Call for Papers | Creative Communities 3: Conference Risks & Possibilities

Creative Communities 3 Conference: Risks & Possibilities

Wednesday 26th - Friday 28th September 2012, Gold Coast, Australia

Following the highly successful Creative Communities Conference in 2009 and 2010, Creative Communities 3 will provide a forum for critical discussion and knowledge exchange concerning the ‘Risks & Possibilities’ of unleashing creativity in communities. CC3 will bring together an interdisciplinary array of National and International Art & Community Cultural Development Practitioners, Creative & Cultural Researchers and others working across a range of disciplines such as sociology, art, cultural studies, youth and ageing studies, gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity studies, cultural geography and media studies.

Call for Papers

‘Creative communities’ is a well-worn phrase conventionally equated with notions of well-being, civic participation and social inclusion. Creativity in this sense is regarded as social glue that bonds individuals together through collaboration in various forms of creative projects – be it visual art, drama, dance, theatre, music, writing or a combination of these. that bring communities together in positive and fulfilling ways.

Similarly, community connotes a wholehearted feeling, the strength of relationships in networks or inclusiveness through a sense of shared characteristics and values.

There is now a significant body of practice, policy and academically focused work that highlights the importance of the ‘creative community’ in fostering community well-being. At the same time, however, the term creative community throws up a number of questions that remain largely unaddressed in existing research, for example;

• How does creativity actually impact community?

• What is lost when the term ‘creative communities’ is imposed on place?

• How are decisions on processes of inclusion / exclusion in creative practices made and who controls such decisions?

• What happens to a creative community when access to resources that facilitate its creativity are lost or compromised and what sort of factors can contribute to this – e.g socio-economic change, civil unrest, urban redevelopment, shifts in state and government policy?

Factors such as these can seriously impact on the cohesion and well-being of local communities. Yet, they can also inspire innovative and sometimes unpredictable responses on the part of communities and open up unforeseen dialogues, connections and creative solutions to the problems they face at the local, everyday level. Creative Communities 3: Risks & Possibilities will explore these issues and challenge predictable notions entwined in notions of creativity and communities.

Conference convenors: Professor Andy Bennett, Dr Christine Feldman, Dr. Karleen Gwinner & Ms Shanene Ditton (PhD)

Griffith Centre for Cultural Research  invites proposal submissions from scholars, arts & cultural workers, designers, urban designers, architects and policy makers interested in presenting oral papers, presentations, interactive workshops, panels or roundtable discussions on the following Conference themes;

1 . Creative Communities at Risk

• Perceptions of societal danger- Aversion and subversive behaviour

• Individual versus collective risk and possibility

• Between invisibility and presence

• Laws and regulations and their impact or influence on creative communities

2 . Itineraries of engagement 

• Creative Practice and cultural indicators in policy making

• Idealization and leadership

• Professional versus hobbyist perspectives of creative practice

• Public events as catalysts for community

• Observing and evaluating participation in creative engagement

• Possibilities of participation- gatekeepers

3. Transcultural Dialogues 

• Emergent global creativities

• Community, creativity and post transnational trauma, for example, 9/11- Bali bombing, London ‘youth’ riots, Black Friday Victorian bush fires

• Cultural tourism /mis-tourism

• Asia Pacific heritage dialogues

4 . Politics of networks

• Digital social networking (lived environments versus online/virtual)

• Politics, kinship, and the role of communities/Creative geographies, ecologies and networks

• Migration of skills and experience (migrants/refugees, professional arts workers, skills exchange learning, mentors and novice)

• Flexible and local forums and networks, complexity in varied contexts

• ‘Hard-to-reach’ membership cohorts.

5 . Diversity and inclusion: Creativity as a catalyst for reconciling difference 

• Social Sustainability and the creative artist: socially responsible creative commitment

• Personal Development as a liberating force: confidence building in community sub groups

• Collaboration: reliable interdependence: links through non-political non-biased creativity

• Transparency and ownership: who owns the project

• Old and skilled/young and skilled: forging links and breaking down generational barriers

Papers, Interactive workshops: Oral presentations and Interactive workshops will be allocated 20 minutes speaking/workshop time with 10 minutes following for questions and discussion.

Panels or round table discussion: Panels or roundtable will be allocated up to 60 minutes for discussion and debate.

Presentations: A poster consists of an A2-size poster to be on display throughout the conference and/or a powerpoint presentation. Presenters will be required to discuss their poster (10 minutes).

For details on how to submit a proposal visit the website http://www.griffith.edu.au/humanities-languages/centre-cultural-research/news-events/creative-communities-conference

Proposals due 1st June 2012 

Applicants will be notified of the acceptance of abstracts by 1st July 2012 at the latest.