Slippry Sirkus

Greetings,   due to  a hectic  project schedule in community and  creative development  in Berlin …‘Watch this Space’  comes to you  as a quarterly  and the final  ‘Watch This Space’  for 2011…. we will be back online in 2012…….. We wish you…  Joy for the Festive Season and Hope for the Future…

September commenced with Artistic Director Denni Scott Davis  meeting  with Australian artists based in Berlin who will collaborate on  the Australia Council Community Partnerships Creative Producer project ‘Ties that Bind’.

The projects collaborates with artists and the community in an exploration of community identity and  connection, through digital stories & media, dance, physical theatre, music, song and sound to create and produce interdisciplinary arts outcomes that  sets the stage for dialogue and discussion  and promotes social cohesion and inclusion.

Emerging artists  and  interested participants  will be invited to participate in  intensive programs of workshops that will explore the themes of connection and isolation within community drawn from interviews and stories gathered from across the community.

The project will focus on the Macleay Valley and the Kempsey building on the foundations of the Cross Currents, Ripples and Flow projects delivered over the past three years

Diane Busuttil   choreographer and film maker will  travel from Berlin to join the project and  mentor several emerging artists

http://www.dianebusuttil.com/index.php?/works/living-room-legend/

Reko Rennie , Melbourne will collaborate on the ‘Ties that Bind’ project and mentor emerging visual artists within the community.  Later in 2012. Reko will collaborate on a project exploring cultural identity in Moree and NWNSW

Reko’s iconic visual images are known throughout the world and meld urban street art with his  Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay/Gummaroi heritage  .. www.rekorennie.com/

We were delighted to celebrate with Malcolm Robertson at Melbourne’s  Malthouse  Theatre, the occasion of Malcolm’s outstanding sixty year  contribution to theatre.  Malcolm’s body of work over the past sixty years and his support of the theatre and emerging artists is inspiring …..

http://mc2.vicnet.net.au/home/whittld/web/MRobertson.html

Big congratulations to Rosie ‘Raphaela Rosella’ who has as an emerging artists contributed to many Slippry Sirkus project and who graduated this year from Griffith University with a Batchelor of Photography  majoring in social documentation.

At the recent QCA Photographic Grad Exhibition, Rosie was awarded the $6,000  Fuji Film   scholarship.

Rosie will continue at Uni in 2012 to achieve  Honours and continue  work as a project artist in Cambodia and  on the  ‘ Ties that Bind’ and Young Parenting  projects.

www.raphaela.rosella.com

www.griffith.edu.au/visual-creative-arts/queensland-college-art

News from  Miss Amy Edgington , Community Cultural Development  worker who is  co-ordinating the arts centre with the artists in the remote Ampilatwatja community until early  2012…

www.ampilatwatja.com/

Yanni Scott Davis, Slippry Sirkus founding member, digital media artist/ music producer and   Australia Council of the Arts, 2010 Kirk Robson Award recipient  is currently  co-ordinating   the  Cancer Council Sun Sound program for young people at ‘The Loft’ Youth Centre in Newcastle .

www.theloft.org.au/home

www.sunsound.com.au/

www.cancercouncil.com.au

After consultation in Melbourne, fund raising is on the way for the Artistic and Community Development support strategy that will work in collaboration with Khmer  communities organisations and several established NGO’s in Cambodia.  The strategy will create  the opportunity for arts based projects and programs that provide  , professional skills development and enterprise  through ‘on the ground’ training , mentoring and the creation of cross cultural work that explores  personal, social and humanitarian challenges .

# Benoît Duchâteau-Arminjon, the founder has published ‘Un humanitaire au Cambodge’ which tells the story about  its creation in 1991, and how Krousar Thmey (“New Family” in Khmer) has become the foremost Cambodian foundation assisting children….. non-political and non-religious. The book can be purchased at

http://www.unhumanitaireaucambodge.com/html/ with proceeds going to support the foundation.

www.krousar-thmey.org/eniots

Slippry Sirkus played host to Solid State Circus early December who delivered  a program of circus workshops across the mid north coast

http://solidstatecircus.weebly.com/index.html

NB.  And we are delighted to report the news that Hemlock Mejarne, Solid State Circus and  Physical Circus Director  at Slippry  Sirkus is well on the road to recovery after an altercation with his foot and a lawn  mower

