Work by Joanne Stead
Sustainability and the future of Regional NSW – Art project
Artists Tania Hartigan (Wallabadah) and Joanne Stead (Tamworth) have received an art commission from Create NSW through the Regional Futures program, an artist-led program to envision the future of Regional NSW.
Tania and I have chosen a theme of Sustainability for our artwork, with the idea that we need to be moving to a more sustainable society to secure our ultimate longevity. Within this frame, Tania and I are interested in exploring what sustainability means to regional Australians across different sectors including Business, Government and Community, and how you see sustainability being achieved over time. To gather information around this issue, we have put together the set of questions on the next page of this document, and invite you to think about what sustainability means to you.
Once we have gathered a range of responses, we intend to draw out the themes and create an artistic response by way of an artwork or series of artworks that will be the focus of a local exhibition, and a joint exhibition in Sydney alongside other artists who have been commissioned by Regional Futures.
If you’d like to read more about the Regional Futures Program and the artists involved, you can find information here – www.regionalfutures.net.au
The questions:
We invite you to reflect on what sustainability means to you, how you understand it and how you see it should be reflected practically in our day to day lives.
There are definitely no right or wrong answers! There is currently no universally agreed academic or political definition of sustainability but there are many recognised contribution factors - at least 17 major ones if you think about the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. So, we are just interested in finding out what resonates with people in the regions and what aspects they are engaging with when they think about sustainability.
Our “test subjects” have said it took them about an hour to think about the issues involved and frame their responses. It is up to you if you answer all the questions or just some of them. We would be grateful for your thoughts even if you can’t put the time aside to do the whole thing. Responses may be as short or as long as you like.
Collation of responses:
We think that other people (besides us) will also be interested in hearing what other regional people say about Sustainability. We think that if we get an interesting mix of results it would be worth putting a booklet together to accompany our artwork/s which includes some of the responses, or excerpts that demonstrate key themes. No contributor names would be included in this booklet, just anonymous people’s ideas. Your involvement in this project constitutes consent for use of your words and ideas in such a publication.
We will keep participants in the loop and advise you of major milestones in the project – advising you when exhibitions are on, and sending you any publications that might result from the project.
If you would like any more information from us, please feel free to call:
Joanne Stead, 0409 090 405, joanne1stead@gmail.com
Tania Hartigan, 0427 462 155