All Around You

All Around You is CuriousWorks’ flagship community program. It began in mid-2007 and will come to an end in mid-2010.

For the last three years we have been building a model for integrating the active – rather than passive – use of new media into the everyday life of Australia’s most disadvantaged communities.

The crew in Roebourne. We miss 'em!

The crew in Roebourne. We miss 'em!

We believe, if done properly, communities can be empowered through the use of new media to:

  • build their own, unique, robust platform to sustainably tell their own stories, as part of their already current activities and everyday lives;
  • build social cohesion, through ongoing collaboration within the community, as they develop their own creative work;
  • challenge the assumptions surrounding perceptions within and towards their community, by showcasing their work regularly, to a wide audience, online and offline;
  • build a career and/or enterprise out of their creative work, if that is what they desire.

We have been developing the model through on-the-ground collaboration with communities in Western Sydney, NSW and the Western Desert, WA. We wanted to work with two, extremely different sides of Australia in order to ensure that the model would be equally relevant to the alleyways of our urban areas and the open skies of the Australian desert.

You can read Elias’ reflection on our long-term Western Sydney partnership with Cultural Development Network, Liverpool City Council, Casula Powerhouse and Miller Technology High School here.

Watch a summary video of our time in Roebourne, remote Western Australia, funded by the Myer Foundation or catch ABC’s report on the first stage of our work in Newman, remote Western Australia, in partnership with Country Arts WA, financed by BHP Billiton Iron Ore.

In March 2010 we will be launching our online toolkit, again thanks to the partnership with Country Arts WA. This free resource will explain simply, but in great detail, the model we have built and how any one else, or any other community, can implement it themselves, towards their own, self-defined goals. The launch of the toolkit will bring All Around You to a close, but the resource will continue to be updated and discussed, as we document the ideas that emerge through our various projects and share the model with teachers, community workers and leaders across the country.