Creative Arts Programme

After two years in which the workshop week had to take place online due to the pandemic, this year the Creative Arts programme again took place on site in the cultural institutions with students from all over Dublin. Despite, or perhaps because of, the social isolation of previous years, the young people quickly developed a great group dynamic, making the week a very special experience.

PROGRAMme 2022

Monday, 13 June:
Goethe-Institut Irland and Trinity Access
The students spent the first day of the week at the Goethe-Institut Irland: after a brief introduction to the work of the institute, the students were able to test their German skills in a small get-to-know-you session organized by the LanguageDdepartment. In a social media workshop, they then created Culture Profiles on events from the fields of art, literature, music, film, and theatre in the design programme Canva. To conclude the day, the students explored their literary interests and investigated the library with a scavenger hunt.

Tuesday, 14 June:
Gallery Day
The second day was all about galleries: Douglas Hyde Gallery introduced the students to contemporary art, while they approached the field of Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) with The LAB and solved an assignment. In the afternoon, they were able to get creative themselves in a workshop with artist Tara Whelan, creating sound collages from snippets of noise and old magazines and coffee table books.

Wednesday, 15 June:
Theatre Day
Theatre Day was shared between the Fishamble Theatre Company and the Abbey Theatre. This was all about what it takes to put on a good play: After some acting warm-ups as well as input on theatre design, the students came up with their own exciting stories. With the help of experienced staff from both theatres, they turned these into short scenes and tested their acting skills in the process.

Thursday, 16 June:
Fighting Words Day
On this day at Fighting Words, the young people tried their hand at creative writing. They were given the opportunity to write stories, plays, song lyrics or even poems under supervision - and they were able to let their imagination run wild. In two groups, the students wrote two texts, which were to become the basis for the following day.


Friday, 17 June:
Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM)
On the last day of the workshop week, the students were introduced to the art of composing and song writing. With the help of two musicians from the Royal Irish Academy of Music, two very different and challenging pieces were created from two texts that the students had written the day before at Fighting Words. The students were particularly involved in the development of the melody and the singing, but also in the creation of the musical accompaniment. A special highlight was the performance of the two pieces during the closing ceremony.

03.02.2021 A day with Fighting Words (postponed from 26.03.2020)
The aim of Fighting Words is to help children and young people, as well as adults who did not have the chance as children, to discover and use the power of their own imagination and creative writing skills. At its core, it is also about something much broader and more inclusive. Namely, using the creative practice of writing and storytelling to empower children and young people - from all kinds of backgrounds - to be resilient, creative and successful in shaping their own lives.
In the one-day online workshop, a group of Transition Year students were able to try their hand at storywriting, playwriting, songwriting and poetry. You can find the results here.

This series of workshops was aimed at Transition Year students. Each workshop offered an interactive introduction to a different aspect of the creative arts. The workshops took place on the last Thursday of the month from October 2019 to April 2020 (with the exception of December). The students took part in a morning, lunch and afternoon session at each institute. The schedule for these events were as follows:

24.10.2019 A day in Trinity College Dublin and the galleries of Dublin.
On this day, the young people were introduced to the creative arts and the Freiraum Project in Trinity College Dublin. In the morning, there was a tour of the Douglas Hyde Gallery followed by lunch in Trinity College's dining hall. Afterwards, there was a walk to the LAB Gallery. The young people first engaged with the gallery's exhibitions and then had a workshop with Jane Fogarty, who is an artist at the gallery.

28.11.2019 A day at the Goethe-Institut Ireland
The second Freiraum excursion went to the Goethe-Institut Irland in Dublin. The young people were given a guided tour of the newly renovated rooms and library, as well as an introduction to cinematography and made their own film using their smartphones.

23.01.2020 A day at the Fishamble Theatre
Fishamble is an Olivier Award-winning, internationally renowned Irish theatre that discovers, develops and produces new work on a range of scales. Fishamble has staged its productions to Irish audiences as well as in 19 other countries. Each year Fishamble supports 60% of the writers of all new plays produced on the island of Ireland - through its extensive programme of training, development and mentoring opportunities.

27.02.2020 A day at the Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM)
The Royal Irish Academy of Music is a place of musical excellence and dynamism, a place of teaching and learning whose aim is to instil and maintain the highest standards of performance and appreciation in all musical disciplines and consistently achieves this. Founded in 1848, the Academy is Ireland's oldest musical institution. The day at RIAM included workshops on music appreciation, introductions to music theory and hands-on interaction with instruments.

28.02.2019 A day in The Royal Irish Academy of Music
31.01.2019 A day in The Abbey Theatre
29.11.2018 A day in The Fishamble Theatre
25.10.2018 A day with Fighting Words
A Day in the Goethe-Institut, Trinity College Dublin and The LAB Gallery