Program and Presenters

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CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
Saturday 10 November 2018
International speakers arrive Port Macquarie
Monday 12 November 2018
Presenters and delegates commence arriving in Port Macquarie
Registrations: 12 noon – 4pm Sails Hotel – collect name tags and conference satchels.
2pm-4pm: International Leadership Forum for Arts and Health – Panthers Club opposite Sails Hotel
5pm-7.30pm: Welcome Reception, Port Macquarie Museum
Special Guests: Professor, the Hon Dame Marie Bashir, AD, CVO, Patron of the Australian Centre for Arts and Health, Leslie Williams, NSW Member of Parliament, Port Macquarie and Parliamentary Secretary for Regional and Rural Health; Founder of Dementia Friendly Communities Program for the NSW Government. Peta Pinson, Mayor of Port Macquarie-Hastings Council

Tuesday 13 November 2018
(full 3 day registration ($995 + GST) or single day registration ($575 + GST)
8.30am-5.30pm: Conference Sessions, Sails Hotel, Port Macquarie. Evening free for delegates to dine and mingle.

Wednesday 14 November 2018
(full 3 day registration ($995 + GST) or single day registration ($575 + GST)
8.30am-5.30pm: Conference Sessions, Sails Hotel, Port Macquarie
6.30pm-9.30pm: 10th Anniversary Conference Dinner, Sails Hotel

Thursday 15 November 2018
(full 3 day registration ($995 + GST) or single day registration ($575 + GST)
8.30am-5pm: Conference Sessions, Sails Hotel, Port Macquarie
5pm-7.30pm: Conference Celebration and Farewell Drinks by the Hastings River

2018 Conference Speakers                                            

SNAPSHOT OF CONFERENCE PRESENTERS AND TOPICS:

ARTS IN HOSPITALS, HEALTHCARE SERVICES AND HEALTH PROMOTION

TRACEY CALLINAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & CHRISTINE MCMILLAN, ARTS AND HEALTH CO-ORDINATOR, ARTS OUTWEST, BATHURST, NSW
Arts OutWest: An Innovator in Arts and Health – Since 2008, Regional Arts NSW organisation Arts OutWest (AOW), based in Bathurst and covering central western NSW, has been committed to running an Arts and Health program. Tracy (a musician) and Christine (a visual artist) have worked in hospitals, aged care facilities, with community groups and community health. A highly instructional workshop for health professionals and Local Health Districts (LHD) to learn how to design, implement, manage and evaluate an arts program in healthcare. The presentation looks at the Lachlan Health Service (LHS) Culture and Arts program, associated with the redevelopment of the Forbes and Parkes hospitals and their award winning LHS Signage project incorporating Wiridjuri signage and translations.

MELISSA MEI YIN CHEUNG, PHD CANDIDATE, SYDNEY UNIVERSITY
We Do Not Even Give Space to the Fear: Healthcare Professionals’ Reactions upon Viewing Patients’ Drawings of Their Asthma Experience – Art provides an insightful opportunity to gain awareness and sensitivity to the patient perspective in healthcare. Melissa is a practicing pharmacist interested in patient experiences of chronic conditions. Her research explores patients’ and healthcare professionals’ perspectives of asthma though the medium of drawings. It is not uncommon for each to have contrasting views about health and illness, which can influence communication, rapport, treatment and consequently clinical and psychosocial outcomes. Overall, healthcare professionals found viewing patients’ drawing of the asthma simultaneously confronting and eye-opening.

DR SHAUN HALOVIC,  CLINICIAN, CUMBERLAND HOSPITAL, SYDNEY
How Naruto Helped Me Understand the Conversational Model: an Example of Graphic Medicine – Mental illness and the consequent treatment is complex, and the communication of that complexity among psychotherapeutic professionals can be difficult – even more so for the lay person. ‘Graphic medicine’ has recently been introduced into the medical literature and refers to the use of comics/graphic novels as a medium to facilitate the understanding of medical information.

ADELE LINGARD, CREATIVE AGEING PRACTITIONER & ANN BODILL, EXECUTIVE OFFICE AND DIRECTOR OF NURSING, WAUCHOPE DISTRICT MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, NSW
Art Therapy in Palliative Care – Adele utilises her life skills and background in the visual arts to provide palliative care unit patients with customised arts programs. This presentation will be co-presented by Ann Bodill, Executive Officer and Director of Nursing, Wauchope District Memorial Hospital, Port Macquarie-Hastings, NSW.

