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RESOURCE 1: Watch

Socially Engaged Artists Reflect on the Artform


In 2024, the Cad Factory made a series of short 2–3-minute videos that asked past CASE Incubator alumni artists what socially engaged art is, why they make it, what are the challenges, why artists need support and what the CASE Incubator program meant to them.

 

Vic McEwan: What does socially engaged art practice mean to you?
01:52
Rhae Kendrigan: Why do we need programs to support socially engaged art?
01:53
Diane Busuttil: What did you get from participating in the Cad Factory’s CASE Incubator program?
02:19
Sunita Bala: Why do you make socially engaged art?
02:29
Sarah McEwan: What does socially engaged art practice mean to you?
01:52
Harriet Body: What are some the challenges around making socially engaged art?
01:39
We Are the Resource: Sarah Penicka-Smith
02:11
We Are the Resource: Karenza Ebejer
02:04

RESOURCE 2: Read

Face to face: Philosophy and impacts of socially engaged art with patients at the Sydney Facial Nerve Clinic, Vic McEwan


In 2023, the Cad Factory’s Artistic Director, Vic McEwan, was the first artist to receive a PhD from the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney. Within his thesis, he explored ways to think through socially engaged art practices. 

 

Read Online

RESOURCE 3: Read

Working Carefully: Trauma-informed Arts Practices, Tom Isaacs


This 2024 guide explores how artists can approach audience care, especially when exploring challenging themes. Learn more about accessibility, risk, content warnings, and trauma-informed practices in a creative context. 

You will need a NAVA membership to access this information.

 

RESOURCE 4: Learn

Mental Health First Aid course


As part of the CASE Incubator program, artists could complete an accredited Mental Health First Aid course to support their capacity to care for others. Such courses provide knowledge and skills that may be useful to have when working on socially engaged projects. 

 

RESOURCE 5: Read

Still Dancing: Spring for Seniors at the Sydney Opera House, Dance Informa Magazine


This short article reflects on the care involved in the Spring for Seniors dance program for older adults at the Sydney Opera House, led by Diane Busuttil from Creative Caring. This ongoing program has been running since 2023.

 

RESOURCE 6: Read

Towards a Philosophy of Socially Engaged Art, Editors Vic McEwan, Claire Hooker, Susan Coulson, Sarah McEwan


This publication…

 

RESOURCE 7: Learn

Community Engagement, National Association for the Visual Arts


As a resource for the sector, the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) has published a Code of Practice for Visual Arts, Craft and Design. This document sets out equitable, ethical and self-reflective standards for the professional Australian contemporary arts sector. There is a section on good practice recommendations for community engagement. 

 

RESOURCE 8: Watch

Things That Matter, Karenza Ebejer


Filmed in the aftermath of the 2022 Lismore floods, this 2025-released documentary captures intimate stories of loss, resilience, and self-discovery as community members reflect on what they saved, what they grieved, and the values revealed through crisis.

 

RESOURCE 9: Read

Painting our way to self-care: The potential of arts-based compassion-focused therapy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients, Sunita Bala


In 2017-18, the University of Rural Health, Sunita Bala and RealArtWorks. Inc undertook a pilot study to determine the value of compassion-focused therapy and its more culturally attuned approaches for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients and health workers. 

 

RESOURCE 10: Watch

Shoulder to Shoulder, The Cad Factory and The Pinnaroo Project, with contributions from And Then, Karenza Ebejer, Sarah Penicka-Smith and Tom Isaacs


The Cad Factory was invited by The Pinnaroo Project in 2023 to deliver a series of workshops and creative developments that culminated in performances and installations by local artists, community members and visiting artists.

 

RESOURCE 11: Watch

Tabulam Trail of Light and Sound, RealArtWorks. Inc 


This immersive, one-night, live art event led by Sunita Bala and RealArtWorks. Inc, with Arts North West, over 50 community members and 30 local and visiting artists, transformed this NSW village through interactive light installations, projections, soundscapes, and performances exploring “home”.

 

Tabulam Trail of Light and Sound 2024

RESOURCE 12: Read

Marking Place with Rhae Kendrigan, Nikita Vanderbyl


This exhibition review of Shul by Rhae Kendrigan at Workspace 3496 + Gallery in 2025 shares how various regional places in Victoria and New South Wales have left their mark and imprint on the artist’s practice. 

 

RESOURCE 13: Read

Together We Dance, Arts Health Network NSW and ACT


This blog post features a 2022 COVID-19 project led by Diane Busuttil from Creative Caring and FORM Dance Projects where the ‘digital place’ can be considered as a site for art making and connection.

RESOURCE 14: Read

Unrequited Love (The Great Magpesis), Sarah McEwan


This exhibition at Murray Art Museum Albury in 2023 personified ‘the creative process’ and ‘the art world’ into a being-like entity called ‘Magpesis’, pronounced mag-pie-sis. It explored Sarah McEwan's relationship to being an artist, which often feels like the Magpesis will never love her back!

 

RESOURCE 15: Read

To research socially engaged orchestral and operatic models to run projects in Australia, Sarah Penicka-Smith


This 2025 Churchill Fellowship Report saw Sarah Penicka-Smith travel to the Santa Fe Opera (USA), the Refugee Orchestra Project (USA), Barenboim-Said Fundación (Spain) and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra (Germany) to research how these organisations enact socially engaged music.

 

RESOURCE 16: Read

Face to Face: The New Normal, Vic McEwan


This exhibition at Wagga Wagga Art Gallery in 2022 was developed while in residence at the Sydney Facial Nerve Service and working on the front lines of clinical treatment with patients experiencing facial nerve paralysis and examining what impact a contemporary artist might have within the clinical environment.

 

RESOURCE 17: Case Study

Tie Together, Harriet Body


This booklet and embroidered wall hanging is based on a socially engaged making experience Harriet Body ran at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2024 for the launch of the CASE Incubator Studio. It shares the vulnerability, doubt, enthusiasm, perseverance, connection and care Harriet Body experienced while creating this work.

 

RESOURCE 18: Watch

Weaving connections through space/time, Rhae Kendrigan


Rhae Kendrigan interviews artists Ellen Clarke, Carm Hogan, Julie Briggs and Andree Cozens about their involvement in Borders, a 2022-2024 creative recovery project for communities along the Mil-Dhungala (Murray River) led by Rhae Kendrigan and Regenerative Communities.

 

Weaving connections through space/time

RESOURCE 19: Watch

More than A Fish Kill, Otis Filley Studios, National Museum of Australia, The Cad Factory


More than a Fish Kill is a short-form documentary (38 mins) exploring how artists, fisheries managers and First Nations custodians came together in the aftermath of devastating fish kills along the Barka (Darling River) in far western New South Wales. These unlikely collaborators undertook a remarkable journey, turning these devastating ecological disasters into catalysts for cultural healing and revival.

 

This film is available to rent on Ronin Films. Watch the trailer below.

More Than a Fish Kill-trailer

RESOURCE 20: Read

A Reflection on Boundaries and Care in Socially Engaged Practice, And Then


This 2026 blog post shares a reflection on And Then’s ongoing photo-storytelling project, And Then, They Were No Longer Invisible, created with residents from the aged care home, Summit Care, in Wallsend NSW.

 

Cad Factory
Sandigo NSW Australia

CASE Incubator Studio
Rosebery NSW Australia

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We are a charity, and all donations over $2 are tax deductible

Supported by

the NSW Government through Create NSW and the Minderoo Foundation

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