Launch of Multicultural Cityscape Art Project

On 19^th June 2019 the WEMIN Programme Cityscape Art Project for migrant and Irish women was launched by Southside Partnership. This event was held in the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland and it followed a similar format to the International Women’s Breakfasts. A total of 80 women attended, with 38 women coming from 3^rd countries and the remainder from Ireland and the EU. 18 different 3^rd countries were represented on the day, with some of the women attending a WEMIN event for the first time.

The two community artists who have been engaged to facilitate the WEMIN art project on multicultural cityscapes provided an overview of how the community art programme would work. The idea was that the women would work together to build their ideal global city. This would incorporate elements of what they thought their ideal city should have. It would draw on the experiences of living in different towns and cities throughout the world and the positive features they remember from them. The media to work with would include a variety of recycled materials including paper, cardboard, and foil. It would also draw on patterns and designs that might be familiar to the women from their countries of origin.

At the breakfast the women worked on the first taster session, which gave them a flavour for the sessions that will commence in September. A variety of materials (cardboard, recycled materials, paper etc.) were used. The women worked in six groups and commenced a process of thinking about their ideal city and what kind of features made it positive. The responses generated included both physical features (layout, buildings, traffic flows, infrastructure, play spaces, physical landscape etc.) and social features (e.g. health system, safety, educational opportunities etc.). They then started a process of building such a city, using the materials provided.