Member for Farrer, Sussan Ley, today welcomed $103,300 for the Flying Fruit Fly Circus as part of the second tranche of funding for Catalyst – Australian Arts and Culture Fund.

“I am pleased that the Flying Fruit Fly Circus has received funding from Catalyst, enabling the circus to proceed with an important part of their circus-in-residence partnership with Sydney Opera House and also build on strategic partnerships with the Arts Centre Melbourne and the Cube, Wodonga,” Ms Ley said.

Executive Director of the Flying Fruit Fly Circus, Richard Hull said that “JUNK is the new full length work by the Flying Fruit Fly Circus, exploring how high-level circus skills, theatre, puppetry and music can amalgamate to create quality contemporary visual theatre for youth and family audiences.

“JUNK responds to the creative question ‘in 2015 do we over supervise our children?’ Are we creating a generation of children wrapped in cotton wool and denied the opportunity to discover their own imagination, limitations, boundaries and possibilities through physical risk taking?”

Mr Hull said that JUNK brings together 17 young FFFC performers aged between 10-18 years and a dynamic creative team, to explore regional stories of childhood and play from the 1940’s. This will be an imaginative and thrilling circus show for young audiences and families.

Catalyst funding is available from three streams: partnerships and collaborations; innovation and participation and is open to small, medium and large arts organisations at a national, regional and community level.

Ms Ley said that the projects include the visual arts, screen based art, music, digital arts, dance and physical theatre, performing arts, cross-disciplinary art forms, community arts as well as arts support and development projects.

“I am delighted that this Australian Government funding will assist in providing opportunities for young people in our region to work with professional artists, share ideas and stories, and produce work that is of our area – proudly regional and accessible by our communities,” said Ms Ley.

Minister for the Arts, Mitch Fifield said the arts have the ability to illuminate and enliven the communities we live in, and to teach us more about ourselves, our society and our time.

“Catalyst is a truly national arts funding program and I am pleased to see funding reaching our local arts organisations, and arts and cultural organisations from across Australia, recognising the innovative and creative work being undertaken,” Minister Fifield said.

“The successful Catalyst projects will enhance the experience of and access to arts and culture across Australia, exploring themes and issues relevant to contemporary Australian and international audiences.”
Catalyst funding is available to support projects across the Australian arts and cultural sector. A majority (82 per cent) of the projects supported in this assessment period have been awarded to small-to-medium arts organisations, with half of the activity occurring in regional and remote communities.

Applications for Catalyst are open with rolling assessments made by independent assessors. Guidelines and information on the application process can be found on the Ministry for the Arts website www.arts.gov.au/catalyst

JUNK opens regionally in Wodonga in September 2016 and in Sydney and Melbourne in 2017.