CancelledRe-imagining post-mining landscapes
Are you 14-17-years old?
Do you ever wonder what is going to happen to the big holes in the ground after coal mines close in the Hunter?
What will the landscape look like post-mining?
Do you have a creative vision for those voids?
Come along and join artist, educator, and researcher, Emma Clifton from the University of Newcastle as she guides you through a free one-day arts workshop in the PACC Makers Space these school holidays.
Participants will engage in fun and participatory arts-based activities that ask them to reflect on, express ideas, and share experiences of the Hunter’s mining landscape, particularly the final mining voids.
Using a range of mediums (from drawing to painting, photography to collage), participants will create their own vision of the Hunter’s past and present, and for its post-mining future.
The workshop is part of an ARC Discovery Project called Mining voids and just transition: reimagining post-mining landscapes [approved by the University of Newcastle’s Human Research Ethics Committee: Approval No. H-2023-0396].
Artworks and materials created during the workshop will be exhibited later in the year, at a local gallery (venue TBC) and used to build a snapshot of the young peoples’ hopes and desires for a post-mining future in the Hunter.
All participants who register will be sent a Participant Information Statement and will need to return a signed consent form with parental permission prior to the workshop.
All materials and guidance are provided.
The workshop is limited to 15 students.
This workshop is in collaboration with CYCOS as part of the SUMMER School Holiday Program.
About the project
This project aims to address the complex problem of how to deal with the long-term legacies of coal mining. Through a combination of ethnographic and arts-based methods, the project will advance insight into how local communities in the Hunter Valley, NSW, experience socio-cultural impacts of environmental disturbance and mining legacies, particularly where final voids are present. It will generate new knowledge into potentials for reimagining post-mining landscapes and how such landscapes can support a just transition towards a post-mining future. Expected benefits include advancement of public discourses around mining legacies, research capacity building and theory development to support multi-stakeholder engagement and dialogue.
About the artist
Emma Clifton is a British-Australian interdisciplinary artist, educator, and research assistant. Her work uses traditional and contemporary forms of printmaking, textiles, photo media, collage, and mixed-media techniques to critically explore human-environment relationships and the illusive ‘boundaries’ we like to create between ourselves, others, and our environment.
She has twice been a finalist in the Newcastle Emerging Artist Prize (2018, 2019) and has exhibited in both solo and group shows at Timeless Textiles, Onwards Gallery, NERAM, Art Systems Wickham, Newcastle Art Space, Gallery 139, and Watt Space. She has taught at high schools, galleries, and university for the past 7 years.
She has a deeply personal connection to mining and mine closure. Over 5 generations of her family worked underground in the coal mines of the Midlands. Emma, her family, and the broader community experienced significant trauma when the local mines abruptly closed. She hopes this project will foster greater community involvement in the vital decisions that will affect their future.
To learn more about the artist, visit emmaclifton.com.au
When (All dates cancelled)
-
Thursday, 23 January 2025 | 10:00 AM
- 03:00 PM
Location
PACC Makers Space, 198 - 202 Vincent Street, Cessnock, 2325, View Map
-32.8395969,151.355948
198 - 202 Vincent Street ,
Cessnock 2325
PACC Makers Space
198 - 202 Vincent Street ,
Cessnock 2325
Re-imagining post-mining landscapes