Footscray Community Arts Centre
We acknowledge that we are on traditional lands of the Wurundjeri peoples of the Kulin Nation. We offer our respect to the Elders of these traditional lands and, through them, to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Case Studies – Producer/Inspiration
GO
This case study is an example of Footscray Community Arts Centre as Producer and the project outcome providing Inspiration.
The GO project explored the connections and parallels between art and sport. First staged in 2006 and then remounted as part of the 2008 Melbourne International Arts Festival, this major project brought arts and sports lovers together in a suburb-sized adventure. Under the artistic direction of award-winning choreographer Rebecca Hilton, GO teamed 30 high calibre artists and almost 500 participants in over 100 workshops. The project’s major artistic outcome was a series of performances showcasing an extraordinary range of activities – including video installations, hip-hop dance, choral singing, martial arts, and even krumping. These outstanding performances were staged in prominent locations in the suburb of Footscray, including the legendary Whitten Oval football ground, and provided audiences with a unique artistic tour of the Footscray area. Almost 1,000 enthusiastic audience members attended these performances, with all stagings of the project’s major artistic outcome – The GO Show – sold out.
The GO project connected an incredible array of communities from the West. Participants included senior citizens from the Circolo Pensionati Italiani di Footscray, members of various groups based at Footscray Community Arts Centre (e.g. The Hackkets, a rock band combining people with and without disabilities, in collaboration with DJ Dexter), young and culturally diverse hip-hop artists, Performance Studies students based at Victoria University, and even umpires from the Western Region Football League Umpires Association.
Significantly, during GO’s initial season in 2006, a partnership with AFL club Western Bulldogs was developed to produce the GO project, thus bringing together two iconic organisations of the West in a prominent cross-sectoral partnership. The remounting of The GO Show in 2008 also involved Footscray Community Arts Centre in an important artistic partnership with Melbourne International Arts Festival and was successful in bringing mainstream arts audiences to experience this incredible community-based arts event.
In the development of the GO project, Footscray Arts collaborated with artists, community groups and organisations to PRODUCE a major body of new work and ideas. In showcasing the participation, passion, and performances that are common to both art and sport, audiences and participants were prompted to relate in new ways to these fields, thus providing INSPIRATION for their own ongoing arts and cultural development.
For more information on The GO Show click here.
This GO case study provides an example of Footscray Community Arts Centre as the Producer of a project that is Inspirational.
