Announced: the recipients of $21,000 in micro-grants to assist individuals and organisations in our local arts community during the Covid-19 crisis.
30 local creatives and groups will receive quick turn-around grants of $200 to $1000 each to support activities that help them make art or run their activities in new ways. Arts OutWest received close to 40 applications during the one week application period. The regional arts development organisation provided the grants from money they haven’t been able to use on their core program this year.
The successful applicants will use their funds for activities including building online stores or websites, purchasing specialised equipment, paying freight costs, online training, developing online resources, improving parkland spaces, and materials for creating new work.
Recipients come from 10 local government areas in the Central West, stretching from Lithgow to Lake Cargelligo.
“We hope that these micro-grants will not only help some people during this period, but will produce outcomes that can continue beyond the current crisis,” Arts OutWest executive director Tracey Callinan said.
“Many of the applications came from artists and creatives who have never come forward to us before for funding, people who found themselves asking for support for the first time,” Ms Callinan said.
The funding was open to arts related requests from individuals, organisations or arts-based businesses in the Arts OutWest region. Projects had to offer direct ways of improving the negative effects of Covid-19 on the applicants’ arts practice or community.
One recipient commented:
“I’m very pleased to receive the Micro Grant. I think it’s an example of why what you’re doing is important, because as an artist who is fairly isolated in some ways, just pushing on with what you do because you have to do it – but with little feedback or input from other artists – it is incredibly affirming to receive a grant like this. Thank you. I’m very pleased that this grant can help me improve on the work I’ve been producing, and open up new avenues to explore. It also pushes me even further on this particular learning curve.”
Funding applications were assessed by a panel including Arts OutWest Board members, in a similar format to the annual assessment for the Country Arts Support Program.
Funds will arrive in bank accounts this week with activities completed by the end of June.
“We’re very happy to be in a position to offer this special funding and in such a short time frame. As Arts OutWest is an organisation independent of, but supported by, federal, state and local government, we can be more nimble, more flexible and respond directly to specific local needs,” Ms Callinan said.
“We would love to offer more micro-grants and will keep looking for funds. Certainly, donations to the Arts OutWest Cultural Fund can be used in this way this year,” Ms Callinan said. Donations to the cultural fund are tax deductible, CLICK HERE to see how to donate.
Grant recipients: Arts OutWest Micro Grants May 2020
| Applicant | LGA | ||
| Amala Groom
Alison Wheeler |
The micro grant will cover the purchase art materials to use during the period of lockdown. Visual artist Amala Groom is preparing work for the Venice Biennale 2021.
A grant will allow local potter Alison Wheeler to cover the increased costs of freighting clay, and to buy some carving tools and glazes, for a local disadvantaged youth group in Lake Cargelligo making sgraffitto pottery while home during Covid-19. |
Bathust
Lachlan |
|
| Barrinang | Local Lithgow Aboriginal group will work with Ngumpie Weaving to deliver an online session to participants and to mail out materials. After the COVID restrictions are lifted the group will continue to meet either in person or continue online. | Lithgow | |
| Bathurst Seymour Centre | A local photographer (artist) will share skills with our target group (seniors, frail aged, have dementia/ cognitive decline, have a disability and carers) who are isolated due to COVID-19. This artist will provide information about how to take good photographs in several methods. A small exhibition will be held late 2020. | Bathurst | |
| Bathurst Theatre Compay | Bathurst Theatre Company will work in partnership with radio station 2MCE, producing a series of Seven monologues for Blokes and about Blokes called Blokes Don’t Talk, covering themes such as domestic violence, depression, family break up, sexuality, war. | Bathurst | |
| Blind Freddy’s Bushranger Tours (Craig Lawler) | Craig Lawler’s Micro Grant will allow him to purchase equipment to create podcasts and continue telling the stories at Blind Freddy’s Bushranger Tours. | Cowra/Cabonne | |
| Cowra Vocal Ensemble | Cowra Vocal Ensemble have been meeting weekly as a virtual choir during Covid-19. The Micro grant will help pay for their Zoom account, sheet music and backing tracks for the online sessions. | Cowra | |
| Gang Gang Gallery | Gang Gang Gallery is in the process of reinventing itself as a virtual and interactive space, not just a passive online presence. This grant will help to fund the setup of this project and allow a wider audience to be involved, in turn giving more exposure and opportunity to our now and future artists. | Lithgow | |
| Karen Golland | To assist her through the Covid-19 period, Karen Golland will be able to purchase the tools and materials needed to create a set of limited-edition wearables and invest in presentation boxes and design printed materials to support the commercial viability of items as treasured and collectible pieces. | Bathurst | |
| Kris Lear | Kris Lear will paint a mural on a car park wall at Orange City Bowling Club and brighten it up. The grant will pay for paint and products and will result in a more pleasant experience for people using the park, especially during Covid-19. | Cabonne/Orange | |
