Difficult Conversations: What is the role of art and creativity in a polarised society?
As part of our UK/Australia Season, Ulster University and University of Canberra, Australia, have partnered to deliver Difficult Conversations, a new project exploring how artists and academics engage the public in conversations about polarising social and political issues.
Academics, human rights activists and artists came together to discuss ongoing debates and controversial questions at Difficult Conversations, a symposium that took place between 24 and 25 March, 2022, online and in Canberra.
The conversations that emerged from that event, featuring some of our leading artists and researchers from Australia and Northern Ireland, have been captured on film and are free to view now at adifficultconversation.com by anyone, from anywhere in the world.
From conversations about colonialism and First Nations rights to gender-based violence, homophobia and racism, Difficult Conversations explores the role of art and creativity in a polarised society.
Presenters include artists and academics from Northern Ireland and Australia such as 2021 Turner Prize winners Array Collective, acclaimed artist Willie Doherty, Barkindji writer and poet Dr Paul Collis, winner of the David Uniapon Award 2016 and ACT Book of the Year 2018, and University of Canberra Chancellor Tom Calma, social justice campaigner and former ACT Australian of the Year.