FORM has offices and galleries in Perth and the Pilbara, and projects across the State. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians of all these lands, particularly the Whadjuk Noongar people of Boorloo/Perth and Kariyarra people of Marapikurrinya/Port Hedland. We pay respect to community Elders and to their ancestors whose enduring connection to this Country and ongoing contributions to our collective culture and communities we appreciate and honour. We are deeply grateful for the privilege of working on these lands.
39 Gugeri Street Claremont, Western Australia, 6010 E: mail@form.net.au
T: +61 8 9385 2200
Designed and published by FORM Building a State of Creativity Limited.
Warning: Members of Aboriginal and Islander communities are respectfully advised that this report contains names and images of people who have passed away. These people’s families have generously approved the use of this content.
@formwa
@formgalleryandcafe @spinifexhillstudio
@creativeschoolswa @scribblersfest
Cover image: Untitled (Detail), Doreen Chapman, 2023. 24th Biennale of Sydney, Ten Thousand Suns, 2024, Artspace. Photograph: Document Photography.
Annual Report
From
Woven Together: Celebrating South Hedland
Sydney Biennale triumph for Spinifex Hill Studio artist Doreen Chapman
New Plot Twists For Scribblers
Spinifex Hill Studio
Creative Learning
Scribblers
FORM Gallery & Café
Cultural Tourism
Public Art
Sector & Community Development
Media From Memberships to Subscriptions
Untitled, Gloria, 2024. Acrylic on Silk.
Image courtesy of Spinifex Hill Studio.
Foreword
Untitled, Doreen Chapman, 2023. Installation view, 24th Biennale of Sydney, Ten Thousand Suns, 2024, UNSW Galleries.
Photograph: Document Photography.
The Chair
Tim Shanahan
September 2024
FORM is bold, creative and transformative!
Over the last 18 months, these themes have guided the organisation and have been manifest in the works we have produced.
Thomas Dambo’s Giants of Mandurah has been a standout and continues to make a contribution to the creative and economic wellbeing of not just Mandurah but the State more generally.
Perhaps less well known is the range of creative learning programs that FORM undertook to support the Giants project, including a free Teachers’ Resource and Learning Workbook, downloaded by over 100 schools in the first weeks of its release. We have also aligned our Scribblers Festival and other programs to benefit the regional communities with whom we already work. It is great to see how the different areas of FORM’s programming are coming together in mutually supportive ways.
Organisationally, we have taken the bold and transformative step to migrate from an industry association membership structure to a company limited by guarantee. This better reflects the space FORM now occupies with its partners and stakeholders and builds a better foundation for growth and the projects we are delivering.
Like most creative organisations we are keenly aware of the diverse voices of our stakeholders, including the creatives who are at the heart of the works we deliver. We want to be bold in our concepts and the work we do, we want it to be transformative and creative, and we want to be a force for bringing our communities together.
The structural changes we have made over the last 18 months to provide a formal voice for our Aboriginal and Islander stakeholders have
been consolidated. The Spinifex Hill Studio and gallery are providing additional opportunities for management and administration by First Nations team members.
The Board has continued to steer the organisation to bolster the financial sustainability necessary to enable and facilitate the work FORM does. This has been well supported by a proactive team, so ably led by our CEO Tabitha McMullan. The FORM revenue base has grown in all categories, including in the generous philanthropy of our supporters, through a range of corporate stalwarts and new sponsors and supporters, as well as a range of new funding programs from the State Government.
I thank the Directors: Deputy Chair Kathy Reid, Jenn Morris, Narelle Grinceri, Nicolette Casella, Paul Kotsoglo, Peter Lee, Ron Bradfield Jr, and Stedman Ellis for their ongoing commitment and contribution to FORM’s Board. Not only do they give their time, they also provide practical and financial support to the organisation. We are also incredibly grateful to Tania Hudson and Stuart Smith, who stepped down from the Board in 2023 after years of dedicated service and diligence.
FORM continues to be very grateful to you, our loyal supporters, both continuing and new.
I’d like to specifically thank our Patrons Paul and Sophie Chamberlain for their ongoing and outstanding support.
The role FORM plays in Western Australia and beyond continues to be unique and valuable. The plans we are laying now and the projects that will come to fruition over the next few years are truly exciting and fit the bold, creative and transformative standard we have set.
The CEO
Tabitha McMullan
September 2024
Welcome to our 2023-2024 Annual Report, which for the first time is aligning with the financial as opposed to calendar year. So, it’s with great pleasure I reflect on the highlights of the past 18 months at FORM: a time busy with programming and projects in communities throughout and beyond Western Australia.
As this report will show, our activities and learnings during this period have prioritised helping communities nurture the mindsets and foundations that lead to true empowerment. Delivering the wildly successful cultural tourism project Thomas Dambo’s Giants of Mandurah has underlined to us the wide-ranging community impact of bringing art, place and story together, and FORM is continuing this important and rewarding work in other areas. We are now well into the community consultation phase for an Esperance Sculpture Trail. In the north of the State, we have made progress with the Pilbara Project [working title], supporting First Nations communities in the Pilbara to identify the region’s next multi-collaborative, community-led undertaking involving artmaking and care of Country.
As I write, lots of other large-scale communitybased projects and plans are bubbling under the surface, so the next year for FORM promises to be every bit as busy as these last few months have been. In view of all these exciting projects in progress and coming online, we’ve also continued to build and consolidate our multidisciplinary team, and I’m glad to report staff turnover reached a historic low during this period.
