The recipients of the Regional Arts Fund (RAF) Project Grants Round 2, 2021 have been announced! The Regional Arts Fund provides approximately $3.6 million per year to support artists and communities in regional and remote areas. Funds can be used to:
- encourage and support sustainable economic, social and cultural development in regional communities;
- develop partnerships and networks which leverage support for projects and encourage ongoing collaboration;
- develop audiences and broaden community engagement with the arts; and
- increase employment, professional development opportunities and profile of regional and remote artists.
The Regional Arts Fund is an Australian Government program that supports sustainable cultural development in regional and remote communities in Australia. The program is managed by Regional Arts Australia and organisations in each state and territory including Regional Arts NSW.
The NSW recipients are:
Bathurst Regional Council T/A Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre
$30,000
Fast Cars & Dirty Beats
Bathurst Regional Council T/A Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre is undertaking an arts and community capacity building project considering Mt Panorama/Wahluu. The project engages community and professional artists to develop a site-specific work to celebrate the famous Mountain and their relationship to it.
Borderline Regional Arts Association
$15,710
Borderline Regional Arts Association will be exploring the theme ‘Journeys at the Border’ through hosting five workshops culminating in three exhibitions. Artists in the region have faced drought, bushfires, extensive rain and now COVID-19 restrictions and this project provides artists the platform to respond to these rural circumstances.
$30,000
Kyogle Writers Festival 2022: KWF22
Kyogle Writers Festival 2022 (KWF22) will present a three-day smorgasbord of author talks, workshops, poetry readings, panel discussions and lively conversation. With its theme of ‘Close to Home?’, the Festival explores notions of place, space, home, homelessness, travel, identity, belonging and rural/regional life.
$18,622
Southern Tablelands Arts will host ‘Woven Together,’ partnering with artist Ronnie Jordan and Indigenous communities to deliver 12 workshops across six local government areas. The project will also see the installation of four micro galleries hosting a series of rotating exhibitions.
Screenwave International Film Festival (SWIFF)
$30,000
New immersive artwork installations at SWIFF’s STORYLAND
Screenwave International Film Festival (SWIFF) will present STORYLAND, a one day multi arts annual event hosted during SWIFF’22, weaving together storylines and song-lines of the Gumbaynggirr Nation.
$30,000
Big hART will be developing ‘Sticks and Stones’ which is an intergenerational project exploring stories, visualisations and sounds from Yuin country, on the NSW Far South Coast.
Northern Rivers Performing Arts (NORPA)
$29,967
The First Aboriginal Olympian – Research & Development
Northern Rivers Performing Arts will be researching and developing ‘The First Aboriginal Olympian.’ Inspired by the life of boxing champion, the late Francis ‘Frank’ Roberts, and the local Widjabul Wia:Bal/Bundjalung community, ‘The First Aboriginal Olympian’ is a site-specific work at Cubawee (Tuncester Aboriginal Reserve).
$19,770
Undertake professional development to up-skill in digital design and fabrication techniques and technologies
R.R. Pascoe will undertake a self-guided professional development program in digital design and fabrication techniques. The project includes developing a body of work for future presentation in a newly established studio and gallery in Portland, NSW.
$14,400
Almost A Mirror (Live) – Headland Writers Festival
South East Arts will present ‘Almost A Mirror (Live)’ a spoken word and musical performance based on the book of the same name by writer Kirsten Krauth. The performance will be included in the program for Headland Writers Festival in Tathra, May 2022.
Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery
$8,045
Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery will host ‘Woven Workshops’ a textile based project bringing together senior high school students and weavers from the Gumbaynngirr community. The project aims to offer cultural enrichment to regional youth and strengthen existing partnerships between Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, local schools and Saltwater Freshwater stakeholders.
$22,050
Aimee Volkofsky will tour ‘Boneyard Sessions Roadshow’ a show of music and storytelling by musicians based in regional areas to audiences in regional towns.
Sprung!! Integrated Dance Theatre Inc
$19,654
Sprung!! Integrated Dance Theatre Inc will perform ‘French Café – Reimagined’ a cabaret dance-theatre work set in a French bar. French Café will be reimagined using the 2019 production as a framework, but now focussing on a disability-led process.
$12,000
The Cad Factory will develop ‘Face to Face: The New Normal,’ considering the relationship between health, science, technology, and the arts. It explores the role of the artist within non-arts sectors such as health.
$11,100
All female contemporary folk trio, Wild Thyme, will record their debut album, drawing from their diverse heritage and individual musicianship in the bluegrass, folk and jazz music genres.
$30,000
FLING Physical Theatre Inc will present ‘The Tent,’ exploring the intersection of dance, design and immersive performance. It will be directed by Rob McCredie and performed by the FLING Company.
$4,950
The Clay Fire and Community Project will deliver a professionally curated exhibition ‘Unearthed,’ featuring established ceramicists from the Bega Valley region, as well as ceramics workshops for the community. Workshop participants’ work will be showcased in a second exhibition. Both exhibitions will be held at Spiral Gallery in 2022 and will celebrate the artistic creativity of the community, in Spiral Gallery Co-operative’s 25th anniversary year.
$20,000
Wiradyuri conceptual artist Amala Groom will perform ‘How to play bridge’, a full-scale live performance work to premiere at the Liveworks Festival of Experimental Art, Carriageworks in 2022.
$30,000
Cementa Incorporated will host ‘So hot right now now now’, a creative and professional development opportunity for eight regional artists, resulting in a group exhibition at Firstdraft, Sydney in September/October 2022.
$17,519
Annemaree Dalziel will conduct a sequence of exhibitions, multisensory participatory and performative art activities that explore history, memory and relationship to place with Wingecarribee communities. ‘A very long echo’ will be exhibited at Mental Gallery and Studios, Mittagong (NSW).