ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, REGIONAL ARTS AUSTRALIA SUMMIT ARTS & EDGES Kalgoorlie, Australia 2012-2014
Every two years the Regional Arts Australia Summit offers us in the arts a moment to pause, a time to think on sustainability, on futures and to share our successes. I was the Artistic Director for the 2014 event, as we met amongst the red dust, wildflowers and desert rockholes of outback Western Australia, in my hometown of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.
The 2014 event attracted 700 delegates and visiting artists, and 20,000 general public over four days alongside the Federal and State Arts Ministers, local, state, federal and international government agencies, and NGOs, businesses, arts organisations and influential individuals, Boards and Executives.
The programming included a national showcase of work from regional Australia, 56 publicly-accessible art events, 160 conference presentations, a strong First Nations program and a special focus on WA’s closest neighbours, Indonesia.
The Summit showcases the artistic and cultural wealth of regional Australia, and hosts a national conversation about regional and remote arts practice. It is distinguished by the creative leaders who attend, by its 16-year strong history and by responding to a fresh site each time. Australians thrive on the edges of our country, but many of us also live and work away from the coastal fringe, in our nation’s heart and that’s what the 2014 Summit was all about.
