Media Releases
12 September 2016
Ngurini (Searching) Immersive Digital Projection. Photo by Jessie Boylan.
‘Nuclear’ Multi-arts Showcase at Tandanya Gallery, Adelaide
16 September to 12 November
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A must-see exhibition involving more than 50 creative artists – photographers, filmmakers, digital artists, painters, sculptors and writers – the “Nuclear” showcase presents stories of atomic survivors, highlighting the personal experience of Indigenous communities, service personnel and civilian workers who have been directly affected by atomic testing.
18 April 2016
Artist John Turpie and Anangu leaders and artists in front of ‘Tree of Life: Gift of Peace’. Photo by Jessie Boylan.
Gifting of the first Australian sculpture to Nagasaki Peace Park
Media Release
28 March 2016
Aboriginal Leaders and Artists to Gift the First Australian Sculpture to Japan’s Nagasaki Peace Park. Bridging links between Japanese and Australian atomic survivor communities.
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Released in collaboration with City of Fremantle, City of Cockburn, City of Subiaco, and Graham F. Smith Peace Foundation.
Steve Harrison, representing Yalata Community. Photo by Naomi Ebert-Smit
24 October 2015
2015 Winner of Graham F. Smith $10,000 Major Art Prize
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On Friday 23 October, 2015, community arts organisation Alphaville was announced as the 2015 winning recipient of the Graham F. Smith Peace Foundation’s $10,000 annual arts grant. The announcement was made at the Peace foundation’s yearly dinner at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, presented by His Excellency the Honourable Hieu Van Le AO, Governor of South Australia.
Also see Nuclear Futures post about the project.
Workshop participants.
7 September 2015
Australian delegates attend Global Hibakusha Workshop in Hiroshima
Global Hibakusha Workshop 2015 Press Release
From 8 –10 September, the second in a series of three international workshops for third generation hibakusha was run in Hiroshima, Japan. Attending participants were all the grandchildren of people who have experienced either nuclear attack or nuclear weapon testing. The workshop involves six participants from Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the Yalata Community of South Australia (SA).
14 July 2015
Operation Hurricane and Operation Buffalo archival film courtesy of the Trustees of the Imperial War Museum. Photo by Tania Safi
10 Minutes to Midnight
QUT, Brisbane
21 July – 7 August
Interviews and high resolution video and stills available.
Contact: info@nuclearfutures.org
26 November 2014
10 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT Press Kit
Atomic Fringe event to hit Balaklava in 2015
Two nights. Three Venues. Six decades of cover-up.
A team of leading Australian artists will bring South Australia’s chilling atomic history to life in a dynamic transmedia event premiering in Balaklava for the 2015 Adelaide Fringe Festival. Ten Minutes to Midnight audiences will experience Australia’s atomic test stories via an immersive projection installation, new digital artworks, and an exhibition of contemporary photomedia, rare archival artifacts, and footage.
Run over two days, across three venues in the South Australian town of Balaklava, the multi-arts event also includes curriculum-linked schools activities and speakers program. Public sessions are 7-9pm Friday 13th and Saturday 14th February 2015, and 4-6pm Saturday 14th February. Tickets@ www.adelaidefringe.com.au or 1300 621 255.
PRESS KIT via links below.
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28 February 2014
Creative artist team visits Balaklava
Internationally renowned playwright John Romeril, SA Director Teresa Crea and photographer Jessie Boylan will visit Balaklava during March 17th– 25th as part of a creative residency and performance project, run by Sydney-production company Alphaville.
Exploring the theme ‘What’s the story?’ the visit is part of a series of creative arts activities to be run throughout 2014 in the Wakefield region, exploring multiple art forms both conventional and new media, to tell stories and foster community development. The visit is a wonderful opportunity to meet the artists and for the artists to meet the community.
Local residents interested in story collection, storytelling, writing, photography, archiving and creative documentary-techniques are invited to participate and bring along their ideas, stories or prized objects that reflect life in the region.
Schools and community groups in the Wakefield region can register for a free workshop or tailored session to utilise the visiting team’s expertise across a range of creative practices and subject areas.
