Why be an ArTELIER artist?
Watch six of our practitioners speak about how they valued the ArTELIER experience. For us these comments are important part of the qualitative evaluation of the program. They speak of change in practice, and greater connection to other similar artists.
Andy Vagg, Greater Hobart, on the systemic change that we need for a better world.
Ruth Lindsell, Huon Valley, on reconnecting with the value of being a teaching artist to affect social change and raise awareness.
Jacqui Taylor, Launceston, on connecting with other Tasmanian artists to share skills and ideas.
Robyn Godfrey, Huon Valley, On connecting with a network of artists who are continuing to learn from each other.
Julia Drouhin, Hobart, on the value of inner leaps that we sometimes don't dare to share.
Bec Stevens, Hobart ,on artist collegiality and being in a supporting team of co-producers and like-minded artists.
About us
What we do
ArTELIER provides a collegial platform for community engaged practitioners to critically investigate and develop their arts practice to ensure quality engagement with children and young people. It also offers an umbrella of support through peer mentorship and professional training to support a range of projects for children and young people in the Tasmanian community.
ArTELIER provided a paid LEARNING EXCHANGE program for over 45 socially engaged artists in Tasmania. Artists across a range of disciplines, cultural backgrounds and experiences co-design and co-deliver the learning activity, and select experienced community and culturally engaged practitioners as provocateurs around agreed themes each month.
ArTELIER fosters interdisciplinary collaborations, peer review, playful enquiry and new approaches to co-creation with children and families.
ArTELIER artists are engaged with a wide range of established cultural organisations and providers in Tasmania, including, Moonah Arts Centre, Contemporary Arts Tasmania, Salamanca Arts Centre and Kickstart Arts.. Through ArTELIER, artists have opportunities to partner and work on projects in communities with young people.
ARTELIER is a project of all that we are - visit the site here.
Our theory of change
ArTELIER nourishes the ecology of community based arts practice with intergenerational groups across Tasmania. Out theory of change is simple: we feed the ecology of the sector and bear fruit through increased confidence, skills and interconnectedness of the artists.
Our leadership
ArTELIER is Tasmania’s go-to hub of community engaged artists who work with children and young people. ArTELIER’s network of Tasmanian artists are committed to improving quality arts practice with children, families and young people. Professional Learning Exchanges embed professional development, mentoring and partnership development opportunities in grounded arts practice. At the heart of ArTELIER lies a paid LEARNING EXCHANGE program for over 45 community engaged artists across a range of disciplines, cultural backgrounds and experiences who co-design and co-deliver each session. Each Learning Exchange matches experienced local/national/international leaders in the sector as provocateurs.
The key features of ArTELIER’s leadership include:
- Australia’s first paid professional learning exchange for independent artists, (legitimising reflective practice and professional training for regional and isolated practitioners; empowering all participants to co-design and deliver the program; gaining essential skills in a diverse range of programming, administrative and artistic practice; and providing income for artists when other ‘workshop-based’ activities have ceased).
- Leading development of online engagements between artists and children, families and young people in this COVID-19 era (establishing Linkage programs as a new model and learning platform).
- Exploring online technologies for the delivery of ArTELIER. (Our range of online solutions include: Zoom and Bluejeans for online engagements, Slack for team communications and documentation, Asana to track program milestones and schedules, Miro and Groupmap for online collaboration, and AirTable as a publicly available artist database for cross sectorial organisations looking to employ creative solutions for social issues.)
- Instigating a brand-new national learning exchange ‘Shifting and Stirring’, (connecting Australian organisations working with children, families and young people to share resources and ideas and develop new national networks for Tasmanian artists).
- Promoting a collegiate and non-competitive approach to partnerships in our arts sector. (ArTELIER artists include staff members of key Tasmanian arts and cultural organisations including Contemporary Arts Tasmania, The Longhouse, Moonah Arts Centre, Salamanca Art Centre, Kickstart Arts, MONA, Second Echo, A Fairer World and BigHART and Huon City Council.)
- Presenting nationally and internationally (in 2018/9 members of the collective have delivered face-to-face presentations in Melbourne, Korea, London, New York).
- Mentoring as a two-way learning opportunity. Bringing diverse practitioners together to generate new ways of working that result in fresh and contemporary program design, (e.g. mentoring a young ArTELIER artist to lead an online program for youth aged 14-24 resulting in a published zine).
How are we doing?
We are always ready to monitor the success of our work. This is difficult as we feed the ecology of the sector at a high level. What we do know is that we are changing the practice of community engaged artists in Tasmania - the way they engage with participants, how they evaluate their work and their capacity and willingness to work together. The sector feels more connected and looked after - more ready to feed back into the community.
This bar chart shows our ArTELIER artists answer to the statement: ArTELIER has changed the way I reflect on my work. Between 2018 and 2019 those who agreed jumped from just 1% to 63%, We have data on variety of questions posed to the group and we choose the subjects of the LEARNING EXCHANGES to reflect the gaps in knowledge and skills.
This work takes time. ArTELIER is a long term project. that supports the Tasmanian sector of artists working with children, young people and families.
Through direct payments and stipends this project supports the ecology of artist practice in Tasmania.
“Each session has provoked great questions for really deep thinking and built on the learning from previous ArTELIER meetings. As I question my identity and how I can incorporate more inclusiveness and listening in my practice, II observe a strengthening philosophy in the world around me and a clearer contrast between what is ‘being with’ and what is not.”