Jen Rae is one of the 25 selected participants in Australia Council and Julie’s Bicycle’s inaugural Creative Climate Leadership program interrogating the role of arts and culture in the climate emergency.

CCL empowers artists and cultural professionals to take action on the climate and ecological crisis with impact, creativity, and resilience. Participants will deepen their understanding of the climate and ecological crises, understand and develop the role of culture and creativity in responding to these challenges, and emerge with a toolbox of approaches and practical solutions for transformative action.

CCL will be held in Bundanon, New South Wales, from 11 – 16 September 2023. This year’s candidates work in areas as varied as music to ecology and theatre to justice.

We acknowledge the people of the Dharawal and Dhurga language groups as the traditional owners of the land on which Bundanon is located. In Dharawal the word Bundanon means deep valley.

Yarra City Arts presents a series of conversations led by Jade Lillie, curator and editor of The Relationship is the Project (RITP) joined by some of Victoria’s leading creative thinkers.

Join us for the second conversation in the series, featuring panelists Timoci O’Connor, Tristan Meecham, Dr Jen Rae and Simona Castricum as they discuss their practices and provide a sneak preview of what to expect in the second edition of RITP.

PLEASE NOTE: Due to circumstances beyond her control Alex Kelly is no longer able to be present at the panel.

The way we view and navigate working with communities has shifted in the post COVID world and continues to evolve. The importance of community voices and self-determination was made strikingly evident by mistakes made. New opportunities exist to interrogate the way in which practitioners, artists and cultural workers can better engage with community-based projects.

Join us for this conversation series and opportunity to come together as a sector.

Tuesday 29 August

Abbotsford Convent, 1 St Heliers Street, Abbotsford

Community and Linen Rooms

Join us drinks and light snacks at 5.30pm

Panel 6pm-7.30pm

Entry free.

Catering by Cultural Catering.

The Relationship is the Project was initially conceived and curated by Jade Lillie in 2019.

Pitched as a go-to resource for practitioners wanting to better understand how to work with communities, it is a collection of short essays showcasing practitioners from across Australia who are working with communities.

With the first edition now sold out, the second edition (a collaboration between Jade Lillie and Kate Larsen) is set to launch in early 2024, published by NewSouth Books.

DR JEN RAE

Reorienting practice: The role of artists in the climate adaptation emergency

Start: Thursday, June 01, 2023 • 4:00 PM • Eastern Standard Time (US & Canada) (GMT-05:00)

End: Thursday, June 01, 2023 • 5:00 PM • Eastern Standard Time (US & Canada) (GMT-05:00)

Virtual event: A link to attend this virtual event will be emailed upon RSVP

Host Contact Info: info@scale-lesaut.ca

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REGISTRATIONS REQUIRED via this LINK - Live, so please be sure to check the time in relation to your timezone.

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About the event

Climate change poses challenges that are more severe and complex than anticipated, and existing systems and ways of thinking are poorly equipped to manage them. Finding new ways to collaborate, experiment, plan and shift the paradigm of climate emergency engagement and disaster resilience is an urgent matter. At the same time, the climate emergency presents the greatest threat to the arts and culture ecosystem. As practitioners, we are in a critical time that calls for us to reconsider how we might reorient our practices, bolster our capacities and voices to adapt to the challenges ahead, and how to untether from conventional ways of working within and across institutional structures.

Join us on June 1st for an inspiring talk with Dr Jen Rae, where she will share experiences and lessons learned through Art House's REFUGE - a multi-year transdisciplinary project exploring the role of artists and cultural institutions in times of climate catastrophe through multifaceted, context-specific disaster exercises.

This event will be held in English.

