RAA Newsletter - Issue 2 July 2007

welcome

At Regional Arts Australia we like to remind people that one-third of us live outside the capital centres. We also like to remind people that even the briefest of looks beyond the metropolitan outskirts will reveal a vast array of great art. Original art. Art that entertains. Art that opens eyes to a bigger world. Art that changes lives.

Tonight (2 August) at 8pm (AEST) on the Ovation Channel, you can see some of that great art in the new monthly program Heartland. It is a joint production between Ovation and Regional Arts Australia and I urge you to turn on. At this stage, there will be three episodes of Heartland each month until October. Further episodes will depend on us finding a major sponsor. If you miss the opening show on 2 August, it is repeated throughout the month on a rotating cycle, so check your guide.

In other good news, His Excellency Major General Michael Jeffery AC CVO MC (Retd) the Governor General of Australia has agreed to be our patron. We look forward to a long relationship with His Excellency and hope to welcome him to one of our events soon.

Our national secretary, Ken Lloyd, has been awarded a Churchill Fellowship. This is a great honour and achievement for Ken who will visit Canada, the United States and England next year to investigate new programs that would further develop the arts in regional Australia. Ken is chief executive officer of Country Arts SA and what he gains through his fellowship will benefit not just regional South Australians but the whole country.

We were delighted recently to welcome to our headquarters at Port Adelaide, Senator George Brandis SC, Australian Government Minister for Arts and Sport. The minister announced more than half a million dollars for 73 projects through the Regional Arts Fund. His skills at juggling were tested by teenagers from the Willunga Circus who had him tossing balls into the air in no time.

Finally, everybody should be noting in their 2008 diaries the dates 3 to 5 October. That is when the largest group of artists, arts workers and arts officials ever to gather in one place will be in Alice Springs for the national conference of Regional Arts Australia Art at the Heart . At least 800 people attended our last conference in 2006 in Mackay and the pull of the Alice, the line-up of speakers and the packed list of official and social events will make this conference even bigger. Don't miss it.

Vivienne Skinner, Communications Manager, Regional Arts Australia

Vivienne Skinner
Communications manager
Regional Arts Australia
vivienne.skinner@countryarts.org.au

Catch our new show Heartland on the Ovation Channel

Ovation Channel and Regional Arts Australia have worked together to produce Heartland, a new monthly television series featuring the best of regional arts and cultural events across Australia. Showcasing performance, visual arts, music, drama, from forests transformed by sculpture to children who just might run away with the circus, Heartland tells the stories of the creative people helping to shape our national culture.

Focusing on events outside metropolitan Australia but designed for viewers everywhere, Heartland providesa platform for individuals and organisations whose work may not normally be shown on national television. With a stunning backdrop, from the dry red inner core of Australia to its breezy coastal towns, the program celebrates the rich and varied arts activities and success stories that are at the heart of contemporary Australian culture.

"Heartland embraces the very best of regional arts, presenting the incredibly creative and artistic diversity of work right across Australia, with all its character and eccentricities.” Gerry Travers, MD, Ovation Channel. Produced and presented by Michelle Hanna, Heartland will also demonstrate how the arts are helping to unite communities and individuals in regional and remote areas of Australia, coping with issues such as poverty and drought. Each Heartland program will also feature a one-minute spotlight on new media or animation from regional Australian artists.Heartland premieres on Thursday 2 August at 8.00pm. Forthcoming stories include:

2007 Alice Springs Beanie Festival – NT
The festival that elevates the Australian beanie to an art form, each year (now in its 11th) this remarkable festival unites communities, generates income and brings thousands of visitors to Alice Springs.

Circus Oz – WA
The creative masters of Circus Oz, recently returned from wowing audiences in New York Times Square, get their inspiration from performing a third of the year in remote areas of Australia. Currently, they offer the local community of Newman the chance to learn skills with c ommunity training sessions and classes in school curriculums, culminating in a big town performance.

Dry Humour – NSW
When the town of Wagga Wagga was in depression because of the drought and no one could afford to go to the theatre, local businesses offered to support regional towns by putting on free performances to lift people’s spirits. The Riverina Theatre Company in Wagga Wagga has been so successful that they are now an integral part of the morale of this hard hit community.

Mubali – NSW
When young Indigenous girls were coming into hospital to give birth, for many it was their first time in hospital. Enter Beyond Empathy, a unique arts intervention organisation that had the young girls coming in for plaster cast workshops to make moulds of their bellies and paint them, while health professionals offered advice on breastfeeding, dental and post-natal care. The award-winning Mubali program culminated in an exhibition at the Moree Plains Gallery, whilst succeeding in raising the levels of health amongst the new mothers and their babies.

2007 Cossack Art Award – WA
The Pilbara region in North Western Australia has inspired many artists; it is also the home of the most isolated acquisitive art award in the world. On display in the magnificent granite and bluestone masonry buildings in Cossack, the annual award is fast gaining a reputation as one of Australia’s most exciting regional arts events. Jason Smith from the National Gallery of Victoria was the Judge for 2007.
Regional Arts Australia is the key national body representing the broad and complex interests and concerns of those working with and for the arts in regional, rural and remote Australia. Ovation is available on AUSTAR, FOXTEL, Optus and SelecTV.

Further Information Jeanette Bevan (02) 8879 7018, Michelle Hanna, presenter / producer, (02) 8879 7022, Vivienne Skinner, communications manager, Regional Arts Australia 0411 206 224.

