Roisin Markham

A potted history of sorts, my creative practices have always been holding spaces for questions.

Are you currently living with a question?
Leave me a comment and tell me about a question you are living with.

Some of my work requires consolidation and reconsidering. I’ve meet and am meeting new people, communities and clients. Perhaps a consideration of my lived experiences is a useful explainer.

Looking back to old blogs 2009 through an arts lens I asked about creative participatory and collaboration.

That inquiry led to a lecture called Can art get people back to work? which I delivered in UCD to their MA students in Cultural Policy and Arts Management 2009 and 2010.

My work and lecture shifted to creative entrepreneurship in 2011 with a lecture called Making work. During the lecture I identified a diverse set of skills that as a creative – artist, maker, crafter – I had and used before getting paid for creative making. I also give an insight into a crowdfunded exhibition in 2010, before that was in my conciousness as Fundit or Kickstarter thing. That exhibition had events and workshops linked to it, which worked well as an engagement model. Curious to note that in 2011 I also did some work on happiness.

In 2013 my lens shifted, identifying what I was thinking about as a practice of questions

“clarify community development -I mean something more broad more like ‘how we live our lives‘ within the places we choose to live work play. Perhaps it is not so much community development as community being. Yes I like that that seems the right way to think about it and it ties in with my goal that I state on my linked in profile: …to continue to help people move from the edges and isolation of their experiences  in places of work, education, communities and civic society.  Making space for making sense of things through  creativity in context, actualisation, open learning, game storming and technology.”

For the last 5 years I’ve been using my skills to solve client problems and programs. Work evolves. Our first COVID lockdown had a surprising gift, I’m looking at impact work now. New clients, associates, partners and networks emerge. There is some big work to be done.

I have always missed my social research practice in participatory arts and community education. In hindsight some of my work was very design led. It feels time again to begin my own inquiries using anything in my toolbox. I don’t feel compelled to label it, others might.

It seems like 2020 really needs Making space for making sense of things, community being and a look at how we live our lives. Climate crisis, COVID19, black lives matter, gender parity, changes to our lives, society, our global shared experience.

For now I am weaving some work, some thinking, some reading, some networks, some action and really asking

• how can we make Covid the opportunity for societal change?
• what if we could reimagine our society?
• how can we engage all society to co-create values for Ireland in this century?
• what would a future worth living into look like?

I am working towards my entry for Cong 2020 the theme is Society 3.0, I’ve been writing on the theme and began some creative studio work at the weekend.

If you are curious you’ll find a highlight on my Creativedynamix Instagram that shares process.