Three of WA’s leading thinkers come together to discuss the future of the arts and the environment.

Self-confessed “hope merchant”, Peter Newman, brings a broad perspective from decades as Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University, and from his work for the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Dr Renee Newman is a lecturer and researcher at WAAPA, an actor, director and producer with a thread of commentary on sustainability, excess and waste. Together with Professor Newman she has founded a Leadership in Sustainability course at Curtin.

Oron Catts is an artist, researcher, designer and curator. He has co-founded SymbioticA which uses biological science to critique the cultural and ethical issues of life manipulation.

Together with host Meri Fatin they discuss eco-dramaturgy and how the arts can challenge people to rethink their perceptions around art practice, science, ethics and the future. But is the role of the arts just to make people feel bad? Or can we enlist artists to be great dreamers – to dream the world we need? Tune in to find out whether hope is problematic as an obstacle for realistic foresight. And whether artists can also be solutionists?

• Author and poet Ben Okri called for a “new art” to shock people into action in a recent article in The Guardian.
• The “Leadership in Sustainability” course is being run by Dr Newman at Curtin University Sustainability Policy (CUSP) Institute 
• Oron Catts is co-founder of SymbioticA, the Centre of Excellence in Biological Arts at the University of Western Australia
• Kimberley-based artist Sam Newman produced a massive canvas map harpooning “Col’s canal”, a proposal for a 3700km waterway from Kimberley to Perth that former premier Colin Barnett infamously took to the 2005 State election.
• Katie Mitchell’s production of “Lungs”, about a couple wrestling with the environmental impact of having a baby, was powered entirely – sound and lights — by its two protagonists on stationary bikes.
• The Blue Room Theatre became the first arts organisation in Western Australia to become carbon neutral in 2019
•  European Commission’s Joint Research Centre has a program to engage art and science with policy.
• Seesaw Magazine investigates further in the feature article “Let’s talk about the future: Can the arts help save the planet?”

This podcast was recorded at RTRFM studio in August 2022. It was...

Meri Fatin raises these questions and more in this conversation with psychologist Dr Shona Erskine and Dr Christina Davies, director of the Centre for Arts, Mental Health and Wellbeing WA.

Together they tackle one of the most complex issues facing the arts sector, and debate how to change community perception of the arts from a luxury to an essential item.

• A community survey for the report The Art of Being Mentally Healthy, found that people who engaged in the arts for two hours a week reported better mental health than those who didn’t.
• Good Arts Good Mental Health is developing a message that will encourage engagement in the arts for our mental wellbeing.
• Read more in Seesaw Magazine's in depth article on the arts and health and wellbeing.

This podcast was recorded at RTRFM studio in September 2022. It was produced by Seesaw Magazine in partnership with the Chamber of Arts and Culture WA with the support of Lotterywest.

In this third and final episode in the “Lets talk about the future” series, Meri Fatin hosts a conversation bristling with optimism and laughter as industry experts discuss the beginning of a new journey for arts and tourism, and how the two sectors can coordinate efforts to share strategies and open the curtain into each other’s worlds.

Joining the conversation is former journalist Di Bain, the Deputy Lord Mayor of City Perth and Chair of Tourism Western Australia, designer and director Mark Howett who is the Director of Place management for Arts and Culture Trust, and visual artist and urban designer Helen Curtis, the founder and director of creative consultancy Apparatus.

Together they talk about the new Tourism WA marketing campaign, whether we might have seen the end of cultural cringe for Western Australians, how there is only one Boorloo and much more.

• The new Tourism WA campaign Walking on a Dream features First Nations dancers Rika Hamaguchi and Ian Wilkes
• Mark Howett is Director of Place management at the Arts and Culture Trust
• Helen Curtis is the founder and director of creative consultancy Apparatus
• Boorna Waanginy (The Trees Speak) illuminated Kings Park in a magical immersion of sights and sounds for the 2017 Perth International Arts Festival (now Perth Festival), returning in 2019 and drawing more than 200,000 visitors.
• The State and Federal Governments recently pledged $104 million to build a world-class Aboriginal cultural centre.
• Seesaw Magazine investigates further in the feature article "Let's talk about the future: Making the tourism dream a reality".

This podcast was recorded 7 September 2022 at the RTRFM studio. It was produced by Seesaw Magazine in partnership with the Chamber of Arts and Culture WA with the support of Lotterywest.