Marily Cintra is a cultural activist and a ceramic artist working in both small and large-scale ceramic works. She is also known for the development of art in public spaces.
Born in 1950 in Brazil, at age seventeen Cintra began working on cultural development projects with youth from a detention centre, making props for theatre productions. This was the start of a life-long involvement with the community prior to commencing her professional career in 1982. She moved to Australia in September 1988, and by 2009 had participated in over sixty exhibitions.
Cintra holds a Diploma in Industrial Arts from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil (1971); a Masters in Design from the University of South Australia (2000), where her thesis focused on 'Post Occupancy Evaluation of Public Art Programs in Healthcare: Liverpool Hospital Redevelopment POE’; and holds a Graduate Certificate in Sustainable Heritage Development from the Australian National University (2007). In 2009 she was a PhD candidate at the University of Queensland, her research concerning hospitals as cultural sites.
Upon graduating in Brazil, Cintra worked for many years as a teacher of Industrial Arts with students from disadvantaged areas. In Australia her art and cultural programs are grounded in research (consultations, interviews, surveys and site analysis) that links the embedded heritage of a site with health, community and art aspirations. Her programs involve establishing a framework for the inclusion of appropriate artworks and Cintra views these cultural programs as artworks in themselves. Examples of her art and cultural programs in Western Sydney include: Fairfield Hospital (1998); Fairfield Health Service (1998-2009); the Bankstown Hospital Art for Health Program (1995-2007); the Wellbeing in the Valley Program, Liverpool (1999-2004); and the Auburn Hospital Redevelopment Arts and Cultural Planning (2008-09).
The large-scale ceramic artworks produced for her art and cultural programs are usually mosaics. By involving the local community in the development and making of the ceramics, Cintra is able to incorporate local culture. An example of this process is her mosaic at the Waterloo Play Ground (2002) which was developed in collaboration with local children and families.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Cintra’s small-scale ceramic works are usually crafted out of porcelain and characterised by delicate folds and fine lines. On occasion she experiments in mixed media with porcelain as the base medium, such as in the 2007 work Hybrid Nests .
Cintra is also the director of several organisations, many of which are focused on the theme of working with community and health. She is the director of the Art Shed, a ceramics and art studio in Tharwa, ACT; the director of Placemaking, an organisation formerly known as Identity Environment and Art; a member of the International Advisory Board for the International Academy for Design and Health in Sweden; a member of the Cultural Advisory Committee for the Federation of Ethnic Communities of Australia; the founding member of the Caritas Project in Manchester, UK; a member of the Arts Advisory Committee for Fairfield and John Hunter Hospitals in Australia; a founding board member of Gunungan, Asia Pacific Network for Culture and Wellbeing, based in Australia; and the founder and executive director of HARC (Health and Arts Research Centre Inc).
Cintra’s achievements include the Australia Council for the Arts Community, Environment, Arts and Design (CEAD) Award (1997); the NSW Women and the Arts Fellowship (1998); the NSW Premier’s 2000 Public Sector Award, Certificate of Achievement, Bronze Award for Service Delivery (2000) and the Ros Bower Award (2006), which is awarded by the Australia Council for the Arts in recognition of longstanding commitment and dedication to community cultural development.
- Writers:
- Tamara Gough
Catherine De Lorenzo
- Date written:
- 2008
- Last updated:
- 2009
