Connecting Communities Through Performance Art: the CEPA Project marks community impact with performance event and photo exhibition

Last Saturday DCU invited the participants of the Community Engagement Through Performance  Art (CEPA) Project back to reflect on the impact of the project by attending a one-day workshop and event in the DCU U Building mediated by artist Sally Walmsley and  open to the general public. There was also an exhibition of photos taken from last year's CEPA  performance event taken by DCU photographer Kyran O'Brien.

This year's event was an opportunity to reflect on the community impact of the project, including an increased sense of connection between the Ukrainian participants and with their local communities (most of them living in isolated temporary accommodation), the development of local community art projects of their own initiative, and an increased awareness of new study opportunities, as some of them enrolled in further education in Ireland. The performance enabled participants to be more confident and to actively express themselves through the medium of performance art. The participants from last year also invited new participants—both Irish and Ukrainian—to join this year's event.

The CEPA project is coordinated by Dr. Marcos Dias from the School of Communications and it is a collaboration between DCU, Ukrainian Action and Create - National Development Agency for Collaborative Arts. It was funded through the IRC New Foundations Scheme. It consisted of a series of performance art workshops mediated by artist Sally Walmsley in 2023, which culminated in a performance event in the U Building opened by DCU President Prof. Daire Keogh on the 20th of July 2023. An overview of the project and last year's performance can be seen here: https://youtu.be/UQ46CJq9puc?feature=shared 

This year's CEPA event was supported by the DCU Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences 2023-24 Creative Outputs Scheme.