Last Day in Sydney. July 22, 2015

Well Mates…

It was a “tickety-boo” day! (which I gather means “fine” or “just great”)… I love that term.. tickety-boo… You just might start hearing me say that..

Anyway, today was the last day of the conference and I was a busy girl…

The morning talks were quite good — first by Kwong Lee Dow (former Chancellor at University of Melbourne) and then Geoff Scott of University of Western Sydney who is currently what they call a National Senior Teaching Fellow… looking into what higher education should do to shape what he refers to as a “work-ready plus” agenda.. Geoff was a very powerful speaker.. emphasizing the difference between capability and competence. and addressing his findings from interviews with more than 1800 education leaders from around the world.. His interests deal with having universities educate not only workers but political leaders and the people who will create the new sources of income and solutions to the key social, cultural, economic, and environmental challenges of the future.

Following “tea” (which they serve in between everything), it was time for my “roundtable” about my concepts for The Action Lab at UWT… About 60 people crammed into a fairly small room to hear about this idea. I presented for about 25 minutes and then ran a discussion with two activities that looked at the strengths and risks of this concept from the mindset of university and also community.. It was a good discussion.. And it was very well received, with several folks suggesting I return to help their universities think this through for them. Interesting, since I’m not really sure how much traction this concept has at UWT.

Then there was a panel of about 10 university folks, community, students, etc. who each were given 5 minutes to tell the story of one of their engagement examples. Then lunch… which they do pretty well. This was followed by another set of roundtables.. I went to one given by an art faculty member who has done some very interesting projects in the public arena.. mostly temporary ventures with students that have engaged locals .. She was very high spirited, funny, and engaging.. Brought me back to my roots as an artist thinking about ways to engage viewers and turn them into participants.

Then afternoon tea..

And the final wrap-up session.. panel of 5 (with me being one of those 5) to do a debrief on the three days.. a bit of self-congratulatory comments, but also some food for thought. I brought the perspective from across the ocean!

Bid my farewell to my new friends… came back to the hotel to pack.. and just got back from dinner at a place near The Rocks (The Rocks is a historic section of the city where the original buildings were made mostly of local sandstone. Apparently as early as the late 18th century, the area was known as being a slum.. frequented by sailors and women of the night! It was also an area known to house prisoners and their families and their descendants.. Then in the 19th century the area was the home of a local gang called Rocks Push…. By the 20th century, the old buildings of the region fell into decay.. and then the bubonic plague broke out.. and the government set out to demolish the buildings and rebuild them.. All of the buildings and wharves (The Rocks is right on the water) were inspected and many were actually demolished. More would have been demolished but the plans came to a dead stop with the outbreak of WWI… Later many buildings were demolished to build the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge.. and plans started again to demolish the remaining buildings.. but then WWII broke out and that stopped the development plans… Finally, in the 1960s the powers that be stopped and looked at the plans… .and it was decided that there should be a redevelopment plan… and create high density housing.. But then local residents organized to oppose those plans because they felt that rents would increase and the low income residents would be forced out.. They requested a “green ban”…a strike for environmental purposes… Eventually, a “people’s plan” was created but then there were protests about using non-union labor for construction (actually prisoners).. and demonstrations erupted.. And the area was ultimately transformed into a commercial area..

So today, the Rocks is pretty gentrified.. lots of boutiques, the Museum of Contemporary Art, restaurants… etc… but apparently still a lot of urban poverty and there is a government move to sell off public housing units to private owners in an effort to “improve” the area…

Anyway, I went to the Rocks and ate at a place called Sailors Thai which has a big communal table on the street level (no view)… and below is a very fancy Thai restaurant with great views since the building is on a slope and goes to the waterfront. Food good..

Now.. I’m closing off.. finishing packing and headed to bed.. Tomorrow (for me Thursday) morning, I head to the airport.. I leave on a noon flight (Thursday) and arrive at SFO at 8 am.. I like this whole idea of gaining more time..

I’ll be at the office in the afternoon (since it will be my second Thursday).. and tomorrow night I’m headed to the opening of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.

Take care.. Thanks for reading.

Fern