Yesterday Today Tomorrow Community Consultation Sessions

Yesterday Today Tomorrow is a professional development program for six Aboriginal artists in the Arts North West region. The project will equip Aboriginal artists with the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to draw inspiration from their region to create and exhibit contemporary works based on their local region. Further to this, the project will support and preserve traditional and contemporary Aboriginal stories through documenting culturally appropriate stories from three key sites in the Arts North West boundary. The six Aboriginal artists will be mentored to develop a portfolio of new works inspired by Country, culminating in a small exhibition in 2019.

Arts North West supports the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities to celebrate and practice their cultures, to fulfil creative aspiration and govern their cultural material and stories associated with cultural objects and cultural knowledge. Furthermore, we recognise and respect that Aboriginal people have a right to self-determination, particularly in respect to cultural matters; this includes making decisions about preserving and sharing their traditional and contemporary cultural knowledge and practices.

Arts North West invite members of the community to participate in consultation sessions in the three key locations where we intend to draw inspiration. These consultation sessions are designed to allow the local Aboriginal community to make key decisions regarding how the project will progress and develop. During these consultation sessions we hope to establish which Aboriginal site or area from each of the three locations is suitable to film and digitally record stories in multi-media format, who the community endorses as a knowledge holder to share the stories and how the community would like the stories protected in terms of distribution and viewing. These consultations will also be an opportunity for community to meet the artists and hear about their practice.

Tamworth
Tuesday 26 March
9.30am - 11.30am
Long Gully Cafe
Piper Street, Tamworth

Moree
Wednesday 27 March
10am - 12pm
Dhiiyaan Centre
Cnr Balo and Albert Street Moree

Inverell
Thursday 28 March
10am - 12pm
Armajun Medical Centre
Rivers Street, Inverell

Morning tea will be provided so we do ask that you RSVP for catering purposes.
Please contact pene@2rivers.com.au or call (02) 6725 4023

Supported through the Australian Government’s Indigenous Languages and Arts program

Creative Plus Business Workshops in March

Creative Plus Business heading our way in March to deliver a suite of fantastic workshops for creatives!

Business advisor and creative industries expert Monica Davidson from the Creative Plus Business Group will be presenting these workshops. Monica is a writer and filmmaker by trade who learned how to run a successful creative business and now shares that knowledge with others. In her workshops Monica helps creative people from all practices and professional stages figure out the basics of financial literacy, with the help of jokes, anecdotes and pictures. This surprisingly fun and informal workshop will leave participants feeling more confident about their financial situation, and provide an opportunity to ask all the questions they’ve always wanted to know.

Business Connect is a dedicated and personalised NSW Government program that provides trusted advice to help you start or grow your small business. Creative Plus Business provides confidential, independent business advice and skills training for small and medium creative businesses across NSW as part of the NSW Government’s Business Connect program.

BOOK IN NOW via the Facebook events

GUNNEDAH WORKSHOP - Money is NOT a Dirty Word
https://www.facebook.com/events/550368545451042/

TAMWORTH WORKSHOP - Comms for Creatives
https://www.facebook.com/events/1914628545302124/

ARMIDALE WORKSHOP - Money is NOT a Dirty Word
https://www.facebook.com/events/304217746963641/

GLEN INNES WORKSHOP - Comms for Creatives
https://www.facebook.com/events/369066980352847/

TENTERFIELD WORKSHOP - Money is NOT a Dirty Word
https://www.facebook.com/events/2157504490974008/ 

Creating Creative Careers for Aboriginal Curators in the New England North West

The Create the Curator project is in its final stages this week as three emerging Aboriginal curators put their new skills into play, preparing for their first group curated show. Three Perspectives, an exhibition of selected works from Aboriginal artists in the Gomeroi region will be opening at Weswal Gallery Tamworth on the 28th of February at 6pm.

The emerging curators from the New England North West region have successfully completed the three-part professional development project to build up their skills, experience and networks while gaining significant insight into the various environments curators work in.

“I have learned so much in relation to the technical and legal side of curating and exhibition.  This includes protecting the integrity of not only the gallery reputation but also the integrity of the artist and their artworks which is vital especially in the passing of knowledge and practices in Indigenous art making and preservation of art collections” said emerging curator Lyniece Keogh.

Professional curators Sandra McMahon (Weswal Gallery, Tamworth), Caroline Downer (Arts North West), Rachael Parsons (NERAM, Armidale) and Sharni Jones (The Australian Museum, Sydney),  have worked with Lyniece Keogh (Tamworth), Kylie Benge (Moree) and Raquel Clarke (Moree) through a series of workshops and site visits. These visits have included a variety of creative spaces from, Aboriginal owned and run galleries, regional galleries, commercial galleries to community spaces throughout the Armidale, Tamworth and Moree region.

“This is an excellent opportunity for experienced arts workers to develop into regional Aboriginal curators enabling them to promote not only their own skills but also that of other regional Aboriginal artists” said Project Manager Lorrayne Riggs.

“This project is the result of community consultation and identifying a real gap in the market for regional Aboriginal curators, it will promote long term cultural, social and economic outcomes”.

The program was created as a result of the government’s Create NSW funding initiative and aims to engage and promote regional Aboriginal artists, arts and culture by introducing more Aboriginal people to curatorial positions in regional NSW.