The Australian Government’s Regional Arts Fund will provide over $160,000 funding for 6 regional arts projects in Queensland, with funding managed by Flying Arts Alliance.

With 49 submitted Community Project Grant applications, this round has shown the highest demand on record for the Regional Arts Fund in Queensland in recent years.

This round’s successful applications have a strong focus on community connection, with three festival and conference outcomes and two focused on community capacity building. Projects with Indigenous arts and performance outcomes are also strongly represented.

Flying Arts Executive Officer, Kerryanne Farrer says the array of applications is testament to the breadth and depth of artistic practice across Queensland, making the selection process for the independent panel no easy feat.

“Flying Arts Alliance welcomes this injection of funding providing valuable opportunities for artists in regional and remote communities to develop their artistic practice through a broad spectrum of projects. These six outstanding projects will contribute greatly to the arts and cultural activity across our vast state,” she said.

“The panel was impressed by the high number of quality applications in this round, making it very competitive and many deserving projects were unable to be funded this time. Congratulations to the successful applicants who met the criteria to a very high degree.”

Successful applications from the latest round of Community Project Grants include:

• Four projects that have a strong primary focus on Indigenous arts and culture – one international cross-generational First Nations performance exchange, one focussed on cultural retention through weaving and large-scale artwork collaboration, one community and arts capacity building enterprise, and one media festival.
• Two projects that facilitate community activation and connection – one for the general community and the other specifically focused on the arts community.

Two examples of approved projects that reflect the diversity are:

Bayal Kaymanen (Dancing Smoke) International Tour, Nintiringanyi Indigenous Corporation, Mooroobool, QLD               

Miriki Performing Arts is regarded as the North’s Leading Indigenous youth-based performing arts program, which focuses on linking youth with elders to allow inter-generational exchange and creation of a safe space for cultural and historic content to be expressed appropriately. Bayal Kaymanen (Dancing Smoke) is a cultural performance that is the result of such engagements. The presentation is set to develop further community relationships abroad through an international tour. The tour will include professional, social and cultural development for all artists, building partnerships for ongoing support of the youth in various streams of the arts. This opportunity will have long-term impacts for the artists and the local region.

Arts Ablaze Queensland 2019 Regional Art Conference and Celebration, Scenic Rim Regional Council, Beaudesert, QLD

Arts Ablaze Queensland 2019 Regional Art Conference and Celebration is a major initiative to support and develop a sustainable Regional Art Sector in Queensland and is a catalyst for renewed economic and cultural vitality. This funding support for Arts Ablaze will deliver:

• Site activations and installations by emerging art professionals inspired by the theme of Transformations through access, attitudes, people and place,
• Co-ordination of an Expression of Interest (EOI) process for engaging site activation artists,
• Co-ordination of festival programming embracing professional and emerging arts practice through invitation and EOI process,
• Liaison and support for conference delegates, and
• Indoor and outdoor event infrastructure for performances, workshops, markets, demonstrations, exhibitions, music, activities and networking.

The Australian Government’s Regional Arts Fund supports sustainable cultural development in regional and remote Australia. The fund meets the strategic priorities of supporting participation in and access to the arts and encouraging greater private sector support for the arts.

The Australian Government’s Regional Arts Fund is provided through Regional Arts Australia. In Queensland the Regional Arts Fund is administered by Flying Arts Alliance according to the objectives and general eligibility determined by the Australian Government.

Applications for Community Project Grants are open from 17 June – 9 August 2019.

–       ENDS   –

For more information please contact:

Kat Johnston
Marketing and Communications Lead
Flying Arts Alliance
comms@nullflyingarts.org.au

ROUND 1, 2019 SUCCESSFUL APPLICANTS

Ms Bernadette Boscacci, Garbutt, QLD $27,945.00
Thawvl wedlvn (weaving this basket) 

Thawvl wedlvn is a cultural retention, development, production and presentation project that will occur in North Queensland between July and September 2019. Thawvl women weavers will work with artists from nearby regions during the inaugural Ngethn o’ Festival in Kowanyama to create a large-scale, public artwork. This work will be showcased in Townsville as part of Strand Ephemera 2019 and in Bernadette Boscacci’s Travelling by String exhibition at Umbrella Studios later that month. While in Townsville the artists will present cultural workshops and talks about their work and The Kowanyama Project – a community culture, research and keeping place project.

