Streets Ahead is a brand new streets arts professional development programme which has been developed by Cork City Council in partnership with the Irish Street Arts, Circus and Spectacle Network and in collaboration with Cork Community Art Link and Ardú.
This innovative programme has been designed to support and develop a range of street artists across varying stages of their careers.
What Can Street Arts Bring to Our Community?
This Community Strand is aimed at community or youth workers who wish to explore how to incorporate art into their community work, working with artists where appropriate. This professional development strand is subsidised by Cork City Arts Office with the support of Creative Ireland and therefore FREE to participants. Full attendance is required. Limited places (approx. 20) for Cork City-based participants (one per organisation) will be allocated following registration on Eventbrite.
Over the course of 4 weeks participants will discover the following:
- History of Street Art in Cork.
- How art can be used as a tool for social development , community empowerment and expression.
- How to develop dialogue and collaboration between communities and street artists.
- How to develop an art project in the public space with your community, group or organisation.
Session 1 : William Frode de la Foret (Cork Community Art Link) and Shane O’Driscoll (Ardú)
Street Arts from Cork
Monday 24 May, 10am – 11.30pm
About William
William Frode de la Foret is an undisciplined artist born in France, living in Cork and making art with people in various contexts since 1993. His practice is shaped by his belief that the arts represent an infinite field of possibilities for people and cannot be reduced to academic, institutional and market driven conceptions and that everybody has the right to create art, to engage with the making of culture and its representation on one’s own terms.
William, is artistic director of Cork Community Art Link, a community art organisation based in the Lido in Blackpool Cork .He has developed, directed and facilitated a large number of community outreach projects and long term arts programmes including a pioneering 10 year programme in Our Lady’s psychiatric hospital Cork, “What if” (whatif.ie) a programme exploring participatory public art practice, Rebel streets a youth participatory streets arts programme ,and the Dragon of Shandon, the traditional Cork Samhain community parade .
About Shane
Shane O’Driscoll is an Irish printmaker and visual artist that practices mainly in screen printing and murals. He studied Visual Communications and is a member of Cork Printmakers and Backwater Artist Group.
He has exhibited his work internationally and throughout Ireland. Shane has also displayed work in The Irish Print Museum, IMMA and has a number of works in the O.P.W. collection. In 2019 his work was acquired by The National Gallery of Ireland as part of their permanent collection.
Shane is also a co-director of Ardú Street Art Project, a project which brought 7 large scale murals to Cork City in 2020.
Session 2: Rosie Meade (University College Cork), James Nolan (Shandon Street Festival), Zen Shabangu & William Frode de la Foret (Cork Community Art Link)
Art as a tool for social development , community empowerment and expression
Monday 31 May, 10am -11.30pm.
About Rosie
Rosie R. Meade is a lecturer in the School of Applied Social Studies, University College Cork. Her teaching and research interests include community action and development, social movements, cultures of protest/resistance, cultural democracy and media representations of social class.
Rosie is also co-editor with Mae Shaw of the forthcoming volume Arts, Culture and Community Development (Policy Press, 2021). She also co-edits the Community Development Journal with Órla O’Donovan and she is former board member at Cork Community Artlink.
About James
By trade, James Nolan operates a family run butcher shop on Shandon Street, Cork. However, over the years he has been involved in various art activities and festivals in the Shandon area and is also involved in Business Association, the Shandon Area Renewal Association, and Shandon Tidy Towns Association. In previous years, James was a member of the Cork City Joint Policing committee.
Along with Linda O’Halloran, James started the Shandon Street Festival in 2007 and it has grown from strength to strength over the year’s. James is also a founding member of The Spirit Mother Jones Festival which began in 2012.
About Zen
Gagomuang Zen Tshabangu, better known as Zen or TheLastPoetZen is a Youth Worker in the Cork YMCA. He has been with the YMCA since 2011, first as a participant to volunteer and then as staff. Throughout his years in youth work, he has worked with different groups as a facilitator, facilitating different workshops on social issues with outcomes presented in a creative way such as Art, Music , Film or Poetry.
In his free time, Zen loves creating using different mediums and exploring visual arts. In the last few years he been focused on music and film. In his work, whether it be with the YMCA or personal, Zen always looks into current social issues or reoccurring social issues with the hope of finding a solution.
Session 3: Conor Shields (Community Arts Partnership), William Frode de la Foret (Cork Community Art Link) & Siobhan Clancy (Cork City Arts Office)
Developing dialogue and collaboration between communities and street artists
Monday 14 June, 10am – 11.30pm
About Conor
Conor Shields is chief executive of the Community Arts Partnership. He leads a dedicated team of artists, managers, trainers and co-ordinators, providing advocacy programmes, information and training services and 10 separate community and schools-based arts projects across Northern Ireland. Conor is a multi-instrumentalist, a protest poet and filmmaker and has worked with theatre companies, broadcast media and film, development education and community development agencies, and has facilitated workshops through a range of disciplines in theatres, community settings, schools and prisons. He has helped devise and lead a range of festivals, research projects and development programmes both at home and abroad and has worked in community arts for well over 2 decades.
