State and local governments invest in Gulargambone art

MEMBER for Barwon Kevin Humphries was in Gulargambone last Friday to present a cheque for $20,000 to the Gulargambone Community Enterprises Co-op.
The funds are to support the inaugural year of Paving the Way to Gulargambone, a public art project and festival which promises to draw large crowds to the small community.
The money comes from the Incubator Support fund which is designed to support start-up initiatives like the Gulargambone project.
“It’s been an absolute blessing to keep things rolling with the arts festival,” said Co-op Treasurer David Frazier.
The Festival is set to run over four days in April this year and organisers already have a commitment from eight high profile artists who will take up residence and work with local people to produce murals, including three dimensional pavement art, on walls and footpaths around the town.
The Co-operative have also been successful in bringing Coonamble Shire Council on board with the project and at their February meeting Council resolved to contribute $25,000 towards the fees and travel costs of the professional artists.
The funds allocated match those provided to Coonamble Streets Ahead for their water tower mural completed in 2017.
Council will also allow some of the Gulargambone artwork to be created on their buildings and footpaths.
“We’ve provided the funds from Council’s Development Reserve,” Mayor Michael Webb said.
“We are working with the organisers to confirm the sites and we’ll need to look at the concept designs for the artworks to make sure they’re not offensive to anyone.”
“Not all Council’s pavements are available,” he said.
“There’s going to be work to replace some of the water mains in Bourbah Street in the next twelve months, so there’s no point putting art on those footpaths.”
The festival date is fast approaching and the Co-op’s volunteers will be working at a frenetic pace to ensure everything is in place for the artists, local residents and visiting public.
While the funding announced is for this first stage only, the Co-op are confident that they can continue to build the project in future years.
“If we can make it an annual event it can really grow Gulargambone,” the project’s artistic co-ordinator Alison Dent said.
Mr Humphries is confident Gular can establish an ongoing event.