The Balaklava-based visit will include a public ‘pop-up’ arts space from March 19th, skills development opportunities and hands-on documentary-making experiences with professional artists. A photography workshop is planned for Sunday 23rd, March.
Creative facilitator Teresa Crea, states:
“Our approach is to use collaboration between artists and community members to make new art works, which could be installations, performance or or website arts”.
Crea, a highly experienced community artist who set up Doppio Teatro in South Australia, has worked on many local projects. The talented trio of Crea, photographer Jessie Boylan, who is currently in the Marshall Islands on a digital story project with an international delegation of young people, and award-winning playwright John Romeril aim to offer fun and unique experiences for participants.
During his visit, Romeril will also be working with nuclear veteran Avon Hudson and the State Library of South Australia staff on research, archiving and script development for a new Australian play. Renowned internationally for plays based on important Australian historical events, Romeril recently received the 2013 Lifetime of Achievement accolade at the Sydney Theatre Awards.
The project is jointly funded by the Australia Council for the Arts and Arts South Australia and is part of the international arts and cultural program.
Interested individuals and groups are encouraged to contact program manager Ellise Barkley, who is coordinating the project with the assistance of Wakefield Regional Council and its Youth Advisory Committee. Contact Ellise on sparkleyjive@yahoo.com.au or mobile: 0422 178 739.
24 February 2014
International youth workshop gathers to chronicle impact of
nuclear colonialism
Youth representatives from communities affected by cold war atomic testing will gather at Majuro, the capital of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, to commemorate Nuclear Survivors Day.
March 1st is the 60th anniversary of the “Castle Bravo” thermonuclear explosion which contaminated four inhabited atolls that comprise: Bikini, Enewetak, Rongelap, and Utrik. The local populations, many of whom suffered prolonged illness from their exposure to fallout, were evacuated to other atolls and have been unable to return home for decades.
Third generation ‘hibakusha’ youth from Hiroshima and Kazakhstan, representing families who directly experienced the effects of atmospheric nuclear explosions, will join their Marshallese peers in Majuro. They will assemble in the Marshall Islands to share their histories and explore different types of cultural representation using digital media and how their communities survived displacement, irradiation, illness and discrimination.
“We hope this to be the first of several, ongoing digital storytelling workshops developed from our Global Hibakusha project. We plan to expand these in scope and size over successive years”, said co-convenor, Associate Professor Mick Broderick of Murdoch University, Australia. “While the Japanese hibakusha in Hiroshima and Nagasaki remain the only people in the world directly attacked with nuclear weapons, the Marshall Islands history, along with the peoples near the former Soviet test site in Kazakhstan, share similar experiences of cold war nuclear colonialism. Aboriginal peoples in central Australia, and indigenous communities in Algeria, French Polynesia and Kiribati, and ethnic groups in north eastern China have similarly suffered from such testing.”
“We want to train these future community leaders to help them collect the histories of their families and the community so that they can continue recording, preserving and sharing these stories,” said Workshop co-convenor Associate Professor Robert Jacobs of the Hiroshima Peace Institute, Japan. “In many ways the unfolding tragedy of the Fukushima reactor meltdowns and contamination reprises the historical failure of governments from the cold war and beyond to respond to the needs of civilian populations”.
The Workshop is principally funded through the “Nuclear Futures” creative arts program. This program is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body. Australian multi-media artists Jessie Boylan and Linda Dement will help facilitate the Marshall Islands workshop. Nuclear Futures Creative Producer Paul Brown said: “This workshop is an early outcome of a three-year creative arts program responding to the atomic age and its legacy and recognizing the resilience of survivor communities”.
The Workshop runs from 28 February to 2 March 2014.
For background see: http://www.japanfocus.org/-Robert-Jacobs/3853
Media enquires can be directed to:
Robert Jacobs: jacobs@peace.hiroshima-cu.ac.jp
Mick Broderick: M.broderick@murdoch.edu.au
Paul Brown: paul.brown@unsw.edu.au