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With One BIG Voice 2012 – Tickets on Sale!!

October 2, 2012

You’re sitting in the dark.

There isn’t a sound to be heard until the pitter-patter of rain begins.

Lights flash before your eyes, and that gentle pitter-patter turns into a deep, thunderous rumble. The lights continue to flash and your eyes dart left to right, madly trying to find the source of that rumble.

Those brief flashes of light slowly turn into one continuous glow, and as your eyes begin to focus, the voices stream from across the room and come together as one, singing the opening lines of Toto’s Africa…You may need to see it to believe it.

Suddenly you hurtle back down to earth, safe from the thunder inside the Melbourne Town Hall and gaze at the 400 singers before you.

When was the last time you stopped to listen to someone’s story? Join us at Creativity Australia’s annual With One BIG Voice concert and be inspired by the uplifting voices of over 400 people, the emotional stories and timeless songs from our 14 With One Voice choirs from Melbourne and Sydney. Listen as the choir members tell their stories – proving that there is always far, far more to any person than what meets the eye.

Need more? Click here to read more about last years concert, and have a look at our video gallery and photo gallery!

When: Sunday December 2nd
Time: 3.30 – 6.00pm
Where: Melbourne Town Hall, 90/120 Swanston Street Melbourne 3000

Click here to get your tickets today!

Download the Press Release here.

CREATIVE INNOVATION 2012 Asia Pacific Gala Dinner

September 10, 2012

Deakin Staff and Students Celebrate Launch!

September 5, 2012

In partnership with Deakin University, we proudly launched Deakin Sings on August 27th with over 90 staff and students in attendance!

Enthusiastically led by conductor Adrian Portell, the group quickly found themselves establishing new friendships and connections – you can see by the photos and video that a great time was had by all.

We’re looking forward to seeing the choir grow – perhaps a staff/student sing-off is on the cards!

Deakin Sings is open to all Deakin University staff, students and is soon to be open to anyone from the surrounding Burwood Community. For more information and to get involved please see here or contact us.

For an interview with John Devereaux , Executive Director of Student Life at Deakin University Burwood click here.

Sydney Sings Serenades Sydney Morning Herald

September 3, 2012

Following the Sydney Sings Soirèe, held at the Pitt St Uniting Church on Tuesday 28th August, we were featured in the Sydney Morning Herald.  Thanks to Malcolm Brown for coming along and reporting on the event!

‘CHARLES LEON, 52, one of the stolen generation, who grew up in children’s homes and with a foster family, might not have a lot to smile about but with the new community choir Sydney Sings, which had its inaugural public performance this week, there were plenty of smiles.

Mr Leon was born in Bellingen in 1960. He comes from the Biripi people on his mother’s side and the Warrami people on his father’s. He has come with his didgeridoo to accompany the choir when it joins in a worldwide song, Good Earth Singers, in December.

That is when community choirs all around the globe will use their mobile phones and apps to sing the one song, in succession at allocated times, and choristers using those devices will listen to their fellow singers in Nigeria, Russia, France …’  [Read]

Don’t forget to click for more photos and videos!

Arts & Health National Policy Underway

August 7, 2012

We were delighted to travel to Canberra last month to participate in the National Arts and Health Policy Forum. 

The Forum was attended by senior representatives of government arts and health agencies (including  exponents of arts and health. They included clinicians, researchers and academics, philanthropists, a number of members of the Arts and Health Working Group), and by many of Australia’s leading artists, senior health services personnel, consumer groups, Aboriginal health agencies, arts and disability organisations and community based arts and health advocates.

Those at the Forum provided advice to the Arts and Health Working Group on the possible content  and Health Policy Framework will lead to a more cohesive approach to knowledge sharing, sector and purpose of a National Arts and Health Policy Framework. They discussed how a National Arts development and increased resourcing for contemporary arts and health research and practice – with beneficial impacts on the health and wellbeing of the Australian community.The Forum bought leading artists, health professionals and policy writers together to in the nation’s capital to push for a National Arts and Health Policy.

A Digital Showcase of leading arts and health practice from across the country demonstrates why it is so important to integrate the arts in Australia’s national health policy.

