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The Big Anxiety Research Centre strengthens partnership with Bridging Hope Charity Foundation

Published on the 09 November 2022 by Nadia Razzhigaeva

A new significant gift from the Bridging Hope Charity Foundation (BHCF) will support the first philanthropy funded Research Fellow position at The Big Anxiety Research Centre. This position will play a pivotal role in developing innovative tools and programs to help support those dealing with mental health issues.

The newly established Big Anxiety Research Centre (BARC) builds upon the success of the Big Anxiety Festival, a pioneering arts and mental health festival, which thanks to the founding support of BHCF has been staged across multiple states. The Centre will act as a research and development hub for future Big Anxiety festivals.

Through the support of the BHCF, this new Fellowship position will broaden the Centre’s research scope and expand its reach into diverse communities across Australia and internationally. BARC will join BHCF’s International Art Therapy Alliance, leveraging on their extensive networks with cultural organisations within China, such as The Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing.

“The establishment of this new Postdoctoral Research Fellow at BARC will advance our research into arts-based support for mental health,” says Scientia Professor Jill Bennett, Director of the Big Anxiety Research Centre. “We are especially excited to be building an important international partnership with CAFA in Beijing.”

The BHCF Research Fellow will develop innovative projects with direct impacts on mental wellbeing, shared with international audiences.

“Working closely with communities and people with lived experience, we aim to create transformative projects that can bring about real change” said Professor Bennett.

“We began our significant support of UNSW’s Big Anxiety Festival in 2017.  We are delighted to continue to provide impactful support for such an innovative mental health initiative that focuses on the power of art.  It really is wonderful that we can be instrumental in improving mental well-being on a broader scale, including internationally,” said Tina Tian, Founder of BHCF.

BARC is already home to a unique, multi-disciplinary team, dedicated to transforming thinking and practice in mental health through creative collaboration and cultural innovation. The team researches lived experience through a unique combination of trauma-informed, psychosocial research and creative practice, developing the rich communications and engagement practices society needs to understand, connect with and support everyday experiences of mental health, trauma and suicidality.

Recent projects from BARC include the design of immersive media tools for managing anxiety and emotion regulation; a world first virtual reality environment for suicide prevention; augmented reality storytelling with young people in disaster zones; and community projects focused on trauma support.

Bridging Hope Charity Foundation is committed to connecting mental health with the arts to make a culturally vibrant and healthy society. The Foundation was founded by Tina Tian, a passionate philanthropist in the fields of mental health and the arts. The team at BHCF look for innovative approaches in creating culturally relevant mental health initiatives based on considered research and modern technology. Naturally, the Big Anxiety is a perfect fit for extending the BHCF’s goals and ambitions.

Further info:

To join the BARC team as a BHCF Research Fellow, head to Jobs@UNSW. Applications close on 22 November.

Feature Artist: Spotlight on Abdul Abdullah

 

Creative Precinct artist Abdul Abdullah has had an eventful few months: In the past six months he has had the opportunity to speak at the Dhaka Art Summit, show twice in Paris, once in Bangkok and across several regional spaces around Australia, as well as part of collection shows at QAGOMA in Queensland and at the Art Gallery of Western Australia in Perth.

Now there are two current projects that he is currently working on and particularly proud of: two new works that he is showing at the Art Gallery of South Australia as part of the current Biennial of Australian Art: Monster Theatres, and his upcoming solo presentation ‘Custodians’ at the Armory show in New York with Yavuz Gallery.

The 2020 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Monster Theatres

This past week saw the opening of the 30th  Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Monster Theatres at the Art Gallery of South Australia. The show, curated by Leigh Robb, featured two new works of Abdul’s; a sculptural installation titled ‘Understudy’ (2020), and a large embroidery titled ‘Breach’ (2020). “The works continue an ongoing investigation into how ‘monsters’ have been used in cinema and literature as stand-ins for broad societal anxieties, including immigration, epidemics and the environment, and how the projection of monstrosity on marginalised bodies has been used to justify suppression and ill-treatment,” explained Abdul. These projects were made with the assistance of Makeup Effects Group, Sydney, and DGTMB Studios, Yogyakarta.