Image produced by Dave Jones, Professional Artist and Animator

Tackling road tragedy via song

While Aboriginal people make up just over a quarter of the population of the Northern Territory, they represent half of all road deaths. This over-representation in road crashes is linked to geographical, cultural, social, educational and economic issues. Mix into the equation the fact that 70 percent of Aboriginal families in the Northern Territory speak their native language in their home and that in remote areas, this percentage exceeds 95 percent. Add problems with literacy, cultural differences and community protocols and you have one extremely complicated public health issue.

And that is where music enters the story. Last year, bands from across the Territory competed in the inaugural Road Safety Song Competition during the Barunga Festival, one of Australia's biggest and longest-running Indigenous community festivals and only four bands entered. But this year, eleven bands entered with the grand $2,000 prize won by the popular Sandridge Band from Borroloola in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Their winning entry - Take Care When You're Driving Along - carried strong messages about buckling up and drink-driving. The NT Government's Indigenous Road Safety Officer, Aaron Watson, says a film crew attended the festival filming the contestants for a DVD which will be circulated to radio stations and communities across the Territory.

"In a lot of places up here in the Territory, there aren't a lot of books and newspapers and people aren't literate to a high level. So a DVD is an exciting way to get messages out," says Watson. Second prize in the competition went to well-known Hermannsburg singer, Warren H Williams, who has toured with John Williamson. His song reminds drivers to think about passengers and make safe driving their number one priority.

Further Information: Aaron Watson (08) 8924 7017 www.roadsafety.nt.gov.au

The Winners - Sandridge Band. Photo: Todd Williams, Cutting Edge

Directing the Hero within - and who says you need sea to surf?

It's short, it's sweet and it's beautifully shot. And who says you need waves to surf? From Pinnaroo in South Australia's southern Mallee district, teenagers Kade Richardson, 18, and Danah Ribbons, 17, have shown that sand-dunes made a great substitute for the surf. All you need is a surfboard, sunscreen and a steep enough dune. With dead-pan humour and a terrific backing track composed by Richardson himself, the short film titled Pinnaroo Surfer made using a mini digital video camera, was considered so good that it screened in May at the San Francisco International Digital Storytelling Conference.

Richardson was one of the first participants in Directing the Hero Within, a youth empowerment project which helps young people to tell their stories using film and multimedia. It is funded by a wide variety of sources including Country Arts SA through the Australian Government's Regional Arts Fund. When he started to participate in the workshops in 2004, Richardson dropped out of school and moved to Adelaide. He is now back in Pinnaroo, finishing his final year at Murrayville Community College and works with the town's Youth Media Centre. Pinnaroo Surfer is part of the Directing the Hero Within DVD being distributed to young people across Australia as a tool to teach them how to tell their stories with digital media. Richardson was a finalist in the youth division of this year's Australian International Documentary Conference in Adelaide in February. His next project "The Oo in Pinnaroo" is about country life and its quirky characters. He is developing the project together with Sam Long, 16, from Murray Bridge, for ABC JTV on ABC2 the digital network.

Richardson's brother Tyrone, 21, has himself been inspired to become a filmmaker. Recently, he completed a two month trip in a dinghy along the length of the Murray River, filming the trip as he went.

See Pinnaroo Surfer at
http://edcommunity.apple.com.au/gallery/student/item.php?sec=1&itemID=63

Kade Richardson and Danah Ribbons filmding "Pinnaroo Surfer" at a Directing the Hero Within Workshop

Catapult into festival time in Bathurst

The power of circus to transform lives and provide skills and opportunities will be celebrated in Bathurst in September when an estimated 300 young people gather for the second biennial Catapult Festival. The festival - to run from 12 to 16 September - will see emerging performers share the trapeze and training mat with circus professionals such as performers from Circus Monoxide who are returning to Bathurst with their big top.

"There's growing international interest in learning circus skills," says the festival's artistic director Stephen Champion. "It is a way of positive risk-taking and for some, finding a purpose and direction that they may not already have. The skill level of circus in this country has gone up a lot in recent years and one of our forum topics will be finding new avenues for performance. This festival is bringing troupes from all around the country and is now a national event on the Australian Circus and Physical Theatre Association calendar."

Champion says Bathurst has developed a reputation for producing circus and physical theatre exponents with several of the country's leading practitioners emerging from Charles Sturt University's theatre media course, including the current artistic director of Circus Oz, Mike Finch. Workshops and forums will include practical skills training, career path opportunities and 'using narrative in your performance'.
www.catapultfestival.com.au

Lucky to be a Queenslander

It's a remarkable achievement and it would be interesting to know if there is anywhere else on earth where as many shows cover as much distance to reach as many communities. Queensland Arts Council (QAC), now in its 46th year, expects in 2007 to reach some 600,000 Queenslanders according to its CEO Arthur Frame. With the program divided into three categories - tours for the general public managed directly by QAC, tours for school children, and finally mini-tours and exhibitions that are overseen by QAC but managed by local arts councils - the circuit will this year cover at least 100,000 square kilometres. It's the biggest such program in Australia and Frame understands the school touring program is the biggest in the world.

For Queenslander children, it's a particular fortunate story. "The Department of Education has for the past 21 years seconded two teachers to QAC to develop curriculum materials to enhance our shows," says Frame. "This means that teachers at schools that take our productions can devise a whole program of activity both in the lead up and then after the show, whether that be learning music that's associated with it, or providing workshop activities that support a production. This makes the performance itself pivotal. Remember that for many kids, the shows we bring are the only live performances they will have ever seen. It's a big responsibility on our part to make it excellent," says Frame.

