Chairperson's Report AGM 8th February 2014

Ravensthorpe Regional Arts Council Inc

Chairpersons Report

Annual General Meeting 8 February 2014

Our Vision - A sense of belonging and community cohesion through the arts and culture as an integral part of everyday life in our region.

 

In considering RRAC’s activities in 2013, I think the organisation has really delivered on its Vision statement to the fullest extent.

 

2013 saw RRAC commit to a major change in how the organisation has been run. The Management Committee appointed a part time paid Coordinator to enable us to better manage our Annual Program. This role involves among many things - administration, marketing and promotion of events, seeking sponsorship and  completion of funding applications and acquittals.  I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge Melissa Daw firstly for taking on this new role and for the professional and capable manner she has demonstrated in fulfilling it. This has relieved our volunteers of a lot of work, however they have more than compensated by their leadership and involvement in projects throughout the year.

 

At our 2013 AGM we viewed some examples of community dance projects from other towns in preparation for our involvement in a nationally funded community dance project, Future Landings 2013. The dance project was a major commitment for RRAC and a brave step into the unknown. Three of our committee set off on a three day conference with all the other dance project participants from the other towns involved. This excursion obviously set the creative juices flowing and gave time for brain storming some of our other planned projects and the seed was sown for Homespun.

 

In April, Historian Lyn Dale was invited to  Hopetoun and Ravensthorpe  for three days of story telling and sharing of family memorabilia under the theme of women in the armed forces and preserving family history. This residency was hugely successful with participants using quilt making to record family stories and learning ways to preserve and display special historical mementos and documents. Many family stories and recollections of life experiences were shared.

 

The community enjoyed touring shows in Jane Germain and the Lazy Boys, Canterbury Tales and Wintering. Wintering being a further intro into the world of contemporary dance and warming the community and potential writers and dancers for involvement in Wheel of Fortunes – the Ravensthorpe component of Future Landings 2013.

 

The pace quickened with taster dance and writing workshops for Wheel of Fortunes and the commencement of the Homespun project. Homespun culminated in the launch, a beautiful High Tea,          giving away the flowers and display of the panels during the Wildflower Show.  Homespun welcomed new and old community members and had incredible take up across the district.  It has been acclaimed across the country with people still asking to be sent flowers and requests to display the panels in other areas. This was community art at its best.

 

The Farm Gate Art Trail project saw more workshops, with sculptures completed and the winning entries announced at the Wildflower Show Gala Dinner.  Shots of the vocalist group Slap my Thighs and Call Me Barbara gallivanting in the giant Tea Set at Blue Vista gave RRAC even more promotion along with a radio interview about the Art Trail. 

 

The Wheel of Fortunes workshops and rehearsals continued and then on October 12 the performance in the Jerdacuttup CBH Bin outshone all expectations with two performances and a celebration at the Jerdy Hall.  Another extremely successful community art project and a huge task for all involved.

 

During the year RRAC also supported Friday Night Art at the Dunnart Gallery, the annual Art Exhibition and the Wildflower Show.  Behind  the scenes there was much paperwork seeking funding and updating our Strategic Plan.

 

Recognition was received at the Australia Day Citizen Awards this year with RRAC being presented the award for a Community Group. A well deserved acknowledgement and a badge we will be proud to wear.

 

We have been successful in achieving increased funding through CAWA for our 2014 program.  This funding was very competitive and again is recognition of our diverse program and integration with the community.  The continuing commitment from Shire of Ravensthorpe is also a very important part of our success and I thank council for its ongoing support.

 

Thank you to all the committee and our Friends of the Arts and local communities.  I look forward to being involved in the 2014 program.

 

 

Jen Chambers

Chairperson




Ravensthorpe  Regional Arts Council is supported by the Shire of Ravensthorpe, Country Arts WA and the Department for Culture and the Arts.

Everyone is invited to the AGM, Wheel of Fortunes doc. preview and 2014 program

The Ravensthorpe Regional Arts Council Inc.

 

 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

 

Saturday 8^th February 2014 at the Jerdacuttup Hall

Finger Food & Refreshments on the deck from 6:30pm

“Volunteers” Photography Competition entries viewing and voting.

