welcome
It is conference year and much of our organisational energies right now are being channelled into the stunningly beautiful town of Alice Springs which is hosting the sixth biennial Regional Arts Australia conference in October, art at the heart – part conference, part festival, all art. The program is being finalised and it is time to put a firm red circle around the dates 2 to 5 October because that’s when several hundred of the nations artists, arts workers (paid and unpaid), arts thinkers, bureaucrats, in fact pretty much anyone with any interest in the direction of the arts in this country, will be gathering for three days of conversation, debate, performance and great art. The conference conveniently follows the popular Desert Mob Festival, so consider arriving in Alice several days in advance to catch some exceptional art and performance from the Central Desert region.
On 15 May, we’ll be opening nominations for our brand new awards – the Regional Arts Australia Volunteer Awards (see story). There are two categories with one winner per category in each state and territory. Winners will be presented with a specially-commissioned art work at art at the heart in October, as well as free registration, flights and accommodation.
We are in the midst of trialling for Indigenous participants our special skills development program. These pilots build on the highly-popular Creative Volunteering courses. The first two Indigenous pilots, in Ceduna in South Australia and Cardwell in Queensland, have been most successful with trainers reporting high rates of satisfaction from the class members. The pilots have been delivered on the basis that not all students will have good English literacy skills, so teaching methods are focussing on visual delivery. Participants are using the skills to help prepare and run events such as a bush tucker festival, a fishing competition and a visual arts exhibition.
Finally, it’s an anxious time for Regional Arts Australia as we await news of the future of the Regional Arts Fund in the federal budget. The Regional Arts Fund has provided a spring board for young and emerging artists from right across regional and remote Australia offering them the kind of opportunities that are generally only available in the cities. It’s in the nature of smaller towns that big crowds turn up to support and be part of arts events, often drawing on the participation of sporting and community organisations and cultural groups. A real social glue. Our bid to secure the future of the Regional Arts Fund on behalf of country Australians is with the Federal Government.
Vivienne Skinner
Communications manager
Regional Arts Australia
vivienne.skinner@countryarts.org.au
Smashed cars top gear for NSW sculptor
He’s the archetypal bloke. He loves bikes and cars – so much so that he’s even applied to host the Australian version of the popular SBS motoring show Top Gear, (see http://youtube.com/watch?v=4dHGPL-SeoM&feature=related) He renovates houses and earns his living as a smash repairer, running the business first started 27 years ago by his father.
But Daniel Clemmett, from Clunes near Byron Bay in northern New South Wales, is also a sculptor whose works are now in private collections around the world including Japan, USA, Monaco, New Zealand and the UK. Last year he won the $20,000 Acquisitive Award in the Swell Sculpture Festival at Currumbin on Queensland’s Gold Coast. His entry, Ammonite, was made from recycled car bonnets and has now been acquired by the Gold Coast City Council. Soon he’ll be heading to England to take up a two month residency with the Montgomery Sculpture Trust, which was established in Buckinghamshire in 1994 by philanthropist Bryan Montgomery, to promote the work of sculptors whose works are designed for outdoors.
It is a career that nearly didn’t happen. No-one in Clemmett’s family was an artist and Clemmett himself was failing art at school until a teacher took him aside.
“My Year 9 art teacher, Sandra Rauth, could see that I could draw and was always making these weird contraptions out of metal. So she said ‘Why don’t you put the two things together to see if I can pass you?’ So I did and I made an absolute monstrosity of a thing. She entered it for me in the local craft festival and it won first prize and $300. It was great because for me, that meant a motorbike,” he laughs.
Clemmett says apart from being passionate about creating art, his works are a response to the materials readily at his feet. “Running a smash repair business means I am surrounded by a huge amount of junk and I am right into recycling. My works have a strong ecological focus.” He says that Ammonite (pictured), is based on an extinct group of marine animals. It is made of twisted car bonnets, is 3.5 metres in diameter and took about 2,000 hours to create. He says if he was prepared to live very modestly, he could survive on his earnings as an artist. But until that happens, he’s hanging on to his day job repairing smashed cars. That’s unless he gets the call to be the next presenter of Top Gear.
Innovation in rural Queensland: Why some towns thrive while others languish
Queensland academic, Ian Plowman, set out to answer the big question about why some towns thrive while others languish at Country Arts WA’s state conference. He began his address with a few fundamental truths.
- All people have mobility choices – to move towards somewhere satisfying, to stay somewhere that is satisfying, or to move away from somewhere that is not satisfying.
