Page 3037 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 23 September 2014
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MS BERRY: Minister, could you tell the Assembly about project funding from the ACT arts fund, and in particular how this funding will help Canberra artists to develop their skills and abilities?
MS BURCH: As I said the project funding supports the development of the arts through excellence, innovation and community engagement, which are the three key planks of the ACT arts policy framework. Today I have announced a record 49 successful applications for $720,000 in project funding for 2015. We have been able to increase the number of projects being funded, up from the 42 supported this year.
These projects include supporting Canberra’s only glam-folk duo, Sparrow-Folk, to take their Burb Birds show to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival next year. I had the pleasure of watching these two talented women perform just a short while ago. They became something of an international sensation earlier this year when their YouTube clip for their song Ruin your day went viral, receiving more than 800,000 hits. Attending the Edinburgh Fringe Festival presents Sparrow-Folk with an important opportunity to perform to large international audiences, see the work of other acclaimed international cabaret artists and forge industry contacts worldwide.
Other projects funded include support for an ACT delegation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers to attend the 2015 First Nations Australia Writers Workshop, funding to indie pop band Wallflower to record and press an original EP, assisting Rip Publishing to produce a youth-based experimental multimedia publication, and support for the Canberra City Band to establish a junior concert band.
MADAM SPEAKER: Supplementary question, Dr Bourke.
DR BOURKE: Minister, could you update the Assembly on the successes of previous recipients of ACT arts funded grants?
MS BURCH: I thank Dr Bourke for his question. There are many, indeed, success stories as a result of our arts funding. This is highly anticipated around support for a great many arts activities and makes an immense impact on the artists’ careers and the development of the arts.
Local visual artist actor-director and puppet maker Joy McDonald received 2013 project funding of $34,000 to bring to the stage The Very Sad Fish Lady, a puppet show for all ages. Set in postwar Greece, it was a wonderful story based on Canberra’s history of migration. For Ms McDonald, the project was the realisation of a personal, family and universal story which began as a storyboard, grew into a book and, with the funding assistance, grew into a fully realised script that was brought to life at the Street Theatre. An exhibition of the process was also showcased, at Craft ACT.
Local writer Jack Heath received $9,000 to edit his young adult fiction manuscript. The result was Replica, a carefully crafted manuscript with an authentic Canberran setting and, most importantly for a writer, a publishing contract. In researching and editing the book, Mr Heath said he learned not only narrative techniques but more
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