An artist, a farmer, and a scientist walk into a bar... edited by Laura Fisher, Lucas Ihlein and Vickie Zhang (2021)
A newspaper published by the Kandos School of Cultural Adaptation - download the publication here.
The newspaper draws together 8 cross-disciplinary collaborative projects curated by KSCA. More info here. It also draws on the knowledge shared at the Groundswell Forum in Bingara in 2019.
KSCA is an artists' and writers' collective working together to explore the idea of adaptive cultural change. In 2018, nine artists embarked on a series of ambitious collaborations with farmers, scientists, Aboriginal knowledge-holders and rural innovators in regional NSW to explore how arts-informed collaborations can inspire fresh approaches to environmental challenges faced today.
Each of the projects had a unique focus: wild foods, solar energy, Aboriginal care for country, biochar, soil, humus, carbon sequestration and the adaptive journeys of farmers. The participants cross-pollinated knowledge and tools across their disciplines by hosting workshops, farm visits and talks, performances, and produced films, prototypes and architecture. The project seeded a new festival (Groundswell) in Bingara NSW. It featured in an exhibition at Artbank, was the focus of talks at Carriageworks with Kaldor Public Art, and culminated in this 56 page newspaper launched at the first ‘Fermenta’ Festival in Kandos NSW.
More info on Kandos School of Cultural Adaptation is here.
Some further links:
The KSCA newspaper is featured in
Cultural Adaptations: lessons learned evaluation report. by Fremantle, Chris; Mabon, Leslie, 2021.
The newspaper was awarded the 2021 ‘interdisciplinary collaboration’ prize at the Northern Beaches Environmental Art & Design Awards.
Laura Fisher and Alexandra Crosby, "Experiments with Arts Institutions: The Kandos School of Cultural Adaptation and Frontyard", in The Australian Art Field: Practices, Policies, Institutions, edited by Tony Bennett, Deborah Stevenson, Fred Myers, Tamara Winikoff, Routledge, 2020
Abigail Moncreiff, "'The work that art does': Kandos school of cultural adaptation", in Artlink, Vol 41, Issue 2, 2021
Laura Fisher at the launch of the KSCA newspaper at Wayout Gallery in Kandos, March 2021