrant groups and people habitually excluded from decision-making processes the agency to become active co-producers of culture.

published 10 October 2024

Creative Places Coordinators’ Handbook

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Creative Places Coordinators’ Handbook

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Creative Places is an Arts Council initiative which aims to connect with people, artists, and places, to allow ideas to develop into creative actions that are inspired by and enrich our island.
The Creative Places Network Services was managed by Create since its inception in 2021 to 2024. Create offers tailored support, training, peer networking opportunities and knowledge exchange, contributing to the Creative Places goal of building local arts programmes which will benefit. This handbook has grown from the experiences and learning of the initial cohort of Creative Places coordinators, leading projects in Tuam, Athy, Bagenalstown, Edenderry, and West Cork between 2020 and 2024.

published 7 October 2024

related programme Creative Places

What is an Island? Towards a Patchwork Pedagogy for a World Archipelago

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What is an Island? Towards a Patchwork Pedagogy for a World Archipelago

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The What is an Island? project was initiated in 2018 by artist and educator Glenn Loughran (TU Dublin / GradCAM) in collaboration with Uillinn director Ann Davoren and former director of Create, Ailbhe Murphy. Developed at the height of the Brexit negotiations, the project set out to explore the significance of islands and island imaginaries in art and education at a time of social, environmental and technological change. Situated within the context of the BA in Visual Art on Sherkin Island, the project was formed around a series of artistic research events that reflected on archipelagic thinking, climate change and the technosphere.

What is an Island? Towards a Patchwork Pedagogy for a World Archipelago captures each iteration of the project, through the Covid 19 pandemic and the emergence of the metaverse, through community, friendship, loss, and recovery. The publication includes an opening account of the project by Ann Davoren and Ailbhe Murphy, photographic representations of each iteration of the project, a deeply insightful text on the phenomenology of the island of Ireland by Anne O’ Byrne, and a pedagogical reflection by Glenn Loughran.

This book is available in print at all legal deposit libraries and via contact with Create.

published 24 September 2024