Arts Alive in Maleny

By Sonia Isaacs

THE streets of Maleny are set to come alive in a vibrant collaboration of creativity and community that promises a ‘circus of the senses’ in a bold new arts fringe festival event on Friday August 4, 2023.

Organised by a team of passionate community arts advocates and led by local arts coordinator Steve McLeish, Arts Alive Maleny will see Maple Street transformed at dusk into a fully immersive and interactive creative experience set to highlight and celebrate our regions rich and diverse artistic culture.

Speaking with GC&M News, Mr McLeish said he was looking forward to bringing this engaging showcase to the main street of Maleny, and the exciting possibility of not only drawing the whole town together, but also connecting the community to the incredible world class talent of the artists that reside in our Hinterland region. He said Arts Alive would be an event like no other, and it would be the first of its kind at this scale in Maleny.

Mr McLeish acknowledged while the Arts Alive fringe festival could be viewed as yet another event in an increasingly packed schedule happening across the region, he said he hoped people would appreciate that Arts Alive was specifically a celebration of local artists

He said the concept had been created to primarily support the regions’ Hinterland artists and said Arts Alive was not just another arts event but rather a way for local artists to take back the town and to publicly highlight that Maleny is an artistic hub that deserves an arts precinct.

“While this is certainly a celebration of the arts, this is also about a much bigger vision we hold; which is to prove that Maleny is an arts village and that we want and need an arts precinct, so we are essentially creating this event around what we see as the arts precinct area,” said Mr McLeish.

When asked why he felt the arts deserved more recognition,

Mr McLeish said he felt the arts whether it be music, painting, performance or any other creative medium were fundamentally important to society.

He said at an intrinsic level it was the arts that got people through the hard times and helped them celebrate the good times, “It is so important for society to encourage, nourish and maintain the arts and importantly support the artist as they are the ones that will create the art that will support you through the various milestones in life, and so that is why we’ve created this event - purely to celebrate our artists,” said Mr McLeish.

Mr McLeish said he felt Arts Alive would also allow the community to reach down and connect with their own inner artist. He said he hoped people would feel inspired, and would want to explore their own artistic journey by maybe trying something new. He also hoped people would connect and have something ignite within them; that then sparked their own creativity.

“People should come along and experience the incredible wonderland that will be created in town, we’ll have the main street closed to traffic at dusk and subsequently have Maple Street come alive with light shows and art projections, live music, street performances, interactive art installations, dance, puppetry and theatre, along with a range of intimate gatherings in local cafes and restaurants, artisan stalls and so much more!” said Mr McLeish.

People are encouraged to support the event by purchasing tickets online prior to the night, and more information can be found at www.artsalivemaleny.com.au

All funds raised from ticket sales will go directly back into supporting the Hinterland arts community.