Breakout Session Three

Out of the Darkness: Elevating Survivor Stories Presenter: Julie McLaren, Curator, Art Gallery Ballarat.

Art can be a powerful transformative tool for conversation and change within a traumatised community. The regional city of Ballarat was one of the main sites examined in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. In 2021 Art Gallery of Ballarat hosted the exhibition Out of the darkness: A survivor’s response. Curator Julie McLaren will explore what worked, what didn’t and what she would do differently on an exhibition encompassing such challenging themes. She will also discuss how the exhibition will support the design of a permanent memorial to survivors of sexual abuse in Ballarat.

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Burrinja – Crisis Relief, A Case Study
Presenter: Gareth Hart, Creative Director/CEO, Burrinja Cultural Centre

In June 2021, a devastating, destructive storm tore through the Dandenong Ranges of Victoria, rendering much of the community without power for 6 weeks. As an offer to the community, Burrinja opened its doors, and delivered numerous creative programs and venue uses transforming a creative hub into a place for social connection, solace, respite and reflection. This gesture redefined Burrinja’s long standing practice of responding to community need. The residue of this is an ongoing suite of creative-led programs and projects that set a new agenda for the organisation. This short presentation will outline and reflect on many of these.

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Regional Showcase

The Regional Showcase Program is designed to showcase the great work undertaken by artists and arts workers in regional SA. This program has been funded by Country Arts SA
Life Drawing for Beginners
Presenters April Hague and Jane Van Eeten

Ever wanted to have a go at drawing the figure? These experienced artists and art teachers will show you how. In a fast-tracked learning process, learn to use tricks and tools of the trade to sketch the human figure with accuracy and style. Between the two of them, Jane and April have been teaching for over 70 years and run hugely popular life drawing sessions at their local art gallery, so they know their stuff! All materials provided, as well as a lot of fun no doubt, don't miss this.
Strictly Limited Numbers for this session open only to those delegates who book in.

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A Playground for Democracy Presenter: Liz Grandmaison, PhD Candidate, Flinders University

Wouldn’t it be great if we had a playground for democracy? Someplace challenging yet safe and accessible. A public ‘sandbox’ where folks could use objects and stories to learn and practice skills like deep listening, arguing without fighting, looking and seeing from different perspectives and sitting with discomfort where the stakes are low. We already have these spaces: galleries, libraries and museums.
Drawing on GLAM case studies and scholarly literature, this presentation will demonstrate how principles from critical pedagogies and radical democratic practices can be used together to tackle audience development, creative inclusion and the practice of democracy in tandem.

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Social Foundations Thinking for Cultural Institutions Presenter: Tully Barnett, Flinders University

In addition to the economic benefits of arts and culture, research into the social foundations offer new or renewed frames of thinking about value and evaluation in the cultural sector. This includes heterodox economics approaches, the push for a United Nations Sustainable Development Goal for arts and culture, the cultural rights agenda, and notions of human flourishing beyond health and happiness. This presentation reports on new research around ideas of social foundations and their applicability for understanding and communicating the value of arts and culture and framing and implementing local, state and federal cultural policy.

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Arts + Health Infrastructure: Building Together
Presenter: Brigette Uren, Program Director Health Infrastructure NSW

When arts and conventional gallery spaces step outside industry conventions, the potential for the arts to flourish are endless. This presentation offers a cross industry practice case study through the lens of Health Infrastructure NSW and explores diverse communities across metropolitan, regional and remote New South Wales, the cultural partnerships that have guided the program and the impacts for improved social connectedness, health and wellbeing.

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How to Manage a Gallery (Shop): A Toolkit for Cultural Professionals.
Presenter: Richard Harling

This session is for cultural professionals that might be contemplating starting a retail offer in their cultural organisation, already have one that is not living up to expectations or perhaps have a great retail space but are keen to develop skills and learn the professional language to better mange their space effectively. This session is designed to give participants the understanding, practical tools and templates to make immediate positive change to their retail operations or to be able to assess and plan for the development of or expansion of a retail offering.
Be ready to be hands on as we cover topics including: • Understanding the realities of “cultural commerce” • Developing and using retail metrics and benchmarks to provide visibility and management control. • The key tools for optimising sales and performance • Fundamentals of product ranging and the role of product development • Putting in place the key action orientated retail reports every retail manager needs and how to use them in your shop and with your staff. • Recognising opportunity – the call-to-buy, alignment, customer segments and revenue forecasting. • Point of Sale systems – the good the bad and the ugly. • Creating and implementing relevant customer service standards Strictly Limited Numbers for this session open only to those delegates who book in.

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