Change Media Highlights 2021-2001

Testimonials

Melinda Rankin, Artistic Director, Fabrik Arts Lobethal

“Jen and Carl have an incredibly broad creative practice, based in extensive theoretical research, practical skills and a visceral sense of social justice. As a gallery director I have experienced Change Media’s practice as an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on years developing techniques and expertise in documentary making, sculpture, construction, cartooning and poetry. Woven throughout these skills is an intensely collaborative mindset that has seen them connect with a broad range of community members.

Exhibitions presented with Jen and Carl’s involvement during my time at the Murray Bridge Regional Gallery and at Fabrik Arts + Heritage had clearly evolved from long-term and meaningful collaborative and consultative relationships with First Nations artists and leaders. The results were powerful and complex projects, incorporating innovative and engaging displays and interventions that gave voice to unheard, uncomfortable and compelling narratives. I highly recommend Change Media and _this breath is not mine to keep for this award.”

Blythe Chandler, Executive Director, Nexus Arts

“Jen Lyons-Reid and Carl Kuddell are outstanding candidates for the Ruby Awards. Change Media’s contribution to the Australian and South Australian arts ecology spans 30 years of consistent practice. Their work has served to expose and explore some of the most critical socio-cultural topics of this period, and in doing so has not only furthered national dialogue, but has contributed to making genuine change, brought about through art. 

I have been fortunate to know Jen and Carl since 2002. Most recently, I was involved in supporting them to deliver the multi-site, multi-modal exhibition _this breath is not mine to keep at Nexus Arts Gallery in 2020. While onsite visitation was significantly impact by a South Australian lockdown, this work reached an online audience of nearly 1000, making it one of the most successful exhibitions hosted on our COVID-inspired virtual gallery.”

Leah Grace, Arts & Culture, Alexandrina Council

This Breath is Not Mine to Keep is one of the exhibitions that helps Goolwa’s Signal Point Gallery keep a reputation for engaging artistic programming. Visitors enjoyed interactions with the variety of media. The army of Terracotta Worriers were of particular interest. The poets who had responded to the last Change Media exhibitions were particularly pleased to see their work incorporated.

Gaelle Mellis - Artistic Director, Tutti Arts, Disability Screen Strategy Executive, SA Film Corporation, 2020 National Arts + Disability Award recipient

“Jen and Carl are directors, filmmakers, web + game designers, cartoonists, visual artists, feminists, educators and extraordinary CACD leaders, and I have of course been a long-time admirer of their work. Their exploration of multi-disciplinary ways of addressing social justice and human rights issues is truly inspirational.

I had the opportunity to work more closely with Jen and Carl in 2018-2019 when they produced the award-winning hybrid documentary The Loop. They ‘got’ disability unlike many other non-disabled artists I have worked with previously. They have the most impressive ability to truly empower others around them. The influence they have had on the individuals and organisations they have worked with along with their passion for social justice is unmatched. Jen and Carl are role models and truth be told I want to be them! I am truly a fan girl! - I can think of no other artists more deserving of the Ruby Awards.”

Paul Tanner – Arabana man, participant, Aboriginal community dance group Dusty Feet Mob

“I highly recommend Change Media for the Ruby Awards. An essential make-up of their work is the strong support they and their team developed with our communities in Port Augusta. They take seriously the role of passing creative knowledge and storytelling skills on to the younger generations in inspiring and respectful ways. Dusty Feet Mob – This Story’s True is a testament to their abilities as community arts facilitators and a powerful expression of the old and the new: Young people are not just "the leaders of tomorrow", they are leaders of today. Change Media has provided opportunities for our young people to learn about themselves and develop digital media and leadership skills for life, while also honouring the legacy of Uncle Archie Roach.”

Louise Dunn – Executive Director, ACE Open, ex-Nexus Arts

“I am supporting Change Media’s nominations for the Ruby Awards, because their decades of experimental CACD work respectfully delivers spectacular art and innovative practice. Jen Lyons-Reid and Carl Kuddell truly are national leaders in provocative CACD and critical literacy.

As a hands-on impact producers Jen and Carl have facilitated over 500 workshops and worked with over 10,000 participants, to create social justice projects in collaboration with hundreds of diverse communities. Their experimental CACD practice combines skills in TV, multi-media and experimental art with their unique, radical pedagogy of self-determination.

I have followed Change Media’s community art practice for years and was honored to work with them in my capacity as CEO for Nexus Arts. As an arts worker it is refreshing to be challenged to consider how I negotiate power and privilege across my own work. Jen and Carl’s rigour as innovators, to playfully pose difficult questions, is rare and needed, especially in times of uncertainty and fear.