 

AGM Commencing at 7:30 pm

Followed by premier screening of

Wheel of Fortunes 2013

& an Overview of the 2014 Program,

 

Please BYO drinks and a casserole tea to share!

 

Everyone Welcome to Attend

Please rsvp Mel 0427 381530

or email rraccoordinator@westnet.com.au

Raving mad for Farm Gate art

By Tracey Armstrong, John Cecil

Residents in the Shire of Ravensthorpe are currently hosting something a little different in their paddocks.

Glinting in the sun amongst the wheat and sheep fields, you may just come across a queenly old truck named Beatrice, or a tree decorated with T's.

Further down the track, a bottlebrush created with street sweeper attachments might catch your eye, or a broken down piano living out its final days in the field.

Just when you think you are going mad, you may just discover a tea party with a meter high tea pot, and perhaps a few characters hiding in the giant cups and saucers.

It's all a part of the Farm Gate Art Trail, run through the Ravensthorpe Regional Arts Council.

Have a listen to ABC's John Cecil speak with Sue Leighton about the project, and click through the photos above to see some of works on display.

http://www.abc.net.au/local/photos/2013/12/10/3908985.htm?site=southcoast

RRAC needs your photos!

Gondwana Panorama

 

 

The Gondwana Panorama landscape photography and film workshops, curating workshop and exhibition will open at the Vancouver Arts Centre in early February. Official opening will be 8 Feb sat lunchtime and will feature an address by UWA professor Stephen Hopper, Artist talks and a presentation about the Gondwana link.

 Due to the project being driven from Denmark it is currently lacking in film or photography of the section of the Gondwana link around Ravenshtorpe and Hopetoun and it is hoped that there are some keen photographers who may have some stunning landscape and panorama shots or 360deg footage from or of Ravensthorpe Range, East and West Mount Barren and would be keen to be involved in the curating workshop and the exhibition.

 

Interested photographers are encouraged to contact Amber Perryman, Arts Development Officer, at the Vancouver Arts Centre, Albany on  9841 9418, who can provide more information and perhaps assist with accommodation.

...and yet More Wheel of Fortunes!

This is an article written for Dance West Magazine by Annette Carmichael from Ausdance WA, producer of Wheel of Fortunes as part of the state wide community dance project, Future Landings 2013.

This article was first published by Ausdance WA, Dancewest magazine.

Future Landings

Annette Carmichael writes about the impact of Ausdance WA’s regional program, Future Landings 2013.

 

Wheel of Fortunes

It’s a giant Wheat Bin and the wind is howling through it.  Jason Thelwell, our intrepid Production Manager is calling for rope, lots of it, to stablise the lighting bars before he hoists them up into this massive space.

 

I’m standing in the Jerdacuttup Wheat Bin, the most remote destination in Ausdance WA’s Future Landings 2013 season.  Future Landings is a groundbreaking contemporary dance initiative designed to bring dance and cultural experiences to remote Western Australia.  It presents a unique opportunity for communities in isolated locations to work with regional and Perth choreographers, artists and filmmakers to create large scale performances each unique to their town and with each cast made up entirely of locals.

 

Future Landings 2013 includes projects in Broome, Karratha and the Shire of Ravensthorpe which includes Jerdacuttup.  This thirty-six year old Wheat Bin is an icon of the Wheatbelt acting as a reminder to the community of the significance of good and bad harvests.  Its immense size allowed it to hold 31,533 tons of wheat back in 1999, but it’s empty now, so we are going to fill it with dance, story and film to create Wheel of Fortunes.

 

Wheel of Fortunes has been created by Perth choreographer Aimee Smith with Denmark-based writing facilitator Nicola-Jane le Breton and the communities of Hopetoun, Ravensthorpe and Jerdacuttup.  The performance explores the concepts of richness and loss in these communities.

 

The region has a long and deep history of growth and demise, shaped largely by the ebbs and flows of both the mining and farming industries as well as its unique geographic isolation. These places are filled with stories of opportunity and risk, of success and failure, of joy and sadness.  Through working closely with the writers of the towns, and integrating text with the performance, the communities’ cycles of fortunes, and misfortunes, and the resilience that has blossomed through it all, are revealed.

