Young Makers – an international exhibition of work by young contemporary artists will tour Ireland between March and May 2012, travelling to West Cork Arts Centre, Kilkenny Arts Office and No Grants Gallery in Temple Bar.

Kids’ Own is delighted to be the co-ordinator of this national tour of international young people’s art work, in collaboration with four Irish partners: West Cork Arts Centre, Kilkenny Arts Office, South Dublin Arts Office and Temple Bar Cultural Trust.

The genesis of this project was in 2010, when Kids’ Own was invited by Sally Stuudio in Tallinn, Estonia to be the Irish curator for Eksperimenta! – a new international triennial of young people’s artwork.

We were delighted to receive submissions of art work from across Ireland, most of which had been created through collaborative processes between professional artists and young people and reflected a process-led approach to art enquiry. We particularly encouraged submissions of digital and photographic work and the diversity of the work among the final selection strongly and positively represented the creativity and imagination of Irish young people, and held up firmly within the international context of Eksperimenta! Furthermore, the stop motion animation made by the young artists from Kilkenny, won them the award for “Most Promising Young Artists” which was an incredible achievement and a very positive outcome from the project.

As a continuation of this success, Kids’ Own saw the opportunity to bring some of the work from Eksperimenta! together into a new touring exhibition within Ireland. The network of Irish partners was brought about through an interest among some of those who had submitted work to the original exhibition in connecting together and collaborating on a new national programme. The international partners who participated in Eksperimenta! were invited to re-submit their work for this new Irish exhibition, and four countries – Canada, Latvia, Slovenia and Portugal – responded with submissions. We are delighted now to bring this all together into the Young Makers programme.

With a programme of activities being developed by each partner, the vision of this project is to connect practice and to profile and celebrate the creativity of young people, both in Ireland and internationally. As the co-ordinator of Young Makers, Kids’ Own recognises the need to respect the approaches of each of the Irish partners, and to provide space for them to develop a programme of activity that meets their local objectives, while also initiating a national dialogue through the touring framework. The Young Makers programme will also embrace the opportunity to dialogue with artists – through Practice.ie development meetings – to explore methodologies and approaches to working with young people, and to build skills for continued best practice.

Stay up to date with the project as it is happening on the Kids’ Own Young Makers Project page.