Charlotte Varcoe
ARTS will come alive across Mount Gambier in the coming months following Mount Gambier City Council approving four projects to share in the $50,000 creative arts fund.
Mount Gambier Theatre Group, April Hague, Yunita Manfrin and Henry Wolff will begin to showcase their talent across the Blue Lake City in a wide range of activities, art installations and more.
The cast and crew of the Mount Gambier Theatre Group’s Alice in Wonderland: the Panto will transform the Cave Gardens area in late November into a wonderland.
Members of the public will take the chance to meet and greet with the characters and have photo opportunities with the props in preparation for the new production.
Theatre group director Shekinah Horsburgh said the planned event was also a fantastic opportunity for the theatre group to interact with the wider community.
“It is the perfect way for us to create something that anyone can come to without having to pay and it will be in a prime location,” Ms Horsburgh said.
“We thought instead of having the community come to us, we would come to them and they would be able to walk in and interact.”
Alongside the theatre group, local digital artist Manfrin Yunita also received a significant grant which she said would go towards interactive digital artwork throughout the railway lands.
“The digital art installation will be an augmented reality experience and operated through an app,” Ms Yunita said.
“There will be multiple different spots which are activated by a QR code and once visitors scan the code they will be able to see and interact with the art.”
She said items such as butterflies, fish and ghost mushrooms would also be available with influence developing from the Limestone Coast environment.
“I am absolutely amazed at receiving the grant to the point where it is a little bit overwhelming,” she said.
Ms Hague is expected to work alongside a further nine female artists who will create semi-permanent public artwork, aimed at celebrating diversity and the artistic and cultural strength of the local art community.
“The artists will come together for a series of workshops to create a large-scale portrait-based installation on the side wall of The Nourish Nook building – simply put: ten portraits of ten artists,” Ms Hague said.
“I will facilitate the workshops with my good friend and fellow art teacher Jane Van Eeten.
“The public art project is designed in such a way that it not only results in the production of a large, high-quality work, but in doing so brings artists out of isolation to work on a common creative goal.”
Henry Wolff’s project examined themes of place, community, virtue and more while also involving residency for research and development.
