Onions Talk: Change making through social engagement

5ever Books is an underground publishing house that publishes punchy, intense and interdisciplinary work, woven together by a shared transformational kaupapa. They recognise the collective necessity of actively infiltrating and affecting their playground and home. In this episode, we talk about activism, empowerment, community and publishing. https://5everbooks.bigcartel.com/ This podcast season is supported by Singapore National Art Council.

Debbie Fish is a set designer, installation artist and performer, and co-director of GoldFish Creative. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from Victoria University and a Graduate Diploma in Economics from Massey University. Her theatre, performance, and set design background feeds into her practice as an installation artist, unfolding the enduring drama of social and biological life and the often-messy collisions between the two. Fish is an alumnus of the Keelung National Museum of Marine Science and Technology International Environmental Art Residency in Taiwan (2017), for which she made a site-specific artwork connecting marine science and contemporary art. Her work is also included in several public and private collections, including the Arts House Trust. In this episode we talk about: Ways of being creative with getting income for the arts and not being afraid to ask for money Intention of the art and its relevance in time of crises The intricacies of working cross sector as an artist Bringing out quieter voices in economics Being a translator in between spaces and introducing the artistic process of creative inquiry and interrogation https://www.goldfishcreative.co.nz/ @debbiefish_art References in episode: 13:22 - East Coast Exchange [https://eastcoastexchange.toha.nz/] 24:10 - Report: Arts Funding, Value & Tech [https://www.goldfishcreative.co.nz/resources] Also referred to:Daniel Kahneman, Thinking Fast & Slow - [https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/11468377] Kate Raworth, Doughnut Economics - [https://www.kateraworth.com/] Ecological Economics - [https://www.isecoeco.org/] Christiana Figuerez & Krista Tippet, Ecological Hope & Spiritual Revolution - [https://onbeing.org/programs/christiana-figueres-ecological-hope-and-spiritual-evolution/] Donella Meadows, Systems Thinking - [https://donellameadows.org/] Deirdre Kent - Healthy Money, Healthy Planet - [https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/4505519] B-Corps - [https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/] ArtsPay - [https://artspay.com/] Max Haiven - Art After Money, Money After Art - [https://maxhaiven.com/aammaa/#INTRO]

Everybody Cool Lives Here produces art that reflects and celebrates Aotearoa’s unique and diverse identity. They connect artists and groups and empower them to create dialogue within the wider community by bringing the marginalised to the middle and supporting those at the fringes to drive conversations. In this episode, Jacob, Nic and Rose talk about creating inclusive spaces and communities through aroha (love) and vibes. This episode dives deep into deprogramming intelligence and value, shifting preconceived conceptions, creating inclusivity and decolonisation work.  https://everybodycoolliveshere.com This podcast season is supported by Singapore National Art Council.

Jacqui Moyes is the creative director of Home Ground, a collaborative creativity and wellbeing initiative for women in the justice system. Home Ground creates space for women to pause, nurture hope, activate social change and create better lives for themselves and future generations. On a Home Ground project, artists (inside and outside of prison) make creative works using dance, performance, photography, writing, painting and music to address the issues women and whānau face in the justice system. In this episode, we talk about: - Making it work when traversing between the justice system, arts and community spaces - Different financial models that could support art projects in the justice system like Homeground - The impact of Home ground Learn more: https://www.homegroundnz.com This podcast season is supported by Singapore National Art Council.

Jo Randerson is the founder and artistic director of Barbarian Productions, a Wellington-based theatre production company. The Barbarians are driven by their belief in radical fun, courageous expression, fluidity, generosity and participation. They make works that are fun, interactive and often chaotic... but good, fun chaos. Jo also played an essential role in revitalising Vogelmorn Bowling Club into a community space with a bar, a café, a ginger beer brewery, and a toy library. In this episode, we deep dive into the state of the arts (literally) in Aotearoa and what we think the arts infrastructure needs to build up post covid. We also talk about the skills needed to make magic happen as socially engaged artists, often engaging different stakeholders in government, civil society, the arts, private sectors and more. https://www.barbarian.co.nz This podcast season is supported by Singapore National Art Council.

