Place-making. No longer a trend but a burgeoning industry, practised in countries all over the world. In Western Australia, any new development or re-purposing of space now involves a conversation about the human experience. What will attract people to a place? Encourage them to mingle, linger, or set up a home or a business? The way a place looks and feels influences how people behave—for good or ill—towards each other, to newcomers, and to the wider community. How do we make sure that we explore the best ways of achieving harmony and productivity in our neighbourhoods and cities? How best can creativity help us achieve that aim? How do we really make it happen?
How do we take creative placemaking from surface treatment to deeper transformation of our places and communities? Are we exploring the best ways of achieving harmony and productivity in our neighbourhoods and cities? How can creativity help us achieve that aim? To help Perth debate those questions, FORM welcomes two international place-making experts-in-residence, Tim Jones from Canada and Jason Roberts from the United States.
Tim and Jason are both highly experienced in the art, science and especially the action of making vibrant neighbourhoods. Tim, CEO of Artscape, coined the term ‘creative place-making’ and is in demand all over the world for his experience using the arts to transform cities and communities. Jason is the founder of the Oak Cliff Transit Authority, Dallas, and the original Better Block Project, an organisation which takes blighted blocks with vacant properties and transforms them with temporary pop-up businesses, bike lanes, seating and landscaping.
Creative Places : Curating Opportunity in Communities is the latest installment in our Speaker Series. You can also explore previous speaker events and conversations including our PUBLIC Symposium and PUBLIC 2016 publication.
Creative Places: A Breakfast with Tim Jones and Jason Roberts
Wednesday 21 June, 7 for 7.30-9am
$25 FORM Members; $40 General Admission
Over a light breakfast, hear two perspectives on how creativity shapes places and establishes the conditions for our communities to flourish. As leaders in the creative placemaking field, Tim Jones and Jason Roberts share their personal experiences on the dynamics of meaningful environments and how creativity shapes successful places.
The Goods Shed, Corner of Shenton Road and Claremont Crescent
Creative Place-Making: A Workshop with Tim Jones
Tuesday, 20 June 8.30am, full morning workshop exact times TBC.
$50 FORM Members; $65 General Admission
Explore the practicalities of creative place-making with one of the world’s leading creative cities experts. Learn why culture and creativity are so effective in raising quality of life in our cities, from street level forward, and how to nurture and sustain the conditions for these assets to thrive.
The Goods Shed, Corner of Shenton Road and Claremont Crescent
Actioning Creative Cities: A Deep Dive with Jason Roberts
Thursday 22 June, 10-11.30am $40 FORM Members; $55 General Admission.
How do you corral community energies, build collaborations, and break a project into actionable elements so you have rapid-fire implementation? Jason Roberts’s workshop shares the process which has taken Better Blocks from the level of successful local experiment to a national movement.
The Goods Shed, Corner of Shenton Road and Claremont Crescent.
The Place- Changing Challenge with Jason Roberts
Friday, 23 June 9am-12pm. $50 FORM Members; $65 General Admission
How can you change a place in 30 minutes? Take part in a rapid-prototyping process from human-centred design to assessing spaces, tackling change and putting it into action – fast!
The Goods Shed Corner of Shenton Road and Claremont Crescen & Offsite
EXHIBITION OPENING
Thursday, 4 July, 2019
6-8PM
FORM MEMBER PREVIEW
5.30-6PM
Bugai Whyoulter is an internationally acclaimed pujiman (desert-born) artist, from Kunawarritji (Well 33). In association with Martumili Artists, FORM presents Bugai, a solo exhibition of significant recent and historical works showing why Bugai’s artwork continues to resonate across cultures, generations and borders.
Weaving describes an action, and it also connotes a tradition imbued with cultural heritage. Distinctively and regionally diverse, the Indigenous fibre art of Australia is nonetheless expressive of a community of practice, unified by the amazing ability of practitioners to transform raw materials into creative expressions of story and place.
Connected to women’s traditional knowledge of plant materials and harvesting, fibre art is inextricably linked with the seasonal availability of resources and the transformation of raw materials into dyes, yarn and threads. The works, and their creators, perform a most special mixture of artistry and alchemy.
