Get on Board!

The Western Riverina Arts Board is looking for a new community member to represent the Murrumbidgee Shire. Western Riverina Arts is one of fourteen Regional Arts Boards across NSW, and has been working since 2011 to support arts and culture across the region.

Murrumbidgee Shire is the newest LGA member of Western Riverina Arts, as of 2015 joining Griffith, Leeton, and Narrandera Councils.

Regional Development Officer Derek Motion says they are looking for someone with a passion for the arts, a good knowledge of the local community and its arts culture, and experience with sitting on a Board of an incorporated body.

“The Board meets four times per year during business hours so the commitment isn’t too onerous,” he said. “But we’re looking for someone who want to be active, someone with ideas and passion, who is keen on having a direct input into cultural development across the region.”

“Our next Board Meeting is set for Friday 14^th August at Darlington Point and it would be great to be able to introduce a new representative then.”

The community representative for this position must be a current resident of Murrumbidgee Shire. Interested people should send a brief expression of interest to Derek Motion at rado@westrivarts.com.au or call 0428882059 for further information.

Dreaming bigger for Dream Big in 2015

Dream Big is the foremost conference for culture in our region. 

"It's a rewarding day of sharing stories with leading professionals and networking within the many artistic communities in the Riverina," said Derek Motion of Western Riverina Arts. 

"Who better to tell you about what’s local and special than local people?"

Click here to buy tickets

The conference is now in its fourth year and will be held in Cootamundra for the first time at their arts centre. 

“It’s exciting that local councils right across the Riverina have come on board to support this great initiative. Many are taking advantage of the group discounts for tickets to send staff.”

People attending the conference will come away with lots of ideas of how to add vitality to their events with an understanding of what funding is available to support their ideas. 

Once again the line-up feature arts professionals and artists speaking on how to grow the arts in our region through sharing skills and creating networks.

“This is a great opportunity for local festivals and artists to make connections and learn about possibilities.” 

As well as sharing their experiences, this conference provides an opportunity to pick the brains of people producing public art. 

It's designed to inform a diverse audience, from local government through to artists looking for commissions.

"Dream Big is a chance to ask questions of people with years of experience," said Motion. "It's great to see what is achievable and to provoke people to think how to take it further."

Councils and cultural organisations will hear about how to engage with their community and attract new audiences at this year’s Dream Big conference hosted by Eastern Riverina Arts and Western Riverina Arts. Click here for more.

Add your voice

Riverina Men's Choir is looking to expand its ranks in 2015 with a series of workshops ahead of festive season performances later in the year.

Experienced choir conductor Frances Tsoukalidas will lead four free workshops at the Leeton Hydro Hotel during October. Hot food suppers will be provided at these informal practice sessions, as material for performances is prepared.

The Choir will  perform for elderly residents of retirement homes in Leeton and Narrandera in November. For information contact Alan Chesworth on 0429 444 663 or Ian Pettit on 0458 538 102.

Imagine Me in Leeton and Griffith

Imagine Me is an innovative project empowering people with spinal cord injury, to explore their imagination in creative photography and digital-imaging workshops. 

The aim being to foster greater community understanding towards people living with disability, and open up new creative opportunities by building skills and fostering community engagement.

Participants are invited to a series of workshops where they develop their creative imagination and learn photography in the process of making a self portrait. using photographic equipment specially adapted for people with limited mobility. This equipment enables someone with quadriplegia to control a digital camera and professional photographic studio using a mouth-stick with a mobile-phone.

In the workshops participants learn skills in photography through a creative process involving experimentation and expressing ideas, primary to the process of making art. Peer support is a valuable part of community health and well-being and this workshop process encourages people to share stories, to build resilience and broaden and build new social networks.

The longer-term vision for Imagine Me is to run creative workshops along with a touring exhibition of the artworks across Australia, that will raise public awareness and foster greater empathy for people living with disability, and encourage participation in the cultural life of local communities.


Imagine Me will be at the Griffith Library from 2-7 November and at Leeton Multipurpose Centre from 9-14 November. Phone 0412 810 745 or email imagineme [at] royalrehab.com.au

From Buckingbong to Birrego

In September 2014, Wiradjuri leaders, community members, artists, curators, writers and farmers met at the Murrumbidgee River near Narrandera to walk 50 kilometres towards the south. 

For three days they walked through modern farmland, to a property owned by the Strong family, leaders in the emerging field of ecological agriculture. Over these three days, the walking party learned about local history, the capacities of land and people to produce food and fibre, and the factors that promoted or undermined cultural and ecological resilience. At night in each campsite, special events occurred, where the walkers and members of the public enjoyed artworks made by local and visiting artists, responding to the surrounding landscape and site.

The result of this experience includes an eBook, Buckingbong to Birrego: walking into country, which explores the relevance of local environmental and social history of life today in the the Narrandera district. Wagga Wagga photographer and walker, Jacob Raupach, documented the journey and these pictures allow the reader to retrace the steps of the walking party.

George Main, National Museum of Australia curator says, “Modern farming is shaped by history and culture, by memories and stories active inside minds and paddocks. The walkers sought to understand and interpret – in visual art and writing – how the big issues facing people and land in the Riverina today are bound in complex ways to our shared past.”

What did the walkers learn from the land they slept upon, from the farmers they spoke with, from the Wiradjuri leaders they walked beside? How might these understandings help to bolster the wellbeing of Australian farmland, and the many people who depend upon it? These questions are deeply considered in Buckingbong to Birrego: walking into country.

The walk was created in partnership with The Cad Factory, National Museum of Australia, Graham Strong and the Wiradjuri Condobolin Corporation. From the 29 July onwards the eBook will be available to view online from The Cad Factory website, www.cadfactory.com.au

Nicole Barakat is Back For More Workshops

Artist Nicole Barakat will be visiting Narrandera again to facilitate a two-day eco- dyeing workshop along with weaving techniques, stitching and more, to begin making the final artwork for On Common Ground.

On Common Ground, presented by The Cad Factory, is a 3 day festival of textiles, performance, video projection, installation, story telling, music and more. It will take place “along the Murrumbidgee” in the Narrandera Common from 16 - 18 October 2015.

The Cad Factory and Sydney arts organisation Performance Space are holding free workshops with contemporary artist Nicole Barakat. Nicole will work with local artists and community members to facilitate the making of new work that will be exhibited outside in the Common for the festival.

Nicole was in Narrandera in May and held the first eco-dyeing workshop on site at Beach One. Local artist and workshop participant Elizabeth Gay Campbell said of the weekend, “It was fun, informative and really great working with a team; the community aspects was really important. I loved the natural process of dyeing; that it was safe with no nasty chemicals. The skills that we learnt can have applications for clothing design as well as for art projects.”

If you didn’t attend the last workshops in May, don’t worry, you can still come along and join in. However, as this weekend of workshops will be discussing and making the final artwork, those who attend will become the core group of artists making the final installation for the Common.

If you’d like the opportunity to have some fun, learn new skills, collaborate to make an original artwork, then please come along to the eco-dyeing workshops on Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 July from 10:30am - 3:30pm. Lunch will be provided. To find out more about the workshop and what you will need to bring, contact Julie Briggs on 0427 985 297 or julie@cadfactory.com.au