CRITICAL CONVERSATION

At a time when the world seems to be all about creating division, five of Darwin’s leading arts organisations (Brown’s Mart, Corrugated Iron Youth Arts, Darwin Community Arts, Darwin Fringe Festival, Tracks Dance Company) have come together to create CRITICAL CONVERSATIONS. This series of forums will run throughout the year, allowing for important conversations about arts activism, ethical arts practice and our social responsibility as creatives. Each organisation will host their forum, focusing on issues that affect them. There will also be time for audience questions.

How can the art community effectively promote critical dialogue while navigating the pressures of funding and commercialisation? What strategies can be implemented better to support underrepresented artists in a rapidly changing environment? In what ways can artists maintain their creative integrity amidst the increasing demands for speed and profitability in the art world?

Keep up to date by following us all on Instagram.

@browns_mart  
@corrugatedironyoutharts  
@darwincommunityarts  
@darwinfringefestival  
@tracksdance 

Episode 1

Building long-term cultural and artistic relationships in quickly changing times.
 

The series kicks off with the Artistic Leadership Team from Tracks Dance: Sean Pardy will act as the Provocateur for the conversation. 
Panellists: Rachael Wallis, Alyson Evans, James Mangohig, and Jenelle Saunders
 

When: Thursday, April 17th, 5:30-6.30pm
Where: Tracks Dance Studio, Harbourview Plaza, 8 McMinn Street, Darwin City.

Episode 2
Ethical Story Telling

Travers Street Theatre,
1 Travers St, Coconut Grove, Darwin Community Arts. Thursday, June 5 - 5:30 pm

As creatives, storytelling is central to everything we do—across all art forms. But what happens when the stories we tell involve communities or cultures beyond our own? Join us for a conversation about the ethics of storytelling, exploring how we can collaborate with care, respect, and responsibility.

Panellists:
Genevieve Grieves (GARUWA)
Genevieve is a proud Worimi woman and respected artist, educator, field builder, film director and oral historian. She is recognised as a leader of community engagement and decolonising methodologies in Australia.

Shay Jayawardena (Qubit Gallery and Incubator)
Shay is a multidisciplinary artist and curator, with a focus on community-led decision-making to ensure respect and effectiveness when collaborating with diverse populations. She is passionate about the intersection of art, culture, neuroscience, and technology, and their combined potential to revolutionise systems. Currently, Shay is working on projects that integrate immersive storytelling and emerging technologies to enhance learning, creativity, and accessibility.

David McMicken (Tracks Dance)
With a community development interest, David explores being a contemporary Australian through questions of race, age, place and culture, and by working with local artistic and cultural workers, and populations. He is particularly interested in creating work that comes from the specifics of place, as well as through collaborative processes.

Panel host: Alyson Evans (Darwin Community Arts)

Episode 3
Censorship and the Arts

Darwin Fringe Festival, Happy Yes, Browns Mart: Friday, July 18th - 6:00 pm

Are you tired of being lied to? … Arts is inherently political but politics should be at arm's length from decision making. How do we navigate censorship in small communities? We don’t have the answers, but we’re making space for these complex conversations.

Panel: Cyan Sue Lee, a Gulumerridjin (Larrakia), Wardaman and Karajarri woman and multidisciplinary artist. Born and raised on her homelands of the Darwin region, she was brought up in a highly creative and artistic family. Feras Shaheen, born in Dubai to Palestinian parents (Gaza/Al Lid), and moving to Western Sydney at age 11, Feras engages with his practice as a way to reflect and examine how he views the world, addressing local and global issues. Justine Davis lives and works on Larrakia country and has been working in peacebuilding work and conflict transformation for more than 30 years. Therese Ritchie, a practising artist, writer, portrait photographer and graphic designer.

Episode 4

What does it mean to navigate an industry not built with you in mind? 

A conversation curated by Brown's Mart Emerging Creative Producer Tahlia Biggs

This powerful panel brings together BIPOC women and queer artists to share what it means to be the first, the only, or the few in creative spaces. Speaking from the intersections of art, life, family, community, and politics, the panellists reflect on the challenges of holding multiple roles, the resilience required to keep showing up, and how identity and advocacy continually shape their work.

The conversation will explore:
🔸 How deeply identity is woven into creative practice
🔸 The demands of showing up for both community and career
🔸 The ways artists challenge and reshape existing structures
Together, the panel will ask: How can we transform the very structures we move through while making space for the next generation?

Panellists: Yvette Walker, Rachel Chisolm, Genevieve Grieves

This is a space for truth-telling, connection, and imagining new possibilities for the artists yet to come. This talk hopes to offer space for people of all backgrounds to learn more.

Thursday 11 September, 5.30 - 6.30 pm, Brown's Mart Studio
$0-$15. Free tickets are available for First Nations people who are unable to pay right now but would like to come

Tracks 2025
 

Staff: Artistic Director: David McMicken. Artistic Leadership Team: Rachael Wallis, James Mangohig, Jenelle Saunders, Alyson Evans.  Company Director: Sean Pardy. Production Manager: Duane Preston.  Dance Animateur: Kelly Beneforti (On parental leave). Administrator: Jocelyn Tribe. Bookkeeper: It Figures. Auditors: AMW Audit

Committee Members: Chairperson: Max Dewa Stretton/David Taylor. Treasurer: Glenn Bernardin. Ordinary Members: Andrea Wicking, Max Stretton, Lachlan Peattie, Rachael Wallis, Venaska Cheliah, Sarah Rennie, Claudia Lee. Ex-Officio: David McMicken, Sean Pardy