Creative Flourishing

Museums are archives which preserve objects that define historical and cultural events. We visit museum exhibitions to learn about the world's present and past and to come face-to-face with artefacts that played a role in history. But what happens when these artefacts only tell part of a story, or give one demographic's perspective? How do we fill these gaps in the archive, to make museums inclusi...

During the first two decades of the twenty-first century, Australian audiences encountered Greek tragedy in mainstage theatres in domesticated adaptations more than in any other format. Medea was a popular source text, whether in Wesley Enoch's adaptation, which collides Euripides' and Seneca's material with a narrative about intergenerational cycles of violence in Indigenous Australian communitie...

Symmetry is all around us. Since the time of the ancient Greeks, from the legend of Pythagoras through to Galileo and Descartes, it has been theorised through science and embodied through music. But how are the creative arts responding to symmetry today? Can the concept help communities to flourish, enriching them through the arts whilst educating them about maths? In this episode mathematician Ar...

How do we live in an age of uncertain futures? Can we reconcile the different strategies people deploy to future-proof their lives, from the billionaires building bunkers through to prepper subcultures and sovereign citizens? And might the creative arts, if not answer these questions, provide a way into thinking through these questions, to help us live with our anxiety about humanity's future?   I...

Archie Moore's kith and kin took the 2024 Venice Biennale by storm, winning Australia its very first Golden Lion for best national participation. The exhibition, curated by Ellie Buttrose, involved Moore turning the Australia Pavilion into an immersive genealogical history, with his chalk-drawn family tree covering the walls and ceiling of the venue and documenting 65,000 years of First Nations hi...