Book Launch Talk - Art Therapy in Australia

Dr Sheridan Linnell (Western Sydney University, Australia), Dr Andy Gilroy and Dr Jill Westwood (Goldsmiths) explore this new book and its recent launches in Australia. This open event provides insight into art therapy in Australia exploring its established and emergent histories, narratives and practices. Including how Australian approaches both reiterate and challenge the dominant discourse of art therapy. The book foregrounds the visual and is as much a performance as an account of the potential of art therapy to honour alterity, illuminate possibilities and bear witness to the intrapsychic, relational and social realms. The four co-editors Sheridan Linnell (Associate Professors, Western Sydney University, Australia), Tarquam McKenna (Professor of Indigenous Research, Institute of Koorie Education, Deakin University, Australia), Andy Gilroy (Emeritus Goldsmiths) and Jill Westwood (Goldsmiths) collaborated over a long and complex process to bring together a melee of received ideas and local developments, within the context of the deep heritage of country and for it to speak to a wider international conversation. It weaves threads from art, aesthetics, historical legacies, Indigenous perspectives, place and context to encourage further exploration. Acknowledgment is given for the place and land that has inspired this work, a respect for country, its Aboriginal custodians, its elders past and present, recognizing their strength, resilience and extraordinary capacities. This event will be of interest to art psychotherapists, trainees and others interested in the field of arts, health and social intersections