Accordingly, The Alchemists showcases the recent work of artists and art centres from Anindilyakwa, Bula’ bula, Elcho Island, Merrepen and Maningrida in the Northern Territory, Milingimbi and Gapuwiyak in East Arnhem Land, Pormpuraaw Art Centre in Cape York, Baluk Arts in the Mornington Peninsula, and closer to home, Martumili Artists in the Pilbara. The exhibition also features the work of Tasmanian artist Vicki West, Cairns-based artist Grace Lillian Lee and Janine McCaulley Bott of Western Australia.
*** We’re sorry, due to the outbreak of COVID-19 & The Australian Government’s advice that events of 100+ people should not go ahead, we’re sad to announce that we’ve had to cancel Scribblers Festival this year. ***
A FREE festival celebrating literature & arts for young people, including inspiring talks by authors & illustrators from around the world, hands-on creative activities for all ages, Book Dr Prescriptions, a venue devoted to YA lit (The YA Collective), a Mother’s Day Market on Sunday featuring local bakeries, free flower jars for Mum, and custom calligraphy. Did we mention food trucks, great coffee, and magic that stays with you all year long?
Eight million tonnes of plastic enters our ocean every year. There is 500 times more microplastic in the sea than there are stars in our galaxy, and by 2050 it is estimated that there will be more plastic than fish. With only nine percent of the world’s plastic recycled, artists are developing ways to rethink the plastic problem. Plasticology features creative approaches to the recycling of plastics by artists Yufang Chi (Taiwan/Australia), Eko Nugroho (Indonesia), and Angela Yuen (Hong Kong).
One of Indonesia’s most respected contemporary artists, Eko Nugroho’s work has been exhibited and collected all over the world. He makes art for and of the people, based in the street and on his own experiences, using humour and irony to respond to social and environmental concerns. He works across many mediums, including drawing, painting, sculpture, video, performance, and street art and often adapts ideas from science fiction, comic books and other forms of popular culture merged with traditional Indonesian artforms. Look out for Nugroho’s bold graphics and hybrid-aliens or part-man part-machine figures, with faces concealed by masks, helmets, or machine parts, seeming never to reveal their true selves. Who will you see looking back at you?
When hit exhibition Mulyana: A Man, A Monster and the Sea transformed The Goods Shed into a colourful underwater wonderland last year, more than 30,000 people visited the Claremont cultural hub. Now, FORM is continuing to explore themes around the ocean in an artistic exchange with Western Australia’s regional neighbours.
We’re beyond excited to welcome our latest exhibition What Now? The next generation of Martumili artists to the walls of The Goods Shed, opening Wednesday 7 October.
What Now? features emerging talent from Martumili Artists in Parnpajinya (Newman), one of Western Australia’s most vibrant remote Aboriginal art centres. The exhibition is a collective celebration of the dynamic paintings and photography produced across the vast East Pilbara. It comprises bold new works created by the brightest Martu artists, informed by Country, empowered by culture and inspired by their predecessors.
Though the artists participating in What Now? are considered ‘emerging’, they are aged between 24 and 80. Some senior artists have been painting for several years but are experiencing a significant change in the direction of their practice. In addition, younger Martu artists learn to paint by observing and assisting their older relatives. What Now? demonstrates how they are developing their own styles that still reflect the powerful influence of their elders.
What Now? is an evocative expression of family and heritage told by Gladys Kuru Bidu, Biddy Bunawarrie, Marianne Burton, Derrick Butt, Doreen Chapman, Lorna Linmurra, Mary Rowlands, Judith Anya Samson, Helen Dale Samson, Debra Thomas, Cyril Whyoulter, Corban Clause Williams, and Tamisha Williams.
Come and immerse yourself in Martu Country while supporting artists from Western Australia’s regions.
Internationally acclaimed creative education expert Paul Collard returns to Perth for a month-long residency this March, working closely with Perth’s young people, and sharing his knowledge with their parents, carers and educators. Hear Collard speak in a special address at the Scribblers Program Launch on Thursday, 1st March at The Goods Shed.
Multidisciplinary artist Pilar Mata Dupont established her practices in Western Australia before leaving to forge a formidable international career.
An immersive art installation by Bruce Munro will illuminate the Avenue of Honour at Mt Clarence later this year, paying homage to the Anzacs with 13,000 shining spheres marking the last sight of home for 41,000 troops who departed from Albany for the Great War.