- It is the exercise of mobility choices and the resulting net inflows or net outflows that determine whether or not a town is innovative.
- The question is: Who moves, who doesn’t, and why?
The research was conducted in 2003/4 in eight towns scattered across the breadth of Queensland using interviews, surveys and census data.
He found that:
Innovative and creative people have the highest mobility. They seek a location that is welcoming and attractive.
Innovative people move out of a location that is unwelcoming, leaving behind a conservative monoculture. The innovative talent that we crave, we may already have. We often chase it away.
Our responsibility is to create a welcoming environment that permits our communities to reinvent themselves and to thrive.
Surprisingly, patterns of mobility are not random. Those who move tend to be younger, to have higher levels of education and to have travelled overseas more frequently and for longer duration.
Research examining the antecedents of innovation in eight Queensland towns found that what made a difference was not necessarily size, prevailing industry or scenic attractiveness; instead it is mobility of people. Those towns with net inflows tend to have a vitality and energy that other towns lack. Conversely, those with net outflows tend to lose their innovative talent, leaving behind an increasingly conservative monoculture.
It is axiomatic that no community has a ‘right’ to survive. Almost no Australian town existed 200 years ago. Each town sprang up to address an emerging social or economic need. Towns on railway lines often grew out of the camps of fettler gangs. In wheat growing areas, storage or transport nodes often determined by the technology of the day, determined town location. For most towns, their original purpose has now altered. Unless a community is able to reinvent itself in a contemporary world, it will join the ranks of ghost towns that already litter rural Australia.
The research distributed 300 surveys to randomly selected residents in each town. People were asked to indicate whether others would regard them as: (a) a community leader; (b) somebody with knowledge and expertise that could be called upon if required; or (c) a support person. Surprisingly, the least innovative towns reported the highest number of leaders and support people; the most innovative town reported almost no leaders but had the highest proportion in category (b). Interview evidence seems to suggest that ‘leaders’, particularly incumbent leaders, are conservative stalwarts whose grip on power chases away the very creative talent that the town says it needs to attract and retain.
Leadership is a two-edged sword. It is an act of civic responsibility and it is also an act of denying someone the opportunity to gain civic experience. The more that leadership responsibility can be experienced and shared, the more innovative is the town.
So where might philanthropic bodies best invest to foster the social capital of rural Australia? The recommendations arising from the research provide some suggestions.
Firstly, mobility should be supported. Mobility alone results in the most able people going to those communities that are more likely to be receptive to the inflow of talent. It also serves to help more capable people move out of environments that are barren.
Secondly, newcomers should be supported. Newcomers need to establish a sense of place, purpose and social acceptance. It is newcomers who are most willing to invest in the social and economic fabric of a community. The more they are made to feel welcome, the more willing they are to invest.
Thirdly, young people should be supported. Young people need to invest in relationships and in careers. Unlike their parents, their array of options is vast and they are increasingly citizens of a global village. Communities need to consider how accommodating or otherwise they are of young people, their interests and their careers.
The fourth suggestion is to invest in diversity. Innovation and creativity are commonly the fortuitous by-product of the blending of diverse ideas and experience. Diversity has a prerequisite – tolerance. Communities that are intolerant of diversity are destined to die.
Finally, communities need to invest in capacity building. Communities that are dying have incumbent leaders and passive supporters. Thriving communities have a constantly evolving dynamic of creative coalitions made of people who roll their sleeves up without being asked and who seek no credit for doing so. Any support given to the willing will provide a handsome return.
Finally, invest in celebration. Communities that celebrate are offering their citizens a sense of unity and identity, characteristics that are essential in underpinning the previous five investments.
Ian Plowman, PhD, is a psychologist, social researcher and community facilitator whose practice is centred on building social capacity. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Queensland Business School, the University of Queensland.
Drama tackles road crash dilemma in south east Queensland
The tragedy of road deaths involving young people is at the heart of CRASH, an arts project in Beaudesert in the Gold Coast region of Queensland. This mountainous region had the unpleasant distinction of the highest death rate in Australia of young people in road accidents, though it’s recently been edged out by an area of Queensland a little further west.
Beaudesert playwright and drama expert, Andrew Wright, says he couldn’t think of a better way of serving the youth of the mountain and the wider region. And CRASH has the backing of all levels of government, including the Federal Government’s Regional Arts Fund with assistance of $20,250.
“There are many reasons why so many young people lose their lives on roads around here. It’s a combination of a party culture, a macho culture, boredom, lack of other things to do and access to high-powered vehicles,” says Wright.
