Country Arts SA and Yorke Peninsula Council’s GROUNDED Art Festival was recognised for outstanding achievement and innovation over the weekend.

GROUNDED received the Excellence in Community Partnerships and Collaboration Award at Local Government Professionals SA’s Leadership Excellence Awards on Friday, May 22.

The biennial festival – last held in August 2025 with over 40 workshops, performances, events and exhibitions across 10 days and 12 towns – activated the off-peak winter season on YP.

From Ardrossan to Edithburgh, Maitland to Marion Bay, there was interactive light installations, live music, and large-scale coastal festivities, including key project Lanterns and Fire: The Story of Widhadha, inspired by Narungga cultural stories.

By reimagining town halls, cafes and landscapes as creative spaces, the festival positions arts and culture as a catalyst for regional growth, with over 5000 attendances and $100,000 invested directly into local artists and businesses.

Country Arts and YPC arts and cultural facilitator Molly Flanagan spearheaded the 2025 festival, bolstered by the YP Arts and Cultural Working Group.

Molly said the award recognition was down to the huge network of interconnected artists, venues and businesses who brought GROUNDED to life – an “undeniable volume of collaboration”.

“We’re really excited, particularly because the award is for community, partnerships and collaboration, and that is our reason for being, so it’s really nice to have that reflected back,” she said.

“When you open the program, it’s every one of those 40 events times by 10 for the partnerships that made them happen.”

GROUNDED connects communities as far north as Price to those as far south as Corny Point, almost 300 kilometres away from each other.

“Something like this works as an umbrella to bring regional communities together, no matter how far apart they are,” Molly said.

“It’s also an incubator of skills development, because it brings together all the people in our region who are the best as all of these different things to learn from each other.

“And not in a structured training way, but through working together you realise people’s gifts, from online marketing to making a room feel warm and welcoming.”

Molly said she has seen GROUNDED amplify the work of longstanding creatives on YP, cementing the arts as a cornerstone of the region’s identity.

“It is becoming a sector,” she said.

“Through having more and more opportunities to collaborate, it’s becoming more of an empowered network.

“They know how to make things happen more quickly, so every event builds on the last and it’s much easier to welcome in new people and know who to connect them with.”

GROUNDED will return from August 13 to 22, 2027.

“There was a big call for another major community event and performance like Widhadha,” Molly said.

“We’re also keen to increase the number of First Nations artists that exhibit and host workshops.

“It will continue to be led by our passionate local creatives, businesses and progress associations, with the organising committee there to say ‘what do you want to do, and how can we help?'”