With the arts in Australia experiencing its greatest destabilisation in a generation, the physical effects are being felt across the country – and at the same time, we’re talking more than ever before about the body, about physical and mental health, and about strength in community. Here’s some of my thinking from across the year:
- Constructive disruption: Working the hands and the body in different ways to understand your practice, shift thinking and move your body;
- Cultural leadership and responsibility: Audio Stage’s final episode on the theme of responsibility. Jana Perković and Fleur Kilpatrick speaking with Angharad Wynne-Jones and myself (audio, one hour);
- An interview with Ballarat’s The Courier on leadership that’s mindful of daily practice, personal style and open frameworks;
- An interview with Arts Hub’s Madeleine Dore on how personal time can promote organisational creativity;
- Making a career plan vs understanding what drives you: another interview with Arts Hub’s Madeleine Dore;
- Madeleine’s Dore’s examination of burnout for Arts Hub;
- Knowing your limits on when to say yes or no to unpaid work in the arts;
- Regional Arts Victoria’s Quiet Fridays: a commitment to practice than organisations can embody as a policy to promote a healthy workplace culture. And here’s one by writer and blogger, Regional Arts Victoria’s Jenna Sten, on our Staff Salons.
IMAGE: One I use regularly in talks on leadership. Fit your own oxygen mask before helping others. And then, we act. Leadership works best when it’s well distributed; as Emily Atkins, Director of Drama Victoria, says: we lead from where we are.
ESTHER ANATOLITIS 