Regional Arts Australia

Artlands Conversations #5: Ros Abercrombie (Part 2)

Regional Arts Australia's Artlands '23 gathering embodied a profound systems change and flipped the script on how to bring people together for hard and important conversations. The experience was captured in the newly released C R E A T I N G S P A C E documentary, exploring what is possible when a conference is curated around care and wellbeing. This new five-part podcast series continues the conversation, sharing some of the full interviews and diving deeper into the idea that “The future is regional. The future is creative.” 
 
MEET: ROS ABERCROMBIE
To close this series we speak to Ros Abercrombie, Executive Director of Regional Arts Australia about the thought process behind Artlands 2023. 
 
This conversation doesn’t shy away from the truth of co-designing a new way to gather, of navigating how to create a space that is culturally safe and appropriate for the different participants that we would be inviting, the challenges that we didn’t see coming, the successes that we all achieved through the process. 
 
There’s a lot to cover so we’ve broken it into two episodes, this one carries on from last episode, where Ros was told we would need healers at the event, and just what that meant from a cultural knowledge perspective.  
 
And then we speak about the final act, Act 5, on the final day of Artlands 2023. We’ve heard the participants speak about a specific moment when one of the participants spoke during this time. We’re now going to hear Ros’ experience of that moment, and what we would do differently if we were to gather people together again in this way. 
 
Ros Abercrombie: I think for me personally, at the time, it was it was a really challenging space to be feeling responsible for that room, feeling responsible for my team, feeling responsible for all of the facilitators and all the participants, the keynote listeners that are really close colleagues, ensuring everyone felt okay through that, and that process after the event was a good couple of weeks of conversations, checking in on people and checking in on how everyone was feeling. 
 
So I certainly felt it. I felt very responsible for it. I still feel very responsible for it.  
 
 
 *
 
Artlands ‘23 brought 80 purposefully selected participants together at the National Gallery Australia on Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country (in Canberra), for three days, five acts, tackling the challenges and opportunities presented by the provocation: The Future of Regional Australia is Fundamentally Creative. 
 
Artlands ‘23 is supported by the Regional Arts Fund and delivered by Regional Arts Australia. The Regional Arts Fund is an Australian Government program that supports sustainable cultural development in regional and remote communities in Australia. 
 
'The future is regional. The future is creative' is a registered trademark of Regional Arts Australia.  
 
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Regional Arts Australia. 

Artlands Conversations #4: Ros Abercrombie (Part 1)

Regional Arts Australia's Artlands '23 gathering embodied a profound systems change and flipped the script on how to bring people together for hard and important conversations. The experience was captured in the newly released C R E A T I N G S P A C E documentary, exploring what is possible when a conference is curated around care and wellbeing. This new five-part podcast series continues the conversation, sharing some of the full interviews and diving deeper into the idea that “The future is regional. The future is creative.” 
 
MEET: ROS ABERCROMBIE
To close this series, we speak to Ros Abercrombie, Executive Director of Regional Arts Australia about the thought process behind Artlands 2023. 
 
This conversation doesn’t shy away from the truth of co-designing a new way to gather, of navigating how to create a space that is culturally safe and appropriate for the different participants that we would be inviting, the challenges that we didn’t see coming, the successes that we all achieved through the process. 
 
There’s a lot to cover so we’ve broken it into two episodes, this one focuses on the lead-up, the why behind doing something different and some of the challenges and successes of working with three co-facilitators.  
 
Ros Abercrombie: We started to float ideas of things that we were thinking about changing. And overwhelmingly there was an excitement and a positivity. There was also generally a sort of wry smile saying, Are you crazy? Like, do you not just want to do things as normal, would be a whole lot simpler? 
 
And there's no two ways about it. Change is harder. But we were really conscious that as an organisation we pride ourselves on listening to what our colleagues and what the sector was saying, and they were saying they felt that it was time for change. 
 
 
 *
 
Artlands ‘23 brought 80 purposefully selected participants together at the National Gallery Australia on Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country (in Canberra), for three days, five acts, tackling the challenges and opportunities presented by the provocation: The Future of Regional Australia is Fundamentally Creative. 
 
Artlands ‘23 is supported by the Regional Arts Fund and delivered by Regional Arts Australia. The Regional Arts Fund is an Australian Government program that supports sustainable cultural development in regional and remote communities in Australia. 
 
'The future is regional. The future is creative' is a registered trademark of Regional Arts Australia.  
 
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Regional Arts Australia. 