As we continue to work hard on our mission―to be a leader in developing a vibrant creative economy for the benefit and wellbeing of all Western Australian communities―FORM is so grateful to be supported in so many ways. We greatly
appreciate the wisdom and advice of our Aboriginal and Islander Advisory Committee, chaired by Ron Bradfield Jnr, and of our Spinifex Hill Studio Aboriginal Council, chaired by Vickie Wagner. I want to thank our patrons Paul and Sophie Chamberlain, our Board, partners, donors subscribers, all the creative practitioners involved in our programs.
I also want to make a heartfelt acknowledgement of the many unique and talented individuals who make up the FORM team, in Perth and at the Spinifex Hill Studio in South Hedland. What we can come up with when we pull together towards our important mission never ceases to amaze me.
Especially however, I want to pay tribute to the communities where we’ve had the privilege of working these past 18 months, and with whom we continue to collaborate. Thank you for trusting us and allowing us to walk alongside you. I recently came across these words, written by Dr Dianne Dredge, an expert in regenerative development:
People do not like to be told what to do, they do not want plans that do not resonate with their challenges or lived experience. People need to connect, find ways to collaborate, find their own uniqueness, be creative and be nourished together.
This is the Western Australia that together, with your support, collaboration and creativity, we are collectively working towards.
Our Mission
To be a leader in developing a vibrant creative economy for the benefit and wellbeing of all Western Australian communities.
Doreen Chapman at work, Spinifex Hill Studio, South Hedland, 2023. Photograph by AB Videography.
Our Vision
The diversity and ambition of Western Australian cultural expression is expanded. We increase opportunities for artists—particularly regional and First Nations artists—to create new works; we broaden the scope of our international markets and our
connections to a global creative economy; we reach diverse audiences at home and abroad. Our work is world-renowned for its ability to catalyse unique cultural expression, arising from our State’s healthy and prosperous communities.
Woven Together + Mara, Jinbi, Ngurra exhibition opening, FORM Gallery, 2024.
Photograph by Dan MacBride
Our Values
CREATIVITY
We embrace change with a sense of possibility and positivity, using the creative process to generate new ideas, re-imagine old ideas, and express those ideas to inspire others.
EXCELLENCE
We take pride in making the time to ensure our work is of great quality and value to its beneficiaries; in each endeavour, we understand the definition and measure of its success.
INTEGRITY
We are honest and true to our values. With the benefit of guidance from Elders and community across the State, we do what we say we are going to do, learning from our mistakes and making amends.
COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT
We aim to embed self-determination, grounded in cultural awareness and respect, as the basis of our work in all communities. We recognise that, in all respects the Aboriginal peoples of Western Australia are the Custodians of their Country, their culture and their communities.
COLLABORATION
We can accomplish greater things together than any of us can alone. We embrace the power of diverse perspectives in achieving shared goals.
Woven Together, exhibition opening at Spinifex Hill Studio, 2023. Photograph by AB Videography.
Our Approach
• Self-determination for First Nations Australians and respectful partnerships with Aboriginal and Islander communities
• Encouraging sector resilience and sustainability through cooperation and collaboration
• Financial sustainability
• A better and deeper understanding of existing and potential audiences
• A risk appetite and mitigation framework matching our ambition
• Effective and efficient operations and communication
• Cross-disciplinary and cross-sector activity
• A grounding in research, discourse and thought leadership
• Community engagement
• Strong partners and supporters with shared values
• The right people, skills and talent to do our work
Students in the recording studio at Murdoch University for FORM’s Creative Schools podcast project, I HAVE MORE TO SAY, 2023. Photograph by Dan MacBride
Our Strategies
ABORIGINAL AND ISLANDER PARTNERSHIP
Cultural practice started and continues with Aboriginal and Islander peoples. We aim to ensure First Peoples’ perspectives, cultural authority, and right to self-determination, come first.
CREATIVE LEARNING
We empower young people to develop their creativity, sense of agency and wellbeing. We do this by designing and delivering programs that foster curiosity, a love of learning and young people’s ability to make sense of the world around and within them.
CULTURAL PROGRAMMING AND PRODUCTION
We connect communities with artistic collaborations and experiences of quality and excellence to achieve increased community wellbeing and cultural vibrancy.
CULTURAL TOURISM
We foster local and global exchange through world-class cultural tourism experiences at scale, while also helping to establish the building blocks of a Western Australian cultural tourism economy.
SECTOR AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
We build creative sector knowledge, capacity and infrastructure (hard and soft), to enrich communities and their places and spaces.
Scribblers on the Road at Strelley Community School, the Pilbara, 2023. Photograph by AB Videography.
Our Programs & Services
• Spinifex Hill Studio
• Creative Schools
• Scribblers
• Cultural & Artistic Programming
• FORM Gallery & Café
• Curatorial Development & Exchange
• Creative Services
• Relationships, Development and Subscriptions
• Arts & Cultural Consultancy Services
• Public Art
• Placemaking
• Cultural Infrastructure
• Cultural Policy & Strategy
Untitled, 2023, Maggie Green. Acrylic on canvas. Image courtesy of Spinifex Hill Studio.
Seba’s Song , Thomas Dambo’s Giants of Mandurah, 2022.
Photo by Duncan Wright.
Highlights
So glad I came, thank you … great learning from other cultures.
