Open call: Summer School on Collaborative Practice and Social Change 2023

Create and Counterpoints Arts are pleased to announce the 2023 Summer School on Collaborative Practice and Social Change for up to 14 artists.

In a world increasingly shaped by displacement and uncertainty, the Summer School on Collaborative Practice and Social Change 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 2023 edition of the School will specifically focus on the potential for collaboration between artists and investigative journalists, with the aim of integrating the place-based skills of socially engaged arts practice with the forensic, storytelling skills of journalism and digital activism.

Lines of inquiry include the following questions, among others:

• What does place, community and civic/political participation mean in an age of human displacement?
• How can working cooperatively form a central part of the artistic and storytelling process, as a driver for equity and change in neighbourhoods and communities?
• How can social change be understood in the context of de-colonisation, global displacement and climate emergency?
• How do we practice solidarity as near neighbours – artists, cultural and community actors and activists – despite the turbulence caused by local/global displacement.

The Summer School on Collaborative Practice and Social Change will take the form of a six -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. The Summer School is delivered in partnership by Create and Counterpoints Arts with funding support from The Arts Council of Ireland.

Directed by: Dr Áine O’Brien – Curator of Learning and Research and Co-Founder, Counterpoints Arts

Visiting artists and facilitators include:

Dana Olarescu,  Independent Artist and Cultural Activist

Ismail Einashe, Investigative Journalist and Cultural Activist

Abdullah Al Kafri, Director, Ettijahat Independent Culture

The school will take place over six days: 12 – 17 June 2023, at Killary Lodge, Co Galway.

The deadline for submission is 5pm, Wednesday 5 April 2023. Read more and make your application here.