They have impressed me with their consistent risk-taking. Each Change Media project pushes the boundaries of CACD, while being grounded in the needs, desires and skills of each specific community. I believe this is how they instil such confidence in their workshop participants and why so many of their SA community projects have won awards and screened widely.

They have supported hundreds of emerging artists from diverse backgrounds to explore careers in the arts. Change Media’s projects build on decades of multi-lateral trust building, and a lived cultural exchange that enables communities to redress injustice and support self-determination.”

Alex Kelly - independent artist + filmmaker, 2007 Kirk Robson Award recipient

“I have known Jen and Carl for over 20 years, meeting when they were developing the refugee documentary Holiday Camp in 2001. As artist who practice at the intersection of art/ activism/ social justice and change I feel at once like I have many peers who use these terms, and a small few who live and breathe them in their practice - particularly over time. Jen and Carl are two of these artists who walk the talk. Their practice is precisely that - a practice. Engaged in deep reflection, challenging themselves and their peers, Change Media’s work is always at the most important edge of the critical conversations we need to be having about health, safety, race, power and connection. Whether it be through film or theatre, games or installations, Jen and Carl push every form and pull apart every preconception they, their collaborators and audiences might have. Their humour and warmth, determination and the powerful quality of art work that they create are so deeply worthy of celebration and accolades. I am cheering them on for their nominations for recognition from the Ruby Awards.”

Wallace McKitrick - Senior Policy + Program Officer, Indigenous Culture Branch, Ministry for the Arts, Australian Government 2004-14; Senior Policy Adviser, ATSIC; recipient of 1987 Ros Bower Award (then named Peter Hicks)

“Representing a federal funding agency concerned with cultural initiatives of Indigenous communities, I had regular contact with Jen and Carl in their various project roles with Tallstoreez Productionz and Change Media during the decade to 2015. I also had to assess the success of projects according to participants, community leaders and my agency’s criteria. Since then we have continued to discuss innovative community cultural development work they have been pursuing. I offer the following brief observations, though I’d happily enlarge on them if asked.

Jen and Carl are powerhouses of imagination, enthusiasm and dedication to principle, which they wed with well-researched and often ingenious practical methodologies. All their developmental work has been outstanding in terms of artistry, originality, strategic vision, technical skills and collaborative relationships. They have a profound understanding of educational and community development philosophy in community-based cross-cultural work. Indeed they are innovators in this regard. Their understanding generates techniques which are inherently democratic and flexible, and which swiftly build the confidence and initiative of participants. Projects are anchored in a joint vision – for example, with appropriate Elders and project participants. The focus is always on eliciting participants’ own knowledge and skills as a means to their artistic growth and maturity. Moreover, as philosophers of community development Jen and Carl have made a unique and well-documented contribution to Australian critique, theory and practice.

I have used a number of superlatives in this testimonial. They are warranted. During my 15 years’ acquaintance with Change Media, I have been deeply impressed by Jen and Carl’s big picture thinking, their commitment to artistic standards and community benefits, their people-focused methodology, their adaptability, energy and ethics. Without hesitation, I support Change Media’s nominations for the Ruby Awards.”

David Sudmalis – Director, Arts Tasmania, Acting Director, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery

“I have known and admired the work of Change Media for over 15 years, a small outfit with big, deep national impact. I have seen the uncompromising work of Jen and Carl change lives – uncompromising in that it does not baulk from asking and unpacking the real issues: those entrenched ones that are so much a fabric of the dominant culture that they are rendered almost invisible by their ignorant acceptance. This means the conversations are difficult and confronting, but they bravely deliver lasting change and impact to communities. They have not only the courage to prosecute a vision of genuine cultural egalitarianism and self-determination, but to realise it in communities where frictions about identity and opportunity are never far from the surface. This is immense and impressive.

They embody the passionate commitment of Ros Bower herself in championing artists and communities to explore new ways of seeing themselves through the arts, through a process of enriching cultural democracy. I cannot imagine individuals more deserving of recognition than Jen and Carl. Typically, their work obscures their own egos (appropriate given the frameworks and contexts within which they operate) and their public recognition is now overdue. What would so many communities be like without the work of Change Media? CACD practice in Australia owes quite a debt to Jen and Carl and I recommend them without reservation to you.”

Veronica Pardo, CEO, Arts Access Victoria

What Privilege? stems from a process of deep consideration of the needs of and benefits to the partner organisations and their communities. Arts Access Victoria has identified a need to further develop its capacity to build solidarity and co-operation within the arts sector, in order to facilitate a more inclusive and egalitarian artistic community.

