2020 Workshop EOI
2020 workshops are now closed.
In 2020, we ran workshops online for Queensland and Victorian creatives, and a dedicated workshop for artists from refugee backgrounds in Ashfield, NSW supported by Inner West Council and Refugee Art Project.
Queensland and Victorian workshop were supported by BEMAC, MAV and Creatives of Colour.
If you are interested in registering for future workshops in 2021, you can do so here. To ensure that workshops are a safe space, they are only open to creatives from a culturally diverse or First Nations background.
How do you imagine Australia’s future?
Stories from the Future imagines a future where cultural diversity is present at every level in the arts, creative and screen sectors.
In these one-day workshops held throughout Australia, participants are guided through a process of shared visioning to imagine what changes might be possible, how they might happen and the legacy we will leave behind.
The project supports the leading role of artists, producers and creative workers in shaping the future of culture and the creative sector in Australia. It’s an inspiring chance to set our imaginations free from the confines of current systems and brainstorm ways to make our visions a reality.
Audience
The workshops bring together creatives, arts workers and cultural leaders of First Nations, culturally diverse, migrant and refugee backgrounds.
Workshop Outline
The workshops involve a series of exercises and activities that flow from the personal to the structural and systemic. They include exercises that reflect upon experiences of marginalisation in the arts and group exercises that collectively imagine milestones and actions along a timeline towards an equitable culturally diverse arts scene in 2050.
Project Outcomes
- Production of a report capturing key issues and making recommendations
- A synthesised timeline to the future based on the workshops
- Series of mini-films and podcasts
- Series of articles published in publications (commissioning writers)
- The After Australia anthology, which was launched in 2020 and embedded POC and Indigenous artists into the process
Background
The project was piloted in Western Sydney in 2017 by Dr Paula Abood and Lena Nahlous in conjunction with Arts Front, with a further workshop held at the Arts Front symposium.
In 2019, we partnered with Dr Remy Low (workshop facilitator), Lecturer from the Sydney School of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney who restructured and delivered the workshop with support from Associate Producer Glaiza Perez in NSW, SA, ACT and WA with the support of our key state partners.
In 2020, we ran a dedicated refugee and asylum seeker workshop in Sydney and we will deliver online workshops for Queensland and Victorian creatives.
Our Partners
Stories from the Future is a partnership between Diversity Arts Australia, the University of Sydney, and key state partners and receives core support from the Australia Council for the Arts, Create NSW, City of Parramatta Council, Liverpool City Council and Inner West Council.
Key state partners: BEMAC, Regional Arts Services Network, Refugee Art Project, Community Arts Network, Regional Arts WA, Casula Powerhouse, Parramatta Artists Studios, The Street, Nexus Arts, Country Arts SA, Information and Cultural Exchange (ICE), Arts Front, Feral Arts, Multicultural Arts Victoria, Creatives of Colour, Sweatshop and Peril.
Project Updates
In January 2019, we kicked off the first workshops in NSW at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre and Parramatta Artists Studios with a range of artists and arts workers from across the creative sector.
Check out the workshop coverage at Peril Magazine and read Salaat by Omar Sakr, a poem inspired by a personal reflection upon the connections between the past, present and future at the workshop. Also read Islandless Islanders: the very real threat of climate change by Winnie Dunn at SBS Voices for another reflective piece inspired by the workshop. At Peril Magazine, Monica Kumar also explores the present and the future state of being in The year is 2050 and nothing much has changed.
In March and April 2019, we launched the first introductory short films based on the NSW Stories from the Future workshops at two events with Councillor Charishma Kaliyanda and Councillor Patricia Prociv.
The introductory films were launched as part of the celebrations for Harmony Day: Forum For Home at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre and the Stories from the Future social mixer at Parramatta Artists Studios. Stay tuned to this space for the online short films coming soon.
