Anxiety, Culture and the Future conference 18-19 October

18th September 201928th February 2020 by vanessa_b In Academic research, Art, Art-Science, Mental Health, Participation, Psychology, Sydney Leave a comment

I am co-convening the conference Anxiety, Culture and the Future at Art Gallery of New South Wales and Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences next month. The event asks how art and culture can help society respond to anxieties about the future, amid a climate of increasing social inequalities, technological progress, and climate stress.

Programme highlights include public art producer and curator Claire Doherty in conversation with Greens Senator for NSW Mehreen Faruqi. They will discuss empathic ways of directing and producing the arts amid a climate of increasing cultural anxiety.

I’m also particularly excited about the panel Feeling the Future, which will explore how exhibitions create opportunities to experience the future in immersive, emotional ways. We will hear from Nina Ernst, Associate Director, Programmes, ArtScience Museum, John O’Shea, Associate Director (Creative), Science Gallery London and Bec Dean, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at NIEA, UNSW, and Senior Curator for The Big Anxiety – festival of arts + science + people.

Full details of the programme can be found here

Featured image: Curator Bec Dean discussing her exhibition The Patient at the Riddoch Art Gallery January 2018