Ensuring a quality experience between artists and children is a priority for Kids’ Own. We believe in the creative process and in engaging children in a real arts experience.
Throughout all our programmes we endeavour to support artists as artists and not just facilitators of a process. We acknowledge the value of artists and recognise the need to support not only contact time with children but also processing time and their own practice time.
Kids’ Own want to continue to lead and inspire artists practice working with children.
This happens in a real way by bringing artists together enabling them to share their way of working and experiences with each other, providing real opportunities for artists to learn and to improve their work on the ground working with children.
Good practice in the field of arts and education shows that professional artists can grow within the creative process of collaboration with young people. We encourage artists to act as collaborators and partners in the process, and to leave their expertise behind. The framework we provide is adaptable to support each individual partnership. It is flexible to enable and empower individual artists to reach their own unique potential.
Kids’ Own has pioneered and promoted artists’ engagement with children and young people for over 13 years. There is currently no support in place for artists’ practice with children and young people. Through managing a number of long-term artists’ residencies over the years, we have discovered the importance of shared experience in the professional development of artists’ practice with children and young people. In light of this we feel it is important to make this learning public and collaborative in order to empower artists working in this field and validate their practice.
Spotlight: Practice.ie
Practice.ie is the first all-Ireland professional network for artists working across all art forms with children and young people. Practice.ie is a space where professional artists and practitioners can share and discuss their work through blogs, images and forum discussions. It also features commissioned essays, interviews and project descriptions, as a resource for artists and as a means to stimulate debate and dialogue around contemporary arts practice for young people.
The Practice.ie website is part of a wider support structure for professional artists which comprises professional development meetings and now, the Practice Journal – a publication that reports on and promotes the value of arts practice with children and young people, which is edited from the content of the website and aims to give wider visibility to this work. The Practice Journal occupies a unique place within the arts and education sectors as the only regular publication dedicated to this area of practice.
From meeting with artists over the past two years, we know more about the supports that artists need in order to develop their practice. Now, our aim in 2010 is for Practice.ie to become a space for critical thinking and debate within this area. As well as providing a continuing facility and space for artists to discuss and profile their work through blogs, images and the forum, in 2010, Kids’ Own invited guest editors on a bi-monthly basis to share their expertise and learning. This has ensured that practice.ie stays relevevant and dynamic.
See whats new on practice.ie!
