Ideas are the easy part

Back in June – I was reflecting on returning to work post parental leave, and more broadly, what returning to work in the art sector might look like. And amongst that – what meaningful (in every aspect) work might look like? 

I wrote:

1. How do we really slow down as arts organisations?
2. How do we push back when funders, and your sector peers are expecting output? 
3. How do we work with and reconfigure the funding cycle rhythms and the ways we demonstrate output, outcomes and reflections/learnings/failures? 
4. What is an arts organisation’s core purpose and mission? Like really, really, at its heart – what it should do, what it says it wants to do, and what it does do? And how can we really, really do that? 
5. How can we genuinely, meaningfully, invigoratingly – play outside of our known spaces? Break our own expectations? Surprise ourselves even! 
6. How can we truly get to know our audiences? Do we even really want audiences? Or do we say we want audiences, but what we really mean is we want attendance to quantify engagement and ticket sales to make income so that we can argue for our relevance? 
7. For a climate this fraught in political will and funding structure (much less dollars), how do we actually back the work we do in the sector? 

It has been 2.5 months since diving into all things Systems Leadership with Small Giants Academy. 3 Modules, 8 online sessions so far, of big concepts and deep thinking. Readings, conversations – facilitated and peer-driven; and integration exercises – homework that focuses on reflections and application to what you might be working on or thinking about in your real world. 

The biggest takeaway at this moment is all the vocabulary I am accumulating for ways I have been trying to make sense of the world, which has been thoroughly satisfying. 

Unsatisfyingly, I would like more time and headspace to dive deeper into the extended readings, the integration exercises and the relationships with the cohort. Alas, that is a me problem, not a course problem. 

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When I first decided to undertake the course, it was driven by my ideas around building Ocean Futures (working title) – 3D Ocean Farm and Artist-Led Marine Research Lab with Lichen. What I realised, and why I need more time, is because I am trying to map my learnings across everything I am working on. Here are the most tangible ones to write briefly about: 

At VicHealth – the systems change focused strategy has always been clear to me. But I can now match the work and impact to the dimensions of change, and there is renewed confidence in the work. I also feel more confident as a Board Director contributing to the conversations – to advocate for the work, and to further fuel ambition into the work, while buffering the compliance realities of governance of a statutory body. 

At NAVA – I am motivated to apply the mapping and modelling exercises to properly interrogate the Visual Arts and broader Arts and Cultural sector, and support the organisation to refine the role that it has to play. How do we be confident in the success of the organisation, because the impact of our work is seen in the success of the sector? And how do we achieve these successes when the sector is functioning in what we already constantly describe as a broken system? 

At Creative Recovery Network – it is so unfunded that it is not bound by business as usual. If so, then what are the possibilities of disrupting or transforming systems in how it works? 

For Ocean Futures – it appears to be new-ish ground if we are considering the context of art making or arts management. But the context of regenerative aquaculture, closed-loop business modelling and environmental / climate action of this ilk are entirely different playing fields for me to learn and understand. I am looking forward to the upcoming modules, exploring tangible frameworks and models to test my concepts against.  

And on and on my brains go – on all the other ideas at various stages of development in this mental filing cabinet I carry around with me. 

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Lately, I have been working with Gen and Garuwa in a project that has me immersed in all things Birraung. It has been a very clarifying project for me – for all the parts that could be within and beyond your control – right now, this project along Birrarung comes the closest to what I consider meaningful and enjoyable work. There is so much to share on this when I am ready – the project itself, the process, my own reflections etc – so more to come!

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Something tangible I did do with my questions though – is the What If project. Which I am finally ready to share publicly. And I hope that it is the container with which to hold these questions and thinking and playing. 

It is perhaps also a way for me to celebrate how much I believe that “ideas are really the easy part.” So here’s to coming up with more of them. And would love your feedback and contributions to it too!

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I am still very much in the process of joining so many dots. And I have made a quiet mental commitment to write more regularly, even if briefly, publicly on this site as I continue in the course. Again, to put some structure and motivation into my ongoing process! And really, to put some discipline into my currently rather hodge-podge “portfolio” career. 

So I’m going to wrap up here today. With no real distilled or percolated arrived thought – except a quiet reminder to keep going. 

Note: Returning to artistic practice and making work as an artist leaves me with just as many questions about the paradigms in which we practice within, but for me – art making has a vastly different relationship to livelihood / income and therefore I have vastly different yardsticks of how I view my joy, success and outcomes in this space. 

Note: It is also not lost on me that I have the privilege to consider what is meaningful work. In another life, I would have the immediate necessity to bring in income to meet our basic needs, and these reflections may not exist at all. 

Postscript: Since publishing this post, the Victorian government published the Silver Review along with its recommendations, one of which is to absorb VicHealth’s work into the Department of Health. More on that to come.