Guest Speaker and Facilitator: Noel Waite

By Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature | Posted:

Creative Cities Southern Hui is excited to welcome NOEL WAITE as guest speaker and facilitator. Noel will be speaking at Creative Connections on Thursday 30th November, and facilitating Creative City Transitions and Transformations on Friday 1st December.

‘I am excited and inspired by the possibilities of the UNESCO model to develop sustainable creative ecologies in our cities. I believe this will strengthen bio-cultural diversity, and sustain resilient and innovative creative communities committed to environmental sustainment.’

Noel Waite is a strategic designer, researcher and teacher. He is currently Senior Lecturer in the Master of Communication Design program at RMIT University, in Melbourne UNESCO City of Literature.

He has worked with local government, museums, galleries and third sector organisations to develop and implement strategic plans, utilising scenario building and participatory design methods to ensure a human-centred outcome.

He was a member of the Steering Committee which successfully achieved UNESCO Creative City status for Dunedin in 2014. He was also a trustee and Chairman of the Hone Tuwhare Trust, which seeks to establish a multi-disciplinary creative residency in the former home of the late Poet Laureate.

Noel has previously taught Design Studies at the University of Otago. He held a Leverhulme Fellowship at the Scottish Centre for the Book at Edinburgh Napier University, and was Curator at Te Manawa Museum of Arts, Science and History in Palmerston North.

‘I am particularly looking forward to returning to my former home town of Dunedin, where as The Clean so rightly sang ‘Anything could happen’. I expect to be challenged and inspired by the breadth and depth of experiences of our local and international guests, and am excited by the opportunity to facilitate a workshop in the remarkable Athenaeum, where we can explore how to activate the considerable potential in the UNESCO Creative City Network.’

Creative Connections aims to explore creativity as the touchstone of healthy, sustainable communities and celebrate the power of collaboration to inspire.

Creative City Transitions and Transformations invites local and global creative minds to source ways of cross-pollination, and develop sustainable creative partnerships within the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.