Lower South West arts projects boosted by regional grants

Two Lower South West art projects are set to receive a funding boost thanks to the Federal Government’s latest round of regional arts grants. This round of the 2021 Regional Arts Fund Project grants will see $1.2 million spread between 76 arts projects across Australia. Northcliffe-based Southern Forest Arts will receive $30,000 to present 16 mentorships for regional curators and producers over the next year through its Mycelium project, which is aimed at building capacity in the arts sector towards a future, ongoing triennial regional arts festival. SFA artistic director and project co-ordinator Fiona Sinclair said she was excited to be working on such a collaborative project. “We do really interesting things when we work together and we really are stronger,” she said. “I find it so exciting to be part of collaborative projects where the sum is always greater than the whole of the parts.” Artist Tony Windberg, who teaches in Pemberton and Northcliffe, will receive $15,000 to produce a new body of work which is planned to be exhibited at the Bunbury Regional Art Gallery in June next year. The work, Wonders of the Worlds: Phase 2, “addresses contemporary environmental and societal concerns through an examination of the rise and fall of empires”. O’Connor MHR Rick Wilson said the grants were a “major boost” for arts in the region.