A Great but Challenging Opportunity
We are thrilled to announce an amazing opportunity for one or more artists from the Arts Upper Hunter region to develop new work, in a state-wide project called Regional Futures.
Are you interested in collaboration, dialogue, challenging your own artistic practice through working with other artists and non-artists (thinkers, scientists, techies)? Would you like to join with others to creatively smash out a conversation about the future of regional Australia?
Regional Futures is a creative and professional engagement program that will be happening in 2022-23 across the vast reaches of country NSW. It’s a development process, a connection, a wave to surf, the chance to say something, a symposium, an online presence, the chance to work with others, an exploration. You can be working in any artform.
Take ownership of the debate about what the future is coming to. Be bold. Boldly broach controversial issues (we are happy with left-field collaborations). Think tiny, think huge, think digital, think analogical, think post-colonial, think dystopic-utopic, think ephemeral or immovable. Think sideways about access.
Leave your comfort zone and help us to leave ours…
Stage One. One (or possibly more) creative people from the Arts Upper Hunter region will get to take part. The chosen applicant will receive $3000 for the commission – that could be enough to complete a work or be part of the process. Here’s how to do it:
1. Consider the future.
2. Talk to me. Email or text me and make a time to dig into what Regional Futures is all about and how it could be the Next Thing for you.
3. Jump on the website (http://www.regionalfutures.net.au/ is going live this week) for more on the process, what we’re looking for, FAQs and possibilities.
4. Read the Call For Expressions Of Interest carefully!
5. Put in an Expression Of Interest by Monday 4 April 2022 (applications open Monday 7 March). EOIs can be in written, video or audio form.
Stage One includes a series of provocative Critiqual Conversations with creative leaders, and a splashy website highlighting the work and the creative process. Stage Two will happen from July 2022 to June 2023, and will include an artist-led symposium in Western Sydney (TBC) and a showcase of commissioned works.
The question: What does the future look like for your region?
Any art form: puppetry, dance, painting, landscaping, music, sculpture, performance art, fashion, poetry, gastronomy, First Nation crafts, animation, theatre, improv, site-specific artworks, opera, set design, photography, jewellery, radio, taxidermy, coding, travel-writing, mosaic, game design, carpentry, ritual, perfumery, circus, other or combination.
Collaborators: wish list (a grasshopper scientist but I don’t know any), specific (this woman I know who’s a rainforest ecologist), crunchy (mining company executive), community-building (a local school), honouring (a local elder), team (me and these other two artists), a mentor.
Values: We work on land of First Nation peoples; Creative Practice in a regional setting is a place of innovation and excellence; we celebrate diversity – of artform, of regional setting, of culture, of abilities; we pay artists industry-standard fees.
For all the details please visit https://www.regionalfutures.net/