Read the Press Release from the forum working group.
Watch Simon Crean’s presentation to the Forum.
Download a copy of the National Arts and Health Policy Campaign Handbook to add your stories to this growing collection.

Written by Ewan McEoin.

What Are The Benefits of Art Therapy?

August 6, 2012

One soggy winter’s eve, a year ago, I was traveling home on the route 86 tram, enjoying the onboard human spectacle that is almost guaranteed on a Friday night after Happy Hour is over.  Two animated youngish women initiated a conversation with me and I was so caught up in it that I missed my stop.  We had been creating personalities and life stories for our fellow travellers: a look, a gesture, an article of clothing; these women had a sharp eye for detail and an uncanny ability to invent a seemly human context for it all.  As I said a hurried good-bye, one of the women squeezed my arm and said, “Hope you understand, we can’t help ourselves; we’re art therapists”.

What is art therapy? 
Art therapy is a form of psychotherapy that uses art media as its primary mode of communication.  Most commonly, art therapy involves drawing or painting, but the artistic expression can also take place through photography, sculpture or ceramics.  All forms of art can embody ideas so the list of arts therapies available includes music therapy, dance movement therapy, poetry therapy and many more.  Professionals, trained in art and psychotherapy, develop interactive scenarios that connect with various aspects of the client’s whole person (mind, body, spirit) and using the creative process of art-making, work to improve and enhance the physical, mental and emotional well-being of individuals of all ages.

Clients may have a wide range of difficulties, disabilities or diagnoses including emotional, behavioral or mental health problems, learning or physical disabilities, life-limiting conditions, brain-injury or neurological conditions and physical illness.  Equally, clients may be on a journey of self-discovery and personal growth, wanting to reveal and revel in the unconscious realms of their being.  Through creating art and reflecting on the art products and processes, people can increase awareness of self and others, cope with symptoms, stress and traumatic experiences, enhance cognitive abilities, and enjoy the life-affirming pleasures of making art.

How did that chance encounter on the 86 tram last year lead me to explore this topic?  As I am a person who seems to forget the random events that others remember, recalling this one so clearly is remarkable (especially as I had been having a rather Happy Hour myself).  My explanation is that this incident is a marker along a route I had unknowingly been on for some time, one that brought me to a With One Voice choir, not at all aware that I was seeking solace but most definitely finding it.

Within each choir member, I can now see an art therapist, administering to his and her deeper needs and those of acquaintances, bridging gaps, constructing meaning and coherence, hope, acceptance, ambition and self-trust.  It happens individually and on a subconscious level but after an hour’s singing, the beneficial effects are clearly visible; cheeks and eyes are glowing and it’s an unbroken chain of happy faces traveling in a semi-circle, from the sopranos to the basses, just like a smile.

Written by Miriam Potter.

With One Voice Welcomes Wellbeing!

June 28, 2012

We recently published an innovative guide to member well-being. Since our launch in 2009, the With One Voice Choir community choir programs have endeavoured to encourage diversity, build capacity and create opportunity within our community. With 12 choirs throughout Melbourne, and two newly launched interstate choirs in Canberra and Sydney, this program has always had an incredible scope for impact and has helped people from all walks of life ‘find their voice’.

This success has in turn lead to the expansion of the organisations reach, with various new programs and initiatives launching in 2012, including the implementation of the Wellbeing Initiative – a initiative that will see us improve our capacity to support, empower and encourage our members within and beyond choir rehearsals. (more…)

Introducing the Canberra Sings Choir

June 26, 2012

In partnership with the Canberra Hospital we launched Canberra Sings on May 14th. This new initiative aims to unlock creative potential, create wellness and build stronger connections between the staff and local Canberra community. Music is proven to have healing properties and we are delighted to fill the hospital with singing voices. Canberra Sings is open to all Canberra Hospital Staff, patients and anyone from the surrounding Canberra community. For more information and to get involved please see here or contact us.

Sydney Sings, Sydney Soars – Celebrate!

June 20, 2012

The Sydney Sings party, I mean choir, is great fun every week. Shannon and I have a ball. I don’t think it is possible to have a more diverse group of people, all just having fun, sharing great music together.

