Art Board Grant Recipients Announced
Published on 16 July 2020
Photo caption: Nicole Smede and Bonnie Porter Green on Bundanon Road, where Currowan fire ripped through January 2020 - the site of their monthly meetups to inform their artwork 'Sensing Place'.
Five individual artists plus the Shoalhaven Youth Orchestra will benefit from Shoalhaven City Council’s Arts Board’s grants announced on Monday 29 June 2020.
Council’s Arts Board offers a ‘Sense of Place Grant’ of up to $10,000, and grants up to $3,000 each year, to assist artists to create work and boost their professional development.
Chairman of Shoalhaven City Council’s Arts Board, Councillor John Wells said, “We are delighted with the quality of applications in this round of grants and are anticipating fresh, inspirational, stimulating art forms and installations.
“Some of the funded artworks will enhance our urban environment, others will enable the creation of unique artworks, and all of the grants will extend our emerging artists and established artists,” said Clr Wells.
“The Shoalhaven is home to an active arts community and the Board’s vision is to make the Shoalhaven a recognised, outstanding arts destination that enhances the experience of our beautiful natural environment, connects people and celebrates Indigenous and contemporary history,” he said.
Noel Wellington’s ‘The Reflections in the River’ project will explore sense of place through the creation of three bold and significant log carvings from local timbers, to be installed at key vantage points in the Shoalhaven area. The artwork of Noel Wellington reflects his Aboriginal Ancestral history and draws on images of storytelling and cultural practices from the Shoalhaven. The artistic statement will be developed with students from Nowra High School, and the Threatened Species Unit of NSW DPI, who will work with Noel to explore their connections to local wildlife and sealife that will be represented on the carvings.
Bonnie Porter Greene and Nicole Smede’s ‘Sensing Place’ will involve the creation of 12 sets of unique works, over a year from seasonal expeditions to diverse landscapes in the Shoalhaven. Multi-disciplinary creative Bonnie and vocalist poet Nicole’s oil paintings and letter-pressed poetic responses and soundtrack will entice audiences to explore and connect to our region, with vast and deep experiences of place, linking cultural stories through the window of the 20cm x 20cm format.
In celebrating 20 years of music education the Shoalhaven Youth Orchestra (SYO) will host refreshing, vibrant and inspirational masterclasses for emerging musicians in the community at the Shoalhaven School of Arts featuring SYO students and SYO alumni. These masterclasses will encourage aspiring and beginner musicians in the area to be involved with the SYO and community music making. The string instruments masterclass will be hosted by Klara Morrison and Mark Rossman; Belle Morrison will host the class for woodwind instruments and Emma Bolton will host the class for brass instruments.
Wilma Southan's Professional Development grant, A Step Further into Abstraction, will enable her to attend workshops with Abstract and Landscape Artist Tutor Catherine Cassidy. Wilma hopes to draw on the stimulating Shoalhaven natural environment to bring new character to enhance her paintings and share those new developed skills with Shoalhaven-based students in Art Groups and the wider community. The SYO will work with the Arts Board and public health advice to ensure the masterclasses are able to be delivered in a safe way or deferred until such time as it is safe to bring musicians together again.
Barbara Dawson’s Professional Development grant will enable her to attend an Advanced skills printmaking workshop with Jo Hollier to discover Intaglio printing with new, gentler and safer printmaking methods, which will assuage our concern for pollution of our local environment.
Barbara plans to chronicle a memory of landscape topography, set up her own print studio and work in an environmentally sensitive fashion.
All recipients of the grants will work with the latest public health advice to ensure their projects are undertaken safely with social distancing and safe work practises followed.
The next round of art grants will open later this year. Information about the grants is available on Council’s website.