The Shankill Mission: ArtEZ plants seeds of peace through art education in Belfast
- Theatre
- Education in Art
The Shankill Mission, once a dilapidated building in Belfast, now wears a new coat of paint—literally and metaphorically. Thanks to some creative minds like those behind the international Master Artist Educator (iMAE), along with local artists from The Vault and the Argyle Business Centre, it's become a hub of creativity. Inside, it's all about art, education, and community coming together to tell a different story—one of resilience and togetherness in a city marked by its past. John Johnston, head of iMAE and UNESCO Chairholder ArtEZ, tells the story that lurks behind the Shankill Mission and how ArtEZ’s artisteducators-to-be come here to work with and for the local communities.
John Johnston devised the concept of site specific colleges in response to his own experience working in the fields of art and conflict transformation. A Belfast native, he has worked to develop the site spefici colleges over the past two years with Cormac Burmania, head of the bachelor’s course Artisteducator in Theatre.
The Mission’s history
The Shankill Mission is located in the so-called 'Shankill area' and was constructed in 1898 to provide food, medical care, and safe haven for the poorest newcomers to Belfast. Since 1969, the Shankill area has been on the frontline of what is known as ‘the Northern Ireland Troubles’. A once-thriving community, the Shankill has been torn apart both by the conflict and poorly considered social development schemes. The Mission sits no more than 1000 metres from the notorious “Peace Wall,” a 25m-high construction of concrete and steel dividing the Catholic area of Belfast from the Protestant Shankill area.
Since the end of the Troubles, the Shankill Road area has developed a reputation for being one of the most left behind areas of Belfast. Together with the bachelor's course Artisteducator in Theatre and local partners, we try to change that story."
The Troubles was a period of politically-motivated conflict that has its roots in centuries of violence between Catholic and Protestant religions. Nowadays, it has become a conflict based more on the boundaries of British and Irish identity rather than religion. Though a peace agreement signed in 1998 brought an end to major acts of violence, the tensions between the two identities remain to this day. This was further exposed during the Brexit campaign, which saw Britain exit the European Union in 2019, with many on the Shankill voting to Leave the EU as the majority of Northern Ireland voted to Remain.
John explains: “Since the end of the Troubles, the Shankill Road area has developed a reputation for being one of the most left behind areas of Belfast. Together with the bachelor's course Artisteducator in Theatre and local partners, we try to change that story.”
Shankill initiative and the artisteducator as a force of ‘exchange and change’
While the Shankill Mission building originally had plans to be turned into a hotel, those plans were shelved during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We saw the building’s potential as a space for its iMAE projects,” John explains. “So we decided to joined forces with artists from the Vault, a Belfast-based multidisciplinary artists’ collective comprised of 30 artists. Together, iMAE and The Vault promoted the idea that the Shankill Mission could be transformed into a community art and education space. The owners of the building, the Argyle Business Centre embraced the plan wholeheartedly, recognising the potential impact that having ArtEZ artisteducators nearby had for the local community,” John notes.
ArtEZ now has a large studio and education space in the Shankill Mission dedicated to its work. The building has been refurbished by the Argyle Business Centre in partnership with the Vault artists. John adds: “And of course we hope that this partnership with Argyle and the Vault will also facilitate future artisteducator collaborations, potentially leading to a residency scheme with other ArtEZ programmes and courses!”
Site-specific learning
The Shankill Mission was chosen because of its unique history and possibilities to exercise meaningful site-specific learning on Issues Based Art for the iMAE course. For iMAE, “site-specific” means that a section of the course takes place in a specific socio-political context, solely because of the unique educational value and possibilities that place offers. “Because of this, our students thoroughly engage with that context’s unique culture, dedicating prolonged time to the place and its people,” John further clarifies. In short, site-specific learning provides education that is meaningful, impactful and unique to its students and the people they work with.
Providing agency
iMAE’s activities on the Shankill have offered the surrounding community something previously felt denied to them: agency. IMAE students spends just over 4 months in Belfast, building bridges through art to promote intercultural dialogue, and concludes each year with the finals exhibition. The students co-create issues-based art projects with young and old from both the Shankill and nearby Catholic communities. While the works are inspired by Belfast and its history, they are not solely dictated by that history. Projects are inspired by locally-focused issues but also connect to global ones.
The ArtEZ students are really contributing; they’re opening up the narrative and creating something with us and alongside us. By doing this, ArtEZ is transforming the Shankill, and I genuinely believe that if you can do that, you can transform the peace process.
Transforming the peace process
Even by its external façade, ArtEZ’s positive impact on the Shankill is apparent. The Shankill Mission now hums with electricity and is filled with artists, artisteducators and colourful flags from around the world. An yes: even the blue of the ArtEZ flag is present.
A community worker put it best when they said: “ArtEZ being here on the Shankill Road alone is transformative. It sends out a powerful message that this university of the arts, from a different part of Europe, in post-Brexit times, came here because they’re interested in us. The simple fact that iMAE students come from all over the world brings new ideas to the community. These students are opening up the narrative and creating something with us and alongside us. By doing this, ArtEZ is transforming the Shankill, and I genuinely believe that if you can do that, you can transform the peace process. That can only conclude with the acceptance of differences. This is a powerful image of what the European Union was set up to do. If only it had happened sooner.”
iMAE: think locally, act globally
The success of iMAE's focus on Issues Based Arts Education, socially engaged art, and practice-led research has now garnered international attention from UNESCO. Johnston has been appointed as the UNESCO Chairholder in Issued Based Arts Education at ArtEZ, to conduct research on the role that arts education can play in conflict prevention and peacebuilding.
From the small seeds that ArtEZ has planted with the support of the AeCT professorship and the bachelor's and master's programs in arts education, ArtEZ represents new examples of how art academies can use site-specificity and art to build communities of exchange. These examples could change the narrative about the legitimacy of arts education in the modern era.
