A $700,000 creative recovery initiative will provide targeted support to Victoria’s bushfire affected communities with grants for tourism-boosting projects and events, support to creative businesses to bounce back and two new on-the-ground roles to support and train local creatives.
The program will run across the areas most impacted by the summer bushfires in Victoria – Alpine, East Gippsland, Indigo, Mansfield, Towong and Wangaratta. It is inspired by an initiative launched after the 2009 Black Saturday Bushfires that fostered a series of creative projects to help communities to reflect, rebuild and recover.
Recruitment is now underway for two Creative Recovery Officer roles, to be based in East Gippsland and North East Victoria. The Officers will work shoulder-to-shoulder with local creatives and community members to identify potential projects, develop grant applications, and build connections to help locals get projects off the ground.
Later this month, applications will open for a new Creative Recovery grants program, through Regional Arts Victoria, which will support the development of creative projects that will assist in the social and economic recovery of impacted communities.
The grants will also offer practical assistance for local creatives, supporting things like the replacement of lost tools and equipment, the rental of workspaces, and professional and business development.
As part of the program, the Public Galleries Association of Victoria will work with galleries in Wangaratta and East Gippsland to deliver public programs that support recovery.
The Creative Recovery initiative is part of the Victorian and Commonwealth Government’s $86 million Community Recovery Package for bushfire-affected communities announced in January. It is being delivered by Regional Development Victoria, in partnership with Bushfire Recovery Victoria and Creative Victoria.
Applications for these positions have now closed.
Further information on the grants program will be available in late June.
Image: Blacksmiths Tree, Strathewan. Image by Sarah Wong.