Working with Change Media, we saw opportunities to invest in the development of tailored universal access resources that can affect change in the communities in which we work. In reciprocity, we offered Change Media our expertise in universal access, so that together we can develop resources that have the potential to impact on the greatest number of participants. During testing the What Privilege cards and resulting group dynamic games, in-house as project assessment and with Arts, Health and Disability sector CEOs, we already saw amazing engagement and strong interest in intersectional engagement through the arts.

Peta Johnston, Arts & Culture, City of Victor Harbor

The presentation of '_this breath is not mine to keep' by Change Media offered the local Victor Harbor community and Coral Street Art Space audiences a unique experience and perspective. The works presented invited audiences to reflect on their own belief systems, prejudices and place in our ever changing world. The inclusion of poetry in this program was a highlight for our local poets and added a diversity to our programming that was needed. The serendipitous timing of this exhibition, in light of COVID-19 and the recent fires, meant the conversations the works inspired amongst our volunteers and visitors were particularly relevant.

Clyde Rigney Jnr, Ngarrindjeri artist

“I’ve had the privilege to work with Change Media since 2008, acknowledging their commitment to our Elders since the Hindmarsh Bridge protests in the 90s. Jen and Carl worked hand in hand with Ngarrindjeri governance bodies and communities to set up media hubs and train across our country. Devising arts and media strategies with our Elders, they worked to our needs to ensure we retain control of our stories and how Ngarrindjeri are presented to the world. Over the decades they have listened deeply, it is rare and inspiring to have a peer relationship like this. They explore how to engage everyone in discussions on our shared responsibility for this country, to come to terms with our past and develop a liveable future together. Reflecting on the impact her work has had on our community, and the unprecedented success we have achieved with Change Media, the Ngarrindjeri Nation couldn’t have asked for a better partnership. I wholeheartedly support their nominations for the Ruby Awards.”

Sandra, Jimmy and Lorcan Hopper – Lorcan is an artist, performer and director living with Down Syndrome)

“It is not often that you meet creatives such as Change Media’s Jen Lyons-Reid and Carl Kuddell. Their exceptional ability for lateral thinking opens a portal to expression through many mediums empowering anyone who has the good fortune to work with them. Their years and expertise in filmmaking and storytelling, delivered with openness and warmth, made it possible for a fellow creative and emerging director/film maker, our son in this case, Lorcan James Hopper, to realise his dream of bringing to the screen his version of a Soap Opera.  Jen and Carl immediately set to work within minutes of meeting Lorcan, who has Down Syndrome, and putting his ideas to a cartoon storyboard, listening and sketching as he responded to their creative provocations.  The result is the award-winning short film The Loop, featured in the Adelaide Film Festival and film festivals worldwide.

We feel honored to support the nomination of Change Media for the Ruby Awards for Community Arts and Cultural Development.  They work selflessly across the community giving voice and raising awareness with wisdom and expertise, and deliver, enriching the lives of many.”

Beth Neate – Head of Production and Development, SA Film Corporation, former ABC Producer

“I am writing in full support of Jen Lyons-Reid and Carl Kuddell’s nomination for the Ruby Awards, as deserving, innovative and generous community arts and cultural development pioneers. Their company, Change Media, has been at the vanguard of critical interrogations of storytelling and community development. As artistic directors, artists, filmmakers, creators and collaborators, they have advocated for the empowerment and elevation of marginalised voices as intrinsic to authentic storytelling; long before such issues were central to Australian arts and cultural discourse. Their project, Directing the Hero Within, created through Change Media in 2004, was the first in Australia to use media production as a community engagement tool.

Through Ms Lyons-Reid’s role as a presenter and Australia Council CACD Fellow, Change Media’s philosophies and methodologies have provoked critical evaluation of community media production and directly impacted successive participatory media models right across Australia. Through a diversity of forms and approaches, Change Media’s multidisciplinary arts practice has given agency to hundreds of communities to tell their own stories on their own terms, and has provided direct mentoring, upskilling and career pathways for new storytellers to launch their own artistic careers and endeavours. Eternally modest and one to stay behind the scenes, their brilliance lays in their prodigious capacity to elicit the singular potential inherent in every person and every story.”

Cedric Varcoe, Ngarrindjeri artist and collaborator since 2017

“Working with Jen and Carl over the last 5 years has changed my life. They have encouraged me to experiment with new ways to create, to paint, to tell our stories, and now my work has been on ABC and SBS.

Before working on Contested Space, the concrete mask installation with Jen and Carl, I never spoke publicly about losing both my older brothers to death in custody. This work had a huge impact on me as an artist, on my career, my family and my community. I fully support Jen for this award.”

