A two-week virtual Lab for Australian artists focused on shifting contexts, conditions and expanded possibilities for making participatory and site-responsive works.

In September 2020, Proximity and DADAA will partner together for the first time to facilitate a virtual lab for 10 WA and Australian-based artists.

The Proximity 2020 Lab will be facilitated by three artists, researchers, writers – Fayen d’Evie, Cassie Lynch and Madeleine Flynn, coordinated by Proximity in collaboration with DADAA. Proximity is a national artist platform known for commissioning intimate participatory experiences for audiences of one at a time.

Participating artists in the Lab include, Bruno Booth (WA), Dominique Chen (QLD), Hanna Cormick (ACT), Aviva Endean (VIC), Riana Head-Toussaint (NSW), Mei Swan Lim (WA), Justy Phillips & Margaret Woodward – A Published Event (TAS), Alec Reade (VIC) and Katie West (WA).

Read more about the Proximity Lab facilitators and artists here.

Guest Speakers: Caroline Bowditch, Claire Cunningham, Jeremy Smith, Kate Sulan, Latai Taumoepeau and Lyno Vuth.

TAUMOEPEAU

About the Lab and it’s intentions at this time

In this moment, of multiple ecological, health and social crises, the Proximity 2020 Lab creates space to think and share methodology in response to expanded notions of access and site-based participatory practice. How has our relationship to each other, to place and to audiences has shifted? What new conditions and alternatives do we want to create as we face forward?

Artists are invited to reflect on how they move through, relate to, and care for Country; how to radically open up and embed inclusive and access methodologies into their creative process, and how relationships to intimacy and proximity have altered as we start to emerge from a state of suspension.

What was originally planned to be a Lab taking place on the unceded lands of Noongar Boodjar in Fremantle, has now turned into a virtual Lab engaging artists across Australia. This shift has allowed new possibilities to think about lasting ways to design activities, embed access and equity across in-person and virtual spaces.

Proximity Lab runs from 21 September – 1 October 2020.

Proximity Lab is presented by Proximity and DADAA with support from the Department of Local Government, Sports and Cultural Industries, and the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body

Image: Bruno Booth, Hostile Infrastructure, 2019, Testing Grounds, Victoria. Photo: Keelan O’Hehir.

Are you an experienced café operator who’s passionate about community and food? DADAA is looking for Expressions of Interest for a unique opportunity to operate an inclusive cafe in a significant cultural hub.

[spacer height=”20px”]An opportunity exists for an experienced café operator to take on the lease of the fully equipped café situated within the heritage listed Old Fremantle Boys’ School.

Located in the heart of Fremantle’s rapidly developing East End, the Old Fremantle Boys’ School underwent significant refurbishment in 2019. The site is now a significant cultural facility designed around the arts access needs of Western Australian artists with disability: home to DADAA’s head office, studios, cinema and gallery, along with CircusWA and the Fremantle Foundation.

The café forms a vital part of a strategy to welcome the community into the Boys’ School, and an essential part of this vision is the establishment of an inclusive workforce, providing training and employment of people with disability.

With space for up to 20 people inside and an attractive, spacious courtyard with seating for 28 people, there is also the opportunity for the café to develop as a vibrant function and event space and enhance DADAA’s program of exhibition openings, cinema screenings and cultural partnerships.

Further Information

For more information about this opportunity and how to submit an Expression of Interest, please download the following document: Old Fremantle Boys’ School Cafe EOI 2020

Expressions of Interest close 4pm, Tuesday 29 September