Lisa Kendal is a Changemaker from Ballarat who’s doing great things connecting people to each other and the environment in creative ways. We caught up with her recently to find out more…
Q. What is your project name?
A. Sustainable Environment Arts Movement (SEAM) Inc
Q. How would you describe your project in one sentence?
A. A not for profit that delivers arts projects to engage people creatively in sustainable living and issues of climate, founded by myself and colleague Tracy Bourne.
Q. What are you aiming to achieve?
A. Provide people the opportunity to get involved, to connect, to collaborate and produce artwork, giving people the chance to think about issues in a positive way and understand the importance of creativity in coming up with solutions.
Q. What have you achieved so far?
A. The first project was a Theatre Show called Ella’s Choice that toured schools in Victoria, getting them to imagine themselves as changemakers using local and international stories.
The second project called WARM – is a community knitting project. We had 250 people from all around the world contribute by knitting different aspects of a landscape image. This included gum leaves, trees, native flowers and wind turbines. During the project we ran workshops across Victoria to extend the reach and engagement.
The final artwork was collated over three days with a video made which has had more than 400,000 views. We had a fabulous team of artists and incredible interest from the community. It’s probably the most rewarding project I’ve ever worked on.
WARM has toured art galleries across regional Victoria, and will be on exhibition at the Woolly West Fest in Dunkeld from 21st July.
Q. What are your next steps?
A. We are in the planning stages of our next projects which could include partnering with the local health service to deliver another knitting project, a theatre show / event about the story of coal, and a series of songs for choirs to perform across Australia in the lead up to the next United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany.
Q. What’s one piece of advice you can give others who set out to make a change in their community?
A. Just do one thing at a time and do it as well as you can. The name of our organisation “SEAM” represents a great analogy for our work. A seam brings things together and every little stitch in a seam counts. Our goal is to keep this in perspective and not get overwhelmed for our own health and wellbeing.
In the lead up to our next event on the theme “Connecting” we are asking people what they reckon. We asked Lisa what she reckoned too…
Q. Where’s your happy place in nature & why?
A. Just in nature with the fresh air because there you can feel a freedom and connectedness with everything. It puts things in perspective and being alive makes sense when in nature. It’s a good calm place to be.
Q. What’s your favourite activity and why?
A. Gardening and anything to do with nature. I love having a productive garden and a beautiful outdoor space. I also love teaching yoga for my own health and wellbeing. Doing yoga in the garden is the perfect activity!
Q.What do you think about the connection between people and the natural environment?
A. It’s all united, there is a connection between everything. If we see things that way we are kinder to ourselves and the planet.
