This conversation series aims to bring together leading socially engaged artists, practitioners, participants, and organisations to learn, discuss and interrogate our field. Responding to both the potential of socially engaged practice and the persistent challenges it faces, such as limited funding opportunities, professional development pathways, insufficient sector recognition, and limited opportunities for critical discourse and networking, the Cad Factory sees this series as an offering to begin to build a national conversation and foster a vibrant community of practice.
Information:
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This is an online event series.
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Free to attend, but registration is required to receive the link to the online meeting.
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If you are interested but cannot attend live, please still register and a recording of the event will be sent to all ticket holders afterwards.
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Each 'In Conversation' lasts for one hour.
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There will be the opportunity to participate in the conversation, with audience Q&A time following the talks.
Dates and Times:
First Thursdays, October – December, 2026
Event 1 – Thursday 1 October, 12:00 p.m. – 1.00 p.m. EST
Register here
Event 2 – Thursday 5 November, 12:00 p.m. – 1.00 p.m. EST
Register here
Event 3 – Thursday 3 December, 12:00 p.m. – 1.00 p.m. EST
Register here
Lily Shearer
Moogahlin | Brewarrina and Sydney
Anne Loxley
Arts and Cultural Exchange | Parramatta
Vic McEwan
The Cad Factory & Sydney Conservatorium of Music | Narrandera and Sydney
Thursday 1 October 2026,
12:00 p.m. – 1.00 p.m. EST
This is an online event. Free to attend, but registration is required to receive the link to the online meeting. If you are interested but cannot attend live, please still register and a recording of the event will be sent to all ticket holders afterwards.
There will be the opportunity to participate in the conversation, with audience Q&A time following the talks.
Register here
Event 1: In Conversation with
CACD, Socially Engaged Arts, Collaborative Arts: Is Terminology Killing the Potential of this Artform?
What’s in a name? Community arts and cultural development (CACD), socially engaged arts, arts and health, collaborative art, relational art, cultural democracy, new genre public art, creative recovery, the list goes on and on. Are these labels helpful? What do they mean outside of a funding application? This session brings together three of the field’s most experienced practitioners and thinkers to see if we can move through the debates on terminology and begin to imagine new potentials for this field of art.
About the Panel
Lily Shearer is a proud citizen of the Murrwarri Republic & Ngemba Nation (north-west NSW/south-east QLD) with 40+ years experience in First Peoples Cultural Development, Arts Management and in Theatre and Performance making. Lily’s practice is deeply embedded in Cultural Values and beliefs of Murrawarri/Ngemba peoples, instilled to her by her Grandparents, Parents and community of Brewarrina where she was born and raised. As a land-based storyteller on the unceded lands of Ngemba & Gadigal peoples, Lily collaborates with communities, emerging and established artists of all genres, enabling stories for the stage, festivals, music, installation and film. Lily’s practice of enabling First Peoples leadership and ownership initiatives is at the core of all her works, including the establishment of Moogahlin Performing Arts (2007).
Anne Loxley is a curator who specialises in collaborating with artists and communities to creatively address significant issues. She is the Executive Director of the Western Sydney organisation, Arts & Cultural Exchange (ACE), that was established in 1984. ACE is committed to social justice, using creativity to reverse disadvantage and producing ground-breaking interdisciplinary, intergenerational collaborative projects co-devised with the communities.
Vic McEwan is an artist working with sound, music, photography, installation, sculpture and performance to develop a practice that is site-specific, interdisciplinary, and socially and environmentally engaged. He is the Artistic Director of The Cad Factory, an internationally recognised artist-led organisation, and Postdoctoral Research Associate in Creative Arts, Ecologies and Community at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. In 2023, he completed a multi-award-winning practice-led PhD at the University of Sydney as the first artist accepted into the Faculty of Medicine and Health. He has delivered over 100 keynote and invited presentations on the social and environmental potential of the arts.