CRASH follows the notion that ‘There are no accidents’ and argues against the idea that road crashes are random events beyond our control. “When someone crashes there are reasons why it happened. Crashes are never accidental in the truest sense of the word. They are not random acts. They happen because of human decisions. The word ‘accident’ lets us off the hook,” Wright argues.
The project involves 30 young people researching the causes and consequences of car crashes, developing a script based on their findings and then, in August, presenting the play in the region. Wright says there is already considerable interest from other regional communities where it is anticipated the play will have an extended season.
The full length play tells the ‘fictional’ stories of several young people involved in a fatal car crash on the night of their high school formal.
The young people behind the project are working closely with local police, hospital and emergency workers, fire officers, ambulance officers and teachers. They are also talking to young people who have been involved in fatal crashes. These young people talk about the causes of accidents they were involved in, the behaviours and attitudes that led up to the crash, and how the crash has affected them in the long-term.
The play will be available for national distribution to schools by the end of 2008.
Further detailswww.myspace.com/crash_no_accidents
Fresh and Salty – giant creatures return to the earth as art highlights the environment
Three giant earth platypuses are slowly dissolving back into the dry bed of Lake Wendouree in Victoria and within months, any remnants will disappear beneath water to be pumped into the lake from neighbouring Ballarat.
The ‘ephemeral’ platypuses – each 200 metres by 300 metres, and spanning in total almost one kilometre – are part of the imaginative Fresh and Salty program run by Regional Arts Victoria. Since its launch last October, Fresh and Salty has produced five major community artworks, employed 10 regional artists, engaged 20 partner organisations such as businesses, houses and local councils, involved about 90 people in a hands-on capacity and attracted audiences of up to 1,000.
The platypuses have been created using mud and sand from the lake and the designs were created by mowing and ploughing the earth, and raking the sand. The completed designs were aerially photographed and 40,000 postcards have been produced as part of a City of Ballarat promotion.
Fresh and Salty’s state-wide coordinator, Liz Duthie, says while Regional Arts Victoria’s main business is art, the crisis brought about by prolonged drought could not be ignored and Fresh and Salty was a unique way of using art to highlight the environmental problem. “This was a great way to increase public awareness about water and how precious it is. It was also a way of giving a platform to regional artists. They found the collaboration with the community and business and professional people really valuable. They also realised that there was a real difference between creating their own art, and public art,” Duthie says.
One of the five projects, an animation sequence created in the Wimmera region by artists Dave Jones and Mary and Hannah French, was incorporated into a television commercial about salinity by the local Catchment Management Authority.
And as well as the postcards, the City of Ballarat is incorporating the images of the platypuses in Lake Wendouree into entrance signs, acknowledging the area’s traditional inhabitants, the Wathaurong.
The regional arts development officer in charge of the platypus project, Verity Higgins, says the project has served to reclaim some of the area’s indigenous heritage. “There are very few descendents left of the original people of this district. The lake would have been a meeting and a hunting ground so this is a way of reconnecting with that history,” says Higgins.
The artists at the heart of the project were environmental sculptor, Michael Shiell and Indigenous artist Billy Blackall. They were helped by members of the Ballarat and District Aboriginal Cooperative Youth Group. Leading national sculptor Peter Blizzard acted as a mentor.
“Most of the work was done during January in very hot conditions and the team worked very hard over ten days turning soil, raking fairy grass, barrowing clay. It was hard yakka as the ground was spongy and uneven and it was doubly difficult because if was virtually impossible from the ground to gauge the impact of the design. There was great excitement after about day six when aerial photographs indicated that the design was working superbly.”
Billy Blackall has now been invited by the City of Ballarat to advise on the design of a new playground for children incorporating Indigenous imagery. This could well include a platypus.
Find out more at www.rav.net.au
Tasmanian volunteer, 91, hoping to head to Territory
Alice Springs is calling artist Vita Brown who, at 91 years of age, thinks she’s likely to be the oldest participant at Regional Arts Australia’s national conference art at the heart in October. A practising artist for most of her life, Ms Brown is an active member of local arts groups, paints most days and hopes to travel to Alice Springs as a delegate.
“I haven’t been to any other of the Regional Arts Australia conferences, so this will be a first for me,” Ms Brown says. “It will be quite a gathering of different types of artists and I feel each of us can acquire something from each other.”
She says that Triabunna on Tasmania’s east coast, where she has lived for the past 38 years, is an industrial area and she and others have worked hard to introduce an artistic life. Her work featured in Tasmanian Living Artists’ Week last year and she is an honorary life member of Tasmanian Regional Arts.