Touring Queensland schools this year are 32 different shows visiting around 1,000 venues as far north as Pormpuraaw in the Gulf of Carpentaria to Mount Isa and Winton in the west and Cunnamulla, Goondiwindi and Texas in the south. This year there will be at least 3,600 performances reaching up to half a million schoolchildren.

"Interestingly, Murray Fox, the late Queensland boss of the engineering giant Theiss Pty Ltd told me that he'd been very moved as a schoolboy by a performance brought to his regional Queensland town by QAC. It was this show and others that followed that allowed him to see a big world of opportunities beyond his small town," Frame says. Theiss Pty Ltd has been the major sponsor of the QAC for the past seven years.

And if you're a member of that lucky Queensland regional public, the next tour on QAC's menu is The Food of Love, a production by Opera Queensland with arias and romantic music by Mozart, Puccini, Gilbert & Sullivan, Strauss and Lehár. Cairns, Hughenden, Bundaberg, Toowoomba, Stanthorpe and Ipswich are just some of the destinations where music lovers can enjoy The Food of Love throughout August and into September. www.qac.org.au

The Food of Love

A burial ground becomes creative work of beauty at Echuca in Victoria's Murray region

The Echuca Cemetery now has its own Indigenous burial space, framed by gum trees and native plants and with four ceremonial entrance poles lining the central pathway. The burial ground was designed by Echuca artist Judy Atkinson and has taken six months to construct by participants in a work for the dole program who contributed their labour. The artwork on the poles surrounding the ground reflect the circle of communication, strength and solidarity. There is also a gumleaf mosaic and steel shield, which was unveiled by Victoria's Member for Murray, Sharman Stone. At the dedication ceremony, Mrs Atkinson said: "After being through funerals all my life I always thought it was sad our people never had their own burial place in cemeteries, except on missions or reserves. We go back to the land to join our ancestors in the Dreamtime."

The project was funded through the Regional Arts Fund, an Australian Government initiative supporting the arts in regional, remote and very remote/isolated Australia.

Echuca Cemetery

Portable parades from Pompidou to Port Lincoln

It is the newest technological blank canvas - the screen of your mobile phone. And it's also becoming one of the hippest forms of art around. The Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT) is teaching mobile phone art to 13 to 19 year olds in a series of workshops across regional South Australia as part of the Portable Worlds exhibition and with the assistance of the Country Arts SA touring program. A selection of works in the exhibition has just returned from France's Pompidou Centre in Paris as part of the Pocket Film Festival.

The two-day workshops teach participants how to write, develop, animate, edit and encode a short animated work for the mobile phone screen. In the process, the young people learn alongside professional artists and develop digital literacy skills. And the participants get to keep the mobile phone. Portable Worlds and the associated workshops will be visiting Port Lincoln, Berri and Port Augusta before moving on to Cairns early in 2008.

Portable Worlds is one of eight new exhibitions that Country Arts SA is touring in 2007. At any one time, Country Arts SA's visual arts touring arm has up to 14 exhibitions on the road, with 25 galleries across the state hosting work. Last year, 90,000 regional South Australians visited an exhibition organised by Country Arts SA.

Further Information
Touring Program www.countryarts.org.au
Portable Worlds www.anat.org.au/portableworlds

Portable Worlds work by Anita Bacic

The art of the ancient is alive in Moree

Moree is one of the few big towns in New South Wales to have no public art. Located in the heart of the north west's agriculturally-rich cotton district, Moree somehow escaped the onslaught of late 20th century public art programs funded by federal, State and local governments. The director of the Moree Plains Gallery, Katrina Rumley, says: "this could have been a blessing in disguise if we critically review the aesthetic merit of various country towns' monuments such as the big prawn at Ballina of the mosquito near Newcastle."

However, the absence of public art at Moree is about to change with local Kamilaroi artist Lawrence Leslie at work in the gallery garden carving giant red gum tree trunks which will be erected at the entrances to the town. Leslie is the only initiated Kamilaroi tree carver still working.

Rumley says the Moree region is famous for its Kamilaroi carved trees with sculpted living trees found on properties throughout the shire. "The Kamilaroi people are Australia's second largest Indigenous language group and were carvers, rather than painters. Moree Plains Gallery houses significant stone and tree carvings that commemorate a culture dating back thousands of years," Ms Rumley says.

"In 1918, Australian Museum Director R Etheridge published his research on Kamilaroi and Wiradjuri carved trees known as dendroglyphs. He identified that these were often located near burial sites and that the designs were of creatures and kinship affiliations of the deceased. Etheridge recounted the belief that 'the spirit of a dead man went up to the sky world' by means of a carved tree," explains Rumley.

She says Moree's Kamilaroi people still approach carved trees with wariness, especially because of the association with death. Lawrence Leslie's designs for the gateway trees depict four traditional Kamilaroi creatures: goanna, brolga, pelican and snake. They are intended to be viewed as sculptures rather than as sacred or ritualistic totems. Leslie's imagery and mark-making can be seen in his paintings and screenprints for which he became well-known in the 1970s. His prints are in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia and the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Leslie and friends have long worked on a project to return Kamilaroi carved trees to their place of origin in the north-west of NSW. They know of 50 trees that were collected by museums where few have ever been displayed.

The carved trees are due to be completed and erected by December "and will prominently recognise an ancient culture and increase pride among Aboriginal people of the town and district," says Rumley.

