A bricklayer at a barbie held the key to turning the tragedy of asbestos into Dust, a dramatic case study in social change art
19 May 2016
Donna Jackson
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Writing and Publishing
Image from Dust, Photo: Lindy Allen
When creating political theatre, I focus on the experience of the audience going to the theatre rather than the issue. If you are instinctively a political person, as I am, the pull of the issue you want to make the world understand is seductive. But I have learned that I can communicate this more effectively by making stimulating theatre and events. I’ve had to hone my craft to be able to make something as a writer and director that will give people something they can’t get in a screen or online experience.
Dr Donna Jackson is a director, writer, teacher, consultant and arts practitioner who focuses on the area of democratic art making. She has been awarded a Fellowship from the Australia Council for the Arts and inducted onto the Victorian Honour Roll of Women. In 1991 she founded and was the artistic director of the Women’s Circus. Through performing her one-woman shows, The Baby Show and Car Maintenance Explosives and Love, Dr Jackson communicates provocative ideas. This practice and research-led way into making art democratically has been further developed by academic study. Dr Jackson completed a Master of Arts at La Trobe University on processes of making arts projects involving social change and used the production of Dust as the focus of enquiry. Her PhD, Illuminating Arts Practice: Making Large-Scale Projects beyond the Mainstream more extensively interrogated practice-led research. Through her company Hubcap Productions, she is currently the initiator and artistic director of the Art and Industry Festival which is based in the western suburbs of Melbourne. As part of this festival Jackson is collaborating with a range of artists and trades people and developing her processes of working further.
