TFFF aims to support initiatives that extend community experiences with a variety of artistic opportunities, as well as building the capacity of communities to engage with the arts in meaningful and sustainable ways.
The figures in the infographics below refer only to new funding approved in the 2019/20 financial year. Prior to the 2017/18 financial year, these figures referred to both new and ongoing approvals.
new approvals
average total approved
multi-year approvals
The creation of a new Community Experience program in 2019-20 with support from TFFF has broadened and galvanised Dancenorth‘s creative community endeavours, which are centred on enacting a culture of consciousness through the universal language of dance.
The year was filed with opportunities for inclusion, support, interconnection and empowerment. Through its evolved Community Experience program, Dancenorth initiated new relationships and strengthened existing ones with local and regional schools, dance class participants, multicultural event attendees and regional tour audiences, and with remote indigenous communities. For example, in 2019 Dancenorth deepened their partnership with the Urab Dancers from Poruma Island, designed to deliver mutually beneficial creative collaboration and artistic exchange. In 2019, Dancenorth travelled to Poruma to begin the creation of a documentary film showcasing and celebrating traditional culture, story, song and dance and Island Custom. They also spent time with students from Ngurpay Lag Primary School, where they facilitated six workshops with over 150 participants, exploring traditional Porumalgal dance styles and contemporary dance techniques.
Dancenorth’s 2019 Annual Regional Workshop tour, supported by TFFF, engaged 600 young Queenslanders in 33 dance workshops, across 3000 kilometres, 12 towns and 19 schools. The two-week tour focused on the Cairns region and Western Queensland, where the company delivered dance workshops to young people aged 5-17 years old, and further strengthened their relationships with school and community groups in those areas.
Celebrations for International Day of People with Disability featured an original dance performance created in collaboration with students from Townsville Community Learning Centre and inspired by Dancenorth production Noise. The centrepiece event of the Dancenorth Community Experience program, Dance Tropics Dance 2019, was unequivocally the most thriving and memorable in the three-year history of this large-scale outdoor community event, playing host to 1,175 audience members and featuring over 100 local community performers in an incredible showcase of creative spirit and passion for movement.
With support from TFFF, the Dancenorth Community Experience program continues to evolve and grow to meet the needs and aspirations of the community, with a suite of new online offerings developed in response to the new conditions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The current offerings include new open class programs; the Vital Dance program for people affected by Parkinson’s disease; the Forever Young program for dancers aged over 55; and the Kith and Kin program for adults living with disability.
“I have mostly motor skill decline due to Parkinson’s. Doing normal exercise classes is helpful in regaining muscle strength especially for the core. If you add music, coordination and (loads of) good humour, the effect on my motor skills has improved greatly. I don’t think I’m a threat to the Bolshoi Ballet, but I am a threat to Parkinson’s Disease.”
Ivor Preston
Vital Dance participant
Collaborative seed funding for A New Approach, an independent think tank created to champion the benefits of investing in a rich creative and cultural landscape and advocating for broader and deeper support for arts and culture across Australia.
Support for Camerata’s regional engagement strategy through a contribution towards annual touring costs and wages for key personnel responsible for consultation, preparation and coordination of touring, education and community engagement in Queensland communities.
Supporting Circa/ArTour to build the capacity of the newly formed Western Touring Circuit through a range of activities that will contribute to its medium- and long-term sustainability.
Continued capacity support to enable Crossroad Arts to achieve its overall strategic objectives in working with young people, the disabled and the aged in Mackay and in other rural, regional and remote communities in Queensland.
Support for Dancenorth’s Community Experience Program through a contribution toward ongoing delivery and employment of key personnel to strategically review and redesign this work for the future.
Ensure remote Indigenous Art Centres and Arts Workers in Queensland and the Northern Territory can participate in the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair each year. At DAAF, a curatorial program connects arts workers with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander curators from public institutions across Australia and provides the opportunity to build skills in exhibition development and curation.
Capacity support for Flying Arts to implement key strategic recommendations towards improved sustainability and to expand and deepen their relationships with and artistic offerings for artists, art workers, educators, young people and community groups throughout Queensland.
Support for JUTE to build its capacity to develop, produce and tour high quality theatre that shares the unique stories of Indigenous people in Queensland’s north, with accompanying school residencies to inspire students throughout Far North Queensland.
Support to employ a dedicated Collections Coordinator, senior artworkers, a linguist, and preservation and significance assessment consultants, and to create a new digital database and photographic interface to showcase the collection.
Building a rich and diverse arts ecology throughout regional Queensland through improved community access to an array of visual arts experiences as well as professional development opportunities for regional artists and galleries.
Capacity support for key management roles at Ngaruwanajirri over two years to bring to fruition a long-awaited succession plan and implement changes for greater sustainability into the future.
Support to grow and strengthen the Learning, Regional and Community Department through the employment of existing and new personnel to enhance the company’s capacity for touring opera to diverse regional communities across Queensland.
Capacity support to enable the company to achieve their goals of entertaining, inspiring and educating audiences across rural, regional and remote Queensland through the employment of key Community Engagement and Education staff.
Support for Reimagining Representations: First People’s Engagement strategy will enable the new Rockhampton Museum of Art to be more representative of its audience by including more Indigenous perspectives in its collection and exhibition development and by strengthening its existing networks within the local community.
Continued delivery and expansion of Topology’s flagship Top Up program throughout Queensland and the establishment of creative hubs in regional areas, which provide opportunities for local artists and practitioners to upskill and lead community-based projects.
Reviving local spaces by touring high quality folk and contemporary artists to small halls across Queensland and expanding into the Northern Territory, supporting community partners to increase their capacity to deliver their own events.