We made it just in time.
Last week, we had our SSI Homelands Tour across regional Queensland and NSW, as well as our CuriousWorks leadership retreat in Katoomba. Both events were a long time coming, and had been the result of months of planning and care. We’re so grateful these events were able to go ahead, grateful for how wonderful and nourishing they were, and grateful that we’re all back home, safe and sound.
Now that we’re back and in our second, temporary (no matter how long it’ll last, it is still temporary) Sydney lockdown, here are five other things we are grateful to have accomplished over the last six months.
1.) We launched a one-of-a-kind, interactive, online experience called Make Yourself at Home, which uses video, audio, 360 photography and other online services to thoughtfully, tenderly reflect on the personal experiences of CuriousWorks artists during quarantine in 2020. It’s available online here.
2.) We had the world premiere of Let Me Know When You Get Home, a new, Australian, coming-of-age LGBTQI+ work, and found ways to bring in as many LGBTQI+ Western Sydney youth to the theatre to celebrate pride, found families and radical optimism.
3.) We launched Bush, Country, Voices, an immersive audio-visual experience which reflects on and challenges our relationship to country, and was almost entirely created by emerging Western Sydney artists who were able to safely create this artwork while social-distancing.
4.) We’ve amplified the voices of more young, diverse, Mount Druitt Cultural Leaders through FUNPARK’s 2021 Mount Druitt Press Conferences - which took place at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) on 11th June, and will take place again at the FUNPARK Festival on the 25th September.
5.) Lastly, and most importantly, we have continued to mentor and uplift emerging Western Sydney creative leaders through our social enterprise program, through new, salaried positions, and through our new Emerging Artistic Directorate.
