Boys in the Making is a dynamic and creative programme developed for children and young people, which brings together groups to co-create a boy and explore his needs and experiences as he interacts with the world around him.
Method
Each iteration of the Boys in the Making programme is led by a youth worker/educator and an artist. The programme sees a group of children or young people brought through a creative process to develop a boy character and guide him as he interacts with the world around him. Through conversation, drawing and writing exercises, each group name their boy, describe him as a young child and explore his experiences and related needs as he grows up. The programme was developed by artist Fiona Whelan and youth workers at Rialto Youth Project. The programme is explicitly pedagogical, underpinned by strong youth work values, seeking to support children and young people to understand the complexities of their gender position and its intersection with other forms of inequality. In 2021, researcher Ciaran Smyth (Vagabond Reviews) was invited to work with the Boys in the Making team to help capture and articulate the methodology of the programme, and give it its name.
Themes
The Boys in the Making programme focuses on how a boy’s world shapes him and how he shapes it. The process typically focuses on a boy’s life up until the age of the group although there is some projection into his adult life, as futures are imagined. Themes are not prescribed. Many themes emerge in the process as each group explores the life and experiences of the boy they have created. To date, emerging themes have included: relationships, dominance and violence, gendered identity, the search for dignity and respect, social conditioning, bullying, sexuality, poverty and survival. As with the immersive workshop for adults, the boy characters are always from the same area as the group of young makers, creating the conditions for their lived knowledge to bear on his life.
Programmes
The Boys in the Making programme was developed in 2019 by Fiona Whelan and Rialto Youth Project. It began with one young men’s group who created Stevie, after which a core team of staff from Rialto Youth Project was established, who worked with Fiona to develop a similar process with more groups of boys and young men aged five to 18. Since 2021, the programme has extended beyond Rialto and is now is development in three other parts of Dublin, supported by a core Boys in the Making team. Building on the learning from this phase of development, it is our ambition that the programme will grow across the city and expand nationally and internationally in the coming years.
In Jan-Feb 2025 we will present a Boys in the Making public exhibition, programme and conference at NCAD. See here for more details:
https://www.ncad.ie/gallery-event/view/boys-in-the-making
For further insights on the Boys in the Making programme methodology, read:
Support
The Boys in the Making programme was developed in 2019 by Fiona Whelan and Rialto Youth Project.
The methodology of Boys in the Making has been articulated by artist Fiona Whelan and youth workers Jim Lawlor, Michael Byrne and Dannielle McKenna through a collaboration with researcher Ciaran Smyth (Vagabond Reviews).
The development of the Boys in the Making programme was supported via an invited residency for Fiona Whelan at the Irish Museum of Modern Art and through funding from the National Youth Council of Ireland – Artist in Youth Work Residency, an Arts Council Arts Participation Project Award and Rialto Youth Project core funding.
Each iteration of Boys in the Making is currently funded by the host organisation/school through their own funding.
Boys in the Making exhibition, programme and conference at NCAD Gallery (Jan 2024) is funded by the Arts Council, Dublin City Council Arts Office, NCAD, Rialto Youth Project, Heart of Glass and Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
Drawing by Fiona Whelan