Where to from here ? Visions for Australia Supper Club

You're invited to Western Sydney Creative's Where to from Here? Visions for Australia Supper Club. Join us on 16 October at 5:00pm at the Margaret Whitlam Galleries, Western Sydney University, Parramatta South Campus.

This evening is a chance to come together and celebrate our shared love of creative cultures, it offers guests a chance to share dinner while enjoying a thought-provoking series of conversations centred around Western Sydney Creative’s current exhibition Where to from Here? Visions for Australia.

Event Details
5:00pm Drinks/nibbles and chance to view “Where to from here? Visions for Australia” exhibition (Margaret Whitlam Galleries)
5:30pm Introduction MC Margaret Hancock (seminar room)
5:35pm Welcome to Country (seminar room)
5:45pm Setting the Scene Professor Michelle Arrow (seminar room)
6:15pm Western Sydney the crucible for multicultural arts in Australia (seminar room)
6:35pm Dinner House of Welcome (opposite seminar room)
7:20pm Creative readings (Margaret Whitlam Galleries)
7:50pm Closing conversation exhibiting artists Garry Trinh, Linda Brescia, Jagath Dheerasekara and Anney Bounpraseuth with moderator Paschal Daantos Berry (seminar room)
8.30 pm: Closing remarks Professor Azadeh Dastyari (seminar room)

Where to from here? Visions for Australia asks 12 Western Sydney artists to respond the Whitlam Prime Ministerial collection, with the question where is Australia now? where are we heading? where do we see ourselves in the future?

Exhibiting artists: Anney Bounpraseuth, Linda Bresica, Travis De Vries, Jagath Dheerasekara, Mehwish Iqbal, Monica Rani Rudhar, Khaled Sabsabi, Marikit Santiago, Feras Shaheen, Chris Tobin, Garry Trinh and Justine Youssef

Curator: Margaret Hancock, Senior Curator – Western Sydney Creative

About the Exhibition

In 1972 the Whitlam Government came to power following the bold and influential advertising campaign Its Time. Launched in Blacktown, the campaign focussed heavily on the nation’s economy, healthcare, city planning, the Vietnam War and social justice. It was seen for many as a needed time for change, after 23 years of conservative Australian government.

The Whitlam Government brought about a vast range of reforms in the 1071 days it held office between December 5, 1972 and November 11, 1975. In its first year alone, it passed 203 bills - more legislation than any other federal government had passed in a single year. This year marks 50 years since Governor General Sir John Kerr removed Whitlam as Prime Minister, the first and only time this has ever happened in Australian history.

The dismissal was seen as an "assault on democracy” and shocked the country. As Emeritus Professor Jenny Hocking author of The Palace Letters: The Queen, the governor-general, and the plot to dismiss Gough Whitlam notes “The Dismissal to this day is the most vivid demonstration of a Constitutional crisis in our nation’s history.”

One cannot help but wonder what Australia may have become if the Whitlam Government remained in power.

Exhibition developed and produced by Western Sydney Creative with support from The Whitlam Institute. Associated public programs produced by Western Sydney Creative, The School of Humanities and Communication Arts, Writing and Society Research Centre, Institute for Culture and Society.