Further Information (02) 6757 3320 www.moreeplainsgallery.org.au

Lawrence Leslie incising a tree for the Moree entrance

$14 million Albury Library Museum a leader of its kind

One of the most significant arts complexes in the country has opened in Albury in southern NSW. The $14 million Albury City Library Museum is the first in Australia to converge the functions of a library and a museum into one single facility. Designed by architects Ashton Ragatt McDougal, Albury's cultural programs team leader, Carina Clement, says the council is expecting it to attract up to 500,000 visitors in the first year alone. "While there will be areas for specific activities such as lending and exhibitions, all the information zones will be combined. For example, someone wanting to know about the history of the Albury Railway Station will be able to access our entire collection of reference books as well as information about - say - artworks associated with the train station. It will all be linked together using the latest interactive technology," says Ms Clement. There will be plenty of public computers, free wireless network access and a one-stop web portal enabling searches across the museum, library and heritage catalogues.

The building has been in planning for several years and under construction since early last year. The only other facility like it in the world, says Clement, is the Puke Ariki Knowledge Centre in the New Plymouth district of New Zealand's North Island. "First and foremost, our Library Museum will be a meeting place where we have broken down all the old barriers between art forms and useages." She says the large and environmentally-controlled exhibition spaces will allow the city to attract some of the more substantial touring exhibitions from the big city institutions such as the Powerhouse and the Australian Museum in Sydney. The first major touring exhibition is Vanishing Point from the new media and digital art centre Experimenta in Melbourne which runs until 2 September. www.alburycity.nsw.gov.au

Albury LibraryMuseum

Talent, skills and bacon and eggs at Tennant Creek

The booming national and international interest in music created by Indigenous performers is being given a further lift by the success of the Winanjjikari Music Centre in Tennant Creek. The centre was only opened last year but has become a busy hub for the teaching, recording and marketing of music. The centre is in the heart of the Northern Territory's Barkly District which covers 300,000 square kilometres, a region bigger than Victoria. Project officer, Jeffrey McLaughlin, says at least 28 bands exist within the region and the Winanjjikari Music Centre has filled a giant need for a meeting and performing place. "People in the Barkly District have been waiting 30 years for something like this. Before, there were musos who had no possibility of doing very much with their talent. Now that the centre is off and running and as well as providing recording opportunities, we're offering a course through Charles Darwin University, a Certificate in Music Industry Foundation which teaches computer skills, music recording, mixing and mastering. There are 14 participants in this course. And they'll then graduate and become full-time paid mentors to other emerging musicians" explains McLaughlin.

"The blokes are waking up their wives at 5.30am to get them breakfast so they can get to work. There's so much pride in it all and their kids boast to their mates that their dads have jobs."

"One of the other great things is breaking down barriers between the 14 different tribal and language groups that live in and around Tennant Creek. Several of the bands have members from differing tribes - for instance, the Sandridge Band has members from four different tribes."

"It's also a way of keeping the languages alive because many of the songs are recorded in language," McLaughlin says.

Right now, the centre is producing several CDs including one titled Bacon and Eggs. The plan, says McLaughlin, is for the proceeds of sales to fund a daily breakfast for the students and workers at the centre. It'll certainly give the wives a break.

The Winanjjikari Music Centre is an initiative of Barkly Regional Arts Inc which receives support through the Australian Government's Regional Arts Fund.
winanjjikari.podomatic.com/

CDEP Trainee Joe Davey working with the Music Centre's PA on location in Ali-Curung

Port Augusta wears the cultural crown

It's a bit like the Olympics coming to town. A way of vastly speeding up the growth of your arts infrastructure and arts development. In this case, the lucky city is Port Augusta, named by the Government of South Australia as the state's first ever Regional Centre for Culture. Along with the title comes $1.3 million in State support to help build a new cultural precinct and fund shows and activities throughout 2008. The Port Augusta City Council is contributing $250,000 towards the program.

The State Government initiative is based on the highly successful European Capital of Culture model and is similar to a scheme being proposed nationally by Regional Arts Australia. Central to Port Augusta's program is the conversion of the city's Institute Hall into a performing arts centre with a flexible auditorium to cater for drama, music, cabaret as well as community meetings, conferences and other social activities. There will also be an outdoor performance space, visual arts spaces and artists' dressing rooms.

The venue will be in a position to host a variety of events including Country Arts SA's annual performing and visual arts touring program. There will also be an extensive schools' program undertaken by Country Arts SA, ensuring that every school student in Port Augusta will see or participate in professional arts events and activities as part of the Regional Centre for Culture Program.

Later in the year, Country Arts SA will be seeking expressions of interest from other regional towns to be the 2010 Regional Centre for Culture.
www.countryarts.org.au

Pt Augusta Cultural Precinct

Tasmania - the artists' island

In a powerful artistic blitzkrieg, 400 hundred Tasmanian artists will - in the space of one week and in 22 different towns - be part of the State-wide exhibition Local Connections. From the fishing port of Currie on King Island to the southern cape of Bruny and in mining towns, rural hamlets and shack communities the team of 400 will, from 24 August until 2 September, display their work, give artist floor talks and share their skills through hands-on workshops, all part of Tasmanian Living Artists' Week 2007. Local Connections is a celebration of regional creativity and has been made possible by Festivals Australia, an Australian Government program which supports cultural activity at regional and community festivals. It is produced by Tasmanian Regional Arts in partnership with arts@work with sponsorship from Hydro Tasmania.

Further Information
www.tasregionalarts.org.au

"Brady" by Anthony White

It's not graffiti, it's art in Alice Springs

Seeing the contents of an aerosol paint can as a creative medium rather than a tool of vandalism or a substance to sniff is one of the reasons behind a series of classes being run in Alice Springs by Brisbane-based graffiti artist, Kieron Wilson. Wilson says aerosol art (as he prefers to call it) is a highly-appealing artform for young people aged between 12 and 25. "They really engage with it. It has a youth orientation. And it is equally popular with Indigenous and non-Indigenous young people," he says. "It's so good to see a group of kids going out and buying paint to do a work of art that's totally intrinsically motivated. They really want to do it."

