[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]I am delighted to launch the Talking Art Project, an incentive of the soon to be rebranded Blue Mountains Creative Arts Network.
The Talking Art Project seeks to tap into the resources of artists gathering together to shape and change culture, or just to ‘feed the creative spirit’ when the aloneness gets too much. It will be an incubator for wild ideas and creative collaborations, ideas that confront the significant issues of our time.
Artists often work in isolation, and the aloneness can lead to a kind of self or process-absorbed madness. After artists leave the collegiate world of creative arts education, they have to find within themselves the will to succeed, to find that thing just around the corner that at long last makes what they do make sense.
In the great cities of the world like Paris, Berlin, New York and London, academies and salons provided training and opportunity for artists to exhibit. Similar places are part of the artistic legacy of Australia—Kings Cross and East Sydney in Sydney; Heidelberg and Montsalvat/Eltham in Melbourne and their more recent expressions in the nooks and crannies of inner city areas in our major cities. The haunts of painters, writers, philosophers, musicians where the exchange of ideas fostered movements and shaped the future of art and culture are part of the treasured heritage of society.
In today’s world of expensive inner city housing, with artists now living on the urban fringes, how do artists find other artists with whom they share values? How do they create opportunities for conversation and building a vision for the future of culture and the arts in their region, in Australia and the wider world?
How also do they network to find the right pigment, or access to a kiln or a life drawing class where models hold their pose for hours instead of minutes?
Guided by the insights of our Creative Leaders, the Talking Art Project will address this challenge. It will facilitate a series of gatherings in both the Upper and Lower Mountains led by leading thinkers and practitioners and local creatives whose work links to the themes that excite us:
Art and well-being – Art and living well in the age of anxiety, trauma and depression
Art and dangerous times – exploring disruptive impacts of technology
Art and culture – beyond the stranglehold of economism.
Shaping the Talking Art Project
The Talking Art Project has begun in September 2018 and if you would like to become involved in shaping the Talking Art Project, join us by contacting:
Wendy Tsai
Blue Mountains Creative Arts Network[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]