Notes from the Forbes Arts & Culture Working Group meeting, 2 August 2006
Present: Graeme Miller, Alison Aldridge, Bronwyn Clark, Jane Bennie and Merrill Findlay.
Apologies: Wendy Gross, Jennifer Purdie, Patrick Driver and Ro Burns.
The minutes of the last meeting were accepted.
Matters arising: Patrick reported that a working group has been established to develop and implement a plan for an interpretive path around Lake Forbes as discussed at the last meeting. Ro will represent FACWG.
Correspondence: a letter from Council dated 25 July 06 about allocating an allowance to FACWG to facilitate the completion of the draft cultural plan. Jane to attend to this. Plus a letter from Arts OutWest dated 4 July re. touring performances. And Email correspondence with Frank Moorhouse inviting him to open Double Bush Binding on 12 August.
The meeting discussed the completion of the draft cultural plan and considered financial remuneration for the author who has done many weeks of work on the project pro bono and still owns the copyright. Graham will discuss this matter with Council's Heritage Committee and suggest a payment be offered. Another draft of the cultural plan will be completed in December for further comment in the new year. The Plan will then be presented to Council for adoption.
Alison Aldridge, Council's youth officer, briefed the meeting on activities at the Youth Centre and on her new community column in the Forbes Advocate. (Alison Baker is now writing a regular arts column in the local paper.) Alison A. highlighted the Youth Centre's Creative Adolescent Support Program (CASP) for 13-14 year olds who may be 'at risk'. This program includes a lot of arts activities to help young people express their feelings and raise their self esteem. The selected young people also learn communication and anger management skills to help them engage with their broader communities in more positive ways. CASP's success will be measured, in the short term, by the young people's school attendance. Alison A. advised that she will also be continuing the regular Thursday night activities and the school holiday program for young people at the Centre. The next big project is an outdoor mural on community harmony with funding through Australians Together.
The meeting enthusiastically discussed the value of arts and crafts for all members of the community, especially young people. Jane outlined the resources available through the Country Art Support Program to develop new projects. Alison will invite some of the young people to the forthcoming Double Bush Binding exhibition and we'll introduce them to bookbinder Sabine Pierard and writer Frank Moorhouse in the hope that they will be inspired to consider their own writing/printmaking/bookbinding project in the future.
Graham reminded us about getting arts issues onto Council's agenda through the Heritage Committee; and Jane advised that she has now been invited to participate in a number of other local committees to promote the arts in the shire now that the profile of the arts in the community has been raised through FACWG's work.
Jane reported on the organisation of the Double Bush Binding exhibition to open on 12 August and our French Breakfast on 13 August. She has formally invited the mayor to the opening and asked him to write a letter to the mayor of Reims in France affirming the cultural links between Forbes and France through Franco-Australian writer Paul Wenz and proposing a cultural partnership between Reims and Forbes. Many people have expressed interest in celebrating the shire's French heritage. The local cinema has offered to show a short festival of French films, for example, and Sandhills Winery has offered an historic room for readings and other events. We enthusiastically discussed the range of possibilities for a future French Heritage Festival, as proposed in the action plan of the draft Forbes Cultural Plan.
The meeting thanked Jane for all her work liaising with Mezzanine Style, Bookbinding Exhibitions Australia and Frank Moorhouse to ensure the success of the Double Bush Binding exhibition.
Notes by Merrill Findlay, posted 8 August 2006. |