Casting off the cultural strait-jacket: art and multiculturalism today
Date and time
Location
MPavillion
Queen Victoria Gardens St Kilda Road Melbourne AustraliaDescription
Is the spirit of multiculturalism still alive in Australia today? Is it relevant? And who decides what it means, anyway? Join us for a lively panel discussion featuring voices from the arts, the social sector and academia: Nikos Papastergiadis, director of the Research Unit in Public Cultures; Frank Panucci, executive director of grants at the Australia Council; Moya McFadzean, senior curator of migration and cultural diversity in the humanities department at Museum Victoria; Nur Shkembi, Muslim artist and curator; Nicholas Tsoutas, independent curator and writer; and Ghassan Hage, Lebanese-Australian academic. Discussing the role of the arts in challenging subscribed conversations about multiculturalism, the panel will attempt to unpack exactly who shapes our cultural diversity discourse.
Hold on to your pew once the dust settles: the hour-long conversation will wind down (or up) with drinks, canapes, and the psychedelic garage-pop sounds of Empat Lima.
Organized by
Dr. Timothy Laurie is a Lecturer in Cultual Studies at the University of Melbourne, and researches popular music, gender and sexuality studies, and cultural theory. Dr Rimi Khan is a Research Fellow in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. Her current research focuses on cultural policies and cultural diversity, specifically how arts programs negotiate cultural difference in the context of neoliberal policy agendas.