ROSE SAWKINS, INTERACT STROKE SUPPORT, UK
Reading ‘Ned Kelly’ on a London Hospital Stroke Ward – May was Stroke Awareness Month in the UK. Award-winning charity InterAct Stroke Support asked their professionally trained actors to record a favourite story, regularly performed in hospitals and stroke clubs. A Londoner, born of Australian parents, Rose is a UK based performer-writer and arts and health practitioner who has been working in stroke recovery for 12 years at London’s National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery.

BRIDGET WATERS, ARTS IN HEALTH LEAD, STARLIGHT CHILDREN’S FOUNDATION, WA
Combining Creativity And Culture: An Insight into the Impact of the Starlight Children’s Foundation’s Indigenous Artist in Residence Hospital Project – Starlight delivers programs to hospitalised children and adolescents, using art and creativity as a cornerstone in their approach to promoting wellbeing and resilience.

NICOLE JACKSON, SPEECH PATHOLOGIST & PHOTOVOICE PROGRAM PRODUCER, CALVARY HEALTHCARE BETHLEHEM, VIC

Picture Power: A Photovoice program – to support the ongoing social participation for people living with a progressive neurological disease (PND). This relates to a 2 year pilot implemented as part of a neuropalliative healthcare service for adults with progressive neurological disease such as Moto Neurone Disease and Huntington’s Disease. 

ANNETTE COULTER, ART THERAPIST, EDUCATOR AND AUTHOR, THE CENTRE FOR ART PSYCHOTHERAPY, WENTWORTH FALLS, NSW
Enhancing Psychological Health through Art – Skills-sharing experiential workshop to explore how to stimulate creative thinking when using art activity projects with children, adolescents, families and couples dealing with relationships, grief, trauma, conflict and self-reflection.

LIZ LEA, PERFORMER, CHOREOGRAPHER AND PRODUCER, LIZ LEA DANCE, CANERRA ACT
RED Resilience Liz Lea shares the story of her new dance theatre work RED – a critically acclaimed one-woman show which explores her experiences with Endometriosis. Liz details how her dance career gave her the resilience to work through her symptoms, how these factors contributed to a worsening of the condition and hr subsequent journey back to health and a different form of resilience.

ELAINE BURKE, ART PSYCHOTHERAPIST & ARTS AND HEALTH CONSULTANT, HULL AND EAST YORKSHIRE HOSPITALS, NHS, UK
Arts in Healthcare: Developing and Sustaining Services – This workshop aims to answer the question – what can the arts in healthcare achieve, and how can health leaders and managers develop Arts and Health projects, programs and services that achieve their aims and are sustainable in the longer term? Elaine Burke developed the UK’s first NHS (National Health Services) arts and health service, to respond to specific healthcare issues such as suicide prevention, first episode psychosis, learning disabilities, mental health.  Elaine also led several healthcare environment and design projects.

ARTS, HEALTH AND WELLBEING IN RURAL AND REMOTE  COMMUNITIES

JUDE CRABTREE, ARTS CONSULTANT & CAROL GASTON AM, VOLUNTEER, NINTINTINTJAKU PROJECT, SA
Creating Wellbeing, Creativity and Resilience through the Arts in a Remote Aboriginal Community in the APY Lands South Australia – This presentation demonstrates the power of art in promoting wellbeing, creativity and resilience in a remote indigenous community.

JACKIE JACKSON, MANAGER, ABORIGINAL HEALTH, SOUTHERN NSW LOCAL HEALTH DISTRICT, MORUYA, NSW – Wangganga Arts as Therapy Group – Wangganga Arts Therapy group provides a culturally appropriate women’s health service using a holistic health care approach, where Aboriginal women come together in a community setting with Aboriginal health workers to engage in an Arts as Therapy group setting. Outcomes include healthier eating choices, smoking cessation  education, skills development to overcome change and engagement with physical exercise, within a culturally safe and welcoming environment.

