Embedding Artists and Embedding the Model
As our Performance Development program found its feet around 2007, the residency emerged as a foundation principle for making work that not only tells a regional story, but also has the capacity to tour beyond the community in which it is made. The role of a creative producer to pull the strings and guide the artistic process was becoming integral to our core our business.
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Big Stories Small Towns Originally launched as a partnership with the Media Resource Centre during 2008 for Port Augusta Re-Imagines and rolled out again in Murray Bridge for Ripples during 2010 it continues to evolve independently with stories from all over the world. Professional filmmakers live in a small town and work with local people to bring their extraordinary tales of resilience and innovation to the screen. -
Big Stories Small Towns Originally launched as a partnership with the Media Resource Centre during 2008 for Port Augusta Re-Imagines and rolled out again in Murray Bridge for Ripples during 2010 it continues to evolve independently with stories from all over the world. Professional filmmakers live in a small town and work with local people to bring their extraordinary tales of resilience and innovation to the screen. -
In 2010 Craig Walsh began his two year-long Digital Odyssey for Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art with a three month residency for the Regional Centre of Culture in Murray Bridge. Home emerged from Murray Bridge and was later rolled out in communities across the country toured nationally, eventually coming back to SA for Kumuwuki 2 years later to present each story. -
In 2015 Country Arts SA placed 10 artists in seven small communities and townships that hug South Australia’s stretch of the River Murray, stretching along nearly all its 500 kilometre length for the 'This is a River' Project. Image: River Rites at Field Days -
We first presented Slingsby in 2008 at the newly renovated Port Augusta Institute for Port Augusta Re-Imagines. The Tragical Life of Cheeseboy was the first to come from a three-year program of funding for the fledgling company to develop touring theatre for 10+ age group. 11 years on, the little show-in-a-tent which seats 125 people has been seen by more than 20,000 people in Singapore, USA, Canada, Spain, UK, Scotland and New Zealand. The second of these, Wolf, came out of a Varcoe’s Foundry Residency with footage and sound developed in the pine forests which surround Mount Gambier and toured statewide through Shows on the Road and Come Out 2009.
Time.
Time to talk. Time to research. Time to plan. Time to rehearse. Time to build. Time to reflect. Time to change your mind. Time to create artworks that resonate.
There’s nothing new about artists spending time in communities to create art. We inherited a model of ‘Visiting Artists Grants’ from the Arts Council back in 1993 and have honoured that legacy through our grants programs ever since. We fund communities on a project by project basis to engage artists to spend extended periods with them, engaging in a democratic process of decision making and participation to create works of art. This arms-length process is a cornerstone of community cultural development practice, into which we do not have creative input.
However, as our Performance Development program found its feet around 2007, the residency emerged as a foundation principle for making work that not only tells a regional story, but also has the capacity to tour beyond the community in which it is made. The role of a creative producer to pull the strings and guide the artistic process was becoming integral to our core our business.
Varcoe’s old Foundry in Mount Gambier, now housing an 8 x 10 black box rehearsal and performance space behind the Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre, created a unique opportunity within Australia’s national theatre landscape for groups of performance practitioners to spend time within a local community to make high calibre, ground-breaking theatre and performance work. Professional artists could spend time teasing out stories that would resonate with local people and involve them in a many-layered process of research, development and performance, the success of which is measured by the quality of the experience of everyone involved.
And that takes time.
