Regional Arts Australia's Artlands '23 gathering embodied a profound systems change and flipped the script on how to bring people together for hard and important conversations. The experience was captured in the newly released C R E A T I N G S P A C E documentary, exploring what is possible when a conference is curated around care and wellbeing. This new five-part podcast series continues the conversation, sharing some of the fuller interviews and diving deeper into the idea that “The future is regional. The future is creative.” 

MEET: FIONA SINCLAIR

This conversation takes place in the Understory Art and Nature Trail at Northcliffe with Fiona Sinclair. With twenty+ years experience as a public artist, community cultural development  facilitator, gallery manager, curator, presenter and cultural tourism operator, Fiona has extensive networks stretching across the vast and diverse WA regional arts sector. Specialising in initiatives that deliver inter-connectivity, collaboration and vibrancy to regional arts practice, Fiona is a passionate advocate for the depth, dynamism and richness the sector contributes to our national creative and cultural experience. 

We talk about the “container of care” created at Artlands, the Maori practices of hongi and breathwork taught by the facilitators, Desna Whaanga-Schollum, Chelita Kahutianui-o-te-Rangi Zainey and Te Hira Kaiwai.. We also speak about the experience of our key note listeners, the industry leaders we invited to the final act: Liz Ritchie from Regional Australia Institute, Natalie Egleton from the Foundation for Rural Regional Renewal, Kate Fielding from A New Approach, Georgia McClean from Creative Australia, Jane Carter from the Office for the Arts and Andrea Hogg from the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation. 

Fiona Sinclair: Art is art has always been. It's so deeply intrinsic to who we are as humans. So serving art is not serving myself or even serving my community in a way, it's just about connecting to the best of who we can be, but also the most vulnerable that we can be.  

Artlands ‘23 brought 80 purposefully selected participants together at the National Gallery Australia on Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country (in Canberra), for three days, five acts, tackling the challenges and opportunities presented by the provocation: The Future of Regional Australia is Fundamentally Creative. 

Artlands ‘23 is supported by the Regional Arts Fund and delivered by Regional Arts Australia. The Regional Arts Fund is an Australian Government program that supports sustainable cultural development in regional and remote communities in Australia. 

'The future is regional. The future is creative' is a registered trademark of Regional Arts Australia.  

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Regional Arts Australia.