What makes an artist combine their passion for environmental action with their creative practice? What motivates a playwright or director to make bold statements through their art that get people to notice and think deeper about the changing world around us? How can artists raise awareness for issues and causes through their art and impact both hearts and minds?

Our panel of leading creatives will discuss:

- their own work and practice
- how they fuse their drive for change with their art
- their experiences using creative practice to make positive change and how you can embed sustainability into your own practice
- their knowledge of trends and changes in the industry to support a more sustainable future.

These artists know that art can make an impact and can make a difference. Come and hear how this June!

Facilitated by Bondi Pavilion Artistic Director, Chris Bendall, the panel will include playwright Noëlle Janaczewska (End of Winter); performance maker Henrietta Baird (Plant a Promise); Chris Mercer (Theatre Green Book Australia); Joshua Thomson (Legs On The Wall).

About the Panellists

Henrietta Baird
Choreographer and performer Henrietta Baird is a Kuku Yalanji woman from Far North Queensland and a 2005 graduate from NAISDA. Henrietta is exploring opportunities to use dance and installation as a choreographic tool to create a socially engaged project on the subject of climate change. Henrietta performed in many productions across Australia, including Vicki Van Hout’s Stolen, which toured NSW. Her script The Weekend was one of 6 finalists selected for the Yellamundie Festival. Henrietta performed in Divercity which toured Dance Massive (2017), Yirrimboi Festival (2017), Spirit Festival (2018) and showcased at APAM (2018). She received the inaugural First Nations fellowship at Carriageworks and her participatory dance work and installation, Plant a Promise is a response to the 2019/2020 bushfires in Australia, encouraging audiences to look after Country.

Noëlle Janaczewska
Noëlle Janaczewska is a playwright, poet and essayist. Much of her work deals with history’s gaps and silences, focusing on people, plants, creatures and events which have been overlooked or marginalised in official records. Noëlle’s work has been produced, broadcast and published throughout Australia and overseas, and in 2014 she received a prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize from Yale University for her body of work as a dramatist. Closer to home her plays have won the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award Mrs Petrov’s Shoe, the Playbox-Asialink Playwriting Competition and the Griffin Playwriting Award Songket. The recipient of 7 AWGIE Awards (3 for radio nonfiction works and 4 for drama) and a University of Queensland Creative Fellowship (2012/2013), recent productions include: End of Winter (Siren Theatre Company) which toured nationally in 2023 and won the Adelaide Fringe Festival Sustainability Award earlier this year.

Chris Mercer
Chris is Head of Program and Place at the National Film and Sound Archive and Co-Founder of Theatre Green Book Australia with Grace Nye-Butler. Chris is working at the forefront of environmental sustainability in the creative and cultural sector, leading innovation and conversation across Australia. Creating and collaborating on resources to innovate and educate the industry towards a greener future. Chris’s passion is integrating and communicating environmental sustainability in the creative, arts and cultural sector. His key focus is in exploring the sectors role to create safe and brave spaces to gather, educate and inspire action on climate change.

Joshua Thomson
Joshua is a celebrated and Helpmann-award winning director, maker and performer, with particular skills and passion for physical and aerial performance. Artistic Director of Legs on the Wall since 2018, Recent works include Thaw, which sees a performer suspended atop a 2.7 tonne ice sculpture, suspended from a crane over water and Beetle, an instant Australian classic, which reminds younger audiences that there’s an important place in the world for all of us.