May opening- Artist @ Work Exhibition.

DVAA Committee Project, Woods Street Gallery, May 2011

DVAA understands that NT artists are busy people. We work hard on our art but also devote much of our energy to other employment and community roles. Most of us would like to practice full-time but this is often impractical, both financially and conceptually.

The Artist @ Work project celebrates the artist as multi-tasker, creative in the arts and in the workforce. DVAA is committed to an inclusive artistic community, honouring and supporting the diversity of creative endeavours. Contemporary art responds to the everyday, and that includes how we spend most of the day – servicing others.

For this exhibition, members of the DVAA Committee and their colleagues rose to the challenge of making their workplace a creative space. According to last year’s Australia Council report ‘What’s your other job? A census analysis of arts employment in Australia’ (Cunningham & Higgs 2010), identified 24,000 people in artist occupations but statistics don’t allow for the myriad of individual creative pursuits.

The artists participating in this exhibition include occupations such as Sarah Pirrie and Talitha Kennedy whose art practice is quantified as academic research and lecturering; CONTACT _Con-3E062B1C2AF \c \s \l Leanne Waterhouse and Siying Zhou’s artistic dedication becomes professional in visual arts organisations DVAA and 24HR Art respectively; Bill Davies, Min Wong, Stan Whiting, Simone Porrovecchio and Sue Calman support the arts in creative roles such as graphic design and print media; and Eve Rivalland and Doug Wade bring creative vision even to the public service.

We hope this is the first in a series of projects that draws awareness to creativity as an asset in the broader community.