Contextually fine

Just over a year ago, I was in holiday in Tasmania with my beloved and besties, and pretty bloody happy about it. 

It was early September 2023 and I was hanging and chatting with one of my pals in an outdoor hot-tub another had coaxed into warmth with a smokey wood fire. I felt safe and peaceful and surrounded by love. There may have been wine.

We were talking about my poetry book, which had been out in the world a few months. My spa buddy asked, given my creative practice had taken place almost exclusively online for over a decade, how I had fared with the more dangerous sides of digital space – trolling, censorship or other forms of abuse.

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And another thing: board solidarity

Boards speak with one voice (except when they don’t).

Unfortunately, not only are we witnessing failures from boards not speaking up about the multiple, massive issues currently affecting their teams, organisations or sectors at the moment, but board members leaking confidential information, or bringing outside agendas into their meetings in an attempt to sway the actions of their boards or the orgs they oversee.

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The statements we make

As artists, cultural workers and arts organisations, ours is the business of statement-making.

I was reminded of this recently by the work of Portuguese artist Tiago Casanova, whose installation Every wall is a Statement is currently part of the A liberdade e só a Liberdade exhibition (‘Freedom and only freedom’) at The Art and Culture Center of the Eugénio de Almeida Foundation in Évora.

I was also reminded, less pleasantly, by recent rushed and fumbled public statements made by Australian arts and cultural organisations in response to local and global issues or events like last year’s Voice Referendum (or the need for voice, treaty and truth more broadly) and the ongoing genocide in Palestine — including the statements that many have made with their silence.

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Victorian creatives, have your say

The Victorian Government wants your thoughts on what the arts mean to you and what they should do to support the state’s arts, cultural and creative sector.

Have your say on the Creative State consultation by Monday 26 August 2024.

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And another thing: SLV as the example you don’t want to be

As a critical friend to the arts and cultural sector, I try not to ‘out’ organisations who haven’t already made headlines. Unfortunately, after a year of record fumbles and fails in response to Palestine, that still leaves a lot from which to learn from (with new ones seemingly added every day).

So it’s been deeply disappointing to witness an organisation so many have held in high esteem become the high-profile poster child for poor practice. I look at the example of the State Library of Victoria in the latest edition of my ‘and another thing’ vlog.

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Organisational ethics: walking the talk

We live in polycrisis times. In post Voice referendum “Australia”. In the midst of visible local and international legal and human rights abuses. In a decimated sector impacted by an ongoing pandemic, cost of living, climate and mental health crises, and more.

All of which have raised awareness of and reduced tolerance for things we’ve always known. Things we’ve articulated and have been trying to change – if incrementally – through endless research papers, consultations and planning days.

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