Creative Generator News

CONTRIBUTE
Please send your ideas, events, gigs, exhibitions or workshops to valeska.wood@artslinkqld.com.au and we will try to include them.

Welcome to the February edition of Generate…
an update on Arts, Culture and Creativity in South East Queensland.

Exhibitions on Tour
An exquisite photographic exhibition by artist Donna Davis, Ipswich Portraits: Objects and Mementos

Donna Davis’s fabulous photographic series Ipswich Portraits: Objects and Mementos is now on tour as part of Queensland Arts Councils exihibitions program.

This exhibition features an intimate look at ten people from a regional Queensland community… is it like YOUR town? It could easily be filled with the same characters.

Photographic artist Donna Davis has developed a fabulous set of ‘portraits’, using the subjects’ own objects and stories. The individuals are represented in luminescent digital detail via the framing of these objects, the images lovingly crafted by the artist’s assemblage with respect and care for the slices of humanity represented.

This exhibition is available for tour to your community via the 2012/2013 Exhibitions Touring Program from Queensland Arts Council.

Regional Visits in February
Queensland Arts Council’s Creative Generator SEQ service provides free advice and information to artists, musicians and creatives to assist them to develop their ideas, projects and careers and to also provide information on funding opportunities and the application process.

The Creative Generator SEQ Development Officer, Tim McGee, will be conducting a number of regional visits in each of the 10 local government areas of South East Queensland during 2012 and artists are encourage to book in a 45 minute meeting to discuss their work.

February Regional Visits
Moreton Bay – Tuesday 7th February (Booked Out)
Cleveland – Tuesday 14th February
Esk – Sunday 19th February
Logan – Tuesday 21st February

Contact valeska.wood@artslinkqld.com.au to book in a meeting time.

Funding

Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF)
The Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF) is a highly successful state and local government partnership that supports professional and emerging professional artists and arts practitioners living in regional Queensland. Many of the Local Government RADF round are closing in February and March so contact your Council or go to the following link for more information.
http://www.arts.qld.gov.au/funding/radf.html

Artists in Residence Program
The Artist in Residence (AIR) Program for 2012 is now open, with the closing date of 30 March 2012. Arts Queensland, in partnership with the Australia Council for the Arts and Education Queensland, provides an AIR Program that recognises good practice and encourages innovation in arts and education programs in Queensland.

The AIR Program gives artists an opportunity to broaden their experience and share their skills, while providing school students, teachers and pre-service teachers with greater exposure to the benefits of creative practice.

The Program provides funding of up to $20 000 for projects that create opportunities for artists and teachers to work together on developing effective teaching methods and practices for the arts. The program is open to Queensland schools or clusters and must take place in Queensland school in collaboration with a recognised, professional artist. For further information go to www.arts.qld.gov.au

Events Queensland Regional Development Program
The next round of the Events Queensland Regional Development Program (EQRDP) closes 17 February 2012. Round 22 is for events held between 1 July 2012 to 31 December 2013.

The EQRDP invests in events held outside the Brisbane metropolitan area and is committed to enhancing existing events in regional Queensland, as well as helping to establish new events.

EQRDP encourages and supports the introduction of initiatives and strategies that help an event grow and prosper and aims to safe-guard the future sustainability of events by supporting the development of business, marketing and succession plans, as well as identifying new event revenue streams.

For more information regarding the EQRDP please refer to the Events Queensland website www.eventsqld.com.au or contact Events Queensland on 1300 88 12 55

Foresters / Fair Finance
Fair Finance Australia is a new program established to provide individuals access to small consumer loans ($1000 – $4000). The loans are designed for people who can’t get a loan from a mainstream financial institution or bank. Artists seeking small micro-enterprise, start-up or project related loans are welcome to apply.
http://www.foresters.org.au

AbaF Queensland Workshop
Australia Cultural Fund (ACF) Workshop – 22nd February
Offer your donors a tax deduction. Practising artists and small cultural organisations can register with AbaF to offer their donors the chance to make tax deductible donations. Learn how AbaF’s Australia Cultural Fund (ACF) can assist you with your fundraising.
www.abaf.org.au

Regional Updates

Sunshine Coast
Pecha Kucha Night #9
The Sunshine Coast Creative Alliance will host their ninth Pecha Kucha Night which will take place on Thursday 22th March at the Sol Bar in Maroochydore. Presenters share their passions, work and ideas using the globally renowned networking format ‘Pecha Kecha’ with 20 slides each shown for 20 seconds, taking the total presentation to 6 minutes 40 seconds. If you haven’t heard about PKN before take a look at the global website, now featuring events from over 460 centres across the world.
www.thecreativealliance.org

SCAN e-news
Sign up to the Sunshine Coast Council e-newletter to stay informed about workshops, events and opportunities on the Sunshine Coast. Click here to sign up!