Edwin Kemp Attrill – participant, Creative Director, Replay Creative, 2018 Kirk Robson Award recipient

“Jen and Carl are brilliant thinkers, empathetic humans and an asset to Australia’s CACD sectors. I had the pleasure of working with Change Media on ‘What Privilege?’ with ActNow Theatre. Their body of work incorporating social practice, game theory, community engagement and film (and much more), is an impressive testament to their multidisciplinary skill set.

Jen and Carl have an extraordinary combination of intelligence, courage and compassion. They approach their work with intellectual rigour and a willingness to engage with truly radical ideas, while being rooted in the welfare of people around them and the development of self-determination of communities. This complimentary approach deserves to be celebrated and encouraged in the CACD sector. Change Media is truly deserving of this award.”

Ben Brooker - participant, theatre maker, ActNow Theatre

“Having worked internationally in the Community Arts and Cultural Development field for more than thirty years, Jen Lyons-Reid and Carl Kuddell have established themselves as outstanding CACD practitioners in Australia. In their role as Artistic Director and Creative Producers of Change Media, a leading community- and interdisciplinary-focused arts organisation, they have created an outstanding body of playful and provocative projects addressing issues of privilege and systemic inequality.

While an Associate Artist with ActNow Theatre, South Australia’s preeminent CACD arts organisation, I was fortunate to participate and collaborate in a talk and workshops based on Change Media’s card game What Privilege? Challenging, entertaining, and eye-opening, the experience convinced me of their unique and powerful approach to CACD practice as a tool for unsettling assumptions about power and building solidarity across diverse groups. This approach was not just evident in the game’s development and presentation, but also in the collaborative processes established in our joint ways of working. 

I have no hesitation in recommending Change Media as a worthy recipient of the Ruby Awards.” 

Kon Karapanagiotidis OAM, Asylum Seeker Resource Centre

“The ASRC had the pleasure of working with Jen in 2013 on two projects, Light in Winter and Media Training. Both projects were a huge success, mainly in centering the voices of people seeking asylum and refugees. Change Media offered invaluable support to our organisation by training our members, in creative media skills, donating equipment and setting up a media production hub at ASRC.

If it wasn't for the critical work of Jen, important voices wouldn't have been heard or felt empowered to speak their truth. 8 years later, we still talk about and reflect on the projects for the power, agency and impact on the lives of refugees''.

Jenny Penton, Griffith University, Brisbane

My first interaction with the Change Media and the prototype Typology of Harm cards was at the Spectres of Evaluation conference at Footscray Community Arts Centre in February 2014. I participated in a workshop with Change Media where the prototype cards were introduced and we played several of the game scenarios using the cards and embodying the various archetypes.

I immediately responded really well to the idea of the cards and could foresee a number of applications that they would have in my work, particularly in the area of student training. Having gone into the idea of ‘harm’ within my PhD, I found it fascinating to be presented with a tool whereby the harmful agendas and attitudes within this field could be fully examined. Working in community settings presents a series of complex challenges and many practitioners and arts managers are not given the time or resources to fully examine their agendas and approaches to this work. I believe there is a real capacity within the field for harmful practice to occur, which can be mitigated by developing awareness and insight into these behaviours. The Typology of Harm Cards, by presenting the archetypes for harmful behaviour in the field, have a great deal of potential to develop the awareness and insight that community arts workers require if a culture of best – and ethical – practice is to be achieved.

The artwork of the cards is delightful, and creates an excellent balance between the serious meaning of the tool, and the playful nature in which it can be used. I also like the fact that the cards are divided into the five groups. This recognises that harm can come from many different directions within a project and potentially extends the dialogues beyond those working with arts to those working in community organisations, charities or public sector services who may be receiving or hosting such projects. I think that the spread of the archetypes reflects a wide range of realistic behaviours.

I do believe that game play scenarios are important for developing arts workers’ capacity to react constructively to harmful behaviours. By asking the practitioners to develop non-harmful strategies to mitigate these power dynamics (or vice versa), the framework becomes significantly different to the previous scenario.

I also think the potential for using these cards as a form of ‘courage training’ and assisting arts workers to cope with abuse of power or bullying scenarios is really powerful. The cards can offer a safe way to ‘rehearse’ these conditions and practise various approaches. Above all, this work has the potential to create a dialogue about harm that is largely missing from the field of practice and presents arts workers with a much needed framework through which to build an awareness of these archetypes and strategies to manage and negotiate these within their work.For me, these cards present an excellent opportunity for practitioners to examine the risks in their own practice and project delivery in community settings, and to build a culture of ethical practice. I believe there is also enormous potential to develop more advanced and dynamic role play scenarios so that the archetypes can be fully experienced and the effect of the behaviours can be felt by the users. This type of activity can link the intellectual understanding of the archetypes, with the embodied and sensory experience.