Eleanor Phillips: Bureau of Enquiry
In 2011 Bluedrum initiated a pilot Residency Exchange in collaboration with an arts and community service in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. From Ireland artist Eleanor Phillips and community worker Jean Bates from Ballyboden FRC made the return residency to St. Louis in October.
St. Louis is known as the Gateway City as it lies just below the confluence of the Missouri and the Mississippi rivers and was once a great inland port, transporting cotton, hemp and tobacco, products whose profits were almost wholly dependent on the work of slaves. It was also a noted brewing town and Budweiser is still manufactured there. St. Louis is famous for its beautiful red brick houses. The red brick was manufactured locally from the clay of the Mississippi during the 19th century and is so sought after that “brick rustling” or stealing the red bricks from empty houses is a huge problem.
Whilst there Jean and Eleanor took part in a neighbourhood fund raising “fish fry”, an African American Church Service, attended an Interchange Community arts training morning in the Regional Arts Commission, met with/had coffee with/talked with and walked with community activists, homeless men, students, health workers, workers, soldiers, waitresses, individual artists, in short anyone who wanted to talk.
They were surprised to find racism a constant present, which they described as a subtly oppressing experience, and a terrible barrier to community welfare. For everyone, black, white, Hispanic, the biggest problem is the lack of stable work in the city. The majority of those they spoke to held down two to three part time jobs at any one time. Some had spouses who worked in other cities, and occasionally other countries (often in the Army) all of which meant that having enough time to spend with their families, never mind their neighbours was challenging. On the whole they found St. Louisans were open and friendly; and felt very privileged to meet some genuinely warm and generous people
Jean and Eleanor had access to a room which opened onto a shopping street. They called it the “Bureau of Enquiry” and created a space where people could meet and discuss issues such as racism, community welfare and themes such as ownership and power. These issues were extrapolated from the many conversations they had with the inhabitants of St. Louis. They facilitated formal discussion groups and an informal drop-in space where people could pose questions, write or speak their stories, have something to eat, a place to share their concerns and creativity.
The final week was one of intense activity where all the photographs, research, questions and stories were looked at. Images were selected to create drawings which were then broken up, redistributed amongst participants for colour work and then reassembled to make a series of images and create signage for the front of the building. On the final night the community erected the sign and a key ceremony was held where Jean and Eleanor handed their keys over to the community of participants, symbolically inviting them to share in the continuation, management and responsibility of the project.
In her feed back from the residency Jean Bates said:
“Having been part of the engaged process I can see the value of this model for creating spaces for communities to see their own worth and to be empowered in the process to believe that they can effect the changes that are needed to further future community development. The creative process is both enjoyable yet profound in the depths that it lets people experience themselves and their own creativity. I would encourage all communities to engage with this model of art practise and to experiences the richness that unfolds.”
Roisin Markham - Stitch in Time
This commission involved a process to commemorate twenty five year’s of St. Brigid’s. The commission was site specific and began as a continuation of the consultation process that had been completed with staff. The aim, to capture the historic beginning in 1984 through the transformation of St. Brigid’s to a Family Resource Centre and with a view to the future. The artist, Roisin Markham developed the commission into a participatory arts project where she explored the aims and the social fabric of the community within the St. Brigid’s FRC. The research phase of the project allowed the artist to identify the St. Brigid’s cross as a significant emblem within the building and consciousness of the community. The design and development of the commission reflects understanding the historical development, current context of services in their diversity and complexity of all that St. Brigid’s was, is and has the potential to become.
There are three art works.
The project combined research with on site visits, staff interviews, conversation, sessions with the Friday morning group and an open invitation to staff and the community to participate and join in sharing memories and stories.
Don't forget that the exchange also had visits by US artists earlier in the year. Con Christeson was resident with Clann FRC in Galway and Tacu Resource Centre in Ballinrobe, Co. Mayo. Take a click on her name and you will see what she got up to. Also, Robert Longyear and Alicia Le Chance represent their reflections of working on the Northside Here
Jean Bates and Imelda Clarke from Ballyboden FRC both took part in the Glencree Weekend in June 2011. Blue Drum invited Jean to take part in the first exchange to St. Louis, USA. She has written an intriguing daily journal reflecting upon her visit as it unfolds here in her Journal
The Second Conveyning of people interested in community arts and social change takes place in St. Louis, USA in Spring 2012. More information Here
Eleanor Phillips: The Bureau of Enquiry,
Cherokee Street, St. Louis