Event Details

Balancing ways to sustain a livelihood through or alongside creative work, is a challenge. This topic is a key concern for women in creative sectors who are often self-employed or work on commission in small teams, as artists, designers, writers, curators and consultants. When there is so much to do, including caring for families and others in the community, how do women sustain their energy, creativity and sources of income? What are important reflections, experiences and learning we can share to maintain work-life balance in a competitive environment?

In our first conversation event we were joined by two exceptional women, who generously shared their thoughts on a topic close to their hearts.

Event speakers:

Lauren Tan is a member of the DESIAP advisory board. She is a Specialist Director at Deloitte Consulting Australia who leads Design for Business, a team that enables Human-Centred Design to be used to tackle complex business, government and societal challenges. She received a PhD in Design (2012) after investigating designer roles in addressing and tackling social issues. Lauren has presented at numerous global conferences on the topics of service design, co-design, design methodology, design education and the role of the design in social impact. She has also presented at TEDx Montreal (2010).

Sophie Gaur is an Assistant Professor of Industrial Design at the Emily Carr University (Canada) for Art and Design. Her research focuses on the body, and the ways in which health is influenced by mythology, and social constructs of the body as much as it is by the scientific ways of knowing, examining and seeing. Sophie also has an independent Making Practice that includes the crafting of provocative think-objects, book-binding, Micro-model-furniture, Pin-hole camera making; photography, sewing, and papercutting.