DAY ONE… the basic building blocks, history, thinking
- Introductions, overview
- Radical history – creative case studies and history from the last 100 years – Iain MacIntyre
- Story, myth and symbolism – Nicola Paris
- Spectacle and satire… big characters for big impact – Including a special event live #ArtAndHeart #Qanda featuring denizens of the fossil fuel industry – Coral Bleach and Twiggy Palcock – Fregmonto Stokes, Deb Hart and Ed Hill
- Holding space for change: body confidence, voice projection, how we can change the energy in spaces – Mitch Jones
- Radical art and radical politics: In discussion with one of Melbourne’s foremost street artists – reclaiming public space, art for social good, how to work with artists and creative concepts, and more – Tom Civil
DAY TWO… doing… the skills to get the creative message out there
- Best of the best – a round up of the best case studies from across the world – culture jamming, guerilla art and projection, hoaxes and actions that think outside the box – Nicola Paris
- Photography skills – from basic composition to high impact action pictures – Eliza Muirhead
- The power of film – video skillshare, discussion and insights into what makes powerful stories – Eliza Muirhead & Livia Cullen
- Designing actions and events for impact – Action logic and design, applying creative thinking – Nicola Paris
All workshops will be interactive and designed for practical application. Each session runs 9am-5pm. Morning and afternoon tea and lunch is provided. Tickets here.
SPEAKERS
Deborah Hart (AKA Coral Bleach) is an ‘activist, writer, mother’ from Melbourne. For 16 years Deborah worked in development roles with leading Australian arts and culture organisations, as funding shortages were forcing what she considered important crucibles in a healthy modern democracy to act like businesses by forming ever-closer alliances with industries. In 2006, feeling uneasy that fossil fuel corporations—or the legal and finance industries that serve them—were among the few sponsors standing in the Arts, Deborah left her profession in order to devote more time to climate activism and LIVE, a local climate group that she had earlier founded. Deborah later co-founded CLIMARTE (2010), an independent not for profit body that brings the arts community together to tackle climate change. Deborah volunteers with many not-for-profit environment groups and helped establish ClimActs (2013) to combine spectacle, humour and direct action to draw attention to the climate issue. Deborah wrote Guarding Eden to show how and why highly destructive, polluting industries that built immense wealth and influence last century are now using that power recklessly to protect their profits, and what ordinary citizens are doing in attempts to safeguard nature and humanity’s future.
Find out more about the Coal Diggers exploits here.
Ed Hill has spent 14 years working on campaigns to protect Victorian and Tasmanian native forests. Disillusioned by Tasmanian politics and dealing with activist burnout in the lead up to the 2015 Tasmanian state election, Ed wanted to do something different. He ran as an independent in the Tasmanian state election under the name “Fast Freddy” a mustachioed, gun loving, greenie hating, dig it up chop it down kind of a bloke similar in appearance to former Premier Paul Lennon.
Policies like “Kill the Tasmanian Devil” and “Death penalty for forest activists” struck an an instant chord with his constituents. As did his “visionary vision” to make all alpine environments in Tasmania duty free zones and build Australia’s highest malls. Check out the exploits of Fast freddy here.
Eliza Muirhead is an activist, scientist and communications professional working for animals, the environment and human rights. Her work has taken her around the world and has been published internationally with some of the world’s leading advocacy organisations. She holds a Bachelor in Animal Science and a Diploma in Creative Arts from The University of Melbourne and a Masters in Science Communication Natural History Filmmaking from The University of Otago. In 2011, she co-founded, Fair Projects, an organisation that offers professional quality media and communications to charities and in 2012 was named as one of The Age’s ‘Top 100 Most Influential Melbournians’ for this work. www.elizamuirhead.com
Fregmonto Stokes is a talented satirist whose popular character Twiggy Palmcock beamed into lounge rooms across the nation as his on stage efforts to join in the celebrations of the election of Tony Abbott and his “not bad looking”daughters made headline news.
Iain McIntyre is a Melbourne based writer, musician and radio broadcaster who has been involved in environmental, housing and social justice campaigns since the late 1980’s. He is the author of the How To Make Trouble and Influence People compendium of Australian creative and radical trouble-making and is the former Chief of Staff for Footy Fans Against Mass Murder.
Livia Cullen is an experienced campaigner and advocate with a background in environmental and human rights campaigns, communications and the arts. She has worked with grassroots groups such as Quit Coal and big organisations like Amnesty International and the Australian Conservation Foundation where she now works as a digital campaigner. She is the former director of the Environmental Film Festival Australia and is passionate about using the power of storytelling to create social change. She is adept in values-based messaging, framing and narrative and has worked with experts like Anat Shenkar-Osario and George Marshall. Livia has an ARTS degree with a double major in Creative Writing & Anthropology and a Masters in Media & Communications
Mitch Jones is a satirist, circus performer and known troublemaker . As Captain Ruin he’s performed on stages around the world, including hosting the Circus Big Top at Glastonbury Festival, UK. With a background in Clown and street performance (and two riot convictions), he aims to create routines that break through cultural inertia and encourage people to ridicule power. For Creative Activism he’ll be discussing theatrical performance techniques used to claim and hold space, satirical character creation and physical clown skills.
Tom Civil is a printmaker, muralist, street artist and community graphic designer. Central to Tom’s current work are the Stick Folk, who manifest themselves as diminutive sprites that live hidden in the composition of his etchings or as bold tags across walls. The Stick Folk are representations of Tom’s personal connection to the land and the city. They live, hangout, protest, dance and move across the landscape, an Aussie punk mash-up of old storybooks and contemporary political cartooning. Tom’s work has reflected notions of grief and loss, and a searching for beauty in death. 
Tom is interested in how street art, graffiti and murals create community, mark space, build a sense of place, and act as a human-scaled anarchic form of urban architecture. His street stencil work and murals have been featured in various publications including Melbourne Street Art Guide, Melbourne Stencil Art Capital, Street|Studio, Space Invaders (NGA), Street Art Now, the film Rash, the ABC TV series NotQuiteArt, as a feature artist in the Melbourne Stencil Festival 2004/05/09 and the Cans Festival in London in 2008. He has also exhibited walk-through installations and worked closely with his father Tony and his brother Ned, who died from cancer in late 2010.
Tom has given workshops and talks in different communities about murals and the political nature of street art. He has worked as a graphic designer for various community and arts projects including; independent media websites, multicultural organisations, prison radio broadcasts, environmental and social justice protests, rooming housing posters, youth arts and mental health videos. He is also the co-founder of small Melbourne-based publishers Breakdown Press.
More: tomcivil.com
Gosh this looks good, I don’t want to miss out – where do I buy tickets ASAP?