The Raw Material Curatorial Development Program was designed to provide training opportunities for curators without experience, but with plenty of potential. Based at Gertrude Street Victoria. Featured artwork by Marie Sierra-Hughes.
Review The Festival of Perth presented two major exhibitions of Western Australian Aboriginal art Bush Women at the Fremantle Arts Centre and This is my country at the exciting new exhibition venue 'Artplace' in Claremont.
Review A sad thing has happened to the once vibrant visual arts component of the Festival of Perth - the oldest arts festival in Australia. It has become tired if not downright tiresome. The whole event needs a good shake - up.
How do artists survive when they are not able to sell work in galleries -- sales are at a record low and many galleries have folded-- or get commissions through State agencies -- because these are few and far between?
Artists are particularly vulnerable to economic downturn for two main reasons...the business cycle and the role of other jobs in a tight employment market.
...So in effect, what we have in Australia is a separation of public and commercial by governments arts departments that unfortunately does not take into account the fact that the arts industry operates on a continuum...
Every State has one - a local council that is outstanding in its commitment to the arts and in Western Australia, the credit for innovation and energy goes to the City of Gosnells, who have arguably led the pack for the last 5 years in interesting community arts projects...
As an organisation, Arts + Industry is fundamentally concerned with economics and income generation. Assisting artists and designers to either find employment with industry or create opportunities as self-employed designer/makers is integral to their goals.
At the Jam Factory in Adelaide, Rolf Bartz, David Archer and Lorry Wedding-Marchiaro are three of the SA designer makers who have entered into a marketing agreement which may be the way of the future for many more.
The transforming role of local government. More enlightened attitudes towards art making are coming from all levels of government and from property developers and others - often at the urging of those various levels of government.