Boys in the Making | Fiona Whelan and Rialto Youth Project 

Boys in the Making is a dynamic place-based programme for boys and young men, which sees groups come together over time, to co-create a boy and explore his needs and experiences as he interacts with the world around him. The programme aims to explore, communicate and learn from the lived experiences and knowledge of boys and young men as they engage in a creative exploration of masculinity and its formation. 
 

The Boys in the Making methodology places central importance on the knowledge of each group who are creating a boy, who draw on their lived experiences and observations of life in and beyond their own context, to shape the proposed life journey of the character they have created together. Themes are not prescribed, instead they emerge through the process as each group is facilitated over time to explore the complexity of life for their boy. Groups identify influencing forces they perceive to be present in their boy’s life, informing him of what choices he may have, while giving direction based on their own knowledge, observations and experiences. The process involves a critical engagement with the world around us as well as a re-imagination of the world, considering how it is and how it could be. What emerges from each process, is a fictitious character living in a real world, who embodies much of the knowledge of his makers. 
 

The 3-phase methodology of Boys in the Making was developed in 2018/19 by artist and educator Fiona Whelan and youth workers in Rialto Youth Project, who worked with one group of young men to co-create the life of Stevie. In the years since, the programme continues to expand in Rialto, and since 2022, is being piloted and developed in a number of educational and community contexts across Dublin, led by new organisations and artists, with 19 boys now co-created by children and young people aged 5-18.
 

The Boys in the Making exhibition at NCAD Gallery offers the public an opportunity to see inside this ongoing programme, to connect with some of the fictional characters and artworks that have been created to date, and the methodology that gave rise to them. A core component of the exhibition is a month-long programme of events, that facilitates in-depth dialogue in relation to the methodology and the themes emerging, culminating in a conference on 14 February. Through the exhibition and programme of events, Boys in the Making considers how men and boys are shaped by and influence the world they live in.