Along the way, he has studied Law, Politics and Voluntary Sector Business Management at London School of Economics, University of Ulster and University of London respectively.
He has been a ministerial appointment to the board of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland as well as to the Ministerial Arts Advisory Forum and sits on both the Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s Intercultural Arts Steering and Community Arts Strategic Review groups. He was a founding director of Culture Night Belfast and the Cathedral Quarter Trust, having been a co-founder of the ‘Let’s Get It Right’ campaign. He now sits on the SaveCQ campaign steering group, and is also a convenor of the #ArtsMatterNI campaign group and has co-directed the Hit the North spray art festival for the past 7 years.
About Siobhan
Siobhán Clancy is Community Arts Coordinator at Cork City Arts Office in Cork City Council. Prior to her current role, Siobhán’s worked as a visual artist, educator and engagement programmer. Her practice focused on social health. Working with other artists, activists, youth, community and women’s groups, her collaborative approach reflects an interest in collectivity and participatory democracy. The artistic outcomes typically materialised as multi-media works, immersive events, performances, games, dialogues and live action in contexts of health, education and justice.
Session 4: Rose-Anne Kidney (Goldiefish Events), William Frode de la Foret (Cork Community Art Link) & Peter Martin (Ardú)
How to develop an art project in the public space with your community, group or organisation.
Monday 21 June, 10am – 11.30pm.
About Rose-Anne
Rose-Anne Kidney of Cork Creative Event Management Company Goldiefish Events has worked in the artistic sector since 2001, she works mainly as a freelance project manager, event coordinator, production manager and producer.
Rose-Anne has a strong interest and a passion for working on site specific events, outdoor events in public spaces and festivals and has worked with many organisations in varying roles in the cultural sector in Cork; Ardú Street Art Initiative, Design Pop, Cork Jazz Festival, Cork Folk Festival, Cork Midsummer Festival, A Taste of West Cork, Ocean to City Race, Cork Community Art Link’s Dragon of Shandon Parade, Shandon Street Festival, Mad Pride, Feast, Midleton Food and Drink Festival (Feast), Cork St. Patrick’s Festival and World Book Festival to name a few.
She has Project Managed many events for local authorities including Cork City and County Council and Limerick City and County Council and has worked as a freelance Production Manager with the MTU, Arts Office.
She has developed excellent working relationships with all of those with whom she has worked with over the years including: local authorities, city stakeholders, property owners, the HSE, various businesses and the festival, artists and the creative community in Cork and beyond.
Rose-Anne is currently working as Project’s Manager with The Cork Midsummer Festival, Design Pop and on the Ardú Street Art Initiative, as well as continuing her own freelance work and projects.
About Peter
Peter Martin is a muralist, stained glass artist and Secondary School teacher based in Cork City. He is a graduate of Crawford College of Art and Design where he specialised in stained glass. Peter has spent time studying both glass casting and stained glass in Shanghai and Germany respectively. As one of the co-directors of Ardú Street Art Initiative, Peter works closely with artists and Cork city council to facilitate and create large-scale stained murals in Cork city.
As an educator, Peter has worked closely with groups of students in a variety of schools around Cork city in the creation of artwork. The subject matter and themes of his artwork is often specific to the area in which it is being painted. Architecture and night-time scenes of Cork city feature heavily in his work. His style varies from an animated narrative to photorealistic. Peter’s use of colour in his murals is greatly influenced from his studies in stained glass and both mediums compliment each other through their graphic style and vibrancy. Peter has a number of murals throughout Cork City and his stained glass work is housed in many public and private collections both in Ireland and abroad.
Registration
We are now accepting sign ups for this street skills strand via Eventbrite→
Places are limited and are granted on a first come, first served basis.
We also require participants to make themselves available for all of the sessions. If you are offered a place but can no longer attend, we ask that you let us know so we can offer your place to another participant on the waiting list.
In the form you will be asked:
- Your name.
- Your email address.
- Your organisation (if applicable).
- Your occupation/role.
- Your location/county.
- Indicate if you are a member of a minority group. Please Note: In our effort to promote diversity in the arts, we invite those who self-identify as a member of a minority group to inform us and let us know if there are any ways in which we can support your participation.
The deadline for registering is Thursday 13 May at 5pm. Everyone who signs up with be notified of successful placement on the programme by Monday 17 May.