Country Arts WA has allocated $200,000 to each of three new arts initiatives to support and expand arts in regional Western Australia.
Country Arts WA has allocated $200,000 to each of three new arts initiatives to support and expand arts in regional Western Australia.
The initiatives come under Country Arts' Regional Arts Partnership Program (RAPP), launched late last year under the Barnett government’s $24 million Royalties for Regions Creative Regions investment.
The program was intended to create the largest arts network in WA and deliver new job opportunities to regions over the next two years, by establishing partnerships across a range of arts organisations throughout the state.
Today, Country Arts WA executive director Paul MacPhail announced the first three partnerships to be created under RAPP: Connecting to the Creative Grid; Cultural Futures, Next Generation Leadership; and the May We Have This Dance? project.
“This new program revolutionises the way arts funding is distributed to the regions, allowing arts organisations and individuals to become the drivers of regional arts decision making and work with a much bigger budget and far better allocation of resources,” Mr MacPhail said.
“We expect to see more jobs – we estimate a number of job opportunities will be created and over 200 paid community engagement and development opportunities will be generated over the next two years.”
The Creative Grid program is a partnership between more than 40 regional arts organisations and leading WA arts bodies, including Art on the Move, ArtSource, Museums Galleries Australia WA, DADAA, Propel Youth Arts WA and Aboriginal Art Centre Hub of WA (AACHWA), under the guidance of lead organisation Southern Forest Arts in Northcliffe.
The arts organisations will share exhibitions and site specific installations across WA’s regions, focusing on emerging artists that work with a theme focusing on influential people in the community.
The Cultural Futures project aims to create new leaders in Aboriginal arts through a program of exchange, professional development, mentoring and networking.
It is intended to support and sustain Aboriginal arts and cultural enterprises in WA.
Seven Aboriginal arts organisations will work with established WA arts providers including AACHWA, Art on the Move, DADAA and ArtSource.
May We Have This Dance? is a community dance project spanning four regional areas of WA – Peel, Great Southern, Wheatbelt and Goldfields-Esperance.
School students, teachers and artists will work together via a series of school-based dance workshops to create a public dance performance.
The aim is to support dancers in the regions and grow their capabilities.
