Webinar Series

6 December 2024:
Health promotion for First Nations communities through applied theatre
Kamarra Bell-Wykes & Sarah Woodland

The Score is a participatory model for sexual health education and promotion aimed at young people in First Nations communities in Australia. The model brings Indigenous knowledges and cultural practices into conversation with applied and educational theatre to facilitate a creative, culturally safe, stigma free space for exploring sexual health and healthy relationships. An update to the CAWRI lunchtime webinar in 2022, Kamarra and Sarah share the outcomes from The Score, which was produced by ILBIJERRI Theatre Company and delivered in communities over 2022-2023.

29 November 2024:
Optimising musicians' performance through virtual reality
Solange Glasser & Margaret Osborne
Solange and Margaret's project explores the use of a simulated performance environment in virtual reality (VR) to increase student engagement and wellbeing, enhance learning outcomes, and provide equitable learning opportunities. They discuss a performance intervention that was delivered in 2023 via VR for students across two music performance subjects to down-regulate performance anxiety and improve focus and resilience, representing a fundamental innovation in curriculum delivery beyond the traditional dichotomy of face-to-face and online learning.

22 November 2024:
"What does an arts and health organisation do?" - GAHA report
Tully Barnett & Alexander Cothren
In this session, Tully Barnett & Alexander Cothren (Flinders University) discuss findings from their recently launched report, What does an arts and health organisation do? For this report, they interviewed 30 members of arts and health organisations across 13 countries. They asked them about the different roles arts and health organisations play: how they got started, what they saw as the key ingredients to their success, and the challenges they faced while undertaking the work. Some of their key findings are particularly pertinent to Australia, including the importance of having a national arts and health hub, and the challenges around ensuring diversity in the arts and health workforce.

8 November 2024:
Polyglot Theatre and "When the World Turns"
Cat Sewell & Sue Giles
Polyglot Theatre’s Cat Sewell and ASSITEJ International President Sue Giles AM in conversation: how does the impact of the arts play out when children are involved?  These play and participation experts use the sensory world of the immersive performance When the World Turns (a fantastical experience for young people with complex disability and their families or educators) to spark a discussion on art and its intrinsic value as well as social, health and educational impact, the explosion of discovery when working in collaboration with children and some classic failures that became turning points.

1 November 2023:
Musical value in a loneliness epidemic: Queer perspectives
Frederic Kiernan
This presentation discusses the progress of an ongoing research project which examines how music mediates social connection among LGBTQIA+ people at queer "scene" events in Victoria, Australia, in order to enrich understandings of how music may help ameliorate loneliness among this group. Kiernan considers the theoretical impetus for the research, including the sometimes problematic intersections between queer theory and current research on loneliness and social connection.
Frederic Kiernan is an early career researcher whose work examines the relationship between music, creativity, emotion and wellbeing, both presently and in the past.

8 November 2023:
An integrative review of an intercultural music program
Trisnasari Fraser
The social and cultural functions of music have been considered within a range of disciplines, with some researchers exploring how music practice can be used to promote intercultural dialogue and cooperation. Drawing from a range of disciplines, theoretical standpoints and research methods an integrative literature was conducted to explore programs for adults using music to facilitate intercultural understanding and connection.
Trisnasari Fraser is the academic convenor of the Creativity and Wellbeing Research Initiative.

8 November 2023:
Uncovering the evidence base for the intercultural music engagement framework
Jane Davidson
Jane Davidson's team has developed the Intercultural Music Engagement (ICME) framework building on intercultural psychology theory, as well as critical scholars in the music and health space. The work sought to identify the factors that contribute to successful music engagements that have been noted as particularly valuable in fostering intercultural understanding and allowing opportunity to navigate difference.
Jane Davidson is Deputy Director Victorian College of the Arts, Professor of Creative and Performing Arts, Head of Opera, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, Chair of Creativity and Wellbeing Initiative, Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

13 November 2023:
Arts and cultural activity are crucial for effective disaster management
Claire Hooker
This presentation provides an overview of results to date from a narrative review of research on arts and culture in disaster management. We identified 10 themes in a systematic analysis of current peer reviewed published studies: ‘Experience catching’, ‘Sense making’, ‘Psychological recovery’, ‘Social capital’, ‘Equity and inclusion’, ‘Children’, ‘Education’, ‘Place making’, ‘Economic benefit’, and ‘Critical perspectives’.
Claire Hooker is Associate Professor in Health and Medical Humanities at Sydney Health Ethicsand President of the Arts Health Network NSW/ACT.

13 November 2023:
What do disaster-affected communities value about engaging in the arts for recovery?
Anna Kennedy-Borissow
Anna will present two case studies of ‘creative recovery’ projects following 2019/20 Black Summer bushfires, and share preliminary findings from focus groups with community members on what they valued about participating in performing and visual arts projects as part of their psychosocial recovery.
Anna Kennedy-Borissow is a PhD candidate, arts manager, and theatre maker. Her research investigates the aspects of arts and cultural participation that contribute to recovery and resilience in disaster-affected communities.

22 November 2023:
Key debates in dance science
Emma Redding and Derrick Brown-Appenzeller
This webinar describes the development of Dance Science, a relatively new field of research and study. Key areas of research to have emerged in Dance Science will be highlighted as well as the challenges for the field moving forward. It includes insights into the presenters’ own research and practical experiences.‍
Emma is Director of the VCA, a contemporary dance and performance science practitioner, educator and researcher.
Derrick is a dance and performance science researcher with concentrations in cognitive psychology and human motor behaviour.