Exhibition visitor
WOVEN TOGETHER: CELEBRATING SOUTH HEDLAND
A landmark artistic and social celebration of South Hedland’s multicultural community took place at the Spinifex Hill Project Space in August 2023. It featured a popular program of workshops and an exhibition of woven forms and paintings by the artists of Spinifex Hill Studio, many of them co-created with artists-in-residence Jacky Cheng (Malay-Chinese/Australian) and Paula do Prado (African/Charruan/Iberian), and the multicultural communities of South Hedland.
Two-time MasterChef contestant Brendan Pang (Chinese-Mauritian) catered for opening night, and Hedland’s Indonesian community turned out in force to a special welcoming party for guest artist and exhibitor Mulyana (Indonesia) and his studio team, Apip and Palupi.
Woven Together exhibition opening at Spinifex Hill Studio, 2023. Image by AB Videography.
I was happy and I was painting for a long time, I was helping my mom and auntie, and started with my own paintings.
Workshop participant
Really great activities on offer in a really great space. More like this for Hedland PLEASE.
I had so much fun!! It was awesome to learn how to do yumiyami hand knitting.
Workshop participant
Exhibition visitor
Weaving workshop at Spinifex Hill Studio with Jacky Cheng, 2023. Image courtesty of Spinifex Hill Studio.
WHAT A GIANT YEAR IT WAS!
By November 2023, a year after its launch, Thomas Dambo’s Giants of Mandurah had attracted nearly half a million visitors and generated a 47:1 return on investment (ROI). And it was an award-winner:
• Gold Winner: Best Trail Awards, Grey Nomads Awards 2023
• Gold Winner: Major Festivals & Events, Perth Airport WA Tourism Awards 2023
• Winner: Best Sculpture Park or Trail, Australian Street Art Awards 2023
• Highly Commended: Major Festivals & Events, Australian Tourism Awards 2023
• Nominee: Australian Event Awards 2023
• Finalist: National Economic Development Awards for Excellence, 2024
Yaburgurt Winjan Cirkelstone, Thomas Dambo’s Giants of Mandurah, 2023.
Photo by Dan MacBride.
Students of Alta-1 College help artist Thomas Dambo (centre) make the finishing touches for Little Lui, 2022. Photograph by Dan MacBride.
SYDNEY BIENNALE TRIUMPH FOR SPINIFEX HILL STUDIO ARTIST
DOREEN CHAPMAN
Nine canvases by of one of Spinifex Hill Studio’s most prolific and celebrated artists, Manyjilyjarra woman Doreen Chapman, delighted thousands who saw them as part of the award-winning exhibition Ten Thousand Suns at the 24th Biennale of Sydney. These works were specially commissioned by Biennale of Sydney and the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain and mark another extraordinary achievement thus far in the career of this unique artist. Chapman’s observations of contemporary urban life, often in the form of ATM machines, are unmistakeably exuberant in their style and palette. She is a true original.
Untitled, Doreen Chapman, 2023. 24th Biennale of Sydney, Ten Thousand Suns, 2024, Art Gallery of New South Wales. Photograph: Christopher Snee.
Untitled, Doreen Chapman, 2023. 24th Biennale of Sydney, Ten Thousand Suns, 2024, Chau Chak Wing Museum. Photograph: David James.
Untitled, Doreen Chapman, 2023. 24th Biennale of Sydney, Ten Thousand Suns, 2024, Museum of Contemporary Art. Photograph: Hamish McIntosh.
NEW PLOT TWISTS FOR SCRIBBLERS
In August 2023, we took Scribblers—the State’s most popular celebration of storytelling for young people—out ‘On the Road’ for the very first time, up to the Pilbara. It was such a success, we did it again, in June 2024.
Thanks again for coming all the way up to us, the community were extremely impressed and can’t wait to see if you decide to come back again next year! The only semi-negative feedback we received was that the sessions were nowhere near long enough, they wanted extra time with you all! Best negative feedback you can get!
Library coordinator, Newman
FORM’s Scribblers On The Road, Family Fun Day, South Hedland, 2023.
Photograph by AB Videography.
In another first, Scribblers’ annual metro festival event relocated to the heart of the Perth CBD. Over 6000 people enjoyed the workshops, interactions, storytelling and laughter over an action-packed weekend in October.
The Scribblers team also staged a creative takeover of an empty shopfront in Perth’s Forrest Chase. Over three weekends in June 2023, FRONT—a free youth project devised and presented in collaboration with Propel Youth Arts—invited children and young adults to collaborate with sculptors, poets, muralists and multidisciplinary artists. Their collective energy transformed this inner-city ‘blank canvas’ into a vibrant art space. Of the participants surveyed, 100% agreed that FRONT contributed to making Western Australia a more creative and happier place to live.
I
had a fabulous weekend.
I
enjoyed how families of all ages came and had fun together.
I also enjoyed how inspiring all of the authors were, they gave so many great tips for writing and taught me so much. I found it hilarious and full of passion and I will definitely be coming again. Violet, 9
Good thing. They should do more stuff like this in the CBD.
Forrest Chase business owner
It
was great being in town, looking at all the buildings and going to the art gallery. I enjoyed all the workshops I did and meeting likeminded people. The FRONT space was great.
FRONT participant
Scribblers Family Festival, Perth 2023. Photograph by Dan MacBride.
Projects, Programs & Services
Spinifex Hill Studio, South Hedland, 2023. Photography by AB Videography.
Spinifex Hill Studio
2024 marked a decade since the artists of Spinifex Hill Studio took up residence and started painting in a permanent home: a purpose-built studio complex on Kariyarra Country in South Hedland, constructed with the support of Principal Partner BHP. In 2021, again with the support of BHP, as well as Lotterywest and the Pilbara Development Commission, FORM opened a purpose-built gallery and community space in the Studio grounds, known as the Project Space.