Gay Hawkins
University of Western Sydney | Sydney
Izabella Nantsou
Sydney University | Sydney
Zohar Spatz
Creative Australia, Director Community Arts Board and Experimental Board | Sydney
Sarah McEwan (Host)
The Cad Factory | Narrandera and Sydney
Thursday 5 November 2026,
12:00 p.m. – 1.00 p.m. EST
This is an online event. Free to attend, but registration is required to receive the link to the online meeting. If you are interested but cannot attend live, please still register and a recording of the event will be sent to all ticket holders afterwards.
There will be the opportunity to participate in the conversation, with audience Q&A time following the talks.
Register here
Event 2: In Conversation with
Understanding our past to keep moving forward: the Australian government’s entanglement with community arts funding, since the 1970s
Unravelling some of the threads of the current field of socially engaged arts in Australia, this session will share important stories, insights and reflections on the origins of this practice, and ask how the sector can learn from the past to reimagine artistic practice, and its relationship with funding bodies and institutions. Acknowledging the ever-shifting nature of funding priorities, this session will also dig into the history and current understandings of community and socially engaged arts, and its place in the broader arts ecology in Australia.
About the Panel
Gay Hawkins is an Emeritus Professor at Western Sydney University and has played a key role in the development of Australian cultural studies as an interdisciplinary and philosophically informed practice of social reflection. She is recognised for research in three distinct areas: the relations between culture and governance, environmental humanities, and economic sociology, markets and materiality. In 1993 she published From Nimbin to Mardi Gras: constructing community arts, the first book to examine the emergence and impacts of 'community arts' as a field of governmental action.
Bio here - change image
Bio here - change image
Daniela Nofal
Alliance for Socially Engaged Art | European Network
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Vic McEwan
The Cad Factory & Sydney Conservatorium of Music | Narrandera and Sydney
Thursday 3 December 2026,
12:00 p.m. – 1.00 p.m. EST
This is an online event. Free to attend, but registration is required to receive the link to the online meeting. If you are interested but cannot attend live, please still register and a recording of the event will be sent to all ticket holders afterwards.
There will be the opportunity to participate in the conversation, with audience Q&A time following the talks.
Register here
Event 3: In Conversation with
Understanding the 2026 Publication Constellations of Change by the Alliance for Socially Engaged Art
Constellations of Change is a landmark report mapping 1128 organisations across 39 European countries–and recognises the broad and varied impact of the many socially engaged artists and organisations working across Europe. This report aims to strengthens the evidence base for the field, highlighting its unique role in translating global challenges into local action by harnessing creativity to bring communities together, address systemic issues and imagine more inclusive and sustainable futures.
This report will be discussed in terms of its purpose, aims, advocacy and methodology. It will be an opportunity to reflect on what Australian Socially Engaged Art can learn from this synthesis of information and practices.
About the Panel
Daniela Nofal is Programme Manager at the Alliance for Socially Engaged Arts. An experienced cultural organiser and creative producer, she’s produced and commissioned creative interventions at the intersection of art, arts education and social engagement. At the heart of her creative practice is a commitment to experimenting with forms of organising that reimagine assembly and solidarity. Daniela has collaboratively initiated several artist collectives including Sadaa Sound Syndicate and Makkam. She also co-founded and directed London’s Syrian Arts and Culture Festival (SACF).
Bio here - change image
Vic McEwan is an artist working with sound, music, photography, installation, sculpture and performance to develop a practice that is site-specific, interdisciplinary, and socially and environmentally engaged. He is the Artistic Director of The Cad Factory, an internationally recognised artist-led organisation, and Postdoctoral Research Associate in Creative Arts, Ecologies and Community at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. In 2023, he completed a multi-award-winning practice-led PhD at the University of Sydney as the first artist accepted into the Faculty of Medicine and Health. He has delivered over 100 keynote and invited presentations on the social and environmental potential of the arts.
The Cad Factory is supported by the NSW State Government through Create NSW and Minderoo Foundation.
