Understanding the Strategies of Art for Reconciliation: Breakout Session 2

The second Exchange Forum for the Art for Reconciliation project explored the affordances of artistic strategies for peacebuilding. This breakout session, chaired by Tori Durrer, University College Dublin, looks at the way artists negoiate the practical pressures of working in art for reconciliation practices.

Developmental Capacities: Artists (Chair: Tori Durrer, University College Dublin)

While we are already familiar with the lack of resources bearing down on the arts, a situation that looks set to get worse, we rarely talk about how artists negotiate with the pressures exerted by such material conditions to ensure the creative agency of their work. Above all, it is the artists voice that is lacking in the design and delivery of funding for AfR. We need to understand better the practical pressures faced by artists, from the task of developing trust with participants to ethical approaches to trauma, paying particular attention how we might balance artistic autonomy and instrumentality. At current, where arts interventions have ended, there is little support for picking up on what may have been ‘stirred up’ by a particular arts project. Funders need to hear about the challenges facing artists in a more discursive way.What support exists for artists engaged with difficult material in complex socio-political contexts? How can we facilitate a more conversational, discursive approach when designing how support is provided for artists?

Speakers: Vincent Higgins (Actor, Green & Blue); Paula Carson (Actor, Queer Céilí), Anthony Luvera (Artist, Residency)

 

(originally published 21 January 2021)