DR ANNEMAREE WILSON, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST & JENNI FRANCIS, COMMUNITY ARTIST, CRANAPLUS BUSH SUPPORT SERVICES, DORRIGO, NSW
Head, Heart and Hands: Reconstructing Resilience in the Rural & Remote Health Workforce  – All health professionals in the remote context face unique occupational stress challenges. This presentation explores the results of an innovative collaboration between Positive Psychology as a framework and the principles of Mindfulness, Emotional and Somatic Awareness through art therapy. CranaplusBush Support Services provides support and intervention to remote area health professionals, to counter occupational stress, burnout and trauma and understanding the importance of offering creativity that crosses cultural boundaries.

ARTS AND MENTAL HEALTH PROGRAMS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 

DR PERSEPHONE SEXTOU, READER IN APPLIED THEATRE, NEWMAN UNIVERSITY, BIRMINGHAM UK
Theatre for Children in Hospital – Intimate storytelling performance with puppets to improve children’s experience of illness in hospital, including child participation, relocation, interaction, emotional and social wellbeing and engagement with hospital tuition.

ANDREA FARLEY, ART THERAPIST & KERRILEE KIMBER, MINDFULNESS COACH, HEALTH PROMOTION, GIPPSLAND COMMUNITY HEALTH, VIC
Mindfulness + Art Therapy = Colourful Calm – Combining Mindfulness Meditation and MeCards, Health promotion professionals Andrea Farley and Kerrilee Kimber have developed an innovative approach to reducing stress and anxiety in schools. This has proved beneficial for both staff and students and led to a shirt in school culture that recognises the importance of a healthy body and mind.

DONNA RANKIN & TARRYN CHOMA, HEART TO HEART AUSTRALIA, FORSTER NSW
Making art, mindfulness in action – The Heart to Heart is a school based program that changes lives through an art-based mindfulness practice, connection to others and sharing the magic of creativity. It has been running in the Great Lakes NSW for nine years and includes a research collaboration with Macquarie University in Sydney.

NICOLE JACKSON, PHOTOGRAPHER, SPEECH PATHOLOGIST & PHOTOVOICE PROGRAM PRODUCER, MORAN ARTS FOUNDATION, NSW
Picture Power: Participatory Photography Workshop – This workshop introduces participants to steps involved in designing and delivering a Photovoice photography project for schools, relating to the theme of the conference and revealing participants priorities, attitudes and issues.

JENNIFER JAMIESON, ART THERAPIST, HEADSPACE, WA
Arts Therapy: What Is It? – An explanation of Arts Therapy, its advantages, where it’s found, history, professional training standards for therapists and the evidence base. This presentation provides an introduction to ANZACATA (Australian, New Zealand and Asian Creative Arts Therapy Association), the peak body for professionally registered Arts Therapists.

DR ROBBIE LLOYD, COMMUNITY COLLEGE, PORT MACQUARIE, NSW
Making Recovery Fun and Funky – Programs that engage and stimulate, inspire and remotivate are at the heart of the Port Macquarie Community College program, including The Recovery College project.

DR MOLLY MULLEN, SENIOR LECTURER, APPLIED THEATRE & PROFESSOR PETER O’CONNOR, FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND SOCIAL WORK & AMBER WALLS, CREATIVE PRACTITIONER-RESEARCHER-ACTIVIST, UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND
Te Ara Auaha – Towards Creativity: Arts and Youth Wellbeing in Aotearoa, New Zealand – This University of Auckland research project is designed to generate better understanding of arts in and for youth health and wellbeing in Aotearoa, New Zealand. The new Government has declared a commitment to the arts and its role in wellbeing and Creative NZ, the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa (“Land of the Long White Cloud”). The University of Auckland is working with an alliance of arts, health and youth organisations and practitioners to establish an inter-disciplinary innovation hub for arts and wellbeing practice.

ARTS SUPPORTING WELLBEING, MENTAL HEALTH & DISABILITY

CATHY HORSLEY, COMMUNITY CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT OFFICER, PORT PHILLIP COUNCIL, VIC
Aesthetic Nervousness and Embodied Difference – artists lived experience of mental illness and acts of aesthetic engagement. The arts build individual resilience and mental wellbeing and help people express experiences that are too difficult to put into words. The unique stories of the lives of people with mental illness have the potential to move, provoke, educate and entertain and open new dialogues about inclusive artistic practice.