Artlands Conversations #3: Kiarnna Lehman

Regional Arts Australia's Artlands '23 gathering embodied a profound systems change and flipped the script on how to bring people together for hard and important conversations. The experience was captured in the newly released C R E A T I N G S P A C E documentary, exploring what is possible when a conference is curated around care and wellbeing. This new five-part podcast series continues the conversation, sharing some of the fuller interviews and diving deeper into the idea that “The future is regional. The future is creative.”
 
MEET: KIARNNA LEHMAN
This conversation takes place at Meander, Tasmania, with Kiarnna Lehman. Kiarnna is a young singer/songwriter from Meander, Tasmania, who has been working as a sole trading musician since the beginning of 2022. From early primary school onwards, music has lit her soul alight; it’s what makes her feel the most sparkly. She hopes to bring more authenticity and depth to her music after learning of her Neurodivergence in recent years. Outside of music Kiarnna is wholeheartedly a multipotentialite; some other sparkle-inducing passions include bushwalking, content creating, reading, playing football, and cuddling her enormous dog, Kujo. Always looking for ways to grow, Kiarnna is a life-long learner, and a great-big dreamer. 
 
Kiarnna shares what her group spoke about in Act 5 of Artlands 2023, and some of the questions they put to our key note listeners, and about the feeling of being heard and seen by these arts leaders, that her contribution might actually make an impact. 
 
Kiarnna Lehman: I don't think I've met a single artist that has been gatekeeping information or knowledge. Everyone just wants to help each other and as unrealistic as it sounds, there really is space for every single artist in regional arts in Australia. There's space for everyone.
 
 *
 
Artlands ‘23 brought 80 purposefully selected participants together at the National Gallery Australia on Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country (in Canberra), for three days, five acts, tackling the challenges and opportunities presented by the provocation: The Future of Regional Australia is Fundamentally Creative. 
 
Artlands ‘23 is supported by the Regional Arts Fund and delivered by Regional Arts Australia. The Regional Arts Fund is an Australian Government program that supports sustainable cultural development in regional and remote communities in Australia. 
 
'The future is regional. The future is creative' is a registered trademark of Regional Arts Australia.  
 
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Regional Arts Australia. 

Artlands Conversations #2: Fiona Sinclair

Regional Arts Australia's Artlands '23 gathering embodied a profound systems change and flipped the script on how to bring people together for hard and important conversations. The experience was captured in the newly released C R E A T I N G S P A C E documentary, exploring what is possible when a conference is curated around care and wellbeing. This new five-part podcast series continues the conversation, sharing some of the fuller interviews and diving deeper into the idea that “The future is regional. The future is creative.”
 
MEET: FIONA SINCLAIR
This conversation takes place in the Understory Art and Nature Trail at Northcliffe with Fiona Sinclair. With twenty+ years experience as a public artist, community cultural development  facilitator, gallery manager, curator, presenter and cultural tourism operator, Fiona has extensive networks stretching across the vast and diverse WA regional arts sector. Specialising in initiatives that deliver inter-connectivity, collaboration and vibrancy to regional arts practice, Fiona is a passionate advocate for the depth, dynamism and richness the sector contributes to our national creative and cultural experience. 
 
We talk about the “container of care” created at Artlands, the Maori practices of hongi and breathwork taught by the facilitators, Desna Whaanga-Schollum, Chelita Kahutianui-o-te-Rangi Zainey and Te Hira Kaiwai.. We also speak about the experience of our key note listeners, the industry leaders we invited to the final act: Liz Ritchie from Regional Australia Institute, Natalie Egleton from the Foundation for Rural Regional Renewal, Kate Fielding from A New Approach, Georgia McClean from Creative Australia, Jane Carter from the Office for the Arts and Andrea Hogg from the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation. 
 
Fiona Sinclair: Art is art has always been. It's so deeply intrinsic to who we are as humans. So serving art is not serving myself or even serving my community in a way, it's just about connecting to the best of who we can be, but also the most vulnerable that we can be. 
 
 *
 
Artlands ‘23 brought 80 purposefully selected participants together at the National Gallery Australia on Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country (in Canberra), for three days, five acts, tackling the challenges and opportunities presented by the provocation: The Future of Regional Australia is Fundamentally Creative. 
 
Artlands ‘23 is supported by the Regional Arts Fund and delivered by Regional Arts Australia. The Regional Arts Fund is an Australian Government program that supports sustainable cultural development in regional and remote communities in Australia. 
 
'The future is regional. The future is creative' is a registered trademark of Regional Arts Australia.  
 
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Regional Arts Australia. 

