Risky Business Symposium
The creative arts an an intervention activity for young people at risk
20-22 October 2005
The Open Stage
School of Creative Arts
The University of Melbourne
Victoria, Australia
A Conference at The University of Melbourne convened by the School of Creative Arts, Department of Criminology and Department of Language, Literacy and Arts Education.
The Risky Business Symposium is a cross-disciplinary investigation of creative arts as an intervention and diversionary activity for young socially marginalised people in urban and rural communities. The symposium will focus on youth and the arts and the notion of ‘risk taking’ in arts practice in the institutional and broad community contexts.
Symposium Themes:
• Youth culture and notions of risk in contemporary society
• Intervention or prevention? Arts and socially marginalised youth
• Challenges for research with high risk youth: methodological approaches
• Social inclusion/exclusion: marginalised youth, arts and community resources
• Different art forms and practices, diverse outcomes
• The role of the community artist and mentor
• Models of effective arts practices
• Arts, risk and well-being
• Social difference: Gender, sexuality and cultural identity
• Inside and Outside: Arts, high risk youth and juvenile justice
Location:
Melbourne is Australia’s second largest city. The Risky Business Symposium will be held at The Open Stage in the School at Creative Arts at the University of Melbourne. The University is situated close to the central business district and is only a short walk to the inner city areas of Carlton, Fitzroy and North Melbourne. Spring is a fantastic time to be in the city with great weather (cool evenings and warm days) and the annual Melbourne International Arts Festival running throughout October. Travelling around Melbourne is easy thanks to an integrated tram, train and bus public transport network. It is easy to explore the city on foot, and there is a ready supply of yellow taxis. Melbourne is also a food and wine centre, and contains a myriad of lauded restaurants, cafes and bars. See Tourism Victoria’s website for more information on Melbourne: www.visitvictoria.com
Key Speakers
Shirley Brice Heath
Shirley Brice Heath is currently Professor-at-Large at The Watson Institute of International Studies at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island and Visiting Research Professor at Kings College, University of London. She is also the Margery Bailey Professor of English and Dramatic Literature and Professor of Linguistics, Emerita, at Stanford University. She is a linguistic anthropologist whose research centres on learning language in different social and cultural contexts. For the past decade, her studies have focused on optimal learning environments that attract and retain young people living in communities and families that put them at risk in academic and employment settings. She has studied the impact of young-led and youth-centred organisations in not only the United States, but also England, Germany, Sweden, and South Africa. Recent research in England was carried out in cooperation with Creative Partnerships, a national initiative to promote the partnering of creative individuals from the arts, business, and science sectors with young people in their schools and communities. This work has resulted in two series of publications, one on visual learning and the other on dramatic learning. Both are available through the website of Creative Partnerships UK. Another on the similarities of learning in the sciences and the arts for secondary-level students will soon be available through the same source. In September of this year, two new documentaries will be available on DVD along with the award-winning 2000 PBS documentary, ArtShow, which she directed and produced to tell the story of four youth-based arts organizations in the United States. Her best-known publication in Australia is Ways with Words: Language, life and work in communities and classrooms (1983/1996); the follow-up of this book, Intergenerational Ways with Words, will be available from Cambridge University Press next year. She is also an editor of the Handbook for Literacy Educators: Research in the Visual and Communicative Arts, due out in a second edition next year.
The Risky Business Research Team
The Risky Business Research Project is a three-year Australian Research Council Linkage project. It brings together three areas of expertise and interest: creative arts, education and criminology. The research findings will be outlined in this international forum. Speaking at the symposium will be its Chief Investigators Associate Professor Angela O'Brien and Kate Donelan, and PhD researcher Kiersten Coulter. Associate Professor Angela O'Brien was foundation Head of the School of Creative Arts at the University of Melbourne from 1995-2004. Prior to that she was Deputy Head of the School of Visual and Performing Arts Education. She continues to act as Research and Graduate Studies Coordinator in the School. Professor O'Brien sits on many internal and external committees, including Chair of the Theatre Board at the University of Melbourne. Her research interests are in the social impact of the arts and Australian theatre. She is currently co-Chief Investigator with Kate Donelan on two arts-based projects with marginalised young people. Kate Donelan is Head of Drama and Deputy Head of the Department of Language, Literacy and Arts Education at the University of Melbourne. She was the Vice President of IDEA and a former President of NADIE, Drama Australia. Her doctoral research is an ethnographic study of intercultural education through drama and the performing arts. Kiersten Coulter is a social science researcher based in the Department of Criminology at the University of Melbourne. Her doctoral research with The Risky Business Project explores the implications of gender and diversity (for both young men and young women) on young adult ‘high risk’ offenders engagement with arts-based programs in custodial and transitional contexts.
Program
A full Risky Business Symposium program is attached to this document. Please note that the program is correct at time of printing. The organisers do not accept any responsibility for any subsequent changes. See www.sca.unimelb.edu.au/riskybusiness/ for updates.
Registration
Full
2 days: $180
1 day:$100
Concession
2 days: $100
1 day: $55
(all prices are in Australian dollars $AUD and are GST inclusive)
Registration includes attendance at all presentations/workshops, morning and afternoon teas, lunches, a conference satchel, a full symposium program and abstracts of presentations.
Cancellation Policy:
Refunds will be issued if cancellations are received by the 10 October. Following this date, refunds will not be issued, however alternative delegate names can be put forward.
Social Engagements
Opening cocktail function
Thursday 20 October, 6.30pm at The Ian Potter Museum of Art
The University of Melbourne
Swanston Street (between Elgin and Farraday Streets)
Parkville
- Admission to this event is included in the symposium registration.
Conference dinner
Friday 21 October, 7.30pm at University House
The University of Melbourne
- All symposium delegates are invited to attend the conference dinner at University House, the staff club house. The cost is $44 and this includes a three course dinner, tea, coffee and chocolates (beverages are not included in this price).
Small Metal Objects
Saturday 22 October, 7pm at Flinders Street Station
- To mark the end of the Risky Business Symposium delegates are invited to join the symposium organisers for a trip to the 2005 Melbourne International Arts Festival to see Back to Back Theatre’s new production, Small Metal Objects. Back to Back Theatre is well known for their critically acclaimed works devised by an ensemble of actors considered to have an intellectual disability. The production will be staged at Melbourne’s famous Flinders Street Station. Tickets are only $15. Risky Business has twenty tickets reserved for delegates so please RSVP to the Risky Business office by Friday 16th of September to avoid disappointment. For more information on the 2005 Melbourne International Arts Festival or to obtain a free program please contact the Risky Business office, or go to: www.melbournefestival.com.au (www.backtobacktheatre.com).
Enquiries
Tim Stitz – Project Administrator
‘Risky Business’ Research Project
School of Creative Arts
University of Melbourne
Victoria, Australia 3010
Email: tstitz@unimelb.edu.au
Phone: +61 3 8344 9039
Fax: +61 3 8344 8462
www.sca.unimelb.edu.au/riskybusiness/
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