View west from the Beauty Spot (photo: Hong An James Nguyen)
The arts and cultural accelerator for Western Sydney Parklands Trust launched last week. We are excited about working with artists, architects, urban planners, historians and others who are also passionate about creating arts and cultural projects that reflect the unique nature of the parklands.
Western Sydney Parklands stretches over 5,280 hectares, through three council areas (Blacktown, Fairfield and Liverpool) and for 27 kilometres.
It’s Australia’s biggest urban parkland and includes miles of open space, native bushland, picnic shelters and barbecues, playgrounds, cycling and walking tracks. You might know of some of its tenants, Raging Waters Sydney and Sydney Zoo.
City People is facilitating the 10-day accelerator that is our innovative, structured way of bringing together people with diverse expertise, over a short period of time to develop project ideas for a particular place. Our focus is on the southern parklands, Darug country and mainly bushland, from Cecil Hills to Leppington.
In late 2019, 30 people expressed an interest in working collaboratively to develop concepts for urban arts projects, public art installations, performances or place-driven activation projects in Western Sydney Parklands.
Eight participants, with diverse experiences and artistic practices, were selected:
- Marian Abboud works with western Sydney communities through activism and popular culture.
- Robyn Backen works with architectural forms, sound and digital media.
- David Capra is an artist, broadcaster and Fairfield resident who makes work for diverse spaces, with community and in the public domain.
- Anna Kuroda is a choreographer, dancer and Japanese immigrant based in Western Sydney.
- Djon Mundine is a Bunjalung man who is a renowned artist and curator and grew up in Western Sydney.
- Hong An James Nguyen is a former palliative care pharmacist who migrated to Australia as a child and grew up in Western Sydney. He now works as a film and media artist.
- Stephanie Peters is a horticulturalist and artist who lives and works in Western Sydney. She works with textiles, paper and public art.
- Shay Tobin is a Darug man who works in graphic design and photography. He is currently a student of pure mathematics.
Field trip near Shale Hills (photo: Hong An James Nguyen)
We launched the accelerator last week with two days of exploring the park and enabling the artists to get to know each other and understand their respective creative practice.
We also welcomed a number of ‘provocateurs’ who shared with us their knowledge of this place including:
- Leanne Tobin, Darug artist and cultural educator
- Paul Glass, NSW National Parks and Wildlife
- Dave Kirkland, Environment Manager, Western Sydney Parklands Trust
- Joshua French, Director of Planning at Western Sydney Parklands Trust.
The mixture of Indigenous culture, history and heritage, fauna and flora, land management planning and design provided the artists with a greater understanding of the parklands and inspiration for the concepts for arts and cultural projects they will create.
Starting next week participants will spend eight days working either individually or collaboratively to develop projects, living and working together at Western Sydney Parklands (in caravans!).
City People has led this innovative way of developing arts and culture projects over the last ten years. You can learn more about our urban innovation accelerator here and the accelerator creating ideas for Wollongong’s public spaces for the City of Wollongong here.
We will be sharing more about the arts and culture accelerator at Western Sydney Parklands in our blog.