About the speaker

Dr Jen Rae is an award-winning artist-researcher of Métis and Scottish descent living on unceded Djaara Country, north of Melbourne, Australia. Her research-creation expertise is in the discursive field of contemporary environmental art and arts-based environmental communication. It is centered around cultural responses to climate change/emergency (a.k.a. ‘everything change’*), specifically the role of artists. Her work is engaged in discourses around food justice, disaster resilience and speculative futures predominantly articulated through transdisciplinary collaborative methodologies and community alliances. Jen creates and contributes to experimental multi-platform collaborative projects, including being a core artist of Arts House’s multi-year REFUGE project (2016-2022) - where artists, emergency service providers and communities work together to rehearse climate related emergencies and explore the impact of creativity in disaster preparedness. She is a co-founder of the Centre for Reworlding (C∞R), a collective of Indigenous, people of colour, settler and LGBTIQA2S+ artists, scientists, thinkers and change-makers with a track record of collaboratively working at the intersections of art, the climate emergency leadership, speculative futures and disaster resilience.

Through their Creative Resilience Lab, events, workshops and projects the C∞R aims to bolster inclusive collaboration and creative leadership in climate emergency response and action. Jen is also a board member of the International Environmental Communication Association and the Creative Recovery Network (AUS).

www.jenraeis.com

www.centreforreworlding.com

Réorienter la pratique : le rôle des artistes dans l'urgence de l'adaptation au climat

Jeudi 1 avril

Webinaire, 4:00 -5:00 pm HAE

Avec artiste-chercheur primée Dr. Jen Rae

À propos de l'événement

Le changement climatique pose des défis plus graves et plus complexes que prévu, et les systèmes et modes de pensée existants sont mal équipés pour les gérer. Il est urgent de trouver de nouveaux moyens de collaborer, d'expérimenter, de planifier et de modifier le paradigme de l'engagement dans les situations d'urgence climatique et de la résilience aux catastrophes. Dans le même temps, l'urgence climatique représente la plus grande menace pour l'écosystème des arts et de la culture. En tant que praticiens, nous vivons une période critique qui nous appelle à reconsidérer la manière dont nous pouvons réorienter nos pratiques, renforcer nos capacités et nos voix pour nous adapter aux défis à venir, et comment nous détacher des méthodes conventionnelles de travail au sein et à travers les structures institutionnelles.

Rejoignez-nous le 1er juin pour une conférence inspirante de Dr. Jen Rae, au cours de laquelle elle partagera les expériences et les leçons tirées d'Art House's REFUGE - un projet transdisciplinaire pluriannuel explorant le rôle des artistes et des institutions culturelles en période de catastrophe climatique par le biais d'exercices de désastre à multiples facettes et spécifiques au contexte.

Cet événement se déroulera en anglais.

À propos de l'orateur

Dr. Jen Rae est une artiste-chercheuse primée, d'origine métisse et écossaise, qui vit dans la région non cédée de Djaara, au nord de Melbourne, en Australie. Son expertise en matière de recherche-création se situe dans le domaine discursif de l'art environnemental contemporain et de la communication environnementale basée sur l'art. Elle se concentre sur les réponses culturelles au changement climatique/à l'urgence (alias "tout changement "*), et plus particulièrement sur le rôle des artistes. Son travail est engagé dans des discours sur la justice alimentaire, la résilience aux catastrophes et les futurs spéculatifs, principalement articulés à travers des méthodologies collaboratives transdisciplinaires et des alliances communautaires. Jen crée et contribue à des projets expérimentaux de collaboration multiplateforme, notamment en tant qu'artiste principale du projet pluriannuel REFUGE d'Arts House (2016-2022) - où les artistes, les fournisseurs de services d'urgence et les communautés travaillent ensemble pour répéter les urgences liées au climat et explorer l'impact de la créativité dans la préparation aux catastrophes. Elle est cofondatrice du Centre for Reworlding (C∞R), un collectif d'artistes autochtones, de personnes de couleur, de colons et de LGBTIQA2S+, de scientifiques, de penseurs et d'acteurs du changement ayant une expérience de travail collaboratif aux intersections de l'art, du leadership en matière d'urgence climatique, des futurs spéculatifs et de la résilience aux catastrophes.

Grâce à son laboratoire de résilience créative, ses événements, ses ateliers et ses projets, le C∞R vise à renforcer la collaboration inclusive et le leadership créatif dans la réponse et l'action en matière d'urgence climatique. Jen est également membre du conseil d'administration de l'International Environmental Communication Association et du Creative Recovery Network (AUS).

www.jenraeis.com

www.centreforreworlding.com

Centre for Reworlding presents

PROTEST METHODS + BANNER-MAKING WORKSHOP

This activity-based workshop will include listening, learning, and exploring activism and people power, through an exploration of protest methods and collectivising, through storytelling, talks and videos curated by artists Jen Rae and Claire G. Coleman from the Centre of Reworlding. Multidisciplinary artist Tenfingerz (aka Teneille Clerke) will guide participants through a banner-making workshop as part of the afternoon.

