‘Joy to my heart’: learning how the arts can transform communities
A process of learning is currently underway in the northeast region of Australia as the Baha’is and their friends explore how the arts can serve as an integral part of the development and transformation of a community.
The process started in 2023 with a core group of five individuals. Since then, it has expanded to include collaboration alongside the Regional Baha’i Council and a small Baha’i-inspired agency known as the Effie Baker Foundation – named after renowned Baha’i artist and photographer and the first Australian Baha’i woman, Euphemia ‘Effie’ Baker.
In 2024, an inaugural one-day arts conference was held in the Gold Coast. Attended by 80 participants, the event supported individuals and communities to make greater use of the arts in their community-building efforts.
Recently, almost 100 individuals gathered at the second arts conference to build further capacity to integrate the arts into their community-building efforts.
The focus of the second conference was on creating a habit of thought and action to draw on the power of the arts. Objectives included sharing insights and experiences from across the region and galvanising individuals and groups to be conscious of the arts as a power on which to draw when responding to opportunities and challenges.
The conference featured a panel discussion to share real-life insights as well as workshops to build capacity and strengthen the habit of drawing on the power of the arts.
Presentations shared how the use of storytelling in children’s classes, as well as youth theatre and a touring art show in Aitkenvale and traditional use of the arts in the Torres Strait islands helped to enrich community-building efforts.
The friends from Torres Strait shared how the arts are used in traditional islander culture “from womb to tomb”, weaving into everyday life across the community. Community members Aunty Nay Gabey, Aunty Ina Apuita, and Surum Bon led an impromptu singalong with the conference cohort.
According to one participant, “the arts conference was super insightful and I loved that every time someone got up and sang or a group performed – the whole room joined in and it really brought joy to my heart.”
Another participant said that “the insights I gained were the importance of committing to, and trusting in, the process of creating art together and the role confirmation can play in this. The role art can play in strengthening identity and how it can help to shape thinking in various settings.”
In its 30 December 2021 message, the international governing body of the Baha’i Faith, the Universal House of Justice, states:
Indeed the arts as a whole, so integral a part of the development of a community from the start, stand out in such settings as an important means of generating joy, strengthening bonds of unity, disseminating knowledge, and consolidating understanding, as well as of acquainting those in the wider society with the principles of the Cause.
The Universal House of Justice
At the end of this event, participants were offered a chance to reflect on the day, the insights they had gained, and questions they and their local community might strive to learn about as they planned their next steps and outlined the support required.
Watch a video from the conference below:
Thanks for reading.
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Published in January, 2026, in Baha'i Institutions > Events
Available online at: horizons.bahai.org.au/bahai-institutions/joy-to-my-heart-learning-how-the-arts-can-transform-communities/
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