DDCA Webinar, 1-2pm AEDT, Friday 9th October 2026.
The arts constitute a vital accompaniment to human life across our lifespan, enriching individual wellbeing and fostering social connection from infancy through to older age. In early childhood, musical practices, such as lullabies, play a significant role in supporting emotional regulation, attachment, and cognitive development, providing infants with comfort, security, and opportunities for early communication. During adolescence and young adulthood, participation in artistic activities, including applied theatre, offers powerful means for self-expression, reflection, and meaning making. Through creative engagement, young people can explore complex emotions, negotiate social challenges, and develop resilience in the face of personal and societal pressures.
In later life, engagement with the arts continues to generate significant benefits. Creative participation and cultural experiences can stimulate curiosity, encourage lifelong learning, and provide new perspectives on identity and lived experience. For older adults, the arts have also been shown to strengthen social connectedness, counter loneliness and isolation, and support psychological wellbeing.
Across all stages of life, the arts are essential resources for human flourishing, fostering creativity, empathy, belonging, and a deeper understanding of ourselves and society.
This DDCA Webinar addresses this rich interpretation of the value of arts across the human lifespan through the research of four leading researcher-practitioners. Emily Gann, whose Arts SA Ruby Award-winning Lullaby Project Australia has formed partnerships with organisations including Carnegie Hall, New York. Kamarra Bell-Wykes (Yagera/Butchulla), a theatre maker and arts specialist across professional, academic and community arts sectors, collaborating with Dr Sarah Woodland (University of Melbourne) to provide insights into the importance of culturally led, culturally safe approaches to making theatre in health education for youth in the First Nations Australian context. Professor Evonne Miller who frequently deploys arts-based research methods and arts-based knowledge translation strategies – from research-based plays, to poetry, photography, animations, digital and audio stories to card games – has experience working with older Australians.
More than simply an inquiry, this collective research presents a compelling manifesto for socially engaged arts as a catalyst for collective participation and social change.Organised by DDCA Board members Jane Davidson and Donna Hancox.
This event will be recorded.
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SPEAKERS
Kamarra Bell-Wykes (Yagera/Butchulla) is a theatre maker and arts specialist working across mainstage, academic, education and community arts sectors. In 2022 Kamarra formed theatre collective A DAYLIGHT CONNECTION whose credits include The BLOK!(Darebin Speakeasy/Fringe), A NIGHTIME TRAVESTY(Yirramboi/AsiaTOPA/Malthouse/Kia Mau), CHASE (Malthouse/Hot House) and ECLIPSE (Rising). Kamarra’s other significant theatre credits include House Arrest (Yirramboi/Malthouse), A Wake -A Woke Mob (MTC/ILBIJERRI), 37 (MTC), Romeo and Julie (Red Stitch) Because the Night (MALTHOUSE), The Score, Scar Trees, Viral, North West of Nowhere, Body Armour, Chopped Liver, Shrunken Iris (ILBIJERRI) In 2021 Kamarra won the Patrick White Award for Whose Gonna Love ‘Em? I am that i AM (FCAC/ ILBIJERRI). In 2026 Kamarra directed John Harding’s LAZARUS at Theatreworks and will direct her own mainstage work BEFORE I FORGET at Melbourne Theatre Company. Kamarra is also co-author of First Nations Australian Theatre for Health Equity: Healing Stories (Springer, 2024), a retrospective analysis of Kamarra’s many works in performance based arts education.
Dr Sarah Woodland is a senior lecturer in theatre at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne and a steering committee member of the Creativity and Wellbeing Research Initiative. Her research interests are applied theatre, socially engaged theatre, and participatory arts, with a particular focus on intercultural praxis towards justice and wellbeing. Sarah teaches undergraduate and postgraduate theatre courses and has published extensively in the fields of theatre and participatory arts. She is co-author of the book First Nations Australian Theatre for Health Equity: Healing Stories (Springer, 2024); co-editor of Artful Evaluation for Creative Health and Wellbeing (Springer, 2026) and co-editor of the journal Australasian Drama Studies.
Professor Evonne Miller is Professor of Design Psychology at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and Director of the QUT Design Lab, where she drives innovative, human-centered solutions to reimagine and redesign the future. Evonne collaborates with consumers, clinicians, and communities to co-design creative, evidence-based solutions that enhance healthcare delivery – her work champions lived experience, ensuring health services are inclusive, accessible, and impactful. She is an international thought leader in design for health, with deep expertise in design thinking, participatory co-design, co-production, futures thinking, and arts-based research and knowledge translation. Her research empowers diverse populations—including older adults in aged care, people in prison, individuals with disabilities, those with chronic conditions, and those at end-of-life—to shape health service delivery.
Emily Gann is a highly experienced arts leader, creative producer, musicians and educator, Emily brings a wealth of valuable knowledge & skills to the arts, community and education sector. Having established herself within an international network of arts education leaders, Emily has a deep understanding of best-practice music education and community engagement models. Emily founded Connecting the Dots in Music in 2018, seeking to demonstrate a more connected way of working that prioritises true community engagement. With an aim to proving the significant possibilities that collaboration holds, Emily has conceived and delivered a growing portfolio of pioneering projects – each one addressing an identified need within the arts/health/community/education ecosystems. These initiatives have received international attention by organisations including Carnegie Hall, London Symphony Orchestra, Jeunesses Musicales International and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. By establishing Lullaby Project Australia, Emily formed an international partnership between Connecting the Dots in Music and Carnegie Hall.