Art Lives - Journal

ArtsLives

CULP40240 CULTURAL POLICY 3: ArtsLives

MODULE COORDINATOR: DR ANNETTE CLANCY SPRING TRIMESTER 2021

Tuesdays 10-11.30am, f rom 19 January 2021, 5 weeks

02INTRODUCTION The core objective is to help you think about, identify and develop your own tools for living and working as a manager, taking account of the personalised and sometimes political nature of the management experience.

ArtsLives is a five week series of seminars with a cross section of cultural and creative practitioners at various career stages, to explore personal, professional and strategic dimensions of their experience.

Speakers in ArtsLives are invited to reflect on their careers to-date and upon those things they might have wished they had known as they started out. The conversational format is designed to encourage thinking aloud, and to enhance engagement with speakers and a lively discussion around what they have to say.

Our focus is very much on realism - learning from lessons our mentors have found important - but with an eye also, as always, to ideals - how might it be possible, through personal values and commitments, to advance and enhance the arts/culture sector?

What promising practices or good practices can you identify, and what might you want to develop or do differently? What kind of manager do you want to be, what kind of career do you want to have, and what kind of impact do you want to make?

LEARNING PROCESS

Try to answer for yourself:

What are the skills that have proved important to these guests?

What will help me not only survive, but thrive and make a difference in this sector?

Where am I with these skills, and how can I go about developing them further?

Through listening, dialogue, and your own re�ective work in response to these sessions, the challenge is:

Your task is to use this module to develop a journal document that reflects on these questions and captures your learning having reflected on what you’ve heard from each guest, in relation to your own goals and experiences. Bear in mind the task is not to summarise what was discussed. Rather, week by week, and in your final reflection chapter, we ask you to build a cumulative picture of the insights or reflective conclusions you have taken from the seminar series.

We ask for a portfolio that includes these reflections. This document is your dialogue with what you have heard and the questions above, and the goals are for what you create to be a bridge between what you are learning and your future practice.

To identify effective cultural sector managerial skills and promising practices To develop insight into the personal and organisational leadership qualities you believe are needed in the sector To reflect on your own career journey, and relationship with these skills

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ASSIGNMENT

Writing is a learning device to help you think and re�ect. Rather than simply listening, or just summarising and reacting, journaling asks you to consider, consolidate and deepen your insight.

The journal is a book of evidence. It is a means of documenting your developing understanding and making it explicit - with structured goals and outcomes.

The overriding point is that the journal should be useful and bene�cial to you

Also, don’t be afraid to engage with the speaker on a point you consider important for your personal understanding of an issue that concerns you. Note that the measure of learning is not whether you found a speaker interesting or not, but the insights you drew from the experience. Sometimes a journal can be cathartic – a vehicle for venting feelings. However, do check you are pushing past description and reaction to practical application (what the things you are describing mean for you in your future career).

In terms of completeness – we expect approximately two pages concerning each seminar – drawn together by a strong concluding instalment charting and reflecting on the key lessons you have gathered which can be up to four pages. There is no maximum word count, but keep in mind that this journal is the main evidence of your learning and progress on this course. Doing a good job does not necessarily mean writing lots or trying to capture everything. Instead try focus and deepen your understanding of the management task.

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Journalling

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How you write, use and present your journal is up to you; it may be as formal or informal as you prefer, but must involve weekly entries. However, the task is different from a diary or reaction piece. You should document your reactions, but primarily, what you are noticing and learning, and developing themes or issues you would like to work on.

So start by identifying your personal learning goals for the module (which might evolve as the weeks unfold). These might include specific skills or themes you want to work on, but also any other kinds of objectives you have for the module– the key thing is that they are yours and that you have thought about them and committed to work on them.

Then let your journal unfold organically, with an eye to the themes of each talk and telling the story of what happened if you like, but with a particular eye to themes of relevance to you or linked into your learning goals for the module. Develop these themes by reflection on the speaker’s contribution, and, if you wish, drawing on your own organisational experience. You may also wish to develop what you have learnt from the speakers’ experiences by comparing and contrasting their different attitudes, styles and the philosophies that have shaped their individual careers. You are also welcome to recall or include reflections arising from other modules during the MA.

ASSESSMENT

PARTICIPATION AND ATTENDANCE 10% Where absenteeism is an issue, 2% will be deducted for each

seminar missed, unless an extenuating circumstances

certi�cation is provided.

JOURNAL 60% Journals should include:

An opening learning goal re�ection. If you prefer, this can

be clari�ed as the weeks unfold, but it is helpful to

approach the series with some personal goals

Weekly entries in addition to documenting observations

you found useful f rom each seminar, pick up on the

themes or goals you have set for yourself, cumulatively

consider questions such as set out on the previous page

(e.g. What are the skills that have proved important to

these managers? What can I do to identify and hone

these skills in myself?)

