Far Flung: Connecting Intergenerational Families

Background: Far Flung: Connecting Intergenerational Families was a research project informed by literature on relational art practices, in particular the writing of artist and academic Suzanne Lacy, author of Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public art (1995) which focuses on how artists work in direct engagement with participants and audiences to deal with contemporary social issues. Far Flung focused on creatively collaborating with new Asian immigrant families in Doncaster, Manningham, to support their sense of connection to local place, resulting in an exhibition presenting their perspective as a local transnational community. Contribution: A body of artwork was co-produced with a pilot ‘social-artists-in-residence’ team at the Manningham Art Studios. Over 10 weeks, the families worked with the creative team to gain an understanding of their relationship with local place and understand how these perspectives inform the creative process, towards building an understanding of shared perspectives experienced by the families as new immigrants. The outcome of the project was an exhibition at the Manningham Art Gallery. Significance: The project was funded by Creative Victoria’s Creative Suburbs and developed in partnership with the City of Manningham, The Chinese Museum, Chinese Social Services, Birralee Primary School and The Department of Education. The project has informed Manningham Council’s future planning of arts activities working with diverse communities. The Council produced 2 reports - Far Flung Evaluation Report and Far Flung Healthy City Strategy Report - with input from our creative team. The reports present the findings of the research project to Council and the second document focuses on how the project has fulfilled the aims of council's Healthy City strategy.