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Celebrate with us at New Beginnings Festival

We’re looking forward to seeing everyone next year at SSI’s New Beginnings Festival on January 27th at the Australian Maritime Museum.

We’ll be showcasing compelling new works created by artists from our 2023 cohort of the Refugee Artist Development Program, as well as hosting live mural painting with visual artists Shiva Dadvar and Emmanuel Asante. You can read more about the artists on our website here.

Save the date and register here for a free day celebrating artistic vibrancy, cultural expressions and heritage of people from culturally diverse communities.

Photo by: Fer Morales

Thank You, Creative Australia

CuriousWorks is pleased to announce that we are one of the 159 organisations that have secured Four Year Funding from Creative Australia. We are a small organisation, but we know the impact of the work we do. We’re grateful to have that impact recognised by Creative Australia.

The funding means that we can securely and sustainably move forward with our future programs and initiatives. Alongside the continuation of programs such as Curious360 and Testing Grounds, in 2024 we’ll be introducing our Open Door Policy - a way for emerging creatives in South West Sydney to tap into the skills and expertise of our team, and  A Future Culture - a salaried artist in residence + arts worker internship program. Stay tuned for more news!

CreateNSW Launches New Policy

CreateNSW launched its Arts, Culture and Creative Industries Policy, titled ‘Creative Communities’ just last week. The policy contains 21 commitments, including explicitly committing to supporting creative arts in Western Sydney and regional NSW. It’s a welcome change to see Western Sydney arts recognised as the vibrant arts and culture hub it is.

We appreciate the policy as a starting point for how NSW approaches arts and culture in the area. As Arts Minister John Graham states, “This is where we’re starting, and where we’re heading. This is certainly not the end point.” We’ll be paying close attention to how the goals and ambitions of this policy are realised.

The ten year policy is quite dense, but we recommend at least checking out ArtHub’s summary here.

Photo by: Natalie Low

Farewell 2023, Hello 2024

CuriousWorks is officially going on break at the end of this week, with the team returning in full from January 8th.

Our work is made possible through good people - our staff, our Management Committee members, artists, mentors, producers and facilitators, our partners, clients, and the communities we work within. Thank you for your support, your generosity, and the collaboration and care you've brought to this work throughout the year.

We hope you have a restful end of the year and can enter the new year gently.