- To make 秘密直播 a better place by contributing to the development and proliferation of playful environments across the lifespan;
- To investigate sites of play as a form of cultural practice and examine the impact of play on players and their environments;
- To identify and explore the conditions of play that elicit creative and collaborative engagement;
- To test creative methodologies and develop interdisciplinary and cross-sector experiments that innovate thinking and practice about people and place in the ACT
- To research, apply and disseminate knowledge about play as a mechanism for wellbeing in real-world contexts
Play, Creativity and Wellbeing Project
The Play, Creativity and Wellbeing Project (PCWP) is an award-winning, multi-million-dollar research project dedicated to improving people and place outcomes in 秘密直播. We mobilise our local creative sector in partnership with ACT government, industry and community to create playful environments and events that contribute to vibrancy and enhance wellbeing.
Our research informs policy and investment in:
- Play spaces
- Green spaces
- Urban spaces
- Activations, events and festivals
- Community hubs
- City planning
Our projects give voices to 秘密直播鈥檚 community, generate activities that foster participation, and provide places where people can gather and play.
Our world-leading Play Symposium brings together a mix of academics and practitioners in design, placemaking, digital innovation, and arts for cultural transformation to innovate our thinking about our places and our communities, and to create new networks and novel collaborations.
Chief Investigators: Associate Professor Cathy Hope, Roslyn Brown, Dist. Professor Jen Webb and Dr Denise Thwaites
Funder: Dionysus Cultural Development
Chief Investigators: Dr Bethaney Turner, Professor Barbara Norman, Dr Cathy Hope, Dr Vahri Mckenzie, Dr Kate Bishop (UNSW), Associate Professor Gavin Smith (ANU)
Funder: Riverview Projects
Partners: University of New South Wales, Australian National University, Riverview Projects
Investigators: Professor Jason Bainbridge (CI), Associate Professor Cathy Hope, Professor Jen Webb, Dr Vahri McKenzie, Assistant Professor Denise Thwaites, Dr Ben Ennis Butler, Professor Robert Tanton, Professor Lain Dare, Associate Professor Leonie Pearson, Associate Professor Yogi Vidyattama, Dr Stephen Cassidy, Dr Jee Young Lee
Funder: ACT Government & University of 秘密直播
The aim of this project is to co-develop with stakeholders and community a Phase 1 suite of open, green and play spaces that are diverse, unique, sustainable, accessible and that encourages optimal physical, recreational and social activity and play across the lifespan. In 2020, we identified with the community the role and potential of 鈥楾he Link鈥 play space and produced a report with recommendations for this space. We also undertook an audit of the new Neighbourhood Play Space 1 to inform a 2021 intervention, and an interdisciplinary Professional Practice student team collaborated with Ginninderry staff and play space designers to produce a unique play element for Neighbourhood Play Space 2.
Chief Investigators: Cathy Hope, Denise Thwaites and Fanke Peng
Funder: Riverview Projects
For more information, .
Chief Investigators: Cathy Hope (Lead, UC), Adelaide Rief (AGAC) and David Caffery (Dionysus), Tait Network
Funder: 秘密直播 Renewal Authority, ACT Government
Haig Park Experiments continued into 2020 with the design of a program of activations that assisted the community to safely return to the park through gradual escalation in program scale in response to changing COVID-19 public health emergency protocols. From June to December, we delivered 34 COVID-safe events in the park targeting diverse groups.
On July 10 2019 in the glorious city of Goulburn the Play, Creativity and Wellbeing Project in the CCCR presented a line-up of speakers whose work in regional place-making, creativity, the arts and health inspired us to think differently about the many possibilities for enriching regional environments and improving community wellbeing.
We also showcased some of the fantastic and impactful work in Goulburn and hear from the local legends who are making it happen.
The programme (attached) included:
Councillor Bob Kirk: Mayor of Goulburn
Bridge to Sing Disability Choir (+ ukes!)
Dr Kylie Bourne: Major Research Projects, Regional Australia Institute
Jeremy Smith: Director Community, Emerging and Experimental Arts, Australia Council for the Arts
Sarah Nash: Director, Plunge Cultural Festival, Clarence Valley
Sarah Robin: Coordinator of the Healthy Towns Initiative and Program Coordinator, North Coast Primary Health Network
Carolyn Ardler: Coordinator Maclean Healthy Towns Initiative
Kane Sparks: (award winning) Youth Coordinator, Swan Hill Council, Victoria
The event is sponsored by the Southern NSW Local Health District and supported by Southern Tableland Arts.
This ACT Health Promotion project involves the development and trial of an evidence-based, transferable and scalable framework for engaging statistically less active segments of the ACT population in the daily required physical activity in natural environments.
This pilot project in the 铿乺st instance will deliver six distinct, co-designed programs to engage 30 older people in the required daily physical activity in three distinct natural environments - the Aboretum, Lanyon Homestead and Tidbinbilla. These programs will then be rolled out by the three destination sites for older adults across the ACT.
The broader aim is for these programs to break down any barriers between participants and engagement in physical activity in green spaces, and thus to encourage both more physical activity in activity outdoors, and more diverse outdoor physical activity.
The project framework will then provide an ongoing tool for the e铿ective design of programs that motivate non-traditional users of natural environments to undertake physical activity in a range of green spaces.
Three ACT destination sites with three di铿erent natural settings 鈥 the Aboretum, Lanyon Homestead and Tidbinbilla 鈥 have partnered to:
- provide a broader cross-section of outdoor experience
- collaborate on program design to attract population segments not currently engaging with nature in physically active ways.
