Youth Arts can be broadly defined as ‘young people taking part voluntarily in creative, cultural or expressive activity outside of the formal education process. It can encompass participation and appreciation, as well as engagement with arts work specifically created by, with, or for, young people', from Arts in Their Lives: A Policy on Young People and The Arts, National Youth Council of Ireland
WCAC believes that there is huge potential for young people to meaningfully engage in arts experiences, and for young people to develop and articulate themselves within their chosen art form. WCAC believes that the process of experiencing art and participating in the making of art should be based on the principles of autonomy, equality, empowerment, participation and experiential learning.
The arts have an enormous role to play in the lives of young people both as a means of expression of an autonomous and vibrant youth culture, and as opportunities for young people to communicate thoughts, feelings, ideas and emotions. The arts allow young people to develop a critical attitude towards society and to question and celebrate through making and participating. Programmes such as West Cork Arts Centre’s Youth Theatre, which provides experiential theatre training and performance opportunities; Friday Night Youth Arts, a visual arts programme where young people experiment with a range of ideas and materials with artists; and the annual Youth Arts Event, a programme of exhibitions and workshops, all motivate and challenge young people and lead young people to discover themselves, look at their own resources and value what they have to say.
For more information on WCAC's Youth Arts Programme see our dedicated Youth Arts website.
West Cork Arts Centre’s Youth Theatre is currently under the directorship of Karen Minihan. The programme comprises interrelated activities – improvisation, characterisation, voice work, history of theatre, movement, directing, script-work and physical theatre which explore the motivations and relationships between people that exist in real, imagined or historical contexts.
Monday 21 January – Monday 11 March (excluding Monday 11 February)
Mondays 4.45pm – 6.30pm, 1¾hrs for 13yrs to 17yrs
8 sessions + rehearsals
min 10 max 16 places
€ 80
Extra rehearsals for performance will take place 12 to 27 April
This term begins with active and social drama workshops, where participants explore role play, develop vocal and physical skills and participate in a group activity which is energetic and highly enjoyable. The sessions soon build up to a series of rehearsals for a short with a view to performing as part of the Youth Arts Event on Saturday 27 April.
Youth Theatre is facilitated by Karen Minihan with support from WCAC Project Assistant.
Wheel of Life, the short film created by the Youth Vision Project, as part of West Cork Arts Centre’s outreach programme, was officially launched on Thursday 3 May at the Crazy Crocodile Youth Café in Clonakilty, which was transformed into a temporary cinema for the evening’s screening.
Funded by Ultralase Ireland and Cork County Council, the project took place as a partnership between WCAC, the youth café and Ultralase Ireland and was also supported by Sacred Heart Secondary School, Clonakilty and Clonakilty Community College.
Five of the six young participants made it on the night, and were joined by friends, family, project artist Tomasz Madajczak, local man Patrick Cambell, featured in the film, TY Coordinator Sheila Gilbert and Vice Principal Brendan Welsh from Sacred Heart, Secondary School, and representatives of the Youth Café and WCAC.
Alison Cronin, Schools and Youth Coordinator at WCAC who initiated the project thanked all the funders, partners, the artist, and participants for their input, and congratulated the group on their success at making it into the finals of Ireland ‘s Young Filmmaker of the Year 2012, and being accepted for the Corona Fastnet Short Film Festival, impressing on the young people present what a great achievement that is.
The screening of the film was very well received. Louise Hackett of the youth café later said,“This project has been a success on so many levels, building important links between different organisations within the community, allowing the young people to experience what it is to produce a film, enabling them to work together as a group, and to feel valued. They are delighted with their achievement.”
Photo: left to right, back row; Tomasz Madajczak, project artist, Jake Hill, participant, Noel Murphy, participant, Pat Campbell, Louise Hackett, Youth Café
left to right, front row; Tess Verlinden, Aisling Calnan, and Karen O’Donovan, all participants in the project
From left- Leo Wolstenholme, FNYA; Orla Kenny, Kids Own; Conor O’Driscoll, FNYA; Mary Butler, Kilkenny Arts Office; Alison Cronin, WCAC; Cllr Frank Fahy, Mayor of Skibbereen; Ethan Lawlor, FNYA; Victoria Durrer, South Dublin County Arts Office; Amelia Perry, FNYA
See a short film on You Tube by David Bickley for West Cork Television of the opening evening of Young Makers HERE
YOUNG MAKERS OPENING 2012
WCAC's annual Youth Event and Exhibition this year played host to the launch of the Young Makers exhibition tour. Young Makers is an international exhibition of work by young contemporary artists and will be touring Ireland through 2012. The show features work by young artists from five countries - Canada, Ireland, Latvia, Portugal and Slovenia.
The Irish exhibits include large scale photographic works from Roscommon, a film projection from Dublin, a text piece from WCAC’s Friday Night Youth Arts Group and an award winning stop frame animation work from young people in Kilkenny. International works include videos from Portugal, photography and a video work from Canada, paintings with accompanying audio piece from Slovenia and a selection from Latvia featuring collage, painting and digital print work.
