A creative agenda, a funding application deadline and a long term vision to see Part of Things grow beyond its Riverland home. That’s what started this. Three projects in three communities led by three artists, collectively titled ‘Be Part of Things: we are the project’. A basket, woven with the common thread of connection to hold Alysha, Kirste and I as we navigate art making in our own unique communities, separately, but together.
“Process is what we are interested in. Process as practice. Artists in residence in our own town.”
In coming updates we’ll go into more detail about each of the three projects and the how’s and why’s behind the Be Part of Things collaborative model. We’ll be sharing our learnings as they progress. For now, here is a overview of what we each *plan* to do.
*Plans change and people change, these are ever evolving and likely to shift… in fact, in all three cases, they already have in at least some way. It’s all part of the process.
-Eliza Wuttke (Port Lincoln)
Alysha Herrmann (Riverland/Mount Gambier):
Hello dear ones. If you’re reading this we’ve probably already met because I’m the founder of Part of Things so I’m kinda floating around everything we do, but if you haven’t, you can learn more about me here. I’m a writer, performance-maker, creative producer and community organiser and I live, love and work from regional South Australia. The Riverland is my heart, my home and my future, but last year I moved to Mount Gambier due to my husband’s work and other commitments. It’s partly this relocation to Mount Gambier, along with the collaboration and connection Kirste, Eliza and I developed working together last year as regional coordinators for Writers SA’s No Limits: Young Regional Writers project that has led to the overall Be Part of Things: we are the project.
As I wrote in the original grant application:
Part of Things is an initiative of Alysha that began in 2019 as an ideas hub and gathering place to connect young professionals and emerging artists in the Riverland. Kirste has been one of the core team since its inception, and through various experiments, explorations and projects Part of Things has become a valued part of the creative fabric of the Riverland. As the footprint of Part of Things has grown people from outside of the Riverland have expressed how needed this idea/model is in their own community. Be Part of Things: we are the project is the first step in exploring how we can extend this impact and share our practice and process with other regional communities.
Regional creatives Kirste Vandergiessen, Eliza Wuttke and Alysha Herrmann in residence in their own communities—Barmera, Port Lincoln & Mount Gambier—exploring their own “town as the project” and “process as practice” to build connection, skills and capacity for themselves and other regional artists. The three artists will work together across distance and discrete individual project outcomes to share practice and amplify best-practice in regional arts engagement & delivery. Discrete outcomes in each community will connect and celebrate emerging writers through workshops, commissions and residency participation, and provide public-facing outcomes to delight the general public.
This is a wanky way of saying each of us is working on our own thing in our place but with the connection and support of one another, and that we’re doing it to create something useful and interesting in the places we live for audiences and other local creative folk.
The discrete little project I’m working on in Mount Gambier is called Poetry on My Porch. Poetry on My Porch will commission poets from the Limestone Coast region to write and present new poems at a series of reading events held on the back porch of volunteer hosts. It’s about showcasing local talent, connecting with our neighbours, and nurturing those small but very precious moments of connection that happen when we hear someone tell their own story.
Kirste Vandergiessen (Barmera):
Hello, hello! I’m Kirste and I’m a writer, digital illustrator, producer and lover of all things magical. I’ve been collaborating, been commissioned by, and working with Part of Things (and Chief Storyteller, Alysha) since 2019 – my name is definitely not new around these parts.
I’m revisiting a project I produced during my time with Writers SA’s No Limits: Young Regional Writers team – Portal. Right now, Portal is a series of fantasy themed writing workshops and events. But I have a bigger vision for this event, more on that in a second, let’s continue with the origin story.
Portal grew from a small seed that Alysha planted in my first few weeks working for Writers SA – she asked what I was excited about, and how could I thread that passion into the work I’m doing? While it started as a pretty greedy project, it was a project that I very quickly realised was something the Riverland community wanted. The Riverland has a passionate fantasy cohort, built of writers, readers, gamers and creators. We often live like hermits (me), but there are small pockets of different kinds of fantasy lovers and I want to help foster a place for building that connection, even if it’s for just one event a year.
There’s also a general lack of speculative fiction workshops and events in program lineups in all Australian writers centres, despite the popularity of fantasy works. And after a few conversations with the team, I decided that Portal was going to bridge that gap, and do so much more. I have a huge vision for Portal growing into a full festival, including a bunch of creative practice workshops (writing, illustration, costumes, crafting), practical workshops (sword training, archery, horseback riding), an outdoor market with stalls, pop up stores, artist residencies, actors and costumed creatures lurking around, roaming music, food and drinks. I see Portal being an event that people travel to the Riverland for.
But for Be Part of Things: we are the project, we’re taking the baby steps to those Big Plans and it’s holding the space for me to dream and scheme with my favourite team. While the next Portal will still be very workshop heavy, the workshops reach a little further than just writing this time – with illustration and other crafts. I’m so excited to see how Be Part of Things: we are the project takes it to the next level.
Eliza Wuttke (Port Lincoln):
Hi there! I’m Eliza, a maker, writer and producer living on Barngarla Country in Port Lincoln. You may have seen my name pop up on the Part of Things blog or social media before, connected to SALA exhibitions or a Writers SA project, this is my first time posting to the blog as an artist on the inside.
I have a rocky relationship with my own arts practice, naturally falling into the role of producer, I often abandon my own creative projects. When I do create things I find myself creating the work I think others want to see or the ideas that sound good on paper, rather than the art I want to make. This is something about myself that I have only recently realised. I worry that Love Notes to the Laundromat, the project I pitched in the funding application for Be Part of Things: we are the project, is one of these. A project that sounds great on paper but that perhaps isn’t something I want to make. As of right now, I am still undecided, while I consider new ideas (and have an identity crisis) here are the details of Love Notes to the Laundromat, the project I may or may not make but am still quite attached to. We are the project and maybe this is part of the process.
Love Notes to the Laundromat was designed as a celebration of the shared spaces that bring people together. Part creative response, part placemaking experiment, Love Notes to the Laundromat will see me take up residence as a writer at third places across Port Lincoln. These will include traditional third places, like libraries and parks as well as more obscure spaces where people pass time, like the laundromat on a wet Sunday evening and the jetty swimming enclosure on a chilly afternoon. In these spaces I will observe and interact, crafting a love note to each place and the connections they foster. Copies of these notes will be pinned to community notice boards for others to read, hopefully inspiring a sense of place attachment.
What next:
Throughout the project the team will be having regular check-ins with one another using the tools of digital collaboration that make inter-regional art making possible. At some stage, we plan to visit each other’s places to support project delivery, hang out and get a closer look at how each of us work in our communities. As artists with community engaged practice we are also thinking about how we best share our discoveries with other regional artists, this blog being just one tool we’ll use for that. Stay tuned and let us know what you’d like to know about this project and this process.
From our original grant application for Be Part of Things: we are the project:
*note that the dates listed here have changed and project outcomes will be occurring in 2024.
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Be Part of Things: we are the project is made possible by the Australian Government’s Regional Arts Fund, which supports the arts in regional and remote Australia.
#regionalarts #creativeregions #regionalartsaustralia #regionalstories
Part of Things 