Arts-based Community Development

Arts-based Community Development is a shared module for 4th year students on the Applied Social Care and Outdoor Education programmes at GMIT Mayo. The module aims to address fundamental questions about cultural democracy and human rights, with a particular focus on strategies to develop cultural literacy and cultural capital. We do this through practical exploration and examination of aesthetic and ethical issues as expressed in the tensions between product and process in community-based cultural activity. the core idea behind the module is that the students are autonomous learners, gaining knowledge and experience through developing their own projects and working with others. Below are some examples of work from recent years.

Not-So-Spooky Halloween Fest project 2021

Planning

The brief - add activities to a Halloween storytelling trail for about 40 children aged 0-6.

The process: Brainstorming ideas, allocating tasks, setting goals

Preparation

Preparing materials, practicing activities, learning the skills and generating fluency with the materials. making and assembling our props.

The process: Two workshops getting everything ready, making, painting and assembling.

Delivery

On the day, despite the pouring rain, we had over 150 children so were quite swamped, both literally and metaphorically! Everyone rose to the occasion, and despite us running out of some materials early on, we managed to make sure that all the kids had a great time.

Reflection

Because of the weather, we had to abandon some elements of the plan, such as the scavenger hunt, and reorganize others. However, we still achieved our goals, and everybody got stuck in and had fun, as can be seen from the word cloud! the take home message was about the need to be resourceful and flexible in dealing with events like this, which made it a significant learning process for the students.

GMIT Mayo Past Present and Future 2019

In 2019, the students created a video, painted a mural and organized an exhibition representing the Past, Present and Future of the GMIT Mayo Campus. Click here to view the video (on GMIT Mayo Facebook)

The students painted a mural using the basic outline of the ground floor plan of the original building, the former psychiatric hospital. They abstracted the plan, and used tape on the wall to produce a simple striking monochrome image in the Nursing Foyer.

The exhibition in the Nursing Foyer featured the video, the mural in the Nursing Foyer, artifacts from the old psychiatric hospital (courtesy of the HSE), along with maps and documents outlining the history of the building and the campus. The future of the campus was shown by images and signs from the weekly Fridays for Future protests, reflecting the emphasis on the campus of sustainability and the climate crisis..

Feedback

Both the student and external examiner's feedback to the delivery of the module has been very positive, although some students find the level of autonomy quite challenging. The word cloud here reflects a discussion on values among one of the groups, and and shows the kind of atmosphere that we strive to build and maintain. While the module is often fun, it can also be interesting and challenging, with the students needing to negotiate activities among themselves. A big issue in 2021 is that the group decided to revert to being fully online about halfway through the module, which brought its own difficulties in terms of the activities we could do..

Integration of learning technology

Among the technologies we used were PowerPoint, Teams, and Padlet for working together, Menti for polling, Kotobee for generating an e-book, and Moodle for general teaching and learning

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