Utp rising student and artist, Grace Almansour, joins NAVA and Utp in co-facilitating Area Coded's Pre-Emerging Artist session, offering an introduction to the arts world via NAVA's Code of Practice, 1-2:30 pm AEDT, Friday 21 February 2025.
Graphic: Huy Nguyen, 2024
ID: Graphic featuring a vertical pastel green gradient on a white background, large black text that reads ‘Area Coded’, and smaller black text that reads ‘21st Feb, 1-2:30pm AEDT, Pre-Emerging: Grace Almansour’. ‘Area Coded’ is spelled out in small grey dots and sits enlarged behind the title text.
In this session, Grace Almansour will discuss the factors that led her to pursue a career in the arts. This session is recommended for pre-emerging artists considering or recently deciding to enter the arts, providing valuable introductory information on the landscape of the art world and identifying support available to artists.
NAVA’s Code of Practice, a critical framework of good practice for artists and arts workers, will be a point of departure for these conversations.
1-2:30pm AEDT online via Zoom webinar
Friday 21st Feb 2025
These sessions will be Auslan interpreted and live captioned. If you require any additional access requirements, please contact emma@visualarts.net.au
Photo by Hewit Ngai.
Grace Almansour is a contemporary painter/ photographer known for her vibrant, abstract works exploring human experiences and emotions. Born in Syria in 2001, Grace is now studying a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the UNSW. Her art practice focuses on the concept of the work that mostly speaks to the complexities of being a refugee. She highlights how conflicts shape us while also leaving trauma.
She exhibited at St Vincent Hospital and Bankstown Arts Centre in 2023 and has participated in different art projects within Australia. She is also participating in Utp Rising, a 4-year pedagogical program for emerging Western Sydney creatives. Grace’s work continues to be centred on the Middle Eastern political status, and experimenting with different mediums.
NAVA and Utp present ‘Area Coded’, an online knowledge sharing program led by Western Sydney artists for Western Sydney artists. The series spotlights four artists whose experiences are rooted across different stages of a creative’s journey. Together, they highlight the unique and ever evolving ways an artist’s professional life may manifest, and how this is sustained.
Across February – May 2025, we welcome you to join four online sessions spanning lessons and learnings from Pre-Emerging, Emerging, Mid-Career and Established Western Sydney artists.
Drawing from their personal paths, artist facilitators will share specific obstacles faced as artists from Western Sydney as well as the tools required to nourish an arts practice in the current context. This includes the pursuit of equitable pay, ethical working conditions and relationships, and the importance of being fortified by a supportive arts ecosystem.
NAVA’s Code of Practice, a critical framework of good practice for artists and arts workers, will be a point of departure for these conversations.
Participation is free. Register for each session to join the knowledge share.
Emma Pham
NSW Professional Development Coordinator
emma@visualarts.net.au
This project is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.
NAVA acknowledges and pays respects to the rightful custodians of the many First Nations Lands upon which this online event will be streamed and received. We recognise all Custodians of Country throughout all lands, waters and territories, and pay respect to First Nations communities' Ancestors and Elders. Sovereignty was never ceded.
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