The Armory Show NYC

This coming week Abdul will be opening a new solo presentation with Yavuz Gallery at the Armory Show in New York. The 12 meter painting is an extension of the ocean imagery that he presented at Art Basel Hong Kong in 2019, and at ‘Contested Territories’ at Yavuz Gallery in Sydney in the same year. In Abdul’s words: “The work Custodians uses a raging sea as metaphor for the journey we seem unwilling to take. Dark and treacherous, it roars as an obstacle between where we are and where we want to be. Whether the literal obstacle of a person crossing an ocean to seek refuge from war, or the seas swallowing our coasts, to the personal journeys we undertake every day to overcome the challenges that stand between us and our goals. As I painted it, I imagined myself standing on a shore or a boat, gripped by fear, as I consider the journey and challenge in front of me. To step forward risks everything, but to remain stagnant ensures catastrophe.”

“The scenes overlaying the seascape draw from different personal memories, perspectives and observations. Some reference very specific political and cultural moments, some are imagined, and others are a combination of both. These figures fight and fornicate in an uninhibited tableau; either the pin-balling thoughts of an unhinged artist, or depictions of our world gone mad. While we fight amongst ourselves it will be left to our children to rectify and mend the damage we leave behind.”

Recent publications

This month we will also be able to see Abdul and his work on the cover of two Australian Art publications. The WA-focused edition of Art Monthly Australasia edited by Dunja Rumandic features an image from the 2012 collaborative project, ‘The Greater Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere’ with Nathan Beard and Casey Ayres, and the March edition of Art Almanac features ‘Understudy 1’ from 2019. You can also read a recent feature in the Guardian that looks at his practice and some of his recent controversies here.

2019 Lifeline Chairman’s Lunch

On 15 August 2019, Bridging Hope Charity Foundation was proud to support Lifeline at the annual Chairman’s Lunch at Hyatt Regency Hotel in Sydney, for the third consecutive year.

Bridging Hope Charity Foundation has been actively involved with Lifeline since 2017, building a three-year partnership with the aim to develop a crisis support service for the Chinese community within Australia. The partnership was the outcome of the joint desires of our Foundation and Lifeline, to support the growth of their important crisis services to help build more resilient and suicide-safe communities.

Lifeline Chairman John Brogden AM, thanked guests and partners for their support and welcomed special guest the Hon Josh Frydenberg MP, Treasurer of Australia. For more information about Lifeline or to make a donation to this worthy cause visit lifeline.org.au

Feature Artist – Spotlight on Caroline Rothwell

Caroline Rothwell is a multidisciplinary, concept driven artist whose work explores ecology, nature, poetic and political ideology through process and form. She investigates how ideas and beliefs have shaped our contemporary world, looking at systems of human interaction relating to time, nature, history and science.

 

Caroline Rothwell

Tygers

3/6 and 1AP

Bronze and auto lacquer

48 x 130 x 23 cm, 55 x 52 x 23 cm, 56 x 90 x 22 cm

 

Resonance – a ground-breaking visual exploration of mental health issues

A contemporary response to the Cunningham Dax Collection, a historical and contemporary collection of works produced by people with a lived experience of mental health issues, opens at Contact Sheet in June 2019.

Resonance considers a range of perspectives: the individual, their mental health issues and the role of society in acknowledging and managing mental health issues, through a new exhibition of the work of artist Paul McDonald.

Resonance opens from 7 June 2019 at Contact Sheet Gallery in St Leonards.

The Dax Centre Director Charmaine Smith said, “this exhibition is a great opportunity to engage audiences in the mental health conversation and share works from the Cunningham Dax Collection to a new audience.”

“We are pleased to support the exhibition and we took the opportunity to engage artist Paul McDonald to provide a contemporary response to the collection.”

Six works from the Cunningham Dax Collection will be included in the exhibition alongside a suite of new works by McDonald, curated by Cherie McNair.  As a project initiated by The Dax Centre, it represents the first time that a contemporary artist has been invited to respond to the Collection by creating new works.

