Collaborative Research Within the University and Communities

Collaboration with communities has been adopted by several researchers of the School in various projects. This can be seen in the following works involving engagement with particular local communities and organisations, the testing of evaluation processes, ongoing investigations through practice-led research and other modes of engagement through dialogic artistic practice.

  • The project Vulnerable Bodies (Graham, Lawry) explored the possibility that the installation of interactive artworks, which related to the architecture and interior design of the Imaging Unit at the John Hunter Hospital, would significantly reduce stress levels for both staff and patients.
  • Moving the Royal: Framing the Memories (Graham, Lawry, and Watt), a partnership with Hunter New England Area Health Service, explored several modes of interaction between artist and community, in projects ranging from photography to processional performance, built upon a long consultative process with hospital staff (see Watt and Schaefer, "Not Going Quietly: the Royal on the Move Procession. Place, History, Memory and Community-based Performance" in About Performance, No. 7, 2007, Uni of Sydney: Sydney, pp. 117-132.
  • Community Cultural Development projects conducted by the Performance, Community Development and Social Change group, Watt and postgraduates (see below), in partnership with:
    • Prof John Maynard (Aboriginal Studies, University of Newcastle) - Birabahn/Threlkeld Project - Public performance following process with Brian Joyce from the Hunter Writers Center and Indigenous playwright (Ray Kelly) (Ngarrama), Lake Macquarie Art Gallery Indigenous Reference Group and the Aboriginal Consultative Committee of Lake Macquarie City Council, funded by the Council, Arts NSW and Uni Research Branch Collaborative Grant
    • Dr Kathy Mee, Human Geography, Windale project, in partnership with Hunter Writers' Centre, Dept of Housing and Bennetts Green Rotary
  • Objects and Rituals of the Kitchen, 2002, a research project initiated by Pam Sinnott and Anne Graham focussed on the ritualistic use of objects and food in the kitchen. Cataloguing the changing nature of both food and implements from colonial times to a present multicultural context
  • AusStage: Australian Performing Arts Gateway - ARC LIEF project based at Flinders, creating an online database of live performance in Australia. Consortium of 11 universities (see research funding Watt), in 2003 and again in 2007.