Join celebrated artist, author, and podcast host Tai Snaith in this engaging panel discussion with a selection of Australia's most inspiring visual artists, educators and cultural leaders.
A rare opportunity to hear unique insights into their creative processes and the transformative power of art in society.
Tai Snaith is an artist, author and broadcaster living and working on unceded Wurundjeri land.
Her multi-disciplinary work celebrates the intersection of stories, collections, people and place. She is interested in how objects like books, vessels and other utilitarian items can be powerful tools to illustrate the times we live in as well as the past. How, like literature, objects can convey a deep emotional point of view and energy. Tai also has a longstanding love of animals and interest in biodiversity. She has 6 published books with Thames and Hudson, which all use animals as a way for children to connect with ideas of place, self, mindfulness and environmental action.
Tai has artwork held in both private and public collections including Artbank, City of Banyule, NGA and State Library of Victoria as well as recently commissioned series for Andaz Prague and a current public sculpture commission for the Great Victorian Rail Trail. Tai has an ongoing podcast of conversations called ‘A World of One’s Own’ originally commissioned by ACCA, which is now in its third season. Tai also has 6 books published with Thames and Hudson Australia with her most recent book ‘Wonders Under the Sun’ was released in September 2022.
For 10 years, Sara Mansour has directed and led significant Australian cultural institutions and events.
In 2013, aged 19 years, Sara – a poet and writer herself – co-founded Bankstown Poetry Slam, the first poetry slam in western Sydney. Under Sara’s leadership, it has grown into Australia’s largest regular live poetry event, hosting crowds of up to 2000 people.
Bankstown Poetry Slam won the Special Award at the 2023 Premier’s Literary Awards – the first arts organisation to receive this honour – and the 2016 Western Sydney’s Leadership Dialogue Pemulwuy Prize.
Sara has curated and hosted over 150 poetry events. She’s also coordinated high school programs for young people, established Australia’s first ever National Youth Poetry Slam and directed multiple festivals. Most recently, she has been appointed as a trustee at the Sydney Opera House.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q77yakmwgM8
https://redroompoetry.org/poets/sara-mansour/you-must/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ft_nAxiQ70
Abdul Abdullah is an Australian multi-disciplinary artist. As a self-described ‘outsider amongst outsiders’ with a post 9/11 mindset, his practice is primarily concerned with the experience of the ‘other’ and is particularly interested in the disjuncture between perception/projection of identity and the reality of lived experience.
Identifying as a Muslim and having both Malay/Indonesian and convict/settler Australian heritage, Abdullah occupies a precarious space in the political discourse that puts him at odds with popular definitions. He sees himself as an artist working in the peripheries of a peripheral city, in a peripheral country, orbiting a world on the brink.
Born 1987. From Berry Springs, NT (Kungarakan country). Living and working in Canberra, ACT (Ngunnawal and Ngambri country).
Harriet Body's art practice is centred around care, slowness, and community. In her studio she works with media that broadly cross textiles, ceramics, and installation.
Harriet's socially engaged art practice involves creating community and exploring collaborative art making in a range of different contexts. She is currently examining motherhood as a conceptual underpinning to her socially engaged artwork. Harriet also works as the Creative Learning Programs Convener at the National Gallery of Australia where she works with a team of artist educators providing programs for both young and adult learners and community groups around Australia.
Harriet holds an MFA (research), for which she received an Australian Postgraduate Award, and a BFA (first class) from the UNSW School of Art and Design. She received major project funding from CreateNSW in 2015, 2018, and 2021. She was a finalist in the NSW Emerging Visual Arts Fellowship in 2019 and was awarded the Hazelhurst Art on Paper Prize in 2017.