Each week is different, as we are still growing in numbers (I think we are up to 80!), learning new songs and singing oldies we all know and love. We sing from our hearts and with our whole body. It is all just good for the soul. We’ve even managed to sing in 3 part harmony last week. It’s sounding awesome!

The highlight for me however, is not only this wonderful music that we are singing, (especially as most of us were told “not to sing” or “go to the back of the choir”….) but the heart warming stories that we share.

Between songs, people tell their stories (not long ones…). We share little things about ourselves, our ancestors, people and things we love, our wishes, what we are grateful for, our favorite moments in our day, our lives.

And what stories we have to share. What resources we have to support each other with, and what a deep joy this brings.

One lady from the corporate community who is finally getting a kitten this weekend, and between the kitten and the choir, she says she has all the unconditional love she needs; another overseas member got a job offer thanks to another choir member, how great is that! We are still looking for ways to improve on golf swings…anyone, anyone?

Some of the favorite musical moments for our choir members include singing with Sydney Street Choir at the Opera House; a Bette Midler concert at Radio City in NYC in the 1980s; and an older member remembering back to when she was 3 years old, and coming out from under her blanket in her cot singing a butterfly song to herself.

And then we sing. This is why we sing…

We meet every Tuesday in the warm and inviting Pitt St Uniting Church at 5.30pm, new members are always welcome, just turn up; and a free Oz Harvest feast afterwards for all.

See you soon at Sydney Sings!

View some photos of Sydney Sings rehearsing here.

Written by Elizabeth Lecoanet.

Sydney Sings Launch and Gala Event

April 18, 2012

With the support of the Vincent Fairfax Foundation we launched our first social inclusion program in Sydney.  In April, Sydney Sings was launched at Price Waterhouse Coopers.

This unique program brings together diverse voices as ‘one voice’ to build harmony, wellbeing and jobs…from CEOs to asylum seekers. The event was hosted by Sydney PwC Manging Partner Joseph Carrozzi and Sydney Sings was launched in fine style by Malcolm Turnbull.

Founder of Creativity Australia Tania de Jong entranced the audience with her presentation and performance. Joining the chorus, the VIP guests included leaders from a range of different cultural and faith communities, recruitment, employment depression and disability services. Other guests included Carnival Australia chief Ann Sherry and Red Balloon Founder Naomi Simson, Danny Gilbert of Gilbert Tobin, Robin Crawford of Goodstart.

Sydney Sings rehearses weekly on Tuesdays at Pitt St Uniting Church. All are welcome to find their unique voice and help others.

With One BIG Voice Concert 2011

December 12, 2011

The beautiful sounds of 12 With One Voice choirs coming together as one was heard on Sunday November 27th, 2011 at the Melbourne Town Hall, for Creativity Australia’s annual With One BIG Voice concert.

All of the audience members in the packed out hall were swept away by the uplifting voices, and couldn’t resist clapping and singing along…with some even shedding a tear when listening to the choir participants’ inspirational stories.

It was a beautiful afternoon for all involved – congratulations to all!  Check out our photo gallery for more photos.

Watch the 300 voices come together to perform Toto’s ‘Africa’:

Sing For Your Supper – A Sensational Success

November 1, 2011

Thank you so much to everyone who came along to the Sing For Your Supper Gala Dinner and made a the night so special.

Thankyou in particular to all those who generously made donations, bought raffle tickets or bid at the Auction. Our programs continue to exist because of you!

Thank you for supporting Creativity Australia at our major fundraising dinner ‘Sing for your Supper’ on 17 November 2011 at Regent Plaza Ballroom, Melbourne. CA raised over $120,000 to provide opportunities, wellbeing, skills and jobs for disadvantaged people through our With One Voice program.

This event, which was also the Gala Dinner for Creative Innovation 2011 attracted over 450 senior level corporates, members of government, international thought leaders, personalities, media commentators, philanthropists and their guests. Dinner guests included some of the world’s most influential minds such as Edward de Bono (UK), Raymond Kurzweil (USA), Daniel Dennett (USA), Brendan Boyle (USA), Paddy Miller (Spain) and many of Australia’s leading thinkers and innovators.