Words That Change Our Way of Seeing

Project overview:

This year’s festival theme The Law is a White Dog reflects on the implications of past and current legal systems and how they influence our thinking and attitude. In particular it looks at how work made by artists responds to categorisation and labelling in society and how this work can challenge us to reconsider any assumptions we made or things we may have accepted without questioning. The work invites us to begin conversations that can often make us feel uncomfortable. Societal issues concerning equality, status, power, hierarchy, accessibility, and climate change feature throughout the work in this year’s festival. The underpinning theme relating to climate change will provide the stimulus for this project.

The title of this County Schools Project is Words That Change Our Way of Seeing. Writer, poet and dramatist Pete Mullineaux will collaborate with visual artist Kim Sharkey to facilitate a poetry/drawing workshop for the sixth class students and their teacher Timmie Glavey of Clarinbridge National School, Co. Galway. Pete will begin the discussion on climate change with the students and in particular explore what changes we can make in our lives to help save our planet. Students will write poems individually and collaboratively based on their interaction and discussions with Pete. Kim will then bring the students through two processes; bookmaking and illustrating. Students will create their own accordion books where they can develop ideas for illustrations to accompany their poems. Poems will be matched with associated imagery and digitally scanned to create a pdf book that will be shared through the TULCA website.