Artist Blog by Duffy Mooney-Sheppard: Delivering Digital Workshops

These digital programmess at The Ark, that connect me as an artist from my studio to classrooms around the country, are an absolute joy. I find it so exciting to land, as if teleported, from one end of the country to another in the space of a mere few hours. From Inishbofin to Ennis to Kilbarry in Cork. On this occasion, The Ark’s theatre production ‘The Haircut’ was our jumping off point. It’s a fresh retelling by Wayne Jordan of The King with Donkey's Ears. The theatre show was recorded and made available online for classes to watch ahead of our workshop. Then for the participating schools, a wonderful box of prepared art materials arrives in the post.

At the outset I hoped to set the tone that during our 90 minutes together, we would be entering a strange and unusual world of characters and questionable historic facts. And so, we begin with a groundbreaking lecture on the little known history of royal families with animal secrets.

Have you heard of King Lamhraí Loinseach, the king with Donkey's ears? How about Queen Bó of the lizard tongue? Prince Rí Rá? Famously, as I’m sure you know - Chicken legs.

Photo: The only surviving photo of King Lamhraí Loinseach

In each workshop, I ask the group “What would be your royal secret?”. Every answer was unique. One came from a participant in Co.Clare:

“I’d be part Orca Whale”
“Which part?”
“Hmmmm..the head!’
“With human legs?”
“Yes!”
“Well. That’s absolutely perfect”

During online workshops, it always amazes me how quickly the atmosphere feels relaxed and familiar. It doesn't take long before we all get to work drawing, cutting and sticking. And inevitably, I am happily interrupted from my own artwork by students coming up to the camera to show me theirs or ask a question.

There are a few factors to this. One I think is that I am travelling to them, to their space, that is comfortable and familiar. The easy-going atmosphere also comes in huge part thanks to the teachers on the other side. I deeply appreciate the work that goes into getting the materials set out, managing the room and the technology. The Ark team are also very experienced online and they always do a pre workshop tech rehearsal, zooming in to the teacher and making sure the sound and video are working well. They discuss the format and answer any questions the teachers may have. Personally, after facilitating hundreds of online workshops, I have come to find that there’s rarely any hiccup that means we can’t continue. There's always a work around!

Photo: This overhead camera also means that I can communicate and demonstrate much more by showing. It also allows them to see what I am making alongside them. It’s a visual conversation of sorts and a shared pursuit. Their ideas always influence what I make in every session.

For the main part of the workshop we are all working on a crown which celebrates and accentuates our unique animal features. We listen to music, heads down, hands busy. As always, another great joy of the online workshops is the reveal at the end when students come to show their final work - not always finished, sometimes a work in progress. We viewed crowns honouring crab legs, unicorn horns, fish gills, giraffe necks… It was honestly such a fun parade of fabulous ideas.