Create and Common Ground developed a number of supporting events, such as panel discussions, presentations and workshops which were programmed over the term of the project. Public action research forums were hostedin Dublin, Galway and Limerick.
Dublin
The first public action research forum was hosted at The LAB, Foley Street Dublin, on April 16th 2009. Emily Kyriakides, Head of Film, lighthouse Arts and Training LTD gave a presentation on the setting up of Guiding Lights, a year-long mentoring scheme designed to support and develop emerging UK-based film industry talent. The talk and presentation was chaired by Padraig Naughton, Director of Arts and Disability Ireland, and member of the Connect Advisory Group.
Emily’s presentation explored some of the key features of effective mentoring relationships, and differentiated mentoring from other more corporate professional development pathways such as coaching. The Guiding Lights scheme is open to directors, producers, screenwriters, cinematographers and professionals working in sales, distribution, exhibition, marketing, publicity and business affairs. Given the range of disciplines that the Guiding Lights programme supports Emily explained how different mentoring approaches had been adopted to support the specific disciplines. Guiding Lights is run by Lighthouse Arts & Training, with funding from the Skillset Film Skills Fund, Optimum Releasing and Lighthouse.
The programme is part of A Bigger Future, the UK film skills strategy setup by Skillset and the UK Film Council to address skills development across all job roles in film. The initiative is supported by the National Lottery through the UK Film Council and the film industry through the Skills Investment Fund.
Galway
The public action research forum in Galway was hosted at the Harbour Hotel on July 16, 2009. The daylong event consisted of a panel discussion on the impacts mentoring can have for artists working in social and community contexts.
The panellists were artist Fiona Whelan, artist and mentee in the Connect programme, Jay Koh, artist and mentor in the Connect programme, John Mulloy lecturer at Galway and Mayo Institute of Technology, Marty Clare, Westside Youth Project Co-ordinator, Galway and Deirdre Walsh, Mentor and Co-ordinator of Mayo County Council – Artists’ Mentoring and Networking Programme. The panel discussion was chaired by Mark O’Brien, Arts Development Manager, axis arts centre, Ballymun, Dublin and member of the Connect Advisory Group.
Case Studies describing the practice and skills development needs of artists working collaboratively in social and community contexts were led by artists Michael Fortune and Deirdre O’Mahony.
In the afternoon a world café workshop looked at a series of key questions. All attendees were invited to address these questions and consider how a mentoring model for the collaborative arts sector could be developed that served the needs of individual arts practitioners and the sector.
Limerick
The third public action research forum took place in St. John’s at Daghdha Dance Company, Limerick, October 23, 2009. The research forum included a panel discussion, presentations of case studies and a world café workshop.
The panel discussion was chaired by Michael Fitzpatrick, Head of the School of Art & Design Limerick Institute of Technology. The topic for the panel discussion addressed experiences of mentoring, detailing how mentoring had enabled skills and practice development through individual and organisational accounts.
The panel members were Ann Maree Barry, video artist and Connect mentee; Pia Dunne, musician and Connect mentee; Bush Hartshorn, Daghdha Mentoring Programme Co-ordinator; Marilyn Lennon, founder of Spirit Store and Jennifer Moroney-Ward, Manager of Northside Learning Hub.
Case Studies were led by artist Kathleen Turner, Education Office for the Irish Chamber Orchestra; Sean Taylor, Artist and Lecturer, Sculpture & Combined Media Department at Limerick School of Art and Design; and Steven Maher, student artist at Limerick School of Art and Design and mentee on Steps by Sean Taylor.
A world café workshop was conducted providing everyone the opportunity to contribute reflections on the day’s events and topics. All attendees were asked to consider how a mentoring model for the collaborative arts sector could be developed that served the needs of individual arts practitioners and the sector.
The research focused on the following key questions:
- How are the conditions for open learning created?
- Would a mentoring model for collaborative arts need to be dissimilar from other existing mentoring models?
- What are the key competencies required by artists to work collaboratively with communities and how might mentoring help an artist develop these?
