What role can the arts and creativity play in navigating unresolved concerns, ongoing debates and controversial questions for our communities?
Exploring complex topics, from reconciliation and truth-telling in the context of colonialism to polarising social or political issues, this symposium will feature exchanges between leading artists and researchers from Australia and Northern Ireland about difficult conversations we, as a globally connected society, need to have today.
The conversations
The Bullock at the Mudhole
Paul Collis, Jen Crawford, Wayne Knight, Story Ground Collective
Barkindji Country & Ngemba Country: Gundabooka, Toorale Station, Bourke, Brewarrina
The Launch
What role can the arts and creativity play in navigating unresolved concerns, ongoing debates and controversial questions for our communities?
This panel discussion opened the UC difficult conversations event featuring a conversation between university leaders and artists from Canberra and Ulster.
Revelation, Reckoning, and Recovery
Continuing the critical conversations around child sexual abuse in Australia in the wake of the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (RCICSA, 2013-17).
Ciara Hickey in Conversation with Array Collective
2021 winners of the Turner Prize, Array Collective, discuss their art-making as activism for women and LGBTQ+ rights and share some practical lessons in how to continue working as a collective despite obstacles and recognition by establishment interests.
Sarah Travers in Conversation with Performance Artists
Some of Northern Ireland’s leading performance artists since the 1970s discuss the role of the artist in conflicted public spaces, navigating subjects including violence against women, political conflict, clerical sexual abuse and our relationship with power.
Difficult Stories: Creativity, Curation, Culture
Ursula K. Frederick in conversation with Steve Brown, Ashley Harrison, Wendy Somerville, Bethaney Turner
