Mundaring Arts Centre
Opening 27 June, 2026
1pm – 2.30pm
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CURATOR’S THANK YOU > AMANDA ALDERSON
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MAC : Creating Space speech
JESSICA KNIGHT, MAC > OPENING SPEECH MC
Good afternoon and welcome to Mundaring Arts Centre for the opening of Creating Space by Sick AF Collective, Curated by Amanda Alderson.
My name is Jess Knight, I am the Artistic Program Manager for MAC Inc.
It’s my great privilege to acknowledge this beautiful Country which we all share as our home on Whadjuk and Ballardong Boodja, and I pay our collective respect to the Noongar nations Elders past, present and emerging, and to all First Nations people here with us today.
I would also like to acknowledge and welcome, MAC Inc Patrons, Board Members, Donors and MAC Inc. members, and extend our gratitude to the Department of Creative Industries, Tourism and Sport as well as the Shire of Mundaring for their ongoing support and championship.
Creating Space brings together artists whose practices have been shaped by illness, disability, care and changing capacities, exploring the many ways creativity can adapt, sustain and connect us.
At the heart of the exhibition is the belief that healing is not separate from creativity but embedded within the act of making itself. Through intimate and honest works, the artists challenge ideas around productivity, wellness and what creative practice can look like when shaped by changing bodies, energy and circumstances.
The artistic process thereby becomes an act of survival, defiance and self-care.
I’d like to introduce Kristina Alderson, Director of Krysallis Healing Centre, an experienced complementary health practitioner with a background in clinical hypnotherapy, counselling, bodywork therapies and group facilitation. With many years supporting people through illness, change and personal growth, Kristina brings a holistic perspective on wellbeing, meaning, creativity and connection. She is also the mother of Amanda Alderson, SICK AF Collective founder, artist and curator in Creating Space, and I welcome her to speak through both her professional experience and her role as a caregiver.
GUEST SPEAKER > KRISTINA ALDERSON
Hello Everyone
Thank you Jess. I would also like to acknowledge the lived experience present in this room and beyond it.
Thank you for being here to celebrate Creating Space, and thank you to the artists, Nadeen, Claire, Brad, Lucinda, Catherine, Shayne, Annamaria and Amanda, for sharing their work and experiences with us; and to those viewing online.
Some of the artists are joining us here in person, while others are joining online, and that in itself reflects something important about this exhibition and the many ways communities find ways to gather, create and connect.
Over many years I have learned that one of the most important things we can hold onto is our own sense of self.
As Amanda’s mother, I have a very personal connection to this exhibition and to many of the conversations that sit behind it.
As a complementary health practitioner, I’ve spent many years talking with people about health and wellbeing and what helps us sustain ourselves through periods of illness, uncertainty or change.
Again and again those conversations reiterated the importance of remaining connected to ourselves; the things that give us purpose, meaning and a sense of identity beyond illness, appointments or caring responsibilities. Creativity is often one of those things. Not because it fixes difficult circumstances, but because creative practice can help us process experiences, express what is difficult to put into words, and hold onto important parts of ourselves during periods of change.
One of the things I find particularly powerful about this exhibition is that it challenges the idea that creativity only happens when conditions are ideal. The reality for many people is that creative practice exists alongside appointments, treatments, caring responsibilities and changing capacities. What these artists show us is that creativity doesn’t disappear when circumstances change; more often, it changes with us.
Sometimes that means working more slowly, or differently. Sometimes it means adapting materials, methods or expectations. Those adaptations aren’t compromises or lesser versions of creativity; they become part of the practice itself and often shape the work in meaningful ways.
As you move through the exhibition today, I encourage you to spend some time thinking not only about the works themselves, but about the journeys behind them and the ways each artist has found to continue creating within the realities of their own lives.
In healthcare we naturally spend a great deal of time focusing on symptoms, treatment and recovery, but wellbeing is also about remaining connected to the things that matter to us and continuing to participate in the parts of life that help us feel like ourselves.
One of the things I particularly appreciate about Creating Space is that the conversation doesn’t end with the gallery walls. Through the workshops, QR codes and online resources, visitors are invited into the artists’ processes and ways of working, and reminded that creativity is not reserved for artists alone.
I often talk about self-awareness and recognising what we need in order to move forward in healthy and meaningful ways. When we learn to listen to ourselves and adapt to changing circumstances, we often discover possibilities we might not otherwise have seen.
Perhaps that is one of the questions this exhibition quietly asks of all of us: how do we make space for creativity in our own lives, especially during times when life feels busy, uncertain or difficult? And how can we build communities that recognise and support the many different ways people create, contribute and participate?
Thank you to the artists for sharing your work, your processes, your perspectives, your passion and your soul with us.
And thank you all for being here to listen, to look closely, and to be part of the conversation.
I hope you enjoy the exhibition.
Thank you.
