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Brow Books to publish guide to community-based projects

The Relationship is the Project, a new resource that aims to help practitioners, artists and cultural workers better engage with community-based projects, will be published by Brow Books later this year.

Commissioned and curated by creative producer Jade Lillie as part of her 2017 Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship, the book is pitched as a ‘non-academic and practitioner-led’ project that will include ‘chapters and provocations’ from leaders of Australia’s arts, cultural and community sectors.

The book, to be co-edited by a team including Kate Larsen, Cara Kirkwood and Jax Jacki Brown, will feature Genevieve Grieves on First Nations cultural contexts, Caroline Bowditch on access and disability, Dianne Jones, Odette Kelada and Lilly Brown on racial literacy and Ruth De Souza and Robyn Higgins on cultural safety in the arts, among other contributors.

Lillie said by not having a shared terminology around community-engaged practice, the sector has not had a ‘united message, voice or set of principles for this work’. ‘As a result, the trajectory of community arts, community cultural development and community engaged practice is potentially not being captured … in a way that tells the full story of how to develop and define these important arts and cultural experiences,’ Lillie said, adding that there are ‘very few’ non-academic or institutional resources available.

‘This book is intended to be a solid starting point for anyone who is wanting to get a range of expertise and perspectives around them to inform their practice in community engaged contexts,’ said Lillie.

An Australia Council grant helped fund the contributions while funding from Creative Victoria will support the book’s publication. Larsen told Books+Publishing the book will be available through standard retail channels and libraries, as well as ‘we hope being used as a resource for arts management and community development courses’.

For more information about the project, see the project website.

 

Category: Local news