What happens when the old rules of city-making no longer apply?
Across Australia, communities are grappling with the impacts of climate change, economic transition and shifting social needs. As traditional models of urban development come under increasing pressure, new opportunities are emerging to imagine different futures for our cities and regions.
This conversation is inspired by Dan Etheridge’s essay Our biggest challenge AND our greatest opportunity, a blue-sky exploration of Lismore’s future potential and the role art and artists can play in shaping place, defining identity and strengthening community.
Join Angharad Wynne-Jones, Tristan Schultz, Mark Cora, Emma Ridings, Dan Etheridge and Rosie Dennis, for a conversation exploring how constraints can become catalysts for innovation and what conditions are needed for creative industries, businesses, service organisations and communities to thrive.
Looking beyond adaptation and rebuilding, this discussion considers what Australian cities and regional centres could become by 2050, and the role artists, designers, thinkers and communities can play in shaping that future.
Event Details:
Friday 2 October 2026, 11am - 12.30pm
The Joinery, Hampton Lane, Lismore NSW 2480
All welcome.
Free, inclusive and locally hosted.
Limited places — registration essential.
Refreshments provided.
Get your tickets here
Speakers:
Mark Cora, Bundjalung Elder and Artist
Rosie Dennis, Executive Director, Arts Northern Rivers
Rosie has held creative and executive leadership positions with Placemakers* Gold Coast, Bleach Festival, Performance Space, Urban Theatre Projects, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, and most recently the Bank Art Museum Moree. Recognised for her collaborative leadership style, strategic nous and ability to bring artists, partners and communities together, Rosie has been influential in initiating some of Australia’s most innovative cultural programs.
Dan Etheridge, Engagement Director, Living Lab Northern Rivers
Dan Etheridge brings over 20 years of experience in the public interest design field to his role as Engagement Director of Living Lab Northern Rivers. After graduating from Southern Cross University’s Applied Science in Coastal Management program in 2002, Dan returned to New Orleans, Louisiana where he had studied for a semester as part of an SCU exchange program.
In Louisiana, Dan worked for Tulane University helping to establish applied research coastal restoration programs and ultimately working with the Tulane School of Architecture to open a community design centre. The Tulane City Center was founded to support resident driven recovery and rebuilding programs after Hurricane Katrina. Dan helped direct the TCC for 10 years, establishing it as a critical component of the recovery and resilience infrastructure in the New Orleans area and one of the leading university-based community design centres in the country. Dan went on to co-found and direct the Public Interest Design Student Leadership Forum based out of University of Texas, Austin, a program that built a network of design and planning schools across America and developed an intensive short format curriculum focused on skills development for applying design and planning in the public interest.
Common to all of Dan’s work is the goal to strengthen communities’ capacity to plan, rebuild, and learn together after disruption.
Emma Ridings, Director, MAEVE Collective
Emma Ridings is the founder and Director of MAEVE Collective, a Gold Coast based place strategy and design studio. She works on the belief that places matter because people do - that the most successful places create value because they create connection. A registered architect with over two decades of experience across mixed-use precincts, cultural institutions and community infrastructure, Emma founded MAEVE to work at the intersection of design, strategy and placemaking, treating architecture as a tool for building belonging rather than an end in itself.
Tristan Schultz, Founder and Director, Relative Creative
Angharad Wynne-Jones, Co-facilitator, Creative Climate
Angharad Wynne-Jones (she/her) is Cymry (Welsh) Australian and lives on the unceded lands of Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung in Naarm (Melbourne). She is Facilitator of Creative Climate, the culture and arts climate action peak body, delivering sector support, engagement, participation and systemic transformation, funded by Creative Australia 2025-2029. She is an independent curator and creative consultant following her leadership roles as Head of Audience Engagement at State Library Victoria (2021-2024) and Head of Creative Engagement at Arts Centre Melbourne (2018-2021). From 2011- 2017 she was Artistic Director at Arts House Melbourne where she initiated Refuge – a six year publicly engaged investigation into the role of cultural institutions in climate catastrophes. She was co founder of Chunky Move, Associate Director of Adelaide Festival, Artistic Director and CEO of London International Festival of Theatre and Founder Director of Tipping Point Australia - energising the cultural response to climate change. She designed and delivered the Cultural Leadership MFA course at NIDA and leadership programs with Creative Australia. She is Co-Chair of Aphids and was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Green Room award in 2026.
Arts Northern Rivers respectfully acknowledges Bundjalung, Yaegl, Gumbaynggirr and Githabul Country, the lands we work and create on. We appreciate the unique and vibrant array of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders artists and cultural practitioners from here and living here. We strive to strengthen self-determination, promote presence, and support cultural continuation.
