ArTELIER 2019 session five
The fifth ArTELIER session centred around Reflecting Diversity. The gathering took place at Burnie Regional Art Gallery (BRAG) and asked, "What is your struggle to achieve a practice that connects to diverse communities, cultures, occupations, etc.? How do we break the systemic siloing and ghettoizing of our community?" Julia Drouhin reflected on her workshops with young makers in South Africa for a street radio broadcast commission by Vrystaat Arts Festival 2018 and Tasmanian lab Situate 2016, scored by a Lost Lover book inspired by posters seen everywhere in public space with keywords like #abortion #sound #pill #same #day #pain #free #penis #enlargement #love #potion.
Alysha Herrmann is a proud parent, daughter of regional Australia, writer, theatre maker, creative producer and community organiser. She makes performances, installations, experiences, presentations, poetry, digital exchanges and small moments of connection in public places. Once upon a time Alysha was a disconnected and very angry high-school drop out & teenage parent who thought the arts was a waste of time and money https://griffithreview.com/articles/not-for-me/ Alysha ran a two hour wsession talking about her work and challenging the group with questions about the sector and about the concept of Diversity.
Lucien created a rich environment of charing through simple drama activities where the group was able to reflect more deeply on their ideas of diversity.
Dawn Oelrich the Director of Burnie Regional Art Gallery introduced the exhibition BEYOND SITEat BRAG. BEYOND SIGHT is a multi-sensory exhibition in which visitors can explore the artworks through touch, sound, smell, sight and imagination. Katrin Terton’s evocative, interactive and immersive experience contemplates inclusion of the broadest audience by making her works meaningfully accessible to people of all ages and abilities with particular regard to people with low or no vision. The exhibition challenges the prevailing paradigm of inclusion by revealing that the experience of those with impairments is both valid and rich, then including other members of the audience in that appreciation. This not only levels the playing field for participation, it also reminds the whole audience of the benefit of using all of their available senses to understand their world.
For the final session of the day Yogi, Koko Flow took the group for a guided meditation/yoga session at the beach.