Arts education enables children to explore alternative ways of communicating with others, encouraging ideas that are personal and inventive and making a vital contribution to the development of a range of intelligences.  Arts education is integral in helping to promote thinking, imagination and sensitivity, and arts related activities help children to make sense of the world; to question, to speculate and to find solutions; to deal with feelings and to respond to creative experiences.

The schools involved in TAP 2022- 2023 are:

Prior to taking part in TAP 2022-23 both teachers and artists would have completed a TAP summer residency programme at Wexford Education Support Centre.  This would have enabled both teacher and artist to get maximum benefit from the programme.  TAP was hugely enjoyed by all participants, students, artists and teachers. Below please find some feedback and samples of the work. This is not an exhaustive list but will give some insight into the projects that took place.

Artist: Colum Kavanagh

School: Scoil Naomh Maodhog Ferns

No of Children involved in the residency:70

Art Form: Comic Book Story Telling

Brief outline of the Residency: Colum Visited the school on four separate occasions to deliver his comic book workshops to the three separate class groups.

Credit: Scoil Naomh Maodhogh Ferns

Artist: Heather Hadrill

School: Courtnacuddy NS 

No of Children involved in the residency:Junior, Senior Infants and First Class

Art Form: Drama  

Teacher Observation:

“I Learned New drama games, ideas and icebreakers for use with classes in the future, I learned drama techniques that can be used when engaging students in other subjects on the curriculum.”

Teacher: Catherine Kearns O’ Brien

Credit: Junior Infants – Cournacuddy – Performing for Other Classes

Artist: Nonie Stafford

School: Gorey Educate Together 

No of Children involved in the residency: Third Class

Art Form: Visual art – Calligraphy and illustration  

Artist: Nonie Stafford & Gorey Educate Together

Learning Outcomes for the Teacher:

Teacher

“The children learned new skills not covered in the Visual Arts Curriculum. The children got to work with a professional artist. The children saw a presentation of the artists work and asked her questions and now see art as a viable and realistic career path. There was linkage between the art making process and the history curriculum.”

Credit: Gorey Educate Together & Nonie Stafford

WEXFORD REGISTER OF APPROVED ARTISTS

CALL OUT FOR ARTISTS FOR 4TH TO 8TH JULY 2022 is concluded

The TEACHER-ARTIST PARTNERSHIP CPD programme (TAP) is a Creative Ireland, Department of Education led and approved Summer Course offering FULLY PAID TRAINING AND IN-SCHOOL RESIDENCY OPPORTUNITIES FOR ARTISTS

TO WORK WITHIN PRIMARY SCHOOL SETTINGS & AND DEVELOP PARTNERSHIPS WITH CREATIVE TEACHERS

• Open to artists, working in any art form, who are committed to sharing their practice with children and teachers in a modern primary school environment
• Specialist, week-long training (4th – 8th July 2022 based in Wexford Education Support Centre, Milehouse Road, Enniscorthy, Y21T271 to prepare the artist for the unique requirements of working harmoniously in partnership with a teacher within the modern Irish classroom
• A training allowance of €150 per day over the initial 5-day training/induction week (€750 in total), plus travel with daily lunch provided.
• Brokerage and development of partnerships with creative teachers, in schools committed to contemporary arts learning, practice and creativity.
• Possibility of a paid, follow up in-school-residency within a local primary school (€1,000 Fee total inclusive of Travel) to carry out a 20-hour project (14 contact hours plus 6 hours planning, preparation and evaluation) in partnership with your teacher partner throughout the 2022/2023 academic year
• Information, learning and networking opportunities for further freelance work within the education system.

Artists must

• have a track record of a minimum of three years’ professional practice in any art form
• demonstrate an interest in / commitment to: the principles of Arts-in-Education and Creativity and to enhancing the lives of children through arts practice
• be willing to learn about modern classroom culture and to work in equal partnership with teachers
• Combine a sense of fun, joy and collaboration with professional dedication and high artistic vision
• Be willing to undertake child protection training as part of the induction week, and undergo standard Garda vetting before taking up project placements.

