- Palaszczuk Government investment of $934,921 is supporting the touring of 11 diverse and enriching arts and cultural experiences including visual arts and exhibitions, street dance, theatre, and circus across the state
- Funding is also growing new employment and skills development opportunities, supporting two industry placements through this latest funding round
- Outcomes include the sharing of First Nations stories and increased access to high quality touring arts experiences for audiences in regional and remote Queensland communities.
The Palaszczuk Government has today announced a total investment of $934,921 to support the touring of visual arts, music, theatre and dance experiences, which will share stories, engage audiences across the state and grow creative employment.
Eleven tours of performances and exhibitions will activate communities with rich arts experiences from Toowoomba to Mornington Island, Coen to Quilpie and beyond with an investment of $817,052 through the Touring Queensland Fund.
Additional funding of $117,869 will also support two of the recipients to secure the employment of early career arts workers in paid Industry Placements, developing arts touring production and management skills.
These outcomes include support for an award-winning Queensland-grown musical, a hybrid street dance and spoken word performance, exhibitions that explore Queensland's botanical and wildflower heritage and promote care for Country, three original theatre works that shine a light on regional storytelling, and live concerts presenting the latest music from a Mackay-born emerging singer-songwriter.
Flipside Circus will receive multi-year touring funding to deliver four tours, which build on the company's successful residency programs and includes the premiere of The Cubby - a new work developed with and for young people in regional and remote communities.
Topshelf Productions will receive funding to tour Yirinda, a collaboration between Butchulla Songman, Fred Leone and contrabassist/producer Samuel Pankhurst. Yirinda combines ancient Aboriginal language with modern production to deliver a contemporary music experience that invokes the sounds of thousands of generations of stories and culture.
Quote attributed to the Minister for the Arts, Leeanne Enoch MP:
"Arts and cultural experiences are essential to local creative economies and supporting cohesive, connected communities across the state.
"Our government's investment in touring ensures a diverse and vibrant array of stories and creative experiences are shared with Queenslanders state-wide.
"Through industry placements, the Palaszczuk Government is helping to address skill gaps, increase creative employment and grow the scale and capacity of Queensland's creative workforce ahead of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
"These touring outcomes deliver on Grow 2022-2026, the second action plan of Creative Together: A 10-Year Roadmap for arts, culture and creativity in Queensland, which is underpinned by additional state Government investment of $50 million over four years."
Quote attributed to Robert Kronk, Flipside Circus CEO/Artistic Director:
"Support from the Queensland Government's Touring Queensland Fund will help us reach 36 communities and over 4,000 audiences and participants across four tours spanning 2023 and 2024 and over 11,000 kilometres (from Normanton in the North to Thargomindah in the South West). "Our touring programs are all about building long-term relationships with communities and growing the circus as an artform across the state by engaging with young people as participants and as audiences.
"It's amazing to have the opportunity to deliver programs like this, where we get far from Brisbane and the regional centres and support young people to tell their own stories through circus and make their voices heard."
The Touring Queensland Fund is vital to providing communities across Queensland with access to high-quality arts and cultural touring experiences and providing arts companies with the opportunity to grow audiences.
Applications for the next round of the Touring Queensland Fund will open on 18 March 2024 and close on 29 April 2024 for tours taking place from late July 2024.
