Council endorses Blue Mountains City of the Arts Grants

Blue Mountains City Council, as Trustee of the Blue Mountains City of the Arts Trust, has endorsed more than $50,000 in grants to various artists and community groups as part of the 2019-2020 program.

The successful projects reflect a range of art forms including visual arts, literature, music, textile arts, photography and cross-art forms. 

Mayor, Cr Mark Greenhill, said the Blue Mountains City of the Arts Grants Program was created to build on the City’s reputation of being the State’s inaugural City of the Arts.

“This expansive grants program provides opportunities for the engagement of local artists and is a stimulus for creativity in the Blue Mountains,” Cr Greenhill said.

“With $50,000 a year for the Trust to administer the project, we are able to strengthen the arts and engage our local communities and visitors as both participants and audiences.” 

The following six projects were selected based on their merit against the advertised program guidelines of quality and/or innovation, capacity and community engagement.

Willem Hendriksen for FunKtion @ The Junction: A Musical Development Youth Mentorship Program – $10,000 Miriam Williamson for Birdland (Drawing on the science of ornithology) – $8,800 David Brazil for Re-take Blue Mountains (Re-photographing and re-imagining the images of early 20th Century Blue Mountains photographs) – $6,590 The Big Fix for Blue Mountains Pluriversity Arts & Cultural Pilot Program – $10,000 Modern Arts Projects Blue Mountains for Sewnup (Exploring the tension between beautiful textiles and clothing products and questionable aspects of their product cycle) – $9,300 Varuna – The National Writers House for Blue Mountains Writers' Festival – $8,000

Council has also endorsed new committee members for the Blue Mountains City of the Arts Trust Advisory Committee. We welcome Susan Hayes, Cassandra Hard Lawrie and Marguerite Pepper to the committee as community representatives, for a three year term. We also thank Bridgette Van Leuven for her service on the committee. 

For further information go to: www.bmcc.nsw.gov.au/city-of-the-arts-trust 

Pic: Miriam Williamson’s Birdland has been awarded a grant in the Blue Mountains City of the Arts Grants Program for 2019-2020.  Credit: Brad Allen-Waters.