Successful artists will be contacted by Wexford Education Support Centre to participate in the training and to deliver a subsequent partnership residency project, but must apply to be part of the scheme in the first instance via the “Call Out for Artists” by the Arts Officer of the Local Authority in which the full-time Education Support Centre is located.

Expressions of interest should be in the form of a letter of max 600 words, accompanied by a CV or short Bio with links to images or samples of relevant work.  The letter should set out:

1. Where you trained
2. A very brief description of your practice
3. Why you might wish to work in partnership with a teacher and with children in a school setting
4. What you think qualifies you to take up this opportunity.

Places on this national Creative Ireland CPD initiative, taking place in Wexford Education Support Centre training programmes, are limited to four artists per year – 4 Artists per Summer Course.  The final decision on offers of places will be taken by the Director of Wexford Education Support Centre in collaboration with Wexford Authority Arts Office.

Please see information below regarding the upcoming Portal Documentation Award 2022.

Please see the link below to the Arts in Education website:

https://artsineducation.ie/en/2021/12/21/opportunity-portal-documentation-award-2022/

Please note if you have any queries, contact Éilís at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Opportunity: Portal Documentation Award 2022

The schools involved in TAP 2021 - 2022 were:

• Ainnéad Ui Mhurchú         Gaelscoil Inis Córthaidh        Artist - John Busher
• Ashling Mc Manus             Riverchapel NS                         Artist  -Sarah Bowie
• Clodagh Leacy                   Riverchapel NS                         Artist  - Sarah Bowie
• Doireann Morrissey          St Aidan's PS                              Artist - Colum Kavanagh

The Arts in Education Portal editorial team are pleased to invite applications for a documentation award. Through the award, successful applicants will receive services to the value of €5,000 that will support them in the documentation of a current or upcoming project and a €500 stipend.

The purpose of the award is to support the development of documented outcomes from Arts in Education initiatives in Ireland, which can be shared with the arts in education community and give insights into different processes of engagement. This is part of the Arts in Education Portal Editorial Committee’s commitment to supporting and recognising the value of documentation and reflection as a key component within arts in education initiatives.

Two awards will be offered through this opportunity.

Outcomes of the documentation process will include: a project video, a project feature to be showcased on the Portal’s Projects/Partnerships, and the option of a critical essay, with a view to also presenting the work as part of the Arts in Education Portal National Day in 2022.

The process will involve meetings with the Portal Team and a schedule of up to 3 visits over the course of the project to capture video and photographic documentation and support reflective processes among participants. These visits and meetings can be conducted virtually if required. The portal team will work closely with the recipients to ensure all restrictions and protocols in terms of COVID 19 are adhered to during the process to ensure safety for all involved.

The portal team will edit and produce a project video, and will liaise closely with the project partners to develop the content for the project feature. The critical essay would be sited in the Portal’s Reading Room, and is optional. The author and focus of the essay can be decided by the project organisers in collaboration with the Portal Team.

Criteria

To be considered for this opportunity, projects must:

Have started in autumn 2021 and continuing into 2022, or taking place in 2022 (flexibility will be given for project start dates due to current school closures).

Have a minimum duration of 8 weeks.

Involve a professional artist working collaboratively within an educational setting (early years, primary or post-primary).

Be underpinned by a strong ethos of collaboration and a commitment to excellence. Focus on the creative process, with children having an active and collaborative role

Additional criteria

Successful applicants will be asked to ensure that relevant permissions/consent have been sought for documentation of participants.

Please ensure your application has been approved by all project partners prior to submission.

How to make a submission:

Background on who you are; your professional practice and your ethos or approach towards Arts in Education.

An overview of the project – who is involved, how did the collaboration come about, what processes or approaches will take place, what is the aim or focus of the process?

A statement of interest, explaining why documentation support would be of value to this project.

Please send your submission to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  by 5pm, Friday 26 February 2022.

