Twenty-nine artists from across NSW have been announced as participants in the state-wide Regional Futures project, including three artists working on two commissions from the Arts OutWest region.Regional Futures is a two-year state-wide creative project funded by Create NSW and delivered by the NSW Regional Arts Network which represents 15 members organisations that support and promote artists and creative practice across regional NSW.
At the heart of the project is collaboration across sectors bringing artists and other experts together, exploring the future of the regions.
The artists will participate in a ten-week self-directed creative development program that will involve weekly online sessions with various thought leaders and studio visits from the project’s Creative Director.
Regional Futures will culminate with the showcasing in Sydney of new works developed as part of the project.
From the Arts OutWest region two projects have been selected:
- Kris Schubert and Yanhadarrambal Jade Flyn
- Laura Baker
Kris Schubert is a composer/songwriter, performing musician and producer, working on professional recordings of local artists and his own work at his studio ‘The Boatshed’ in O’Connell NSW. In 2021 he formed the band the Safety of Life at Sea to perform and record original material. Their third album of original music ‘Let the River Go’ was released in 2021, and has received airplay around Australia and internationally. Kris has produced two local compilation albums featuring songwriters from the central west. 2019’s ‘Dreaming of a Green Christmas’ which raised funds for Lifeline Central West, and ‘While the World Waits’ in 2021, an initiative of Arts OutWest. For Regional Futures, Schubert will collaborate with local songwriter and Wiradyuri elder Yanhadarrambal Jade Flyn to create a new composition featuring a combination of orchestral instruments, guitar, piano and voice that explores the theme ‘What is the future of our region’.
Laura Baker is a papercutter, living on Wiradjuri Country in NSW Central West. Baker holds a BFA and MCom (Arts & Cultural Management) and has lived in Sydney and Melbourne before returning to her hometown of Blayney. Starting with unmarked paper, she uses surgical cuts to explore the qualities and detail of the Australian landscape. The final pieces are as much about the paper imagery, as the emptiness and shadows cast beyond the work. Baker is currently exhibited in the Arts OutWest touring exhibition, While the World Waits, and has two upcoming solo exhibitions in 2022 in Melbourne and Newcastle.
For more information www.regionalfutures.net.au