A clear agenda, an ability to listen, and a commitment to putting other people in the spotlight are just some of the attributes practitioners need in order to work effectively in community contexts.

These will be outlined in a new resource that aims to help practitioners, artists and cultural workers better engage with community-based projects.

Commissioned and curated by Jade Lillie as part of her Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship, ‘The Relationship is the Project’ will be both non-academic and practitioner-led, including chapters from thought-leaders across Australia’s arts, cultural and community sectors.

“From ‘CCD’ to ‘CACD’ to old-fashioned ‘community arts’, not having a shared terminology around community engaged practice means we have not had a united message, voice or set of principles for this work,” Lillie says.

Currently, very few resources are available about creative and cultural community practice that that haven’t been developed in an academic or institutional context.

As a result, the trajectory of community arts, community cultural development and community engaged practice is potentially not being captured, by ‘right now’ practitioners in a way that tells the full story of how to develop and define these important arts and cultural experiences.

“The new resource is intended to be a solid starting point for anyone who is wanting to get a range of expertise and perspectives to inform their practice in community engaged contexts. It seems simple to say that the relationship is the project but, in all honesty, it is the thing that gets lost amongst deadlines, egos, lack of experience/expertise, shame, whiteness, time, external expectations and busy lives.”

See the contributors page of this website for a full list of practitioners involved with the publication.

And watch this space for more information about The Relationship is the Project coming soon.