‘Showcase’ will profile the creativity, skill and talent of artists and arts organisations in Western Australia through media, social media platforms and outdoor screens across the city.
The department is responsible for developing and promoting culture and the arts in Western Australia.We distribute grants and funding to support vibrant and sustainable arts, culture and creative industry sectors.
Funding provides artists, creatives, arts groups and organisations to undertake a range of projects and activities across multiple artforms, including events and festivals.
Artforms include performing arts, visual arts, community arts, design, literature and writing, interactive arts, multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary.
Investment in arts and culture is essential to ensure Western Australians have ongoing access to arts and culture activities.
The department is promoting its successful grant and funding recipients through an ongoing promotional campaign called ‘Showcase’.
Western Australians are proud of their culture and the arts sector and through Showcase we hope they can continue to marvel at the creations made in WA.
Grant: Regional and Remote Festivals Fund
'We Must Get Together Sometime' is an artists’ collective committed to slow art making, through active long-term creative engagements with non-urban spaces.
Part of the Indian Ocean Craft Triennial, events include a self-titled multi-venue exhibition of artworks, educational workshops and cultural events at Contemporary Art Spaces Mandurah (CASM), Mandurah Performing Arts Centre (ManPAC) and the Mandurah Arts Festival.
Visit the Indian Ocean Craft Triennial website.
Grant: Creative Communities COVID-19 Recovery Program
'Grow' is a creative community engagement residency program consisting of cultural sharing, artmaking and up-skilling of regional migrant artists.
Led by Sultana Shamshi, Megan Kirwan-Ward and Jacky Cheng, the exhibition 'TEND - earth, water, links' showcases the outcomes of the residency program and is The Junction Co.’s project for the Indian Ocean Craft Triennial.
'TEND - earth, water, links' is on display at the Port Hedland Courthouse Gallery+Studio through to October 2021.
The Creative Communities COVID-19 Recovery Program is supported by Lotterywest.
Grant: Arts U-15k
Sarah Elson’s exhibition 'Jewels of the Crown Land' is a showcase Indian Ocean Craft Triennial event at the Fremantle Arts Centre.
Sarah is a visual artist who uses traditional metalsmithing and fine casting techniques to create intricate metal sculptures from flower parts using recycled metals.
Her works highlight the contradictory fragility and resilience of threatened native flora, the colonising behaviour of ‘ownership’ versus ‘custodianship’ and the modern dilemma of ‘belonging’.
'Juukan Tears' is local artist Melissa Cameron’s response to the shameful destruction of sacred sites and continued silencing of our First Nations People.
Her work, displayed at John Curtin Gallery as part of the Indian Ocean Craft Triennial, consists of two powerful steel wall hangings created from a demolished shed.
The depiction of the Rio Tinto headquarters in one and a chain link of tears in the other also conceal a coded message that reads “46,000 year old Juukan shelters destroyed for iron ore”.
'Toy Stories' brings together artists, hobbyists, regional museums, and community groups in a showcase of contemporary and historic handmade toys from Western Australia, from the early 1920s to today.
The exhibition presents local craft, social history, contemporary art, and childhood experiences of past and current generations. It celebrates the imagination and creativity of hobbyist toymakers and professional artists alike: their optimism, humour, and unstoppable urge to play.
'Toy Stories' is curated by Sarah Toohey and can be seen at the Midland Junction Art Centre as part of the Indian Ocean Craft Triennial.
As part of the Indian Ocean Craft Triennial, Elisa Markes-Young, Katharina Meister and Ruth Halbert will present Oblivion at the Bunbury Regional Art Gallery.
The three artists create works addressing the migrant experience, fears of impending ecological and societal collapse, and the impacts of colonisation within our complex digital lives.
Their solution is to respond using craft and the handmade. Together they offer fresh, empathetic and engaging perspectives on complex issues.
Grant: Arts 15k-plus
Amy Perejuan-Capone’s ambitious solo exhibition 'Sky Cave' will be staged in the cavernous central galleries of the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts and is part of the inaugural Indian Ocean Craft Triennial.
The work is about the glowing space between realms, the halo of contradictions we inhabit in delicate suspension.
The focus is on the artist's family's pioneering history of hang-gliding and includes a video work filmed at WA's hard border, a grand installation of historical hang gliders, and intricate sculptural artworks.
Nalda Searles’ solo exhibition, 'Finders Keepers', is showing at the Mundaring Arts Centre as part of the Indian Ocean Craft Triennial.
The exhibition combines historical and new artworks, sourced from major art collections and the artist’s own studio.
Nalda is best known for her unique sculptural practice which connects strongly to the histories of regional WA and includes long term engagement with remote Indigenous communities.
