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Celebrating four years of supporting Queensland’s vibrant arts and cultural experiences

5 Sep 2019

One of the Queensland Government’s major arts funding programs has reached a milestone this month, and the Government is providing more than $400,000 to help support 13 arts and cultural projects across Queensland under the Queensland Arts Showcase Program.

This grants program, now in its fourth year, has provided a total $12 million in funding to more than 360 vibrant arts and cultural projects across Queensland. The latest round of projects highlights some amazing work being undertaken across a range of artistic disciplines, including visual arts, theatre, comedy and cabaret.

These projects are connecting communities by telling rich stories and providing a way for people to explore and unpack complex issues. For example, Gold Coast artist Libby Harward Art is receiving more than $38,000 for her project, Deadstream-Dabilbung– Broken water. 

This is an immersive multimedia experience about the broken waters of the Murray-Darling centring on Australia’s First Peoples voices in sound, video and dialogues in a move to guide the restoration of this broken freshwater system.

Libby Harward said being a recipient of the Queensland Arts Showcase Program funding is crucial to the making of this new work.

“I can now immerse myself in the development of an audio-visual work that aims to challenge and extend my artistic practice and address important political and environmental issues,” Ms Harward said.

“The Queensland Arts Showcase Program funding will allow me to travel country with a sound and film team connecting with Traditional custodians in rural and remote areas. Connections will be critical to the development of an immersive multi-media experience that will listen deeply to country that is suffering devastation and join the call for healing.”

Brisbane-based performer Clint Bolster is receiving $26,500 to develop a cabaret performance based on his clown persona Booff to perform in cabaret programs and festivals.

“I am extremely proud to be a Queensland-based actor, clown and producer with a wide network of local, regional, national and international clients, collaborators and agencies, with a strong track-record of commercial and artistic viability,” Mr Bolster said.

“This funding is the first invaluable step in developing a suite of five performance works for Booff that are scalable, robust and tourable, and can be adapted to suit many contexts such as festivals, corporate events, circuses, cabarets and variety shows in Australia and overseas.”

Other projects receiving funding include Benjamin Allmon, who is receiving $44,500 to oversee the production of a book, podcast and exhibition about the Scenic Rim from the perspective of its roads and trails where he will be walking, and $5,200 to Gympie’s 2019 Heart of Gold International Short Film Festival to engage mosaic artist Brett Campbell to run of workshops over four days to teach festival patrons how to create a mosaic tile based on a symbol meaningful to them.

QASP applications are accepted at any time. For more information visit Funding - Queensland Arts Showcase Program (QASP).

Recipients for Queensland Arts Showcase Program funding - Total: $400,925

  • Shake & Stir Theatre Company – Brisbane - $60,000 to present a brand new adaptation of Bronte's enduring classic novel, Jane Eyre, in the Cremorne Theatre, QPAC in Brisbane,featuring a cast of Queensland favourites with original music composed and performed by Sarah McLeod (The Superjesus)

  • Daniele Constance – Brisbane - $15,000 for Explain Normal, a collaborative dance theatre work developed in collaboration with the Aha Ensemble who identify with disability and artists from Phluxus2 Dance Collective which will premiere at Metro Arts in Brisbane in October 2019.

  • Libby Harward Art – Gold Coast - $38,295 for Deadstream-Dabilbung – Broken water, an immersive multimedia experience about the broken waters of the Murray-Darling centring on Australia’s First Peoples voices in sound, video and dialogues.

  • Museum and Galleries Queensland – Brisbane - $59,500 to fund a Mentorship, International Fellowship & Internship Program supporting paid and volunteer staff in Queensland public museums and galleries to access expertise in national and international cultural institutions for professional development. This initiative aims to build the capacity of Queensland’s collections sector, its workers and the communities they serve.

  • Australian Festival of Chamber Music – Townsville - $25,000 for a special program of commissions of new music by leading Australian composers and a new dance work by Dancenorth, in celebration of the 30th anniversary of Townsville’s Australian Festival of Chamber Music in 2020 and the 25th Anniversary of the Goldner String Quartet.

  • Vulcana Womens Circus Inc – Brisbane - $27,250 for Seen But Not Her, a theatrical conversation between classical music by women composers and circus, creating an interplay between performers to unpick the experience of playing and composing, and celebrate women being heard.

  • Heart of Gold International Short Film Festival – Gympie - $5,200 to engage mosaic artist Brett Campbell to run a series of workshops over four days to teach festival patrons how to create a mosaic tile based on a symbol meaningful to them.

  • Baran Theatre – Bulimba – $29,728 for the Tower of Babel, an interactive, multimedia theatre work in English by the Iranian-Australian theatre group Baran Theatre ‘Baran’, which engages the audience in its process, aiming to de-stigmatise notions of ‘Babylon’.

  • Grace Sankey – Toowoomba - $4,635 for the Scope Theatre Festival, a community festival consisting of original ten minute theatre, written, directed and performed entirely by young locals of the Toowoomba region

  • Cairn Tor Pty Ltd - Scenic Rim - $44,500 for artist Benjamin Allmon project The Black and White Braide: Roads, People and Stories of the Scenic Rim, a fully-illustrated book, podcast, and exhibition about the Scenic Rim from a unique perspective.

  • Blue Roo Theatre Company Inc. - Brisbane - $48,947 for Around. Around tells the story of an approaching new year and the life-members of Club Ted go about their unchanging routine. It will be presented at The Cremorne Theatre, QPAC in October 2019.

  • Caitlin Franzmann – South Brisbane - $16,370 for Magnetic Connect an exhibition of new collaborative and individual work at Milani CARPARK Gallery and online publication of 'Más Allá del Fin (Beyond the End)' journal by Ensayos, an issue-based feminist nomadic research program focusing on stewardship of coastlines and oceans.

  • Clint Bolster – Brisbane - $26,500 for BOOF-THE LAST LAUGH, a five-week development of a suite of performances and high-quality photographic and video promotional materials. The five presentation outcomes will be a full in-theatre production.

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