JESSICA KNIGHT, MAC > OPENING SPEECH MC
Thank you Kristina, I deeply appreciate the notion that creativity is for all and that it has inherent value for individual actualisation and community coherence through process, rather than outcome. It’s so lovely that you could be here and speak with such experience and personal connection to the exhibition.
It has been an incredible learning experience for me to work with the incomparable Amanda Alderson. And for us as an organisation to reflect on the many layers of accessibility within the arts, from the physical, to the invisible, the economic, the perceived and the institutional. This type of reflection also reminds us of what we take for granted, personally and in the ways we interact with the world, to slow our pace, to demand less and to listen more.
But it has not affected our expectations of great art and its ability to bring people together, to connect more deeply and to have profound transformative effect.
Amanda’s organisation, her honesty and her deeply considered curation are unmatched. I am thrilled we have had the opportunity to work with her to realise this exhibition and ask you to join me in welcoming Amanda to say a few words.
AMANDA PRE-RECORD
CURATOR’S THANK YOU > AMANDA ALDERSON
Thank you everyone for being here, in person, online or in replay – and thank you to Mum, Kristina, for your thoughtful words.
Creating Space follows the inaugural SICK AF exhibition, which centred the languages of illness, and THE STORM, which explored rupture and uncertainty. This exhibition asks a different question: what comes next?
For many of us, the answer is making.
Not necessarily making as productivity, output or profession, but making as a way of continuing, adapting, regulating, connecting and understanding ourselves within changing circumstances.
Essential making.
Curatorially, understanding the work through the artists’ own voices was just as important as understanding the works themselves. The stories behind the work matter, and so do the adaptations, decisions and realities that shape creative practice.
For that reason, the artists’ voices sit alongside the exhibition through the QR codes, workshops and online materials, which invite visitors into the processes, approaches and realities that shape these practices.
I want to thank the artists – Nadeen, Claire, Brad, Lucinda, Catherine, Shayne, Annamaria – for trusting me with your work, your experiences and your stories.
I also want to acknowledge something that often remains invisible within exhibitions like this: the networks of support that make participation possible.
The partners, families, carers and friends. Thank you. You are on the ride with us. Without your support none of this is possible.
The illness communities who share knowledge and understanding. The health and allied professionals willing to listen with openness.The people who help create the conditions in which creative work can continue.
Access is often spoken about as an addition to arts practice, but for many artists it is part of the creative infrastructure itself.
Creative practice doesn’t happen in isolation from the realities of our bodies or our lives. Energy fluctuates. Cognition changes. Immune systems become part of decision-making. Flexible timelines, pacing, remote participation and support needs are not barriers to creativity; they are part of the conditions within which creativity happens.
For some people, access means the ability to participate from home. For others, it means captioning, rest breaks, or the flexibility to engage in different ways. Increasingly, it also means clean air and immune-aware spaces that allow people with chronic illness, disability or compromised immune systems to participate safely without viral exposure.
Today’s opening is a small example of that approach: a mask-friendly event with CO₂ monitoring, remote participation in speeches, livestream access and replay options for those who cannot safely attend in person.
These are not special provisions or extras. They are simple access tools that make participation possible.
Today some people are here in the room, some are joining online, some will experience this opening later in replay, and some will view via the website, and all of those ways of participating are equally valid ways of being present.
Thank you to the team at Mundaring Arts Centre – Georgina, Jess and Clare – for supporting this exhibition, helping bring it together so beautifully, and embracing different ways of working through my own niche disability access needs by creating a space that values flexibility, access and participation.
And to everyone who contributed their time, energy and expertise behind the scenes. Thank you.
And finally, thank you to SICK AF Collective.
SICK AF exists to create opportunities for artists whose practices are shaped by illness, disability, caring responsibilities and distance, embracing art as an essential tool for health, and to advocate for arts spaces where access is understood not as accommodation, but as culture.
Thank you for joining us today, and I hope you enjoy spending time with the exhibition.
JESSICA KNIGHT, MAC > OPENING SPEECH MC
Thank you Amanada and thank you Brad for your assistance and care. I too would like to acknowledge the MAC Inc. team, particularly Georgina and Clare, who work to deliver these exhibitions in their best light, and hold the Curatorial intention, the artists and their works with such care.
Being part of a community that value, engage and invest in creativity you know there are many ways to support the arts sector and to help artists thrive, whether that be through buying art, by becoming a donor, or by becoming a MAC Inc member. And given we have just had our AGM and it’s the closing weekend of the financial year, what better time than now.
I would like to further extend our gratitude to the artists who so generously share their stories, who continue to interrogate, who lead the way for healing, who create dialogue and who bring us beauty and respite.
And finally to our sponsor, Edgecombe Wineries, thank you for the wine!
I now invite you to join me in taking a breath of clean air and raising your raise your glasses to our artists as we congratulate them on Creating Space and the many ways we can make space for creativity.
Thank you, Salut and Enjoy!