Creative Responders

Anna Kennedy-Borissow joins us to discuss her PhD research into creative recovery projects in Australia. Anna is an arts manager, academic and theatre maker and currently a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne where she is researching the interplay of arts practice, community wellbeing and emergency management. 

Anna’s work addresses a gap in what is historically a lack of academic research in this field. By examining the extent to which arts participation builds resilience in disaster-affected communities and identifying the underlying factors that contribute to the success of creative recovery initiatives, she is working to establish an evidence-base to inform future developments in policy and practice.

In this conversation, Scotia and Anna discuss: 

• The challenges and opportunities around definitions and terminology when working in an emerging field of research. What is creative recovery and how is the term used across different disciplines, industries and locations? 

• What current research can show about the specific ways arts programs contribute to individual and community wellbeing following a disaster and how Anna’s research framework seeks to observe trends across different communities that can be relevant to other communities who engage in creative recovery in the future

• The importance of timing and sensitivities required when working with disaster-impacted communities to reflect on their experiences

• The role and importance of rigorous research as an advocacy tool to influence policy frameworks and funding decisions 

Further reading:

Performing Creativity, Culture and Wellbeing

https://www.cawri.com.au/pccw2023 

Creative Recovery Network Case Study Library 

https://creativerecovery.net.au/resources/ 

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Writer, policy adviser, audio producer and accessibility consultant, Jonathan Craig, joins Scotia for a discussion about how disaster planning can be improved by connecting with people as individuals and bringing the lived experience of community members to the table.

Jonathan is a policy advisor for Vision 2020 and has worked with Arts House Melbourne on several projects including Refuge, and the Warehouse Residency program for deaf and disabled artists.

Recently, Jonathan was part of the creative team behind Exercise Torrent - the City of Melbourne’s annual disaster preparedness exercise. He reflects on the project and discusses the windows of opportunity that arts-based approaches can offer into aspects of preparedness sometimes overlooked by traditional processes, like accessibility.

Links

Jonathan Craig, Twitter

https://twitter.com/j_d_x?lang=en 

Putting the Pieces Together: How the City of Melbourne is strengthening disaster management through creativity 

https://creativerecovery.net.au/creative-responders-podcast/documentary-series/s3-episode-10/ 

Defying Doomsday, Twelfth Planet Press 

http://www.twelfthplanetpress.com/products/ebooks/defying-doomsday

Rebuilding Tomorrow, Twelfth Planet Press

http://defyingdoomsday.twelfthplanetpress.com/rebuilding-tomorrow/ 

Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness

https://www.ursulakleguin.com/left-hand-darkness 

The Refuge Project, Arts House 

https://www.artshouse.com.au/artist-opportunities/refuge/ 

Convergence, Arts House 

https://www.artshouse.com.au/events/convergence/ 

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As cities and communities all over the world look to new models of disaster preparedness and response, how do we successfully activate a whole of community approach where everyone has a role to play and disaster management services are working with not for the community? 

In this episode of Creative Responders, we’ll hear what happened when the City of Melbourne tackled this question and engaged artists in the co-design and facilitation of a preparedness exercise, working with the North Melbourne community to imagine better models of response and recovery. 

The 2022 disaster preparedness simulation, Exercise Torrent, was a collaboration between City of Melbourne’s Emergency Management Department and Arts House that utilised an arts-based approach to develop a scenario for emergency management professionals, service providers and community organisations to interact with. 

City of Melbourne’s Emergency Management Coordinator, Christine Drummond, takes us inside the process of developing the exercise, how it played out on the day, and how bringing the arts into the process provided a different lens for people to participate more readily.

We hear from artist facilitators Jonathan Craig and Dr Jen Rae and Arts House Creative Producer, Sarah Rowbottam, about how creative methodologies provide a layer of depth to the relational aspects of exercises like this, offering a window of opportunity into areas of preparedness sometimes overlooked by traditional processes, like accessibility.

The project provides a model for how creativity and the arts can support community engagement strategies and provide entry points for practicing the skills of collaboration that will help us to better respond when a disaster occurs.

