CRUSH
a celebration of Regional Arts
Background Information
CRUSH is a community cultural development tool. It is the end result of community consultation in our region that indicated the need for collaborative marketing and sector cooperation. It is ultimately a festival, but its aims and outcomes have broad reaching implications for regional arts.
History
The concept of ‘CRUSH’ has been born out of 12 months of community consultation with a range of individuals and organisations in the arts sector in the Bundaberg region through Bundaberg Regional Council’s Community Cultural Development Program.
It is clear that Bundaberg’s arts sector is afloat on volunteer labour and that surplus capital for collaborative, strategic and/or marketing projects is very limited. Also, people’s time is limited and organisations are often focused on delivering their core business. However, a very real desire to work collaboratively was expressed through the consultations.
The arts community of Bundaberg, represented through the community consultations, were looking for an event which would act as a focus for the sector to assist in collaboration and cohesion. An event where each individual and/or organisation could focus on their own activity, but cross-promote each others’ work, was seen as crucial.
Bundaberg Regional Council’s Mayor, Cr Lorraine Pyefinch, suggested that the month of October be considered as an opportune time to hold a significant arts event based on the existing Bundaberg Arts Festival (held in the first week of October each year) and the fact that October is a ‘gap’ in programming for Bundaberg’s events. Other major events that occur in Bundaberg are:
- Wide Bay Australia International Air Show (July every second year – 2009 is an Air Show year)
- Bundy in Bloom (annual garden festival held during September)
- Bundy Thunder (speed boating event on the first weekend of November annually)
Brand
The word ‘CRUSH’ has a strong connection to the rural and economic history of the Bundaberg Region. It is synonymous with ‘the crushing’ – the sugar cane harvesting season which runs from around June to December each year. ‘CRUSH’ has other connotations, too:
- To squeeze, juice, distill, extract, refine, flavour, essence – it conjures up ideas of spring, freshness and nourishment;
- To adore, love, fantasise, have an addict someone;
- To pound, pulverise, squash, flatten
Vision
CRUSH is to become known as an international celebration of regional arts practice, recognizing Bundaberg as a hub of emerging artists. With an equal emphasis on emerging arts and artists as well as highly professional practitioners and works, CRUSH will become a true celebration of what it means to live and create artwork in regional areas around the world.
CRUSH will be more than a festival. It will be a project that will strategically evolve over an initial three year period to develop the best possible sustainable model to address the unique aims of CRUSH. It will be a model developed through action research and through the increasing of networks.
2009 will be the launch of the concept and will focus on the local – celebrating those who have emerged out of Bundaberg and become professional artists in their own right – and there are many.
2010 will grow to have a national flavour – encouraging regional artists from around the country to visit Bundaberg to share their work and their knowledge. It should be noted that the Regional Arts Australia Conference will be held in August 2010 – a great opportunity for promotion of CRUSH.
2011 aims to become a fully-fledged international focus on regional arts practice. A number of well-known regional artists from around the world will be invited to Bundaberg, based on building capacity locally. That is, local needs will inform the invitation of artists in residence, masterclass and workshop leaders – as long as they are regionally-based practitioners.
Aims
- To celebrate the essence of art through emerging artists
- To savour the unique artistic flavours of regional communities
- To inspire regional artists to flourish in their communities
- To highlight the work of established professional regional artists
- To crush regional stereotypes
See the 2009 Program click here