“I am lucky that even though I am 91 years old, I still have brilliant eyesight. My work at the moment is looking at the movement of colour on water, waterfalls in particular,” she says.
“But I live in an old farm house with a studio and it’s got to the stage where I can hardly fit into it any more, it’s so full of art. I need a shed,” she says.
Theatrical wolves howling creatively in South Australia’s regions
A response to the collapse of Mount Gambier’s Mainstreet Theatre Company two years ago has turned into an innovative theatre residency for professional performing artists and the local community in Mount Gambier. Adelaide director, producer and theatre programmer Steve Mayhew, well-known for his work with the Fringe and Cabaret Festivals, has been engaged by Country Arts SA as creative producer in an initiative called Local Stages. It has the backing of the Australia Council and Arts SA and also involves artists in Port Augusta.
“The residency in Mt Gambier is incredibly exciting because there are so many dimensions to this project. It began last year and is all about raising the skill base of the local communities and producing new work for touring across the state,” Mayhew says.
Mayhew has commissioned the Adelaide professional theatre company Slingsby to work among the locals to create a theatre work called Wolf. It is aimed at families and anyone from 10 years upwards, says Mayhew, and is all about dark places and our fascination with scary fairy tales.
“The forest industry is big around Mount Gambier, so the creative team has been working with employees of Forestry SA, in getting access to forests to film sections of the work that will be projected onto three large screens surrounding the theatre space. "
Country Arts SA’s director of art programs, Tricia Walton, says the work will be of a high professional standard and will tour across the state in 2009. “The plan is to perform the play in a huge inflatable tent, creating the experience of being in a real theatre. Many children in more remote country areas have never been inside a theatre – their closest experience has been the school gym,” she says.
Steve Mayhew says the creation of Wolf is just one part of the Local Stages program which also involves mentorships and residencies, where emerging theatre workers are cross-matched with more experienced professionals to upgrade the skills of everyone. “The skills exchange works both ways. For city-based arts organisations to get to create work from the ground up like we are doing here with Local Stages, then to get it up to the stage of touring, is a big opportunity for everyone.
Mayhew says Local Stages has also sparked the creation of a large scale sound installation in Port Augusta which was performed this year as the opening event of South Australia’s Regional Centre of Culture program and the 2008 Adelaide Fringe's regional program.
The CEO of Country Arts SA, Ken Lloyd, says Local Stages is one of the most exciting projects he has worked on. “It has provided real impetus to regionally-based artists to be engaged in professional development programs and to develop new work. Importantly, it has also established strong ongoing partnerships with major metropolitan-based companies which will ensure that the work created will be presented in both regional and metropolitan centres.”
WordStorm – flying through the sky of the Top End
With its unique location at the doorstep of Asia, Darwin’s upcoming WordStorm literary festival will feature the writing of its near neighbours. It is billed as northern Australia’s largest literary festival and this year will include sessions in Alice Springs and Tennant Creek. At least 70 writers have signed to attend the festival. Director, Sandra Thibodeaux, says WordStorm has a cross-cultural focus with writers participating from four main cultural groups – Indigenous Australia, non-Indigenous Australia, Indonesia and East Timor. This year, four writers from Singapore and the Maori poet and songwriter Hinemoana Baker, are also coming.
“What we try to do is bring the cultural groups together for the kind of dialogue and debate that writers do well,” says director Sandra Thibodeaux.
“While we cover the standard writers’ festival topics such as ‘Writing your Memoir’ and ‘Getting Published’, the more interesting conversations are those that tackle the nitty-gritty subjects of life. This year, there will be A considered Response (to the Federal Intervention), After Suharto, The practice of Subversion, Sorry and Not Suitable for Children, which explores the issue of censorship.”
“In my opinion, it’s these kinds of panels that make WordStorm so remarkable. You will find yourself crying and laughing, getting goose-bumps and lumps in your throat as writers delve deep into our relationships, our pasts and our futures. They generate the love that’s at the heart of all good writing,” says Ms Thibodeaux.
WordStorm 2008 will include an annual comedy debate held in a local sports club on the topic That the Pen is Mightier Than the Bat and an 'evening of murder' staged at the Fannie Bay Gaol.
There will be the regular Makan Pagi Puisi (Indonesian Poets' Breakfast), a literary lunch featuring Helen Garner and an Indigenous copyright lunch at Hanuman Restaurant.
