A Pedagogical Model of Creative Enterprise: Building Communities with People, Pets and Art – The Australian Council of University Art and Design Schools

In this paper we provide an overview of the premise and methodology of The Pet Project (TPP), a model of creative pedagogical enterprise that establishes and maintains publics across regional Tasmania. TPP was established in response to Covid-19 and the negative effects the pandemic has had on individual wellbeing, social and cultural cohesion, and community participation in the arts, and the economic blows experienced by the creative sector. Using an emotionally binding theme of animal-human relationships combined with arts-based methods and semi-structured interviews, TPP’s aim is to promote fundamental sustainability imperatives in different communities where the care for, and maintenance of, relationships are at the fore of public engagement. We do this through creative and cultural strategies where diversity, lived experience and stories are celebrated; through training and skill development opportunities for emerging and established artists; and through the integration of wide-ranging industry partners and stakeholders. We have recognised that for sustainability to genuinely exist, it must first begin with people. Therefore, at TPP’s core is an aim to enhance community and individual resilience, equity, overall health, and a sense of being using creativity as a necessary mechanism in which to collectively and individually negotiate a world that is perpetually in crises.

About the author

Niklavs Rubenis

Dr. Niklavs Rubenis is Senior Lecturer in Object Design, Coordinator of Design and Coordinator of Object + Furniture, School of Creative Arts and Media—University of Tasmania. He has interests focused on craft, design, ethics, and people. He has been involved with projects spanning community, non-profit, commercial, and cultural institutions, and has had work presented and exhibited nationally and internationally. Rubenis has a trade in cabinet making, a BA Visual Art (hons) and a PhD from the Australian National University. He currently serves on the board of the World Crafts Council—Australia, and is a member of the coordinating committee for Global Climate Change Week.

Meg Keating

Dr. Meg Keating is an Associate Professor and the Head of School at the School of Creative Arts and Media—University of Tasmania. Meg is a multidisciplinary artist, crossing installation, animation, and paper cutting. Her practice explores new ways of experiencing and viewing our immediate environment especially through screen-based technologies. Her practice is an interdisciplinary synergy between creative arts and media with a particular interest in imaging the environment and surveillance studies.

Steven Carson

Dr. Steven Carson is currently Graduate Research Coordinator (Art) and Lecturer in Art, School of Creative Arts and Media—University of Tasmania. Steven’s art practice incorporates sculpture and mixed media installations, and he has also presented exhibitions using ceramics and photography. His current work explores materiality and process within the conceptual context of the everyday, specifically examining visualisations of tension and instability arising from daily life.

Andy Terhell

Andy is an Associate Lecturer in Media School of Creative Arts and Media—University of Tasmania and a passionate digital content creator interested in factual filmmaking in the fields of environment, science, adventure and sport. In 2014, while studying his Graduate Diploma in Journalism, Media & Communications at The University of Tasmania, Andy started a media production company, Crow’s Nest Media, with fellow student Fraser Johnston. In the four years that followed Andy created content for a David Attenborough documentary, an Economist film, national television networks, and web pages and communications for businesses such as CSIRO, TasPorts, Integrated Marine Observing Systems (IMOS), University of Tasmania, NESP biodiversity hub and many more. Andy also created the content for the big screen at The Hobart Hurricanes home matches from 2014–2018.