Arts Update February 2013

Department of Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts

February 2013

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Arts Queensland’s monthly update of arts and culture In the wake of devestating flooding, this month’s Arts Update looks at the damage to local museums and the clean up efforts that followed; we get inspired by the Queensland Music Festival’s school concert band program in the remote communities of Hope Vale, Coen and Aurukun; marvel at The Edge’s new 3D printer; and receive an insight into the logistics of bringing the Bolshoi to Brisbane.

Photo courtesy The Edge, State Library of Queensland

Great state. Great opportunity.

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Message from the Minister for the Arts Since becoming Arts Minister, I have already had the privilege of taking part in one of the State’s most exciting festivals.

The very day I was sworn in, I attended the opening of Gob Squad’s Kitchen at the World Theatre Festival, and I will also be officially opening Clancestry at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) tomorrow (1 March).

to have your say. This first round of consultation closes on Friday 1 March. Visit the Arts Queensland website (www.arts.qld.gov.au) to find out more.

The first meeting of the Arts Investment Advisory Board is being held today (28 February) and I know all the members of the board are keen to get down to business.

The board will advise me on arts investment and policy, as well as strategic direction for the arts in Queensland. One of their first tasks will be to advise me on the new arts investment framework which will be announced by June 2013 and operational from July.

These two festivals highlight the wealth of Queensland talent and Queensland stories and show how the State’s artists and producers may work locally but are clearly part of a much larger global community. It is exciting to see these international partnerships and collaborations take form.

I am looking forward to working with the sector and also experiencing Queensland’s great arts and culture as I work to ensure that this vibrant sector gets the acknowledgement and support it deserves.

I am very excited to be Minister of a portfolio that is the innovative and creative engine room of the Queensland Government.

In the arts, it is all systems go as we move forward with our agenda under the Arts for all Queenslanders policy.

I hope you enjoy this edition of Arts Update.

The Honourable Ian Walker MP Minister for Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts

The Arts for all Queenslanders strategy overview consultation has received many responses and if you haven’t provided your feedback yet, I want to encourage you not to miss out on this chance

Arts Minister Ian Walker with artists Dale Weston (left) and Annie Clarke (centre).

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Arts for all Queenslanders

have your say Over the next seven months, Arts Queensland is calling for feedback on the development of the three-year Arts for all Queenslanders strategy.

In April the draft strategy will be released and opened up to industry feedback until September, completing stage two. The final strategy will be released in December.

This is an opportunity to be heard and make a difference to the future of our industry.

The Arts for all Queenslanders strategy will identify priorities and actions to grow the arts sector and foster a community of arts. It is seeking to deliver these outcomes in an informed and collaborative way so the arts industry has ownership of this important strategy.

Consultation will be done through industry network meetings, workshops and forums from April to September, and regular posts on the aqblog will feature input from arts and cultural practitioners, theorists, educators and arts supporters.

There are three stages of consultation. This first stage of consultation includes the opportunity for detailed input online via surveys and emails. It closes on 1 March so be quick to visit www.arts.qld.gov.au/policy/ arts_for_all_strategy

For more details visit www.arts.qld.gov.au/policy/arts_ for_all_strategy

Celebrate the arts and culture of the world’s first nations Make sure you are part of the Clancestry celebrations at QPAC this weekend. The Festival’s free weekend opening on Friday (1 March) from 6.30pm kicks off two full days of dance, music, talks and great family activities. The Chooky Dancers (pictured above) are a highlight of a free concert at QPAC’s Riverside Stage on Saturday. Fine out more at www.qpac.com.au/clancestry 3

Heritage community rushes to aid museums flood clean up Cyclone Oswald left a trail of destruction and devastation in its wake. Along with the countless tales of personal loss, Queensland’s heritage was also put at risk.

Helen and Lydia, along with the heroic efforts of a team of local volunteers, assisted in the cleanup, and, through a blog, Helen described what happened.

Many local museums in the North Burnett and Bundaberg regions flooded, lost power or were damaged.

For the Gayndah Historical Society in North Burnett, the monumental job of cleaning up after the flood triggered a call for help.

“Many of the volunteers had been cleaning the buildings and moving objects out of the buildings to dry,” she blogged.