Writers attending the 2008 festival include Dorothy Porter, Alexis Wright, Charles Firth, Gideon Haigh, Anita Heiss and Gayle Kennedy. It will be held in Darwin May 15-18 with events in Alice Springs May 9-11, and Tennant Creek May 12-13.
Many writers have made themselves available for schools workshops, where children and young adults can meet them and learn about all aspects of writing, whether for book, theatre or screen.
Further information visit www.ntwriters.com.au
Art a life-line to a new life in Albany
Sue Codee, the coordinator of the youth arts centre Open Access in the West Australian town of Albany said she received an email recently from a young person saying that if it wasn’t for the opportunities she’d been given at Open Access ‘she probably wouldn’t be here today’.
Codee says the national perception that the west’s mining boom has made the entire state rich is quite wrong. “Money from the mining boom has trickled through to only some parts of WA. Albany has a population of around 35,000 with a lot of people at the lower end of the socio-economic scale. Teenagers here, like anywhere, struggle with their emotions and their peers and unfortunately there is a suicidal tendency these days. We have about 38 young people on our books, aged from 13 to 26 and they come to us via referrals from youth workers, doctors, or they self-refer.” Codee says everyone must have an interest in art, but she is very keen to make clear that the centre does not offer art therapy. “The way we work is to inspire the students to develop what they are good at. Along the way they pick up real skills. We employ local established artists to work with them and do some really exciting work such as the Shoe Show exhibition last year (see photo). That involved people right through Albany including the local schools. Our students from Open Access made works and also helped curate and stage the exhibition, learning really useful event management skills along the way.”
Codee says the story of 16 year old Kaitlin shows how Open Access can be a lifeline. “She was very low when she came here more than a year ago but had a real talent as a visual artist and writer. Kaitlin is now on several state arts committees including Y Culture, the youth arts funding body in Country Arts WA.”
Recently, Albany Council approved a large stencilling visual arts project that will take place in prominent local alleys.
Film-friendly region in New South Wales north-west
The New England North West region is now open for business as a filming destination.
The regions' 13 film-friendly councils, Arts North West and the Northern Inland Regional Development Board recently joined forces to create a simple and easy way for producers to film in the region through the New England North West Film Strategy. The strategy was designed to encourage and cultivate the development of a film and television industry in the region, boost the economy through an increase in film related projects and raise the region’s profile by increasing tourism.
Major elements of the strategy include establishing Film NENW as the primary regional filming contact point, creating a logo and branding identity, establishing a standardised Regional Filming Policy across all 13 regional councils and developing a website. The website includes a database of filming locations and a crew and resources directory.
The site was launched in April and can be seen at www.filmnenw.com.au
The project has been supported through Regional Arts NSW, with funding from the Australian Government under its Regional Partnerships Program, the NSW Department of State and Regional Development and the local governments of the NENW region.
Young artists given kick-start with portrait prize
A self-portrait of a young man with a cow has taken out the top prize in Tasmania’s inaugural Youth Portraiture Prize which is open to artists under the age of 30 years. Hobart artist Hilton Owen, 19, was judged to be the overall winner of the competition with Self-Portrait of a Cow near Richmond.
The competition has emerged from a partnership between Tasmanian Regional Arts (TRA) and RACT Insurance which TRA project officer Felicity Harris says highlights the importance of providing professional, high quality opportunities for young artists. “It is a chance for young people to participate and gain experience in the workings of a real exhibition. TRA places strong emphasis on youth opportunities in the arts,” says Harris.
Hilton Owen says the self-portrait satisfied a desire to reproduce a memorable moment in his life. “There was a great feeling that came with being in a dry, dusty Richmond paddock next to a cow. My mood was one of happiness, excitement and curiosity. I painted the work in the same way it felt to be in that paddock. Fairly rough and exciting but also carefully thoughtful and reserved.”
“I have been painting seriously for around three years, working almost every day. Since I began, portraiture has been my genre,” writes Owen.
Runner up Susannah Hart’s work, Self Portrait, explores issues of ‘femininity, sexuality, intimacy and defiance'. “These are issues I feel are relevant to youth culture,” she writes. The sponsor’s choice prize was awarded to Jacob Leary for Self Portrait with My Hand.
The winner received $5,000 and a trip to Sydney to see the Archibald Prize.
