Research
The Academy of the Arts promotes and advances research in the creative arts through innovative programs and projects that build on the values of CDU.
We support postgraduate research at PhD and Master’s level. Our staff engage in creative practice as research and regularly present their work in public forums and spaces.
Discipline areas of interest include:
- visual arts and design
- music and performance
- storytelling and creative writing
- film and screen media
- creative and cultural leadership
- art education or the pedagogy of creativity.
There is a current interest from a group of lecturers in researching the intersections between the arts, the environment and well-being, with a particular focus on creative responses to the climate crisis.
If you would like to share or collaborate with us in relation to research, scholarship, publication and/or creative practice, please contact us through the emails below.
Email: artsacademy@cdu.edu.au
Postgraduate enquiries: FAShdr@cdu.edu.au
The Academy of the Arts connects and collaborates with CDU’s Centre for Creative Futures.
Current research projects
Art, Environment and Wellbeing (a Rainmaker Funded Research Project)
This project aims to bring together artists and environmental specialists who work towards raising awareness and improving well-being in the natural world.
The project hopes to extend knowledge about communicating creatively about environments in the north of Australia, collating what has been done and what may be possible, initially with diverse students in the university domain. The project builds on expertise within the arts and social science areas and on an established SSAF project titled 'Art, Nature and well-being’.
The project will bring art/nature experts to participate and run workshops in September 2023 for an international and national audience through the 10th World Conference on Ecological Restoration in Darwin, 26-30 September 2023.
Participants will explore how, by including arts in an ecological restoration project, they can build greater community awareness of their work in either the arts or the sciences.
Given the current environmental concerns linked to climate change and biodiversity depletion, it is urgent to develop a greater understanding and help create change in the perception of personal and social responsibility. The creative arts have a strong role in communicating ideas about the natural world beyond written words, moving into the visual and auditory dimensions. Researchers across different areas are starting to recognise the importance of this role, as is apparent in the inclusion of creative art content in the SER conference and collaborations between the sciences and the arts in many institutions.
The real-world impact of this project will be seen from the extended collaborations with international groups and links between the Academy of the Arts and international groups interested in exploring similar themes. This will build more long-term opportunities to grow capacities to link the arts and sciences through environmental explorations in the arts.
Lead investigator: Dr Birut Zemits