Conference Guest Speakers And Presenters - Community, Health and the Arts 'Vital Arts - Vibrant Communities' Conference
The UNESCO Observatory for Multi-disciplinary Research in the Arts is extending invitations to people with interests associated with the arts, health, community arts, the empowerment of communities and research to present papers at the 'Vital Arts – Vibrant Communities' Conference, September 6th and 7th, 2008.
The conference will be held at The University of Melbourne, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning. All paper presentations will then be submitted for a reviewing process for publication in the UNESCO Observatory refereed journal for the June/July Volume 1, Edition 4, 2009.
Invited Guest Speakers for the conference are Community Arts leaders, eminent researchers and an arts administrator from VicHealth. The conference encourages people making notable contributions to the field of community, health and the arts to add to the body of literature in this emerging field. The methodology and findings of the Community Arts Scheme Evaluation for Mental Health for 2020, conducted over the last three years and supported by VicHealth will be presented.
A Cultural Cabaret will be held at the "Open Stage" Theatre at The University of Melbourne on Saturday evening 6th September, showcasing the best of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Circus, The Women's Circus and Somebody's Daughter Theatre Company.
Snapshots of the individuals and organisations who will be sharing their knowledge include:
Camilla Ella and Sandra Sanders - Women's Circus
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The renowned Women's Circus of Australia has been operating since 1991, presenting 15 large-scale new works in Melbourne and training over 1600 women in the areas of circus arts and theatrical performance. The Circus exists to enable Women to live their dreams, which it does through training, performance opportunities, professional teaching opportunities and the provision of community support. The Women's Circus has been the subject of an international documentary series and has toured Beijing for the UN's Conference on Women. Its achievements have been honoured with a Green Room Award for 'Outstanding Contribution' to the Melbourne Fringe festival, and the Melbourne Award for Community Development.
Guest Speakers from the Women's Circus will talk about the past present and future of the Women's Circus and its impact on women across the Melbourne Metropolitan area and their outreach activities.
Geoff Webb
Geoff Webb is an Invited Guest Speaker and comes from an extensive background working in community arts and health both in Australia and the United Kingdom. Geoff will speak of his role in VicHealth's Mental Health and Wellbeing Unit and numerous projects aimed at social inclusion through arts. VicHealth have actively fostered the potential for arts programs to promote community health for a number of years.
Lois Peeler
Invited Guest Speaker, Lois Peeler is an Aboriginal woman from the Yorta Yorta tribe. Her traditional homelands include the Barmah Forest and the former Cummeragunja Aboriginal Reserve on the banks of the Murray River. She has extensive experience in the Aboriginal Affairs arena having worked at the community, corporate and public sector levels. Lois is President of Worawa Aboriginal College, a boarding school for Aboriginal students. She is Chairperson of Aboriginal Tourism Australia an association for Indigenous tourism operators. She is currently involved in devising an arts program integrally related to health and well-being outcomes that will benefit Aboriginal students who have been disengaged from schooling.
Margaret Kelaher
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Invited Guest Speaker Margaret Kelaher (BSc (Hons), PhD) currently holds a National Health and Medical Research Council Career Development Award and a VicHealth Senior Research Fellowship. At the Centre for Health Policy, Programs and Economics, she has been teaching Masters-level health program evaluation and conducting training for a UNDP/World Bank/WHO Tropical Diseases (TDR) initiative to develop capacity for social economic and behavioural research. Previously she has researched health issues relating to Vietnam veterans, Aboriginal communities and Indigenous and immigrant women's health. Her current work continues to focus on Indigenous health and the impact of welfare reform on women's health. Margaret will present her methodology for the Community Arts Scheme Evaluation project which will be a bench mark for policy and other researchers in this new and expanding field.
Maud Clark - Somebody's Daughter Theatre
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Maud Clark is Artistic Director of Somebody's Daughter Theatre, a unique company with a 27 year history that works in drama, art and music with women in prison, women ex-prisoners and disadvantaged youth from rural areas. Maud has been the principal director and writer of many highly successful theatre works performed both inside and outside of the prison. She won the Eva Czajor Memorial award for directing in1993 and was the 1995 recipient of the Australia Council's Roz Bower Award for contribution to Community Arts. In 1998, she was also one of only seven Australian women to receive an award from Amnesty International as an outstanding Human Rights Activist. She has presented at more than 19 conferences nationally and internationally including a keynote address at The Tenth United Nations Congress on the prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders in Vienna in 2000. Maud was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2006 in recognition of her work. Maud will present a paper on the power of the arts and their capacity to achieve when often all else has failed.
Kathryn Montgomery
Kathryn Montgomery is a freelance circus training coordinator currently working with the Indigenous Circus Arts Network (ICAN) and a committee member of the Australian Circus & Physical Theatre Association (ACAPTA). Between 1997 and 2003 Kathryn worked throughout the Balkans as a lecturer in community arts and circus for the PRONI institute of Jonkoping University, Sweden. More recently she has implemented a number of circus arts programs in Northern Ireland and worked as a circus trainer for Swinburne University's National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA). Kathryn will speak of her work with Latesha Adams a circus trainer from the Maari Ma Aboriginal Health Corporation, Broken Hill. Kathryn and Latesha worked with and trained Indigenous youth from across Australia in circus skills. The impact on the health and well being of young Indigenous people will be discussed and how future community planning could benefit from the outcomes of their experiences.
Dr Steve Curry
Dr Steven Curry has worked extensively in the social welfare and related sectors, first as a member of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Charles Sturt University and latterly as a research fellow at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne (CAPPE). He has taught ethics and professional practice in social welfare, social work, nursing, allied health and public sector management. He is co-author of Power Ethics: an introduction to ethics for social workers (Allen and Unwin, 2005 forthcoming), and has written consultative reports for the NSW Dept of Community Services, the NSW Youth Housing Association and the ACT Dept of Corrections and Community Safety. Steve will talk about his role and ethical aspects in researching community arts schemes and their impact on mental health issues.
Naomi Berman
Naomi is a sociologist with an extensive research background. She is currently part of a team evaluating the VicHealth Community Arts Development Scheme and has also contributed to an Australia Council Strategy on Arts and Health. She holds the position associate editor of the UNESCO Observatory Multidisciplinary Research in Arts and Health, e-journal. Naomi is completing her PhD on youth development and the transformation of self, and has taught a range of subjects at the University of Sydney, Swinburne University and University of New England, including E-Society, Research Methods, Sociology of Consumption, and Self and Society. Naomi will present with Steve Curry on research design, implementation, statistical analysis, qualitative analysis, reporting and presentation of findings.