Felicity Harris says she hopes the prize will help reinvigorate portraiture as an art form. “There was a huge variety of portraits displayed, from the traditional to the contemporary. The competition was made possible by the generosity of RACT Insurance. Partnerships with business are one of the most powerful ways that community art projects can happen. Businesses provide resources in many ways, in-kind support, actual money and extensive networks with other businesses. Finding a business with a passion for the arts opens up new doors to make exciting projects happen. RACT Insurance Tasmanian Youth Portraiture Prize is a great example of this,” says Harris.
An exhibition of the works is currently touring Tasmania.
See more at www.tasregionalarts.org.au/content/view/199/54/
Disintegrating head a winner for Alice
A digital video work of a slowly disintegrating clay figure, backed by meditative cello music, has taken out this year’s Alice Prize. ‘Ichor’ by Alice Springs local artist Pip McManus, was one of 60 artworks selected for the 35th Alice Prize Exhibition from 250 entries.
The winning entry was judged by well-known art critic Susan McCullough who said she was surprised and impressed by the variety and calibre of the entries. “Judging only one winner from such a strong field was very difficult,” McCullough said.
Two other artists were highly commended by McCullough, Eubena Nampitjin (WA) and Catriona Stanton (NT).
The Tammy Kingsley People’s Choice Award of $1,000 will be announced once the exhibition closes on 8 June at the Araluen Galleries at the Alice Springs Cultural Precinct.
Pip McManus’s work ‘Ichor’ is named after ‘the ethereal fluid flowing in the veins of the gods which is poisonous to mortals. Creating video-based work is a new frontier for McManus who is best known as a ceramicist. Her works have been exhibited in galleries across Australia and she has undertaken major commissions for public spaces including the Darwin Mall and the Darwin Botanic Gardens.
Further information www.aliceprize.com
Dancing with the Stars Carnarvon style
By Jennifer Peat from Western Australia’s Gascoyne Development Commission
There’s an old tradition in the performing arts, whether its music, theatre or music theatre. You take a new show, a new cast, a new band to tour the regions. Audiences aren’t as critical as in the city and you can work out the kinks in the production, bed the cast in together and prepare to hit the big time.
People living in the regions can take advantage of that same accepting audience. If you have ever wanted to ‘do something’ but weren’t sure of your own capacity to ‘bring it off’, rural towns are the perfect place to ‘give it a go’.
A team of Carnarvon women took a gamble along these lines earlier in the year and swept the townsfolk into a whirlwind of glamour and bright lights.Taking a city show and doing it in the country, the Gascoyne Showcase of Performing Arts produced “Dancing with the Stars Carnarvon Style”.
A group of ordinary people from the town trained with a world class Latin and Modern Ballroom dance performer and put on a show that was “out of this world”. The audience of the sold out show were astonished at the standard of production and performance that could come from the ranks of their own. All the professional elements were there and working together; lighting, sound, art direction, stage management, a scripted and choreographed show.
And it wasn’t just a cabaret show to get involved with. There were free basic dance lessons in cha cha, jive and modern waltz. There were classes in exotic Latin dances…salsa and tango, up close and personal with a stunning and accomplished dance teacher.
The three month, three stage program, supported by Country Arts WA, the Gascoyne Development Commission and Sky West took a lot of visioning, planning and commitment. But couple that with more than a dash of serendipity and something occurred that was greater than the sum of its parts.
What would I say to someone who wanted to ‘have a go’? Be prepared to give a lot for a period of time. Don’t say “that’ll do” too often. Have a vision in your mind of what you are working toward and only say “that’ll do” when you are in the vicinity. This doesn’t mean to be inflexible and demanding, but discuss stumbling blocks with others and learn to recognise (and acknowledge) the best solution for each challenge, no matter where it comes from. Always work hard, hop in and be hands on. Things will move along quicker. You also get inside the project and see new angles, new possibilities.
And when it all comes together…the magic, the magic, the magic!
Theatre and performance work are so ephemeral. You work hard and sweat for months. It is all there one moment and then it is over, the band goes home and everything is cleared away. It is as if it had never happened. But you, your family, friends and colleagues know better. You were there, you did it and it was glorious.
Shearers + artists = art
A unique competition celebrating the lives of some of the hardest workers in the nation – shearers – is underway in the western NSW town of Hay. Artists, both photographers and those that work in other mediums, have until 30 October to create a portrait that reflects the lives of shearers.
And to help urban artists who have never met a shearer, let alone seen one at work, the competition organisers are establishing a network that will introduce them to shearers. It costs the artists nothing and is all part of a desire to improve understanding about the lives of shearers.
