Jennie Guy
The Masterplan
Artist and educator Brian Fay wrote an essay for The Masterplan titled What Was School For?. He writes:
“What makes this collaborative community-based project so compelling is its creative weaving of these stages though the mediation of curator Jennie Guy, the engagement of artists Ella de Búrca and John Beattie, and importantly the commitment of the teachers and pupils from Fourth, Fifth and Sixth classes. Guy’s curatorial ethos, to provide a platform for schools to meet artists and for artists to meet schools in an unmediated encounter is special. The governing principle here is that the artist does not have to go outside of their practice and ‘become a teacher’. Instead they provide a sustained exposure to contemporary art practices and theories for the pupils, presenting modes of performance work both non-verbal and choral, creating temporary sculptural works, writing and scripting works for film. The Masterplan provides a collaborative and dialogical space for the pupils to forge their own voices.”
Curator Jennie Guy introducing The Masterplan at Dublin 7 Educate Together NS.
Mindfulness exercise led by artist John Beattie.
Students developing signals for performance choreography.
The Masterplan is a community-based arts initiative that took place during May-June 2016 and represents a new partnership between curator Jennie Guy, artists John Beattie and Ella de Búrca, and Dublin 7 Educate Together National School. The school has been temporarily located in Grangegorman Lower, and will be relocated on the new site as part of the Grangegorman redevelopment. This transition is articulated as the theme of this project.
The project’s ambition is to provide students with access to a deeper connection to the way that the city is changing around them. By the nature of this partnership between the artists and the school, the project is firmly rooted and connected within the local community, the strength of the partnerships aids the legacy of the project. An underlying premise of the work is the belief that if you place artists as active researchers in a learning environment that the students quickly become inventive and creative learners.
The Masterplan was commissioned within ‘…the lives we live’, the Grangegorman Public Art Programme. The pathway that the project was commissioned within centres on community-based projects and events and aims to increase local participation and engagement with life through the arts.
Students and teachers visiting the site of their future school located in Grangegorman.
Performance set on the site of Grangegorman.
Artist John Beattie filming the performance.
Students performing texts written during the residency.
Students improvising their costumes evolved during the residency.
Students and artists working together to review the project.