September 2020-April 2021

From September 2020, Arts Mildura is offering a series of professional development workshops to local artists and creatives. Covering marketing, pitching your work, working with galleries, and a suite of other key skills. The series brings leaders and innovators from around Australia to Mildura, to connect with and support local artists. Have an idea for a workshop you would love to attend? Email us here with you ideas, and we can chat.

#01. Arts Grants: Navigating the Funding Landscape

What funding is out there? (a lot) How do I craft a strong application? (we’ll show you) Should I apply? (yes!)

Thursday, 3 September 2020, 7-8PM. Register here.

You might not know it, but a world of funding opportunities exist for artists like you. Some are aimed specifically at practitioners based in the Mallee; some for regional artists all over Victoria; some are nationwide.

In Arts Mildura’s first instalment of our professional development workshop series, we learn about the landscape of arts funding in this free online panel discussion. We’ll talk through writing, reviewing, and delivering grants from the perspective of artists, review boards, and funding bodies. With an eye to demystifying the process, this workshop seeks to connect artists of the Mallee with the opportunities designed to support your projects.

This event will be presented via Zoom. Participants will be emailed a Zoom link to join the event; please join 5-10 minutes prior to its commencement, with your microphone muted. The final 20 minutes of the workshop will be given over to questions from the audience for the panel; send through your questions to us ahead of time at projects@artsmildura.com.au, post them on the Facebook event, or contribute them in the Zoom event chat on the day.

Meet our panelists:

Loraine Little is the Creative Arts Facilitator for Regional Arts Victoria in the North West of Victoria. Raised in Swan Hill, Loraine is passionate about connecting artists with community groups, and working with the growing multicultural communities in regional areas. Collaborative in approach, Loraine is highly skilled in establishing and strengthening partnerships through extensive relationship management, stakeholder engagement and strategic communication capabilities.

Gareth Hart is an independent artist, producer and director, and is currently the Executive Director at Arts Mildura. Professionally, their work in organisational and community leadership is underpinned by deeply held values of humanity and humanness. They have sat on assessment panels for Creative Victoria, the Australia Council, and Regional Arts Victoria.

Jane Polkinghorne is an artist/researcher living in Mildura, north west Victoria. Their practice uses performance, video, photography and installation in a critical and humorous examination of the pathos and horror of gendered bodies in the Australian context. Other motivators include collaboration and cooperation in creative practices and cooperation through participatory artist-run projects. They have exhibited throughout Australia in contemporary art spaces and museums, artist-run spaces with forays into commercial galleries. Their projects have been supported through funding from RAV (Regional Arts Victoria), University of Sydney, NAVA (National Association for the Visual Arts, NSW Ministry for the Arts and the Australia Council. Through other roles they have successfully applied for funding through various departments of the NSW and Victorian governments, Legal Aid, and the federal government’s Stronger Communities program.

Arts Mildura acknowledges Latji Latji, Ngiantait, Nyeri Nyeri, Wergaia and Paakantyi people as the traditional owners on whose land we work. We pay respect to Elders past, present and emerging; sovereignty has never been ceded.

#02. What If Money Wasn’t The Currency?

Can an arts practice survive, let alone sustain exponential growth? How does an artistic work change if a large or intimate audience sees it, and whether or not they paid for it? How does demographic ‘box ticking’ force artists to represent themselves to potential buyers and funders? What work do you make for financial reward? What work do you make for other reasons? What other currencies are at play in your artistic practice?

Covid-19 has meant a huge loss of revenue, funding, opportunities, and access to audiences for artists. If art is, however, something we can’t imagine ourselves not doing – what next? In this panel discussion we will explore models and motivations for making art – without money as the currency.

Creatrix Tiara (pronouns: ‘Tiara’ or they/them) gets up to shenanigans. Tiara has produced, performed, written, and created work that explores liminality, community, and identity through unexpected forms – a queer feminist stage magic and storytelling show, a Secret Society-themed Alternate Reality Game within a community arts festival, a collaborative production bringing together queer disabled artists from different artistic fields to make interdisciplinary work, and much more. This year, Tiara is bringing the hit video game Animal Crossing: New Horizons to Melbourne Fringe in an exciting, never-been-done-before way.

Debby Maziarz is a community arts and cultural development leader and creative entrepreneur who mentors artists, organisations and communities to create solid plans for resourcing their work. Renowned for unearthing innovative and ‘fundable’ ideas, Debby is driven to challenge the mindset that stops superstars from excelling. She’s also got a great track record in sourcing funds and building things from the ground up – including founding Melbourne’s Westside Circus and most recently a home-based arts residency program.

Mitch Jones is a physical performer and artistic provocateur creating shows that are thought provoking and playful, dynamic and disturbing, fierce and beautiful, queer and dangerous. In 2019 he premiered solo show AutoCannibal, described as ‘original, bold and disturbingly amusing … must see theatre’ (Theatre Press). As Captain Ruin he has performed around the world at fringe festivals, fetish clubs, music festivals and cabarets, including hosting the main circus stage at the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performance (2015/2016), Australia’s Got Talent (2019), and Circus Oz (2017 – 2019). His articles have been published in print by Fluke Magazine, Voiceworks, and online by the Circus Talk industry journal.