Six Regional Western Australian Artists and Organisations Receive Federal Funding
Regional Arts WA
The Australian Government’s Regional Arts Fund will provide more than $95,000 for regional Western Australian arts projects; this funding is managed in Western Australia by Country Arts WA.
Six arts projects will be delivered in regional and very remote Western Australian locations in the Kimberley, South-West, Great Southern and Pilbara regions of WA. These include four individual projects supporting artists to develop works in virtual reality, photography and sculpture, and develop international audiences; and two community-based projects providing opportunities for artists and communities to develop skills, broaden audiences and celebrate cultural networks.
Future Dreaming, by Sutu, is one of six regional WA arts projects that will receive funding. Pictured: Maverick Eaton. Picture courtesy of Stuart Campbell.
Philippa Maughan, Country Arts WA’s Investment Director, says that the injection of funding will provide valuable opportunities for artists in regional and remote communities to develop their artistic practice and build cultural networks that stretch from within the artists’ communities, out across the world.
“From Stuart Campbell bringing young people’s dreams to life with virtual reality to Christopher Young’s exploration of people’s end-of-life experiences, and Alana Hunt’s exhibition that will voyage from Kununurra to New York, there has been an upsurge of individual artists looking to share their skills, knowledge and contribute to the upskilling of their community through beautiful art projects. It is wonderful to see regional communities continuing to place a high value on the arts and the impact it can have on their community’s development and vitality.”
Pictured: Alison Lockyer. Picture Courtesy of Stuart Campbell.
The applications are selected by a panel of arts and culture community leaders, Chair of the Regional Arts Fund WA Panel Sonya Dye says, “There were a record number of applications this round making it even more competitive and many deserving projects were unable to be funded this time. The hard work of all applicants and their ongoing commitment to their arts practice is to be commended and congratulations are extended to those successful applications which met the criteria to a very high degree. The ever increasing number of high quality applications is demanding of the panel so I would like to thank my panel colleagues for their ongoing commitment”.
The Regional Arts Fund is one way the Australian Government supports regional artists and arts organisations to develop their artistic practice and produce works and experiences to benefit their local communities. The Regional Arts Fund is administered on behalf of the Australian Government by Regional Arts Australia and its member organisations which includes Country Arts WA.
Country Arts WA offers a variety of funding programs to support regional arts projects across Western Australia. For more information, visit www.countryartswa.asn.au or call regional freecall 1800 811 883.
The Project Fund is now accepting applications for projects which begin after 1 January 2019. Applications close 17 August. Apply now at www.countryartswa.asn.au/projectfund.
Successful funding applicants for Round 1 2018:
Alana Hunt |$9,065 |Kimberley
Cups of nun chai from WA to the USA
The participatory memorial Cups of nun chai is an award winning body of work by Kununurra artist Alana Hunt that emerged from the summer of 2010 when over 118 people died in pro-freedom protests in Kashmir. Through shared cups of tea, personal conversations, public media intervention and memory the work explores some of the most challenging areas of contemporary life. Alana will travel to Centre for Stories (Perth) to hold an artist presentation before travelling to New York to hold her first solo exhibition and a series of artist presentations at leading American universities Brown, Parsons, and Tufts. For an early career artist working remotely at the intersection of socially engaged art and the social sciences this opportunity can have a lasting impact on her practice.
Christopher Young |$15,000 |South West
Eight
This project will look at end-of-life cultural experiences, how people respond to such experience and the environments and institutions they encounter. These experiences are universal and this work has the capacity to extend dialogue, within the arts as well as in connection to larger social issues. Christopher will develop a body of people-less photographic work in regional locations utilising spaces such as hospitals, doctors’ surgeries, funeral homes, churches and garage sales. Christopher’s work will pose the question “How does the confronting nature of these spaces affect the creation of images within them and the subsequent interpretative experience?”.
Stuart Campbell |$14,967 | Pilbara
Future Dreaming
A virtual reality documentary that brings to life the future dreams of three young Aboriginal Australians. Directed by Western Australian virtual reality artist Sutu (aka Stuart Campbell), Future Dreaming will transform interviews about the daily lives and dreams for the future held by these young people into virtual reality paintings that will animate in time with the subject’s audio narration and original score. The project will develop Sutu’s virtual reality art and youth mentoring skills in an exciting new format of digital art and storytelling.
Kim Perrier |$15,000 |South West
Carbonature – Blackwood Congregation
Carbonature is the culmination of 5 years development by Bridgetown sculptor Kim Perrier, resulting in two new sculptural styles that use charcoal and forest timber to depict the human form. Kim will deliver workshops within the local community to create one large scale collection of Carbonature sculptures as a co-operative and collaborative project. Community members will be trained in the artform and will create their own work of thirty permanent life size sculptures, a ‘tribal gathering’, under Kim’s guidance.
Denmark Arts Council Inc. |$14,700 | Great Southern
The Big QC
The Big QC will bring Denmark’s community together to explore the 25-year history of the ‘Brave New Works Festival’ and extrapolate its future. Stories will be informed by a series of community interviews, an extensive archive of video, photographic and written material and community arts workshops resulting in musical compositions, theatrical snippets, contemporary dance, written and spoken word. This material will be brought together and presented as three multi-art form performances; The Big QC.
Theatre Kimberley Inc. |$26,861 | Kimberley
The Pitts in Kimberley Pindan – Artists in residence with the Sandfly Circus
The highly talented and experienced ‘Pitts Family Circus’ will provide a four-week residency with Theatre Kimberley to work with local trainers and emerging circus performers of the Sandfly Circus to develop a wide range of circus skills. This project will provide an opportunity for young people in the Kimberley region to train with some of the best solo and duo circus performers in Australia.
