Thai Mondays, an initiative that is unique to the Central Coast, is calling for expressions of interest from local cultural practitioners working in the field of arts and health.
Salus Creatives Director and Thai Mondays’ creator, Elio Gatti, says Thai Mondays has enjoyed two successful series of lunch-time talks complemented by two publications and he is now planning Series Three.
“Once again the cultural practitioners in the second series were all local and once again the entire project was a completely free and voluntary collaboration,” Gatti said.
“I want to extend the third series of talks beyond my own professional contacts as there are many amazing people out there doing amazing work in the field of arts and health,” he said.
“I am now inviting expressions of interest from cultural practitioners working in the field of arts and health across the Central Coast region.
Gatti says he organises and publicises each lunch and produces the subsequent publication.
“People attending the lunches are just as important as the speakers.
“They are the active participants who ask the questions, make the comments and animate the talks; they are not just passive listeners or a polite audience that sits quietly until the end.
“The diversity of opinions, the good level of questioning, the respectful comments and criticism all make for an exciting and eventful lunch and it shows.”
The lunches take place monthly over a period of around eight months and include a 15-to-20-minute talk by a cultural practitioner.
“The actual lunch lasts a minimum of two hours and a couple of times it went to four hours with the restaurant ushering us outside in the garden area as they closed to prepare for the evening’s dinner,” Gatti says.
“I want to see this initiative continue to grow because so many cultural practitioners work in isolation or simply work alone and there is no other platform to provide them with a space to meet on a regular basis.
“The Thai Mondays initiative remains willingly and consciously as an unstructured gathering to keep the flow of attendees and speakers as organic as possible.”
Gatti says Thai Mondays has been recognised by Australia’s national network of arts and health, the Arts and Health Network NSW ACT (AHNNA).
“The network is a collaboration between Sydney University, NSW university, UTS and the Black Dog Institute,” he said.
“AHNNA has already distributed the first publication from the Thai Mondays and labelled it unique to the Central Coast.
“I really believe we have amazing people living and working in this field on the Central Coast and I invite anyone to read both publications and not be pleasantly surprised.
For more information contact elio@saluscreatives.com.au or visit Salus Creatives on facebook.
Jackie Pearson