Esperance-Hopetoun-Ravensthorpe Field Trip

Regional Arts WA

Written by Tegan Morey

Last week Regional Arts Development Coordinator, Doone McAlary, and I made our way to the fresh sea air of Esperance. Our first stop was to meet with the Festival of the Wind’s Samara Clark, who told us all about the exciting and expansive activities planned for the Festival’s future. We then checked in with Esperance Community Arts, a Country Arts WA core arts funded organisation, and had a look at the wonderful art, housed in their centrally located space.

As it was a very chilly spring night, we held our funding forum in the comfort of the Pier Hotel where we discovered that a fireplace and some pizza make great companions to chatting about arts funding.

In the morning we were lucky enough to sit in on a hip-hop dancing workshop at Esperance Primary School, organised by Esperance Community Arts—the kids’ enthusiasm and enjoyment was pretty infectious. We were also able to meet some young people at Esperance Senior High School in the process of applying to the Drug Aware YCulture Regional Grant—it was awesome to hear their creative ideas and see all their hard work in planning.

Then it was over to Hopetoun for another funding forum, at the Hopetoun Community Resource Centre. After that it was off to Ravensthorpe to meet up with the Ravensthorpe Regional Arts Council (RRAC), another Country Arts WA core arts funded organisation, and see the painting of the silos in action– a project by FORM. We were then off to RRAC’s Rag to Riches exhibition, a colourful and unique collection of teepees, fashion and visual art created by local artists using recycled material scraps. Doone and I had the honour of judging two prize categories, the ‘Passion’ and the ‘Fashion’ categories, and it was certainly a tough choice, especially with the pieces including the written story behind the artworks creation and personal meaning.

Doone emerging from a ‘Teepee of Hope’ at Ravensthorpe Regional Arts Council’s ‘Rags to Riches’ exhibition

The next morning we held the final funding forum at Ravensthorpe Community Resource Centre, and as always were in awe of the enthusiasm, creativity and openness of the people who attended. Prior to the forum, we spent some time at the Ravensthorpe Wildflower Show, where it is believed the largest number of different species of named wildflowers are displayed internationally, having been collected from one of the world’s richest biodiversity areas. Our favourite: Granny’s Bonnet.

From there it was back to Esperance in time to catch our flight home! Huge thanks to everyone we met with and who attended the forums.