Following participation on the TAP summer course, Teachers are eligible to apply for an Artist in Residence with a TAP trained Artist in the teachers school.  TAP Residencies take place between October and March of the following school year.  Pre-Covid, each Education Centre could award up to eight (8) face-to-face residencies to participating schools.  However, in 2021, following the TAP Online summer course, 114 Teachers nationwide applied for a residency via an embedded Survey Monkey link on the E-Learn Tralee Moodle platform.  Forty-four (44) newly trained TAP Artists completed the TAP Online Summer Course and are therefore eligible to take part in the TAP Residency programme.  All TAP 2021 Online data was returned to the National Arts in Education Office where Teacher and Artist data were filtered by region and allocated to the ESCI network for matching Teacher and Artist pairs for school residency purposes.

Teacher-Artist Partnership (TAP)  is a unique Department of Education and Skills initiative which commenced on a pilot basis in 2014/15 in response to the objectives outlined in the Arts in Education Charter. This initiative is guided by the principles expressed in the Arts in Education Charter (2012) and Pillar 1 (Creative Youth) of the Creative Ireland Programme (2017–2022).

Nurturing the abilities and commitment of artists and teachers for the promotion of arts-in-education is a central concern of the Arts in Education Charter. One of its major initiatives in this regard was the design and implementation of a pilot teacher-artist CPD Partnership Summer Course. Part of supporting schools in the provision of high quality arts education for children, this pilot arts in education initiative was Association of Teacher Education Centre of Ireland (ATECI) led, in partnership with the Department of Culture Heritage and the Gaeltacht (DCHG), Encountering the Arts Ireland (ETAI) and the Association for Creativity in Arts Education (ACAE).  The initiative is administered by the Education Centre, Tralee. This innovative teacher-artist CPD programme was aimed at developing a model of arts in education CPD for teachers which could be used as a template for the future.

The Pilot Project was researched and the Research Report on this Pilot initiative was launched by both the Minister for Education and Skills and the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht in March 2016 and has been published (available on here).

Teacher-Artist Partnership CPD Summer Course & Residency Programme is now mainstreamed and consists of free DES approved (EPV days) Summer Courses operating in each of the 21 full-time Education Centres in Ireland in either July or August each year. Each Course will have 20 primary teachers and 4 professional artists participating. It will be delivered by a trained and experienced Teacher Artist Facilitator Pair. The initiative includes funded Artist in Residency opportunities in which participating teachers and artists work together in collaboration in the School during the following academic year.

Arts in Education in Ireland (Primary Schools Initiative)

• Schools involved in 2021/2022 are:
• Ainnéad Ui Mhurchú, Gaelscoil Inis Córthaidh - Artist John Busher
• Ashling Mc Manus, Riverchapel NS - Artist Sarah Bowie
• Clodagh Leacy, Riverchapel NS, - Artist Sarah Bowie
• Doireann Morrissey, St. Aidan's PS - Colum Kavanagh

Schools involved in 2020 / 2021 were:

• John of God P.S., The Faythe, Wexford Town – Artist Brigid Teehnan
• Bunscoil Loreto Gorey 6^th Class – Artist Ellis O’Toole
• Bunscoil Loreto Gorey SET Class – Artist Mary Keane
• Cushinstown N.S. – Artist Lani O’Hanlon
• St Josephs BNS Carlow - Artist Caroline Busher 

Schools involved in 2019 / 2020 were:

• Scoil Naomh Treasa, Gorey -Artist Joe Brennan 
• Gaelscoil Moshiolog, Gorey -Artist Caroline Busher 
• Scoil Fhoirtcheirn , Myshall - Artist Caroline Busher 
• St Joseph's NS, Ballymitty - Artist David Begley
• Scoil Mhaodhoig, Polfur -Artist Joe Brennan 
• Mercy School , Wexford Town - Artist Caroline Busher 
• St Fintans NS , Mayglass - Artist Joe Brennan 
• Scoil  Naomh Maodhog, Ferns - Artist Caroline Busher 

Please see examples of the wonderful work been done in our local schools on the Arts in Education Portal Access the TAP Website, please click here

Teacher - Artist Partnership (TAP) Information Flyer