Moreton Bay
Cultural Heart e-news
A one-stop for the who, what, when and where regarding everything arts, culture and heritage… exhibitions, performances, workshops, talks, funding and more! Click here to subscribe.

Redlands
Arts Forum: Arts make strong communities
Using the models of Arts from the Ashes (post-Victorian fires), and Flood of Ideas (Qld floods), how do we create strong resilient communities using arts practise and ensure artists get paid for their services? Come and welcome in a new year of creativity, share ideas and stories and help create a dynamic network of artists. Refreshments provided!
Date: 5.30pm – 7.30pm, Wednesday 29 February 2012
Venue: Cleveland Library meeting room
Please RSVP by 23 February to 3829 8489 or elise.parups@redland.qld.gov.au

Logan
Logan Artists Association
Keep up to date with Exhibitions, events and workshops in Logan through the Logan Artist Associations newsletter. Click here to view their latest e-news.

Logan Art Gallery Exhibition
Mark Davey: Natural Patterns
Begins February 22nd 2012
Edens Landing artist Mark Davey explores in his paintings bush and rainforest canopies with a particular detailed focus on the foliage of Australian native flora. Click here for more details.

Gold Coast
Swell Sculpture Festival
Swell Sculpture Festival, Queensland’s leading outdoor sculpture exhibition, invites entries from artists to exhibit in the 10th annual exhibition. The free to the public outdoor sculpture exhibition will be staged along Currumbin Beach from 14 – 23 September 2012. Entries close 15 March 2012. For more information phone (07) 5525 6392 or email artist@swellsculpture.com.au

Click here to sign up to the Gold Coast City Council Cultural On-line e-newsletter

Scenic Rim
Keep an eye on The Centre website for updates on Exhibitions, Events and Arts Dinners: www.liveatthecentre.com.au

Lockyer Valley
The Lockyer Valley Arts Festival took place in January 2012 and will continue with an encore festival to take place in September 2012.

Famous authors and illustrators from around the country will arrive in the quaint township of Laidley to work closely with school students in the areas of story telling, illustrating, song writing, poetry and prose. Adults can book into private workshops to learn the art of becomming published. The festival will conclude with a community concert featuring local musicians.

Partnering with Tell Me A Story Books and LEAPP Events, the Lockyer Arts Festival 2012 Encore is running an Arts Competition from January 28 – March 31. With the theme of “Water and Ice”, primary, secondary students and Adults can enter 2D and 3D art, short stories and poetry.
www.lockyerartsfestival.com.au

Somerset
The Somerset Arts Society will run a precursor to their KikArts Youth Festival in May with a KikArts Summer School to take place over two weekends in February on 11th/12th and 18th/19th Feb. For more information please contact Chris Vella on 0428 274 834 or visit http://www.kikarts.com.au/

Ipswich
SWICH Contemporary Arts Space presents… Salvage: journey of a textile artist, solo exhibition of new mixed media works by Annamaria Mays. This is the first exhibition in our Emerging Artist Solo Series featuring 6 Ipswich based emerging artists. Opening Night 9th February from 6pm.
www.theswichcontemporaryartspace.com.au

Brisbane
Vibrant City Workshops
Have you ever looked at part of your city and thought… this could be so much more?
Smart Artz will be running workshops for people aged 26 and under to design a major public artwork for installation in the Ernest Street train underpass, situated in the heart of Southbank. The workshop will lead you through a creative process and develop your skills for developing creative solutions to problems.
www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/whats-on/

Youth Arts Queensland
YAQ put together a great e-newsletter with updates on all things youth arts in Queensland. Click here to view and sign up!

Posted on January 18, 2012
Five Queensland Creative Projects to receive support

Queensland Arts Council (QAC) is proud to announce that five Queensland arts projects have been selected to receive Creative Project Support through the Creative Generator SEQ service in 2012.

The projects chosen include an emerging theatre company from Ipswich, the KikArts Youth Festival in Esk, Improvised Music Workshops in Brisbane, a Literacy and Arts Festival in Deception Bay and the Lockyer Valley Arts Festival.

QAC’s Creative Generator SEQ Development Officer, Tim McGee, will work closely with each of the projects throughout 2012 to assist in building their capacity to deliver community arts and cultural activities and events in their communities.  The support service will involve working with each of the artists and groups to develop business, project and marketing plans as well as assisting them to identify and apply for relevant funding or sponsorship opportunities.

