Latest News:

Risky Business Symposium Update

A number of photographs from the recent Risky Business Symposium have been uploaded on to this site. To access these photos please go to the Symposium page.

Please note that a number of Symposium presentations will be available in electronic form on the website in early February 2006.

For Symposium presenters, all full papers for the refereed journal must be submitted to the Risky Business Office by Monday 30 January 2006. Please contact Tim Stitz, tstitz [at] unimelb.edu.au, for more information and a full style guide.

We anticipate selection and subsequent publication of these articles in a refereed journal by mid 2006.

Double Dialogues In/Stead Papers

Two papers by members of the Risky Business Team have recently been published on the internet as a result of presentations delivered at the 2005 Double Dialogues Conference at the University of Melbourne:

Martinac, K. (2005). "Engaged and Reflexive", In/Stead, Spring, Issue 1.

O'Brien, A. (2005), "The Lost Princess: Anastasia, a Risky character", In/Stead, Spring, Issue 1.

Please go to the Double Dialogues website for electronic versions of these articles.


Snuff Puppets Project at Worawa College

During the last week of October and the first week of November 2005 the amazing artistic team from Snuff Puppets conducted a giant puppet workshop at Worawa College, a private indigenous secondary school in Healsville, Victoria.

The Risky Business Research Project, with thanks to the Australian Council for the Arts, and in conjunction with Worawa College, funded and staged this project. The field research conducted from this project will be reported in the final Risky Business Research Project Report, due out March 2006.


Risky Business Symposium

Thanks to all those who attended the Risky Business Symposium at the end of October. It was a fantastic meeting and much positive feedback has been received.

For more information please go the Symposium page.

The Risky Business Symposium took place at the University of Melbourne, 20-22 October 2005.


Risky Business Team present at the Backing Our Creativity Arts and Education Symposium hosted by the Australia Council

Associate Professor Angela O'Brien, Dr Kate Donelan, Ms Kiersten Coulter and Dr Kruno Martinac presented 'A Report on the Risky Business Research Project' on Wednesday 14 September to an interested audience at the Australia Council Arts and Education Symposium held at the Victorian College of the Arts.


Risky Business listed in the Arts RiPPA. Arts RiPPA profiles research in Australia with emphasis on qualitative and quantitative research into: arts audiences and participants; creative industry development; arts impacts; infrastructure support for artists; and policy and regulatory instruments. Arts RiPPA is compiled by the Australia Council's Research Centre. Go to the site and download the [pdf].

Here is the Risky Business Research Newsletter of February 2005 [pdf]

Here is the Risky Business Research Newsletter from May 2004 [pdf]

A paper, 'Teacher, Mentor or Role-Model?' -- delivered by Angela O'Brien at the Dialogues and Differences Symposium May 2004, Sydney -- has been published in the journal Change: Transformations in Education, Vol. 7, No.2, p.74-87.

Final of comedy project, Comedy Quest, was held in Dandenong on 6th November 2004. It was broadcast on Channel 31 Friday 7th January at 7pm. Tell us what you think by leaving a comment at the Comedy Quest website.

Angela O'Brien presents at the 'Models of Inclusion' session, Fourth Pillar Conference, Melbourne Town Hall, 29th-30th November 2004.

Photographic exhibition, 'Disposable Moments', held in Bendigo on 18th + 20th November 2004.

Article on the girls theatre project, Beyond the Barriers, in United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime journal, Eastern Horizons. Citation: Bezziccheri, S. (2004). "Beyond the Barrier: Finding Your Own Way Out!" Eastern Horizons 18: 4.

Angela O'Brien and Kruno Martinac presented 'Lost Princess: Anastasia, a Risky Character' and 'The Heart of Another is a Dark Forest' respectively at Double Dialogues Conference 6 'Anatomy and Poetics' (Art & Pain II), 8-9 October 2004, Open Stage, School of Creative Arts, University of Melbourne.

Academic paper on Risky Business by Angela O'Brien in Drama Australia's journal: NJ. Citation: O'Brien, A. (2004). "Spokesperson from the Margin: 'Lucky' - A Risky Character." NJ 28(1): 61-72.

Angela O'Brien and Kruno Martinac presented at a conference at the Inter University Center Dabrovnik, Croatia too this year. See the publications page for details.

Kate Donelan chaired a panel session, 'Risky business for people at risk' with Angela O'Brien, Bruce Burton, Peter O'Connor and John O'Toole at the IDEA (International Drama/Theatre and Education Association) Fifth World Congress held in Ottowa, Canada.

What is Risky Business?:

Risky Business is an Australian Research Council Linkage Project -- a collaborative research effort across academic disciplines and policy portfolios including the School of Creative Arts; Department of Criminology; Language, Literacy and Arts Education at The University of Melbourne and key industry stakeholders in juvenile justice and the arts.

Risky Business is a longitudinal study to identify effective diversionary programs for young people experiencing some difficulties in their lives and to analyse the potential impact of the creative arts to assist them and to reconnect them with their community.

Over the period of the program up to ten individual arts-based projects are running in four broad geographical areas -- Footscray, Dandenong, Parkville and Bendigo. Each of the programs runs for about twelve weeks and operate out of a resource centre for young people aged 16-22.

Young people participating in the programs effectively become artists-in-training with each project offering the opportunity to learn, practice and experience a range of arts-based skills in the performing arts, the visual arts, multi-media, puppetry, writing, music and drama. Many of the projects culminate in a professionally produced public performance, exhibition or reading. Professional artists, in some cases established performing arts companies, run the workshops and act as mentors for their clients.

A team of researchers explore the young people's experiences and perceptions of the programs, identifying the characteristics and processes of the programs which have the most significant impact and investigating the ways in which involvement in the different art forms affect personal and skills developments, self-esteem and social integration.

Although there is generally national and international agreement in the potential for arts-based programs to meet the young person's need for fun, risk and excitement while developing links to their communities, there is little rigorous research into the process or the outcomes of the use of such programs.

This is a unique program that will inform the development of policy and programming for marginalised young people. It will provide a detailed and close analysis of the content and process of art programs designed for young people across a range of art forms and communities.

Risky Business aims to provide justice and social agencies with a model for effective youth program planning that will facilitate re-education and work opportunities.