Andrea Breen is an artist with interests in performance improvisation, collaboration, writing, experimental research, philosophy, feminism, activism, ecology and therapeutic encounter. She creates acoustic art while researching generative and interactive processes and performances in sound, word, image and dance/movement. She is an educator, writer and arts therapist dedicated to right-action and furthering understanding through dialogue, art and imagination.I acknowledge the Palawa custodians of lutruwita/Tasmania where I work and live, and pay my respects to all First Nations people; to their elders, past, present, emerging and to community.
lutruwita was never ceded. It was, is, and always will be Aboriginal land.
PROJECTS
improvisation classes
2023/2024
PAY WHAT YOU CAN
SOHO Arts Community Hall, Weld Street, South Hobart
FRIDAYS 6-8 pm.
Dates to be advised. Trend is for 3rd and 4th Fridays of the month
An opportunity to discover your improvising self in a supporting, inclusive culture.
If you are a seasoned improviser, an invitation to meet with others and develop performance practice.
stuff
IRELAND: Workshops/Performances: Residency BCA Ireland,October 2023 Commissioned film score for HERSELF (celebrating St Brigid), screening 4 February 2023, Gort Co Galway. Sound installations: The Dark Edge of Europe (2019); Adjusting; Not Over Yet; Mail art & Cahoots: collaborative A4-post-art. KAVA artists’ collective, Kinvara, Co Galway: 2020 & 2021 & 2022.t[w]o islands: solo bricolage installation, drawn from 5 years of collecting & responding to place in Ireland & Tasmania: Side Space Salamanca. Sound, paintings, text & improvisation performances with invited guests (14-25 July 2021). ARTIST RESIDENCIES at Burren College of Art, County Clare (2017, 2018, 2023) (see blog) 2025Palimpsest-in-Process. Installation & Exhibition, Side Space Gallery, Salamanca Arts Centre. August 20-25, 2025Lutruwita Art Orchestra, development and performance projects.
improvisation practice & performance
Performances Ireland, Sept-October 2023: Gort, Ennis, Newton Castle MONA Music, solo 19 January, 2023; solo performance at opening of Sally Rees exhibition, MONA 2021; Precipice 2022,2023,2024 Canberra: National Improvisation Summit Performance Studies Network Surrey University UK: Lecture Recital Junction Arts Festival 2021: live broadcast with Sisters Acoustica Launceston Music Improvisation Alliance 2021, 2022: with Karlin Love Performances with Creek Road Art Orchestra (viola) 2021, 2022 continuing as Lutruwita Art Orchestra, LAO 2023/2024 (Board Member)Clarence Jazz Festival band, 2023/2024:'mulaka milaythina' (composer-lyrics: Louise Denson & Nunami Sculthorpe-Green)Sound Hub Hobart, house concerts Alexandra Battery (curating/performing) NYE 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022; Hobart improvisation collective performance weekends & random collaborations & events Continuing research & development in improvised performance practice (mentor Andrew Morrish – ongoing) Improvisation classes 2022/23/24 SOHO Community Arts Hall Hobart MIECAT Public Program, Improvisation tutor, 2022 Workshops/Performances: Residency#3, BCA Ireland,October 2023 collaborations
Nelipot Collective founder/composer: 2016-2023. Composer for 'Vital' at Goddess festival, Forth Tas, 2023. Composer for Glow and Flare work-in-progress, Tarkine-in-Motion exhibition (2019) & AMSA Conference (2019) Composer: seasons&reasons(2016)Tasmania Performs 2016 with choreographer Tullia Chung-Tilley. Performances of Adrift (2018) Regional ArtsTas Grant for Winter Arts Festival, St Helens (June 2017 & Hobart (September 2017); snippets at Nayri Niara Good Sprits Festival, Bruny Island, January 2019 & Seafarers' festival (2019).Festival of Voices, husshh...hearing takayna (2016) with Anne Norman (shakuhachi) & Emily Sheppard (violin); BBF exhibitions Long Gallery, Tasmania 2015-2022;Designer/composer/performer: 'dancemusic' with choreographer Glen Murray (Adelaide Fringe 2015) & John Rohig, Jugglers, Brisbane 2015;Composer: Of Loss: Grief's Transitions: CoreDance Contemporary, New York, 2014;Composer: 'Small Daily Showings', MIECAT Gallery, Melbourne, 2013.sound installations
t[w]o islands: loop installations, paintings, daily performances: Sidespace Gallery, Hobart, 2021;Celestial Listening with Arwen Dyer, Sidespace, Tasmania, 2014; Res/pond/ing with John Rohig, Jugglers, Brisbane, 2010.film composer
HERSELF, Gort Ireland, inaugural St Brigid Day, 4 February 2023...epi/sode...: with Jutta Pryor, Stranger with My Face International Festival, Hobart 2016;'being seen' with Edwina Entwistle, International Alliance of Women in Music Festival, 2015;'Shellfishers' with Russell Hawkins 2016; 'Fire' with Arwen Dyer 2016.writing
blog: days now days to come;Fish Publishing: long list Flash Fiction Ireland, 2021;children in therapy (2012); Feminism and Anti-racism (2001); Journals: Religion Literature and the Arts conference literature; Women Church;Arts, poetry and music reviewer: Island Magazine, the Mercury, The Australian (1998-2006); PhD: Creating a Place: Women Land and Improvisation, University of Tasmania (2000). Publications & Poetry collection 't[wo] islands'older work
'Will the real Australia please stand up' with Sue Moss, Julie Hunt and Cath Barcan: commissioned by the University of Tasmania Gallery 1996 & Contemporary Art Space Tasmania 1997.CD 'improvisation-image-voice' 1999 with Tasmanian poets Sue Moss, Sarah Day, Margaret Scott & Angela Rockel: ABC Improvisation Awards, ABCFM Radio, 1999Hobart Fringe Festival: 'Conundrum' 2001 &. Hobart Fringe Festival: 'Clown Pieces' 2002Hobart improvisation collective, 2002-2023 National annual improvisation summit, Precipice 2009, 2017, 2022Broadcasts on Sound Quality, 'the listening room' etc, & Edge community radio. Listening: hear (Soundcloud tag:'bird_bluerobin') training and teachers
Teachers in improvisation: Andrew Morrish (continuing), Al Wunder, Peter Trotman, Ruth Zaporah & Justus NeumannComposition: Don Kay (University of Tasmania); Ann Ghandar & Peter McNamara (University of New England);Violin,viola: Elizabeth Morgan,John Curro, Simon Oswell, Stella Nemetqualifications
PhD (UTas) Creating a place: women, land & improvisationBA (Hons) (Deakin & UTas/Conservatorium)BMus (Hons Composition & Performance) (UNE)AMusA (violin)Dip Teaching (Prim) (Deakin/Burwood Teachers' Coll)Grad Dip Creative Arts Therapy (MIECAT)Grad Cert Gestalt Therapy (GTA)memberships and representations
Represented associate artist: Australian Music CentreRepresented artist: International Alliance for Women in MusicAccredited therapist & supervisor: PACFAExternal higher degrees supervisor & HREC member: MIECATFreelance educator, therapist and supervisor