Limited Utopias Erasmus Project

Project Title

Limited Utopias

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for youth

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Creativity and culture; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation

Project Summary

Limited Utopias was an eight month long transnational youth initiative developed by Makeshift Ensemble (IRL) and Postmodernsquare (FIN), members of the Firestarter Network. It consisted of the development of a site specific collaborative theatre play entitled ‘Utopia Ltd’ as well as the publishing of the ‘Collaborations Toolkit’. Loosely based on the biography of Roger Casement, ‘Utopia Ltd’ explored our multiple perspectives on eurocentricism and questioned our responsibility for action in a globalised world. The ‘Collaborations Toolkit’ and an online resource space is a guide of best practices for international collaboration of young people.

This project is a response to the current debate around migration, core European values and social responsibility as well as the particular context of the 1916 centenary in Ireland. As well as a socially engaged art project it was also a practical response to a lack of resources available for young people to access opportunities on a European level both in the youth context and within the particular context of the arts.

The main objectives were to create a collaborative theatre play that could be presented in a professional context; involve different communities in the creative process; learn and exchange skills and methods in theatre making and producing among our two groups; and to develop and extend resources necessary for European collaboration to other young people.

The core activities of the project were structured in order to support of the two key outcomes which were ‘Utopia Ltd’ ­ a theatre performance presented in the professional context of the Cork Midsummer Festival in June 2016 and the ‘Collaborations Toolkit’ launched at Galleria Napa in Rovaniemi, Finland in August 2016.

After an initial research period we met in Cobh, Ireland for our initial project meeting where the objectives and learning outcomes were re­established, roles assigned and the planning of the toolkit commenced – as this was to be an ongoing process throughout the project. This was followed by a 10 day residency at Sample Studios, Cork where the entire team worked together with members of the local migrant community on exploring the themes and the research gathered through artistic processes, games, discussions and site visits towards the development of ideas for a theatre play.

Following this intense period we worked remotely for the following months with Makeshift Ensemble taking responsibility for on­site rehearsals and project management while Postmodernsquare was working on the development of video for the show and the management of the Toolkit and related documentation. We also collaborated closely throughout this time on the development of the playscript and managed to secure funds from other sources to undertake a short residency at Kunstcentrum Vooruit in Ghent, Belgium as well as to shoot material for the video in Cork during May.

June was the main month of activities for the final development of the play to premier as part of the Cork Midsummer Festival and most of our activities during this mobility were focused on achieving this goal. After the evaluation of this process we then started the process of editing and publishing the Toolkit that we launched as part of our final project evaluation meeting in Finland in August.

The main impact of this youth initiative is on the core group and their two organisations. They have learned new skills in socially engaged theatre, producing (and particularly producing larger scale international projects) and film; became empowered to take part in civic life and debate; learned about different cultures both through the process and the research; and widened their horizons personally as well as professionally, becoming more employable through a widened professional network, an international context for their work and as a result of professional development.

Further, and very importantly, as the dissemination of the results, through the publishing of the ‘Collaborations Toolkit’, was also a core part of the project and the main outcome was a very public theatre production presented as part of a high profile festival the project has had a significant and wide reaching impact on young people and artists, the play’s audiences, Irish and Finnish organisations, and members of the Firestarter Network. These impacts are: raising the skillsets and awareness of young people and young artists of the opportunities for transnational collaborations; changing the perspectives of audiences and the general public on the issues of migration as well as on the legacy of 1916 through the play and its appearances in national media; and increasing the visibility of the Erasmus+ programme and particularly awareness of the possibilities of the KA2 transnational youth initiative among Irish and Finnish arts organisations and young people as well as further in Europe through the Firestarter Network.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 25435 Eur

Project Coordinator

Makeshift Ensemble & Country: IE

Project Partners

• Postmodernsquare