The Museum Development Officers’ team, coordinated by the Queensland Museum to care for Queensland’s heritage collections, responded to the call.

“It wasn’t long before we were trolleying several tubs of wet and muddy paper-based items from the archives room in one of the museum buildings to the work area. Spreading absorbent material on the tables and dealing first with glass plate negatives, we worked for nearly 10 hours on the first day.”

Brisbane-based Museum Development Officers Lydia Egunnike and Helen Pithie drove five hours in a camper van to reach the Gayndah Museum.

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the Museum Development Officers, the Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Materials (AICCM) Queensland representative and others to coordinate support for the recovery process.

Museum Development Officers also assisted the Railway Museum in Bundaberg which was badly damaged with over a metre of water. The Museum, run by the Bundaberg Railway Historical Society, suffered external damage with water tanks washed away and larger rail objects, such as signals and wagons, damaged.

“We have developed a register of affected museums, galleries and heritage organisations which can be downloaded from our website and are encouraging organisations that require assistance to contact us.

Debbie Bailey, Director, Cobb+Co Museum, Queensland Museum Regional Services, said: “This museum has a hard road ahead with many of the volunteers’ homes affected as well.”

“Many of the affected museums are run completely by volunteers.

Their facilities and collections have been significantly impacted by the floods, so it is important that they are given support,” she said.

“The focus of the Museum Development Officers is on stabilising objects and assisting with clean-up efforts. They will return to their home regions for a well-earned rest but will continue to provide support via phone, email and online. The quick response, rolled-up sleeve approach of the MDO team has been greatly appreciated and recognised.”

Museum & Gallery Services Queensland is calling for financial donations to help raise funds for the 2013 recovery. Donations are tax deductible. To assist, go to www.magsq.com.au Left: Air drying photos at Gayndah Historical Society. Photo: Lydia Egunnike

Rebekah Butler, Executive Director, Museum & Gallery Services Queensland, said the organisation was working with

Right: Gayndah Historical Society during the clean up. Photo: Lydia Egunnike 5

Bringing world’s biggest ballet company to town The Bolshoi Ballet is one of the biggest names and the biggest companies in the performing arts and bringing them from Moscow to Brisbane will be no mean feat. night. They will then continue to work with the Bolshoi’s technicians to deliver the 12 performances across the season.

Here’s a tiny insight. The company will bring up to 500 pairs of ballet shoes packed in one of eight, 12-metre shipping containers filled with staging and costumes.

The Russian visitors will deliver 2,520 room nights to the city of Brisbane and there will be no shortage of interpreters on hand to assist the company during their stay.

The Bolshoi Ballet will be in Brisbane for their exclusive season at Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), 30 May to 9 June.

The company is bringing 168 company members, comprising around a 100 dancers accompanied by technical staff, artists and administration.

The Bolshoi Ballet will be performing two shows in Brisbane, Le Corsaire and The Bright Stream.

For more information and ticket sales visit www.qpac.com.au

QPAC will then support the company with a further 70 technical team members across staging, lighting, audiovisual, sound, wardrobe and make-up to get the company set-up for opening

Top to Bottom: Bolshoi Ballet’s Le Corsaire. Photo: Damir Yusupov. Still from The Bright Stream. Photo: Damir Yusupov, courtesy QPAC 6

Don’t miss the 2013 Touring Showcase Next month, 56 producers from across Australia will be presenting 78 exciting productions to the state’s venue managers, cultural workers and festival directors at the annual arTour Queensland Touring Showcase.

The showcase is on 14-15 March at Brisbane’s Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts. arTour is hoping to attract a wider representation of presenters this year, with RSL and sporting clubs joining venue managers, cultural workers, regional councils and arts councils at the marketplace.

Delegates also have the chance to take part in two days of panel discussions and presentations exploring key issues related to state touring. Deligates can also meet with festival directors and producers who will be taking centre stage to discuss with producers and artists how they can best engage their works in festival programming. There will also be presentations on social media marketing and online brand management, as well as an update on the three year state-wide Artslink Queensland revitalising regional community initiative, Animating Spaces.

Tour-ready productions from shake & stir theatre co, Terrapin Puppet Theatre, CIRCA, Monkey Baa Theatre, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Lisa Wilson, Queensland Theatre Company, Cre8ion, MAPS for artists, Expressions Dance Company and Erth, among others will be on show.

