For several months now Inkstorm and SpiritStore have been emailing, phoning and meeting face to face. Our objectives have been to come to an agreement on the focus of our collaboration and on the methodologies we plan to use to prepare for, and later to run the next Poetry Depot in Galway.
The Limerick Poetry Depot was an important learning experience for us. Reflections on the concept, the delivery, the collaborative methods, the context, and on the participation (public and poets) have been used to ground this project in real terms.
It’s been particularly interesting process, not only is the project a collaboration between artists and writers, but a sociologist/poet is in the mix which brings a new language to the table. The questions we use to shape the project, the research we've carried out, the definition of roles and definition of our individual aims, all reflect the dynamic of different disciplines coming together.
We've drafted several iterations of the project proposal, meeting face to face to thrash out the important conceptual and practical elements.
Currently we’re searching for locations for a writers workshop, a pop-up poetry cafe, and we're investigating the potentials for publishing.
The writer’s workshop is our immediate concern and is the first phase of the project; we're recruiting a group of writers interested in working collaboratively with the public under constrained conditions. This group of writers will help us refine the collaborative writing process we've been developing.
