Reflections on 'the art of critical conversations' : a patchwork of responses in images and text

This article is a patchwork of reflections from some of the participants at the 2017 ANZATA/ACATA conference session ‘The art of critical conversations’. The session arose from my participation in the roundtable of Australian art therapists who met with Karen Pence in early 2017 and the questions it provoked. I wondered what might emerge if as a small group, we opened up a space for critical conversations, making art and talking about the social political discourses of art/s therapies? Through the art of critical conversations, participants in this interactive conference session explored some of the complexities alive in the shared conference experience. What emerged as being significant in the moment, and was processed through art-making, was the censoring by the conference committee of Keynote Speaker Robert Landy’s self-portrait after Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man. The art of critical conversations emerged as a social action enabling multiple views and voices to be seen and heard.