‘Streets Ahead’ is a 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 supported by Creative Ireland.
‘Streets Ahead’ aims to connect its participants through the exchange of experiences, exploring of ideas and swapping of knowledge & skills via a series of online workshops with leading practitioners and experts in the art forms, taking place across April, May and June of 2021.
Cork City already has a long and rich history of street arts. This programme is designed to reflect the wide diversity within street arts including circus, performance, spectacle, visual street art, outdoor events, digital projections and arts participation. Cork Community Art Link together with Ardú Street Arts Initiative have developed the programme alongside ISACS and will be sharing their expertise and knowledge with the wider emerging and growing street arts community.
There can be no doubt that the current Covid pandemic has catapulted street arts to the fore, with many new and emerging practitioners wondering how and where else outside of traditional art institutions one can present art and engage with audiences. Street arts have always existed in many guises, but Covid presents a new sense of urgency around the need to connect with audiences in public spaces, in outdoor spaces on their own terms and within local communities. This programme will explore what the history of street arts is as well as examining the various different forms, styles, practices that exist within.
Supported by Creative Ireland, this innovative programme has been designed to nurture and develop a range of street artists and practitioners across varying stages of their careers. To this end, the programme is devised with three distinct target groups in mind:
Artists such as William Frode de la Foret of Cork Community Art Link will join forces with Mike Leahy of Waterford Spraoi to share their insights into processionary art, installations and mass community engagement. Visual and Mural artists from the Ardú Street Arts Initiative will collaborate with the Minaw Collective to discuss process and technique for large scale contemporary visual street art. While digital media art duo VJ Suave from Sao Paulo will link together with Algorithm-Dublin based projection mapping company, to share the enormous possibilities of digital illuminations and community engagement.
As we move forward into our second year of pandemic living we must explore the ways for physical creation which can bring real world experiences back, so we are not restricted merely to engaging with our communities through staring at our computer screens….Street Arts, Outdoor Arts, Art in the public realm….call it what you will….may just have some answers!
The full programme of speakers and facilitators will be available shortly through www.isacs.ie.
‘Streets Ahead’ is supported by the Creative Ireland Jobs Stimulus Package. The Creative Ireland Programme is an all-of-government five year initiative, from 2017 to 2022, which places creativity at the centre of public policy. Further information form creative.ireland.ie and Ireland.ie
