Governor’s visit emphasises need for thriving arts industry

THE Surf Coast Shire’s most prestigious ratepayer has spent time visiting community organisations in her official capacity.

Governor of Victoria, Margaret Gardner, was in the region as part of a tour of the Colac Otway and Surf Coast shires last week.

Gardner and her husband, Glyn Davis, own property in Lorne.

She said the visit allowed her to better understand the communities she is connected to.

“As I’ve joked, I am a ratepayer,” Gardner said.

“Its the first time I’ve been touring as governor [in a place] I have a direct personal engagement with. I did know a lot about [the shire], but I have learned so much more.

“It is a fabulous area and it was so great to get a better sense of what is happening here.”

While on tour, Gardner visited the Colac Otway Performing Arts & Cultural Centre, Wye General Store, Lorne Visitor Information Centre and Ashmore Arts alongside meetings with the Shire and visits to other organisations.

Ashmore Arts founder Stewart Guthrie said visits from high-ranking officials were a welcomed acknowledgment of the work he and his team are doing.

While at the property, Gardner visited six studios.

A key topic of discussion was the journey of artists into commercial spaces, turning their creative work into steady incomes.

“[This visit] is an acknowledgment of where the arts are going and all the artists here, what they’re doing, what they’re trying to achieve,” Guthrie said.

“This is an industrial area, but for the arts, so people have their home and people have their workspace.

“When they come to a workspace, they’re more dedicated, they can concentrate and produce better works.”

Gardner appreciated seeing such a range of artists knowledge sharing and working collaboratively together.

From blacksmithing and wood working to textile design and portraiture, Ashmore Arts is home to a wide range of artists.

“I don’t think I’ve seen a collection of artists in quite so many different genres in one place,” Gardner said.

“I don’t mean just that they have different ways of approaching oil painting to blacksmithing… but you really don’t see practicing artists clustered like this, and it really was interesting to hear them talk about it and their commissions and how they learn from another and that they’re also teaching as well.”

Guthrie said creativity is embedded in every industry and in everything people do, so it is important to lay out future growth for artists.

Investing in the future of artists on the Surf Coast, he said, was the best way to establish a thriving arts industry.