Three days in October will stimulate and inspire

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A chance to experience some of the culture, art and language of the Eastern Arrernte people of Central Australia is one of many highlights for delegates signing up to attend art at the heart, Regional Arts Australia’s sixth national conference to be held in Alice Springs in October.

Conference Coordinator and Artistic Director Kieren Sanderson said that several Eastern Arrernte families will be present at Alice Springs throughout the conference, inviting visitors to see how their arts practices allowed them to transfer ancient knowledge into the contemporary world.

“Apmeraltye Ingkerreke: People of the Land, All Together will offer a rare insight into Arrernte culture and will be a real drawcard of the conference program,” Ms Sanderson said.

Speaking at the program launch, Regional Arts Australia’s Vice President, Steve Grieve, said art at the heart would draw artists, arts workers and volunteers from across the country.

“Alice Springs is a desert town at the geographic heart of Australia. It is also a place that has inspired great art for thousands of years. Holding our national conference here will provide a great natural forum to discuss the challenges and achievements of the arts in regional Australia.

“Two years ago, around 750 delegates attended our Pacific Edge conference in Mackay in Queensland. We expect many of those people to return again, bringing others with them, to take part in this great national exchange of ideas," Mr Grieve said.

The three-day program was launched today by Northern Territory Arts Minister, Marion Scrymgour, at Alice Springs Desert Park. The conference is being hosted by the Northern Territory Government.

Highlights from the art at the heart program

Eastern Arrernte women and their families will share their language, cross-cultural working protocols and arts and cultural practices with delegates. Apmeraltye Ingkerreke acknowledges the generous support of Desert Knowledge Australia and Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre.

Humanature – see media artist Craig Walsh transforming an ordinary tree in Alice Springs into a monumental night time sculpture. Using large-scale video production, Craig creates giant portraits which are often perceived by audiences as a hologram. His work has delighted audiences in Japan and across Australia. He is presented by Experimenta, Australia’s leading organisation dedicated to media art.

Is Philanthropy the Solution? ABC TV’s Difference of Opinion presenter Jeff McMullen will head a panel of leading thinkers, with strong connections to the arts to debate whether philanthropy is the most effective means to tackle sustainability of arts and culture in regional Australia, with a focus on Indigenous philanthropy. Jeff’s fellow panellists will be Jill Reichstein OAM, chair of the Reichstein Foundation and an advocate of social change philanthropy, Neil Balnaves, founder of the Balnaves Foundation which invests $2 million annually in medicine and the arts and fellow trustee, Alex Honor, and Helen Lynch AM, chair of the Westpac Foundation and the Westpac Staff Superannuation Plan.

Peter Jenkinson OBE, a cultural broker from the UK will present a keynote speech on Arts partnerships, collaborations and exchanges, while well-known Australian facilitator, mediator and cultural worker, Anne Dunn, will discuss Creativity, Innovation and Change.

The award-winning arts company Beyond Empathy, which uses the arts to reach severely disadvantaged young people, seeks to answer the giant question facing all arts companies - How do we know that what we do actually works? BE executive director, Kim McConville, and her team will outline the bold approach they are taking to measure the changes they make in the lives of others in Never Mind the Width, Feel the Quality.

Why was the national touring production Ngapartji Ngapartji such a success? Hear first-hand from the company behind the show, Big hART. What were the processes and philosophies behind the development of the project, from its genesis in the Central Desert in 2005 to the present?

Representation of Alice Springs town-campers by the mainstream media is almost always negative. Yet there are great diverse and complex stories that come from the camps. Some of these will be told in Apmere Ayeye – a series of films made by the Aboriginal town-camp people themselves. The town-camp filmmakers will present a session outlining their challenges and methodologies, giving arts practitioners a rare insight into town camp life. Apmere Ayeye builds on a five year history of short-term film and music programs in the camps, which gave rise to the groundbreaking Us Mob.

Early bird rates apply until 15 July. The full conference program and registration forms are available at www.artattheheart.com.au.