Constituency and Reciprocity: what we talk about when we talk about community-building

2:30-4:30pm Sunday, 22 November 2026 The Third Brim, 270 George Street, Fitzroy (Free event. Light refreshments provided. Limited seating. RSVP recommended)

Guest Speakers: Mark Feary (Gertrude Contemporary) Channon Goodwin (Composite / All Conference / George Paton Gallery) Annalee Koernig (Make It Up Club) Kristi Monfries (Multicultural Arts Victoria)

Moderator: Cristea Nian Zhao (The Third Brim / HAIR / Trocadero Projects)

What is community-building? How do relationships between artists, curators, organisers, collaborators and participants shape the ways we work collectively?

Constituency and Reciprocity brings together practitioners from diverse organisational backgrounds across visual arts, experimental sound, and independent publishing. The panel explores how relationships of collaboration, exchange and mutual support constitute collective practices, and how these relationships shape organisational structures, decisions and responsibilities.

Building on the idea of constituency, we approach ‘community’ in the lens of reciprocate relations. The discussion looks into how organisations and collective projects are influenced by relationships both within their immediate networks and across the broader arts ecology. What agency do different participants, collaborators and wider publics have in guiding organisational directions, and how are decisions and responsibilities negotiated across different modes of operating? It also examines whether established ways of working, funding structures, and professional networks start reproducing certain conventions, even within initiatives that seek to challenge them.

Constituency and Reciprocity: What We Talk About When We Talk About Community-Building is the first public program at The Third Brim, marking the soft launch of our new space in Fitzroy.