The Art of Invitation

The Art of Invitation

THIS COURSE IS NOW BOOKED OUT AND APPLICATIONS FOR BURSARIES ARE CLOSED.

If you would like to be added to our waiting list, please email orlaith@carlowartsfestival.com.

11-15^th July, An Gairdín Beo, Dublin Road, Carlow

How can we bring people together to engage with the challenges facing our communities? How can we ask questions creatively to encourage meaningful dialogue? What skills, resources and capacities do people already have that can be built upon?

Carlow Arts Festival is delighted to offer The Art of Invitation Course which will be expertly led by Ruth Ben-Tovim.

The Art of Invitation training offers new creative tools for change that can equip you and your projects, groups, communities and organisations to engage in the ecological, cultural and social challenges of our time.

You will learn about:

• New approaches to engaging people in creative, collective responses to challenges facing their communities
• Creative ways to activate and inspire people to participate
• A participatory approach to facilitation, involving doing, making and reflecting, both individually and in groups
• Creative approaches to bring groups of people together and maintain their involvement

Who’s it for?

Anyone looking for new creative ways to activate and engage diverse groups of people in responding to social, cultural and ecological challenges. People from a range of backgrounds will benefit – from social enterprises, community groups and co-operatives, to grassroots activists, artists and campaigners, as well as researchers, teachers, facilitators, academics, and consultants.

What time is it at each day?

Monday we will start at 11:30am finishing at 4:30pm. Tuesday to Friday we will start at 9:45am and finish at 4:30pm.

How much does it cost?

It is €150 for unsalaried, €250 for salaried, €50 for students and we have five bursaries on offer. This cost covers the full five days of the course plus lunch.

FULLY BOOKED

Criteria for Bursaries

Selection will be made by a panel of representatives from Carlow Arts Festival.

Selection will be made based upon:

• Demonstration of passion for community engagement, socially engaged arts practice, and arts participation.
• Desire and ambition to learn more about this field of practice and grow skills and knowledge.
• Preference will be given to emerging arts practitioners wishing to develop skills in the field of community engagement/ socially engaged arts practice.

Applicants must be available to attend all dates. Details of the programme and structure will be sent to attendees in advance of the course starting.

Testimonies from previous participants in the Art of Invitation Course

“[This has] Influenced me to be more ambitious in my projects. To actively seek collaboration with others.”

“Magic, holistic, amazing. Thanks for your great work and for sharing your skills, knowledge and practice.”

“Really amazing, nurturing, authentic facilitation from all of you…a pure joy to be here…”

“These artists do something remarkable, something precious, they create invitational spaces in which people feel comfortable to relate to each other and to ideas in a very different way. I don’t know anyone else who brings the care, love, attention to detail and passion to what they do.” Rob Hopkins, Founder of the Transition Movement.

About Ruth Ben-Tovim

“I worked for ten years as a theatre director and dramaturg working in a cross-disciplinary way before focusing my practice within a community context as a socially and ecologically engaged artist, facilitator and designer. From 2003 – 2020, I was the co- founder and Executive Director of Encounters Arts specialising in creative community involvement and engagement. Working in different sectors and with diverse collaborators, I produced and delivered over 80 intimate participatory projects and interventions that invited people from all backgrounds to explore and express creatively their experiences of the past, responses to the present and hopes and fears about the future. With Encounters, I was part of the team representing the UK at the Venice Biennale of Architecture and delivered projects for Liverpool Capital of Culture, the Arts Council and the Royal Society of Arts. Currently, I am one of the lead artists in Walking Forest a ten year public artwork connecting women, trees and activism and I deliver The Art of Invitation training which offers creative skills for activating ourselves and our communities in response to social and ecological challenges. I am also one of the founders of the Culture Declares Emergency movement.”

Artists Lucy Neal and Anne-Marie Culhane who deliver The Art of Invitation with Ruth will visit the workshop online to talk about their practice.

Anne-Marie Culhane

“I create events, performances and long-term projects that invite people into active and enquiring relationships with each other, the land and earth’s natural systems framed within the context of a global climate and ecological emergency. I am an artist, activist, project manager and collaborator working across a range of disciplines.

My work takes place in outdoor spaces, community centres, parks, the street and sometimes in galleries and museums. I am constantly learning the arts of collaboration and co-production. I draw inspiration from the cycles of nature and seasons; environmental and ecological concerns or questions and listening and responding to people, landscapes and particular sites. Much of my work focuses on our relationship to trees and orchards including performance such as Running with Tree and planting, harvesting and celebrating trees in common spaces such as FLOW, Fruit Routes and Abundance.” www.amculhane.co.uk

Lucy Neal

“I am a theatre maker and writer exploring celebratory events that act as catalysts for change: from the gifting of a small seed in a six-minute ritual to the staging of a theatre of fire for 20,000 in a London Park. Co-founder Director of the London International Festival of Theatre (1981-2005), I am active in the grassroots Transition movement in Tooting, South London where I live. My handbook ‘Playing for Time – Making Art As If the World Mattered’, (Oberon Books, 2015) maps collaborative arts practices emerging in response to planetary challenges. I tutor on The Arvon Writing Course Fierce Words and am a Trustee of the Aluna Foundation. I am author of ‘The Great Imagining – how the arts spark cultural change in Zero Carbon Britain’s Making It Happen’, and is a founder ‘declarer’ of Culture Declares, a global movement of artists and cultural organisations declaring a climate and ecological emergency.” www.lucyneal.co.uk