MEG SHEEHAN POLICY OFFICER & STEPHEN WRAY, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, ACCESS AND PARTICIPATION, ARTS DIVISION, DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION AND THE ARTS, CANBERRA, ACT
National Arts and Disability Strategy 2019 – Established in 2017, Cultural Ministers agreed to renew the Strategy for 2019 and build an evidence base, commencing with the release of a Research Overview of Arts and Disability in Australia. This examines the different ways people with disability engage in the arts: as creative and cultural professionals, as audience members and consumers of cultural products.  The Research Overview brings together and existing and previously unpublished data, academic research and case studies from around the country, exploring success factors and barriers for people with a disability in the arts sector and health and wellbeing outcomes.

MAHLIE JEWELL, CONSUMER ADVOCATE AND GRAPHIC ARTIST, GRAPHICS FOR GOOD, SYDNEY
The pencil that saved my life
Mahlie is a stroke survivor, brain injury, social justice and mental health advocate as well as a qualified counsellor, Intentional Peer Support worker and graphic artist. Mahlie will share her lived experience of acute and severe PTSD, Borderline Personality Disorder and psychosis and describe the role that art plays in the therapeutic environment to unlock and heal trauma and build strong relationships with clinical staff. “The pencil that saved my life” explores Mahlie’s recovery from over two decades of self-harm, drug and alcohol dependence, violence and suicide attempts and celebrates the arts’ pivotal role in her ongoing recovery and wellbeing, four years clean and sober.

LIONEL EVANS, PHD CANDIDATE, DISABILITY-CULTURAL STUDIES, CENTRAL QUEENSLAND UNIVERSITY
Far from the Maddening Crowd – Revisited – a study about individuals with a diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome (DSM 5 Autism Level 1) and how they form and develop their sense of identity. The research found that during times of sensory overload, individuals with autism self-directed towards art-based activities such as writing poetry, play a musical instrument and drawing, in order to regain a sense of balance. Participants withdrew – retreated, recalibrated their sensory overload and then recovered.

NICKI CASSIMATIS, VC POETRY: POETIC CARE FOR THE SOUL & CREATEPLACE: STORYTELLING AND ARTS FOR HEALTH, FAIRFIELD, QLD
Poetry at the Crossroads: More than Just Words – This presentation aims to provide a vision for poetry, journaling and the act of writing that brings it to the heart of Arts and Health consciousness as both a preventative and restorative tool for wellbeing and joy.

Poetry as Self-Care: Journey to Beauty Joy and Peace Workshop – This highly interactive workshop will take participants on a journey into the poetic

DEANNE TYRRELL, CO-FOUNDER, SHARED THREADS, SYDNEY NSW
How Creative Thinking Influences Positive and Negative Affect – Shared Threads brings people together over shared craft projects and conversation to build community and improved wellbeing using Martin Seligman’s PERMA model of wellbeing, demonstrating the benefits of craft as therapy.

MAJELLA EDWARDS, CO-FOUNDER, ARTLIFE SOLUTIONS, BRISANE QLD
Artificial Intelligence and Its Relationship with Human Meaning in Images – In a world first, humanistic artificial intelligence can now understand human meaning, emotion and the relationship that people have to their digital image collections. ‘Sortal’ is a learning personal assistant that can sort and manage personal visual information, while still placing people central to their experience.

KEN GRANNEMAN, USPACE, ST VINCENT’S PRIVATE HOSPITAL, SYDNEY NSW
Enlivenment – Enlivenment is a one hour psycho-physical workout designed to refresh the tired mind. Trained as an actor and psychiatric nurse, with a long history as a drama teacher, Ken has worked at USPACE, the young adult mental health unit at St Vincent’s Private Hospital, for the past six years.

AMY VISSER, SENIOR PROJECT OFFICER, EVERYMIND, NEWCASTLE NSW
Addressing Mental Health Problems in the Australian Entertainment Industry. Australian entertainment industry professionals have substantially higher levels of mental health problems and suicidal ideation than the general population. Amy is currently working as part of the Mental Health and Research team on a partnership with Entertainment Assist.

