Project Description

Exploring the potential of architecture as a collaborative endeavour the Commonage Summer School 2011 was a ten-day programme of workshops, talks, field trips and film screenings which took place in Callan, Co.Kilkenny in July 2011.

During the day workshops to realise a temporary art installation, a garden pavilion and a community theatre space were led by artist Rhona Byrne, Architects TM with Eamon Peregrine and Culturstruction (See also ‘Breach’ project page).

A parallel programme of evening events included contributions by Emma Houlihan (visual artist), Bridget O’Gorman (visual artist), Etaoin Holohan (artist/curator), Kate Strain (curator), Margaret O’Grady (local historian), Rosemarie Jordan (economics graduate), Fiona McDonald (artist, architect), Conor McGowan (architecture student), Donal Lally (architecture student), Darren Snow (architecture student),  Lisa Cassidy (writer, blogger and architecture student), Dominic Lavelle (architecture graduate) , UCD architecture thesis students and a film screening by filmmaker Jem Cohen.

The daylong Commonage Seminar included contributions by Sarah Browne, Jesse Jones, Oliver Lowenstein, Patrick Lydon, Martin McCabe, Mark Price and Eyal Weizman. The seminar provided a critical forum to reflect on the political and social need to reactivate ‘the commons’  and also explored the potential of Commonage as an architectural research project focused on participation within a rural community. The seminar took place within the recently vacated agricultural co-operative building which had been reimagined as a community performance space (workshops led by Culturstruction as part of the Commonage Summer School 2011 see ‘Breach’).

Commonage Summer School 2011 Participants were: Yvonne Cullivan, Dara Challoner, Damien Curry, Bill Doyle, Luke Brabazon, Aoife Flynn, John Flynn, Lisa Kenny, Aisling Kehoe, Aaron Kirk, Sodam Kim, Ruairi Gaffney, Simon Gough, Kate Griffin, Olivia Hillery, Paulina Huukari, Brian Jordan, Rosemarie Jordan, Caoimhe Loftus, Ian Mannion, Donal McElwaine, Sean McMahon, Shane Morrissey, Lucy Riordan, Kinga Rusin, John Wallace

The ‘Commonage Summer School 2011′ was curated and produced by Jo Anne Butler and Tara Kennedy (Culturstruction) with Rosie Lynch.

PDF download of Commonage 2011 brochure here

Commonage 2011 was funded by Kilkenny Leader Partnership and through an Arts Council Engaging with Architecture Award.For more see also commonagecallan.com.