Jul 2, 20235 min read

Community Capsule - a modern day time caspule of Melbourne's pandemic experience

Sometimes the outputs of artistic endeavours can seem so ephemeral and so intangible it makes you question whether it's worth the effort. But this is almost never the case. The enduring impact of art unfold through the beliefs and actions of the people who experienced it and, as a result, the the way the art impacts wider society plays out in subtle or indirect ways over a long period of time.

I wanted to record the details and outcomes of a community arts project I worked on for the past 18 months, Community Capsule. The project is currently winding up and while reporting on project outcomes to the sponsoring organisations, I thought I should take a few extra moments to record some details here before they fade too much.

This project was definitely ephemeral but not so intangible. It is my hope that by writing a description of it here on this tiny corner of the internet, there is a little bit more potential for people to be changed by it, whether they experienced the art directly or not.

Community Capsule Melbourne

The first of its kind, the Community Capsule was a modern day time capsule, photography exhibition and storytelling platform for Melbourne’s community to connect, reflect and connect through stories of hardship to capture and celebrate promote Melbourne’s enduring sense of resilience, connection and community.

To provide a window into our thinking, here is an excerpt from one of our first planning documents in March 2022 to describe what we saw as the need of the community for something like this:

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Melbourne gained the title as the 'most locked down city on the planet', leaving our metropolis and its citizens economically and psychologically depleted. When lockdown ended on Thursday 21 October 2021, Melburnians had endured 263 cumulative days of lockdown. Understandably, tensions ran high - violence erupted during protests and our once vibrant city was devastated. Social isolation triggered stress and anxiety for some and made others reassess priorities for the future. Whether young or old, every Melburnian has been impacted in some way, and each has a story to share. As we stagger towards “Covid normal” how will we collectively memorialise this event not only as part of historic preservation, but as an expression of healing to harness the remedial power of sharing one’s journey? There will likely be a powerful (and understandable) desire not to remember the pandemic, so it’s important to create inclusive connections and capture collective memory for future commemoration of the sacrifices made by all Melburnians. Perhaps there is a way to contextualise what Melburnians have been feeling and experiencing, and preserve that through a developed framework and targeted engagement which may also have the effect of being “therapeutic".

The contents of the photography exhibition component were collated from a range of sources. Some of these included the State Library of Victoria's Memory Bank collection, Bri Hammond's Isolation Portraits and, courtesy of Museums Victoria, photography from Julie Ewing's series Across the Fence series.

The project aimed to raise awareness, support and funds for a number of brilliant causes in Melbourne, including Support Act's Crisis Relief Program, the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation's Generous Melbourne, and finally The Royal Melbourne Hospital Scrub Choir which performed at the launch event and to whom a donation was made from event surpluses.

The team behind the Community Capsule was brought together by the Future Focus Group program, Melbourne's premier development program for emerging civic leaders, which has been run by the Committee for Melbourne for nearly 30 years. The team was a talented, compassionate, hardworking and fun group of people who came from completely different organisations around Melbourne to deliver this projcts. Please contact me via my LinkedIn if you would like to get in touch with the wider team.

The exhibition venue was the Fracture Gallery at Fed Square and the Community Capsule's events were held underneath the exhibition in the wider Atrium area (see photographs below). The venue was generously provided as in-kind sponsorship from Fed Square, which became part of the Melbourne Arts Precinct Co (MAP Co) while we worked on the project. This allowed us to achieve a secondary objective of enlivening the Eastern side of Flinders Street — a zone adversely affected by the construction of the new Town Hall Station — at a time when the overal CBD economy was still recovering from the pandemic.

The use of this venue proved to be a wise decision. It provided an appealing backdrop that enhanced the visual impact of the photographs. It was central, accessible, private, intimate, imposing, and inviting all at the same time. Altogether, the Community Capsule team came to see the Fracture Gallery as one of the most underrated venues in the city centre.

Much of the funding for this project came from the City of Melbourne as part of its Dusk 'til Dawn program to revitalise and reactivate the city centre. It's not an understatement at all to say the project would not have been possible without it. The project received some other financial support from a corporate sponsor, and in-kind support from Fed Square and the Committee for Melbourne.

The Community Capsule was featured on the websites of Fed Square, What's On, Secret Melbourne, AllEventsIn Melbourne, Humanists Australia, The Moth, Mirkout, Kate Walsh Art, CBD News, Only Melbourne, Triple R, and Australian Arts Review. Fed Square helped to further promote the event through it's social media, newsletters and outdoor media.

Image: Community Capsule being advertised on the iconic billboards at Fed Square

At the Launch Event, held on 19 May 2023 kicked off with a hilarious comedy set by Kristy Webeck. It was probably a difficult brief, to do a comedy set for a 'let's relive the lockdowns' event, but Kristy smashed it. Patrons at the launch event also enjoyed a panel discussion of the contributing artists, a rousing speech from Bevan Warner, CEO of Launch Housing on the genuine possibility of eliminating homelessness in Melbourne, and performances from the Royal Melbourne Hospital Scrub Choir who were a symbol of hope to the wider nation in the depths of the pandemic (see some media coverage here and here).

At the Story Corner event, held on 2 June 2023, eight Melbournians shared incredible stories of their experiences throughout the pandemic years. This event was facilitated in the style of The Moth Melbourne and it was incredible. The storytelling was flawless, the stories themselves were gripping, and the audience was deeply moved.

At the conclusion of the project the PMI Victorian History Library kindly volunteered to catalogue and archive the details of Community Capsule so these will be available to future generations. The Library has stored the recordings of the stories told at the events and have stored the physical materials from the exhibiton. The materials can be found in the Library's catalogue under this search.

Overall, the project fulfilled several overlapping objectives we had set up at the beginning:

It served as a kind of 'activation' which drew people into the city centre at a time when the CBD economy was still recovering from the pandemic. There hasn't been a perfect way to track attendance, but we estimate as many as 15,000 people engaged with the Community Capsule during the May-June 2023 period.
The project provided economic opportunities for local artists and services to the arts sector, which was one of the hardest hit sectors during the pandemic.
It brought together lots of different organisations and causes, forging new connections between them. The project was incredibly rich in collaborations. In fact, without resources of our own, it was the only way to making things happen. The partner organisations brought their people and ideas to the project, where they encountered the other people and the other ideas from the other partners. At the events we could see a lot of new connections firing.
The Capsule honoured ordinary people (not just high profile leaders) and gave many of them a platform to share their experiences. A pleasant surprise throughout the project was the willingness of Melbournians to contribute their pandemic stories to the Capsule. Not only that, the quality of the stories really added to the depth and authenticity to the experience.
Capsule seemed to spark people’s curiosity and inspire a deeper engagement with the cultural landscape of the city. In an unexpected-but-pleasing way, the Capsule acted as a kind of ‘gateway’ for attendees to explore and connect with other causes (such as Launch Housing and Support Act), which enabled the project to have second- and third-order impacts beyond the immediate scope we had originally intended.

Some images of the exhibition and events are included below.