Circus WOW has received Culture Bank funding to provide new crash mats at its Fairy Meadow Studio. Photo: Region Illawarra.
If it wasn’t for the financial support of Port Kembla’s Culture Bank, the Illawarra may never have had the Yours and Owls Festival, or the Women of Steel documentary, or dozens of other successful art projects.
Grassroots artists, poets, writers, actors and filmwriters, among other creatives, have benefited from more than $100,000 in funding over the past 13 years.
And now the innovative arts funding model is expanding to the broader South Coast.
Culture Bank Wollongong, run by Our Community Project, has signed a memorandum of understanding with South Coast Arts to establish Culture Bank South Coast, extending the crowdfunding model beyond the Illawarra.
South Coast Arts executive director Louse Croker said Culture Bank Wollongong had demonstrated that grassroots, democratic arts funding actually worked.
“We’re building on their 13 years of experience to bring this proven model to South Coast communities,” she said.
Culture Bank members contribute a monthly amount which is pooled and once or twice a year a funding round is held. The community at large is invited to make submissions for funding for projects and members get together to review the submissions and decide which are successful.
Funding may go to one-off projects for artworks, theatre, books, music or installations, but often it supports “seedling” projects that grow and develop into bigger things.
Over the past 13 years, Culture Bank has backed experimental theatre, visual arts, poetry performances, new music and unconventional projects such as the Sirens performance at Port Kembla Swimming Pool and Circus WOW, now in its 26th year.
Wollongong Councillor Ann Martin is also chair of Our Community Project.
“What started in Port Kembla has proven that communities want to directly support local creativity,” she said.
“We’re excited to see Culture Bank’s model help South Coast artists the way it’s helped Wollongong creatives for over a decade.”
Culture Bank South Coast will launch in the next couple of months by calling for monthly subscribers to contribute.
For more information on Culture Bank, click here.