Don’t miss out on this exciting opportunity to network with presenters, producers and artists from across Australia. Book at www.artour.com.au or by calling 07 3226 4020.

An annual marketplace for presenters and communities to preview highlights from productions on the arTour touring menu, the Showcase helps reveal touring demand, with delegates voting online for the productions they’d like to see visit their community.

Angie Dunbavan presents the Flamenco Fire pitch at the Queensland Touring Showcase 2012. Photo courtesy arTour 7

3D printing, get ready for the revolution There’s a buzz in certain circles that a big change is on the way, a change on the scale of the industrial revolution.

New possibilities are emerging in manufacturing, health, art, logistics, retail and the toy market thanks to 3D printing.

demonstrating the future of this technology.

Jennifer Loy, convener of three dimensional design at the Queensland College of Art, is confident 3D printing is much more than a cool fad.

3D printing has been around since the 1980s when it was used for rapid prototyping but now it’s developed to the point that it is about to become accessible for all. Just this month it helped artist Louis Pratt win the $100,000 Mt Buller Sculpture Award, where he used a 3D printer to help him create his winning work.

“I predict in five year’s time we’ll all have a 3D printer just sitting on our desks,” said Ms Loy. “3D printing is where we build a part up using some kind of material … just literally built up in layers.”

Earlier this month, The Edge at the State Library of Queensland, hosted the Additive Manufacturing Forum in partnership with Griffith University and industry partners,

The usual method of manufacture is to build a mould first but this process is expensive, the upfront costs are high and it only becomes 8

efficient if many of the same items are required.

Free and inexpensive programs including Tinkercad and Google SketchUp 3D are now all that’s needed for stereolithography.

Enter 3D printing.

“With this kind of technology you can start building individual products for individual printing,” said Ms Loy.

The Edge runs workshops in Tinkercad and is working towards offering a public 3D printing service in the coming months.

“For instance say the knob on your cooker got lost. What you can do is quickly model or even scan one of the other knobs and print yourself a new one.”

The Edge Program Officer Mick Byrne said people can now access open source do-it-yourself RepRap 3D printers for about $600.

“A RepRap is an open source 3D printing machine.”

3D printers can create objects directly from computer aided design (CAD) models, without traditional manufacturing issues to complicate the process.

“All the designs and all the software that you use for it are available for free online,” said Mick.

Applications are as diverse as jewellery, houses, skin grafting, aeroplane components and there’s scope for much more to come.

Arts Update thanks Ursula Skjonnemand, CitizenJ Newsroom Coordinator at The Edge, State Library of Queensland for contributing this article.

“This is quite revolutionary because five years ago you had to have very specialist knowledge in CAD and you had to invest a lot of money in buying the software,” said Ms Loy.

Photos courtesy The Edge, State Library of Queensland 9

Banding together Queensland Music Festival (QMF) recently completed a successful Artistin-Residence project introducing a school concert band program to the Far North communities of Aurukun, Coen and Hope Vale. Producer Tara Hobbs reveals how in four months students went from never having seen a trombone before to staging a community concert for 700 people.

Q: For many of the students this was their first experience of concert band performance. What was their reaction?

Q: Where did the idea and passion for this project come from?

The Cape York Instrumental Program has been percolating for a few years now. The idea originally came from a friend of QMF, Henrietta Fourmile Marrie, who suggested back in 2009 that QMF bring an orchestra up to Yarrabah.

The idea was to showcase and offer music variety to Indigenous communities. In 2011, QMF took multiple projects to schools in the Far North, including the Queensland Youth Orchestra to Yarrabah, and the Australian String Quartet to Aurukun, Mapoon and Weipa.

Not only was it their first experience of concert band performance but, for many, it was their first time having seen some of the instruments that make up a concert band.

The music teachers from the CYAAA had given us the heads up that this might be the case, and as such the band program began with a session that focused on introducing each instrument; how to put it together, how to take care of it, its sound and its character.

During this period, Cindy Hales, Executive Principal of the Cape York Aboriginal Australian Academy (CYAAA), began talks with QMF to discuss the development of an instrumental program within their schools. When James Morrison came on board as the new QMF Artistic Director in 2012 he suggested that the program would be best served by implementing concert/stage bands. The instruments would be better suited to the harsh climate of the Cape and it would provide a smoother transition for CYAAA band members when they graduate and move on to high schools across the state.

