Description
Creative Agency at the Glucksman is an ongoing project to empower young asylum seekers, refugees and migrants to participate in imaginative projects that enable them to present their voices and views in the public realm. Its aim is to address isolation and marginalisation of migrant asylum-seeking children in the Cork area. The Glucksman is a contemporary art gallery located on the grounds of University College Cork. From the outset in 2015, the Creative Agency was conceived and delivered in partnership with the University and the Direct Provision Centres. The programme: enables young asylum seekers to work with artists and curators over an extended series of workshops; offers a positive and creative experience to a marginalized community; and provides the resources and expertise that allow the group to develop artworks for public display. Over time, children and young people develop their creative skills and expertise and see the university grounds as a safe and welcoming place for them. The programme is funded by Arts Council, Young Ensembles Scheme, UCC student societies, UCC Visitors Centre, Department of Justice and Equality Integration Funds (governmental funds), Fundraising activities, Glucksman’s own resources, Ireland Funds, and Philanthropic sources.
- Children maintain their cultural identity while adopting new cultural values and intercultural competences
- Children's academic skills
- Children's life satisfaction / happiness
- Children's sense of belonging
- Friends and peers (bridges)
- Friends and peers (support)
Evaluation ex post
A chapter in this book which details the initiative: Kearney, F. and Crowley, T. (2020). 'Creative Agency: Enabling Cultural Participation for Young Asylum Seekers, Refugees and Migrants in a Muesum Context'. In O'Riordan, J. and FItzGibbon, M. Direct Provision: Asylum, the Academy and Activism, Oxford: Peter Lang. pp 464-476.
Furthermore, the following link offers a detailed account of activities within the project.
https://artsineducation.ie/en/project/our-place/
Projects’ deliverables
A Creative Agency overview can be found in the link below.
At the bottom of this page you will find several links providing detailed information available at the project site (link 1), a YouTube playlist to the films on projects (link 2) and an example of a teenagers project "Navigating the Urban Landscape" (link 3).
https://www.glucksman.org/content/files/Creative-Engagement-with-Young-Asylum-Seekers.pdf
Reproducibility
This initiative is a contextually situated initiative. Its replicability potential necessarily speaks to local contexts.
Motivation for the submission
The motivation for this entry is because of its attention to identified issues of social/cultural exclusion commonly experienced by migrant children and more particularly those whose status is under review. The Creative Agency programme at the Glucksman works with migrant and asylum-seeking children to bridge this gap in a democratic and facilitative manner. Children are encouraged to and guided in developing their creative skills. Within this process the children gain confidence in themselves in safe and space where their expression and the art works they produce are valued. Moreover, within the context of the programme the children are afforded creative and emotional space to engage in critical reflection and engagement with issues bearing on their lives; thus enabling and developing their critical reflexivity. This then crosses over to other aspects of their lives and to their formal educational contexts contributing to their overall wellbeing and sense of belonging.
Additional comments
This programme is an ongoing project made up of several diverse aspects and incorporating artwork, film, and multi-media projects. The focus of individual aspects of it are tailored towards the lived contexts of the children’s lives, allowing expression of associated challenges and enabling factors.
