City awards $56,000 in arts and community grants

Fourteen projects have received financial support from the City of Fremantle’s Arts and Community Grants program.

Round two of the 2020-21 program saw 14 successful grant applications – five in the arts category and nine in the community category – share a total of $56,000 in funding.

Deputy Mayor Andrew Sullivan said individuals and groups with projects that positively contributed to Fremantle’s community and supported our COVID-19 recovery were encouraged to apply for the March 2021 grants round.

“The arts and community sectors have been some of the hardest hit by COVID-19 restrictions over the past 14 months, which has made the City’s grants program and investing in our local community more important than ever,” Cr Sullivan said.

“The judging panel were impressed by the high calibre of applications from local artists, arts organisations, community groups and service providers; so a big congratulations to our well-deserved recipients.

“We look forward to seeing these projects and initiatives come to life, which will in turn stimulate Freo’s creative economy, activate the city’s surrounds, assist vulnerable and disadvantaged people and overall strengthen community connection.”

Arts grant recipients Pascale Giorgi and Felix Pal received a $5000 grant to deliver the Fremantle Mulberry Festival at White Gum Valley Community Orchard this spring.

“Drawing on traditions from Southern Europe, the Fremantle Mulberry Festival is a small-scale, local event rooted in ideas of local produce, seasonality, cooking and sharing,” Ms Giorgi said.

“A theatrical foot procession of people, music and colour will be led from tree to tree, harvesting mulberries from suburban trees. Participants will converge on a fair at the community orchard to clean, cook and dye with the produce plus enjoy the festivities.”

Among the other arts grant recipients are the Dutch Australian Federation to deliver an exhibition that celebrates our boat building history, an art and poetry exhibition at Moores Building, a Mental Health Week event and an online film festival that challenges filmmakers to make short films using Green Screen technology.

Projects supported with a community grant include uniforms and merchandise for Reclink’s Fremantle sporting program, face-to-face group sessions supporting people with anxiety and depression, a theatre project to connect women experiencing domestic violence, a women’s yarning circle aimed at lessening social isolation, access improvements at White Gum Valley Community Orchard, life skills groups delivered by FremantleMind, a runway event featuring the talents of people with disabilities, a safe space for young people and a pilot program offering hope, kindness and inspiration to vulnerable people in the community.

The next Arts and Community grants funding round opens on 1 September 2021.

For more information about the grants program, visit the Grants and Donations page on the City’s website.

Dutch Australian Foundation: Wooden Boat Building History WA and Duyfken Replica 25 Year Anniversary

$5000

Pascale Giorgi and Felix Pal: Fremantle Mulberry Festival

$5000

Creative Connections: Creative Connections Exhibition Program

$5000

Friends of the Arts Inclusive in partnership with FremantleMind: Reflections on Resilience 2021

$5000

GreenScreen Fest Ltd: GreenScreen Film Fest

$5000

Reclink Australia: Belonging through sport and recreation

$5000

Bluebird Mental Health: Post COVID restart face-to-face mental health support groups

$3500

Theatre Games Australia: Liberation theatre women’s mental health and wellbeing for family and domestic violence

$2500

Meerilinga Young Children’s Service: Women’s Yarning Circle

$3000

White Gum Valley Community Orchard: Orchard accessibility and places for resting and making

$3000

MyLocalMind Inc: FremantleMind Inc Life Skills Groups

$2500

Valued Lives Microenterprise Project: Colourful Cultures Runway and Marketplace

$5000

Headspace Fremantle: Florescence Project

$3500

Neighbourhood Connect: Message in a Teacup Pilot Project

$3000