2024 Women to Watch
This year we showcase over 80 South Australian women to watch throughout the year. From business, to careers, arts to science. This year’s selected women highlight the depth and diversity of the women in our state and also the vast array of opportunities to develop a business or career in South Australia. Find our more about our inaugural Women to Watch initiative here.
Tara Kate Tauba Director / Founder, Senior Inclusive Arts Therapist & Visual Artist Tara Kate Arts Therapy & Studio and Honeycomb Gallery
Tara Kate advocates for social inclusion and wellbeing through the arts, by offering person-centred arts therapy programs, facilitating wellbeing projects, and curating exhibitions. With qualifications in visual arts, art therapy, leisure and health, business, training and assessment and disability, Tara is also currently completing a Masters in Therapeutic Arts Practice to broaden and deepen her arts therapy practice.
Outside of work Tara enjoys playfully painting with acrylics and aerosol, taking her family on new adventures and spending time with her giant Mastiff dog, Rosie.
// Favourite inspirational quote
“I think everything in life is art. What you do. How you dress. The way you love someone, and how you talk. Your smile and your personality. What you believe in, and all your dreams. The way you drink your tea. How you decorate your home. Or party. Your grocery list. The food you make. How your writing looks. And the way you feel. Life is art.” ― Helena Bonham Carter
// Let’s get to know you
I have always created art to celebrate life’s joys and work through life’s challenges and have carried this with me since childhood.
I studied a Bachelor of Visual Arts straight after high school, however for many years later, I found myself in work environments that weren’t aligned with the creative fire that I felt within. This challenge did however lead me to a new HR- based role in aged care, although I still knew that I wanted to find a way to support people creatively and work closer with the residents. I was fortunately offered an opportunity to study a Certificate IV in Leisure and Health and move into a lifestyle assistant role. This was where I started implementing arts-based programs in a dementia support program.
I told one of my colleagues at the time that I would love to become an arts therapist. I can still hear her response, which has become like a mantra for me – “Just do it darling, you only live once!” So, I did! As soon as I graduated from my Advanced Diploma in Art Therapy in 2017, I registered my business, worked as a mobile arts therapist in various organisations and opened a therapeutic arts space. I also gained a role in a disability-arts organisation, however after 3 years I made the decision to focus solely on my business.
As I mostly worked mobile, I let the space go and spent time working from various locations from Port Adelaide to Nuriootpa. I worked with young people facing barriers in Flexible Learning Programs, people with dementia and disability, visited schools, ran workshops for families and teams, programs for young carers and lots of other amazing things!
Then in 2021 a life thing happened so I decided to put a pause on my business. I gained a role as an Inclusion Coordinator at a local council, where I coordinated social inclusion programs for people with disability. This was such a meaningful, rewarding role. I learned so much about the beautiful people I worked with, and the participants taught me so much about myself. I studied my Certificate IV in Disability, and after 2 years I decided it was time to do this art therapy thing properly!
In 2023 I found the perfect space, in perfect timing and established Tara Kate Arts Therapy & Studio in Nuriootpa. I now offer Hive to Thrive ™ Inclusive Arts Therapy Group Programs and Flying Solo Individual Arts Therapy Programs to people with disability from children, young people, adults to older adults. I offer outreach support to people living in supported accommodation and aged care who may not be able to access external supports. I also have my first employee! Our amazing inclusive arts therapist, Casey now offers sessions on some afternoons.
// What makes you a Woman to Watch for 2024?
Attached to the arts therapy studio, I have created a gallery space, which I recently registered as “Honeycomb Gallery”. This unique space offers opportunities for participants and people with disability in the community who choose to share their art with an audience, to become involved in exhibitions throughout the year.
I am also currently working on an online platform (www.honeycombgallery.com.au currently under construction), where creative people with disability can have an artist bio and art listings for sale. The purpose of this, is to reduce isolation (some people create at home but may not have access to attend programs for various reasons), create community connection, financial independence and ultimately wellbeing.
This part of my business is growing legs, and I am heading down a path of advocating for social inclusion through the arts. I am promoting art as a form of self-expression and storytelling, which is beautiful, meaningful, and valid. I am challenging the mentality that art needs to be something that meets a technical or aesthetic brief to belong in the arts world. My vision is for the gallery to become a place where people with disability are at the forefront of Honeycomb Gallery. By gaining work experience and employment in a supportive arts-based environment and sharing their roles with the community, we will challenge the barriers and perspectives that people with disability often face in a society that isn’t designed for diversity…yet 😊
// What is your goal or intention for 2024? And how are you going to achieve it?
Putting together the artist onboarding process for Honeycomb Gallery and offering opportunities to some artists to utilise the online platform for free for 12 months while I find my feet!
– Accessing some coaching to learn more about the social enterprise model.
– Studying a Masters of Therapeutic Arts Practice through MIECAT Institute and will qualify for a Graduate Diploma by the middle of this year! (Yes, I’m a bit crazy).
– Preparing our first Barossa Arts Festival Exhibition in April 2024 titled “Hands Immersed” and starting to brainstorm our SALA Exhibition for August 2024, which will have a focus on young people.
// What would being a 2024 Woman to Watch mean to you?
I am not super confident with putting my face out there and although I try my best because I want to create opportunities and advocate for people facing barriers, being a Woman to Watch in 2024 will help to boost awareness around the work that I am doing and to help people to get to know me a bit more. It will mean so much to have the support of SA Woman and partners, to not only support me and my business, but also to create a flow-on effect to the people that I support.
Becoming a Woman to Watch in 2024 will create new and exciting pathways that push me out of my comfort zone and help me to connect more with other local business and career women. Plus, the recognition from even being nominated brought a few tears to my eyes! So, to then succeed with this application, would be a totally surreal sense of achievement and deeply felt acknowledgement at this point in my career.
// What would you like to see for the future of South Australian women and girls?
I would like to see more workplaces offering flexibility for women so that they are still able to earn a decent income and progress in their careers in different innovative ways when they need to step away from the typical workday scenario due to raising a family or caring for others, for example. I would like to see a future that embraces growing into and being our wonderful natural selves so that girls can feel safe and proud of who they are, without the pressures of filters/diets/expectations/judgement. A society that is inclusive and accessible, where people have more awareness, understanding and openness to learning from and connecting with people from diverse backgrounds, different abilities etc. Flexible and innovative school structures. Less hustle, more living. More kindness, more creativity, more nature!
Get in touch with Tara:
LinkedIn: Tara Tauba
Website: www.tarakateartstherapysa.com.au
Check out all of the incredible Women to Watch for 2024 here as their profiles are uploaded throughout the year.
To become an SA Woman Member, check out our Membership Options here.
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