The Indian Ocean Triennial 2021 (IOTA21) is a festival celebrating craft in Perth and various regional WA venues.
Based on the theme of ‘Curiosity and Rituals of the Everyday’, IOTA21 will take place from September to November.
The principal exhibitions, held at the Fremantle Arts Centre and John Curtin Gallery, are also accompanied by a conference, fashion event and a festival, including 50+ additional exhibitions, workshops and events around WA.
IOTA21 exhibitions showcase exemplary and ambitious craft works by international, national and local artists.
The Indian Ocean Triennial 2021 has been funded by both Arts U-15k and Arts 15k-plus funding programs.
'The Curious Five go Surfing' is a collaborative installation inspired by historical research, craft and fantasy by Susie Vickery at the Fremantle Arts Centre as part of the Indian Ocean Craft Triennial.
The exhibition will connect historical characters across the Indian Ocean, examining their gendered life choices and our recent effects on the environment. Visitors will enter an indigo-printed ocean filled with puppets and appliquéd embroideries.
Grant: Western Australian Theatre Development Initiative
Jay Emmanuel’s ‘Children of the Sea’ was developed after a two-year research project exploring children’s stories of escaping war, living in refugee camps and arriving in Australia.
Using humour and satire the theatre piece explores how children struggle with the ideas of home, adolescence and love as they navigate the absurdities of the adult world.
‘Children of the Sea’ premiered at the 2021 Perth Festival by culturally and linguistically diverse young performers and a vocal ensemble led by singer-songwriter Kavisha Mazzella.
It was co-produced by Performing Lines WA and Encounter with funding from the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries.
Choreographer Emma Fishwick’s ‘Slow Burn, Together’ challenges the audience’s expectation of a dance presentation.
The performance, with slow extended scenes that stretch images into events, explores the representation of women through the art world’s traditionally male gaze.
‘Slow Burn, Together’ was presented by Performing Lines at the 2021 Perth Festival and was performed by Ella-Rose Trew, Francesca Fenton and an ensemble of 14 women. The creative development of this project was supported by a culture and the arts grant.
‘Galup’ is an interactive walking performance on-Country that brings to life largely unknown histories of Lake Monger.
Created by Ian and Poppy with an oral history from Elder Doolann Leisha Eatts, the work was presented during the 2021 Perth Festival.
A culture and the arts grant is helping the creative team - guided by four Noongar Elders - to develop a virtual reality component using oral histories and storytelling to highlight the origins of ongoing injustices in Australia.
‘Black Brass’ is a new theatre work celebrating stories of resilience and strength from Perth’s African communities.
A culture and the arts grant supported creator Mararo Wangai to develop and refine the script, musical score and design elements with playwright Afeif Ismael, director Matt Edgerton, musician/composer Mahamudo Selimane and producers Performing Lines WA.
‘Black Brass’ premiered at the 2021 Perth Festival.
‘Structural Dependency’ by Brooke Leeder & Dancers was recently presented by at the 2021 Perth Festival to critical acclaim. The work explores the structure of choreography, and how its elements – movement, space, sound and the viewer – depend on one another.
Supported by a culture and the arts grant, ‘Structural Dependency’ was the first work performed by Brooke Leeder & Dancers in the large gallery space of PSAS in Fremantle in 2018.
The collaborative performance showcases the skills of choreographer Brooke Leeder, sound designer and composer Louis Frere-Harvey, lighting designer Nemo Gandossini-Poirier and 11 WA contemporary dancers.
‘Whale Fall’ by Ian Sinclair, recently presented at Perth Festival 2021, charts transition across generations, family dynamics, the human body and our ecological future.
Supported by a culture and the arts grant, the play merges writer Ian Sinclair’s poetic realism with Director Melissa Cantwell’s humanist style.
‘Whale Fall’ was produced by West Australian theatre company The Kabuki Drop in partnership with the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts.
‘Mama Stitch’ brings the stories of local community members and their mums to life through performance and music.
Developing this model of community-focused arts activity and bringing it to the Albany and Bunbury communities was initially supported by culture and the arts funding.
‘Mama Stitch’ was presented as part of the 2021 Perth Festival at the Midland Junction Arts Centre featuring stories about the mothers of Midland.
Rachael Dease is an award-winning composer, musician, writer and director based in Perth.
With the support of a culture and the arts grant Rachael funded the production and promotion of an audio-visual documentary package for her live performance of ‘Hymns for End Times’ at the 2021 Perth Festival.
‘Hymns for End Times’ was performed with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and Voyces at His Majesty’s Theatre and presented in association with Tura New Music.