Workshop at IADT

Last weekend I had the privilege of teaching a one-day workshop to students from the IADT, NCAD and UCD, on the beautiful IADT campus, as part of their new joint initiative, the Creative Futures Academy.

I’m not a fan of lecturing people about how to write stories, but what I enjoy doing is facilitating people to create a project. I had overseen a workshop like this before at the Jan Van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, and from my feedback I heard it had energised the resident artists.

Similarly, for this workshop I set time limits for pitching, strategising how to create the project based on materials at hand and the deadlines, and then I let them loose to make things.

It was gratifying to watch the students immerse themselves in the challenge and produce a fully realised piece by the end of the day. The aim was not perfection, but to get the project done.

Thank you to the students who committed to the process. They began the day by showing up and that resulted in them making new friends and an entire invented world. Creating work is pure magic.

And again, kudos to Creative Futures for bringing students together and giving them the opportunity to stretch their talents.