Art & Alchemy Gallery & Studio

​​Dr Karly Edgar is an experienced teacher and facilitator with a background in the arts and aged care and she has a particular focus on the engagement with creativity as a means for wellbeing and expression.

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Education

PhD (Public Health), MACP, GradCert Res Methods, GradCert TESOL, BCA (Theatre), Cert IV Leis & Health CHC43415, Cert IV TAE40122.

 

PhD Thesis: Witnessing the Theatre of Life: The EPC Biography Program and Life Storytelling in Palliative Care

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Her academic path started with a Bachelor of Creative Arts in Theatre, followed by a Master of Arts where she focused on art and spirituality and art within community. In her Graduate Certificate in Research Methodologies, her thesis was an autoethnographic exploration  of how engaging in ritual, myth and imagination impacted her experience and understanding of chronic ill-health.

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​She later expanded her training with a Cert IV in Leisure and Health, working in lifestyle in aged care. This aged care experience led to receiving a PhD scholarship from La Trobe and Eastern Palliative Care to research EPC's volunteer facilitated Biography Program. ​Her PhD research was into Eastern Palliative Care’s volunteer‑facilitated Biography Program, deepened her expertise in life‑storytelling, person‑centred engagement, and the therapeutic value of creative expression while also expanding her understanding of palliative care.

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Karly has held academic faculty roles, including as a lecturer in art in a Bachelor of Arts, writing and coordinating the visual and dramatic arts majors while teaching a variety of art units including drama, art theory and history, and art and spirituality. She has taught at a masters level, mentoring students through their qualitative research projects and has taught in the Cert IV in Leisure and Health combining her knowledge and experience of the importance of creativity, the arts, spiritual engagement, aged and palliative care to train workers in aged care. ​

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Karly's creative practice developed from theatre to visual arts began after completing her BCA, when Karly was diagnosed with the chronic condition fibromyalgia which impacted her ability to work in the industry. During this substantial change of life, the visual arts and creativity  become a place of rest , recovery and personal and spiritual expression Her first solo exhibition 'Pieces of Self: feelings of fibromyalgia' deeply reflected this coalescence of creativity, spiritual engagement and physical experience and she has continued working in this integrative space. She moves between mediums and materials to reflect the feelings she is trying to find within herself and convey. Karly's main focus is in abstract expressionism as a means to express and share feelings and experiences.

 

Her academic experience, combined with her creative practice and experience, all contributed to her personal perspective that highly values the continued engagement in meaningful engagement as a vital element to life. She now brings this experience to Art & Alchemy Gallery & Studio, creating an inviting space that balances the complimentary fine art tradition within the gallery space with the creative exploration of art classes and courses.

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You can read more about her creative work here.

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