Major Boost for Region’s Arts Visibility

A COMPREHENSIVE reboot of the essential connections that drive a healthy and visible creative arts industry recently escalated with a huge recruitment drive for the New England North West’s best Arts communicators.

Arts North West is now pleased to announce its Creative Champions and In The Museum residency artists, who will spearhead this outreach program across the region in 2021.

Arts North West Creative Champions will seek out artists in all disciplines, artsworkers, and creative venues within the local government areas where they live. Once in place, they will assist creatives to deliver their information to the Arts North West Connect (www.artsnwconnect.com.au) regional registry of creative people, industries and venues in the New England North West.

These positions will be vital in establishing links between the creative population of our region and council Visitor Information Centres, giving our local artists and arts-related industries acknowledgment, recognition and employment opportunities, growing sustainability for the Arts within our communities.

Executive director of Arts North West Caroline Downer thanked the large number of applicants who put themselves forward for the positions.

“The Arts North West Creative Champions will allow us to build stronger and wider networks throughout the New England North West region,” she said in a statement.

“This is something we are constantly working on, but with such a large geographical area and 12 contributing councils, it is not always easy to do with a small staff.

“The Arts North West Connect website will be the most current and comprehensive database of all things creative in the New England North West.”

Arts North West’s inaugural Creative Champions are as follows:

Armidale Regional: Lynette Aspey

Glen Innes Severn: Ruth Brummell

Gunnedah Shire: Marie Low

Gwydir Shire: Laura Cush

Inverell Shire: Mel Arnott

Liverpool Plains: Tania Hartigan

Moree Plains Shire: Kerrie Matchett

Narrabri Shire: Sarah Leete

Tamworth Regional: Kate Hofman

Tenterfield Shire: Danielle Wholohan

Uralla Shire: In negotiation

Walcha Council: Maryanne Piper

Ms Downer said that applications for Arts North West’s In the Museum Artist residency were equally as impressive.

“We are so lucky to have fabulous museums run by dedicated volunteers scattered throughout our region and I am sure the artists will find a treasure trove of inspiration during their residency,” she said.

“I hope the In the Museum Residency project will inspire other local creatives to engage and explore their local historical societies and museums for inspiration and to create new connections within their communities.”

The In the Museum Artist residency is an opportunity for an artist to develop new work, and collaborate with a museum to promote creative practice and support the role of museums and their collections in their communities by facilitating a community workshop or presentation of the residency outcomes.

The following New England North West artists were successful in being linked to these venues:

Dorothea Mackellar Centre and the Water Tower Museum: Writer, Alex Wharton

Echo Museum Wee Waa: Singer/Songwriter/Musician, Sarah Leete

Emmaville Mining Museum: Visual Artist, Jeff Manning

Hillgrove Museum: Photographer/Visual Artist, Mike Terry

Tenterfield Railway Museum: Visual Artist, Liz Powell

The successful Arts North West Snapshot applicants will be announced later this week.

This project is proudly funded by the NSW Government through Arts Restart.

Gripping voyage of the human spirit

Hell Ship: The Journey of the Ticonderoga

ONE OF Australia’s most compelling maritime stories, in which the power of the human spirit emerged during a colonial plague, comes to life in a one-man show touring the stages of the New England North West region across March.

Created by a formidable Australian artist: actor, writer and broadcaster Michael Veitch and brought to the region by Arts North West On Tour, Hell Ship: The Journey of the Ticonderoga is a gripping night of live theatre with epic themes that modern audiences will find resonance within.

Based on Veitch’s 2018 book of the same name, this play is set in the spring of 1852 when the clipper Ticonderoga set off from Liverpool to the colony of Victoria, carrying many Scots Highlander families to the New World.

“On the voyage, however, disaster struck when a deadly typhus epidemic erupted throughout her decks, taking scores of her passengers,” Veitch said.

“On the high seas, an epic struggle of life and death played out.” Michael Veitch

According to Veitch’s research, a hero emerged in this unfolding tragedy: the ship’s surgeon, a young man on his maiden voyage, ably assisted by a brave young woman passenger.

“The couple survived the tragedy, and were soon married,” Veitch said.

In Hell Ship, the playwright takes on this doctor’s role, retelling this long-forgotten episode half a century after the event.

The drama is made all the more powerful by the fact that this courageous couple were James William Henry Veitch and Annie Morrison, Veitch’s very own great-great grandparents.

“Hell Ship is the story of a disaster, and the strength of the human spirit; a family story, but one which brings the history of so many of our brave but forgotten forbears to life,” he said.

Veitch is familiar to audiences from his years on comedy shows Fast Forward, Full Frontal and The D-Generation.