The aerosol art workshops are run out of Alice Springs' RedHOT Arts space and will culminate with the decoration of a large public wall at the Alice Springs Youth Centre. Wilson's own work has been featured in a solo exhibition at Watch This Space, an artist-run contemporary gallery in Alice Springs.

See Wilson's work at www.noise.net/kieronwilson or www.redhotarts.com.au

Fills for Frills, Graffiti art by Kieron Wilson

Manic Running Madness

Young people inspiring other young people to have a go and create is at the heart of the latest touring show Running Madness by Manic Productions, the youth artist-run initiative based in Launceston. The not-for-profit group which has around 30 active members works in all kinds of media creating animations, digital art and 2D works such as painting and photography. An exhibition is currently touring Tasmania, taking in towns such as Swansea and Scottsdale and concluding in Smithton in November.

The three young artists behind Running Madness, Justin Chapman (27), David Henderson (26) and Sam Francis (19), have all grown up in northern Tasmania. They are supported by Tasmanian Regional Arts' youth communications officer, Karlee Foster (herself an emerging visual artist and graphic designer) who says the boys' colourful art and personalities are a great drawcard. "Art is a great way of teaching multimedia skills to young people and through computers, cameras and other equipment that we have on hand, young people are able to create some great art. Earlier this year, members of Manic Productions teamed up with some sound artists and created some really interesting work. In this latest exhibition, the artists explore alias personalities like David Henderson's 'Dark Ozwald' and Justin Chapman's 'Mop Mop'," says Foster.
www.tasregionalarts.org.au

Ozzywalld by David Henderson

Revealing the soul within - Victoria's Koorie community turns lens on itself

Members of Victoria's Koorie community are turning the camera lens on themselves in a photographic documentary project entitled 'Come and Have a Look at Yourself'. It runs throughout 2007 and is the brainchild of the Koorie Unit at Swan Hill's Sunraysia Institute of TAFE. Indigenous photography students are snapping local Koories in their choice of setting - at home, work and at play - and in doing so are communicating something about the way they live.

The images will be mounted and displayed at Swan Hill Art Gallery along with details of each subject's family/clan/tribe and language group. Sunraysia Institute's Koorie Liaison Officer, Alan Walsh, says students hope to photograph up to 300 of the district's 900 or so Koorie community members.

"The benefits to the Indigenous and mainstream communities cannot be understated, such as…providing an opportunity for Koorie people to document a more accurate view of who they are, their connections and relationships and where they work and live. Mainstream communities will gain a more accurate and positive image of Indigenous communities," said Mr Walsh. www.rav.net.au

Uncle Bruce Baxter

Wildflower rocks Melbourne

Mark Grose from Skinnyfish, the Independent Indigenous Australian Music label from Winellie in the Northern Territory, writes of a visit from the very north to the very south of Australia by a group of young musos…

"Wildflower is a group of eight guys and girls aged between 16 and 22 from an outstation near the Oenpeli community in Arnhem Land which is next to Kakadu National Park. One of the unusual things about Wildflower is that four of the members are girls...which is pretty uncommon in Indigenous music.

Wildflower recently travelled to Melbourne to visit Trinity Grammar School and to undertake a recording project including the shooting of a video clip. The trip was partly sponsored by Trinity Grammar and was a cross-cultural program where the band worked with the students and did a couple of performances both at the school and at Melbourne University. The purpose of the visit was to establish a strong relationship between the Trinity Grammar community and the community of Mamaduwerrie in western Arnhem Land. It was a resounding success with all parties making strong friendships. Wildflower band members were billeted by Trinity Grammar families establishing the foundation for a long term friendships. After the Trinity visit, Wildflower recorded their debut album at Audrey Studio in Coburg. Wildflower also cut its second video clip and shot footage for a possible upcoming ABC series called Fangin the Kombi. The ten members of the touring group worked extremely hard during this three week period."

By Mark Grose
www.skinnyfishmusic.com.au

Jean Buranali, lead singer, Wildflower

The art of the card

Tourism and art are converging into one giant happening thing in Toowoomba as the Great Toowoomba Postcard Project enjoys its second year. Using the format of the postcard, artists of any age and level of professionalism have been encouraged to submit an entry - the only rule being that each work must reflect a landmark or the atmosphere of Toowoomba. On September 20th during the city's Flower, Food and Wine Festival the six winning entries will be announced and publicly displayed. They will be printed as a limited edition set and sold throughout the city at arts outlets, retailers and via Arts Council Toowoomba.

One of the event's organisers, Cherylyn Stewart, says the aim of the competition is to showcase both the city and its artists. "Last year we received 80 entries. We've distributed the competition flyers more widely this year, including to schools, so we're expecting even more entries this time around," she said.

"The project is generating real interest with people thinking hard about how to express the way they see Toowoomba. It's a real challenge to communicate this in postcard form," Stewart says.

Proceeds from the Great Postcard Project will be used by Arts Council Toowoomba to fund more opportunities in the region such as the forthcoming Avant Garden where locals are invited to create art works that can be "planted" in selected city garden beds, currently empty due to the drought.

