You are invited to spend a morning with The CREATE Centre at the University of Sydney, to see how we offer a bespoke approach to Research and Evaluation for Arts companies.

The CREATE Centre specialises in demonstrating the impact of the arts on education, health and wellbeing.

At our Research Showcase you can learn about our past and existing research projects and ongoing advocacy work. We’re offering this showcase as a way to consult with you and other members of the arts industry about everyone's research and evaluation needs. We’re keen to hear from you and to develop ideas for arts research projects that match your company’s ambitions.

This showcase will take place in-person at the University of Sydney, and will also be streamed online for those who are based interstate. Following the presentations and colloquium, light refreshments will be served.

10:00am - 11:00am ~ Research Showcase featuring:

Creating a space for our stories: the Regrowth Project and Applied Site-Specific Theatre

Regrowth comprises a series of drama skills workshops for young people, culminating in public performances for the communities of the South Coast of NSW. Participants learn new skills in drama and performance, they devise a play about their local area, and participants perform the devised play for and in their community. The skills development process is focussed on providing participants with the tools they need to devise a performance based on their experiences as young people.

Towards a Pedagogy of Empathy

What can Stanislavsky’s system of active analysis offer to teacher training? Through a series of improvisational and Stanislavskian exercises, this model is creating an arts-based, embodied and participatory approach to professional development, offering teachers a new and creative way of negotiating the everyday.

Personal and Community Impact of Bell Shakespeare Programs

Bell Shakespeare is a not-for-profit theatre education company with an extensive program of in-school performances and professional developments. This research documents the impact of their work in regional and remote schools. Arts processes have been shown to increase engagement, develop young people's imaginations, confidence, and emotional resilience. In Australia, access to live Arts events is strongly linked to socioeconomic factors, and there remains a chronic shortage of funding for the Arts. This project is producing a dossier of publishable research usable for advocacy to correct this, and improve support for regional outreach.

Attending theatre: The Legacies for Young People

Through a research partnership with Barking Gecko Theatre Company, this project explores children's and teachers' responses to a program of theatre performances produced by Barking Gecko Theatre Company (WA) over a three year period. Young people who attend the productions are asked to participate in workshops that identify the lasting memories, resonances, and effects of the productions the young people saw. Barking Gecko will be able to employ the results of this research for their archives and historic records, and as a means to demonstrate their impact and the community value of their work.

11:00am - 12:00pm ~ Colloquium: What do YOU need?

This is an opportunity to share ideas for future research projects with key members of the CREATE team, and learn about the ways that we can work with you to conduct research that bolsters your company’s credentials, builds an evidence base for the importance of the work that your company does, and adds weight to future grant funding applications.

12:00pm - 1:00pm ~ Light refreshments served