 

In the days leading up to the performance I was often told by participants how amazed they were by Aimee’s calm, patient guidance.  It was a reciprocal admiration as Aimee wrote for the local newspaper:

 

Every time I come to this community I'm blown away by the generosity I'm shown and the unbelievable Duracell battery energy that seems to run the creative community in this town. The literature that emerged during the community writing sessions really moved me and brought some incredible stories of hardship, endurance, and joy to the surface.

 

Local filmmaker, Amber Perryman has created a series of films that evoke the environment, the rain, the history.  These films are projected inside the Wheat Bin and the corrugated iron textures the film while local voices speak local memories.

 

The success of this project is a credit to the Ravensthorpe Regional Arts Council who were extraordinary partners, co-presenting the project and providing a richness of skill, networks and practical support.  Project Co-ordinator, Ainsley Foulds said the Arts Council were keen to be involved for a number of reasons:

 

The RRAC wanted to provide the community with the opportunity to engage in an innovative and stimulating project that is enjoyable, inspiring and challenging.  We also wanted to provide local artists and arts workers with professional development in areas such as writing, choreography, filmmaking and project management under the mentorship of experienced professionals.  Wheel of Fortunes was our chance to gain valuable insight into the local interest, and the potential for, including contemporary dance into future programs - an art form which the RRAC has little previous experience with.  Ultimately we wanted to promote a sense of belonging and community cohesion by engaging in a large scale collaborative project that embraces community life and cultural identity.

 

On Saturday 12 October, the buses rolled in from all over the district bringing 300 people to witness a performance that could only be made here, about these people and their lives.  Performed by nineteen people, aged 13 – 70 years the show also included a dog, four bikes, a spinning wheel and an impressive and strongly secured lighting rig!

 

Men of the Red Earth

The need for lots of rope was an ongoing theme in this years Future Landings.  Men of the Red Earth, was the title of our project in the Pilbara that included performances by 7 local men in two locations, Point Samson and Karratha for the Red Earth Arts Festival in September.

 

This performance culminated in a man abseiling head first from a crane to the stage, then ascending again with another dancer for an ironic aerial ballet -  a little dig at the untrue stereotype that ‘footy players in tutus’ was the extent of men dancing in the Pilbara.

 

Overturning stereotypes was what this project was all about.  The dancers who came from a range of backgrounds - tradesmen, managers, scientists and a drag queen, wanted to show that there was more to being a bloke in the Pilbara than just drinking beer.

 

The performance opened with a film by local artist Tangiora Hinaki featuring Xena, the drag queen, simply walking along the highway, the vision is interrupted by a series of text messages, all actually received by participants, that express ’surprise’ (but in more colourful language) at the idea of men dancing.

 

Karratha choreographer Megan Wood-Hill and  her mentor, Perth-based Jacob Lehrer have facilitated an empowering creative process that embraced the challenges and celebrated the sheer fun of being a man of the Pilbara. 

 

Local businesses got behind the project with all manner of heavy equipment being provided free like buses, the crane and a donga used for the set.   The project attracted extensive media interest with local, state and national media running stories. 

 

In an interview on ABC regional radio one project participant, Fonda, described how the Men of the Red Earth project had embraced him fully, making space for both Fonda and Xena (his drag queen persona).  When asked by the reporter what he had got out of the project Fonda said, “new friends and a sense of belonging and everyone in that dance group has pushed their boundaries and really, really come together.   It is one of the most amazing things I have ever been a part of.”

 

Megan Wood-Hill grew up in Karratha and has worked as a dance teacher and performer in South Korea, Japan and Australia.  Future Landings provided her with a chance to choreograph in new ways:

 

The idea of working with men was unknown and exciting.  I was inspired by the chance to work with male physicality, strength and a higher appetite for risk than I had experienced before. 

 

What’s been really interesting is watching how the group has evolved.  Some knew each other before and some are new and I have seen them embrace each other.  It’s a shared and unique journey and strong bonds have been formed very quickly. 

 

Future Landings is about demystifying contemporary dance.  In these projects contemporary dance makes sense to regional audiences because it is used to explore issues important to the community.  It’s a style of dance that can enfold the contradictions, diverse opinions and simple unknowns that are part of life in regional Western Australia.

 

With ongoing funding from both State and Australian Governments, we look forward to another Future Landings season in 2015.