President of Regional Arts Australia, Lee Cole said,
“Regional Arts Australia through the Regional Arts Fund once again delivered outstanding cultural engagement projects across regional and remote Australia. This funding round proves again that creativity and artistic inspiration can be found and nurtured outside of our capital cities.”
“This round of the Regional Arts Fund will includes an exciting diversity of projects with 27% allocated to benefit young people, 22% benefiting artists and arts workers directly and 15.1% going to Indigenous people. Importantly, projects in remote and very remote areas will receive 29.3% of the funding", he concluded
Projects supported in the current round include:
QUEENSLAND
- Torres Strait Islander Regional Council’s Torres Strait Choral Project, where community choir members from several islands will work together and perform as part of the Zenadth Cultural Festival.
- Crush Festival 2012 is a Bundaberg Regional Council event that will engage youth in a variety of street arts projects including zines, interactive games, pop-up acts and busking.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
- Stories from Finniss Springs - Arabunna man, Reg Dodd and writer Malcolm McKinnon will collaborate to share stories of those who spent time at Finniss Springs Aboriginal Mission. They will explore the continuing legacies of this experience relevant to many Aboriginal people today along with the broader community. This project comes out of the Marree region.
- Feast of Ephemera - Kangaroo Island Art Feast Inc. - to be held during the 10th Kangaroo Island Art Feast the Feast of Ephemera project will feature environmental sculptor Evette Sunset working with community participants to create ephemeral sculptures and installations at various locations on the island.
- In the Dark - a theatrical experiment, awarded to Riverland Youth Theatre Inc., is a theatrical experiment created by Riverland’s young people exploring actual and metaphorical darkness, fear, resilience and the unknown.
- Horsing Around - Horsing Around Committee Artists Evelyn Roth and Anne Miles will conduct workshops with community members to design and create an interactive wall piece depicting the history and culture of 130 years of horse racing in Mount Gambier.
VICTORIA
- Mother Tongue – a multimedia sound, film and drawing installation exploring the evolving Italian dialects from the first generation Italian immigrants to move to Mildura, and their subsequent second and third generations’ use of the language. This project will provide a dynamic connection between the voices and faces of immigration to this region. Project by Filomena Coppola.
- Bag Snatcher - A collaborative sculpture/traditional aboriginal painted series of moulded leather bags illustrating the stories of the stolen generation. These works will be exhibited across venues in the Wimmera and Grampians and will offer an educative, enduring and unique artistic perspective of the stories and ongoing impact of the stolen generation. Project by Catherine Johnston.
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
- Staircase to the Moon - Theatre Kimberley will develop the delightful story Staircase to the Moon (published by Magabala Books and written by Indigenous author Bronwyn Houston) into a musical play for children by running puppetry, dance and voice workshops. The final production will be performed as part of the opening season of the newly refurbished Civic Centre Broome.
- Inspirational Community Arts Network (Auspiced by Jurien Bay Community Resource Centre) - Inspirational Community Arts Network will utilise the skills of old, local fishermen to demonstrate, record and document the techniques of making stickies (beehive craypots). This knowledge will be the catalyst for a series of weaving/sculptural workshops, using a variety of materials that explore and represent a contemporary artistic interpretation of our crayfishing heritage.
TASMANIA
- Junction Arts Festival Inc. have been funded to develop two artist in residencies in Launceston, working with several local brass bands and students of brass instruments in order to create two new large brass bands. These two bands Red Brigade vs Blue Brigade will stage a ten part brass band battle throughout the city during the festival.
- Nadia Murphy from Queenstown has been funded to be mentored by experienced printmaker and mentor Raymond Arnold. This will benefit her work by increasing her technical skills as a printmaker and expanding her professional network, gaining greater knowledge of the profession and raising her profile. The fund will be used to pay the mentor for his time and expertise and for the opportunity to travel to Melbourne to showcase the work produced.
NORTHERN TERRITORY
- Little Big Shots Workshops and Screening - Artback NT will partner with local arts organisations, schools and communities to engage young people across the Northern Territory from Darwin, Katherine, and Tennant Creek to Ali Curung, Alice Springs, Nhulunbuy, Garthalala and Yirrkala (East Arnhem) in stop motion animation workshops with nationally acclaimed animator Al Oldfield.
- Workshops at the new Godinymayin Yijard Rivers Arts and Cultural Centre which will provide opportunities and skills development for Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists in the Katherine region.
The Regional Arts Fund is an Australian Government initiative supporting the arts in regional and remote Australia. A full list of funded projects is available from Regional Arts Australia.
