This story is part of our Impact Stories series, spotlighting our fellows who, drawing on socially engaged arts, help communities across Europe confront past experiences, address present challenges, and imagine new futures. Here, Damien explores the multi-faceted ways his organisation takes on social change, from quiet support to forthright advocacy.
Throughout my career, I’ve worked hard to bring culture and communities closer together and address structural inequalities in our society. And in that time, I’ve witnessed first-hand the potential for socially engaged arts to build a platform for real social change.
This path ultimately led me to Create, Ireland’s national development agency for collaborative arts. Our mission is to enable artists and communities to make art that engages with urgent social, cultural, and political issues. We do this by offering professional development, mentoring, commissioning, and project opportunities, as well as through research and training. We also champion diversity, connect practice to policy, and advocate for the cultural value of collaborative arts.
Our work involves collaborations on residencies and commissions with local, national, and international organisations. We’ve worked closely with the National College of Art and Design to roll out modules, courses, and studentships in socially engaged arts, and we’ve piloted programmes with Dublin’s North East Inner City Community Arts Programme and Creative Places Tuam, offering artists and community groups funding and career development opportunities. And through our Summer School programme – which has convened over a hundred artists, activists and thinkers – we’ve helped artists secure funding for awards, bursaries, and residencies, and develop their practice both individually and collectively.
Our projects have made a mark on the national and international stage.
We saw a huge impact on the lives of young men with What Does He Need?, a piece developed by Rialto Youth Project and Fiona Whelan exploring how men and boys shape and are shaped by the world they live in. The young men who took part have become advocates for the work, speaking publicly about the project’s influence on their self-worth. The project is now being delivered in new locations, including Merseyside in the UK, and there are ongoing requests for it to be delivered in other parts of Ireland.
Feidlim Cannon and Fiona Whelan’s Multi-Story – Creative Engagement for Housing Change also made waves. In 2022, Multi Story Act I: The Apology was launched at a major gathering of housing activists, and publicly acknowledged the failures of the Irish state with regards to housing policy in the country. Its script was later read onto the official record in the Seanad, the Upper House of Irish Parliament – an incredibly important moment in a country experiencing an overwhelming housing crisis.
Socially engaged arts are uniquely placed to give voice to the social and political issues that impact the daily lives of artists and their communities. We envisage a Europe where everyone has equitable access to opportunities to realise their creative ambitions and collaborate with artists on work of depth and meaning.
Explore more stories of socially engaged arts driving change across Europe. View the Stories of Impact map here.
