Member for Farrer, Sussan Ley, has welcomed the Australian Government’s funding for locally based South West Arts, which will contribute to the Australian Government’s national ANZAC Centenary commemorations.
“South West Arts will receive $50,000 to capture and develop stories of Australia’s participation in conflict, celebrating the resilience and acknowledge the sacrifices of our local men and women, while also remembering the contributions of those who remained behind,” Ms Ley said.
The Passing-out Parade is a regional collaboration between South West Arts, South West Music Conservatorium, Outback Theatre for Young People, eight of our local councils and numerous community organisations, regional RSL Sub Branches and local creative artists.
Kerry-Anne Jones, Regional Arts Development Officer at South West Arts said that The Passing-out Parade both brings together a large geographic region of small communities in a collaborative initiative, and combines a myriad of creative talent across multiple art forms under one creative vision.
“The Passing-out Parade is a metaphor for the historic parade of people, faces and families that have influenced our region during times of war and conflict and brings our region together under shared values and experiences. The project has united and empowered the communities of the south west even at its conception stage”, Ms Jones said.
The key initiatives of the project include the collation of personal histories from each municipality within the region with the purpose of developing creative stories of the ANZAC legacy; a professionally narrated suite of these stories to create a mini series of content for radio, web, pod cast and audio book; visual interpretation of the stories by regional visual artists (photography, painters, sculptors, graphic artists, film makers) to capture the essence of the stories for public and virtual exhibition platforms; musical score to underpin audio and performance written by students of South West Music Regional Conservatorium and composers from the region to complement the audio series and performance program.
“The performance program is a key component of the project which was inspired by an eight year old boy from Deniliquin who asked a simple, but difficult question of General Sir Peter Cosgrove on a visit to the town. That question was simply “Why are there Wars”?
“The Passing-out Parade will attempt to support our youth to answer that question for themselves by asking and recording the answers given by older members of the community and interpreting the answers through theatre performance” Ms Jones said.
Minister for the Arts, Mitch Fifield and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Centenary of ANZAC Dan Tehan announced more than $800,000 in funding for the ANZAC Centenary Arts and Culture Fund to commemorate Anzac Centenary commemorations.
Minister Fifield said the Arts is a powerful platform for people to express themselves and engage and educate audiences about important events in Australia’s history.
“This funding is a great opportunity for Australians to educate others by sharing the experiences and challenges our servicemen and women faced throughout the years and continue to face today,” Minister Fifield said.
Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Centenary of ANZAC Dan Tehan congratulated the successful funding recipients and said 2014 to 2018 is a very important period of national commemoration for Australians.
“I encourage all Australians, particularly young people, to support their local communities and get involved in the nationwide commemorations of a century of service by our brave servicemen and women,” Minister Tehan said.
ANZAC Centenary commemorations will continue until 2018, marking 100 years since Australia’s involvement in World War 1.
For more information about the ANZAC Centenary Arts and Culture Fund and a full list of recipients visit www.arts.gov.au/anzac.