“Paul has committed his practice to exploring mental health issues and this exhibition offers an opportunity to consider the influence, legacy and commitment of Dr Eric Cunningham Dax on art therapy practice.” McNair said.

Resonance highlights works from the Cunningham Dax Collection, including works created in Victorian psychiatric hospitals between 1950-1970, alongside the new works created by McDonald after viewing the Cunningham Dax Collection.

The new works created by McDonald highlight his passion for the natural world and offer a perspective from a socially engaged artist committed to the capacity of the arts to support, change and engage with mental health.   McDonald has a particular interest in highlighting the current crisis in men’s mental health, which is a theme of his work.

Strong portraits, intimate images and fragments of the Australian landscape are a feature of McDonald’s contemporary work, shown alongside the raw, challenging works from the Cunningham Dax Collection.

resonance is a project initiated by The Dax Centre Melbourne. Curated by Cherie McNair.

Proudly supported by Bridging Hope Charity Foundation.

Congratulations to Bridging Hope Charity Foundation for being selected by Waverley Council Staff Charitable Trust for a $4,000 donation.

Congratulations to Bridging Hope Charity Foundation for being selected by Waverley Council Staff Charitable Trust for a $4,000 donation to support the Foundation’s great initiatives in arts and mental health.

The other three foundations also awarded donations were: Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Weave Youth and Communities, and Charlie Teo Foundation.

Director of Waverley Futures Peter Monks presented the awards at a staff morning tea at Waverley Council Chambers.

Feature Artist – Spotlight on Yang Yongliang

Yang Yongliang (born in 1980, Shanghai, China) grew up in Shanghai. He was trained as a pupil to traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy since early childhood, later graduated from China Academy of Art in Shanghai in 2003, majored in Visual Communication.

One of China’s rising contemporary art stars, Yongliang is a devotee of traditional landscape painting (shan shui). While retaining the traditional essence, Yongliang adapts to modernity by updating style and content. While evoking traditional ink strokes and lines, the ‘sadness and despair’ of China’s seemingly unstoppable frantic modern cities is conveyed in his man-made photo-video landscape ‘paintings’.

Yang Yongliang
Endless Streams 川流不息
4K Video
Dimensions variable

Bridging Hope Charity Foundation together with Lifeline Research Foundation hosted a community event to support World Suicide Prevention Day

On Monday 10 September 2018, Bridging Hope Charity Foundation together with Lifeline Research Foundation hosted a community event to support World Suicide Prevention Day. Held in the TWT Creative Precinct, the aim was to raise awareness, remember those lost to suicide, and unite in a commitment to prevent further deaths by suicide.

World Suicide Prevention Day encourages individuals and organisations to work together to prevent suicide and highlights the most essential ingredient for effective global suicide prevention – collaboration.

The World Health Organization estimates that over 800,000 people die by suicide each year – that’s one person every 40 seconds. In Australia latest figures telling us that 2,866 Australians took their own life in 2016.

Through the Lifeline Research Foundation, we hear many stories and we acknowledge that many members of our community have been touched by human loss – it is a powerful equalizer.

In support of Lifeline’s “Out of the Shadows” campaign, members of the community were invited to come together for an evening to hear our special guest speakers, to collectively act towards end stigma and, above all, to celebrate HOPE!

There were three special guest speakers who shared their knowledge and experience with us in the night:

Ian Farmer from Lifeline Northern Beaches Chairman, gave the welcome address and introduced the speakers.

Dr Tim Sharp, AKA ‘Dr Happy’, from The Happiness Institute on Psychology of Positivity. An internationally renowned leader in the field of Positive Psychology, he is a sought after speaker and facilitator, consultant and coach, writer and podcaster, and spokesperson. “I have 3 degrees from 10 years of formal study of psychology and, in all that time, I didn’t learn anything about happiness.” He then talked the importance of his later studies into positive psychology “It’s not just about what’s wrong with people but what’s right with people.’’.  ‘’It’s about living our best life and giving people a reason to get out of bed in the morning.

