Flourish - New Opportunity for Post Primary Schools

Flourish: Arts-in-Education Project for Transition Year students

Project title: Flourish

Delivery:  May 2020

Partners:  Fingal Arts Office is working in partnership with Superprojects and Project Manager Rayne Booth to connect a second level school group with artists Åsa Sonjasdotter and Fiona Hallinan, Project Arts Centre Curator Lívia Paldi and David Stone, an archaeological researcher from UCD specialising in archaeobotanical studies.

Lead Artists: Åsa Sonjasdotter and Fiona Hallinan.

What to expect.
A workshop programme with artists Åsa Sonjasdotter and Fiona Hallinan connected to Åsa Sonjasdotter's 'Peace with Earth' exhibition in April 2020, culminating from her long-term explorative residency with The Project Arts Centre.

The exact details and content for the workshop programme will be submitted by the artists two months prior to the workshops taking place and will be disseminated to the teacher of the participating class in advance of the start date.

An introduction to the Artists & Themes
Åsa Sonjasdotter is a visual artist and amateur plant breeder who researches historical archives and connects with various practitioners of more-than-human cultivation and knowing. During the summer of 2018, she visited experimental archaeologists and seed savers, artists, farmers and foresters, storytellers, historians and curators in Ireland. Based on these meetings a series of gatherings have generated a process of figuration and speculation on co-nurturing cultivating practices. Since 2005 she has investigated stories of potatoes with a special interest in the plant’s role within colonial and capitalist transformations throughout modern industrialisation.

Fiona Hallinan is an artist, researcher and the creator of a number of collaborative works involving hospitality, food and education. Many of Fiona’s works provide hospitable contexts for discursive exchange. As Asa’s workshops focus on the story of food, Fiona’s workshops will focus on the act of hospitality and how it can also be a tool for enhancing thinking. Fiona will work with the students to respond to the Peace with Earth project, through creating an in-class food event that encourages both the cooks and the guests (fellow students) to engage with these ideas.

 

Project Aims

• To facilitate the Transition Year student group to have a creative encounter with the extraordinarily in-depth research/work of international artist Åsa Sonjasdotter; through both an exploration of her exhibited work at The Project Arts Centre, and through the opportunity to creatively respond under the guidance of the artist herself.

• To give the students a sense of the links between art and ‘event’ by connecting them with artists Fiona Hallinan.

• To provide a framework for second level students to explore what it means to be an artist.

• To grapple with questions concerning care for the earth, in a way that encourages curious, committed enquiry, critical thinking and a sense of agency.

Delivery Dates:

1. Monday 4th May:  2 – 4pm:  Workshop with Åsa Sonjasdotter in School.

2. Wednesday 6th May: Group Visit to Åsa Sonjasdotter’s exhibition at the Project arts Centre, talks by Asa Sonjasdotter, curator Livia Paldi and archaeological researcher David Stone.
               Bus will be provided.

3. Monday 11th May:  2 – 4pm: Workshop with Fiona Hallinan in school.

Students can expect to:
• create a collaborative artwork supported by professional visual artists
• gain experience of experimenting with ideas and materials
• gain new perspectives on the work of a successful exhibiting artist by visiting the Project Arts Centre gallery
• learn about how art can involve areas of study such as history and ecology

If your school is interested in the project on behalf of a TY group please email an expression of interest to julie.clarke@fingal.ie at Fingal Arts Office, no later than Wednesday 11th of December.

Your Expression of Interest should include:
• a statement of interest in the project
• an agreement of participation on behalf of a TY group
• a brief explanation of how this will benefit the students (max 80 words)
• a named contact teacher and contact details

Image courtesy of artist Åsa Sonjasdotter:  'The Order Of Potatoes' by artist Åsa Sonjasdotter is an enquiry into potato varieties that have become restricted for commercial circulation within the EU. The project involved growing and harvesting, and an exhibition and series of cooking events in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Gothenburg and Berlin; 2006 - 2011.