CREATIVE AGEING

ALICE THWAITE, CO-DIRECTOR, EQUAL ARTS, NEWCASTLE, UK
With 25 years in the field, Alice is a world leader in creative ageing programs, skills training and arts on prescription models. Equal Arts has been working with over 50 arts venues and organisations in the UK and Europe to inspire and support Creative Age sessions, hosted with cultural venues, are artist led, inclusive, friendly and involving the wider community, particularly children and families and changing the narrative around dementia. Creative Age Challenges is one of three flagship Equal Arts programs, with also includes Hen Power and Creative Friends.

DOMINIC CAMPBELL, CO-FOUNDER & PRODUCER, CREATIVE AGEING INTERNATIONAL; FORMERLY ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, BEALTAINE CREATIVE AGEING FESTIVAL, IRELAND.
Creativity and Ageing – A Strategy

Presentation: What is the role of creative practice in response to the social and health impacts of demographic change?

Workshop: Start your creative ageing festival now. The ambition of this session is that participants lead a creative ageing event within a year.

MELINDA ALUSHAJ, UNITING CARE, SYDNEY
Broadening the Horizon –A great barrier for older Australians to accessing/maintaining leisure pursuits and hobbies is transportation, especially for those in aged care.

DAVID RYAN, THE GERIACTIVISTS, ILLUMINART, NSW
The GeriActivists: a Future Vision in Virtual Reality – The GeriActivists is an iterative investigation in cultural futuring with Seniors from St Marys, in Sydney’s western suburbs, an area characterised by high socio-economic disadvantage. Can community arts and cultural development help Seniors feel less anxious about financial, cultural or environmental disruption? GeriActivists connects people, as players or as spectators, with professional multi media practitioners and technologists and places local people’s stories onto a public canvas,  outside the traditional gallery or performance spaces and invites engagement with ideas in surprising and inspirational ways.

ANNE GALLACHER, FOUNDING DIRECTOR, LUMINATE, CREATIVE AGEING ORGANISATION, SCOTLAND
The Luminate Story –  Luminate, Scotland’s creative ageing organisation, aims to ensure that older people across Scotland have access to high quality arts and creative activities, whatever their circumstances and wherever they live. But should we really need specialist creative ageing organisations? What will it take to ensure that creative programmes with and for older people are embedded in cultural programming and are seen as vital to health and care provision?

Anne’s presentation will tell Luminate’s story, from its launch as an annual creative ageing festival in 2012 to its new beginnings in 2018 as a year-round development organisation with a biennial festival.

Creative ageing – specialist work or core activity?  Short presentation and discussion led by Anne Gallacher, Director of Luminate

ANDREW NEWMAN, PROFESSOR OF CULTURAL GERONTOLOGY, MEDIA, CULTURE, HERITAGE, NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY, UK
Understanding and improving the mental resilience of people in later life. Mental resilience in later life is connected to people living healthier longer independent lives. However, a lack of understanding of how this may be promoted and achieved has resulted in over 20% of adults aged 60 and over suffering from a mental or neurological disorder (WHO, 2017). It’s importent to explore how different socio-cultural characteristics, biographical experiences, social environments and depression and dementia impact upon the mental resilience of those in later life.

DR ANNA GOULDING, RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, INSTITUTE OF HEALTH AND SOCIETY, NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY, UK
Resilience and Ageing: Culture, Creativity and Community – This presentation draws from a book to be published by Policy Press (December 2018) which explores the relationship between creativity and resilience in later life. This paper uses data from a participatory theatre workshop and qualitative interviews with a range of older people to understand their conceptualisation of resilience and the strategies they have used to overcome challenges experienced throughout the life course. Professor Andrew Newman is a co-editor of this publication. 

In What Ways Can an Age-friendly Approach to Co-production Transfer Power to Participants? Translating Ideology into Practice – This paper examines whether the use of an age-friendly approach to co-production can be managed to ensure a wide range of older people’s views are represented and cross-sector partnerships are successfully negotiated.

FELICITY MANDILE, DIRECTOR STRATEGY AND GLOAL ENGAGEMENT, QUEENSLAND BALLET, QLD
Queensland Ballet Prioritising Creative Health – On Sundays, at Queensland Ballet, classes for active older adults are emphasising expression, creativity and participation.

RACHEL O’LOUGHLIN, PHYSIOTHERAPIST AND DANCE TEACHER, NSW HEALTH, BROULEE NSW
A Celebration of Dance in Science, Across the Ages – Dance represents a window into health throughout the ages of life.

