Art as a balm for the island state

In the wake of January’s devastating bushfires, Ten Days on the Island offers Tasmanians a chance to come together and celebrate our shared humanity.

Publicity image for Stompin’s Nowhere. Photo credit: Jacob Collings, LUSY Productions

Hundreds of hectares of Tasmania’s once pristine world heritage wilderness were recently consumed by bushfires. Sparked by summer lightning, the fires blazed through temperate rainforest and across alpine peat rendered tinder dry by hot weather linked to climate change. While alpine parks are beginning to re-open, many Tasmanians remain on high alert.

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Richard Watts is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM, and serves as the Chair of La Mama Theatre's volunteer Committee of Management. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, and was awarded the status of Melbourne Fringe Living Legend in 2017. In 2020 he was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize. Most recently, Richard was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Green Room Awards Association in June 2021. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts