Seen & Heard at Future/Forward

"If old paradigms are crumbling and a new vocabulary needs to be found in art; Future/Forward delivered a compelling keynote address.

Nikos Papastergiadis reminded us: 'art making is a world making activity'." Megan Walch, Artist, Tasmania.

“I'm certainly taking away the word 'cosmos'. That idea seemed to resonate in practically every session. I found it really interesting. Overall, I think this year's summit felt like an experiment and next year it could be bigger and better." Sharne Wolff, Australian lawyer, arts journalist and blogger, New South Wales.

“I see the current problems that are existing within the arts in this country, I see the challenges that we face, I see the amazing things that we can do, but then also the underpinning concerns that come into play every now and then - that seem to be unwanted. Like having a massive institutional presentation such as the Biennale [of Sydney] and then having to deal with conflicting politics of funding by association. I tried to get a moment to discuss censorship and issues of controversy with Julian [Burnside AO QC] and the suggestion was that legal due process sometimes requires an expedient management of sensitive issues; by management I mean, rapid resolution. It's the expansion of a dialogue around these resolutions and how artists manage such problems and pressures that I'm interested in. That's part of what I wanted to look at, is how are we could slow down and further these dialogues in the arts in Australia and actually encourage such discussions with artists, audience and institutions alike. " Kieran Stewart, Visual Artist & Maker, Victoria.

“I think today was the start of what could be some really robust conversations and it felt like, which I think is a good thing, that everything went really quickly. Personally, I was really inspired by Nikos' keynote. It was very intuitive and responsive to what's going on. What happens now is that the conversations continue and that's really important to facilitate a space where we can carry on with those kind of thoughts in our heads and still debate things. For me I think it was a great." Kelli McCluskey, Co-Director at pvi collective, Western Australia.

“I thoroughly enjoyed the conversations, meeting people, networking, and all the speakers." Wendy Kelly, Artist, Victoria.

“It was really good, it was well worthwhile and I think it's a fantastic exercise. I really liked the Lisa Slade and Lindy Lee session - that was fantastic. I just love Lindy's work - she's a really good artist. Great hearing her talk about it." Joanna Mendelssohn, Associate Professor, UNSW Australia | Art & Design, New South Wales.

“I thought Nikos' talk was amazing. Really informative and interesting to hear where the future of visual arts is going in terms of cross-cultural development. It's going to add more ideas in terms of travel and in terms of where I can push my art culturally and beyond the borders of Australia." Stuart McMillan, Visual Artist, South Australia.

View all of the tweets during Future/Forward with the hashtag #navasummit here.