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By CAITLIN CROWLEY | EXCLUSIVE
CLOSING the knowledge and skills gap between imagining a large public art project and seeing it delivered will be key to unlocking the transformational power of art in country Queensland, according to those already helping breathe new life into regional communities.
From sky high silo art success stories to sculpture trails and murals, Trudi Leigo from CQUniversity’s Regional Arts Services Network said there was huge demand for public art projects coming from rural and regional Queensland.
“I think a lot of our rural communities in Queensland have a really big appetite (for art) and understand the value in having public art in their communities – I find that particularly with western Queensland communities,” Leigo (pictured below) said.
“In the competing demands of some of the regional councils we work with, I just see that the smaller the community, the more remote it is, the hungrier it is for economic opportunities and to drive tourists to the region.
“I don’t have to convince those mayors or those councillors or the staff of those councils that art is a good thing, they just get it.”
While demand is there, what’s often missing is where to start to turn a bold idea, into reality.
It’s an issue Toowoomba artist Katie Whyte (pictured above) is familiar with, having worked closely with regional councils including Toowoomba to add colour and character to public spaces through large mural projects.
She has also recently launched her own public art consultancy service to support regional artists as they navigate working with organisations to bring their vision to life.
“All councils that I’ve worked with are learning; they’re learning the value of public art and visual art in general and how to work with artists so that’s something that’s a work in progress,” Whyte said.
“It’s definitely changed a lot in the last few years and the process of being commissioned, design consultation right through to completing a project and the maintenance of a project, has improved greatly in the last couple of years.”
Whyte credited work done by the National Association for the Visual Arts for increasing awareness of industry standards and guidelines on things like fees, but said artists like her had also been educating councils and community groups while they delivered projects.
“I think the gap between having an artist with an idea and having public art completed and in a community is a large skill set and knowledge and that’s something that is learnt,” Whyte said.
“I don’t think a lot of councils were aware of that process beforehand so I think through this growing together and working together, a lot of information has come from that.
“I think it’s wonderful when councils recognise and understand the artists in their community and their needs and understand the need for professional development.”
Private businesses and developers are also being called on to consider more partnerships with artists, to help create unique tourism destinations and enriched customer experiences based on murals, sculptures or other outdoor art attractions.
Katie Whyte has worked with a wide range of businesses, including popular Toowoomba cafe Burrow.
“Quite a few years ago I approached them for a mural and they’ve been wonderful to work with,” Whyte said.
“That’s been such a big impact on my career working with them, and it’s also become iconic for them.
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“I think when businesses and artists work together and it benefits both and both are treated professionally, AKA both are paid fairly and have their rights, it’s a really beautiful process.”
Whyte told the Caller she’d recently worked with a developer to deliver a 70m long mural which had received “amazing feedback”, and it was a great example of businesses not only supporting arts and cultural stories, but contributing to a region’s greater good.
“They had such overwhelming positive, public feedback from the community, so I think getting businesses to understand that working with an artist is an asset, not just to your property but to your business identity and also how you see your business’s impact on the community.”
Last month Whyte was a guest speaker at CQUniversity’s ‘FIND: Public Arts Summit’ in Bundaberg (pictured above), where around 75 artists and stakeholders from across the state met to learn and tackle some of the challenges standing between them and a public art project in their region.
“For public art projects to get realised – to make our regional communities more vibrant, more exciting more creative places to live – we need more than just artists who are keen to do the work,” Trudi Leigo, also the event organiser, said.
“We need businesses and organisations who want to commission the artists, and that was the beautiful thing that we had those people in the room.
“We also had people who were programming public art, so we had a number of regional councils from across Queensland send staff to the event.
“Lots and lots of regional communities have a real deficit of skills and expertise when it comes to public art and we can’t address that in a two day summit, you can’t solve a problem that easily but we just hope that this is a stepping stone that launches people in the right direction.”