ReSource at the Burren College of Art (BCA) is a centre dedicated to the belief that everyone has the capacity to be creative in everything they do and that creative agency is a core aspect of developing human wellbeing.
Based on the College’s foundational principles of providing Time… Space… Inspiration…. ReSourse invites groups from organisations and/or systems to retreat, reflect, replenish, reboot and reimagine new ways of being and of working with uncertainty – something that is particularly required in current times.
We are a collaborating partner of the Inner Development Goals.
Our Work
We work with key partners to convene individuals, organisations and representatives of systems, to go to the source of complex challenges and identify where the opportunities with most potential lie.
In a second phase, we work closely with leaders and innovators to progress the resulting initiatives, providing support and building relationships with other key stakeholders, as necessary.
We pay particular attention to the interconnectedness of initiatives and to avoid getting stuck in silos. We support capacity building initiatives that help people work better with complexity.
Our Work So Far
Our main strands of activity have been in the following fields:
Leadership and Inner Development
For further details, please click on the relevant links.
How We Do It
The way we work is based on complexity theory, ecology and experience of how collective creativity happens in human systems.
The challenges we work on are complex, with many moving parts and lots of inter-connections between sub-issues and stakeholders – lots of uncertainty and potential for unintended consequences – lots of competing perspectives.
We work with the power of place and creative processes.
We draw on a range of theories and frameworks (including prominently the work of Otto Scharmer from MIT on Awareness-based Systems Change), but most important for us is providing an excellent ‘container’ for the work – this means a combination of working with an inspirational natural environment, using the creative resources of an Art College, ensuring high quality nurturing hospitality and designing and facilitating carefully curated bespoke processes.
We aim to create the very best ‘conditions’ where the potential for positive creative emergence is maximised, where the complexity of the challenges can be fully met.
ReSource at Burren College of Art provides the Time, Space and Inspiration for new responses to complex challenges to evolve.
What’s Important to Us
Hosting audacious conversations that ask questions that make our hearts beat faster.
Generating actions that enable both better and more effective systems and happier human beings.
Investing in diverse relationships that both build our resilience and our capacity to create change.
Reconsidering our role in order to meet the complex challenges of this time
Bringing together the energetic qualities of the arts with the warmth and care of deeply-held hosting practices.
Facilitating the positive transformations that are possible at this time.
Being courageous to host the conversations that are necessary for our time.
Having fun in the process.
Who We Can Help
Our processes are ideally suited to getting to the core of complex challenges and opportunities.
This applies equally to large systems such as education, climate and health as to the issues confronting business, professions, NGO’s and the arts sectors.
We don’t try and do too much on our own! Our work relies on close relationships with partners – government, philanthropists, businesses, NGO’s and others – to access the funding and networks that make the work possible.
Meeting complexity well requires diversity. We particularly enjoy working with people who view things differently, who are often not included in conventional approaches. (Bringing artists and young people into processes has often been a key to our success !)