We thought we would use Kumuwuki / Big Wave to help define a new term “cultural leadership”. How is it forging new thinking around environmental responsibilities and sustainability? And how do cultural leaders deal with uncertainty? By telling us what’s working and what is not working, revealing their failures, and learnings, artists, local governments and communities, will discuss the important qualities of cultural leadership and resilience that we need to practice.
How can we ensure that the surge of interest in arts and health internationally finds its way into regional Australia?
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What difference does it make when you take a whole of city/region approach and place culture in a leading role? The Norwegians have described this as creating ‘a state of mind that lasts…’
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A facet of leadership is about being committed to taking risks. The work artists produce is the material of questioning and risk taking. Embracing uncertainty increases our capacity to turn a problem or crisis into an opportunity. But there’s a tension between artistic risk and innovation, and accessibility and acceptance.
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At regular but unpredictable intervals, people around the world are affected by natural hazards. We can only expect that these events will increase in number and ferocity the future. Disaster management is a complex series of activities and external assistance can provide expert knowledge and resources, but survivors and people living in the area can also do much to help if they are prepared and supported.
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Smart regional communities are focusing on their young people and their leadership potential to maintain vibrancy and relevance. Meanwhile young people are communicating globally on digital platforms.
Where do our traditional notions of regional arts and culture fit into this picture?
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Welcome to country, then what? RAA conference participants can share how they give back.
Workshops will be led by award winning director and producer Jennifer Lyons-Reid and Carl Kuddell. Surfing on Country salutes the Kumuwuki / Big Wave theme by combining appropriate digital media practices with an inquisitive exploration into what happens after the Welcome to Country acknowledgments: What aspects of Indigenous culture do people take home, what can we all share, and what experiences of reconciliation can regional artists and arts workers bring back into their daily practice?
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RiAus presents a panel of practicing artists and scientists to discuss the creativity of science and the science of art.
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What are the possibilities for cultural leadership within a regional environment? Especially ones in performance making and theatre, an art form that is rare in the cultural landscape in regional Australia?
What does a cultural leader looks like within their specific environment? What kind of activities would professionally develop these leaders?
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We are currently witnessing a changing landscape in regional and national touring in Australia with hotly contested frameworks and mechanisms along with a national review delivered in April.
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A selection of pixels from the digital world. The panel’s breadth of experience ranges from a remote community experience in WA to a writer who lives in the Northern Rivers region in NSW.
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Environmental issues and creative community activism have been ongoing bed fellows since the 1960’s.
This panel will survey three recent projects and areas, all very different from each other, all addressing unique contemporary economic issues and all with distinctive tactics and results.
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This panel will examine the need for artistic integrity in Aboriginal communities and the strategic research and documentation surrounding coordinated approaches to cultural maintenance.
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It’s Coming! The NBN is coming! And with it a prediction that a wave of mainstream product from the United States will be streaming straight to our houses filling our lives with digital soap bubbles overflowing from our screens!
However the NBN is two way tube of communication and these panelists know it.
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Be it inhabiting empty spaces in new ways or using digital tools to re-imagine community spaces, people are place making all over the place! And they’re getting their local governments on board to assist them!
This panel will bring together the energy required that activates such initiatives to discuss the main tools used, the successes and challenges, the pitfalls and benefits.
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The rivers of the Murray Darling Basin connect people, communities and places over a vast geographic terrain, both literally and metaphorically.
One River is a multi-state and territory project being staged as part of celebrations for the Centenary of Canberra in 2013, recognising the national capital’s location within the Basin and its connection to the watery heart of the country.
This panel discussion will propose some useful directions and demonstrate the importance of memory and cultural knowledge as a resource that we need to value and draw upon.
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A bit like railway gauges, every state seems to have its own idiosyncracies and variations when it comes to youth arts one may argue they are overdue for a refresh.
This panel will profile existing models and discuss the state of the nation's respective approaches to youth arts policy. Then engage the audience in an interactive discussion about what they perceive as crucial to an effective model for youth arts policy.
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In 2011 Community Arts Network SA published an Artwork Journal called “arts, culture and resilience” where academics and arts practitioners from across Australia to responded to English researcher and writer Mark Robinson’s 2010 paper for the Arts Council England, “Making Adaptive Resilience Real”. Kumuwuki / big wave now presents an opportunity to pick up the conversation where the Artwork Journal left off.
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The do-er’s, the movers and the shakers. Just what is a Cultural Leader and what does it look like?
These panelists will explore the topic by giving their identikit version of Cultural Leadership that pertains to their part of Australia.
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Established cultural venues, town halls, even tin sheds can play the important function of hubs of activity where notions of placemaking occur.
This panel will explore the role of the “hub”, through looking at those that have been established for some time through to the emerging and burgeoning.
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A panel discussion dedicated to the effect our nation’s recent bushfires and floods have had on regional artists and their communities.
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In the lead up to the 2014 Regional Arts Australia Conference and in relation to the current resources boom we thought it might be good to get the conversation started about mining and it’s impact on community and culture, and vice versa.
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The community mental health benefits of art and cultural participation are well established, from supporting people who are experiencing mental illness, to creating social networks and opportunities for meaningful engagment and economic participation more widely.
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Alison Tickell (Julie's Bicycle) and Angharad Wynne-Jones (TippingPoint Australia, Arts House) have an open dialogue about their experiences of creating and participating in sustainability initiatives in the arts and culture sectors.
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Official Goodbyes, Regional Arts Australia's Closing Plenary Notes and Handover Ceremony to the next Regional Arts Australia National Conference, 2014.
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