Artlands Conversations #1: Warwick Gow

Regional Arts Australia's Artlands '23 gathering embodied a profound systems change and flipped the script on how to bring people together for hard and important conversations. The experience was captured in the newly released C R E A T I N G S P A C E documentary, exploring what is possible when a conference is curated around care and wellbeing. This new five-part podcast series continues the conversation, sharing some of the fuller interviews and diving deeper into the idea that “The future is regional. The future is creative.” 
 
MEET: WARWICK GOW
This conversation takes place at Moffat Beach, Queensland, with Warwick Gow, an artist, art worker and co-founder of LANTANA Space. Warwick’s practice is primarily based in photography and installation, using the portrait to place local fringe culture within arm’s length of the mainstream. Destabilising notions of representation, elevating unique identities and that of the self by hijacking the thin veil of commercialism and elegantly smashing it against a DIY ethic. This ethos carries through into Warwick’s approach as an arts worker as part of Sunshine Coast Council’s Creative Development Team and into his emerging practice as an independent curator in a regional setting. 
 
We speak about Warwick’s experience of some of the Maori cultural practices taught to us by our facilitators Desna Whaanga-Schollum, Chelita Kahutianui-o-te-Rangi Zainey and Te Hira Kaiwai. We also speak about the opening cross-sector panel of Act 1 which included Michelle Tuahine, Ruby Heard, Troy Merritt and Sheridan Morris. 
 
Warwick Gow: “Connecting some of those connections and threads through really regional remote areas of Australia. That was a real privilege to sort of be facilitated to do that in a really authentic way where everyone's on this level playing field. And I think there's a real hope about what the future for regional arts can be.”  
 
*
 
Artlands ‘23 brought 80 purposefully selected participants together at the National Gallery Australia on Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country (in Canberra), for three days, five acts, tackling the challenges and opportunities presented by the provocation: The Future of Regional Australia is Fundamentally Creative. 
 
Artlands ‘23 is supported by the Regional Arts Fund and delivered by Regional Arts Australia. The Regional Arts Fund is an Australian Government program that supports sustainable cultural development in regional and remote communities in Australia. 
 
'The future is regional. The future is creative' is a registered trademark of Regional Arts Australia.  
 
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Regional Arts Australia. 

Conversations with the Assembly #7: Zahid Rafiq

In this final episode of Regional Assembly's Conversations with the Assembly, Zahid Rafiq reads 'Frog In The Mouth' from his upcoming debut book, The World With Its Mouth Open. Introduction by Abdul Halik Azeez. Zahid Rafiq is a writer living in Srinagar, Kashmir. He was a journalist for several years before turning to writing fiction. The World With Its Mouth Open is his first book.
Conversations with the Assembly (Series 2) is a podcast that delves deep with practitioners from Regional Assembly—an online artist studio connecting creative practitioners living and working in regional and remote locations in Asia, the Pacific and First Nations unceded territories across Australia. Each episode will foreground distinct voices and amplify, challenge and entwine the many threads of discourse and dialogue that unfold during Regional Assembly. 
To read more about the Regional Assembly click here: https://regionalarts.com.au/programs/regionalassembly
To read more about Regional Arts Australia click here: https://regionalarts.com.au/about/about-regional-arts-australia
The Regional Assembly is a Regional Arts Australia program delivered through the Regional Arts Fund. The Regional Arts Fund supports cultural development in regional, remote and rural communities in Australia. The program is managed by Regional Arts Australia on behalf of the Australian Government.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Regional Arts Australia.

Conversations with the Assembly #6: Jade Dewi Tyass Tunggal and Jacky Cheng with Alana Hunt

Join Jade Dewi Tyass Tunggal and Jacky Cheng in discussion with Alana Hunt for the sixth episode of our second series of Conversations with the Assembly.
Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal is a Javanese Australian dancer, choreographer and creative collaborator. Born in Darkinjung country NSW her work has been made and shared nationally and internationally. She has ancestry of Australian Scottish Viking convict-settlers, kinship ties with Borobudur Temple 800AD and is a direct descendant of Yogyakarta’s first Sultan 1755, Kangjeng Hamengku Buwana.
Jacky Cheng was born in Malaysia of Chinese heritage, and now resides in Yawuru Country, Broome, WA. Her practice is fundamentally about identity and awareness through cultural activities and memories of home, country, and relationships. Her awareness was amplified through her diasporic identity as a Chinese descendant in foreign borders as she continues to question her notion of 'home' and 'belonging' - 'here and there' and the 'in between'.
Alana Hunt coordinates Regional Assembly. She also makes art and writes, finding ways for this material to move affectively through the public sphere and the social space between people. She has worked with journalists, filmmakers, human rights defenders and lawyers on works that unfold over many years, with gradual yet accumulating resonance. The iterative memorial Cups of nun chai (2010-20) was serialised in 86 editions of Kashmir Reader (2016–17). In late 2023, Hunt completed Surveilling a Crime Scene (2023) a film that examines the materialisation of non-indigenous life on Miriwoong Country in the town of Kununurra and its surrounds. Hunt has exhibited nationally and internationally and is the recipient of a number of awards, most recently the 2023 STILL: National Still Life Award judged by Max Delany at Yarrila Arts and Museum, Coffs Harbour. 

