Footscray Community Arts Centre

Partnerships

Footscray Community Arts Centre (Footscray Arts) is Victoria’s flagship organisation for artistic collaborations with communities. As part of the organisation’s Vision and Mission Footscray Arts enables individuals, communities and organisations to create and engage with art. This is done through the development of long-term partnerships with major organisations to broaden and enrich community engagement with the Arts. These partnerships address Footscray Arts’ aspiration to be the organisation of choice for the state’s major arts organisations in engaging with communities.

Major partnerships are incorporated into many Footscray Arts activities, including artistic programming and marketing.

Current Footscray Community Arts Centre partnerships:
Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA)
the Arts Centre

In Partnership with ACCA

Footscray Community Arts Centre and Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) have undertaken a three-year partnership in which the two organisations will collaborate on activities of artistic excellence that draw on the skills, energies and cultures of the western region’s diverse communities.

This partnership seeks to combine expertise, broaden audiences for the two organisations, increase access and participation in visual art and diversify the visual arts sector. A range of programs and activities will be developed over the course of the three-year relationship including artistic, professional and audience development, exhibitions and mentorships.

The first exciting outcome of this partnership has seen renowned Swiss artists Gerda Steiner and Jörg Lenzlinger develop an installation as part of ACCA’s The Water Hole project. The installation was developed during a three-month residency at Footscray Community Arts Centre and involved the artists collaborating with culturally diverse community members from Melbourne’s west. The resulting installation, The Water Hole, is set to be unveiled in ACCA’s main gallery on Sunday 22 December, with the exhibition running until 1 March 2009.

Further details of the Footscray Community Arts Centre/ACCA partnership will be unveiled throughout 2009.

In Partnership with the Arts Centre

The Footscray Community Arts Centre/Arts Centre partnership is an exciting relationship that draws from research into the acclaimed affiliation between New York art organisations P.S.1 Contemporary Art Centre and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). It combines the Arts Centre’s excellence in performing arts with Footscray Community Arts Centre’s excellence in community engagement.

The two organisations have joined forces to create a range of joint programming and audience development initiatives for the benefit of both organisations and their associated communities and audiences. The partnership includes specific initiatives to develop artists and support the creation of new works, to grow audiences, improve organisational capability and promote staff professional development. Leading national and international artists and arts companies associated with the Arts Centre’s program will create outstanding art with communities. Some of these artists will be situated in community contexts through formal residencies at Footscray Community Arts Centre.

With Footscray Arts recognised as Victoria’s flagship organisation for artistic collaborations with communities and with the Arts Centre regarded as the flagship of the performing arts in Victoria, this new partnership seems an obvious one, especially given the shared vision and objectives of the two organisations. It promises exciting developments and outcomes over the coming year.