The Studio is unique in Australia as an urbanbased, culturally neutral art centre representing Aboriginal artists from numerous cultural backgrounds; there is no dominant ‘house style’, rather the Studio supports an eclectic range of art practices in recognition of the diversity of Indigenous experience. From its beginnings in 2008 as a small group painting in temporary spaces, Port Hedland’s only Aboriginal art
collective, managed by FORM, has evolved into one of Western Australia’s most dynamic Indigenous art producing centres.
While membership of the collective has been increasing over time, attendance can be affected by any number of reasons including family obligations and health. However, with over 100 artist members, there are consistently between 10 and 20 male and female artists painting in the Studio daily, supported by the Indigenous and non-Indigenous people on the team. In addition to the Woven Together: Celebrating South Hedland exhibition, the Studio and its artists presented four highly topical exhibitions in the Project Space: Wunyjurru Muwarr Palaman Referendum Ku; Badubadu thurlagaragu Wanyabarrigu: Recognition + Respect; Together: Heroes, Warriors, Defenders + Peacemakers; and Land Rights, Sea Rights: A Celebration of Us Mob
Maggie Green at Spinifex Hill Studio, South Hedland, 2023. Photograph by AB Videography.
In an important move towards governance and self-determination, in 2023 the Studio established an Aboriginal Council. Comprised of members drawn from the artists, their families, and community, it meets several times a year, and provides guidance and recommendations to the Studio and the FORM Board on policy-making and programming. The Studio also became a member of the Aboriginal Art Centre Hub of Western Australia.
During 2023 and 2024, work by Spinifex Hill Artists again headlined in group exhibitions at Revealed (Fremantle Arts Centre), Cossack Art Awards, Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair, ANZ Gallery, Vivien Anderson Gallery (Melbourne), and Koskela Gallery (Sydney). In addition, Banjiyma artist Layne Dhu-Dickie featured in Blak Power: 50 Years of First Nations Superheroes in Australian Art at Northern Centre For Contemporary Art (Darwin), Martu artist Gloria in State of Abstraction at The Art Gallery of Western Australia, Ngarla artist Sophia Alone in The Women’s Show at Vivien Anderson Gallery, Manyjilyjarra artist Doreen Chapman in Ten Thousand Suns at the 24th Biennale of Sydney, and In Case You Missed It at Paul Johnstone Gallery (Darwin).
Walmajarri artist Nyangulya Katie Nalgood featured in the Art Gallery of South Australia’s major Tarnanthi exhibition.
Nyangulya Katie Nalgood also had solo shows at Paul Johnstone Gallery and at Aboriginal & Pacific Art (Sydney), while Mangala artist Maggie Green had her second solo show with The Design Files
In Hedland’s annual Jury Art Prize, Yolngu artist Ruby Djikarra Alderton won the Emerging Artist Prize and Manjilyajarra artist Lena Willalang won the Patron Prize. Karimarra artist Gladys Kuru Bidu was a finalist in the Paddington Art Prize.
13
1
4
4
Commissions for licensed artwork designs
Podcast Nyangulya Katie Nalgood ABC Kids Listen
Studio artist/storytellers participating in Scribblers on the Road
Exhibitions curated and presented by the Studio’s team and artists
Dancing Brolgas, Nyangulya Katie Nalgood, 2023. Acrylic on canvas.
Creative Learning
During the second half of 2023, we concluded several months’ work refreshing our Creative Learning Strategy. The Strategy now brings our two major creative learning programs—the schools-based Creative Schools and the publicfacing Scribblers—into closer alignment with our overall approach and philosophy. Helping young people develop and use the Five Creative Habits of Learning—imagination, discipline, collaboration, persistence and inquisitiveness —is the key principle of our creative learning approach.
I’m getting to learn new skills. I’m getting to practise talking to new people. It’s important to know how to do that in life.
Student, Bayswater Primary School
Exhibition opening of My Thoughts Laid Bare, Stormie Mills Creative Journaling Exhibition with CARE Schools, 2023.
Photograph by Edwin Sitt.
CREATIVE SCHOOLS
Our flagship program for the past six years has been Creative Schools, which focuses on helping young people to adopt the Five Creative Habits of Learning as a learning and life-skills toolkit. The program enables schools in the public system to apply creative learning and teaching strategies to equip young people with the skills for meaningful participation in future workplaces and socioeconomic life. Based on a unique delivery model which partners creative practitioners with teachers, the program has also increased the number of professionals with transformed professional and pedagogical practices who will continue to intentionally develop the creative and critical thinking capabilities of the next generation of learners. Our 30+ creative practitioners (whom we put through a training program, along with their partner teachers) come from the worlds of gaming design, podcasting, mixed-media, music, music therapy, jewellery-making, writing, dance, sculpture, and sound recording.
2023 CREATIVE SCHOOLS EVALUATION
90% 89%
of students enjoyed participating in Creative Schools
of creative practitioners felt the program had a positive impact on the wider school community
of teachers and school leaders think the program had a positive impact on student knowledge and/or skills
100% 95% 83% 92% 100% 100% 80%
of previous teacher participants continued using creative learning approaches
of students say they have improved their collaboration skills
of school leaders think the program improved students’ inquisitiveness
of teachers think they will continue to use creative learning approaches of parents would like their child to participate in creative learning programs again in future
of previous teacher participants report the program had a lasting positive impact on their pedagogical practice
In the recording studio at Murdoch University for the Creative Schools podcasting project I HAVE MORE TO SAY 2023. Photography by Dan MacBride.