Reviewing in Stage Whispers, Cathy Bannister wrote: “Veitch’s story-telling style is tremendously warm and engaging. The character he draws is not strictly natural, but a beautifully drawn caricature, full of life and compelling to watch. He has captured a certain musicality of the language as it was written and presumably spoken in the 1800s—those long, rhythmically complex sentences that went out of vogue in the 1900s. He delivers these lines with comedic timing, moving into rapid fire urgency as the horror of the situation becomes apparent. As an audience, we come to empathise with ship’s inhabitants as we imagine the truly horrific conditions and awful inevitability of what would happen.”

Opening at the Crossing Theatre, Narrabri on Thursday March 18, Hell Ship is part of the region’s fortnight-long Create Festival, before touring to the Capitol Theatre, Tamworth on Wednesday March 24; Gunnedah’s Civic Theatre on Thursday March 25; the Royal Theatre, Quirindi on Friday March 26; Inverell’s Town Hall on Saturday March 27, and The Chapel Theatre Glen Innes on Sunday March 28.

Head to The Arts North West On Tour website for more information: http://www.artsnw.com.au/anw-on-tour-shows

Loren Ryan and Quarralia Knox ‘Bawi-li’ Tour

Arts North West are proud to announce that Loren Ryan and Quarralia Knox will be hitting the road for the ‘Bawi-li’ tour, debuting fresh and modernistic original music. Their trek takes place in the New England North West and small First Nations communities are topping the list.

POSTPONED DUE TO WEATHER
Wee Waa Public School
26 March
5-7pm

Mungindi War Memorial Hall
27 March
6-8pm

Toomelah Hall
28 March
1-3pm

Walhallow Hall
29 March
4:30-6:30pm

Loren Ryan is a First Nations Australian and comes from the Gamilaraay people native to North West, New South Wales. She is renowned for combining her love of music and language, showcasing both in a creatively captivating splendor. Writing original songs and translating well known Australian songs into her “Ngamba Dhalaay” mother’s tongue.

“I am enthusiastic to play these small communities within our region because of the genuine human connection you get playing intimate gigs like this. Places like Toomelah and Walhollow, its residents would have to travel to see a concert like this, so I am thrilled to bring the show basically to their doorstep.”
Loren Ryan.

With a voice that drizzles emotion every performance, best described as a mixture of soul and R&B, resonating over a modern acoustic grass roots sound.

Quarralia Knox is a third generation singer song-writer from Tamworth, NSW and a proud Gomeroi woman. Music has always been a part of Quarralia’s life, she has developed her own sound in harmony with the styles that have surrounded her growing up varying from Blues, Rock, R&B and Rap.

“To be releasing my own music for the first time is one of the most exhilarating things I think I could ever do. I have been writing up a storm and enjoying the journey of finding myself through music and I am ready to share it with my fellow music devotees.” Quarralia Knox.

You are in for a delicious blend of genre’s when you set your ears on Quarralia’s original music.

This is an Arts North West and 2 Rivers initiative made possible by Arts Restart funding through the NSW Government.

Their original songs will be available on digital platforms on Spotify, Apple Music and all good online music stores from the 26 of March 2021.

Media contact:
Christiana: projects@2rivers.com.au or Loren: loren@2rivers.com.au

BOOK YOUR FREE TICKETS HERE

Art Word Place hangs at University

LAUNCHING IN 2019 at Tamworth Artstate and going on to the Regional Australia Institute in Canberra, Arts North West’s Art Word Place exhibition has returned home to the New England, being installed at UNE’s Dixson Library this week.

The exhibition’s final install on the walls of a library is a very fitting one, as words were the inspiration for the visual work. Art Word Place first commissioned 18 writers to create a short poem or prose based on their home landscape and then selected 18 artists, to draw on this composition as the basis and inspiration for a new work capturing the identity and sense of place in the New England.

“It was fascinating to see the similarities in the creative process for both writer and artist. Usually, artworks inspire the words, not the other way.” said Arts North West Executive Director and exhibition curator, Caroline Downer.

“When the works were created in 2019, our region was faced with the combination of lack of rain and record temperatures, devastating our local communities, the theme of drought had absolutely captured the imaginations of both writer and artist, this also resulted in themes of strength, resilience and of perseverance.” Ms. Downer continued.

The exhibition arrangement is the first of its kind in the New England North West, bringing creatives together who in most cases have not met, let alone worked together before, to take part in a unique creative exchange.

Armidale author and UNE alumni, Sophie Masson was paired with Walcha artist, Angus Nivison for the exhibition.

“I loved being involved in Art Word Place and found it absolutely inspirational to be collaborating with Angus. And as a proud alumnus of the University of New England (BA.M.Litt and PhD ) I' m delighted that our work is now to be featured in an exhibition at UNE's Dixson Library.” Said Ms. Masson.

Art Word Place is currently on exhibit in the ground floor area of Dixson Library at the University of New England. The show is really worth a visit, so if you are on a lunch break or picking up a book head down and enjoy the very best of New England North West creative talent. Dixson Library is only open to UNE students and staff.