The basis for the exhibition was formed during the 2011 Eksperimenta! trienniale of contemporary art by young international artists in Tallinn, Estonia, when Tallinn was the European Capital of Culture. The overall theme of Eksperimenta! was ‘space’ and this has been interpreted by the young artists in imaginative and diverse ways.
With a wealth of submissions from across Ireland, the work of over 50 young Irish artists was showcased as part of this two month long event, including work from WCAC’s Friday Night Youth Arts Group. Kids' Own Publishing Partnership, based in Sligo, was the official Irish curator for Eksperimenta! and now brings a selection of the work to Ireland for a tour in 2012.
The exhibition is the product of a partnership between Kids' Own Publishing Partnership, West Cork Arts Centre, Kilkenny County Council Arts Office and a joint partnership between NOISE South Dublin and Temple Bar Cultural Trust.
The aim of Young Makers is to showcase and celebrate the artistic talents and efforts of young people at international level. The partners hope the exhibition encourages greater national dialogue about best
practice and cross-sector collaboration within youth arts practice.
The Irish artwork in the exhibition was all produced through youth programmes from across the country. The international work originates from a variety of contexts including formal and non-formal education. This presents the chance to reflect on the educational opportunities contemporary art experiences can provide and to explore new ways in which young people’s continued engagement can be supported. Focussing on second level schools, as the main point of contact for young people, WCAC will be working with schools throughout the West Cork region to encourage engagement with the exhibition and wider programme, as an introduction to the potential of contemporary youth arts practice and to explore ways to bring contemporary art and the informal and formal education sectors closer together.
DUBLIN YOUTH ARTS SHOWCASE
On Wednesday, 20th April 2011 at the National Library of Ireland, young artists, including representatives of WCAC's Friday Night Youth Arts Group, will showcase their talents at an event as part of the initiative ‘Youth Arts Works’ led by the National Youth Council of Ireland in alliance with a range of organisations.
The purpose of the exciting event is to highlight that access to the arts for young people is a right not a privilege. The group is calling for funding to youth arts to be maintained at the current levels to ensure that young people are not used as easy targets for any upcoming cuts.
It is being curated by Orla Kenny, creative director of Kids Own Publishing partnership, who has asked WCAC to include some artwork by the Friday Night Youth Arts group (FNYA) from the recent Youth Exhibition. Young people representing the FNYA will be travelling up to meet with policymakers, politicians and funders to communicate their experiences of youth arts. They will be accompanied by Alison Cronin, Schools and Youth Co-ordinator at West Cork Arts Centre, who will shortly be going to Estonia to make a presentation at Eksperimenta!
“Youth arts is where the next generation of artists find their voice, upon whom we depend to maintain our status as a leading nation for artistic and cultural endeavour, which makes a significant contribution to the cultural, social and economic well being of the country,” stated Anne O’Gorman, Senior Project Officer of Youth Arts at the National Youth Council of Ireland.
WCAC YOUTH EXHIBIT IN ESTONIA
WCAC is delighted to announce that work from our Friday Night Youth Arts Group (FNYA) has been selected by Kid's Own www.kidsown.ie to be part of Eksperimenta! Estonia www.eksperimenta.net – an international exhibition of young people's art that opens on 27 April in Tallinn as one of key events of ‘Tallinn - European Capital of Culture 2011'.
Congratulations also to our Schools and Youth Co-ordinator, Alison Cronin who has also been selected to present a paper at the event. Alison will be making her presentation on 29 April at 2.30pm at the IDEAlaboratory 2011. Eksperimenta! IDEAlaboratory is a programme for integrating contemporary art and education, which will take place during the Contemporary Art Triennial for School Students Eksperimenta! from April 28 – April 30.
Eksperimenta! is a multi-level international art education project whose target group comprises school students (14-19 years), artists and art teachers. It has three components: a triennial exhibition, which is accompanied by the IDEAlaboratory - an education and exchange programme, and a network of art schools and art centres. The initiator on Eksperimenta! is Sally Studio (established in 1991) - a non-profit organisation comprising an art school and the Art Awareness Centre for children and young people. The mission of Eksperimenta! is to support the development of critical, socially sensitive and creative thinking in society through the unification of contemporary art and art education. Its main aim is to bring art and art education closer to each other.
LINKS
Click here for information on The Yellow Mountain, a performative video work by Amanda Coogan and WCAC's Friday Night Youth Arts Group.
Click here for information on Oileán, a photographic project by Eóin Ó Conaill and the youth of Oileán Chléire (PDF 1.7MB)
For details for the 2009 programe see 2009 Youth Arts Exhibition and Event Brochure (PDF 334KB)
For details of the 2008 Youth Arts Event, please download the Youth Arts Event 2008 Brochure here (PDF 228kb).
