Change of Address — Maeve Stone

CHANGE OF ADDRESS COLLECTIVE

CONNECTING ARTISTS AND ASYLUM SEEKERS
Change of Address is a collective which was co-founded by Maeve Stone, Oonagh Murphy and Moira Brady Averill and operated between 2015-2020 creating unique projects that looked to formalise friendship between artists and asylum seekers. Over these five years they collaborated with a variety of organisations including the Irish Refugee Council (2 year partnership running a peer-to-peer support network for LGBT asylum seekers), Spirasi (Hope Choir Project), Science Gallery Dublin (Practice and Peril), Project Arts Centre (Change of A Dress Clothes Swap, NU Roots festival of new work for Live Collision with Osaro Azams), ThisIsPopBaby (The Mouth of a Shark, Where We Live Festival), Axis Ballymun (Due Process), Dublin Fringe Festival (Trophy, winner Spirit of The Fringe 2018) and the National Gallery of Ireland (Something From There 2019). We looked for ways to use our access and privilege as artists to create space and opportunity for the refugee community. Maeve continues to work with new communities in Co. Clare through her partnership with Alex Gill in Cracking Light Productions.

identity

LGBT Peer to Peer Support Group for Asylum Seekers

Identity

For three years Change of Address facilitated a peer to peer support network for LGBTQIA+ asylum seekers with monthly meetups, social events and Pride! The work was in collaboration with the Irish Refugee Council and supported by the Community Foundation of Ireland. Other partners and supporters included The Abbey Theatre, Project Arts Centre and Electric Picnic.

clothes Swap

A clothes swapping event at Project Arts Centre

THEATRE WORKSHOPS AT DIRECT PROVISION CENTERS

LIVE COLLISSION

COLLABORATION WITH OSARO AZAMS CURATING AN EVENING OF TALENT FROM THE COMMUNITY.

Practice and peril

Science Gallery Collaboration

Keynote by Moira Brady Averill

Who are we? We are Change of Address, a collective of three artists - Oonagh Murphy, Maeve Stone and Moira Brady Averill - who bring together creative thinkers and refugees in conversation and collaboration. We believe the creative process is transnational. It is neural. It is human. It does not depend exclusively on language and can be experienced by anyone, regardless of cultural context or personal history. Art is most potent when new culture meets old, where ideas become adopted, connected and expanded. The global migration happening right now will continue. It is a humanitarian crisis and a moment for personal and artistic response. We see the refugee crisis as an opportunity to begin the conversation between cultures. We want to use art, the process of creative thinking, to bond Irish artists to artists, scientists and creative thinkers living in direct provision and refugees.

When we proposed this idea of Practice + Peril to Sarah Quinn, it quickly took on a life of it’s own from the start.

I have this list of prompt of words and word combinations that articulate the themes associated with our endeavour:

First on the list: Friendship

And -

Community

A gathering together of varying interests, experiences and perspectives

Modes of empowerment potential

An evaluation of systemic malfunction

A grassroots confrontation of state mandated internment

We are faced with the awkward and showy and easily self righteous task of deconstructing the official my officializing the common sense in a public sphere. And here we all are awaiting pairs of professional equivalents in conversation.

The people you will see today will speak to one another. They will be before you, speaking in public to someone who was a relative stranger four weeks previous to today. If initial discomfort is a revolutionary ask then perhaps that is something for us all to consider when we leave here today.

We have officialized conversation and companionship in an effort to create a dialogue around an extreme injustice all to present and all to unseen in our country at this moment. We attempt to undermine, with friendship, the tediously slow and inadequate system of Direct Provision currently at place in Ireland.

Running Order:

Hanan Dirya // Kristina Yee [Film]

Martin Mujyanama // Barry Edward Fitzgerald [Law]

Matty Tamen // Stephen James Smith [Poetry]

Ellie Kisyombe // Una Mullally [Activism]