Scenic Rim Regional Council, Beaudesert, QLD $30,000
Arts Ablaze Queensland 2019 Regional Art Conference and Celebration

Arts Ablaze Queensland 2019 Regional Art Conference and Celebration is a major initiative to support and develop a sustainable Regional Art Sector in Queensland and is a catalyst for renewed economic and cultural vitality. This funding support for Arts Ablaze will deliver:

• Site activations and installations by emerging art professionals inspired by the theme of Transformations through access, attitudes, people and place,
• Co-ordination of an Expression of Interest (EOI) process for engaging site activation artists,
• Co-ordination of festival programming embracing professional and emerging arts practice through invitation and EOI process,
• Liaison and support for conference delegates, and
• Indoor and outdoor event infrastructure for performances, workshops, markets, demonstrations, exhibitions, music, activities and networking.

Nintiringanyi Indigneous Corporation, Mooroobool, QLD $30,000
Bayal Kaymanen (Dancing Smoke) International Tour

Miriki Performing Arts is regarded as the North’s Leading Indigenous youth-based performing arts program, focuses on linking youth with elders to allow inter-generational exchange and creation of a safe space for cultural and historic content to be expressed appropriately. Bayal Kaymanen (Dancing Smoke) is a cultural performance that is the result of such engagements. The presentation is set to develop further community relationships abroad through an international tour. The tour will include professional, social and cultural development for all artists, building partnerships for ongoing support of the youth in various streams of the arts. This opportunity will have long-term impacts for the artists and the local region.

IRCA trading as First Nations Media Australia, $18,000 Thursday Island (Waiben), QLD
20th Remote Indigenous Media Festival

This is a Biennial media festival focused on professional development for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander media practitioners working in remote communities across Australia. Festival locations alternate between desert and coastal regions. The 20th Remote Indigenous Media Festival will be held on Thursday Island in September 2019, co-hosted by local media organisation, TSIMA/4MW. The timing coincides with the Torres Strait Contemporary Arts Festival to maximise crossover opportunity between media and arts activities. The program features skills workshops, live performance events, cinema screenings, industry forums and cultural visits providing opportunity for broadcasters to collaborate, network and learn new skills to support remote practitioners and communities.

Woorabinda Arts Collective, Woorabinda, QLD $24,483
Woorabinda print and art enterprise development

This project will enable the Woorabinda community to establish arts-based enterprises as one of the pillars for activating employment and cultural opportunities for the Woorabinda community and other First Nations creatives from Central Queensland. Through establishing a printing and art studio and workshop in the Duaringa Hall, artists and young people will engage in skills-building in the arts industry through working with experienced Indigenous arts industry facilitators Black Square Arts. Work will be presented at the Duaringa Hall and other markets for art works and products Rockhampton Art Gallery and markets in Livingstone Shire, Meanjin markets and more.

First Coat Studios (previously Kontraband Studios), $30,000 Toowoomba, QLD
First Coat Block Party

First Coat Block Party (FCBP) is a free community 3-day event that showcases diverse creative disciplines in public spaces in Toowoomba, QLD. Between 2014 – 2017, First Coat Studios facilitated over 100 large-scale public artworks for the city of Toowoomba through an annual 3-day event, First Coat International Art Festival. FCBP will continue the First Coat Festival legacy; maintaining Toowoomba’s outdoor gallery through the production of two large-scale murals and a community celebration. This CBD laneway activation will feature live music, night tours and artist talks, as well as two temporary, site-specific installations: a night projection and a sculptural outcome.

The Regional Arts Fund (RAF) is an Australian Government program designed to benefit regional and remote arts practitioners, arts workers, audiences and communities. The fund is provided through Regional Arts Australia and is administered in Queensland by Flying Arts Alliance.

Flying Arts is an arts and cultural development organisation which has been delivering visual arts projects and services to regional and remote Queensland since 1971. The Association has played a significant role in inspiring artists and communities, as well as helping to overcome the impacts of regional isolation and remote living.

The Regional Arts Fund (RAF) is an Australian Government program designed to benefit regional and remote arts practitioners, arts workers, audiences and communities. The fund is provided through Regional Arts Australia and is administered in Queensland by Flying Arts Alliance.