Just Add Water opens cultural Goolwa

In South Australia, a spectacular event is planned for Saturday the 14th of January for the opening of Just Add Water, an arts program in the new Regional Centre of Culture, Goolwa - the third to be opened in the state, having won the bid for the title in 2010.

In 2010, the Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts John Hill announced to the Parliament the town Goolwa, 83km south of Adelaide, on the mouth of the iconic Murray River and Lake Alexandria, would become a Regional Centre of Culture for 2012.

For the next four years, the Australian Government presented $800,000 alongside the Alexandria Council, who contributed $700,000 to improve the cultural infrastructure in Goolwa, to make underway for the 2012 arts program set within the winning town.

Just Add Water will be launched this Saturday amid fireworks, music and revelry, and the auspicious event named Watersong for the program’s close connection to water; by Murray River and Lake Alexandria.

Maude Davey, Artistic Director of Watersong, graduating from the Victorian College of the Arts in 1985, worked her way up through theatre and media as an actor before gaining experience as an artistic director in theatre companies, awaits the opening night with excitement, announcing that the evening will attract likeminded people to celebrate the connection with each other as Australians and the native land and waters.

‘We are delighted to offer such a wonderful evening of entertainment to the community while acknowledging the strong ties of the local Ngarrindjeri community with the lands and waters, said Davey, “We look forward to family and friends gathering together in the spirit of community to enjoy this night.”

“Between the river and the sea. Salt on one side, sweet on the other. Everything here is linked by waters, we are too. Connected with the creatures of the deep each time we paddle on the shore, the same as the turtle and the lizards coming to drink at the stream.”

The free public event centres on the Aboriginal lore of the river by sharing the story of the heritage of the land and waters via planned explosive displays of pyrotechnics, sound, light and water. Accompanying the sensory feast shall be soloists from the State Opera of South Australia – acclaimed Adam Goodburn, tenor and Deborah Caddy, soprano. The soloists will perform opera favourites led by conductor Timothy Sexton and the Adelaide Art Orchestra.

Just Add Water, a government and local council supported arts program, overflows with over 140 performances, workshops, exhibitions and community events for the public over the year of 2012. Various items of interest in the program will include workshops with local boat builders and inflatable storytelling platforms for libraries as well as events from local theatres and galleries, all linked to water, Indigenous lore and the multicultural Australian community.

The Executive Producer of the program, Jo Pike, touches on the title of the program – “Just add water and it thrives!” – hoping that the program’s activities will become the water for the art community, and encourage cultural heritage within Goolwa and its surroundings. Pike made her thanks to Goolwa’s community; “We are very grateful for the support and enthusiasm from local community members and groups and look forward to their involvement in an event that people will think of as special for years to come.”

Watersong will be presented by Country Arts SA in association with the Alexandrina Council, Goolwa Regatta Yacht Club and Armfield Slip.