Living Carefully and Nambucca Youth Services in collaboration with Slippry Sirkus have commenced  the ‘ Young Parenting’  project  funded by  FAHCSIA… ‘ The three year project which encompasses the Nambucca Valley region;  aims to provide the opportunity to explore parent hood and its implications, through the art engagement practise;  while providing  informal educational programs around parenting, maternal and infant health, living skills , nutrition  and economic management’, stated  Living Carefully Co-ordinator Anne Pouliquen

http://www.facebook.com/cr8studios?sk=wall&filter=2#!/profile.php?id=100002807894028

http://www.nvysc.webs.com/

Slippry Sirkus has joined the  Feral  Arts  Place Stories Community

http://ps3beta.com/folks/SlipprySirkus

http://www.feralarts.com.au/

NSW was recently identified as an Aboriginal contemporary dance ‘hot spot' (2) with a large number of emerging and mid-career Aboriginal dance artists and choreographers residing and practicing in NSW, alongside Bangarra Dance Theatre and National Aboriginal and Islander Skills Development Association (NAISDA) (3) . Additionally, national arts research indicates NSW and QLD had a significantly higher level of attendance at Indigenous dance performances (compared to Victoria and South Australia) (4).

The project objectives were to:

provide an opportunity for NSW Indigenous dance artists to voice critical issues they are facing in their practice;

identify priority issues for NSW Indigenous dance artists;

establish a snapshot of existing Indigenous dance activity in NSW;

develop clear priority recommendations from forum outcomes; and

prepare the final report and submission to Arts NSW at the completion of the forum

DARUNG MURU*, inaugural NSW Aboriginal Dance Forum, was held on the 18th May and 19th May at the Sydney Opera House Boardroom. The forum aligned with the 2011 Message Sticks Festival and a presentation by NAISDA Dance College as part of the Kids at the House Education program. Funding from Arts NSW was approved to deliver the NSW Aboriginal Dance Forum 2011 as part of the implementation of the NSW Aboriginal Arts and Cultural Strategy; Direction

The final report is available at the following websites :

http://dance.net.au/dancensw/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=252&Itemid=1

http://ausdancensw.com.au/ftproot/images//Report-on-Aboriginal-Dance-Forum-e.pdf

NewsFlash:

There is expanded opportunities for emerging digital media artists with SAE who are providing courses that are linked to the Australian Governments  HEC (Higher Education Contribution Scheme) that provides financial support for study and fees.

# SAE Institute is a creative media college, providing industry-focused courses in audio, film and electronic music production

http://byronbay.sae.edu/en-gb/home/

Featured artists :

…# CAMBODIA. Phnom Penh. 18/11/2011: Boeung Kak residents protesting against an environmental impact assessment organised by the Municipality which in fact seemed to collect unrelated data.

http://johnvink.com/news/2011/11/boeung-kak-lake-doesnt-give-up/?ref=nf

, Mali, Burkina-Faso and Senegal.

John Vink came to public attention in 1986 when he was awarded the prestigious W. Eugene Smith Award in Humanistic Photography for Water in Sahel, a two-year documentary project on water management in rural and urban areas, involving migrant and sedentary populations of the Niger, Mali, Burkina-Faso and Senegal.

In 1986 Vink joined Vu agency in Paris, then from 1987 to 1993 worked on Refugees in the World, an extensive statement about life in refugee camps in India, Mexico, Thailand, Pakistan, Hungary, Iraq, Malawi, Bangladesh, Turkey, Sudan, Croatia, Honduras and Angola. The series was then published in book (Photonotes collection) and CD-ROM form and became the subject of an exhibit at Paris's Centre National de la Photographie.

In 1993 Vink became a nominee at Magnum Photos, and a full member in 1997.

Other recent projects by Vink include Peuples d'En Haut, a series of chronicles that he started in 1993 on communities living in mountainous areas such as Guatemala, Laos, Georgia: he stresses how this natural defense, because of the difficult living conditions, has built strong people aware of their cultural identity. A book with this work was published in September 2004 by Editions Autrement.

Wishing to concentrate on one country instead of continuously travelling, he is based in Cambodia since 2000, a country he visits since 1989. He currently mainly documents land issues all over Cambodia but also covers other social issues as well as the Khmer Rouge trial. Other recent books are Avoir Vingt Ans a Phnom Penh, published by Editions Alternative and Poids Mouche, self published.

