There are a number of programs that the DDCA is developing in view of supporting this vision, one of which is a Mentorship Program for early- to mid- career researchers. We look forward to sharing this program with you soon. We will be seeking expressions of interest from both mentees and mentors to participate in the program.
The other way we’ve been cultivating this space is in the context of the annual symposium held this year at University of South Australia in November. In addition to the DDCA membership we also welcomed nominated ‘emerging leaders’ in the area of creative practice research to the event.
Professor Anna Goldsworthy, Director of the Elder Conservatorium of Music at the University of Adelaide, welcomed us the evening before the symposium, for an informal evening of music and chat. The symposium proper started the morning after with a generous welcome to Kaurana Country from Elaine Joy Magias and from Provost, Professor Joanne Cys (UniSA).
Our first keynote was Franchesca Cubillo, Senior Curator Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art at the National Gallery of Australia and Executive Director of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts at Creative Australia. Franchesca’s talk, Truth Telling, Nation building and the representation of Aboriginal people in the visual record, 1770 – 1901 (Federation), drew attention to the false narratives that were built through the mis-representation of Indigenous Australians by non-indigenous painters during this period.
Professor Marnie Hughes-Warrington AO, Deputy Vice Chancellor (UniSA), philosopher and historian, presented Creativity Thrives: leadership and the future of creativity in Australia. I won’t do justice to Marnie’s expansive and entertaining talk here which addressed, amongst other things, the way artistic practice and research is part of the fabric of other disciplines and that it would serve us all well to start to recognise this and draw on its influence and power.
Professor Joanne Cys chaired a panel discussion with Jane McFarland from the Helpmann Academy and Brian Parkes from Jam Factory who spoke about the collaborative and supportive community that has been cultivated for artists in South Australia over the past decade. They shared their leadership models of mentorship and support in a non-competitive, collaborative ecosystem. They have worked to build a network of support for young, emerging artists to enter sustainable industry relationships. It takes a village to raise an artist: give them skills, mentorships, residencies, funding for materials, help establishing audiences, and networking opportunities.
Our final presentation came from Jenny Fewster, Director of HASS and Indigenous Research at Australian Research Data Commons. We are fortunate to publish a summary of this talk prepared by Mary Filsell: Building Australia’s Research Future.
Aaron Davis (UniSA) ran a special workshop with the emerging leaders group at the Museum of Discovery. The Speculative Movie Trailers that they came up with are really worth a read (and under copyright, of course)!
The day finished with an evening event at Port Adelaide for the final night of Bodies of Work, a week-long series of events—lectures, workshops, performances, artist laboratories, activist training—run by Reset Arts and Culture, and Vitalstatistix, exploring a broad range of issues faced by cultural workers.
This edition also includes additional contributions on our theme. Applied Compassion by Pearl Tan is an audio interview with Catherine Kolomyjec and Claire Tonkin who discuss putting compassion at the centre of our thinking about leadership. Gerard Reed’s piece Embracing Uncertainty and the Unknown looks at the implications and generative potential of uncertainty for leadership, particularly from a Screen Business perspective. Clive Barstow and Paul Gough’s While ERA Sleeps… the new REF awakens contribute an assessment of the recent changes in the REF (UK) and reflect on what this might mean for Australia’s ERA. Is REF leading the (good) way and should we follow?
In our Practice section for this edition we are lucky to share Linda Luke’s reflections on an aspect of the three year, cross-disciplinary arts project BORDERS, supported by Arts Mildura and Regional Arts Victoria through its Rescue funds initiative. In Re-thriving the arts communities residing along the Dhungala (Murray) river, Linda shows us some of the ways artists, rivers, and communities are thriving following the Covid border closures.
Our Review section lists our leading 2023 titles on creative practice research.
Do be in touch if you’re reading anything exciting that you’d like to tell us about. And of course let us know if you’re publishing anything that would be of interest to our readership and we will spread the word through our on-going news section.
This conversation on Leadership and Thriving is only just beginning and we look forward to continuing the conversation into 2024.