Audiences and artists reunited and re-energised at the Abbotsford Convent

Earlier in March, our researchers Bianca and Holly were fortunate enough to attend (in-person!) the final showcase for PIVOT, an artistic residency program based in the historic Abbotsford Convent.

Designed to help Victoria’s independent artists adapt their practice to the turbulence of the pandemic, the PIVOT program brought Patternmakers on board from the outset, as its research and evaluation partner. Our role was to provide the program’s artists with evaluation opportunities and research insights they might not have access to otherwise.

Having facilitated discussions sessions around the latest audience research, created case studies about PIVOT works and surveyed artists about their experiences with the program, we joined the PIVOT team in early March for two days of artist showings, workshops and discussions.

There was a hint of irony, the Convent staff told us, to calling the program ‘pivot’ - a reclamation of something that has become a bit of a curse word in our sector.

Over the last couple of years, we’ve been doing a lot of ‘pivoting’ by necessity, rather than by choice – often under challenging circumstances.

This was something all of us at Patternmakers could relate to. It was bittersweet to be enjoying the showcase without our MD Tandi, who unable to travel with us to Melbourne after her town in Northern NSW was devastated by the recent floods.

With all that’s happening in the world right now, there was a certain poignancy to our reflections on what it means to be an artist, audience member or arts worker in a time of crisis.

Performance Night at Magdalen Laundry

A triumphant return. Collective relief. The sharing of joy.

These were some of the phrases used by PIVOT artists and audience members to describe the feeling of returning to Melbourne arts venues after continued COVID-related disruptions.

And, indeed, the five works showcased on Tuesday night in the Convent’s Magdalen Laundry were a testament to the enduring vitality of the local artistic community.

Dancer/choreographer Ryuichi Fujimara told us a personal story of resilience, reflecting on times he’d faced professional disappointments as an emerging artist. The intimate, confessional style clearly resonated with audiences, who seemed eager for more autobiographical details as they quizzed Ryuichi after the performance.

Jun Bin Lee had the crowd laughing and clapping along to three fantastic songs from his hip-hop musical, Best Cabinet Maker – a story about the Chinese immigrants in 1890s Victoria who turned to cabinet-making after the Gold Rush. Without losing its upbeat, crowd-pleasing energy, Best Cabinet Maker brought attention to the discrimination faced by the Australian-Chinese community.

Next, with audience members seated cross-legged on the floor, Kathleen Gonzales performed Sonoridad Continua PINTA DE ANTIGUA – a hypnotic hybrid performance integrating dance, song and video.

This mesmerising performance was followed by an improvisational work by dancer Tony Yap. With simple, sparse staging – a single light source shadowing Tony against the exposed brick walls of the North Laundry – audiences were encouraged to pay attention to the complex movements of the artist’s body and the visible emotion on his face. There was palpable feeling in the room as Tony appeared to dance with his shadow.

Afterwards, the Convent staff directed us into the Industrial School for Aarti Jadu’s Ciel Metallique, and made an intriguing request – that we use our phones to film and livestream the performance. With so many of us mediating our arts and cultural experiences through technology these days, it was fascinating to see this fact made explicit in Aarti’s performance. Performers filmed their collaborators with phones strapped to their chests and livestreamed this footage to Zoom – while the rest of us admired the spectacular metallic costumes, acrobatic feats and flying electric guitars through the lenses of our smartphones.

The road to recovery

The latest data from our nationwide study of arts audiences, the Audience Outlook Monitor, suggests that 6 in 10 audience members are ready to attend arts events now or as soon as permitted - while 38% will attend when the risks are minimal.

Enjoying our new freedoms while being inclusive of risk-averse and vulnerable audience members will a major challenge for the sector moving forward - and robust COVID-safety measures are likely to be part of the answer.

At the showcase, it was heartening to see audiences throw themselves head-first into arts and culture once more - while also conducting themselves with respect for the preferences and safety of others.

Our Visions for Culture research from 2020 suggests that arts and culture have a vital role to play in the pandemic recovery – include by reanimating public spaces, helping us process the pandemic, and bringing people together after being kept apart.

To this end, we were so thrilled to have seen a community brought together by such exciting, inventive and different works – to the performers, PIVOT artists and Convent staff, congratulations on an amazing program!