Melody Qu had been working at Beijing New Century International Children’s Hospital before moving to Australia. In China she is well known for her work in pediatric psychology and is a published author of four books. Melody is an Advisor to Bridging Hope Charity Foundation in both Sydney and Beijing. Melody talked about the importance of hope.  She said ‘’People of all nationalities and all ages need hope. But you can’t raise hope out of nothing.  You need resources, you need something concrete.”

Paul McDonald has 20 years’ experience in photography and is an experienced educator, mentor and curator. He is currently Director of Contact Sheet, an international initiative promoting excellence and innovation in photographic practice, in St Leonards Sydney (part of the TWT Creative Precinct). Paul talked about his own personal experiences and the influence they had on his photography. They continue to influence his work which is now “focused on collaboration and education – helping other people get their voices out there through art.’’

Anke Timm
Ian Farmer
Dr Tim Sharp
Paul McDonald, Contact Sheet
Melody Qu

Rare Inner-Sydney Studio Space Offered to Artists

As part of our commitment to the Arts and artists both locally and internationally, Bridging Hope Charity Foundation supports and encourages artists, organisations and institutions to take risks and extend their boundaries of their art forms and practices.

Recently, rare inner-Sydney artist studio space offered by TWT Creative Precinct. More than seventy artists and creatives are already practicing in the North Shore’s TWT Creative Precinct in fields ranging from to dance to film to music production. But for these studios, TWT was keen to invite visual artists of museum-quality output.

Artists Caroline Rothwell and Abdul Abdullah reveal below what their TWT studio space means to their practice:

Caroline Rothwell

“I was in Chippendale in a shared studio, with great people, I just had very limited space. Studios in Sydney are really difficult to find: it’s incredibly expensive and square metreage is insane.

I had never considered St Leonards or the North Shore as a studio space. It’s quite officey and it’s not your traditional grungy, industrial area. I really didn’t know what to expect. But it’s great, I am loving it. I get the train over to the studio – it is really straightforward and beautiful crossing the Harbour. I have a lot of good, clear space and it’s allowing me to expand the practice. I’ve managed to dig up old works to reconsider things, start afresh – it’s exciting. And there’s a real community of artists.

We get space and we pay our rent with artwork –most artists are art rich and cash poor, so that works really well. TWT, they get cultural capital. They’re doing some interesting things – they are creating quite a hub here. It’s a corporate area, it could probably do with a creative boost.

What is great about the studio? Space. Seriously. I’m on the ground floor and for sculpture that’s really important because I’m often lugging 20 kilo bags of plaster around. My space was an old café, so I have got good light, good access, an industrial kitchen that I use for all my casting. It’s really beautiful and light and wonderful”.

Caroline Rothwell

Abdul Abdullah

“Beforehand I was working in Birmingham Street Studios in Alexandria, a complex with 22 artists. I moved out of necessity – the lease was taken over by a new tenant and the tenant turned it into a furniture store.

Finding studios is a huge issue. In Australia, in Sydney especially, with the cost of property and the cost of rent, it’s really difficult for artists to find studios anywhere near the city. Without a studio, it’s really hard to have a practice and it’s really hard to have an ambitious practice or a practice where you can work at any type of scale. If you’re having to constantly move or if you’re uncertain of how long you can stay it can be difficult to plan ahead or plan projects. A long term interruption like that can really throw you off or out of your game.

My studio in St Leonards is fantastic: I have got floor to ceiling windows, plenty of ventilation and space. It’s really well located, a short commute from my house and I’m given as much space as I need.

At the moment I’m doing one of the largest paintings I’ve ever done in the studio. Having a secure place that I can leave my stuff and if I need to say work overseas for a month, or go away for a week, I can come back and it’s where I left it is also important. It means I can work at scale overseas and go back and forth and there’s no concern about losing the space unexpectedly.

When I was told it was St Leonards I was surprised – I have never been that way, I didn’t know what was there. But I’m really settling in. Having the specific type of artists that TWT is inviting will be a great contribution to the area”.

Abdul Abdullah

Feature Artist – Spotlight On Jonny Niesche

Jonny Niesche was born in 1972 in Sydney, Australia and lives and works in Sydney. His voile paintings and animation installations reference and intersect with art historical forms of abstraction, minimalism and the sublime. By forcing the viewer into the space of his artwork, Niesche helps us explore how see and experience space and colour.

