"Waste to Art" 2017. Children engaged in creative workshops with artists in residence at the Northern Rivers Waste Center. A creative investigation into Flood waste and our compulsion to consume the new.
ARTELIER Satellite session
20 AUGUST 2020
Provocation: How can art be used as a tool to build resilience in children and communities?
10 - Welcome to Country & greetings
10.10 - 10.15 - Karen introduces the topic
10.15 - 11.15 - Sunita Bala presentation/provocation
11.15 - 11.30 - Question time with Sunita & general group discussion of the provocation
11.30 - 11.45 - Break
11.45 - 11.55 - 10 minute Zoom breakaway groups of 4 people to discuss Sunita’s presentation with consideration as to how we already use art as a tool for building resilience in children in our individual practice and what we can do in the future
11.55 - 12.40 - Local artist project examples:
Karen - discuss Floodscapes and current project REMADE Creatives Online in relation to resilience building
Victoria Ryle - discuss ‘All Emotions Allowed’ children’s book in relation to resilience building and COVID-19
Leigh Tesch & Rosie McKeand - discuss ‘Afloat – children and families community resilience art project’
12.30 - 12.50 - Zoom breakaway groups of 4 people to discuss Sunita’s presentation with consideration of how we can incorporate resilience building into our creative projects in our current and future practice.
12.50 - 1 - Close and goodbyes
Provocation: How can art be used as a tool to build resilience in children and communities?
Session leader: Karen Revie - Artelierista; Creative Director, The Holographic; Minds Do Matter project manager for RANT Arts (Mental Health Week exhibition@QVMAG); Interweave Arts project manager; NDIS support worker with a speciality focus on artists with autism.
In 2018 Karen received the 2018 Tasmanian Resilient Australia Award in the schools category and was one of three finalists in the national awards receiving a highly commended award for the project, Floodscapes, a flood awareness project which saw participating schools in consultation with City of Launceston and SES, produce three short films delivering key disaster resilience messages to community about flood safety. View the Floodscapes films here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gu88qudw8gl1api/AACPQQNYC5KO1PWFjcxglwv-a?dl=0
Provocateur: Sunita Bala is a Lismore based artist who specialises in inclusive practices that inspire the community to use the arts to engage in innovation, critical thinking and advocacy.
She is the President and a creative producer of Lismore based, post disability arts company Realartworks www.reaartworks.org. Her work with Realartworks are a series of creative investigations engaging artists with disability as professional collaborators, to work with marginalsied communities, both socially, culturally and geographically to foster high quality creative outcomes that flip switches and foster social change! Sunita is the Deputy Chair of Creative Lismore and represents Realartworks.Inc on the Lismore Creative Steering Committee, a consortium of Regional Businesses and Arts based organisations committed to promoting and growing a Regional Creative Industry that is vibrant and culturally significant.
For Sunita, the devastation of Cyclone Debbie and the resulting 2017 Lismore Flood, was the catalyst for a number of creative projects working with children and communities to foster economic, social and cultural resilience
Since then, her projects such as ARCH ( Arts Recovery Community Hub) have been widely recognized by institutions such as The University of Sydney and in publications such as the 2018 UN Creative Recovery Study, as a successful case study in sustainable development solutions to global risks.
In 2017-18, Sunita collaborated with The University of Rural Health (Lismore) in a pilot study to determine the value of Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients of Indigenous health organisations. This study, the first of its kind to be documented outside of Canada, integrates the principles of CFT through a non western approach using visual arts. This pilot has now foreshadowed an exciting newly funded 3.5 year project. The project with The University of Sydney, Professor James Levy Bennett from the University Of Rural Health and local Northern Rivers Aboriginal Services will see Sunita lead the creative component of the project to continue the evaluation of ABCFT (Arts Based Compassion Focused Therapy) and train Aboriginal health professionals to take over delivery of ABCFT.
“I've been lucky to work with artists and arts workers collaborating together because of our concern for social change. Where some people may see only poverty and deficiency, artists committed to social change see assets, opportunity, possibility, and potential for transformation!” Sunita Bala
Local artist project example: Leigh Tesch and Rosie Mcleand talk about the Afloat project they did together in response to Hobart floods.
https://www.hobartcity.com.au/Community/Community-Programs/Resilient-Hobart/Afloat-–-children-and-families-community-resilience-art-project