2022 Melbourne
The Big Anxiety Melbourne presents a growing archive of lived experience – and an array of creative media tools, programs and experiences, generated from experimental collaborative work with the aim of creating effective resources for survival and wellbeing.
A radically new kind of arts festival, in which every project is an open and continuing conversation, designed to promote curiosity, insight and action, The Big Anxiety presents arts events tackling the major anxieties of our times, as well as the practical challenges of supporting emotional distress and trauma recovery.
Whether through hi-tech interactive environments, stage performances or one-to-one dialogues, our goal is to create and showcase the rich engagements we need for our collective mental health.
The Big Anxiety comes to cultural spaces throughout Melbourne, RMIT University and venues throughout the Yarra Ranges in 2022.
Festival co-directors – Jill Bennett (UNSW) and Renata Kokanović (RMIT)
Forum Convenors – Jill Bennett, Bec Moran, Renata Kokanović, Emma Seal and Tamara Borovica. Forum program curators: Jill Bennett, Bec Moran. Executive Producer: Nigel Lavender. Organising team: Esther Perini, Xavier Hazard, Robert Prespanoski, Melissa Neidorf, and Ari Sharp. Exhibition component: Gail Kenning
RMIT Culture – Paula Toal, Ali Barker, Helen Withycombe, Helen Rayment, Else Fitzgerald, Sally Grainger, Erik North, Andrew Tetzleff, Elizabeth Marsden
Awkward conversation co-curators – Ali Barker, Else Fitzgerald, Helen Withycombe