Further Information
Beverley Bloxham, President, Arts Council Toowoomba
email: beverley@bloxham.biz

"Empire Theatre" by Fiona Blaschiek

Repeat love match the dream for OzOpera's Carmen in Borden

A Spanish tavern, a bull-fighting ring and an Aussie hayshed are the unlikely combination that will stir the souls of the West Australian wheat-belt town of Borden - population 30 - on 22 September when OzOpera arrives in town to perform Bizet's Carmen. Borden is to the north of the majestic Stirling Range National Park and is just one stop in an extensive national tour by Opera Australia's touring arm OzOpera that includes some of the most isolated dots on the map - Kununurra, Newman, Carnarvon, Mandurah, Bunbury, Katherine, Alice Springs and Pakenham in Victoria.
One of the organisers of the visit is local resident Ellen Milne who says the town of 30 residents has a total of 87 rates paying families in the district. Yet three years ago, when the opera company visited with La Boheme, 620 people bought tickets for the show.

Milne says that opera, to be staged this time in one of the district's hay sheds, has captured the town's collective imagination. "The 2004 visit highlighted the extraordinary commitment of the rural community to 'making things happen' and to working together as volunteers. People just love the idea of an opera performance in a shed." Milne says the opera visit had an unexpected outcome on a young female visitor from Melbourne who met a local Borden man over a glass of champagne. Within months the two had married and a year later had their first child.

"We even have a farm worker returning from his native Germany to be part of the event again. In 2004 Steffan Thiemig put his welding skills to work and created amazing light towers. What's really great about this event is that members of the Borden community who would not normally attend the opera, for a variety of reasons including lack of availability, long distances, lack of knowledge and financial constraints, have the opportunity to do so."

OzOpera is sponsored by Australia Post and supported by Playing Australia, an Australian Government initiative.

Further Information
Ellen Milne
ph: (08) 98281123

Tania Ferris as Carmen

Western Australia the puppet state

If you live in Western Australia, get used to hearing, seeing, making and breathing puppets because the plan is to make a million of them. The Million Puppet Project is the idea of the Fremantle-based Spare Parts Puppet Theatre which for the next eight months is turning Western Australia into the puppet capital of the world. It is all part of the decision by the French-based world puppet federation UNIMA to stage the next international congress in Perth next April. UNIMA (United Nations Internationale de la Marionette) is the UNESCO-affiliated organisation founded in 1929 to bring together people interested in the art of puppetry and in using this art to promote peace and mutual understanding between peoples, regardless of race, political or religious convictions and differences in culture.

Already, puppet-making workshops have been staged in isolated, rural and regional communities around WA including Exmouth, Onslow, Karratha and Roeburn. Million Puppet project manager Katherine McLean says anyone can make a puppet out of anything. "You don't have to be an artistic genius to make a puppet. Anyone, of any age, can do it. And it's a great way of bringing people together. For instance we've received puppets from Indigenous communities where elders have used them to tell Dreamtime stories to the children. And in places like Esperance and Exmouth, puppets created there reflect the local fish life such as the whale-sharks and gropers," says McLean.

She says thousands of puppets have been posted in from around the world including France, Germany, Spain, South America, Japan and Africa. "There have been very big puppet-making workshops in France in particular. One of the most beautiful puppets we've been sent is a tiny finger puppet made out of felt and chick peas - it is divine."

The 20th UNIMA Congress and World Puppetry Festival takes place in Perth between 2 and 12 April and next year and is expected to attract 1600 delegates from around world. A regional 'caravan' starting in the northern river region of NSW will travel to the conference via Adelaide, across the Nullarbor via Kalgoorlie, Esperance and Albany. "We'll have puppeteers joining the 'caravan' from all around the country," McLean says.

And why a million puppets? "We're trying to create a world record - they'll be on show to the public during the congress and there's an official Guinness World Record count on 6 April." And what do you do with a million puppets when the show's over? McLean says they'll be donated to kids' hospitals, migrant centres and other UNESCO affiliated charities.

UNIMA 2008 will run from April 2nd - 12th 2008 with performances, masterclasses, films and street theatre. It's the first time the festival has been held in Australia and only the third time it has been staged outside Europe in its 80 year history.

Further Information
www.millionpuppets.com

Spare Parts Puppet Artists Michelle Anderson and Damon Lockwood at Karrinyup Shopping Centre

Who are we and where do we come from?

This is the first in a series of profiles of our Regional Arts Australia directors starting with those from WA and South Australia.