Links / Further Reading:

Arts House

https://www.artshouse.com.au 

The Refuge Project 

https://www.artshouse.com.au/artist-opportunities/refuge/ 

Together by Richard Sennett

https://www.penguin.com.au/books/together-9780141022109 

Community Engagement for Disaster Resilience Handbook

https://knowledge.aidr.org.au/resources/handbook-community-engagement/ 

Creative Responders in Conversation with Jen Rae

https://creativerecovery.net.au/creative-responders-podcast/in-conversation-series/s2-episode-10/ 

Creative Responders in Conversation with Kate Sulan 

https://creativerecovery.net.au/creative-responders-podcast/in-conversation-series/s1-episode-8/ 

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Nathan Harrison is part of the creative team at Boho Interactive, a collective of Australian artists and game designers who create interactive performances and games exploring concepts from systems science, complexity theory, resilience thinking, game theory and network theory. 

Nathan and Scotia discuss the wide-ranging applications of this work and how the participatory process of engaging in games has the power to ignite creativity, create shared languages, foster collaboration and provide entry points for exploring complex systems and ideas. 

Links and Further Reading 

Boho Interactive

https://www.bestfestivalever.com.au 

Best Festival Ever Project

https://www.bestfestivalever.com.au/#/best-festival-ever/ 

Canberra 2060, Futures with a Capital F

https://www.bestfestivalever.com.au/#/canberra-2060/ 

Eden Marine High School Disaster Preparedness Program 

https://www.eden.nsw.au/boho-interactive-kicks-off-disaster-preparedness-youth-group-at-eden-marine-high-school/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=boho-interactive-kicks-off-disaster-preparedness-youth-group-at-eden-marine-high-school 

Resilience Thinking: Sustaining Ecosystems and People in a Changing World by Brian Walker and David Salt 

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5d7901f41e62ba340a30eb04/t/5d83f5e286a5bd19c4f55ff7/1568929253568/Walker+and+Salt+-+Sustaining+Ecosystems+and+People+in+a+Changing+Wor.pdf 

Blood on the Clocktower 

https://bloodontheclocktower.com 

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From the epicentre of the Northern Rivers flood recovery, we are joined by Elly Bird and Katie Cooper-Wares. Both have been instrumental in the founding and development of the Resilient Lismore community recovery organisation, alongside other roles –Elly as a Councillor for Lismore City Council and Chair of Northern Rivers Arts and Katie as a dancer, artist, environmental educator and founder of the Creative First Aid Alliance group.

They discuss the need to reframe community preparedness; how the arts can support in reimagining the future after such an immense loss of safety and identity; and share on-ground learnings from living with the reality of compounding disasters in their community.

Links:

Resilient Lismore Facebook Group 

Flood Help Northern Rivers 

Creative First Aid Alliance 

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Melinda Rankin is the Director of Fabrik Arts & Heritage, located in Lobethal, a small regional town nestled in a picturesque valley on Peramangk and Kaurna Country in the Adelaide Hills.

Fabrik is an arts and heritage hub, run by Adelaide Hills Council. Its public program started in early 2019 and at the end of that year, the Cudlee Creek bushfire devastated the area.

As a newly established arts organisation with a remit covering both community and economic development goals, the team at Fabrik immediately looked to ways the premises and public program could play a role in supporting the community in its recovery.

Arts organisations play a vital role in communities they operate within. Fabrik’s considered approach to this work is a strong example of the meaningful impact arts organisations can have as a connector within their communities, in times of crisis and beyond.

Visit Fabrik Arts & Heritage

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• how disasters impact women, children and LGBTQIA+ communities the importance of incorporating their safety as a key focus in disaster resilience planning

• the evidence Debra and her team have been compiling since the Black Saturday bushfires and how this has increased awareness around issues of domestic and family violence - what changes have taken place since in this time and what still needs to happen to improve situations for women and children

• Gender and Disaster Australia’s recent federal government funding to implement their training programs throughout communities in Australia

• Examples of how arts and cultural practices have been utilised within this area of work to support families and children and how Debra and her team incorporate the arts in conferences and planning processes

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