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ASSESSMENT

LEARNING REVIEW 30%

Consider this your ‘conclusions chapter’ where you integrate your take homes f rom this module:

Reconnecting with your personal goal/s for the module. Re�ecting on (and perhaps comparing) the ideas explored in the management module last semester, with those encountered in ArtsLives, overall, what is your evolving, personal theory of management in the sector now?

Re�ect on your own career journey (to date or to come) and relationship with these skills, identifying steps you may take to address them where relevant.

Finally, please select two speakers whose management style you felt contrasted and offer a view as to which of the two styles you felt would be closer to your own style and approach in a management role.

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ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

The assessment criteria are

Please make sure to write in the �rst person 1.5 spacing Completed journals and learning reviews are due by 5pm on Friday, 23 April 2021 via Brightspace

Re�ection: Going beyond description of seminar content to re�ection and developing your own theory of management. Learning: Making connections, identifying issues, seeing patterns and gaining insights. Application: Attempting to apply insight to your past and future career, and identifying steps you can take to address or apply these insights. Completeness: Regular entries, re�ecting the full complement of seminars – along with extent of effort to re�ect and develop your ideas.

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CURATOR

This year I've invited MA graduate Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan to curate ArtsLives

www.chandrika.ie @ChandrikaNM

Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan is an arts manager and fundraiser with ten years of experience working in the arts in the UK and Ireland, who has also lived in North America, Sweden, and Turkey. After working in the fine arts in London in Christie’s Auction House, The Victoria and Albert Museum, the Jonathan Cooper Park Walk Gallery and the Be Smart About Art Academy, she moved to Dublin and began working in fundraising and business development for the arts. After working with Business to Arts, the Irish Architecture Foundation and The Liquor Rooms, she is now Marketing and Development Manager at Fishamble: The New Play Company.

Chandrika is also a writer and performer. Her work has been published in Writing Home: The ‘New Irish’ Poets from Dedalus Press, Banshee, Honest Ulsterman and Poetry Ireland Review. Chandrika recently won 3rd place in the Fingal Poetry Prize 2020. Chandrika is currently guest editor of Poetry Ireland’s Trumpet pamphlet, and book reviewer for Children’s Books Ireland’s Inis magazine.

Her other projects include co- founding the Irish Craft Cocktail Awards, creating an award- nominated design talk series in association with Institute of Designers in Ireland and The Fumbally Exchange, and being a cultural consultant for arts organisations.

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SPEAKERS

19 January Margarita Vasquez Cardenas

Margarita is an accomplished project and arts manager from Columbia with a decade of experience in the delivery of large-scale collective and public engagement projects. Her enjoyment and passion for the arts has led her to pursue studies in Fine Arts with a postgraduate emphasis in both Painting and Arts Management. Margarita currently works with Maurice Ward Art Handling. Her is former Membership and Project Manager for Business to Arts, and is a graduate of the MA course. @mar13garita

26 January Sasha de Buyl

Sasha is the director of Cúirt International Festival of Literature based in Galway. She is formerly Manager of Scottish Books International, as well as a freelance creative producer, programmer (Aye Write Book Festival - Aye Con, Edinburgh Comic Art Festival, House of 1000 Stories) and event chair.

@sashadebuyl

2 February Sarah Williams

Sarah is the development Manager at DCU Educational Trust, former Chairperson of GAZE International LGBT Film Festival, Board member of Children’s Books Ireland and formerly Development Manager at Science Gallery Ireland.

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9 February Francesca la Moja

16 February Timi Ogunyemi

Born in Lagos, Made in Dublin. Timi is a curator, videographer, multi-award winning photographer and 'retired' blogger with ‘Picture This Dublin’. In a career spanning Retail Management, Professional Consultancy and Creative Management, Timi has worked on concepting and implementing award winning campaigns with both local and global brands. He is passionate about using Social platforms to make a positive impact on society.

@tweetymonkey

Further details about our speakers will be forthcoming in January

Dr Francesca La Morgia is a linguist, researcher and social entrepreneur based in Dublin. She is the founder and director of Mother Tongues and Mother Tongues Festival. Her background in linguistics and multilingualism draws her to all forms of creativity that allow for the full expression of individuals' languages and identities. Her creative projects focus on using language as a tool to promote dialogue among individuals and communities to activate social change. In the last 10 years Francesca has been lecturing in linguistics in Trinity College, Ulster University, Maynooth University and the University of Reading. Her publications focus on bilingualism, intercultural education and diversity in cultural and creative environments.

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