Suzie Haslehurst is chair of Country Arts WA and president of Regional Arts Australia. A graduate of the WA Academy of Performing Arts, Suzie has worked in the arts for more than 20 years both as a performer and arts manager. Her experience includes the management of Buzz Dance Theatre for ten years before moving to Broome in the north of Western Australia with her family in 2001. Currently General Manager of Magabala Books Aboriginal Corporation in Broome, Suzie has helped build relationships with state and federal funding agencies and has developed a sustainable business plan. She is an active member of the Broome arts community and was a member of ArtsWA's Arts Development Panel from 2001-2003. She has been a member of the Country Arts WA board since 2003 and its elected chair since 2004.
Ken Lloyd is chief executive officer of Country Arts SA and secretary of Regional Arts Australia. He has a long history in the arts in South Australia working in senior positions in Arts SA, the State Theatre Company and as deputy director of the Art Gallery of South Australia. He has been chief executive officer of Country Arts SA since 1993. During his time at Country Arts SA Ken has restructured the organisation, developed a number of new arts initiatives designed to provide opportunities for regional communities and to improve their access to the arts. He has also forged strong partnerships with major festivals and events for the benefit of country communities. Ken has played a leading role in the establishment of Regional Arts Australia and in the development of key national regional arts policies and programs. In 2003 Ken was awarded the Centenary of Federation Medal for distinguished service to the arts and was this year awarded a Churchill Fellowship.
Andy Farrant is chief executive officer of Country Arts WA and treasurer of Regional Arts Australia. He has worked in the arts and cultural profession for more than 20 years. He has been an actor, musician, lighting designer, drama advisor, marketing and public affairs director. In the 1980s he worked for one of Australia's most innovative theatre in education companies that toured to most centres in the NT. After working with the 1986 Adelaide Festival, Andy returned to his native WA and was employed by the Perth Theatre Trust in a variety of roles including marketing and public affairs manager. In 1998 he became general manager of Country Arts WA and was recently named its CEO. Andy has sat on a number of arts organisation boards including Barking Gecko, Arts Sport and Recreation Industry Training Council and the Ministry for Culture and the Arts Regional Services Committee. He is chair of the Commonwealth Government's Playing Australia National Performing Arts Panel and a former member of its Contemporary Music Touring Panel.
Steve Grieve is a director of Regional Arts Australia and chair of Country Arts SA. He has his own architectural business Grieve Gillett Pty Ltd and has worked extensively in theatre design throughout Australia. He has been involved in key heritage and cultural facilities in Adelaide including the Lion Arts Centre, Tandanya (National Aboriginal Cultural Centre), the Torrens Parade Ground and the National Wine Centre as well as cultural centres in regional SA including Port Lincoln, Murray Bridge and Tanunda. Steve has also worked extensively with the Adelaide Fringe and the Adelaide Festival to create visual arts venues and performance venues such as 'Red Square'. He has served on various boards and committees including Urban Myth Theatre of Youth, the Experimental Art Foundation, the Arts Industry Council and Arts SA's Cultural Facilities Committee.

A Churchill Fellowship for Regional Arts Australia's national secretary

Ken Lloyd, the national secretary of Regional Arts Australia is to undertake a national study tour to Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom with the help of a Churchill Fellowship. Mr Lloyd, who is also the chief executive officer of Country Arts SA, will investigate new programs that would further develop the arts in regional Australia.

Mr Lloyd says the trip will help broaden ideas about what’s possible for the regional arts sector. “The time is right to consider international ideas and opportunities to broaden the base of programs and concepts for the future. I will be particularly looking at how other countries fund and finance regional arts, how government, business and community partnerships work and how arts and culture can bring about community regeneration.”

He will meet agencies across England, Canada and the United States including the Arts Council of England which recently undertook a major rural arts policy review and organisers of the Liverpool Capital of Culture program to discuss a proposal for a national regional capital of culture in Australia.

Mr Lloyd’s fellowship has been awarded through the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust which was established as one of Sir Winston’s last requests to allow Australians to travel overseas to experience new opportunities, make contacts with the best in their fields and bring that knowledge back for the benefit of Australia.

Media inquiries: Ken Lloyd 0401 126 070

Creative Volunteering to be trialled in Indigenous communities

Regional Arts Australia oversees a national program of volunteer training for workers in the arts in a large range of areas such as business training, marketing, working with collections and governance. Feedback from those attending these Creative Volunteering courses has been extremely positive with a study done recently by Flinders University recently finding 97 percent of participants felt they'd benefited personally from their course and 90 percent said they'd been able to use what they'd learned within their organisation. There are eight workshops and each runs for one day. The workshops are nationally-accredited and participants are eligible for a statement of attainment.

Funding was recently awarded to Regional Arts Australia to conduct pilot workshops in two regional Indigenous communities. This will enable courses to be trialled and developed in the most appropriate way to meet the needs of Indigenous people in regional and remote communities.

Anyone considering taking part in workshops in their area should look at these case studies. Creative Volunteering is supported by the Australian Government through the Regional Arts Fund. www.regionalarts.org.au

Skin to Skin - to the nation's capital from the nation's centre

The famous tradition of Indonesian batik is a surprising form of artistic expression now being practised by artists in the Ernabella region of Central Australia. Several examples of this Australian batik work hang in Canberra's Tuggeranong Art Centre and the ACT Legislative Assembly. Eleven artists from six remote community arts centres including Ernabella braved the chilly world of Canberra mid-winter to take part in Skin to Skin/Miri Kutjara Tjungu an extensive exhibition and event program to celebrate NAIDOC Week. The batik work is the result of collaboration and exchanges over the past 15 years between the Central Australian artists and batik artists from the Brahma Tirta Sari studio in Yogjakarta. The visitors were guests of honour at arts exhibitions at which batik and other more tradition works were displayed and at several events hosted by ACT and federal politicians. A NAIDOC Week forum at Old Parliament House discussed the challenges facing remote arts centres and the great importance they play in supporting Indigenous artists and the broader remote communities. www.tca.asn.au

Alison Carroll, Iwanaken, Malpiya Davey

Calling all New Media Artists - ABC needs you!

The curator of POOL, the new ABC new media site specifically for regional artists, is seeking new works from across the nation. Lachlan Tetlow-Stuart says he takes a very broad view of 'new media' and includes "anything that can be uploaded to a website, with preference for time-based works." He says POOL explores creative interactions between broadcasters and the public. "Think of social networking sites like YouTube, Wikipedia and other 'web 2.0' ways of sharing in which contributors edit and remake material on the site. But then think again."

"What makes Pool distinct is our public broadcasting ethos. Pool will be curated and moderated as an ABC publishing platform. Users can publish, upload, download and remix content, which then becomes available to everyone. This could be location recordings and music, audio and video art and documentaries, interviews, links, reviews, animations, art for mobile phones and more."