LISA SCHOUW, PHD CANDIDATE, THEATRE AND PERFORMANCE STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY, NSW
The Performance of Ageing: An Embodied Location for the Emergence of New Knowledge – This transdisciplinary presentation draws on my current research into the performance of ageing, ageism, and their prevailing narratives of decline.

ANNETTE TESORIERO, PERFORMANCE ARTIST AND WORKPLACE TRAINER, & ANN FRANKHAM, MENTAL HEALTH CONSUMER. BUNDANON TRUST, SHOALHAVEN, NSW
Shoalhaven Elders Listen with the Ear of the Heart –Bundanon Trust’s Creative Ageing Theatre Project

H. FAY WILKINSON, REGISTERED EXPRESSIVE ARTS PRACTITIONER, VISIBLE VOICES OPEN ARTS STUDIO / THE CREATIVE COCOON, ONTARIO, CANADA
Telling Tales! Ways to Bridge into Stories with Isolated Seniors in Rural Ontario, Canada – This experiential workshop will explore expressive arts processes that bridge into stories which are then represented in a variety of art-making forms

Visible Voices: Building Community Resilience through Expressive Arts in Rural Canada – This presentation will highlight two programs designed for Health Services in rural Ontario, Canada: Art-Making for the Health of It!

GARY GLAZNER,  EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ALZHEIMER’S POETRY PROJECT (AAP), USA
I Shot an Arrow into the Air … AAP is a non-pharmacological intervention for groups of people with dementia utilising poetry to inspire creative self-expression, reduce social isolation, and provide social and intellectual stimulation. Since 2003, AAP has conducted poetry sessions in 32 states in the USA and 7 countries in different cultures and languages including English, German, Hmong, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Mandarin and Spanish. AAP’s observations and research report improvements in participant mood, attention, engagement and communication skills; positive impacts on the beliefs of aged care home staff and high school students trained to facilitate the poetry intervention; and changes in the narrative of how society perceives dementia from an experience defined by isolation and lost identity to one of social vitality and enduring ‘personhood’.

KIRSTY CARR, NATIONAL POLICY AND STRATEGY ADVISOR, DEMENTIA AUSTRALIA AND BREAKTHROUGH STRATEGIST, SYDNEY
Everyday Super Powers: Exploring Intuition in Ageing – What if quality of life could be improved, purely by harnessing the power of our natural abilities to create? Exploring the importance of new and innovative ways to support older people to live rich and full lives and training to support the aged care workforce to deliver high quality, person centred care.

RYLEE DIONIGI, CHARLES STURT UNIVERSITY, DEBBIE SOMMERS, PORT MACQUARIE MUSEUM, LISA HORT, CREATIVE AGEING PRACTITIONER, PORT MACQUARIE, NSW
Creative Ageing: Evaluating Dementia-friendly, Arts-based Programs in Port Macquarie, NSW Using an Authentic Partnership Approach – Through authentic partnerships between researchers, community members and people living with dementia, we aim to create a culture change in dementia-specific care contexts, by placing people living with dementia at the centre of their care.

Authentic Partnerships in Healthcare: Facilitating Creativity, Collaboration and Critical Thinking Workshop –  Learn about a relationship model of care called ‘authentic partnerships’.

MICHELLE HELDON, MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART AUSTRALIA (MCA), SYDNEY
Art and Dementia: Neuroplasticity and Contemporary Art – Can a creative art program enhance wellbeing and markers of neuroplasticity in people living with dementia?

Hear about the three-year research study conducted by the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia and the Brain and Mind Centre, Sydney University and the unique approaches for engagement incorporated in the MCA’s Artful: Art and Dementia Program – Hands-on Workshop follows.

DR GAIL KENNING, RESEARCHER UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY (UTS) & DANIELLE GULLOTTA, ACCESS PROGRAMS PRODUCER, ART GALLERY OF NSW
Extending Arts Engagement and Reaching Out to Communities – Arts engagement has globally been shown to successful contribute to health and wellbeing. It is usually conducted in a gallery environment.

ALEXANDRA MORSE, ARTS AND HEALTH CONSULTANT AND MUSIC THERAPIST, SOUTH SPREYTON, TASMANIA
The Meander Valley Festival of Creative Ageing: Connecting with Community, Changing Culture, Raising Expectations and Challenging the ‘Ageing Well’ Concept – This presentation will showcase how Creative Arts can be central in culture and care for aged care organisations as it is integral to the definition of excellence in social care and holistic wellbeing.

