Arts funding to encourage community connection

BY ALISON MARTIN
A MUSICAL celebration to launch Jan Juc’s new outdoor stage and a collaborative art installation at Anglesea to launch the 10th Surf Coast Arts Trail will share in $10,000 arts funding with the aim to reconnect communities.
Surf Coast Shire Council will allocate $5000 to the Moonah Gathering project and $5000 to A Celebration Under the Yellow Gums through the 2020-21 Arts Development Seed Fund.
Focusing on the theme ‘Come Together: Sharing Space, Valuing Connection’, artists were invited to “reflect and reimagine our collective experience of this unique time in history, and to create an outdoor event or activity to reconnect the community and celebrate our shared love of place”.
The MOONAH Gathering project will be a two-week art installation by Pattie Beerens in the Moonah Woodlands adjacent to Anglesea River.
The project will be part of the 10th Surf Coast Arts Trail launch, and feature a collaborative artwork by Beerens with an emerging artist, and will be documented by photographer Tom Radtke.
Cr Mike Bodsworth said the community would be invited to experience these still and moving works as part of MOONAH Gathering at Night.
“This is a fantastic local art event that will also encourage the community to connect around the ancient Moonah Woodlands learning more about this ecosystem,” Cr Bodsworth said.
“It embodies this year’s themes about coming together, sharing space and valuing connection both to the surrounding woodlands and one another.”
A Celebration Under the Yellow Gums will feature musician Lucy O’Grady in partnership with Jan Juc Live for a launch of the new outdoor stage at Bob Petit Reserve.
The celebration is planned for October or November and will focus on engaging community groups connected to Jan Juc.
“One of the criteria is that the event activates public places to create vibrant, creative spaces that encourage community interaction and engagement,” Cr Bodsworth said.
“This live performance is a fabulous way to launch the new outdoor stage at Bob Pettitt Reserve and celebrate good people, great talent, in beautiful surrounds.”