In this episode, Su-Lin Ngiam, Executive Director of ArtsWok Collaborative shares her journey of setting up a socially engaged art intermediary in Singapore. Some of the topics we covered include: Starting a socially engaged art intermediary in Singapore Crossing sectors, building projects: Working with the healthcare sector and the importance of supportive funding Opening up taboo topics through the arts Finding the right partners and convincing stakeholders Building in research into your process and program proposal What are some of the challenges and what kinds of structural changes could make it easier to do community-engaged work? Changing social frameworks and making career opportunities in the social arts sector accessible for youths Setting up funding that celebrates and honours collaboration Cross sector collaboration creates innovation; how to go about it Impact of cross sector projects Website: https://artswok.org Support ArtsWok: https://www.giving.sg/artswok_collaborative_limited End-of-life in the Malay-Muslim Community Research Report: https://artswok.org/library/end-of-life-malay-muslim-community/

Samantha Scott is the founder of Massive Theatre Company based in New Zealand. Their work comes from real stories, reflecting the rich diversity of Aotearoa. Through access to free workshops and ongoing mentoring/training, emerging artists are able to become a part of the company from age fourteen and stay with them throughout their professional career. Massive is a pathway, a whānau and a way to create excellent theatre. In this episode, we talked about the recent flood in Auckland, the Massive Company’s Kaupapa (way of being) and finding yours, questioning our way of life in an environmental crisis, How to find sustenance? Where are you most effective and sustained? https://www.massivecompany.co.nz

Leila Hoballah is an entrepreneur, a community builder, a facilitator, an activist and a coach. She co-founded makesense.org in 2010 (left the organisation in 2018), thence led a collaborative action-research program, Boundless Roots, that looked at the conditions needed for radically transforming ways of living. In this episode, we talked about approaching climate action from a holistic systems view. Leila shared the signals picked up in their Boundless Roots report - key points of actions they identified that could create systems change: Youths Trauma Power Capacity building and burnout Arts and narrative Links to check out: makesense.org Boundless root report: https://boundless-roots.springly.org/page/1401491-our-report Get in touch with Leila @leila.hoballah@gmail.com

Chantal Stormsong Chagnon is an indigenous Cree Métis singer, drummer, artist, storyteller, actor, educator, workshop facilitator, social justice advocate and activist with roots in Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, Saskatchewan (situated in Canada). She creates opportunities for cooperation, education, and empowerment everywhere she can. This episode dives deep into what it means to respect and care for nature and animals through the lens of indigenous culture. It explores how the arts could inspire mindset shift and behaviour change towards a more symbiotic relationship with our natural ecosystem. Listen to the full episode and be blown away by Chantal's incredible voice!

Ra’z Salvarita is a cross-disciplinary creative artivist who was born on the island province of Negros in the Philippines. His creative endeavors reflect the convergence of the three pillars he primarily works with: Creative Healing Expressions, Sustainable Sacred Ecology, and Practical, Mindful Spirit Vitality. Ra’z moved to his mother’s hometown during the pandemic and started working with the women farm workers on the island. Climate change is felt by the locals yearly as typhoons hit the island frequently. In this episode, he shares about his climate project with his local community and the impact that his art project has had on the community and the municipality. Find out more about R’az’s work: https://razsalvarita.com

Lynn Yau is the CEO of The Absolutely Fabulous Theatre Connection, which also stands for also stands for Arts For Transformative Educational Change. She shares her decades of experience working at the intersection of art and education. Key points: Changing the education system of Hong Kong through the arts Against the modernist paradigm: mass manufacturing model in education Understanding the context well to find income Innovative impact metrics beyond numbers Changing the narrative from “funder” to “strategic partner” who is involved in building the project Learn more about AFTEC: https://www.aftec.hk

Chetnaa Mehrotra is an applied arts practitioner and the founder of Rangbhumi. The company’s vision is to spread joyousness, power of expression, compassion & a sense of equivalence among people through Applied Theatre Based facilitation. The organisation works in the area of Applied Theatre with children, youth and adults. Chetnaa also uses arts-based learning to explore areas such as leadership, communication and conflict management with corporate clients. In this episode we address: Applying arts in corporate settings Theatre of the oppressed and playback theatre to address intergenerational and cultural gaps Forum theatre in addressing challenges of motherhood returning to corporate work Playback theatre with corporate lawyers addressing diversity and inclusion Pioneering applied arts in India Working with vulnerability We end off this episode with an 8 minute womb meditation. Listen to the end to experience it with us! https://www.rangbhumi.org. https://www.facebook.com/Rangbhumi-A-happy-playground-228754897494110/

Raïsa Mirza is an interdisciplinary socially engaged practitioner with international work experience all over the world - including Bangladesh, Canada, Ethiopia, Japan, Malawi and the Philippines. She works and lives in emerging economies driving social innovation work in challenging contexts within a diversity of sectors. Raïsa has worked on many SDG goals including conservation, agriculture, water and sanitation. She is an expert facilitator in the human centered design process to lead strategic planning, change management and innovation cycles across organizations, including within remote teams and with national governments. In this episode, we chat about How socially engaged art can play an important role in driving SDG goals through creativity, storytelling and community engagement. Finding opportunities beyond the arts to collaborate with and how to build projects The power of trust, relationships and social capital. Competencies needed for building cross sector projects. Imagination as a currency. Check out Raïsa’s website: https://www.wabisabijetty.com

