Art in SPIRASI

Art Project Site

This is a site designed by 12 participants of the Web Design Project between February and April 2007 to showcase the work of the other SPIRASI art projects that had been active in late 2006 and early 2007.

The SPIRASI Art programme began in Autumn 2005 with a very limited budget and has since become one of the more important means by which asylum seekers and other migrants can integrate into Irish life. The various art projects have included painting, film-making, story-telling, web and graphic design, creative writing, dance, drumming and other musical workshops. These activities allow the artists to express themselves and to communicate and interact with local Irish communities.

As one of the SPIRASI Arts modules consisted of a comprehensive course in creative graphic and web design, the students were given their own space on the SPIRASI web-site to exhibit the work of the Arts Programme. Their work and their design can be viewed in the Art Project site.

Regular Activities & Projects

If you are a refugee or asylum seeker, you are welcome to participate in our Arts Programme. If you are interested in any of these art projects or if you have any ideas about other art projects you would like to take part in please come and see us. Contact Anne at artproject@spirasi.ie.

Story Telling

All of us have a story to tell; all of us are a story in progress. Every culture of peoples have their own stories unique to them which show their outlook and perspective on life. Through listening and hearing these stories we can begin to see a little through the eyes of cultures other than our own and take the first step to walking in the shoes of another.

Would you like to share the stories you knew as a child? Together, we will collect stories, write them out, record them, animate them on to computer and learn to tell the stories to a wider audience. Those who are interested will be given opportunities to tell the stories to school children. By valuing each other’s stories we learn to value each other as people.
Story Telling Page in the Client Art Project Site

Computer Animation

Stories can be told very simply by presenting them in animation (cartoon) form. Learn to turn stories into animation through computer graphics. Basic drawing and computer skills are necessary. Be part of this very exciting project to engage children more fully in stories from around the world.

Drama

Learn confidence, have fun, develop your skills at communication. Express your feelings through body movement and play acting. Drama projects at SPIRASI are participant centred — you decide what you want to do together and our excellent drama teachers will design a programme to suit you.

This drama project will invite participants to join from Irish and minority ethnic communities. The participants will devise the direction and themes of the project. Anyone interested in drama, set design, play writing or just having fun is invited to contact Anne or Grainne at SPIRASI.

Visual Art

If you are interested in classes in art & design, drawing or painting, please contact Anne or Grainne (Ph: 01 8389664 or call in to SPIRASI, 213 Nth Circular Rd, Phibsboro, Dublin7 or email artproject@spirasi.ie).

Photography

Allow others to look through your eyes. Look through your own eyes differently. Photography is a method by which we capture our worlds as we see it.

The photography class has served as an excellent means for me to review the way I see things. I now see photography as an expressive art. Pictures tell a story. Photography can catch world attention without saying a word through pictures.

Eloho Egwuterai

Current Arts Activities & Projects

Volunteers Wanted !

SPIRASI client dressed as the Chameleon Queen

Take part in showing the new face of Dublin. We are inviting participants to take part in City Fusion, a St. Patrick's Day Festival project. In this Intercultural Community Project you will learn how to drum and also make costumes that will be worn on the Parade. Everybody is welcome especially members from minority ethnicities. (To register please contact Anne or Grainne). Time: Every Wednesday afternoons 3-5pm from Mid-December until March 17th.

The Story Telling Project at SPIRASI is looking for volunteers from new communities living in Dublin. We are looking for individuals who are interested in sharing stories from their countries of origin while also receiving Story Telling training to enable them to deliver Story Telling sessions in primary schools. If you are interested in taking part or would like more information please contact Grainne: godonnell@spirasi.ie or Anne: artproject@spirasi.ie

The Creative Expression Project is looking for non-Irish participants to take part in an exciting new theatre project. This project will bring together members from the indigenous Irish and new communities to create a theatre piece that examines the experience of migration. You do not need experience in drama just an interest in expressing your ideas and experiences about multiculturalism in Ireland. This project will give you an opportunity to develop your acting and facilitation skills while working closely with highly experienced theatre professionals. If you would to take part or volunteer time towards the production, set design, technical support, or would like more information please contact Grainne: godonnell@spirasi.ie or Anne: artproject@spirasi.ie

The SPIRASI arts team is a small one but they keep a hectic schedule of ongoing projects and activities. The following activities are a selection of the current and upcoming events that the Arts programme is participating in:

Storytelling Phase 1 — Gathering & Sharing Stories

Participants are invited to come to these workshops and share stories from their childhoods. The stories will be recorded and transcribed and produced in book form. Participants will also be invited to train to tell stories to children. After training, participants will go to schools in Ireland to share their stories with the school children.

Storytelling Phase 2 — Telling Stories using Flash Animation

This project will teach participants how to depict stories in cartoon form using a computer technique called FLASH ANIMATION. Participants will each recreate a traditional folk story from around the world in cartoon form. The intention is to introduce these stories to school children throughout Ireland. We believe that in learning to value these stories we also learn to value the people — and their cultures — that have brought them to Ireland.

Past Arts Events

2007 Festival of World Cultures

Participants of the SPIRASI arts programme performed at the 2007 Festival of World Cultures in Dún Laoghaire held annually on the last weekend of August. One group held a drumming circle which was open to members of the public and took part in the street parade while the other group held story-telling work-shops.

A personal account of the festival - with photographs

SPIRASI at the 2007 St. Patrick's Day Parade

A group of SPIRASI clients participated in the 2007 St Patrick's Day Parade. With a group from the Rainbow Neighbourhood Project, they took part in the City Fusion project — an intercultural community arts project. The SPIRASI group participated as Chameleon drummers in the parade.

Art and Refuge: Imprisoned Voices — March–September 2007

This exhibition running from March until September 2007 features three refugees who are participants in the SPIRASI arts programme. Their work is exhibited at the Armoury Café and Exhibition Centre at the Glencree Peace and Reconciliation Centre.

The Arts Programme at SPIRASI is sponsored and funded by the European Refugee Fund and the Pobal Fund to Support the Integration of Legally Resident Immigrants.

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