A visual artist amplifying Indigenous children’s voices and a musician who will explore culturally significant sites have been awarded 2025 Creative and Performance Leadership Fellowships by the Forrest Research Foundation.

Participatory visual artist Lauri Parr and multi-disciplinary musician and composer Dr Mary Rapp will join a vibrant intellectual community of more than 60 researchers at the Foundation.

Image: Lauri Parr and Mary Rapp.

Based at Curtin University, Ms Parr will work with Elders and local community members in Ardyaloon/One Arm Point to co-develop new, innovative and safe ways of amplifying and celebrating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children’s voices and creativity through visual arts, storytelling and participatory media.

Her research will focus on contributing to the arts and its link to health by supporting the inclusion of First Nations’ children’s rights and needs in the worldwide debate on their use of digital technology.

Dr Rapp will join Edith Cowan University to understand the acoustic characteristics of culturally significant sites in Western Australia and creating site-specific compositions.

Dr Rapp will delve into the relationship between music, timbre and physical space by exploring and documenting the unique acoustic properties of the sites.

She aims to create compositions that amplify and celebrate these environments while promoting community engagement and interdisciplinary collaboration.

First announced in 2020, the two-year creative fellowships seek to harness the imaginative and practical skills of creative and performing arts practitioners that result in social, cultural and health benefits for the wider WA community.

Forrest Research Foundation Director, Professor James Arvanitakis, said the creative fellowships program was devised to draw new talent to Perth’s vibrant arts sector. 

“We believe our new creative and performing fellows will enhance the Western Australian performing arts sector, as the scheme has been designed to bring innovative creative research to the State,” Professor Arvanitakis said.

“The Foundation was established as a world-leading, collaborative centre for excellence which enables exceptional scholars and fellows to undertake groundbreaking doctoral and postdoctoral research at WA’s five universities.

“These artists will join our researchers from across many areas including medicine, astrophysics and oceans in a unique environment that is helping establish Perth as a global knowledge hub and diversify the State’s economy.”