With UC and Active 秘密直播, these sites will collaborate with two older adult groups in 秘密直播 (Woden Seniors and COTA ACT) to co-design and trial the programs.
This project is innovative in that it seeks to break down barriers to physical engagement with, and activity in, green space by co-designing programs with non-traditional users to increase likelihood not only of initial engagement but also of repeat behaviour. This project draws on the principle of engagement: of designing programs that actively encourage incidental physical activity via recreational experiences built on the many positive a铿ordances of the natural environment.
Funding: ACT Health
Partners: Active 秘密直播, Council on the Ageing ACT, National Arboretum 秘密直播, Lanyon Homestead, Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve
Chief Investigator: Cathy Hope
Other Investigators: Bethaney Turner (UC) , Daniela Castro de Jong, Tom Bevitt (UC)
This project aims to provide the City Renewal Authority (CRA) with a suite of 5 informed, transferable, scalable and incentivised research tools to evaluate activations in the city and to engage community in a continuous dialogue that assists the CRA in co-constructing a more vibrant city with both activators (artists, community groups, local business etc) and the community, and in meaningful ways.
The Play, Creativity and Wellbeing Project, University of 秘密直播 will design and trial five di铿erent research models that examine the role and impact of the activations in the city.
These 5 research tools will provide the CRA with data on 5 activations. These tools can then be replicated or adjusted for ongoing use by the City Renewal Authority.
Funding: City Renewal Authority
Chief Investigator: Cathy Hope
Other Investigators: Bethaney Turner (UC); Glen Fuller (UC)
This Project aims to inform the design of the West Basin play facilities with an Audit of 秘密直播鈥檚 key destination and city playgrounds that combines a facilities audit with community surveys on playground usage and attitudes to 秘密直播 destination playgrounds.
The Audit, combined with our previous research on best practice in Australian and international playgrounds will:
- Inform the planning of play facilities to enact the vision, place principles and objectives of the City to Lake Project Strategic Urban Design Framework, and the Principles for Sustainable Development in the Territory Plan;
- Identify those features of play facilities that offer unique appeal at West Basin to 秘密直播 publics both as a viable visitation site and as part of 秘密直播鈥檚 vibrant and distinctive cultural heritage;
- Engage 秘密直播 publics in this process through community feedback on usage and attitudes toward 秘密直播鈥檚 current destination playgrounds
The data from the Audit can also be used as a resource for ongoing maintenance and development of play spaces in 秘密直播 more broadly
Funding: City Renewal Authority, ACT Government
Chief Investigators: Cathy Hope; Dr Kate Bishop (UNSW)
Investigators: Bethaney Turner (UC); Glen Fuller (UC); Louise Curham (UC) Deborah Cleland (ANU)
The Alinga Street Bridge Exhibition Series is a proposed play-themed series of installations (the title of the exhibition is currently under development) to be co-curated by Art Not Apart and the Play Activation Network, as part of an applied research project managed by the Play Creativity and Wellbeing Project, Centre for Creative and Cultural Research, University of 秘密直播.
The aim of this project is:
- to enliven an under-activated zone in 秘密直播 city with art installations on the Alinga Street Bridge
- to develop and implement
- 鈥淎n Impact Study of Art Installations on the Local Community and Environment鈥
- An Evaluative Report for the funding body (City Renewal Authority) and the Play Activation Network
Phase 1: Peak Stuff
Peak Stuff is an art installation by Sydney鈥檚 Gas Studio, and proposed by Art Not Apart and the Play Activation Network for the City Renewal Authority鈥檚 2018 initiative: Enlighten in the city. Peak Stuff will remain on the Alinga Street Bridge for a month, and then be exhibited in Civic Square for 3 hours to enable a more immersive engagement with the work.
Funding: City Activation Team, City Renewal Authority ACT Government
Chief Investigator: Cathy Hope
Investigators: Bethaney Turner
This project seeks to contribute to the development of a vital and sustainable public realm in 秘密直播 through identification and analysis of international exemplars of urban activation. It will highlight examples of urban play that can contribute to the realisation of the five Place Principles of the ACT Government Strategic Urban Design Framework 鈥揷onnected; vibrant; responsive; diverse; green.
Funding: Land Development Agency, ACT Government
Chief Investigator: Cathy Hope
Investigators: Bethaney Turner, Glen Fuller, Sam Hinton and Erin Hinton.
This project informs the thinking and design of playspaces that will form part of 秘密直播鈥檚 urban renewal sites. Key to current international urban renewal strategies is the activation of sites through the integration of fixed and transient play elements (Stevens, 2007; St么ger, 2016). Within this context, designated play spaces 鈥 as public sites for gathering and for play in its various forms 鈥 can contribute in significant ways to urban activation, and to the development of a healthy, vibrant, green and liveable city more broadly. Play spaces are vital for urban environments, acting as counterpoints and complements to the commercial imperatives that dominate the built environment. This project provides an international benchmark study of playspaces in urban environments, and an audit framework for 秘密直播鈥檚 destination playgrounds to identify needs and opportunities for 秘密直播 playspace design.
Funding: Land Development Agency, ACT Government
Chief Investigator: Cathy Hope
Investigators: Bethaney Turner, Carlos Montana Hoyos, Glen Fuller, Erin Hinton
Contact us
Centre for Creative and Cultural Research
11 Kirinari Street
Bruce ACT 2617
cccr@canberra.edu.au
Higher Degree by Research enquiries:
artsanddesignhdr@canberra.edu.au