How the arts can help us come back together again

In this episode we bring you three stories from Australia and the UK exploring the role of art in helping people deal with the challenges life throws at them. 

We talk to Cherine Fahd, associate professor at the School of Design at the University of Technology Sydney about Being Together: Parramatta Yearbook, a photography project in a suburb of Sydney bringing people back together again as COVID-19 restrictions lift.

Angelina Hurley, PhD candidate at Griffith University in Brisbane tell us how art is used to process the trauma of colonisation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in Australia, and about the work of her father, the late artist Ron Hurley. And Kirsty Sedgman, a lecturer in theatre at the University of Bristol in England, explains why the second world war led to the birth of public funding for arts buildings in Britain – and how the Bristol Old Vic theatre became the first recipient.

And Gregory Rayko, international editor for The Conversation in Paris, France give us his recommended reading.

This episode of the The Conversation Weekly is supported by the UK/Australia Season Patrons Board, the British Council and the Australian Government as part of the UK/Australia Season, which centres on the theme Who Are We Now? The season's programme reflects on the two countries’ shared history, explores their current relationship, and imagines their future together.

This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with reporting by Rhianna Patrick and Olivia Rosenman and sound design by Eloise Stevens. You can sign up to The Conversation’s free daily email here. Full credits for this episode available here.

Further reading

• ‘Art is our voice’: why the government needs to support Indigenous arts, not just sport, in the pandemic, by Angelina Hurley, Griffith University
• Yearning for touch — a photo essay, by Cherine Fahd, University of Technology Sydney
• Arts rescue package: by all means protect Britain’s ‘jewels’ – but don’t forget the rest of the crown, by Kirsty Sedgman, University of Bristol
• Should we be alarmed by the sound of boots on the Russia-Ukraine border?, by Christine Dugoin-Clément, IAE Paris – Sorbonne Business School (in French)
• France-Algeria: the diplomatic impasse, by Luis Martinez, Sciences Po (in French)