Fellowship…… what happens when you need to explain what you actually did

16 November 2014

I am ready to write and share what I learnt on my Australia Council Fellowship 2013-2014. This will not be in sequence. I will not always be able to reference people's names due to confidentiality. I will have changed some of my ideas already since finishing this first year and I hope to keep changing my ideas into the future. Some of this material will be explored after the actual finishing date as there was not enough time to squeeze in some follow up interviews.

I want to sincerely thank everyone who I met, talked with and will continue to talk with. 

This was one of the best things that ever happened to me and my arts practice.

Tuesday 1 July 2014

Tomorrow I start a new job and as part of this new job i will not be able to continue into the second year of this fellowship. Therefore I find myself with the peculiar challenge of condensing my learnings from the first year (which was intensified across about 9 months). 

I agreed that during my  fellowship i would keep a regular blog. I did write regularly but this was mostly on paper in situ, on a train, plane or bench somewhere. This writing was not for public consumption, and it was rough and sloppy and not at all formulated for a reader other than me. 

Well I am back now and tomorrow I start this new job. I spent the first three months exploring desk top research, then I attended and presented master classes and at conferences and talked with Australian practitioners. Then the major focus for the first year was a three month stint away from work. I went on the road for three months, two months over the seas and one month on home soil - although home is a strange concept currently – as we have been moving locations either nightly, weekly or fortnightly now for months.

One of my major challenges while I was away was my ability to think clearly, focus on what I was learning as I was learning it and document it via writing -  which I felt comfortable enough to share with my colleagues and friends. This was an impossible task. I was learning so much at such a rapid rate combined with complex living circumstances, we (my partner, 1 year old child and I) moved from city to city (13 cities in 8 weeks), babies get sick in foreign countries (3 emergency +  5 regular medical incidents), venues, festivals, organisations, artists, shows, exhibitions, statues, food, street theatre, fashion, galleries, museums, people, castles, planes, apartments, books, websites and markets.

So I decided that rather than trying to reflect and write while on the road I would commit to that unraveling, unfolding and clarifying process once I got home. Anyway now is that time. If you would like to join this reflective conversation please do, its more interesting talking to people, rather than yourself… right?