Competition organiser, Ian Auldist, is a woolgrower and board member of Shear Outback, the Hay-based national Shearers’ Hall of Fame. He says shearers in Australia are growing older and there is a real need to encourage new young people to take up the shears.
“One of our wishes is to focus on the fact that shearers are people with their own characters and plenty of expression in their faces, which is great for artists. We want to link urban people with a shearing shed and break down some of the mystique. It will introduce artists to work in the shearing sheds and sheep stations of the saltbush plains of outback pastoral Australia,” he says.
“This national competition will foster regional art and at the same time promote an understanding of the shearing industry in a pastoral context.”
In August, as part of the competition, Regional Arts NSW will be offering workshops for the artists.
Shear Outback attracts tourists from around the world. It has a big annual program of events and in November will stage a National Shearing Competition, when the portraits will be displayed as part of the competition.
Further information visit www.shearoutback.com.au or call Ian Auldist 02 6993 1092.
Unique approach pays off teaching business skills to Indigenous Australians
Seven Indigenous women in Ceduna are now preparing for, among other things, a hunting and cooking event, an oyster festival, a fishing competition and a visual arts exhibition, using skills they have just learned through a training program being trialled by Regional Arts Australia (RAA). The program is based on RAA’s highly-successful Creative Volunteering course and the Indigenous pilot is being delivered on the basis that not everyone will have good English literacy skills. Course evaluator and observer, Lyn Leader-Elliott from Flinders University, says the seven women, aged from mid-30s to their 60s, all came to the course with practical ideas for projects that would benefit their communities. Some of these are scheduled to happen during NAIDOC week in July.
“The mood of the women was very committed. Although the course had an informal feel, they all worked really hard and said they had learned a lot. It helped them be more confident, and they’ve now got skills that can be used in a range of cultural and community organisations,” Leader-Elliott says.
“For instance, one woman is planning a series of events around traditional Indigenous foods. Another is helping to run a local oyster festival in October – Ceduna has about the best oysters in the world. “
“While we used our usual training books, the delivery was much more visual with the participants encouraged to learn through sharing information with each other. It’s the same course, but delivered in a more flexible way and it was really exciting to see how well it worked,” says Leader-Elliott.
A second pilot course was run for seven Indigenous women and men from Mungalla Station near Ingham in Far North Queensland who are about to launch their station as a tourism venture. The course offered business planning and event skills training to help them with their opening launch, which will focus on hunting and cooking with bush tucker.
The course is nationally accredited with participants receiving a Statement of Attainment for each module completed.
Once the pilot course has been evaluated, a decision will be made as to how and where they will be implemented nationally. National training for cultural workers in regional, rural and remote Australia has been undertaken by Regional Arts Australia since 2003 and is funded through the Federal Government’s Regional Arts Fund.
in brief
registrations now open for art at the heart
Early birds can now sign up for art at the heart in Alice Springs in October and get a cheaper deal on registration. The sixth Regional Arts Australia national conference is less than six months away and is expected to be the largest gathering of arts professionals in Australia this year.
Artistic director and conference coordinator, Kieren Sanderson urges people to book their spot early. “We are expecting a big response from those keen to participate and we may have to limit numbers. I strongly urge those who know they will be attending to sign up now to make sure they don’t miss out. And, of course there’s a saving if you get in early.”
Big rewards for winners of our new awards, so get thinking, get ready…and nominate
Now is the time to start thinking about who you'd like to nominate for a brand new set of awards – the Regional Arts Australia Volunteer Awards. Apart from having your contribution recognised nationally, there is the added bonus of free flights, registration and accommodation this October at art at the heart Regional Arts Australia’s national conference in Alice Springs, where winners will be presented during the official conference dinner with a specially-commissioned artwork.
The Regional Arts Australia Volunteer Awards recognise, reward and encourage regionally-based arts volunteers who have made a substantial contribution to their regional communities.
There are two categories:
- A sustained contribution to the arts
- A young person (26 years or younger).
A person can put their own name forward or nominate someone else. The nomination process will be handled by the regional arts organisation in each state or territory, recommendations then determined by Regional Arts Australia. Details of how and when to nominate will be announced soon.
Andy Farrant leaves to build fences
We are deeply sorry to be losing the services of RAA’s treasurer, Andy Farrant, who is leaving as Chief Executive Officer of Country Arts WA after 10 years. Andy's colourful personality, unique turn-of-phrase and capacity for equal doses of fun and hard work are legendary. We wish him well as he does what most of us simply dream about - taking a year off. Road trips with mates, building a stone fence, and practising his home skills have all been airily mentioned as Andy discusses his future. Whatever he does, we wish him great happiness.