Conversations with the Assembly #5: Abdul Halik Azeez and Alana Hunt

Join Abdul Halik Azeez and Alana Hunt in discussion for the fifth episode of our second series of Conversations with the Assembly.
Abdul Halik Azeez’s work examines technologies of power as mediated through contemporary culture, narratives of progress, lived experiences and new media processes. His multidisciplinary practice predominantly draws from post-war transformations impacting Sri Lanka such as gentrification, economic crises, tourism, and renewed ultranationalist politics. Collaboration plays a key role in Azeez’s work. In 2019, he co-founded The Packet, a collective of emerging artists from Sri Lanka which has worked extensively with publications and digital interventions including artist books, browser based art and site specific installations.
Alana Hunt coordinates Regional Assembly. She also makes art and writes, finding ways for this material to move affectively through the public sphere and the social space between people. She has worked with journalists, filmmakers, human rights defenders and lawyers on works that unfold over many years, with gradual yet accumulating resonance. The iterative memorial Cups of nun chai (2010-20) was serialised in 86 editions of Kashmir Reader (2016–17). In late 2023, Hunt completed Surveilling a Crime Scene (2023) a film that examines the materialisation of non-indigenous life on Miriwoong Country in the town of Kununurra and its surrounds. Hunt has exhibited nationally and internationally and is the recipient of a number of awards, most recently the 2023 STILL: National Still Life Award judged by Max Delany at Yarrila Arts and Museum, Coffs Harbour. 

Conversations with the Assembly #4: Kate Just

Kate Just is a queer American/Australian artist of Polish, Irish, Scottish and German descent who lives and works on Dja Dja Wurrung Country in Victoria. Just is best known for her inventive and political use of knitting. In addition to her solo practice, Just often works socially and collaboratively within communities to create large scale, public art projects that tackle significant social issues including LGBTQIA rights, sexual harassment and violence against women. Her work creates space for viewers to closely reflect on their own relationship to art, feminism, care and social justice.
Infused with a sharp feminist take, in this conversation with Alana Hunt that took place in January 2024, Kate reflects on recent bodies of work including Protest Signs (2022), Self Care Action (2023) and Fifty Rules for Making Art (2023-24); community and activism in regional Victoria; adopting family, and moving with grief.  Follow Kate on instagram @katejustknits

Conversations with the Assembly #3: Selena de Carvalho and Arie Syarifuddin

In the latest episode of Regional Assembly's Conversations with the Assembly Selena de Carvalho and Arie Syarifuddin join forces in a soul-moving conversation about the potential of big and long and radical creative acts seeding from very humble grounds—from lutruwita to Jatiwangi!
Selena de Carvalho (PhD) is an inter-disciplinary artist, designer, maker and risk taker of settler, refugee and migrant heritage based in lutruwrita/Tasmania- ‘Australia’. Selena purposefully connects creativity in a (post) activist context amplifying the ecological imagination through practicing relational ethos. Selena views her creative work as a cultural response – ability. Throughout this practice she seeks out materials and environments that have weathered various forms of frontline disturbance, with-nessing, witnessing and interpreting global warming and its local affects.
Arie Syarifuddin (1985, Indonesia) is also known as Alghorie. Affiliated as an artist, curator, cultural producer, designer, and director of artist in residency department to the artist initiative; Jatiwangi Art Factory in the village of Jatiwangi in West Java, which is Indonesia’s biggest roof-tile manufacturing centre. Established in 2005, Jatiwangi art Factory (JaF) is a community that embraces contemporary arts and cultural practices as parts of the local life discourse in a rural area. Redesigning; hacking; giving values and dignity to the ordinary things; negotiation between fiction, dreams, reality, everyday life; and the intersection of historical reading is the most inclination of Arie’s works.