Nine South Australian regional and remote arts practices to get more than $128,000

The Australian Government’s Regional Arts Fund provided $128,674 in support of nine arts projects across regional South Australia in the August 2021 grant round.

Project types included community capacity building, innovative digital media, script development, filmmaking, cultural traditions exchange, community workshops, public artworks, theatre development and visual arts mentorships. Multi-media and community engagement were themes for this round, with several applicants delivering projects involving digital artmaking and/or workshops with community members to develop new works for presentation in their communities.

Country Arts SA’s Chief Executive/Executive Director, Anthony Peluso said, “The projects in the August 2021 round show the strength and diveristy of artists living and working in regional SA. These grants empower the recipients to showcase their expertise to the community and create connections that benefit everyone. Well done to all the recipients. We can’t wait to see the outcomes of these projects.”

The Australian Government supports regional artists, arts workers and organisations to develop and expand their artistic practice through the Regional Arts Fund.  Funding targets activities that will have long term cultural, economic and social benefits for individuals and communities. Funding through the Regional Arts Fund assists communities and individuals through the development of partnerships and cultural networks, by providing artists with professional development and employment opportunities, and by supporting arts and community development projects that provide local communities with opportunities to access exciting arts and cultural activities.

The Regional Arts Fund is administered on behalf of the Australian Government by Regional Arts Australia and organisations in each state and territory which include Country Arts SA. The next funding round closes mid-March 2022 for projects that commence after 1 July 2022. A list of funded projects is below.

REGIONAL ARTS FUND – AUGUST 2021

LIST OF PROJECTS FUNDED IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Michal Hughes – WHYALLA                                                                                                                                 $6,126
The Written Revolution

Lead artist Michal Hughes will mentor a small group of young women to collaborate, share stories, develop and write a socially conscious theatre piece about the trials and tribulations of being a young woman. The resultant work will tour to the 2023 Adelaide Fringe Festival under the mentorship and guidance of playwright, theatre practitioner and Flinders University Senior Lecturer in Drama, Dr. Sarah Peters.

Leith Semmens – CARRICKALINGA                                                                                                                   $3,000
Carrickalinga Blue Carbon

Visual artist Leith Semmens is creating a body of work to visually record the Carrickalinga landscape before it is changed forever by climate change. Drawings from this project will be exhibited at the Coral Street Art Centre in Victor Harbor as part of the 2022 South Australian Living Artists Festival (SALA). The exhibition will be accompanied by artist talks and workshops with the artist.

Lesley Joanne Coulthard – COPLEY                                                                                                                   $4,932
Re-imagining Yura culture through photo convergence

Artist Lesley Joanne Coulthard will reimagine and interpret Yura historical photos from 1940 to current times via storytelling, poetry and art. This body of work result in an exhibition of Yura culture across time for the local community and tourists of Leigh Creek. As part of the process, original photographs will be digitised, catalogued and stored for safekeeping, with digital copies given to the South Australian State Library for public access.

Garry Duncan – BERRI                                                                                                                                           $20,954
Aboriginal Dreaming Trail

This project will develop a model for the creation of iconic landscape art in National Parks along the Murray River from the SA border near Renmark to the Murray Mouth at Goolwa, with the aim of creating visual statements connected to culture, country, environment and First Nations dreaming stories. ‍It is a unique collaboration between the project artists, the Department of Environment & Water and Aboriginal groups of the Murray River.

Ellie Cheesman – PORT LINCOLN                                                                                                                       $5,000
Womenarche: A short documentary film exploring the young female and menstrual experience

Ellie Cheesman will create a 10-minute documentary project with a diverse group of young South Australian females exploring their preconceptions and experiences of the menarche, the menstrual experience and being a girl. The process aims to liberate young girls from the politicisation, fear and stigma of menarche and their bodies while also educating their families and community. The film will be screened locally and submitted to the Beirut International Women Film Festival.

Lewis Major – MOUNT BARKER                                                                                                                         $21,462
Traffic (In The Hills)

Choreographer Lewis Major will work with up to 30 local community performers of all ages to develop, rehearse and perform a new, collaborative dance work involving the artists of Lewis Major Projects, South Australia’s leading independent dance company and Rockit Performing Arts, a social enterprise performing arts school in Mount Barker that caters to disadvantaged youth. The outcome will be a new 40-minute dance theatre work performed in Mount Barker as part of Adelaide Fringe Festival. A stage will be erected in a carpark for an ‘in the round’ performance and audience members will watch from their cars like at a drive-in.

Berri Barmera Council – Barmera                                                                                                                   $15,600
‘Um, excuse me but that wall is looking at me (and smiling)’

Luku Kukuku will work with the local community to create enormous and mischievous digital faces to be projected at the Bonney Theatre Outdoor permanent projector site, with a second presentation throughout Barmera’s CBD brought to life using digital technology to animate the images with augmented reality (AR). This multiple technology approach allows both daytime and night-time engagement with the works. Throughout this project Luku will mentor two Riverland digital artists to further build the community’s capacity in the digital realm.

Jacob Logos – STRATHALBYN                                                                                                                              $27,000
Beacon Studios

Regional artist Jacob Logos has established himself as a front runner in the rapidly evolving field of Volumetric Art. Recent technical breakthroughs utilising cutting edge South Australian technology, has enabled the artist to shape 3D digital compositions onto a tangible ‘Volumetric Canvas’. This project aims to extend upon this unprecedented achievement through deeper exploration of the complimentary elements of sound, textile art and installation design toward a major public exhibition with Illuminate Adelaide in 2022, in what promises to become a South Australian world first realisation of a radical new art form.

Richard Parker – WHYALLA                                                                                                                                 $24,600
Ubreakable

Filmmaker and artist Richard Parker will design and co-facilitate a series of inter-regional art workshops for women with a lived experience of domestic abuse and family violence. Workshops will run in Whyalla, Port Augusta, Cowell and Port Lincoln, with participants of the artist’s previous projects as facilitators and will result in the creation of a significant and innovative body of work including painted objects and other forms of visual art. Outcomes will include a traveling exhibition and a professionally published book.