Filming of the Kalgoorlie-Boulder video clip as part of the Regional Arts Australia Summit. (Credit: Travis Anderson)
The Regional Arts Australia Summit: Arts & Edges, a four day celebration of arts, artists and art practices in regional Australian art, will be held in Kalgoorlie Boulder from 16-19 October this year.
The biennial event has a eighteen-year-long history, and will be presented by Country Arts WA. The Summit has a new Artistic Director Ben Fox, who has previously worked with the remote desert communities of Warburton in Central WA.
Fox believes that Australian identity is quite regional and country driven and it informs a lot of the arts practice even in the metropolitan context. The Summit program focus is on advancing accessibility in culture and the arts with First Nations people and young leaders.
‘Regional arts are a very valuable and important part of Australian creative industry and creative economy but also the identity and actual fabric of the way Australia sees and thinks about itself is regional,’ he said.
Duncan Ord, Director General, Department of Culture and the Arts, Government of Western Australia said, ‘It is a pleasure to welcome the Regional Arts Australia Summit back to Western Australia and to the Goldfields Esperance region.’
As part of its commitment to regional arts and culture, the West Australian Government, through the Department of Culture and the Arts (DCA), has committed $300,000 to the Summit, along with a travel subsidy of $25,000 for artists and arts workers in regional and remote WA to attend the Summit.
‘The growth of regional arts depends on individuals, arts groups, and local and state governments working together to enhance the arts,’ he said.
President of Regional Arts Australia, Dennis Goldner agrees with that sentiment. He believes that there should be a national awareness of the importance of regional arts as they are a vital to the health and viability of the Australian communities.
‘A summit like this is supposed to be a forum and an opportunity for people to share arts best practice, articulate the challenges faced by regional artists in Australia. But more than anything else, it is an opportunity to come together and celebrate regional arts practice,’ he said.
A celebration that is outside the mainstream metropolitan realities of urban art practices, and which celebrates the edges from where regional art in Australia stems. The theme of the Summit is Arts & Edges, and programs of events will be grouped around three key topics of Fulcrum, Flux, and Flow. Each topic will have a keynote presenter and a focus day.
The Summit promises a host of international presenters, performers, strategic leadership discussions and panel presentations focusing on challenges and solutions for regional arts practitioners. There will be creative workshops, exhibitions and master-classes around theatre, dance, music, visual arts, writing, film and digital media.
The city of Kalgoorlie-Boulder won a chance to host the Summit from among a number of applications. So what is it that makes this city rise above the others? Fox believes that the answer lies in the strength of its forever changing identity.
‘The region here is changing really rapidly. Kalgoorlie-Boulder and Goldfields region has a long history of really rapid rates of change on all levels, like societal, environmental and geo-politically. So there are a lot of extremes here in terms of changes to human cultural patterns.
‘And this is impacting in a really lived way here. What this means is that the group of people here, the communities here understand the need for liveability and retention, and cultural activities that put people in touch with each other and generate a sense of identity and value, and bring people to the region,’ he said.
But what a summit like this does for the region depends a lot on the communities of people here, and what the arts and the non-arts practitioners want to make of it. Fox feels that there is a big shift in the way this region thinks about itself.
‘The Kalgoorlie-Boulder video clip is a great example of that. It’s been made with several local communities and arts organisations. The second part of the video will be made with all those who come and participate at the Summit. It’s literally a social, cultural and aesthetic connection between all these people who come here and experience the Goldfields culture and art production,’ he said.
Kalgoorlie-Boulder region has a unique cultural history and proud, prosperous communities. But culture and arts are not the only reasons to visit WA’s Goldfields regions this October.
Amy Johnston, Manager of the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Visitor Centre says, ‘The Goldfields Wildflower Season is in full swing in October. Good winter rains see the forests and shrubs burst into colour in spring time. There are many wildflower trails in the Goldfields region and a downloadable wildflower guide for those keen on discovering them.’
‘I often find that when you give people an experience, that becomes your strongest advocate. Like the experience of seeing a painting or a dance or a film which people feel and it becomes real and then all of a sudden they will tell everyone about it and this is how fans are made. That’s what we’re trying to build really – fans of this region and of this community, because it’s just fabulous,’ says Fox.
And not just the region, there are fabulous discounts to avail as well.
For an early bird rate on registration to the Summit, click here. Delegates also receive a 5% discount from Virgin Australia if flights are booked through the Summit website.
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