Being Different Together

Background: In ‘Being Different Together’ Anna Hickey-Moody curated visual artworks produced by participants in the ARC funded project “Early start arts to counter radicalisation” (FT160100293). As part of the research, art works were made by 500 children in diverse communities in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide, London and Manchester. Through digital animations, textile collages, mixed media on canvas, 3D sculpture and documentary film, children explored themes of identity, heritage, faith, and belonging. This exhibition takes a social practice approach to exhibition curation, which aims to include children in their own representation. Social practice focuses on choreographing interactions between publics, participants (or audiences), social systems and artwork. Children were from Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Muslim and Jewish faiths. Contribution: This research answers the question: “What would debates about diaspora look like if we listed to diverse, religious and refugee children?” The curatorial decisions made in identifying, thematically organizing, enlarging, reframing key visual statements made by children about identity, community, religion, geographies of belonging, not only made their answers visible but suggested the significance of these responses. This exhibition presented original perspectives on children’s experiences of diaspora and contributes to social practice in Australia. Significance: Illuminate Adelaide is a major festival exploring art, light and technology. ‘Being Different Together’ was the Migration Museum’s standalone contribution for the 2021 program; it presented the perspectives of children from disadvantaged communities as part of the work. As such, the show took children’s experiences and elevated them to a level of national significance through curatorial design, gave aesthetic value to their work, and shifted children’s identity from object to subjects involved in their own representation.