This type of learning is more tolerant, more flexible, more tolerant of what your pace is. Other schoolwork can be so strict and the pace so quick. Here it is more flexible and caring and more creative. I prefer a flexible paced learning style.
CARE School student
In both academic years we’ve continued to run the program in six Curriculum and Reengagement in Education (CARE) schools for youth at risk, in partnership with the Association of Independent Schools WA. In this context, young people’s progress in wellbeing, learning and the Creative Habits is often difficult to measure, so creative practitioners work with teachers and young people to find ways to make this progress visible. Innovative assessment formats, like creative journalling, or the public sharing of projects or stories in podcasts and exhibitions can help students demonstrate their creativity, problemsolving abilities and capacity for self-reflection, not only to themselves but also to their families and peers.
I am now making my mum proud, and I like that. I’m actually going to school now, instead of just wagging. We both can see a future for me now. Before we didn’t see a future.
CARE School student
Creative Schools CARE Schools workshop at FORM Gallery, 2024.
Since 2021 CARE school students have presented NOW I OWN, a ‘celebration of creative bravery’ which shares their Creative Schools projects and process with the public. In October 2023 this took place at Perth Council House, alongside the outcomes of a companion podcasting project I HAVE MORE TO SAY, where the students got the chance to verbalise their stories and learn interviewing and recording techniques in a professional studio.
I have a very creative vision now for my life. I don’t know how to put myself out there, but I definitely see myself in a creative life. I want to get my education, I want to go to TAFE, I want to get a Diploma. There are lots of options for me now and I’ve got ambition now.
Participant
Another 2023 landmark was the mid-year launch of an exhibition showing the outcomes of a twoyear creative journalling project My thoughts laid bare are like homes without curtains with acclaimed artist Stormie Mills. The project involved 95 young people experiencing economic and social disadvantage who participated in workshops at Albany Youth Support Association, SMYL Community College, and Port School.
ALSO IN THE 2023–2024 PERIOD:
• FORM’s Creative Learning team delivered a variety of Professional Learning sessions for educators and practitioners: in creative journaling, staff development, Creative Habits of Learning, the design of warm-up exercises and the use of self-reflection as practical creative learning tools.
• The team hosted a well-attended Creative Learning Panel at FORM Gallery as a satellite event of the National Gallery of Australia’s National Visual Art Education Conference in January 2024.
• Strategic Creative Learning Manager Laura Motherway presented at The University of Sydney’s Leading Creative Schools conference in March 2024.
Scribblers
Scribblers programming was in full swing during the reporting period. In addition to the Golden Feather Hunt across 163 Western Australian libraries, and a record 337 entries into the popular Statewide Golden Pen Writing Competition, the team:
... took Scribblers to the Pilbara in August 2023 and June 2024...
2023 SCRIBBLERS ON THE ROAD IN THE PILBARA
children, parents and community members at the Family Fun Day
Scribblers on the Road Family Fun Day, South Hedland 2023. Photograph by AB Videography.
2024 SCRIBBLERS ON THE ROAD IN THE PILBARA
700+
793
Students
4 28 13
Author-illustrators Local creatives Regional and remote schools
Children, parents and community members at the Family Fun Day
It’s amazing to have events like this in our town. It’s so different from other largescale events for kids. Books are so important for our kids, and I just love that this event was celebrating that.
Hedland local
Scribblers on the Road Family Fun Day, South Hedland 2024. Photograph by AB Videography.
Scribblers on the Road at Newman Primary School, the Pilbara, 2024. Photography by AB Videography.
Scribblers Family Festival, Perth, 2023. Photography by Dan MacBride.
My favourite is always the book doctor to give me new reading suggestions.
Young Scribblers visitor
… and staged FRONT, a creative takeover of an empty shopfront in Perth CBD, focusing on the themes Bringing Nature into the City; Street Art & Urban Landscapes; Identity …
Themed weekends
19
An exciting day all round. Exposing my niece to what’s out there outside the house. I think she learnt more in a day than a month of her regular routine.
Guardian of FRONT participant
It was an amazing event in which we were able to receive insightful knowledge from authors and be inspired to be able to take on a career of becoming an author.
Young Scribblers visitor
FRONT, 2023.
Photo by Dan MacBride.
FORM Gallery & Café
The exhibitions at FORM Gallery during 2023 and 2024 held a lens to some of the most enduring and some of the most innovative creative practices that Western Australia has to offer.
FORM Gallery is a vital part of the Western Australian visual arts ecology, providing a critical exhibition space for emerging, mid-career, and local artists.
Gallery visitor
For the love of God by Berndnaut Smilde in Storm the Gods and Shake the Universe, FORM Gallery, 2023. Kangaroo skull and artificial gemstones. Photography by Dan McCabe.
Beautiful exhibition, the video made me cry. Really emotive works and brilliant, illustrative descriptions. Great work :)
Guest, We Didn’t Get Tired exhibition opening
We closed out the first half of 2023 with Really One Story: Art from the Ngaanyatjarra Lands, a colourful survey of work from six art centres on the eastern extremes of the State. Next up (May to July) was the next instalment of our Southern Exposure series, focusing on the State’s southwest region, which also happens to be an area of precious—and fragile—biodiversity.
