Artist’s Biography Renee Sweetman is a proud Boon Wurrung & Yorta Yorta woman living in the Bass Coast. She is a singer/songwriter and has performed at major events including the Blaktivism concerts at the Melbourne Arts Centre in 2022 and … Read More
Dr Carla van Laar
Artist | Creative Arts Therapist
Master of Creative Arts Therapy
Doctor of Therapeutic Arts Practice
PACFA Reg. Clinical and Accredited Supervisor – PACFA
Carla van Laar is a painter and therapeutic arts practitioner from Australia. Born in Brisbane, Carla is first generation Australian on her Dutch grandparents side, and 7th generation through her maternal bloodline who were mostly English and came to Australia in the early colonisation of the 1800s. Her mother grew up in remote North Queensland and most of her extended family still live up North.
Carla currently lives and works in Boon Wurrung Country in the South Eastern coastal town of Inverloch, paying deep respects to the First Peoples of the Kulin Nations whose land was never ceded and will always be Aboriginal land.
Identifying as a cisgender woman, Carla is passionately disinterested in socially constructed identities that disempower anyone. Carla has over 25 years’ experience working with people and the arts for health and well-being in community organisations, justice, health and education contexts.
Carla’s first book “Bereaved Mother’s Heart” was published in 2007 and broke social taboos about maternal grief. From 2008-18 she established and ran an independent art therapy studio and gallery in Melbourne. Her Doctoral research “Seeing Her Stories” continues the mission to make women’s stories visible, through art.
Carla has worked as an Art Therapy educator at a number of training institutions since 2001. She is a practicing artist and in 2018 received an Artist Fellowship at RMIT’s creative research lab, “Creative Agency”. She insists on being part of a creative revolution in which art re-embodies lived experience, brings us to our senses, makes us aware of the interconnectedness of all life and is an agent of social change.
Carla’s book “Seeing her stories” presents her Doctoral research into making unseen stories visible through art. It was published in 2020 and is available to read for free on this website under the Seeing Her Stories menu.
CLICK HERE to Listen to Dr Carla interviewed on the FAT MOON Podcast
FAT MOON Podcast, created by Kirsty Greene, is a platform for creative therapists to connect and learn from each other.
In each FAT Moon episode, Kirsty interviews a creative therapist from around the globe.
Watch this short clip filmed at Carla’s “Unsung Spaces” exhibition during her fellowship at RMIT University’s “Creative Agency”.
Anna Kellerman of “Mama Creatives” invited Carla as a special guest. In this interview, Carla talks about being a woman, creative and therapist, being a bereaved mother, her journey into creative arts therapy, radical research and the art of activism and social change.
Jasmine Susic – contemporary dancer – improvisation, installation performance and dance theatre.
Artist’s Biography Jasmine Susic is a Bass Coast based contemporary dancer with an interest in improvisation, installation performance and dance theatre. Feature image credit: Tyson Butler Dance images credit: Karli Michelle Jasmine completed her training majoring in Contemporary Dance … Read More
Dr Carla van Laar – Artist and Creative Arts Therapist
Artist’s Statement I pay my respects to the Boon Wurrung People, on whose traditional lands this exhibition takes place. I honour them, their elders and ancestors. They have inhabited, cared for, gathered on and practiced Culture here on Country for … Read More
Jeremy Grace – Juggler and Magician.
Artist’s Biography Jeremy has been entertaining Australians for the last 35 years as a juggler, magician, singer, dancer and compère. Performing in public spaces, private functions, theatre restaurants, tropical islands and entertainment centres, he has enthralled both small groups, and crowds … Read More
Kim McDonald – Visual and Performing Artist, Experimenter
Feature image photo credit: Karli Michelle Artist’s Statement Kim is a practicing interdisciplinary artist with a background in printmaking, drawing and performance. Working across disciplines her art practice is experiential and experimental with her work encompassing the contrasting roles of … Read More
Publications & Resources
SNAPSHOTS OF A BEREAVED MOTHER’S HEART – RESEARCH In Carla’s 2001 Master’s research project, she investigated her own lived experience of being a bereaved Mother using arts based and narrative methods. Through this research, findings were generated that illuminated aspects … Read More
Curriculum Vitae
Dr Carla van Laar MCAT Prof Doc ThAP PACFA reg. Clinical 27769 PACFA accredited supervisor Arts Practitioner, Educator, Researcher and Therapist “With over 25 years experience working with people to enhance life through art, I am committed to creativity and … Read More
