A KicksArt for West Coast arts

The State Government will put $8000 to the KickstArt project on the West Coast for community arts groups WestArt in Ceduna and ArtsUp in Streaky Bay.

On the West Coast for Country Cabinet, Arts Minister Jack Snelling said the funding would support skills development workshops in visual arts that will culminate at an exhibition and major community event in Streaky Bay and Ceduna in 2015.

“We can see that KickstArt will have a positive and real impact on the sustainability and long-term viability of these visual arts groups,” Mr Snelling said.

“In a cross regional collaboration, community Arts Groups WestArt in Ceduna and ArtsUp in Streaky Bay will create new works which explore the tension between two and three dimensional space through an exploration of the place they call home.”

Throughout the residency, highly regarded artist Annalise Rees, will immerse local artists and the wider community in a conversation about landscape and seascape. New works inspired by or created during the residency will be showcased in exhibitions during the 2015 SALA Festival in Streaky Bay and Ceduna’s 2015 Oysterfest.

“I am interested in how drawing can physically occupy and define the spaces we inhabit,” Ms Rees said. “I consider drawing in both two and three dimensional terms, as something which can occupy space and generate place, as well as being representational of it.

“I think of place as being somewhere we travel to as well as something we carry with us from one geographical location to another and perhaps also something of ourselves we leave behind.”

You can check out some of the photos from the Country Cabinet event over on the Country Arts SA Facebook page.

WestArt and ArtsUp will be assisted and supported with the development and planning of the KicksArt project by the Country Arts SA Arts and Cultural Development Officer for Western Eyre.