The workshop will provide attendees with practical ways to co-design slogans and work with reusable materials to create banners while listening to speakers and experts who have spent their lifetime organising, creating movements, resisting and practically creating change through the power of the individual and also within groups.

If you’re interested in activism, social justice and/or climate change, this is for you. It is open to all age groups, skill and interest levels. The workshop hopes to create a space of knowledge sharing and ways for everyone to engage in learning and making together. Materials will be provided and there will be light snacks and water available for attendees.

With Jen Rae, Claire G. Coleman, Teneille Clerke (Tenfingerz) and Syrus Marcus Ware

REGISTER:

Climate Emergency Artist Creative Lab

The Centre for Reworlding presents a creative lab for Darebin-based artists, exploring the intersections of creative practice in the climate emergency context.

This half-day creative lab is for Darebin-based artists, exploring the intersections of creative practice in the climate emergency context. This session includes a screening of REFUGIUM (2021), a Q&A with Jen Rae and Claire G. Coleman, plus a 2-hour interactive workshop. This initiative aligns to respond to Darebin City Councils Climate Emergency Strategy.

For more information about Darebin’s response to the climate emergency, see our website or please contact Natalie Jamieson, Environment Programs Officer natalie.jamieson@darebin.vic.gov.au

Lunch will be provided.

Please register below. This is a FREE EVENT.

Strictly limited capacity. Access services offered by request.

Join Claire and Jen as they discuss themes from the Centre for Reworlding presents RESURGENCE exhibition at Incinerator Gallery. Come see the show beforehand - give yourself 30-60 minutes as many the exhibition includes video and audio artworks.

90-minute lecture and project profile for PSi #27: HUNGER (Conference)

 ABSTRACT

How do you build a community around a systemic problem such as food justice in a crisis via creative methodologies?

‘We’ve never done this before’ became the motto of Fawkner Commons when local residents, Jen Rae from Fair Share Fare and partner Sally Beattie co-founder of Fawkner Food Bowls mobilised local food system food producers and community members to covert a community garden into an urban farm and a disused lawn bowling club into a community-led Covid-19 response food hub distributing over $116K boxes of no-cost/low-cost culturally-relevant food boxes and over 2,400 prepared meals in 2020.

Fawkner is the most food insecure and culturally-diverse suburb in the City of Moreland (5kms north of the CBD of Melbourne, Australia). It was heavily impacted by the 2020-21 Covid-19 Victorian state lockdowns, restrictions, case numbers and deaths. In this presentation, artist-researcher Jen Rae will delve into some of the creative methodologies underpinning the success of Fawkner Commons and its legacy in the community.

Opening of the exhibition RESURGENCE at Incinerator Gallery. Co-curated by Jen Rae and Claire G. Coleman.

EVENT BY NORTHERN BOOKS and NALDERUN ABORIGINAL CORPORATION

We are delighted to be partnering with Nalderun to bring you an exciting and thought-provoking event with local artist-researcher, Jen Rae (Métis) and award-winning author, art critic and social advocate, Claire G Coleman (Noongar). Join us for the screening of Refugium - a collaboration between Jen and Claire - and a QnA with both artists and Nalderun CEO, Kath Coff, afterwards. Claire will also be available to sign her books.

Refugium is a short film of speculative fiction in the climate emergency context.
"Centred on First Nations knowledge and protocols, Refugium hacks time and compounding existential crises, delves into moral dilemmas of life and death and hones in on child-centred trauma prevention and intergenerational justice in the coming collapse. What are the conversations that we aren’t having now that might aid us, our loved ones and our future ancestors? What are we willing to give up and/or fight for in the greatest challenge facing humanity.” – Jen Rae, 2021

TICKETS: www.trybooking.com/BZMXQ