Arts House Presents Future Assembly

Over four days in July, Arts House presents Future Assembly, which unifies a congregation of fierce activists who will crack open fresh ideas that decolonise new possibilities.

Future Assembly is an exchange of new thinking that brings together Jody Haines, Jamie James, Quinn Eades, Hannah Bront (Fempress), Candy Bowers, Emily Johnson (Catalyst) and a host of Arts House friends.

Through a series of manifestos, making and mad parties, Future Assembly contests overlapping perspectives into inclusion, gender equality, feminism, leadership diversity, labour, gendered violence, place and belonging.

Arts House Artistic Director, Emily Sexton explains that Future Assembly is a non-patriarchal approach to stimulate action and find hope, This isn't a conference, a talkfest or a think tank we've curated a fiery group of cross-cultural artists, protagonists who are a welcome respite from the sea of suited clones who purport to guide us.

With exhibitions, spoken word, dance and music, some of the finest minds will share a new outlook with us to imagine an optimistic and very different future, said Sexton.

Future Assembly is set in motion with three exhibitions that take over Arts House at the North Melbourne Town Hall #IAMWOMAN by photographic artist Jody Haines, WHY2K by Hannah Bront and QUEERDOM by the collaborative creative research collective, Making the Margins.

Paying tribute to women's strength, beauty and complexity, #IAMWOMAN is a large-scale public portrait exhibition that forms part of Haines' ongoing social research examining new approaches to creating photographic portraiture with women for use in public space. This free exhibition will continue to run until 4 August.

A collaborative audio-visual exhibition by photographer-poet James Eades (photographer Jamie James and poet Quinn Eades), QUEERDOM draws on 25 years of queer and fringe performance and fetish scenes.

Alongside the QUEERDOM exhibition, Making the Margins will create a space for free-form exploration and interrogation with Reading / Making Room it's an area for visitors to read, think, discuss and create that offers an insight into the histories, practices and processes of marginalised communities.

Future Assembly will heat up with MOTHERLODE an immersive nonstop party curated by Fempress featuring womxn on the mic, the decks and the dance floor with heavy hitters Jesswar, Jamaica, Kween G, Soju Gang, K tare and BabyMama.

Through prose, poetry, spoken word and movement, the inimitable Candy Bowers will lead the charge with some of Melbourne's finest and fiercest in Work It New Manifestos.

Featuring Faye Bendrups, Simona Castricum, Akec Makur Chuot, Maude Davey, Jamaica and Lay the Mystic, Work It New Manifesto will herald the current burning issues, from female leadership and the legacy of elders to the gender pay gap and the politics of privilege.

Led by a council of three Indigenous women: Emily Johnson, Vicki Couzens and Genevieve Grieves, Umyuangvigkaq is a free durational conversation and sewing bee that will stitch together messages and dialogue focussed on the intersections of current global Indigenous cultures.

With an open mind and an abundance of curiosity, come to Arts House and be inspired to take action by Future Assembly.