 

ARTS AND HEALTH AND MULTI-CULTURAL COMMUNITIES

KERRY BLAKE & ELSIE LEUNG – UNITING CARE, SYDNEY
Atrium Project– Atrium Installation is an innovative artistic project supporting CALD beliefs and identity, with ongoing benefits; boosting residents’ creativity, encouraging engagement and increasing the focus on residents’ capacities.

MICHAEL CAMIT, MULTI-CULTURAL NSW HEALTH
Widows of Parramatta: Tapping into the Potential of Black Humour to Engage Arab Australians in Engaging with Organ and Tissue Donation. This presentation will start with a showing of Widows of Parramatta, a five-part six-minute docu-comedy series & 

Photovoice in the 21st Century – a Workshop and Exhibition of a Photovoice Project with Syrian Refugees to Navigate the Australian Health System. This is a one-hour workshop and exhibition of 17 selected A3 photos and captions from Syrian Refugees in Sydney & 

Photovoice – A Project with Indian Women Who Are Carers and/or Have Lived Experience of Mental Illness. Along with a backdrop of 15 selected Photovoice projects and captions, this workshop will outline information about the project and stories of individual empowerment, community development as well as collaborative work.

CHISENGA MAKOMO, ARTISAN, VITENJE – HANDCRAFTED FASHION & INTERIORS
Mental Health and Women Workshop: Promoting Social and Emotional Wellbeing Through Cultural and Creative Arts – My lived experience has inspired me to use ‘Headwraps and Hoodies’ to promote and raise awareness for mental health.

DR VALLI PILLAI-BATCHELOR, CREATIVE DANCE ARTIST & DR GARY CHRISTENSON, MEDICAL PRACTITIONER AND SCOTT ROMAIN, DIDGERIDOO PLAYER, NSW
Dignity – The Dance on Desert Dawn
Ten minute interactive presentation on movements to didgeridoo music
and photography of a healing arts session taken at dawn in the desert of Saudi Arabia.

NATURAL ENVIRONMENT, ARTS, HEALTH & WELLBEING 

ADRIANE BOAG, PROGRAM PRODUCER, NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA, CANBERRA, ACT
Drawing into dark – Dusk can be a time of melancholy or great beauty. Invigorate yourself and observe the change from day to night by drawing the effects of light in the environment 
Creating Environment – This presentation will explore the relationship between art, health and the environment. During the winter of 2018 the National Gallery of Australia developed a public programs initiative focused on ‘wellness’.

ELAINE BURKE, ARTS AND HEALTH CONSULTANT, UK
It started with a Toad … – The story of how Hull’s Larkin with Toads project inspired Port Macquarie’s Hello Koalas and the impact of large scale public art projects on community health and wellbeing.

LOUISE FAULKNER, PHOTOGRAPHER AND MANAGER, TOURISM & PARTNERSHIPS, FORESTRY NSW
Art in the Trees: the Practical Application of Art in Delivering Successful Forest-based Visitor Experiences – This presentation will provide an overview of the use of visual, applied and performing arts in the creation of successful visitor destinations in NSW State Forests.

DAVID ROWLINSON, MAKE IT WOOD CAMPAIGN MANAGER, PLANET ARK, AUSTRALIA
Why wood is good for health, wellbeing and productivity –The use of wood in the interior of a building has clear physiological and psychological benefits that mimic the effect of spending time outside in nature.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT, ARTS AND WELLBEING

ELIO GATTI, DIRECTOR, SALUS CREATIVES, GOSFORD
Who ordered humble pie? –Local government, not known for its focus on creativity and wellbeing, retains a strategic role in the development of regional settings. But how does a dialogue with council begin?

MARGRET MEAGHER, ARTS AND HEALTH AUSTRALIA, PORT MACQUARIE 
Educating City Planners on Employing Public Art to Improve the Health of Their Community – City planners can improve community health and resident wellbeing through public art.

ART-MAKING AT THE CONFERENCE

Danielle Gullotta, Access Program Producer, Art Gallery of NSW, will present an art-making session each day with an AGNSW artist educator.