Niesche has been included in major group shows at Artspace, Sydney; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Sydney; Gesso Artspace, Vienna; and Perth Institute of Fine Arts, to name a few. Niesche created a massive work for the facade of Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) as a feature of VIVID Sydney 2018, and his works are included in the collections of Artbank, Museum of New and Old Art (MONA), Hobart, National Gallery of Victoria as well as in leading private collections in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australia.

Jonny Niesche
Minilith (for D.J.), 2018
dye-sublimation print on polyester voile, acrylic mirror
60.5 x 40.5 x 10 cm
courtesy Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney

2018 Lifeline Chairman’s Lunch

On 30 May 2018 Bridging Hope Charity Foundation was proud to support Lifeline at the annual Chairman’s Lunch at The Westin Hotel in Sydney, for the second consecutive year.

Bridging Hope Charity Foundation is actively involved with Lifeline, and in May of last year commenced a three-year partnership with Lifeline with the aim of developing a crisis support service for the Chinese community within Australia. The partnership was the outcome of the joint desires of our Foundation and Lifeline, to support the growth of their important crisis services to help build more resilient and suicide-safe communities.

Lifeline Chairman John Brogden AM, thanked guests and partners for their support and welcomed special guests the Hon Nick Greiner AC, former Premier of New South Wales and well-known Australian journalist Mike Munro. For more information about Lifeline or to make a donation to this worthy cause visit lifeline.org.au

(To enter gallery mode, click on one of the images below).

 

 

Bridging Hope Charity Foundation and Lifeline Australia Jointly Launch the Chinese Language Lifeline Feasibility Study Report

On 23 May 2018, Bridging Hope Charity Foundation and Lifeline Australia launched the results of a study commissioned to examine the support needs of Chinese Australians, in the Chinese Garden of Friendship, Darling Harbour. The ground-breaking report aims to raise awareness of the need for services within the Chinese Australian community that address issues of mental health and wellbeing.

The report, commissioned as part of the three-year $450,000 partnership between Bridging Hope Charity Foundation and Lifeline Australia, reveals that there is a need for mental health services that cater specifically to Chinese Australians within the Greater Sydney region, reflecting this region housing the highest population density of Chinese Australians. The study highlights the broader need within the Chinese Australian community for greater mental health and wellbeing supports from social networks and other services.

These results provide a platform for the partnership between Lifeline and Bridging Hope Charity Foundation to seek better supports for Chinese Australians and raise funds for services and programs in collaboration.

Stephen Fitzpatrick, Director, Bridging Hope Charity Foundation, said: “The Chinese community in Australia is fast growing in both size and diversity. We hope that the results of this report will drive the development of culturally appropriate services that address the barriers that may prevent someone from asking for help at the point of crisis and better still, encourage them to pick up the phone before they get to that point.”

Alan Woodward, Executive Director, Lifeline Research Foundation, said: “The research is a major step forward for Lifeline in meeting the changing needs of a culturally diverse Australia. We are now sure that there is support within the community for services to reflect a Chinese cultural understanding of social norms and language skills and be confidential and anonymous as well as flexible.”

“Australia has one of the world’s highest proportions of migrants. Research has found that 10% of calls to Lifeline each year are from people who state that English is not their first language. At Lifeline, we need to make sure that everyone has equal access to the crisis support, regardless of race, religion, and cultural background.”

The research project has been a critical, strategic step towards seeking broad support for and delivering tailored crisis services for Chinese Australians. The six-month research project involved a series of components in and around Sydney including: an online survey in both English and Simplified Chinese, community engagement activities, a review of existing research on mental health needs of the Chinse Australian community, mapping existing programs and services for the Chinese Australia community, and focus group consultations. The project has received massive community support with over 2,000 valid survey results received.

The Chinese Lifeline Feasibility Study Report was inaugurally launched at the 2018 International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) Asia Pacific Conference (2-5 May 2018) in New Zealand.

To read the full report, click here.