| Kris Schubert | Kris Schubert is moving his songwriting workshops online and needs additional equipment to ensure that they work with professional quality live streaming. | Oberon | |
| Lanny Mackenzie | To enable her to offer online classes and online product sales, Lanny Mackenzie will purchase a good quality camera and tripod, lighting box, extra lenses. | Orange | |
| Lucy Kirk | The AOW Micro Grant will allow Lucy Kirk to up-skill in website design and creation by hiring a professional assist her. She will apply these skills to developing as site for young people to share their poetry and drama writing. | Lachlan | |
| Mandy Martin | In preparing large-scale canvas paintings with video and audio by her collaborators for the Fremantle Biennale 2021 , artist Mandy Martin has encountered unexpectedly high freight charges for the canvases that she would normally be able to pick up herself from Melbourne. The grant will assist with these costs. | Blayney | |
| Marover Pty Ltd (Verdel McLean) | Verdel McLean of Marover Pty Ltd in Grenfell will expand online her space at her Health and Wellness business and combined Local Art Gallery to include other artists. She will purchase equipment to enable her film and stream live exhibitions, giving her a stronger online presence. | Weddin | |
| Martyn Cook | Harpist Martyn Cook needs the Micro Grant to help him buy equipment in order to move his teaching online and to create a site featuring soothing harp music. | Lithgow | |
| Mary-Ann Wright | Music teacher Mary-ann Wright want to be able to have high quality visuals and audio in her online teaching. | Cowra | |
| Mirree Bayliss | The AOW Micro Grant will assist artist Mirree Bayliss with her website and help her to produce up to 10 Colouring Templates to provide inspiration, knowledge and facts to assist in turning the negative effects of Covid-19 around. | Orange | |
| Nerida Cuddy | Musician Nerida Cuddy is working to bring musical cheer and connection by releasing at least one live song per week. The Micro Grant will help her get an easy, good-sound set up – in order to make better audio. | Cabonne | |
| Nic Mason | Artist Nic Mason will purchase a camera. With some essential functions on her existing camera not working, she needs a replacement. A camera is integral to her arts practice to take images of work for publication, document process and assist in connecting.. | Bathurst | |
| Out on a Limb | Due to Covid-19 there is an increase in the number of Lithgow residents who are making use of the bike ways and footpaths to improve their physical and mental well-being. “Out on a Limb” will engage the imaginations of the people of Lithgow with a new installation focused on the resilience the community. Additionally, the project will provide a focal point for families and community members to connect. | Lithgow | |
| Parkes School of Dance | Parkes School of Dance has introduced a virtual studio and dance at home program called PSD at HOME. To complement the student’s online learning, and enhance their holistic appreciation of the arts, PSD will provide a dance diary to each student. The PSD Dance Diary would be age appropriate and include research tasks, prizes, fun activities based on dance and performing arts. | Parkes | |
| Paul Stafford | Paul Stafford will create a professional learning resource/module (delivered via videoconference) to build teachers’ capacity to design whole-of-community film making projects from their school, building skills in research, scripting, and framing/theming a community festival. The micro-grant will fund the research, drafting and finalised VC module content. | Bathurst | |
| Penny Banks | Artist Penny Banks will undertake a course to increase her market exposure, limited by Covid-19 due to the closure of galleries and public spaces. She will also learn how to add an online shop to her website to increase the ease of purchasing artworks. | Orange | |
| Rebecca Janek | Having re-located to Orange, film-maker Rebecca Janek will purchase equipment to shoot and edit cooking videos for online, with her partner who is a chef. This will help her build a portfolio of work to gain employment from other organisations and business to shoot and edit videos for them. | Orange | |
| Ruth Stone | Artist Ruth Stone is currently building a body of works for her next exhibition. The funding will help her buy linen and stretchers to develop the new body of work on. | Blayney | |
| T.Arts Gallery | When the Covid-19 restrictions were put into place, T.Arts promptly closed its doors in compliance with these laws. They decided to expand their website to include online shopping so that they could continue to trade, and ultimately ‘stay afloat’. The Micro Grant will help with the cost of upgrading the website. | Bathurst | |
| Viviana Hamilton | Viviana Hamilton develops programs to engage people living with dementia (in the community) in a safe, enjoyable social environment at the regional gallery. She will develop a weekly outreach program of laminated pictures of art with printed questions that facilitate conversation at home by both formal and informal care workers. Included in the program would be suggestions of simple related activities to be completed at home. | Orange/Blayney | |
| Weddin Shire Council | Weddin Shire Council will purchase software to enable them to take photos and videos of Grenfell Art Gallery’s exhibitions and offer virtual online exhibitions as well as physical exhibitions. With the exhibitions being cancelled, artists who have been preparing exhibitions for over a year now have works just sitting in their studios or homes, potentially not being seen or being sold, at a financial cost. | Weddin | |
| 908 Art & Desgin | This grant will go towards a proposed artwork by Orange-based artists 908 Art & Design who will make performative sculptures to be presented at Sculptures in the Garden 2020 in Mudgee. | Orange |
Image: Installation by Aleshia Lonsdale for FLOW Gallery at Forbes’ River Arts Festival 2019.