Image: 2018 Summer School. Credit: Aoife Herrity.

2019 Summer School on Cultural Diversity and Collaborative Practice

For a second year, Create and Counterpoints Arts are delighted to run a
Summer School on Cultural Diversity and Collaborative Practice for up to 15
artists – held this year from the 15th to the 19th July in the West of Ireland.
Participants will stay in Killary Lodge Co. Galway, which is a country lodge
nestled among mature native trees, just 250m from the waters of Killary Fjord,
in the heart of Ireland’s stunning Wild Atlantic Way. The residential will include
full board, travel and an appropriate honorarium.

About the summer school

The concept of ‘cultural diversity’ is often read as abstract and perhaps overly
mired in policy and technical language. It’s a repeated term but how does it
resonate as an intersectional and dynamic part of everyday life?  What might
‘cultural diversity’ mean in practice: in people’s intimate lives, in
neighbourhoods and within communities of place and interest?
How might ‘cultural diversity’ form an intrinsic part of the artistic, socially
engaged process and act as a powerful driver for social change? A key aim of
the summer school is to create a peer-to-peer space in which to explore the
concept of ‘cultural diversity’ and its various applications through the lens of
the AIC Scheme, which has resulted in rich cultural ecosystems and cross-
sector methodologies.

The summer school will be interdisciplinary both in curriculum and
composition of participants, presenters and facilitators. It takes the form of a
five-day residency enabling a ‘think and do’ collaborative approach, utilizing
creative workshops, critical and comparative case studies, one-to-one
mentoring, international guest speakers including curators, policymakers and
activists.

Directed by: Áine O’Brien – Co-Director Counterpoints Arts
Visiting speakers and facilitators include (among others) Mary Ann DeVlieg
and Isabel Lima.

Funded by Arts Council Ireland