I share reflections about my practice via email
Creative Critters was made to:
Facilitate a group critique that centres listening
Foster interdisciplinary collaborations
Learn to give and receive helpful feedback
It emerged in response to the lack of spaces for thoughtful, structured critique outside of formal art institutions.
The Creative Critters cards can be used to facilitate a critique session for a group of creatives with ongoing artistic projects.
What’s inside the deck:
1 Introduction Card: guides the artist to introduce their work
10 Goal Cards: to communicate the artist’s goal(s) for the critique session
27 Prompt Cards to start discussions about an artwork's concept, context, formal qualities, practicality and reception
A Manual with 4 different critique modes
How it works
1
Choose a play mode from the manual — or invent your own.
2
A person introduces their work & tells others what type of feedback they are looking for using the goal cards.
3
Others use prompt cards to guide their reflections, questions, and feedback to the work being presented.
4
Take turns and repeat till everyone has presented and received feedback for their work.
Download a free online printout of Creative Critters (2024 edition)
Pre-order a Creative Critters deck
Hire me (Jess) to facilitate a Creative Critters workshop for your community!
Creative Critters workshops are designed for communities seeking to build capacity in creative communication, reflection, and peer-led feedback.
This offering includes a 3-part collaborative structure:
1. Customisation phase
We begin by meeting with your team to understand your goals for engaging with a Creative Critters workshop.
Based on your needs, we tailor the workshop structure and facilitation style.
A proposed workshop plan is then shared for your review.
2. Group-critique facilitation training
1–3 community leaders or staff members from your organisation will receive a 30–45 minute Creative Critters facilitation training. This includes:
An introduction to the method and card deck
Basic group facilitation skills
Practices to support a safe and inclusive critique space (e.g. tools to manage dominant participants to allow a more balanced participation amongst group members)
3. Group-critique session
Now this is the main part of the Creative Critters workshop. It includes:
A short 15-minute talk on the basics of listening in group critique sessions, and why it matters.
A 3 hour group critique session run collaboratively with trained facilitators from part 2.
Each trained facilitator will guide one small group (up to 5 participants). Jess will lead one group too.
So, the maximum number of participants for the workshop depends on the number of community leaders trained in part 2.
For example:
1 facilitator trained = workshop for max 10 participants
3 facilitators trained = workshop for max 20 participants
This collaborative structure ensures that the skills introduced during the workshop can continue to ripple outward — even after the session ends.
Creative Critters Workshop Fee 💵
First time hosting a Creative Critters workshop?
Refer to the '1st workshop' column.
Have hosted a Creative Critters workshop before and would like to another session?
You might consider the 'following workshops' column.
The following fee outline assumes minimal workshop customisation required, for a workshop of up to 20 participants.
The workshop fee is based on the Australian NAVA rates and organisation size. If you are unsure of your organisation size, please refer to the NAVA organisation size chart.
I hope that this workshop can be accessible to communities that need it. If the price outlined is not within your community's budget, please email me and we can try to sort out another form of exchange :)
Jess Ibache
Acting Team Leader Gallery and Arts Programs, Merri-bek City Council
Lucie Loy
Director, Seventh Gallery
Zora Pang
Independent Artist and Producer
Claudia Philips
Program Manager, Schoolhouse Studios
"Jessica Tanto's Creative Critters has been an invaluable design critique tool in my UX/UI and Web Design studios in the past year. The cards generate conversations from angles that would have otherwise been missed, and complements classroom conversations so well."
Xavier Ho
Senior Lecturer in Interaction Design, Monash University
Acknowledgements
Creative Critters was developed through generous support, feedback, and collaboration.
Thank you to the organisations and individuals who shaped its early beginnings and continue to champion the method today.
Initial development supported by Connection Arts Space
Shoutout to CAS's former director, Larra Juab, for believing in the idea for Creative Critters and supporting the development.
In selecting the right words, design and format of Creative Critters, I was under generous guidance from the expertise of SEVENTH Gallery's Creative Critters cohort 2023: Ben Koder, Anna Smith, Joy Zhou, Zeth Cameron, David Ma, Sovan Ly, Latifa Elmrini Gonzalez, Melanie Thewlis
Love what we're doing?
We're looking for supporters and collaborators to build an expansion pack that can
effectively guide discussions surrounding the financial sustainability of a creative project/art practice
support students studying in VCE Art Creative Practice
I continue to passionately dream of other toolkits for creatives.
Keen to hear more?
I'd love to introduce myself and explore potentials to collaborate.
Contact me via email or instagram
Image Credits:
Photography by Wild Hardt of Creative Critters Workshop at Making it in Merri-Bek, supported by Merri-Bek Council: Photos under introduction and How it Works section
Photography by Bec Smith of Creative Critters Workshop in Schoolhouse Studios: Photo attached to Claudia Philips' testimony
Photography by Sovan Ly of Creative Critters public presentation at SEVENTH Gallery: Photo attached to Lucie Loy's testimony
Self-taken image of Creative Critters making process at SEVENTH Gallery: last picture under 'Acknowledgement' section.
Photography by Andrew Sirkoski of Creative Critters Workshop, presented as part of You Are Here Canberra's Cahoots Lab 2025, supported by Creative Australia: Photos after 'How to Play section', except for those credited above.