Click here to view all 2014 IMAGinE winners and highly commended organisations!

WINNER – CASULA POWERHOUSE ARTS CENTRE: WAY OUT WEST FESTIVAL FOR CHILDREN

This four-day, annual contemporary art festival for children at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre is a one-of-a-kind in Western Sydney. The free event takes place during the July school holidays and offers children and their families contemporary visual arts, craft, performance, music opportunities. Design your future, the 2013 theme for the festival involved children in design for global problem solving.

In partnership with Object: Australian Design Centre, their touring exhibition CUSP: Designing into the Next Decade, was exhibited to support the festival program.

Australian designer Stephen Mushin, one of the featured CUSP designers, was employed to devise a work to fill the main turbine hall space for the Way Out West Festival (WOW). Mushin used his research on termites and their net positive effect on the environment to develop a project to teach kids about recycling. The 13-metre tall milk crate construction evolved over the course of the festival with visitors creating silhouettes that were backlit and placed into the Termite City.

Last year WOW attracted a total attendance of 5,500: 40% had never been to Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre: 60% were from outside Liverpool LGA: and 5% were from outside Sydney itself. In aiming to bring in new audiences, create a positive perception of Liverpool and South West Sydney, and entertain and stimulate children’s creative powers WOW has been an outstanding success.

HIGHLY COMMENDED – CAMPBELLTOWN ARTS CENTRE: TOWARDS THE MORNING SUN

Towards the Morning Sun exhibition explored the practice and process of artists who engage with and interrogate elements of contemporary Pacific culture. The project was designed to build new audiences and develop art-making skills within the wider Pacific community. A diverse mix of workshops exposed participants to a range of artistic practices – printmaking, traditional carving, weaving, costume design, and film development – with artists facilitating small, focused workshops, providing individual participants with one-on-one attention.

In attracting new audiences to the arts centre, the curatorial and artistic strategy aimed to develop longstanding relationships with youth, seniors, emerging artists and those from lower socio economic backgrounds, and to open dialogue around cultural awareness, the environment and sustainable development.

Working collaboratively with the artists, participants developed artworks, held workshops, hosted a community environmental forum, and developed several commissioned works for Towards the Morning Sun, the opening of which attracted over 400 people, included an Indigenous smoking ceremony and cultural performances. Over eight community organisations were involved with 340 people attending talks and workshops and the exhibition itself attracting 11,731 visitors.

HIGHLY COMMENDED – SYDNEY LIVING MUSEUMS: NEW WEBSITE

Sydney Living Museum’s (SLM) new website is visually striking, responsive and reflects their new digital strategy and brand. Built over 18 months, the project addressed several significant challenges including; the effective communication of SLM’s new name and branding; the showcasing of 12 diverse properties; and support for the full range of programs and activities offered to effectively drive engagement and participation.

Key innovations of the custom-engineered Content Management System allows staff to easily upload content and to layout pages without needing to engage a designer in the process. This gives the web editors the ability to layout responsive pages column by column, select image sizes and design page elements in accordance with the style guide used across the website. This in turn supports multiple users, different content types and ongoing content creation and upload.

CASULA POWERHOUSE ARTS CENTRE: THE ACCESS PROGRAM

The Access Program offers one-off and ongoing creative workshops tailored for people of all ages with mild to moderate physical and intellectual disabilities. The schedule of dance, art, craft, drama and ceramics is integrated into organised activities and relates to Casula Powerhouse Art Centre’s (CPAC) exhibition program. The Access Program is delivered by professional facilitators – some of whom have a disability themselves – with extensive multi-disciplinary experience in facilitating creative and recreational activities for people with disabilities.

CPAC responded to the community need for sustainable low-cost recreational activities for a range of south western Sydney access service providers and heavily subsidise costs to ensure affordability.

Since implementing this program in July 2013, attendance has increased significantly, with a program of eight weekly access workshops for 11 different disability services. Total attendance in 2013 was 2471 representing a 330% increase from 2012.

CPAC also celebrates the International Day of People with a Disability through free drop-in workshops and this year presented Access All Areas Film Festival an event attended by over 100 people; an annual program of events which demonstrate the art centre’s ongoing commitment to catering for the creative needs of all groups in the community.

CASULA POWERHOUSE ARTS CENTRE: NAVIGATION PACIFICA 2013

2013 was the fifth time Navigation Pacifica has been presented at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre (CPAC). By referencing the past, present and the future, Navigation Pacifica looks at how the art and science of navigation has shaped, identified and continues to influence the Pacific region. Exploring the social implications of voyaging and migration through a suite of exhibitions, public education programs and performance, each with their own specific community engagment strategies, local communitites can rediscover tribal traditions, ceremonial objects and related spiritual journeys and intepret them for contemporary living.

Underpinned by research with the Pacific community, the program of events is dynamic and empowering and appeals to audiences across different age groups. Navigation Pacifica 2013 represented an opportunity for the community to enjoy visual and performing art unique to the Pacific community.

HURTSVILLE CITY LIBRARY MUSEUM & GALLERY: HIGH TEA AT THE MUSEUM AND GALLERY PROGRAM

In conjunction with the exhibition If These Walls Could Talk: Stories From 14 McMahon Street the Hurtsville Library Museum & Gallery hosted a series of High Tea events in partnership with local business, The Gardens on Forest. Visitors were invited to enjoy the delights of a High Tea while learning more about the exhibition on display. Curatorial staff provided a guided tour, highlighting the development stages of the exhibition and bringing stories from the exhibition to life.

The intended audience for the program was a broad one; those with an interest in the history of the local area, senior citizens and anyone with a connection to the site itself, and proved popular with community services groups, and various lantern and friendship clubs. Five High Tea’s were held, all of which were bookedto capacity of 32 people each.

High Tea at the Museum & Gallery aimed to provide audiences with an enjoyable, affordable and informative program that offered a new experience for visitors of the Museum & Gallery. The partnership with local business expanded audiences, increased visitation and the Museum & Gallery’s visibility in the community.

The program proved so successful it has been developed into an ongoing program now run quarterly, in conjunction with the changing exhibitions at Hurstville Museum & Gallery.