ARTISTS from across regional Victoria and NSW have been invited to come together to explore the relationship between creative communities in cross-border towns along the Murray River.
Funded through the Australian Government’s Regional Arts fund and administered through Regional Arts Victoria, Borders is a creative recovery project that is aimed to delve into what the river represents in cross-border communities like Swan Hill and help them regenerate after a couple of tough years.
“It’s come out of the impact of the border closures of 2020 and 2021, particularly on the creative sectors but also on all sectors and communities,” Borders creative producer Rachel Kendrigan said.
“It is kind of reassessing what our relationship is to the river as a meeting place rather than something that divides us.”
Working in collaboration with Arts Mildura, Swan Hill’s ACRE project, Echuca-Moama’s The Bridge Art Project and Albury-Wodonga’s Murray Arts, the three-year process will combine social research, community dialogue, capacity building and performance development with the aim to renew creative practices in the regions.
“The impact of border closures have been huge on all communities along the river, and I think there is some healing to do from that, and I think artists play that role in our society,” Ms Kendrigan said.
“Artists are important to draw attention to these issues and to create spaces and processes where people can reflect on those things.”
However, Ms Kendrigan says the project is not just for creatives, as they are looking for input from people such as farmers, ecologists and archaeologists.
“I think it’s important to bring people together from different sectors to have these conversations and have these spaces where we can think together,” Ms Kendrigan said.
“To provide an opportunity for artists to be involved in a professional development process and a place-based research process where their creativity is contributing to bringing people together to kind of heal from the impacts of the closures is also important.”
Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery director Ian Tully also believes that any opportunity for people from different parts of the community to come together to discuss a common theme has to be a good thing.
“Not that there is necessarily barriers to be broken down, but it just helps the conversation and the understanding and the sharing of knowledge right across the board,” Mr Tully said.
“Once you start to have those sorts of conversations and conduct research and work together on something, you see how closely aligned we all are in so many ways that it is always inspiring, I find it very inspiring.”
The project was officially launched online on Monday via Zoom, which included an artist panel with workshop facilitators Linda Luke and Peter Fraser, as well as project mentor Vic McEwan.
There will be informal bi-monthly Zoom catch-ups facilitated by Borders artists for people interested in the project, and this online group can be joined at any time. There will also be some upcoming in-person workshops hosted in the participating communities over the next two years.
If you want to find out more, visit bordersproject.com.au.
