SIX arts organisations will take part in next year’s arts residencies program, it has been announced today by Minister for the Arts Joy Burch.
Since 2012, local arts organisations have received funding to host recognised interstate or international artists as part of a residency experience aimed in part to cement Canberra’s image as a sought-after destination for artists while also promoting connections between visiting artists, local artists and the broader community.
Ms Burch announced that in 2016 the ACT Writers Centre, Belconnen Arts Centre, Canberra Glassworks, Craft ACT and PhotoAccess will receive funding to participate in the residencies program. In addition, one national institution, the National Portrait Gallery, will be funded under the scheme.
Residencies are offered at $10,000 each, and are intended to encourage cultural and artistic exchange and nurture experimentation, new ideas and the development of new work.
Ms Burch said on making the announcement, “The benefits of having visiting artists living and working in our community has far reaching benefits that aren’t just specific to the arts sector, and I look forward to meeting some of the artists and seeing the work that is produced.”
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![Teacher Vanessa Jones has been living in Higgins since 2001, and while she loves the area, she says she is “fed up” with the neglectful ACT government.
The Higgins shops have been completely abandoned, says Vanessa, preventing the opportunity for residents to have a community-centred space to socialise.
They only received bins nine months ago, she says, and requests for a water station and repairs to the bus station have gone unanswered.
“It’s very, very slow,” says Vanessa.
“I asked for the zebra crossing on Fullagar [Crescent] to be repainted, and we had to wait about six or nine months.
“That’s just such a long time… we pay a lot of rates.”
Vanessa says assistance from the government only seems to go to communities with time-rich and assertive communities, leaving places such as Higgins, where the majority of households have both adults working full-time and English may not be the first language of the family, at an automatic disadvantage.
“If you’ve got two people working, paying a mortgage, raising two or three kids, they don’t have the time,” says Vanessa.
Vanessa says the lack of attention quieter places such as Higgins is receiving is starting to look a lot like favouritism.
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