Creative Care: Socially Engaged, Collaborative and Inclusive Practice in Contemporary Art

Practices of care, collaboration and feminism are embedded in the working methodology of multidisciplinary artist, curator and educator Dr Catherine Bell. Through a discussion of two, yearlong artist residencies at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and a ten-year collaborative relationship with Arts Project Australia artist Cathy Staughton, Bell will posit collaboration as a feminist mode of production and activist strategy to promote death literacy, socially-engaged practices and the inclusion and visibility of neurodiverse artists.

Dr Catherine Bell is a multidisciplinary artist and Associate Professor (Visual Arts), Australian Catholic University. Bell’s recent practice-led research focuses on feminist interventions within the archive and implementing communal creativity with diverse communities to promote healthy discussion and meaningful reflection on death and body disposal. Bell has exhibited widely in Australia and internationally since 1993. Selected group exhibitions include: One Foot on the Ground, One Foot in the Water, La Trobe Art Institute, Bendigo (2021 and touring nationally 2022–23); New Woman, Museum of Brisbane (2019); In the Bird’s Mouth, Bow Arts, London (2018); Craftivism, Shepparton Art Museum (2019–20, touring regionally); Knowing Me Knowing You, Arts Project Australia, Melbourne (2014); Backflip: Feminism and Humour in Contemporary Art, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne (2013); and Selectively Revealed, an Asialink touring show (2012). Bell curated the NETS touring exhibition FEM-aFFINITY (2020-21), pairing seven intergenerational women artists from supported studio Arts Project Australia with seven contemporary artists from wider Victoria. She is represented by Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, and is a current Gertrude Contemporary Studio Resident (2020–23).