TULCA Education Programme 2020 (extended)
TULCA Festival of Visual Arts is delighted to share the online educational resources and activities with parents, teachers and students of its extended 2020 Education Programme.
TULCA is a festival celebrating contemporary visual art, that takes place annually in November across Galway City and County. The Law is a White Dog, curated by Sarah Browne, was the title of the 18th edition and featured work by 23 artistic contributors across 4 exhibition venues together with screenings, workshops and performance events. The Education Programme has been reimagined to allow us to deliver it to you safely online.
TULCA's most recent festival, 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 make us feel uncomfortable. Societal issues concerning equality, status, power, hierarchy, accessibility, and climate change underpin the work in this year’s festival. Who do we include or exclude when we communicate through language and the spoken word? How do we agree on ownership? Where are our boundaries? Does status give us rights to knowledge? Who decides what is right and just in society? Who is responsible for the care of our planet? All challenging questions that we are asked to consider as we engage with the work in the festival programme.
As always, the TULCA Education Programme welcomes inquiring viewers of all ages to think and talk about visual art together. We aim to encourage people to engage with the artwork, feed their curiosity and view the work online and avail of our education programme videos and activities. All types of conversations are sparked through the shared experience of looking together.
The TULCA Education Programme is a unique programme that focuses on looking at and responding to visual art. It is about reaching out and engaging with schools and the wider community to create an increased awareness and a shared understanding of the visual arts. The programme engages a process of slow looking, reflection and response. Artists probe, question and investigate topics of social concern. TULCA’s Education Programme is designed to continue this process of critical thinking by creating a space for dialogue and learning exchange. It draws on individual personal experience and acknowledges that we all have our own set of visual codes, value systems, likes and dislikes.
Primary Videos and Activity Sheets
Primary school children can access online video content either at home or in their classrooms. Through these videos our Education Team introduce the work by 4 of the exhibiting artists; Rajinder Singh, Kevin Mooney, Rossella Biscotti and Sibyl Montague. Each video has two bespoke activities designed by Education Coordinator Dee Deegan that can be downloaded through the TULCA website. The primary videos are presented by Dee Deegan, Judith Bernhardt and Kate McSharry. Education documentation by Soft Day Media.
These creative and engaging activities include drawing, painting, mapmaking and sculpture. Age recommendations for children appear on each activity sheet. Students are encouraged to share the work made in response to these activities through email or on our social media platforms.
Primary school videos and activity sheets can be accessed here.
Leaving Certificate Art Appreciation Video Tour
Post primary students can access a guided video tour that has been created for students studying art for their Leaving Certificate to help them prepare for the gallery question of the Leaving Certificate Art History and Appreciation Exam. There is a resource pack and worksheet available to download that accompanies this video resource. This video tour and resources were designed by Education Coordinator Dee Deegan who is a qualified second level teacher with excellent knowledge and understanding of curriculum requirements at this level. Education documentation by Soft Day Media.
Leaving Certificate Art Appreciation video, resource pack and worksheet can be accessed here.
Higher Education Resources
We are delighted to be able to share all the public outcomes of TULCA Festival of Visual Arts exhibition and online educational resources of its 2020 festival programme.
Higher education students can access the exhibition online.
Selected photographic documentation by Ros Kavanagh is available here.
Three offsite artworks are documented here.
Video documentation of the entire programme, edited by Jonathan Sammon, can be watched here.
Artist Talks
Presented in partnership with GMIT Centre for Creative Arts and Media.
The Artist Talk Series hosted in association with our partners at the Centre for Creative Arts and Media GMIT is available to watch online. Featured artist contributors include Vukašin Nedeljković, Sibyl Montague and Saoirse Wall.
• Artist Talk 1: Vukašin Nedeljković
• Artist Talk 2: Sibyl Montague
• Artist Talk 3: Saoirse Wall
Edited, captioned versions of these talks are available here.
Professional Practice
Our education team member Kate McSharry is featured in a ‘Professional Practice’ video developed to aid third level students' understanding of requirements for submission to an exhibition like TULCA. Kate also gives an overview of the festival, the role of the curator, how the work is selected and also shares her own experience of working with TULCA as a volunteer/intern and now as a valued member of the education team. Education documentation by Soft Day Media.
Professional Practice video for emerging artists can be accessed here.
County Schools Projects
Two county Galway schools; Clarinbridge National School and Calasanctius College, participated in our County Schools Project throughout November and December 2020. The project brief was designed by Education Coordinator Dee Deegan and workshop activities were inspired by the themes underpinning the festival. All workshops were delivered virtually. Both of these projects are kindly funded through the Arts Office of Galway County Council.
How Far Can Your Voice Carry?
Writer, poet and dramatist Pete Mullineaux worked with a group of Transition Year students and their teacher Alan Caden of Calasanctius College, Oranmore, Co. Galway to deliver a poetry workshop titled How Far Can Your Voice Carry? Pete facilitated these poetry workshops remotely using Microsoft Teams. The stimulus for the workshops came from the film The Undercurrent by Rory Pilgrim, one of the TULCA festival contributors. 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 provided the stimulus for this project. Students wrote poems in response to Rory’s film and did audio recordings of the poems to add a performative element to the work.
Words that Change our Ways of Seeing
The title of this County Schools Project that took place in Clarinbridge National School is Words That Change Our Way of Seeing and it focused on the theme of climate change. Writer, poet and dramatist Pete Mullineaux collaborated with visual artist Kim Sharkey to facilitate this poetry/drawing workshop for the sixth class students and their teacher Timmie Glavey of Clarinbridge National School. Pete began the discussion on climate change with students and in particular explored what changes they can make in our lives to help save our planet. Students wrote poems individually and collaboratively based on their interaction and discussions with Pete. Kim then brought the students through two processes; bookmaking and illustrating. Students created their own accordion books and developed ideas for illustrations to accompany their poems. Images of the work will be shared online through the TULCA website.
For more information and updates on the TULCA Education Programme visit: www.tulca.ie/education