The Spaces Between: International Seminar Series - Culture Change in Motion: creative approaches to working with trauma

The Big Anxiety is one of the world’s largest festivals of arts and mental health, bringing together arts and health experts to advance trauma-informed and lived experience-led approaches to mental health. Underpinned by the Big Anxiety Research Centre at University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (UNSW), it uses innovative creative media and collaborative arts practice to develop new ways to provide psychosocial support for trauma, emotional distress and suicidality. The session will introduce the key principles and methods of The Big Anxiety, highlighting a range of ‘experiential’ programs, and immersive media environments, created in partnership with communities. These range from Edge of the Present, a world-first virtual reality environment for suicide prevention, to Waumananyi, a VR artwork created by Anangu artists in the Central Desert of Australia for use in remote communities looking to break the cycles of trauma.