"ABC staff, experienced directors, audio artists and creative professionals will comment upon your works, providing feedback. As a pioneering creative user of POOL, you lead this revolutionary wake of a collaborative publishing ethos, to inspire this community of exploratory users. There will be opportunities to publish on multiple ABC platforms including POOL web-site (definitely) and potentially ABC 2 and Radio National's program The Night Air.

Further Information: Lachlan Tetlow-Stuart 0413 306 426 lachlan@theprogram.net.au

Regional Victoria's Common Ground project profiled in Indonesian press

Last newsletter, we brought you the story of Regional Arts Victoria's creative collaboration with Indonesian architect and artist Eko Prawato, part of the Common Ground Festival in Horsham, Shepparton, Sale and Lakes Entrance. Prawato was artist-in-residence for the festival and his work is being celebrated in Indonesia where he has been instrumental in assisting with the rebuilding of areas around his home city of Yogjakarta following their devastation by earthquake in 2005. In this article in the Jakarta Post entitled Eko Agus Prawoto: Finding common ground to start over Prawato discusses how he applied the knowledge and experience he gained during the disaster to his work on the Common Ground project in regional Victoria.

Marketing the arts in the bush. OK, but how?

Marketing the arts in the bush requires ingenuity, determination and knowledge. New technologies, old technologies and tried-and-tested technologies are all employed to get the story out, the message heard. Under the Regional Arts Australia banner, arts marketing practitioners Lindy Allen and Merryn Spencer attended the Australian Marketing Institute's Regional Marketing Conference in Launceston in May and outlined how they do what they do.

Lindy Allen, the director of Regional Arts Victoria, outlined for delegates how the distinct and thriving Indigenous heritage of Lakes Entrance was the basis for the highly-successful Australia Day Common Ground Festival. "The black community worked with the white community. Koorie families who hadn't spoken for decades buried their disputes. The fishing community worked with the arts community. For the first time in the post-colonial history of Lakes Entrance, the totems of the Gunai/Kurnai clans were proudly displayed in public." Read how this festival came in to being and how its legacy is being felt as far away as Indonesia.

Read Lindy's paper in full here
Word version (64.5KB)
PDF version (93.1KB)

Read Jakarta Post article entitled Eko Agus Prawoto: Finding common ground to start over

Merryn Spencer is a project and promotions officer with Orana Arts in north western NSW. Her organisation produces an arts directory which in 2006 received 27,000 hits. The directory, first produced in 2004 and also available in pocketbook form, has 562 listings of artists, writers and all cultural related businesses in the shires of Warrumbungle, Dubbo, Gilgandra and Narromine. The directory is distributed to key galleries in metropolitan NSW and is seen as a valuable marketing tool for the entire region. "We saw a need and identified a gap and came up with the directory as a way ofshowcasing a vibrant cultural scene," says Spencer.

Read Merryn's paper in full here
Word version (37KB)
PDF version (76.3KB)

Hip hop artist plus Kimberley Walkabout Boys equals reggae hit

Last newsletter we brought you the story of a group of young men from the Yiyili Aboriginal Community in the Kimberley and their venture into reggae with Melbourne hip-hop artist Monkey Mark. Now, writes Country Arts WA's regional youth arts development officer Rebecca Cockram, the group are formalising their recording skills with the help of some TAFE training.

Seven young men at Yiyili Aboriginal Community in the Kimberley, involved in the Gooniyandi Music Project, recently headed back to country with a large mob of 19 people on a bush trip to record the traditional Bat and Croc story. Led by Gooniyandi elder, Mervyn Street, the Walkabout Boys (previously known as the First Camp Band) spent two days visiting the dreaming sites and recording the story. Back at the community, the story was transformed over five days, into a reggae song. The band learned guitar chords, song writing techniques, organ, electric drums and sound editing software. The mentors on the project were Monkey Marc, from the Melbourne-based hip hop band Combat Wombat and the Mat Noffs from the Ted Noffs Foundation. On the last night, the communities came to listen to the song and watch images of the two week workshop and were very proud of the achievements.

In August, TAFE Kimberley will be delivering workshops on Certificate 1 in Music Production to the group. TAFE has committed to working in the community until the end of 2007. Lecturer, Bel Skinner said the Out There Project at Yiyili Community would provides "a vehicle for building self-esteem, respect, pride, literacy and numeracy, and promote(s) empowerment and social development. The Project also develops pathways for further training and skill development of its participants as well as developing the music skills and helping to meet the aspirations of the young people within the community."

The Gooniyandi Music Project received funding and support through Country Arts WA, YCulture Regional, Halls Creek Shire, Kimberley Aboriginal Land and Culture Centre and Kimberley Land Council.

The Gooniyandi Music Project is part of OUT THERE, a youth arts development program designed to increase the opportunity for young people in regional Western Australia to engage in a broad range of art forms within their own communities. OUT THERE aims to build on existing resources in regional communities to develop and support sustainable, relevant and integrated arts activity for regional youth.

Further Information
Rebecca
ph: 1800 811 883 (freecall)
email: rcockram@countryartswa.asn.au

Gooniyandi bush trip mob

Many of the projects in this newsletter have been supported by the Regional Arts Fund, an Australian Government initiative supporting the arts in regional, remote and very remote/isolated Australia.

Regional Arts Australia promotes the development of the arts for the one-in-three Australians that live in regional, rural and remote parts of the country. Our members give country Australians access to outstanding cultural experiences that are either home grown or tour from other towns and cities. In this way, Regional Arts Australia gives a voice to artists and puts culture at the heart of community life across country Australia.

issue 2 august 07

this issue