Band students huddled around Artist in Residence John Morrison, the program’s resident drummer, and “funny man” to the kids, in anticipation of the “reveal” of each instrument. The kids were naturally savvy and had a flair for the drums, guitars and even the keyboard, but when it came to introducing the trombone and even the tenor saxophone, they were seriously impressed! It was a lot of fun.

There were screams and giggles of delight and excitement, a few wide eyes of apprehension but an overall sense of fun and eagerness to play.

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By day two (we spent five in each campus) the bands were up and running … and playing, with Hot Cross Buns, in its various guises, coming along nicely. After the first time playing through the piece, most bands let out a cheer. And what an achievement it was.

to donate to the band. We enlisted them as “roadies” immediately.

Q: The project has been hailed as a great success. Were you surprised by how well this first project went and what do you think were the success factors?

Whilst there were so many inspiring and memorable moments during our time up in community working with the schools, their teachers and their students, it is perhaps the reports we continue to receive from the music teachers, on their band’s development, which stir the most pride and which we here at QMF HQ long to hear. We received reports from Aurukun that, for their end of year performance, which featured the Aurukun School Band, there was a turn-out of some 700 people calling out for an encore! To think that in just over four months the Aurukun School Band had gone from 24 young students seeing their new instruments for the very first time, to playing to nearly the whole town, was extremely encouraging, touching and exciting.

Q: The charter of QMF is to bring, make and create musical experiences for audiences across the state. What were some memorable moments for your team from this remarkable project?

I think the surprise was how fast the students took to their instruments. They were amazing.

John was confident, as he has implemented school bands before, that within the first day they could play as a band, and by the end of the week, we could perform a few numbers … and the students did!

The natural enthusiasm, patience and determination of the music teachers from the CYAAA contributed greatly to the success program. They are the ones, slogging it out in the classroom day in and day out, and they have grabbed this program and run with it. Their belief in their respective bands, and the support they give to their students, whether it be in providing rehearsal time, lessons, or just friendly encouragement, is essential in not only getting this program off the ground, but allowing it to grow into the future.

Left: John Morrison and the Hope Vale School Band at their very first public performance. Photo courtesy Queensland Music Festival

We also had wonderful support from community. In one instance in Coen we had some parents, who had a daughter in the band, come in and drop off a bass guitar and amp that they had at home,

Right: The Hope Vale School Band’s Trumpet Section busy in rehearsal.

Photo courtesy Queensland Music Festival 11

Arts Queensland Media Releases Premier announces Ian Walker as new Arts Minister Premier Campbell Newman announced the appointment of Ian Walker to the Queensland Government Cabinet, as Minister for Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts on 17 February. Read more http://bit.ly/YoAj9B

Resources Update Creative Partnerships Australia

Australia Council 2013 Funding Guide

Creative Partnerships Australia is the single agency to replace the Australia Business Arts Foundation and Artsupport Australia and Fiona Menzies has been announced as the new CEO. Learn more http://bit.ly/YPOXaH

The guide provides information about the 92 grants programs and initiatives currently on offer in 2013. The guide is available at: http://bit.ly/Wduryx

Articles & Reports • Measuring the Economic Contribution of Cultural Industries, UNESCO Institute for Statistics http://bit.ly/10CADat

The Repair Restore Renew (RRR) Grant Program The Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal (FRRR) has developed a collaborative grant program supporting flood and cyclone affected communities in Queensland called The Repair Restore Renew (RRR) Grant Program. Qld RRR is open and FRRR invites community groups and not-for-profit organisations based in or working in flood and cyclone affected communities to contact FRRR to discuss an application.

For further information go to

• Measuring Cultural Participation, UNESCO Institute for Statistics http://bit.ly/ZZjSWI • Development Directors Are Not Miracle Workers Rick Moyers The Chronicle of Philanthropy http://bit.ly/12qkqVA

http://bit.ly/138yKT4

About us: Arts Queensland is part of the Department of Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts.

For more information on Arts Queensland go to www.arts.qld.gov.au or call 1800175531 For more information on Queensland Government go to www.qld.gov.au 12