T/D 183 Irish Arts: Mirror or Mover? Steven Griffith, Professor Gustavus Adolphus College Theatre and Dance Department
	Does art mirror history or actively shape it? This course will use the visual and performing arts to connect issues of conflict, social justice and ethnic relations in contemporary Ireland with the ideas of Irish identity and nationhood. The course asks the question, "Does the artist mirror culture or seek to change it?"
	Goals for the Course 1. Make connections between the arts, history and social change 2. Teach the history of the Anglo-Irish conflict 3. Engage with the community through service-learning 4. Help students gain skills for international travel and cross-cultural communication
A mural in the Bogside commemorating Bloody Sunday, Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland. Photo by Carolyn O'Grady
As Adele M. Dalsimer (1993) suggests, Irish art contains, "conventions, nuances, and ideologies that, as part of encoded discourse, would likely escape the understanding of the uninitiated." This course seeks to "decode" Irish visual art, music and begins with a solid grounding in Irish history and culture. As students travel throughout Ireland, they will use the arts as a lens through which to view contemporary Irish life. Particular attention will be paid to how the arts have been used to establish the issue of Irish national identity separate from that which is present in the United Kingdom. We will seek confirmation of John P. Harrington and Elizabeth J. Mitchell's (1999) belief that, "individuals have been have been shaped by the historical context of the Troubles, and even more so how social agents use their performances, in theatre and on the stage of everyday political life, to define identities, to reinforce ideologies, and to build institutional support." Students will read several plays, visit Ireland's National Art Gallery, National Museum, the Irish Royal Academy, the Museum of Modern Irish Art, the Dublin Theatre Collection, the Linen Hall Library Theatre Collection, the Ulster Museum, the Crescent Art Center, and galleries in Dublin, Belfast and Derry. In addition, students will attend 3-6 theatre, music or dance performances in Ireland's important performance venues which may include the Abbey Theatre, the Gaiety Theatre, the Gate Theatre in Dublin and the Royal Opera House and Lyric Theatre in Belfast and the Playhouse Theatre in Derry. Students will meet with theatre and other arts professionals to seek to understand how contemporary artists understand their work in the context of national identity. This course will be of interest as students seeking to fulfill the ARTSA requirement at Gustavus Adolphus College, as well as students majoring in the arts (art, music, theatre, or dance). It is open to all students, including first-year students. Advanced knowledge of the arts is not necessary for successful completion of the course. Dalsimer, A. M. (1993). Visualizing Ireland: National Identity and the Pictorial Tradition. Winchester, MA: Faber and Faber. Harrrington, J. P., & Mitchell, E. J. (1999). Politics and Performance in Contemporary Northern Ireland. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press.