A Pedagogical Model of Creative Enterprise: Building Communities with People, Pets and Art

In this paper we provide an overview of the premise and methodology of The Pet Project (TPP), a model of creative pedagogical enterprise that establishes and maintains publics across regional Tasmania. TPP was established in response to Covid-19 and the negative effects the pandemic has had on individual wellbeing, social and cultural cohesion, and community participation in the arts, and the economic blows experienced by the creative sector. Using an emotionally binding theme of animal-human relationships combined with arts-based methods and semi-structured interviews, TPP’s aim is to promote fundamental sustainability imperatives in different communities where the care for, and maintenance of, relationships are at the fore of public engagement. We do this through creative and cultural strategies where diversity, lived experience and stories are celebrated; through training and skill development opportunities for emerging and established artists; and through the integration of wide-ranging industry partners and stakeholders. We have recognised that for sustainability to genuinely exist, it must first begin with people. Therefore, at TPP’s core is an aim to enhance community and individual resilience, equity, overall health, and a sense of being using creativity as a necessary mechanism in which to collectively and individually negotiate a world that is perpetually in crises.