The arts across regional NSW is set to receive a boost with the NSW Government providing $600,000 for five regional arts partnerships this year.

Deputy Premier and Minister for the Arts Troy Grant said the funding would support projects that directly benefit artists living and working in regional NSW.

“This funding program supports strategic partnerships devised and managed by arts organisations in regional communities,” Mr Grant said.

“The projects we are funding have a strong sense of social and cultural history that will be relevant and interesting to people living in the local community.

“The NSW Government supports partnerships between arts organisations that stimulate locally-driven arts and cultural activities.

“The NSW Liberals & Nationals Government recognises the benefits that working in partnership can bring; by working together, arts organisations can collaborate on projects that provide a net benefit for all involved.

“Funding from the NSW Government is giving arts organisations the opportunity to work collaboratively to create excellent art and cultural works.

“This funding offers increased access to professional development opportunities for artists in regional communities and builds the capacity of these organisations to establish networks that will help them thrive,” Mr Grant said.

The 2015 Arts NSW Regional Partnerships funding recipients are:

· Arts Northern Rivers Inc. will receive $150,000 to partner with regional galleries, museums, historical societies and libraries in the Northern Rivers. The project If These Halls Could Talk is a multi-arts initiative designed to revitalise and celebrate the significance of the humble community hall and the role they play in regional communities. Seven community halls (one from each local government area) will be selected for inclusion in the project. Local communities will be invited to re-connect with their community hall and tell their stories which will be captured through a variety of art forms.

· Orana Arts Inc. will receive $145,500 to partner with Blacktown Arts Centre and Casula Powerhouse to create opportunities for regional emerging Aboriginal artists working in a contemporary context. The project, LFP2, emphasises regional NSW Indigenous identity, tradition, artistic practice and expression. Aboriginal artists from the Orana region will be able to explore their artistic practice, conceptual development, and growth as artists. They will also be supported by five successful Aboriginal artists acting as their artistic guides/mentors.

· Wagga Wagga City Council will receive $150,000 for the Museum of the Riverina to partner with the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences, Museums & Galleries NSW, Oral History NSW, an award-winning local filmmaker, regional cultural consultants and ten community museums across Eastern and Western Riverina. The project, Talking Machines: reviving Riverina rural technology collections with video testimonies, will capture the histories and stories of generations of Australian men and women who farmed the Riverina, through the rusted metal frames and once sharp blades of dormant farm machinery they used. The ten community museums participating in the project are Wyalong Museum, Up-to-Date Store (Coolamon), Cootamundra Heritage Centre, Greens Gunyah (Lockhart), Temora Rural Museum, Pioneer Women’s Hut (Tumbarumba), Tumut Museum, Batlow Museum, Whistlestop Museum (Weethalle), Junee Broadway Museum.

· RealArtWorks Inc. will receive $75,000 for Nothing Is Useless, a partnership with Wagga Wagga Regional Gallery, Eastern Riverina Arts Board, and Tralala Blip. In this project, professional and emerging artists with and without disability from the Riverina and Northern Rivers will use redundant objects sound, images and text to make interactive artworks and performances. By using repurposed, redundant technologies, the artists will explore ideas of what is ‘useful’.

· Arts North West Inc. will receive $79,500 for Heading West, a two-year partnership with Arts Northern Rivers and Accessible Arts NSW focusing on developing the arts and disability sector in North Western NSW. Heading West is a direct outcome of the talents and aspirations of artists with disability in the New England and North West of NSW who identify with the growing art and disability movement. The project will develop ways to overcome the barriers of physical distance faced by many regional artists, increase professionalism and partnerships and promote more inclusive practice across the region.