Audience Development Fund
Sri Lankan Vesak (Festival of Lights) Lantern workshop with local community leader Nivanka deSilva, Murray Art Museum Albury - Culture Connect
Murray Art Museum Albury recently completed their year-long Culture Connect Pilot Program, funded by a $10,000 M&G NSW Audience Development Fund grant. The pilot program was aimed at meaningfully engaging young people within Albury’s new migrant and refugee communities through free monthly art-based programs.
The project targeted people from Albury’s communities from Nepali, Bhutanese, Indian, Thai and Skri Lankan backgrounds, however the largest uptake was from the Congolese community which is rapidly growing with many recent migrants from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya and Uganda (with further growth anticipated as 163 families are due to relocate to Albury Wodonga from these countries between 1 July 2019 and 31 June 2020).
‘For almost every attendee of the program it was their first visit to MAMA, and so the need to offer a welcoming, accessible and engaging experience was paramount from the beginning. Attendees indicated an enormous interest in programs relating to Australian First Nations art and culture, especially workshops and talks presented by Lorraine Connelly-Northey (Wiradjuri) and Dr Treahna Hamm (Yorta Yorta).’
– Murray Art Museum Albury
Participants made connections through creating art and engaging with current exhibitions, forming a sense of belonging in the museum. Images can be seem below of some of the monthly programs:
January 2019
Culture Connect welcome event: exhibition tours, drawing activities and afternoon tea. Photo by by Marcel Bentana
February 2019
Launch of the exhibition Cercle d'Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise and a free picnic catered by members of the Albury Wodonga Congolese community
March 2019
Talk by Wiradjuri artist Lorraine Connelly Northey and an introduction to Aboriginal art across Australia (translated into Swahili) followed by a wire sculpture workshop. Photo by Marcel Bentana
Audience Development Fund
Tour of the exhibition John Mawurndjul: I am the old and the new led by Andrea Briggs (MAMA Curatorial Officer, Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Programs) translated into Swahili,followed by a painting workshop based on the notion of 'home.'
June 2019
Collaborative textile workshop by Sydney-based artist Nadia Hernandez inspired by her practice. Participants created individual designs on fabric which were then stitched together to form a banner.
November 2019
Sydney-based artist Salote led a drawing,painting and performance workshop within MAMA's Certain realities exhibition
The Audience Development Fund is a Create NSW devolved funding program administered by Museums & Galleries of NSW on behalf of the NSW Government.
Applications for the 2020 Audience Development Fund will open on 1 April 2020 – learn more about the grant, past recipients and grant guidelines here.
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