Local creatives eager for PORTAL to continue

FOR the past three months PORTAL has provided a digital platform helping Surf Coast community members and creatives to stay connected.

Produced by the Surf Coast Shire council as a response to COVID-19, PORTAL included a range of digital content involving local artists, such as live panels, virtual studio tours, workshops, and performances.

Events on PORTAL have largely ceased as the program was only financed until the end of August.

The program was funded through the Surf Coast Shire council’s annual project budget for the Surf Coast Arts Trail alongside council’s general program budget.

However, Surf Coast Shire council Arts Development officer and PORTAL’s artistic director Harriet Gaffney said there may still be more to come from the program.

“Our hope is that we will receive more program funding to continue PORTAL into the future and have made several grant applications. Our fingers remain firmly crossed.”

Ms Gaffney said since its inception PORTAL has been very well-received within the community and even from people beyond the Surf Coast.

“PORTAL has had huge success supporting and engaging not only the arts community but local families, schools, the elderly, isolated and vulnerable,” Ms Gaffney said.

“From the first week of the program we have had participants from across the Shire and beyond – including artists from Belgium and would-be children’s book authors from Mumbai – with workshops and panel sessions garnering audiences in the thousands.

“PORTAL has given paid work opportunities to more than 50 Surf Coast creatives via the innovative series of Sunday Morning Sessions, alongside intensive skills development in arts management for five emerging arts professionals from the Shire.”

Many of the creatives who benefited from the program also helped shape it.

PORTAL began with a series of Elevate workshops helping teach Surf Coast creatives how to increase their digital presence, ensuring they could easily share their content on the new virtual platform as lockdown progressed.

Surf Coast Art Space president Sally Groom also voiced her support for the program’s continuation.

“It has given a sense of connection, despite physical isolation,” Ms Groom said.

“The impact of the Pandemic on the arts industry has been devastating, and it is through virtual platforms like PORTAL that arts workers have been kept afloat, both financially and psychologically.

“With lockdown likely to continue in some form for a long time to come, a platform such as this will continue to be necessary for artists and audiences.”

PORTAL will also return on the last weekend of September to hear community members’ ideas for the future of the platform.

People can share their ideas by heading to surfcoastartstrail.com.au.