Just Below the Clouds

Paul Brinkman – Manager, Arts & Cultural Services

As I write this forward for our newly designed InSight Magazine the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre and Blue Mountains Theatre are still in lockdown, our exhibition walls are empty and our theatre stage is silent. The COVID-19 restrictions on gatherings have dramatically and indefinitely upended the Arts in all its forms across Australia, and our cherished creatives, so vital to our dynamic and healthy community, struggle to maintain their art practice in these precarious times. It will be a collaborative effort to recover from the unprecedented cascade of closures, cancellations and shutdowns in the Arts industry.

In the face of this new reality, Blue Mountains Cultural Centre has reinvented its services and moved to a much more online format. Our VIRTUAL INSIGHT program has attracted a fantastic amount of engagement as we upload artist talks, studio visits, creative activities, kids’ activities, recipes and a wide and varied range of other arts and cultural content unique to the Blue Mountains. I thank everyone who has participated in our online initiatives, both those providing ideas and content and our online audience that has given great positive feedback and support.

I hope that as you read this InSight Magazine the signs of recovery are starting to appear, the lights of our cultural institutions are once again on and artists are filling us with wonder, challenging our imaginations and striving to re-build a thriving Arts ecology. Now more than ever our artistic community needs your support.