REALARTWORKS INC

ARCH was a grassroots creative investigation into the community(s) response to the extreme weather event cyclone Debbie and its aftermath: the resulting Flood that devastated Lismore in March 2017. It was a project for local artists to connect, creatively process, recover and actively contribute to the recovery of the wider community who themselves, are undertaking the steps to recovery

ARCH was a partnership between Realartworks.Inc, ARTS NR’s, Social Futures Ability Links FNC and Creative Lismore . ARCH was based on the philosophy that once the initial crisis of The Flood was subsiding, we as individuals and as a

community entered the next stage of recovery lookng at ways to reconnect, reflect and share our experiences to make sense of what has happened, to articulate our stories of loss and express ourselves in a way that words alone cannot do. Over a period of 6 weeks 30 creatives collaborated with over 500 participants in the community. Nearly 700 people visited the space .The space became a creative lab. A number of other projects based in the arts and community services were developed and a community of people demonstrated a more positive direction with renewed commitment, recognizing that they are the ones that can move Lismore forward. The disaster provided an incentive to take a new approach to capacity building and ARCH became one of the vehicles in which citizens felt able to participate in the creation of a new city identity that celebrated their resilience and efforts. ARCH ran from May-July 2017