Mr McGee said, “This service is about supporting the development of South East Queensland’s vibrant arts and cultural sector and Qld Arts Council is very excited to be working with these amazing artists and groups to deliver high quality cultural outcomes in their communities”.

The projects have been selected following a rigorous assessment process that saw expressions of interest submitted from dozens of artists and community arts groups from throughout the region.

About the projects

THAT Production Company
THAT Production Company is an emerging independent theatre company based in Ipswich. They are a company committed to presenting work of a high quality while maintaining a professional attitude. Their main goals are to challenge, engage, entertain and embrace their audience and community.  Some of their most recent works include, Saved by Edward Bond, Spring's Awakening by Frank Wedekind, Federico Garcia Lorca's Rural Trilogy and Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Christopher Hampton.

KikArts Youth Festival
KikArts Youth Festival is an annual festival held in Esk that is designed to provide an opportunity for young people to develop their creative skills, build their confidence and provide a pathway for a career in the arts.  The KikArts Festival will include an under 18 youth art exhibition as well as a performing arts competition, which will be judged by the community.  The Somerset Arts Society manages the festival.

Improvised Music Workshops
The Foundation for Contemporary Music and Culture Inc. (FCMC) will deliver Improvised and Experimental Music Workshops primarily to people with disabilities or who are otherwise disadvantaged.  The program concept is to offer the chance for individuals to discover their musical creativity and create meaningful group experiences by combining simple musical exercises with free improvisations facilitated by experienced musicians.

Literacy and Arts Festival
Organisations from the Deception Bay Child and Family Alliance will develop and deliver a month long arts festival with a focus around language, literacy and communication.  The festival will include events such as slam poetry, song writing, comedy workshops, cultural storytelling, choir performances as well as an interactive art installation.

Lockyer Valley Arts Festival
The Lockyer Valley Arts Festival aims to seek out emerging artists to provide professional development, exhibition and sales opportunities, promote the region’s arts related community groups and deliver high level performances for the Lockyer Valley community.

For more information on each of the projects please visit: http://www.creativegeneratorseq.wordpress.com

Posted on November 25, 2011

Looking Forward, Looking Back

As 2011 draws to a close I thought it might be a good opportunity to share with you some of the findings, statistics and outcomes that the Creative Generator SEQ program has achieved in South East Queensland.

Queensland Arts Council’s Creative Generator SEQ service has been operating for almost 15 months now and in this time I have conducted 231 face-to-face meetings with artists and arts workers and assisted a further 289 people via email or phone consultations. In all of these consultations, I have attempted to not just provide information on funding opportunities, but to also assist in building the long term capacity of SEQ artists through advice and support in developing their project management and planning skills.

This year, we have delivered a range of networking events including the Social Networking Events which took place in nine locations throughout SEQ and were attended by over 325 artists across the region. These events were an opportunity for artists and arts workers to connect and form collaborations, and also to learn how social media platforms such as twitter, facebook and blogs could assist them to promote their work and connect with other artists. We also recently held three Creative Spotlight Events in Brisbane which were an opportunity to shine a light on some of Brisbane’s leading creative people and were a chance for emerging and established Brisbane artists to gain some insight and inspiration into the way other artists careers had developed.

I have spoken at, and contributed to, many other community networking events, conferences and gatherings to inform the community of the Creative Generator SEQ service and to gain an understanding of the needs and gaps in each of the 10 regions. I have also conducted a number of surveys to ascertain the training needs of the region and from this information delivered nine Business, Marketing and Project Planning Workshops across the region to assist in building the long term capacity for artists.

Some of the other projects I have been involved with include the Animated Spaces project which was a partnership developed with the SWICH contemporary Arts Space and the 2011 Ipswich Festival to convert disused buildings in the Ipswich CBD into a vibrant performance space during the festival, and also the Artist by Artist project which was a collaboration between ABC Open and Qld Arts Council to assist 20 Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast artists to produce short films about artists, by artists.

We are currently assessing applications from each of the 10 regions for artists or groups to receive Creative Projects Support in 2012. This will be an opportunity for me to work more closely with a number of creative projects to assist them in developing a concept from beginning to end and contribute to building their capacity to apply for funding, develop partnership proposals, write a business plan and deliver projects in the future.

The Creative Generator SEQ service is a free service available to artists and arts workers to be able to access advice and information on the development of their careers. We look forward to working with creative communities in South East Qld again in 2012.

Cheers
Tim