‘If it’s not in the future it doesn’t exist!’

Nixi Killick…… Emerging Artist and Designer who has just completed her final year in Fashion & Costume design  and  who was awarded the highest achievement  award will embark on  her Honours in 2012

You can experience Nixi’s work and learn more about her artistic vision at  http://nixikillick.yolasite.com/

Founder and Artistic Director,  Denni Scott Davis has been awarded as an individual, the Australia Council Creative Producer funding for the 2012 project  ‘Ties that Bind’  which will explore through digital stories / imagery,  music/ soundscape, physical theatre and dance …the connections & relationships  between people that creates community  social cohesion and inclusion.  The project will focus on Kempsey and the Macleay Valley building on the last three  years of the Cross Currents Strategy which has been support by the Australia Council of the Arts, Regional Arts NSW and the CocaCola Australia Foundation.

Denni has travelled to Berlin to commence the creative process in collaboration with Australian choreographer and film maker Diane Busuttil who has been based in Berlin for the past nine years while performing internationally.

While in Europe, Denni will meet with Benoit Duchateau-Arminjon in Paris.  Benoit is the founder of Krousar Thmey whose work in Cambodia supports over three thousand disadvantaged Khmer.   Slippry Sirkus will collaborate with Krousar Thmey in Cambodia as a legacy project to honour Benoit’s work and the twenty years of support that Peter Carrette (Photographer & Philanthropist extraordinaire) provided to the organization.

www.icon.images.com.au www.krousar-thmey.org

After working across July in Wugularr (Beswick) in Central Arnhem, Miss Amy Edgington, Community Cultural Development worker mentored by Denni Scott Davis has been invited to stay and work in several communities in the Arnhem region.

Keep an eye out for Yanni Scott Davis digital portrait which as finalist in the 2011 National Gallery Contemporary Portrait Prize and is  part of a national travelling exhibition http://www.portrait.gov.au/site/

The 2010/11 digital story installation and portrait outcome of  ‘Looking Back to The Future’ which focused on ageing and early onset dementia continues to be exhibited and over August was  on view at the Bellingen Regional Library.  The intergenerational digital story project was delvered in partnership with Nambucca Valley Community Social Council and in collaboration with Aboriginal Aged Care, Nambucca Valley TAFE  with funding from the Australian Government, Department of Health & Ageing

More news from the Cambodian |Space Project who are currently touring Europe and whose efforts to regenerate contemporary Cambodian Music is being met with recognition and support from across the world…

Cambodian Space Project will return to our fair shores in December commencing a tour of Oz in Darwin…                               

For further information  : www.myspace.com/theCambodianspaceproject

Emerging Visual Artist and Creative designer currently in her final year at  R.M.I.T

..a founding member of Slippry Sirkus ….look  for  a more in depth profile in Septembers ‘Watch This Space’

For the third year, Slippry Sirkus headed off to Beswick (Wugularr) in Central Arnhem for a month to work with Djilpin Arts, an ensemble of global artists and the community to produce the tenth anniversary of ‘Walking with Spirits’.

The Festival is a community based event and the site is Malkgulumbu, A sacred waterfall site located twenty kilometres from the community.

The socially innovative intergenerational digital story telling project  ‘Looking Back to The Future’  delivered  in partnership with Nambucca Valley Community Services Council and funded through the Australian Government ‘s  Department of Health & Ageing has been completed with an exhibition of digital stories and portraits .

The exhibition was opened by the Mayor and   Uncle Thomas Kelly (officially acknowledged as the oldest Aboriginal man in NSW) who welcomed the participants, their families  and the audience. 

The exhibition is now on display at the Regional libraries where the digital stories DVD will be archived.

Since the exhibition, over 650 people have viewed the exhibition and been provided with information about the challenges of ageing.

Slippry Sirkus named as significantly impacting on health outcomes for Young People .......

‘An Australian Bureau of Statistics report noted that arts and cultural activities are disproportionately more significant to the quality of life of Australians in the 14 to 24-year-old range. The report documents participation rates of around 68 per cent for this age group, higher than any other group. For young people attempting to resolve complex social problems, artistic participation and expression can provide a valuable mechanism for bringing about positive outcomes in health and wellbeing.