My Community Project .. finally some news...

Last Friday, I finally got to see the ladies who were coming in to discuss the project I was interested in.  They had fabulously colourful pictures to show us some of the art projects they had done with children from the various schools involved to date.  I am always amazed at how unafraid children are of colour... and at how effortlessly they come up with the most amazing ideas.

It seems that my project will officially start for me after the December Break, if I am accepted.   I am looking forward to it as the facilitators and children  have already chosen their themes for the new project by looking some of the art at IMMA.  I think I will be doing two sessions on a Wednesday by the look of it but it will be confirmed after the snow melts and they can run it by the Principal and School Board.   My job will be to help out and maybe document some of their work.   So until then I will  concentrate on our college exhibition and the Christmas Break.  That should keep me busy enough until then...

What Community is not!

For many people the word community conjures up images of people  the pulling together,  working alongside people you know and who you have grown up with, who you know from childhood and who has lived next door to you "forever", and who would help you out of any bit of strife you may find yourself in, with a cup of tea and a chat. Real live people.

 I was speaking to a friend about what community means to them recently and I thought I may put another side of the story out there too.

For many foreigners who find themselves living in small Irish communities, the  experience may not always be so positive. You may have lived next to the same people for many years and your children may be in the same schools and you may even find yourself going to the same events that they do,  you could even work in the same building,  like the same sport or cultural events they do, but for many, this does not constitute belonging to the same community.  You are somehow "tainted" because you may look different or your accent doesn't quite fit in, or even if you don't agree with the general opinion in the community.  For these ostracised people living in these communities, it  sometimes becomes more of a burden than a pleasure.  They may feel isolated, not only from the people they left behind, but also from the people they choose to join.  

As far as I can see it seems pointless to try and make everyone like each other, like one big happy family, because as I have said before, some people just don't like some other people that much,  no matter who they are, but at least they have the privilege of getting to know them first before they make that decision.

Jeanne van Heeswijk, Dutch artist, visits Dublin



Giant Wooden Bunny - Jeanne van Heeswijk



Last week some of the students from 3rd year took a trip to Dublin to see Dutch artist Jeanne van Heeswijk.

Unfortunately there was not enough interest (being a Friday) to get the wheels on the bus rolling, so some of us had to stay behind. 

I think we missed something good... but I took a look at her website.  http://www.jeanneworks.net/

It's very extensive but it gave me some idea of what she's about.

I  really liked the giant wooden bunny (see image).

I especially liked the sound of her "Talking Trash" project and would love to do some sort of experiment regarding how much waste we produce in our college.

Anyone got any ideas?

Reflecting on discussion in class about what images a Community Centre conjures up in people's minds

Last week we were asked to draw a community centre and a 3rd level institution during our Community Development lecture at college.  For the community centre most people drew a building of some sort.  To me it looked like they had probably drawn their own community centre or one nearest them.   Most of them had a single storey.   Most of the views looked at the front of the building.  Most had the front doors closed.  None of them had any people in them.

I drew a picture that had a love heart in the centre of it.  This was supposed to symbolize life,  people and their children.  The heart was surrounded by an open ended circle, which had hands on either side of it.  I thought this could symbolize the openness or open door policy most of the community centres have.    As an after thought I drew a few simplistic houses on the outskirts of the open circle to symbolise the people living amongst   "community centres".   They were integral to all of the people who used them, for a myriad of different reasons and occasions, but also seemed to me, to be used mainly by the locals of the area.



Rough sketch of what came to mind thinking about community centres...

The image I had in my head was one of togetherness and caring.  It was for me, the "centre" or "hub" of any area that has a community centre and one that stood as a kind of resource centre for the people who live around the locality.

The 3rd Level Buildings were portrayed quite differently.  Most of them were big two or three storey buildings. Many of them had steps up to the door.  They were also mainly drawn from the front view, again with a closed door.   They had loads of windows and some had quite a few extensions or add on buildings.   They were all very formal looking, built in a traditional way, the  way you would expect a formal education building to look.

Again I had a very different looking picture.  I drew a H block.  The H was supposed to represent the division of the educators and the students.  On the top half space of the H, I drew a few ? and a few ! - This to me symbolised the formal educators on the one side  (at the top) and on the bottom half of the H, I drew loads of ????????.  These represented the students at the bottom, questioning the other half.

Rough sketch of what  came to mind thinking about a 3rd level institution...

 

When we started out we had no idea why we were being asked to do this,  but it turned into a very interesting session.  It showed, generally speaking, how we view things to do with  "community" quite differently to how we  represent other more formal aspects of our lives, and how most people saw community centres in quite a negative way, without even realising they did so.