Art sells to fund Foto festival

THE Ballarat International Foto Biennale hosted an Online Yellow Dot Fundraiser last week to generate funding for their next festival in August of 2021.

Hosted via Zoom, 171 contributing artists had photographic work for sale. There was also a live performance from Deborah Conway and Willy Zygier.

BIFB artistic director, Fiona Sweet was able to discuss each photograph and its creator during the event, which is something that doesn’t normally happen during an exhibition’s opening night.

“People really enjoyed the explanation of who the artists are and where they’ve exhibited. It was different and we were very happy,” Ms Sweet said.

“We sold 158 affordable works at $180 each, and a lot of the people who were purchasers, many Ballarat people, were able to purchase work from past Biennale artists.

“We’ve built up a community of followers in Ballarat, they’re our core supporters, and that grows constantly, so this was an opportunity to get together, as well as a fundraiser.”

A not-for-profit, BIFB runs fundraisers every year to inject money into its upcoming festival, and the Yellow Dot sale is no different.

“This goes straight to paying artists to exhibit in 2021. We now have operational funding so we can pay all the staff, but we still require money to actually put on the festival, contracting artists, curators, printing the works, framing it, hanging it,” Ms Sweet said.

“These are all the things that go into making a really good festival for Ballarat.”

“The Ballarat International Foto Biennale has been cancelled for this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but will open next year on Saturday, 28 August.

“I can’t reveal any artists yet, but it looks like we’ll be normal next year.

“We’re doing some interesting planning with more outdoor works, and looking at some augmented reality components as well, where people can independently see things outside of a gallery space,” Ms Sweet said.

“We want it to be the best festival ever.”

Alongside the Zoom event, BIFB recently coordinated the #massisolationAUS project, and its subsequent education program digitally.

“It’s a platform that we’re quite good at, and I was surprised. We were nervous about moving online.

“But with the Zoom, everyone could communicate and contribute while sitting at home with a glass of wine and dinner,” Ms Sweet said.

“It was an opportunity for people to do something different while they were still in semi-isolation. It was really successful.”