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These images aim to show highlights from this year-long artist residency. At the beginning Rhona told them that the classroom they were in was now their own shared studio. The children found this exciting.

The children worked with Rhona to create their own notebooks, likening them to a studio space - a place for creative thinking and experimentation.

Rhona emphasised the children’s shared ownership of the studio. She told them how her own studio building was run as a collective with a Director, Treasurer, Secretary and Maintenance person. Each 5th and 6th class nominated a person for each of these roles and the Studio Committee was formed.

Organising materials became an element of sharing the studio. This included writing to a local factory requesting any excess packaging be donated for materials.

Rhona consistently encouraged the children to think for themselves. She created an ideas board. The children were brimming with them.

Rhona and the children looked at and discussed many examples of installation art. This included inflatable sculptures that they then went on to make themselves.

Rhona wanted to foster in the children a sense of trusting their intuition - asking them to ask themselves ‘how does it feel?’

Rhona identified the outdoor space adjacent to the studio as a project space. Exploring Land Art and experimenting with natural materials became a focus.

Interesting questions arose out of lively discussions around art and artworks.

Education Curator Katy Fitzpatrick and Lecturer in the Philosophy of Education Aislinn O’Donnell were invited to the school to open up the conversation on what is art.

Rhona discussed art as a happening and the children collaborated on a performance work involving the sudden occurrence of ‘orange'.

A considerable amount of work went into planning, designing and constructing the Sculpture Garden in the space adjacent to the studio.

During the morning of 'Open Day' the children and Rhona made final preparations to show parents and students their collaborative work.

The Artist Stays,
St. Catherine's National School, Rush, county Dublin,
April 2013 - May 2014

Following a set of artist-led workshops in 2012 Mobile Art School* continued its work with St. Catherine’s National School with Rhona Byrne as artist-in-residence between April 2013 and May 2014. Inspired by the 'Room 13 International' residency model, this project saw Rhona working intensively with more than sixty 5th and 6th class children in developing a shared child-run studio where she and the children explored various aspects of sculpture, installation and performance art. The overarching aim was to develop the children’s confidence in their own creative thinking and intuitive capacities through an approach that valued experimentation and process rather than defined production outcomes.

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Student feedback:

‘Working with Rhona has been a great experience. We didn’t just paint and draw, we also learned about other artists and experimented with different types of artwork.’

‘It’s made art really fun because we got to make art our way. There are no boundaries for our creativity.’

'The studio has made a big difference to our school, I think it is really fun and it makes you learn more about all the hard work that goes into art.'

'...it can bring the creativity out in people. It can also help people become closer friends with people in their class because you can talk to them and get to know them better while still learning and getting the work done.'

'It made us more creative. Helped us extend our imagination. It helped us with art. You look at things differently than before.'

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* Mobile Art School (2011-2014) was an artists-schools initiative whose workshop and artist-residency programmes sought to simultaneously devise a path between contemporary artists and the educational system, and to support creative modes of learning. Mobile Art School was co-directed and curated with Jennie Guy.