Life's No Picnic on the Streets
The Life's No Picnic on the Streets project started in 2008 with a crazy idea, generous opportunity and a lot of hard work. With renewed energy, we took on the project in 2009 and expanded it again in 2010. This year, 2011 will mark our 4th year of bringing the project to exhibit at Electric Picnic!
Life's No Picnic on the Streets, is an arts project which connects professional artists with service users of Depaul Ireland. It provides an opportunity for them to learn a new skill and enables Depaul to raise awareness about its work and the issues of homelessness.
Over the past 4 years we have engaged 31 artists and countless volunteers in the project. Most importantly, it has made a difference to the lives of over 100 people who have lived in our services and participated in the project.
For many of the participants, seeing their own potential has been the biggest surprise of the process and they welcomed the new level of confidence this brought. One of the participants in 2009 said of his experience in the workshops: "I found new hope seeing the bare, skeletal like ideas of the first week come together, piece by piece to create art and poetry for an exhibition stage."
Thanks to the continued support of Electric Picnic and Dublin City Council Arts Office, this year we are able to expand the project and engage twelve professionals including artists, poets, musicians and directors will collaborate with our service users across our services in Dublin, Belfast, Dungannon and Derry to create artwork, poetry and music that will be presented amongst the incredible surroundings of Electric Picnic in Mindfields Area.
Life's No Picnic on the Streets Aims
- To create artwork that is challenging, innovative and original and which addresses public stereotypes and perceptions of homeless
- To produce a visual art exhibition that engages an audience and draws attention to issues of homelessness in Ireland & increases people's understanding of Depaul Ireland's services
- To engage and connect service users in Depaul Ireland services- both in ROI & NI and festival-goers at Electric Picnic
More Information
For more information about this year's project check out the LNPOTS 2011 page and join us on the LNPOTS facebook page to keep up-to-date with the latest!
