SHIP STREET: A COMPENDIUM OF UNDERSTANDINGS, VOL. 1

'It is self-evident that nothing concerning art is self-evident any more.'

- Theodore Adorno, 1969

futurepastpresent was a community engaged art project from Drogheda dedicated to investigating the site, Ship Street, in all its facets to attempt to understand how best to address its past, current state and its future development. Contributions look at the street from a number of perspectives including history, the built fabric of the street, living with the flooding that continues to beset the street and what it’s like to be trying to buy a home today. They also look at other artistic ventures that correlate with futurepastpresent and how, in 2012, Ship Street itself inspired local community art making. 

In this phase of the project, futurepastpresent have been supported by Creative Ireland (Louth) and with funding from them have been able to engage conservation architect, Caroline Whately, on the project. Caroline has delved deeper into the history of the street, surveyed it in part, completed a condition report on No. 18 and suggests a possible future for the street while retaining its historic and aesthetic uniqueness. Upstate and its associate artists and collaborators are enabled to do this work with the support of the Arts Council of Ireland. Vivienne Byrne has been working with Upstate Theatre to design this current response which is volume one of what will be a series of responses that they create and build upon between all collaborators.

Published by Upstate Theatre Project
Spiral bound
34 pages
300 x 420 mm