For Storm the Gods and Shake the Universe (a title borrowed from Seneca’s vengeful heroine Medea) we invited a group of artists to draw inspiration from the landscape of the southwest in considering the repercussions should nature decide to take its revenge on humankind. Berndnaut Smilde (The Netherlands) and Annegret Kellner (Germany) created their
photographs and installations while on a residency at The Farm Margaret River.
Noongar/Yamatji artist Corey Khan’s videos and prints envisaged a dystopian (or possibly utopian) future in which humans have become subservient to nature, while Kate Alida Mullen’s works recorded the tensions and harmonies of her embodied relationships as a non-Indigenous person living on Wardandi Boodjar.
Sculptor Susan Flavell collaborated with composer Moses Kington-Walberg on an extraordinary, haunting music and performance piece evoking two weather goddesses confronting the impact of climate change. The piece premiered at a live performance in the Gallery.
Three eminent senior Martu artists—and sisters—featured in our next exhibition We Didn’t Get Tired, We Just Kept on Going. Born in the pujiman (traditional/desert-dwelling) era, Mayiwalku (Maywokka) Chapman, Mulyatingki Marney and Ms. Chapman spent their childhood intimately connected to their Country, whose vast landscapes they walked and lived in until a severe drought in 1966 made them decide to walk into Balfour Downs Station. Their paintings of ngurra demonstrated why these ladies are among the most respected and innovative contemporary artists working in the Pilbara today.
Exhibition opening of Metamorphosis: Artists in Collaboration with Plants at FORM Gallery, 2024. Photograph by Dan MacBride.
Another aspect of contemporary First Nations art was brought into the spotlight in our next two exhibitions. For millions of people around the world, abstract dot painting is synonymous with Aboriginal art, yet First Nations creative expression is as diverse as the individuals who make it. In REPRESENT Parts 1 and 2, codeveloped with respected Whadjuk Noongar artist and Elder Sharyn Egan, FORM presented Western Australian figurative/representational work by First Nations artists. Part 1 (October to December) showed works by senior and deceased artists who helped pave the way for figurative expression in Western Australia, while Part 2 (March to May) shared works by contemporary Western Australian artists who are taking figurative practice in new directions today.
I welcome FORM’s continuing daring in pushing boundaries.
Gallery visitor
Great to see emerging artists represented and more contemporary styles of artwork as well. I spent a good 2 hours enjoying the whole experience!
Guest, REPRESENT Part 2: Aboriginal Figurative Art in Western Australia exhibition opening
Over the past two years the Gallery has hosted summer residencies during January and February: visual artist Sally Bower in 2023, and artist collective Cool Change Contemporary in 2024. Activating the Gallery during a nonexhibition period has proved a win-win, providing a space for local artists, and the opportunity for FORM to co-host public programming and engage with new audiences.
The 2024 reporting period rounded off with Metamorphosis: Artists in Collaboration with Plants (May to July). The epic poem ‘Metamorphoses’ by Roman poet Ovid was the inspiration behind this, another Southern Exposure exhibition. Ovid describes hundreds of episodes whereby gods, plants, animals and humans change into different forms. We invited artists David Charles Collins, Elizabeth Edmonds, Sarah Elson, Holly Story and Beverly Thomson to create work that blurred boundaries with nature and questioned the stability of human subjectivity in a mutable world.
REPRESENT Part 2 Artist talk at FORM Gallery, 2024. Photograph by Dan MacBride.
What I love about FORM is I am admiring a beautiful piece of art and standing right next to the artist, which is awesome.
Guest, Metamorphosis exhibition opening
Exhibitions
6 103
3 1 9 5
2
Artists
Curator/artist guided tours Live performance
Summer residencies Collaborations with Aboriginal art centres
12 Workshops Artist talks
Cultural Tourism
Thomas Dambo’s Giants of Mandurah was initiated and produced by FORM in partnership with the City of Mandurah, in consultation with the Bindjareb people of the Noongar nation and the local community and supported by the State Government through Tourism WA’s Regional Events Program, the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries, Lotterywest, and the Alcoa Foundation.
But there were one or two dramas along the way in the first year, not least the arson of Vivi Cirkelstone, the Giant at Coodanup Foreshore. The community rallied round, Thomas Dambo designed another Giant, and a few months later Yaburgurt Winjan Cirkelstone was welcomed with a smoking ceremony and traditional dancers at Coodanup Foreshore. The Giant’s name was chosen by the Bindjareb Elders in honour of a past Noongar leader, George Yaburgurt Winjan (ca. 1824–1915).
Fantastic artworks - I saw two with my 4yr old Grandson and a third with my sister, who was visiting from overseas. Was in awe of them all.
Visitor
If you like a challenge and/or have a bent for environmentalism then accepting Dambo’s challenge to find his hidden giants is a great way to explore the greater Mandurah area.
Comment on TripAdvisor
Little Lui, Thomas Dambo’s Giants of Mandurah, WA, 2022.
Photograph by Duncan Wright.
FORM released a Giants Learning Resource and Workbook for teachers and students, and in partnership with Alcoa Foundation, organised a Giant Planting Day at which 3.7 acres of land was restored, and 1000 endemic seedlings planted, and two Clean Up Days, resulting in 170kg of rubbish being removed, and 31.2 acres of land cleared.
As per the original intention, management of Thomas Dambo’s Giants of Mandurah has now passed to the City of Mandurah.
