about

Shankill School of Art (SSoA) is a lot of things. It is currently –and maybe will always be, in progress. Progress of becoming, taking shape and giving shape.

The Shankill School of Art is an initiative from the 2023-2024 cohort of the international Masters ArtistEducator (iMAE) from ArtEZ University of the Arts, The Netherlands. The cohort spent 14 weeks in Belfast as part of the graduation semester residency at the ArtEZ UNESCO Chair Site Specific College in Belfast, Northern Ireland. ArtEZ and iMAE have a long history of engaging with local communities in research hubs in Belfast, as well as other places. Starting in 2016 in Derry/Londonderry, and since 2023 in West-Belfast in Shankill Mission building on the Shankill Road. This years' cohort wanted to create a platform for their work to exist in collectivity, through which we could provide a space for dialogue, collaboration and further inviting people in.

As formal educational institutions turn inward, and struggle to address questions of context, place and community, Shankill School of Art functions as a platform for ‘pop-up’ events, discussions, performances, lectures, communal reading, exhibitions and provide a space for connection and encounter. The SSoA will seek to address the
very questions educational institutions struggle to address.

We imagine Shankill School of Art to be fluid and open-ended, nomadic and site-specific, transdisciplinary, critical, a safe space, process-led and needs-based. We see it as a space for peer-to-peer dialogue, life-long learning, un-learning and re-learning. As a space to be reflective of the present and imaginative of the future. As a space for others to explore, to collaborate and to co-author. As an invitation to step into the Shankill area, where we consider context, place and community and are open to encounter. With Shankill School of Art we want to open up the institute of the art school and see art as a means to understand and engage with the world-as-it-is. Shankill School of Art wants to be a space fuelled by doubt where we can make mistakes together.

As the 2023-2024 iMAE cohort is leaving, we hope to leave behind the Shankill School of Art and for it to continue to be a platform for engagement, and a breeding ground for the next artisteducators to come along and give shape to.