Peter Hussey appointed as Artist in Residence in Initial Education
The Department of Education is pleased to announce the appointment of theatre-maker Peter Hussey as Artist in Residence in Initial Teacher Education in a residency supported by the Arts Council.
In addition to teaching in the field of theatre and learning, Peter is the Artistic Director of Crooked House Theatre Company and is the founder of the Kildare Youth Theatre group. He has worked extensively with young people whose experiences of being in school very often shape the hugely innovative theatrical performances he directs.
Over the past 25 years Peter has run many theatre programmes for children and young adults. His workshops focus on developing the person’s innate skills in theatre-making to build and enhance a range of life-skills, and to celebrate what they bring naturally to the art form of theatre making.
He has developed and delivered courses in teaching drama for teachers and he is a well-known figure in Adult and Community Education, having worked at third level in Maynooth University and Dublin City University for the past number of years also.
Earlier this summer at the Maynooth University Education Forum a number of members from Kildare Youth Theatre performed a piece that explored what it’s like to be in primary and secondary school if you come from a migrant background. It featured the real stories from young people and their parents and was a rich and poignant commentary on the complexity of young migrants’ trajectories through the Irish education system.
Peter is a strong advocate for the inclusion of theatre-making in schools, having recently addressed the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and Skills about this and having also contributed to policy on this at European level.
This residency is shared between the Department of Education and the Froebel Department of Primary & Early Childhood Education. It is the first such residency in the Department of Education for Initial Teacher Education at second level, while our colleagues in Froebel have already completed an extremely successful residency with dancer Lisa Cahill that started in 2014.
Needless to say, we are very excited to welcome Peter to our Departments from September 2017! His appointment is also the first cross-department collaboration between Education and the Froebel Department and we are looking forward to working on what promises to be a hugely creative and dynamic joint project in the coming year.