MTU Crawford College of Art & Design

CREATIVITY & CHANGE TEAM

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Chriszine Backhouse

Chriszine is a lecturer on the “Creativity and Change” special purpose award at MTU, a level 9 course which promotes the exploration of global citizenship education through the arts. She uses socially engaged forms of theatre to investigate and respond to local and global justice issues. Through her work and research, Chriszine explores the intersection between creativity, community and change. She has brought socially engaged theatre practices into diverse communities to process complex topics, including gender-based violence, social exclusion, access to housing, racism, and Algorithmic justice. Within her work, she aims to make invisible systems of oppression visible through theatre, as well as to create spaces where lesser heard stories are heard. Over the past few years, she has facilitated projects in partnership with the Irish Refugee Council, where they have used Playback theatre and Spoken word poetry to explore human rights, particularly the impact of war. She coordinated a Forum theatre mentorship programme with Julian Boal and recently was one of the organisers of “(Dis)Placed: A theatre of the Oppressed festival” which explored displacement due to war and the housing crisis. Chriszine received a BA in Theatre and Development, and a MA in Drama Therapy from Concordia University, Montreal Canada.

Jessica Marbe

Jessica is an artist and educator whose practice is in the field of arts participation but spans a range of practices. She co-developed and continues to teach on MTU CCAD's Creativity and Change programme. For a number of years she coordinated the MTU CCAD's Arts and Group Facilitation programme and more recently an Eco Arts Practice progamme.

She spent 18 years leading a dynamic arts program in the north side of Cork working on local, national and international projects with diverse groups and in diverse contexts. In her independent work as an artist and arts consultant she has worked with local and national organisations, festivals and on artist residency programmes in both Germany and Colombia.

Work with neuro-diverse artists has been a strong interest throughout her work and she has coordinated a number of international projects including Expanding Realities.

She is interested in the potential of place-based learning and also the connection between body and movement and creative learning processes. In 2020 during lock down she initiated a Mobile University initiative to bring learning to the outdoors with a mobile classroom on an electric cargo bike.

Helen O’Keeffe

Helen O' Keeffe is a socially engaged artist and global citizenship educator at Crawford College of Art & Design, MTU. She is part of a small team coordinating MTU's Irish Aid-funded Creativity & Change programme, where she collaborates with individuals, communities and organisations in visual art and education practices that move towards equity and justice.
She holds an MA in Art & Design Education from MTU and has a background in youth arts work centered around the empowerment of marginalised young people, co-running youth street arts facility, Splattervan since 2013 and facilitating art programmes at alternative education project, Cork Life Centre, for ten years. She is most passionate about the potential of all young people and the power of art & community as a catalyst for personal, societal, and global transformation.

Claire Coughlan

Claire Coughlan is an arts and global citizenship educator from Cork, engaging with young people and adults on creative projects and participatory programmes for over fifteen years. Her primary practice is focused on street art and creative tools that give young people on the margins a public platform to be seen and heard. She set up the Splattervan youth arts initiative in 2013 and has worked consistently in youth arts throughout that time. She has worked with young people in the criminal justice system with Foroige, in care settings with EPIC Empowering People in Care, and outside of mainstream education with Cork Life Centre. Claire also designs and delivers creative experiences, training and events for learners of all ages as part of the staff team at Creativity & Change MTU Crawford College of Art & Design.

Contact Creativity & Change

If you have any questions or would like to collaborate with Creativity & Change, please email crawfordcreativityandchange@mtu.ie.

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