This was a project between Seppure and artist Ng Sze Min. Seppure is a chemical filtration company whose technology allows industrial filtration processes to happen at room temperature, essentially cutting the energy traditionally required for such processes by up to 90%. Currently industrial filtration processes take up 15% of the world's energy consumption.  Tune in to understand the challenges in such cross sector projects.  Find out more at: https://www.insepconnect.com/sustenarts

This episode is part 2 of our #Sustenarts series featuring biotech company TeOra (Rishita Changede and Yasaman Tavakoli) as well as artist Wendy Zhang. Tune in to hear about how microbes, algae, bacteria and yeast can protect our ecosystem and save our world. For more images of algae painting and this project’s social media engagement posts, check out @sociallyengagedpractices on instagram or go to INSEP’s website: https://www.insepconnect.com Learn more about TeOra: https://www.teoralife.com

Sustenarts is a program by INSEP that brings together sustainable enterprises and socially engaged arts to create projects that can scale climate solutions. One of the projects is Insect Protein Pals, led by artist Fié Neo, alongside Asia Insect Farm Solutions and SLICE to explore ways to increase the adoption of cricket powder through participatory arts. Tune in to hear Aaron, Yuvanesh and Fié talk about their social media Shang Chi transformation, cooking with boomers, Christmas cook off and more.    http://aifs.asia https://audacity.world/slice/ insepconnect.com Instagram: @feeyeh_neo @sociallyengagedpractices  Sustenarts website

Marco started his change making journey as a counsellor in Hong Kong. Since then he’s worked in non profit, social enterprise, policy influencing advocacy and social innovation community and capacity building. Key points in this episode: What are the gaps in the Asian changemaking ecosystem? How could transnational exchanges and learning build better social support? How do we develop alternatives and open more doors for the communities we serve? Where are the programmes that build capacity of an entrepreneur like mental resiliency? How much space do we allow a young person to have an experimental mindset? Marco co-founded Beyond Vision Projects, a social enterprise promoting worldwide accessible and inclusive art and culture for the visually-impaired. He was also engaged in managing innovation challenges (Good Seed) under a HKSAR government initiative (SIE Fund), early-stage innovation/ideation at University level, participatory social design and knowledge exchange across cities (i.e. 5% Design Action). Marco currently works as Asia Lead- Partnerships, Capacity Building and Development at Social Innovation Exchange. Feel free to connect with him on Linkedin.

Zsolt Bugarszki is the founder of SEIP Social Entrepreneurship Incubation Program and associate professor at Talliin University. Key points from this episode: Social hackathons: implementing speedy tech processes on social problems Bridging social solutions and business Moving beyong dependence on governments Convincing the Estonian Ministry to include social entreprenuership in their national strategy How to join the Social Entrepreneurship Incubation Program The power of ecosystems in speeding and scaling change Strengthening support for changemakers www.seincubation.com info@seincubation.com

Rachel Uwa is the founder of The School of Machines, Making & Make Believe, which provides one-of-a-kind hands-on learning experiences in the areas of art, technology, design, and human connection. Centred around the philosophy of lifelong learning, they are on a mission to nurture critically-minded individuals to be more deeply engaged with their surroundings and with themselves.  Tune in to hear how tech and human connection come together in Rachel’s work!  Check them out: http://schoolofma.org/  Key points in part 2:  Our ideal worlds  Drones to human experience - beyond borders and politics  Cereal party, daddy issues and more exciting classes at School of MA  We all have the capacity to care and act - activism as care - we can all do something  Support Onions Talk on Patreon: https://patreon.com/fieneo? Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtu.be/P_2qiPObBec

Moving to Germany and starting The School of MA  A moment for Afghanistan  Processing the traumas of the world  Holding space for human connection and intimacy in our work  Getting students to think about who they are, what they care about and how to put it into the work they are doing  Learning to be whole together, through creativity and technology Rachel Uwa is the founder of The School of Machines, Making & Make Believe, which provides one-of-a-kind hands-on learning experiences in the areas of art, technology, design, and human connection. Centred around the philosophy of lifelong learning, they are on a mission to nurture critically-minded individuals to be more deeply engaged with their surroundings and with themselves.  Tune in to hear how tech and human connection come together in Rachel’s work!   Check them out: http://schoolofma.org/ Support Onions Talk on Patreon: https://patreon.com/fieneo? Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtu.be/P_2qiPObBec