AS OF NOVEMBER 2023:
498,000+
Visitors
56,035 295 2066 1
Hotel nights generated Volunteers Hours given by volunteers
17,274 4
Awards
Giants Learning Resource
OF VISITORS SURVEYED:
students benefiting from Giants Learning Resource
had a good or excellent experience would not have visited the area without the Giants did not know about the Peel-Yalgorup Wetlands before visiting the Giants
visited with family felt the Giants increased the degree to which they value the natural environment felt connected to nature
expanded their knowledge of ecological issues felt more motivated towards environmental stewardship
OF BUSINESSES SURVEYED:
Saw a positive impact Would like to see similar events in the future Agree the Giants made them proud of Mandurah 92% 92% 92%
Yaburgurt Winjan Cirkelstone , Thomas Dambo’s Giants of Mandurah, 2023. Photograph by Dan MacBride.
Public Art
FORM’s Arts and Cultural Consultancy offers professional expertise and strategic advice to clients on placemaking, public art, cultural infrastructure and cultural policy and strategy. 2023 to 2024 has been a busy period of progressing existing projects and winning new contracts.
Two major new contracts outside Western Australia involve the public art strategy and delivery for Acton Waterfront in Canberra, and a series of murals on water towers in River Country for the Murray River Council of New South Wales.
Closer to home, FORM consultancy has delivered a public art strategy for a developer in Elizabeth Quay; has delivered a series of installations and structures designed by Indigenous artists at Albemarle workers’ accommodation in Australind; is working with the City of Cockburn on an arts and activation strategy; is getting close to completing the public art installations by local Kariyarra artists at Port Hedland’s Spoilbank Marina; and is collaborating with Goldfields Development Commission to undertake research and engagement in seven regional communities, to create collaborative artworks to be printed on the wind turbines. Over 20 First Nations artists are currently engaged through FORM’s public art projects.
Albermarle Land.Mark.Art Workshop, Bunbury Regional Art Gallery, 2023. Photograph by Phil Berrick.
Artwork by Chris Collard in production at Big Spoon Studio, 2024. Photograph by Ludvig Nilsson.
Digital concept render of installed artwork.
Yinjaa-Barni Art artists with ceramicist
Sandra Black during a Roebourne Art Development Program residency, 2024.
Photograph courtesy of Yinjaa-Barni Art.
Sector & Community Development
FORM’s work in this area continued to build during 2023 and into 2024, through dedicated skills development programs for artists; profiling of the creatives FORM works with through marketing and communications; industry outreach events; and fundraising and subscription campaigns which brought prospective donors closer to the creative talent of Western Australia.
ROEBOURNE ART DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
This program, which FORM initiated in 2019, has continued to support and develop the creative practices of Indigenous artists on Ngarluma and Yindjibarndi lands through commissions, residencies, workshops and on-Country activities. During 2023 and up to mid-2024 the program delivered a total of 50 days of on-Country training sessions (and three Perth residencies) covering 10 professional and 13 arts practice skills with over 30 artists and arts workers from Cheeditha Art Group, Juluwarlu Art Group and Yinjaa-Barni Art.
We love working together, meeting new faces, and building relationships.
Allery Sandy, Artist and Director at Yinjaa-Barni Art
Thanks to increased support from Woodside Energy, this important program will continue with the art centres over the next two years and will also expand to embrace the independent artists of the West Pilbara.
Untitled (Vase), Melissa Sandy & Sandra Black, 2024, Untitled (Vase), Justina Willis & Sandra Black, 2024. Image courtesy of FORM Building a State of Creativity.
INDUSTRY EVENTS BROADENING THE SUPPORT FOR FORM
In March 2024, FORM Gallery hosted a highly successful Perth Design Week industry event which attracted over 100 people to mingle and network and hear a Q & A with Perth-born Ken Leung, former Global Creative Director of UNIQLO.
Earlier in 2023, FORM partnered with shopping centre giants Hawaiian to commission artists, authors, illustrators and designers to run school holiday workshop programs in shopping centres across Perth, from Melville to Girrawheen. Nine creatives stirred up a flurry of artistic activity which proved particularly popular with the youngest members of Generation Alpha.
FORM also moved from membership to a subscriber model in the second half of 2023, offering people the opportunity to support us through one of three tiers: Fan, Friends and Family.
• www.form.net.au
• www.spinifexhillstudio.com.au
• www.creativeschools.com.au
• www.scribblersfestival.com.au
• www.publicsilotrail.com
• www.tracksweshare.com.au
• www.giantsofmandurah.com.au
373,718
FORM, its programs and events featured across a wide variety of broadcast, print and digital media outlets, achieving a high volume of free editorial coverage, which in turn contributed to the positive impact on the communities, creatives, partners and collaborators we work with.
Total
1,537
Channel 10, 10 News First
North West Telegraph, News
The Sunday Times, STM
Channel 9, Nine News Perth
Qantas Magazine, Play and Stay
Business News, Community & Arts
The West Weekend, Weekend Arts
The Weekend Australian, Travel + Luxury
The Sunday Times, News
Channel 7, Sunrise
From Membership to Subscriptions
In 2021, we began to review our membership model and, as of November 2022, ceased offering any new practitioner memberships. Practitioners are invited instead to explore the Public and Private Liability Insurance packages offered by the National Association of Visual Artists (NAVA) and Artsource. After formal review of FORM’s membership, a new model was proposed at the 2023 Annual General Meeting to align with the organisation’s transition from being an incorporated association, to a company limited by guarantee.
FORM still remains a not-for-profit organisation with charitable status. Our new paid annual Friend and Family Subscriber packages allow those who opt-in the opportunity to attend exhibition previews and other exclusive events, plus give access to free gifts and a range of ever-evolving benefits. Most importantly, FORM Friend and Family subscribers become part of a community that helps support the work we do in developing a vibrant creative economy for the benefit and wellbeing of Western Australians.
