The Senate of the Government of Artists is sitting – and the debate is fierce.
The 2019 Next Wave Festival theme was ‘A government of artists’.
For the 2019 Next Wave Lab, Esther Anatolitis facilitated an advocacy workshop challenging that year’s artist cohort to adopt the persona of Australian senators negotiating arts policy.
At the disused council chambers in the Brunswick Town Hall, Esther led a dynamic hypothetical event empowering artists to advocate as lawmakers. The tools at hand: Parliament. Industry. The media. Lobbyists. Think tanks. Artists. For one day, artists shifted their thinking from compositional and experimental modes to those of transaction and expedience, working fast to secure outcomes of questionable permanence.
