Owing to the five-day lockdown of the Perth metropolitan, Peel and the South West regions, FRINGE WORLD events and venues will be closed during this period. 
Organisers have announced they hope to welcome audiences back to FRINGE WORLD from 7pm on Friday 5 February so that audiences can continue to enjoy events until the 2021 Festival ends on 14 February.
Government updates regarding COVID-19 are here.
FRINGE WORLD Festival is presented by ARTRAGE Inc, a non-for-profit registered charity. Due to the impact of cancellations this week, they will be directing all Fringe Funds raised during the 2021 Festival to support the artists impacted by this week’s lockdown.
Audiences can donate when they purchase a ticket from the FRINGE WORLD website or make a direct donation to FringeFund.org
Funds donated will be distributed between the artists who have sessions cancelled this week.

​Read the full announcement 

Reconciliation Australia have released their 2021 report The State of Reconciliation in Australia.

Read the report

PwC Skills for Australia have released for public validation a new skill set consisting of two new units relating to countering insider cyber security threats. The skill set has been developed as part of an urgent response to Australia's post-Covid recovery and upskilling needs. Consequently the review period is very short- responses may be provided directly to PwC Skills For Australia no later than COB Wednesday, 27th January 2021.

Review materials here
Provide a response directly to PwC Skills for Australia via this link

Release 7.0 of the ICT Information Communications Technology training package can now be found on the training.gov.au website. The update sees the remaining telecommunications qualifications from the training package absorbed into the Diploma and Advanced Diploma in Information Technology, and a name change for the Certificate II, to the Certificate II Applied Digital Technologies.

View changes here

The State Government, through Tourism Western Australia, has funded the annual beachside exhibition Sculpture by the Sea for the next three years. This year marks the 17th year of the event at Cottesloe Beach and will feature a large-scale, four-metre wide piece, 'Laminae', by New Zealand sculptor Chris Booth. Mr Booth is the featured international artist for the 2021 event and is known for using organic materials and cultural influences in his monumental artworks.

Seventy sculptures from local, national and international artists will be on show over the 18-day event, which is one of the largest outdoor sculpture exhibitions in the world. The event includes a public indoor exhibition of smaller scale sculptures, and an access and inclusion program offering special tours of the exhibition for people with diverse abilities. The popular school education program will return to give schoolchildren the chance to get out of the classroom and join in sculpture making workshops and interactive exhibition tours.

A number of significant awards and subsidies are available to exhibiting artists. For more information, visit https://sculpturebythesea.com/cottesloe

Read Minister Papalia's full media release

Two culture and the arts organisations have been funded to pursue significant workforce development projects for the sector in 2021. Culture and the Arts Minister David Templeman presented grant certificates to arts advocacy body the Chamber of Arts and Culture WA, and performing arts touring and service organisation CircuitWest. The Chamber of Arts and Culture WA will receive $323,351 to support their work with arts and culture organisations to improve their capacity to respond to future crises and opportunities. CircuitWest will receive $376,000 to deliver a year-long professional development and capacity building program to 30 community theatres across the State. Accepting the grant certificates on their organisations' behalf were Shelagh Magadza from the Chamber and Ryan Taaffe from CircuitWest.

Read the full media statement 

Sport sector peak body SportWest has appointed Matt Fulton as its new Chief Executive Officer after FutureNow Board Member Rob Thompson announced his retirement in 2020.
Chairman Michael Beros said, “We are so excited to be able to welcome Matt to SportWest. Rob Thompson has been CEO of SportWest since 2006/2007 and has fulfilled the role not only with great success, but with great pride. His professionalism and commitment to West Australian sports has been amazing and over the past 18 months he has worked diligently on the continued evolution of SportWest to which he can now proudly handover to Matt, whose strong leadership, communications and advocacy skills will help drive the transition we have been preparing for.”
Matt Fulton joins SportWest from WestCycle, where he was CEO for the previous six years. Mr Fulton announced he was "delighted and feel challenged to be joining SportWest, Western Australia’s peak sport industry body at this time... Sport plays a vital role in building strong and resilient communities. With an amazing network of more than 500,000 participants in organised sport, over 200,000 volunteers and 5,500 clubs, I look forward to engaging collaboratively with the diverse stakeholders that contribute to the delivery of sport and the lifestyle for all Western Australians.”