Pop-Up Reflections: Our Brisbane Community Art Space
Over the Easter break we held a 5-day pop-up exhibition and community art space for the Meanjin/Brisbane community to explore using art and creative communication tools to co-create a peaceful and sustainable world; and what a week it was! In partnership with the Peacecard Project, the Brisbane community was invited to draw, build paint, write, and create what their dream futures looked like, and also to reflect on the past.
The Peacecard Project is a community art initiative co-founded by sisters and Brisbane-based artists, Erika and Bree Menezes. The Peacecard Project strives to facilitate community connectedness and meaningful discussions around peace via art workshops and installations. The Peacecard Project was born after its founder, Erika, attended the Peace Summit for Emerging Community Leaders at the United Nation’s Asia-Pacific headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand, merging her love of creativity, community and social change.
Its current campaign, Postcards to Peace, asks participants to creatively respond on postcards to the question: ‘What does peace look like to you?” On the back of each postcard, participants write messages to Peace, showcasing a variety of individual perspectives of what peace means, looks like, and symbolises to different members of the community.
The feedback we got from participants was overwhelmingly positive. Using activities that were creative and engaging was a great way to draw people in to our movement, who might not typically be receptive to more traditional types of activism or advocacy. As the world becomes increasingly connected, it is more important than ever to think about global issues. However, it can be difficult for people to wrap their head around complex topics like climate change or income inequality. This is where art and creativity can come in handy. By looking at global issues through a different lens, we can gain a new perspective and see things in a new light. Through art and creativity, it can help us to understand and empathise with local or global challenges, and this can lead to more informed and thoughtful decision-making on a global scale.
From an organisational perspective, aside from learning that “running a pop-up store is definitely more laborious and time consuming than I ever imagined,” our founder Tiyana J says that “Creating for Change was a way for us to experiment whether or not the community is receptive to the idea of taking a more creative approach to social change, and drawing people in to think critically about different issues through creative action. We found that yes, creativity is a great way for us to reach a wider audience of potential change-makers, and help them understand the role they can play in the social change ecosystem, and this is he direction that we have decided we will be taking Changemaker Co.”
As our funding partner Changemaker Co. grows, we are evolving the brand beyond sustainable fashion, into a lifestyle brand that promotes creative and sustainable living. In the coming months, Changemaker Co. will launch a range of free eco-creative projects and how-to guides, for individuals, schools, and community groups alike to start thinking critically and creatively about tackling local and global challenges.