Become a FORM Friend or part of the FORM Family
REPRESENT Part 1: Aboriginal Figurative Practice in Western Australia, exhibition opening at FORM Gallery, 2023. Photograph by Dan MacBride.
Creative Schools Professional Learning at FORM Gallery, 2024.
Photo courtesy of FORM Building a State of Creativity.
RONALD JAMES CHRISTOPHER BRADFIELD (RON BRADFIELD JR)
Community Engagement Coordinator, John Curtin Gallery
PETER LEE OAM
Principal, HASSELL
STEDMAN ELLIS
Non-Executive Director
NICOLETTE CASELLA Philanthropy Manager, UNICEF
NARELLE GRINCERI
Director, ZAYA Capital & Finance
PAUL KOTSOGLO
Non-Executive Director
JENN MORRIS
Non-Executive Director
TABITHA MCMULLAN CEO, FORM Building a State of Creativity Limited
Other 2023–2024 FORM
BOARD MEMBER
TANIA HUDSON Non-Executive Director
STUART SMITH
Non-Executive Director
EXECUTIVE / OFFICE
Chairperson (Appointed July 2021)
Deputy Chairperson (Appointed December 2021)
Director, Chair of the FORM Aboriginal and Islander Advisory Committee (Appointed May 2023)
Director (Appointed August 2011)
Director (Appointed August 2013)
Director (Appointed February 2022)
Director (Appointed May 2023)
Director (Appointed May 2023)
Director (Appointed August 2023)
CEO / Secretary (Appointed May 2021)
EXECUTIVE / OFFICE
Deputy Chairperson (October 2011–January 2024)
Director (October 2016–July 2023)
Scribblers FRONT, 2023.
Photo by Dan MacBride.
Audit & Risk Committee Report 2023-2024
The Audit and Risk Committee is pleased to present its report for the financial year ended 30 June 2024. Throughout the year, the Committee diligently carried out its responsibilities, ensuring the integrity of financial reporting, the effectiveness of internal controls, and the robustness of the company’s risk management framework.
The Committee would like to acknowledge the significant milestone achieved in October 2023, when FORM transitioned from an incorporated association to a Company Limited by Guarantee. This transition marks a pivotal development in our operational, governance and funding structure, providing a stronger framework for oversight and management.
In alignment with best practices, the company shifted from a calendar year to a financial year reporting framework effective July 2023. This adjustment enhances the comparability of our financial results and better aligns our reporting periods with industry standards.
The Committee is pleased to report that FORM has delivered a surplus across majority functional areas before depreciation. This outcome is a testament to the strong financial management and operational efficiency overseen by our Organisational Leadership Team. Their dedication to maintaining financial integrity and ensuring the sustainability of our operations has been instrumental in achieving these results.
FORM maintains a solid financial foundation, with total assets valued at approximately $7.5 million. The Board is committed to further
strengthening this position by increasing the Working Capital reserve. This strategic initiative is aimed at ensuring FORM’s long-term financial sustainability, appropriately aligned with the scale and risk profile of its major projects.
The company’s risk management framework has been robustly maintained and enhanced over the past year. The Committee has overseen the continuous updating of the risk register and the integration of risk management into our strategic decision-making processes. The active involvement of the management team in identifying and mitigating risks has been crucial to maintaining our risk posture.
In conclusion, the Audit and Risk Committee is confident that FORM has upheld a high standard of financial integrity, operational efficiency, and risk management throughout the 2023/2024 financial year. The Committee extends its recognition to the CEO Tabitha McMullan, General Manager Finance and Operations Stephanie Xiao, and the entire operations team for their unwavering commitment to the company’s financial health and sustainability.
Government Grants
Membership and workshop fees
Fee for Service
Sale of goods
Sponsorships and supports
Donations
Other income
Total Revenue
Revenue from ordinary activities Expenses from ordinary activities
2023-2024 Financial Year -$518.169.00 -$3,448,202.00 -$2,607,500.00 -$353,903.00 -$37,155.00 -$6,964,929.00
2022 Calendar Year -$775,588.00 -$3,112,545.00 -$2,468,116.00 -$348,321.00 -$39,998.00 -$6,744,568.00
2019-2024 Income & Expenditure
$9,000,000.00
$8,000,000.00
$7,000,000.00
$6,000,000.00
$5,000,000.00
$4,000,000.00
$3,000,000.00
$2,000,000.00
$1,000,000.00 $0
6,948,695 6,964,929
2019-2024 Surplus/Loss before depreciation
$3,000,000.00
$2,500,000.00
$2,000,000.00
$1,500,000.00
$1,000,000.00
$500,000.00 $0 -$500,000.00
FORM thanks each and every person, organisation, agency and company mentioned in this Annual Report, all of whom have made welcome and valuable contributions to our projects in 2023/2024.
In addition to the talented creative individuals with whom we have worked, we reserve a special thank you to all our partners. FORM’s corporate partnerships in particular support us in seeking new opportunities and better solutions, while also encouraging the broader business sector to think differently and more creatively about the ways in which they contribute to the communities where they do business.
We are a member of the Indigenous Art Code, a system that preserves and promotes ethical trading in Indigenous art.
Thank You Partners & Donors
Without the generous support of partners, patrons and donors, the work FORM does would simply not be possible. Those who contribute are not only investing in the organisation, but the broader arts sector, the next generation of young creatives, and the lives and livelihoods of fellow Western Australians.