Someone who worked very closely with Andy over the past decade has been our RAA secretary, Ken Lloyd whose letter (pdf 63.6KB), read out at Andy’s farewell, gives the flavour of Andy and his contribution to our organisation.
Andy Farrant
New boss to take the helm at Country Arts WA
The departure of Andy Farrant has made way for Jessica Machin, to take over the reins of Country Arts WA from 26 May. Jessica has been the CEO of Carclew Youth Arts Centre and the executive officer of the South Australian Youth Arts Board for five years. She has a background in organisational development, fundraising and lobbying. She trained at the WA Academy of Performing Arts and worked in NSW as a theatre performer and producer before moving into management. Prior to working with Carclew she was general manager of the Australian Theatre for Young People.
Country Arts WA Chair (and chair of RAA) Ms Suzie Haslehurst, says Jessica’s appointment comes at a period when arts in the regions are facing challenges. “The field was strong and varied, a testament to the high regard for Country Arts WA in the sector, and the calibre of the short-listed applicants made the decision a challenging one. We look forward to working with Jess in the next stage of development for Country Arts WA and the wider industry,” Ms Haslehurst says.
Jessica Machin
MEDIA ART CURATING FORUM for regional gallery, museum & library professionals
Media Art: video installations, interactive artworks and multimedia are now part of mainstream contemporary visual arts and growing in popularity. But how do we program the artworks into our exhibitions and add them to our collections?
Experimenta Media Arts has received funding from the Australia Council to deliver a series of forums over the next two years to foster media arts curating and collecting in regional and rural areas.
Experimenta, Australia’s powerhouse of Media Art, has been successfully touring exhibitions of innovative contemporary artworks since 1986. Experimenta’s exhibitions appeal to a broad cross-section of people, attracting thousands of visitors and developing new audiences for contemporary art.
Experimenta will work closely with the host venues, local Media Art specialists, NETS and state-wide arts organisations, as well as local regional arts development officers to develop and promote the free half-day events.
At most venues the forums will be held alongside the national tour of Experimenta Playground. The first will take place at Performance Space at Carriageworks on 9 May. Venues in 2008 include Western Plains Cultural Centre, Dubbo, The Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art, Adelaide and the WA Museum, Perth. In 2009 venues include Bendigo Art Gallery, Albury Library Museum and Devonport Regional Gallery.
More information contact Maria Rizzo, Communications & Sponsorship Coordinator, Experimenta. maria@experimenta.org
A Month In The Country: performing arts residencies
Next closing date - August 15
Likened to the famous Sundance Institute established in the USA by Robert Redford, this national residency program established by HotHouse Theatre brings artists from across Australia to Albury Wodonga for between one and five weeks during the creative development phase of new theatre projects. Now in its third year A Month in the Country has assisted many Australian theatre artists to bring their work to fruition. A Month in the Country is a service to the national theatre industry, allowing groups of artists to experience the intensity of a regional working experience. Applications for residencies are accepted twice each year. This program is delivered with the support of Albury City, Arts NSW, Arts Victoria, the Australia Council, Perpetual and The Myer Foundation. Details at www.hothousetheatre.com.au
World of Women Film Festival tours nationally
The World of Women (WOW) Film Festival is touring Australia, highlighting the talents of women directors, producers, writers, editors and cinematographers in the Australian film industry. It is a unique festival that offers emerging and established filmmakers the opportunity to screen short works along the theme “seeing the world through the eyes of women”.
One hundred and thirty-seven short film entries were received for the 14th WOW Film Festival presented by WIFT NSW in Sydney in October 2007, a mix of drama, comedy and documentary. Programs from the WOW Film Festival are visiting 18 national, regional and remote locations in 2008 such as Cairns, Hobart, Bowral and Borroloola.
For more information go to www.nsw.wift.org/wow or call Sil-Nyin Cameron on 0402 246 601.
Australia Council Community Partnerships Grants
Closing date 15 June
Applications to the following grant categories are now open:
Creative Producer
Program Grants
Ros Bower Award
Kirk Robson awards
More Information
Community partnerships grants program
Prospective applicants to all community partnerships grant categories should speak with community partnerships staff before applying ph: 02 9215 9025, toll free: 1800 226 912 or email: cp@australiacouncil.gov.au.
The Australia Council’s community partnerships section aims to develop and sustain a wide range of partnerships to support culturally vibrant communities through engagement with, and participation in, the arts.
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 who 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.
