The latest round of the Regional and Remote Festivals Fund has provided a financial boost to eight regional organisations to deliver arts and cultural activities at regional festivals in Western Australia.
The Regional and Remote Festivals Fund is part of the Regional Arts and Cultural Investment Program (RACIP). It is open to groups, organisations or individual artists, WA regional local government authorities and Aboriginal communities to support the costs associated with delivering arts activity that is part of a festival in regional Western Australia. 
Initiatives receiving grants through the program are:

1. Esperance Community Arts for the Kaddatji Nyungar Boodja Community Sculpture project which will be displayed at the Esperance Wildflower Festival in September 2021;
2. City of Greater Geraldton for the artistic program behind the Big Sky Festival 2021;
3. Shire of Yalgoo’s Open Air Sculpture Gallery, part of the Emu Festival 2021;
4. Shire of Mount Magnet for SciArt & Astro-Photography Activities, drawing on local Indigenous artists and culminating in an Astro-Photography Exhibition;
5. York Arts and Events for presentation of the 7th annual York Festival;
6. Shire of Merredin for War Stories Illumination Projections, part of the inaugural Memorial Festival;
7. Big hART Inc for Songs for Peace 2021, a month-long series of events featuring song writing workshops, community feasting and intimate acoustic performances; and
8. Annette Nykiel for the We Must Get Together Sometime exhibition and related events.

 
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The state government has made several announcements recently related to projects in the South West, including a $4.4 million investment into tourism initiatives in Collie. Funding will go towards town upgrades, wayfinding, and tourist amenity, as well as business development and new visitor infrastructure at Wellington Dam, which is set become the centrepiece of the $1.5 million Collie Mural Trail.

The Collie Mural Trail will feature a number of smaller murals throughout the Collie township, with work currently underway to finalise the location of murals and appointment of local artists. The lead artist for the Wellington Dam mural has been announced as Australian artist Guido Van Helton.

Other visitor attractions in the region, Lake Kepwari’s recreation hub and the Arklow mountain bike trails, are also due to open this year. Media statements:

• $4.4 million to Collie tourism injection as world-renowned artist selected to paint Wellington Dam
• Adventure awaits with new Collie mountain bike trails

Revive WA is a community initiative designed to help WA’s post-Covid economic revival. It started with an online video encouraging people to ‘do their bit’ and support their tourist towns, but Revive WA is bigger than that.

The Revive WA logo will soon be free for all WA businesses to use, to remind their customers to ‘shop local’.

The film and the initiative were created free-of charge, by a collective of over 40 of WA’s advertising, film and production professionals to raise awareness that the ‘Buy Local’ message also extends to local creative and production services. "We see the work we’ve created for this initiative as a great way to highlight the incredible creative and production talent we have right here in WA."

"In recent years, many WA brands have shifted some of their production and creative strategy over to advertising agencies and production companies based on the East Coast. We’d love the Revive WA idea to inspire big WA businesses and government departments to support local suppliers in terms of using WA creative and production agencies and freelancers whenever possible, rather than spending their budgets interstate."

Perth Festival is an annual boost to our State's social well-being, economy and hospitality industry, a new report reveals. This year’s Festival attracted new audiences and extended its vital role in assisting local artists, workers and companies, the Perth Festival 2020 Impact Report shows. Based on extensive Festival participant surveys and financial data, the 2020 report demonstrates the Festival’s significant public value and capacity to help kick-start community confidence in the State's post-pandemic recovery. The Festival's direct economic impact from spending by audiences, artists and the Festival was $30.3 million, up 60% from 2019. This provided flow-on total economic value to the State of $84.7 million. The Festival invested in significant local commissions and international collaborations involving WA artists. More than 75% of the 2,286 participating artists were from WA and the Festival put $10.8 million into the pockets of local artists, workers, suppliers and contractors. Ticket sales were at a record high of almost $6 million, even with the cancellation of the final three weeks of the Lotterywest Films season due to COVID-19. Nearly a quarter (23%) of our 413,076 total attendances were Festival first-timers.  
​Read the full report here.

The new Western Australian Museum is on track to open in the Perth Cultural Centre in November, and is today advertising up to 30 new permanent positions for frontline visitor services staff, as well as opportunities to join a pool of casual staff. The new museum will share the stories of Western Australia's people and places. People from diverse backgrounds are being encouraged to apply for these positions. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and those from multicultural backgrounds will be an important part of the team sharing the stories of our State with the rest of the world. 
Read Minister Templeman's media statement here
Apply to join the WA Museum's visitor services team here

Regional Arts Australia have announced the details of The Recovery Boost funding scheme for individual creative practitioners and organisations in regional, remote and rural Australia. The funding is a one off investment provided by the Commonwealth Government which recognises the central role the arts play in supporting cohesive, thriving communities in regional Australia.  The funding which is designed to meet immediate, medium and long term activity through Relief, Recovery and Renewal stages includes a broad range of criteria including professional development and training programs.  Further information can be found here. 

The Australian screen sector has released Covid safe industry guidelines to enable a return to screen production in Australia. The guidelines, which can be contextualised to the scale, location and content of each production have been developed by the Australian Screen sector taskforce which includes, Screen Australia, the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTERS) the Media Entertainment Arts Alliance (MEAA) employers, National and State peak bodies and the Commonwealth Department of Health.
Further information about the guidelines and resources to support them can be found on the Screen Australia website here. 

Seventy-seven events to be hosted in regional WA have been awarded funding via the Regional Events Scheme. With the expected influx of intrastate tourists holidaying within WA, these smaller and emerging events, ranging from a celebration of wildflowers in Esperance, to star-gazing in the Wheatbelt will help support jobs and local economies by attracting visitors to the regions.
Seven events were awarded funding under the Regional Aboriginal Events Scheme, to showcase Aboriginal activities and experiences, and encourage Aboriginal leadership and participation.
Successful funding applicants have been given the option of holding their event at any time up until December 31, 2021.
For a full list of events awarded 2020-21 funding, visit Tourism WA
Media statement