Miriam Pickard

About the work

At the heart of Miriam’s arts practice is a desire to generate and inspire cultural empathy, health and wellbeing of Australian diversity and identity. Her stories travel feeling between people and country. Maintaining and re-imagining the wisdom, vitality and relatability of ancient myth in contemporary Australia is an important part of this. The Clown archetype where joy and suffering sit close together is a feature of her performance style inviting comedy, the ridiculous along with depth of feeling and humanity.

Photo by Josie Russell-Brown

About the artist

Miriam Pickard is a performance artist and storyteller in mythopoetic and site-specific theatre events. She graduated with a BA in Theatre/Media and received a business Arts Scholarship to complete full-time theatre training in France with Master Clown teacher Philippe Gaulier. Intergenerational relationships and cross-cultural exchange are key components of Miriam’s creative process in her solo and collaborative theatre work. Since 2010 Miriam has collaborated in and documented Intergenerational Warlpiri Women’s Dance Camps along the Tanami in Central Australia where senior women teach songs, dances and stories to their granddaughters. Miriam is also part of an intergenerational performance ensemble trio in Canberra exploring regeneration stories and transformation mysteries from their Western cultural heritage and the nature of transmission of knowledge between generations. Since 2014 Miriam has also been working alongside Internationally acclaimed playwright, Australian cross-cultural theatre practitioner and psychotherapist Craig San Roque in the development of a site-specific theatre trilogy based on the ancient Mediterranean myth of Persephone and Demeter. Part 3 is currently in development.

(Recent publication in PAN Journal ‘Persephone and Me; a personal reflection’ http://panjournal.net/issues/13)