UP AND AT ’EM:
Freya Jones of Natimuk shows her delight while taking part in one of a series of activities with artist Jens Altheimer during a ‘Move On’ community project at Horsham’s Art is… festival. This year’s 10-day festival, featuring the theme Footprint: Moving Together attracted a strong audience and participant response.
Horsham’s arts community will work towards increasing program diversity and developing partnerships and community participation in next year’s Art is... festival.
Festival leaders are already considering plans for next year’s cultural celebration, which continues a ‘footprint’ theme, with a ‘Make your Mark’ sub theme.
Planning starts after a successful 10 days of artistic activities, performances and exhibitions.
Festival director Paul Kooperman said the Horsham district community had strongly supported this year’s events.
“This year we’ve had good audience numbers. It went really well. I felt we hit all our marketing targets, the festival team was great and we had good communications in place,” he said.
“The program was probably more conservative in keeping within boundaries dictated by timing and next year it will be more diverse.”
Mr Kooperman said he had been delighted with how people had embraced the festival.
“We had a great community response – not just in audiences but also in project participation,” he said.
“Next year, with planning a lot earlier, we will be able to work on aspects such as building a more proactive relationship with Horsham Town Hall, build on the Art Matters for people with disabilities and develop more program courses.
“We like the idea of having one big community participation event culminating from months of working with community groups and are keen to introduce a cabaret component.”