Arts Northern Rivers has set the date for a creative gathering which will lay the foundations for a sector-led approach to recovery following the recent flood disaster in the region.
With the devastating floods compounding onto two years of a global pandemic, this project addresses impacts of isolation, creative business atrophy and positive regional futures. With many creatives asking the question; “where to now?”, this Forum aims to bring the creative community together, revitalise cohorts and networks and support the Northern Rivers on its path towards a thriving future.
Immediately following the floods, the Arts Northern Rivers team lobbied state and federal Arts Ministers for awareness and funding support. Through this advocacy and their own fundraising campaign, within the first eight weeks of the disaster, they delivered $220,000 in direct rapid response funding to individual flood-affected creatives.
Through this response, Arts Northern Rivers gained a sector-wide snapshot of the direct impact, financial losses and damage from both independent creatives and organisations across the region. One of the insights we gained is the need for the creative industries to come together as a sector.
The overwhelming need emerging from this data was ‘connection’.
The main objective of hosting the forum in response to this is to provide practical support for priority areas of the recovery of the creative industries to bolster the sustainable recovery and rebuild agenda of the entire region. As part of the medium-term flood recovery strategy, this two-day regional forum will bring together the creative industry to develop a future road map for longer-term recovery.
The forum will be held on the 28-29 July with the location yet to be decided.