BRISBANE POWERHOUSE AND BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL ANNOUNCE THE BRIDGE, A NEW $300K FOUR-YEAR ARTIST SUPPORT PROGRAM
Brisbane Powerhouse, the city’s thriving centre for living arts, and Brisbane City Council have announced The Bridge, a $300k four-year program that will provide local performers and producers with targeted project support in order to grow the presenting capacity of Brisbane’s performing arts sector.
Created in response to the Brisbane City Council’s recent Creative Sector Survey, The Bridge will give Brisbane creatives the necessary time and support to present shows of a professional standard.
Brisbane Powerhouse Artistic Director Kris Stewart said that “empowering local artists to create works of significance is central to everything we do at Brisbane Powerhouse”.
Mr Stewart said, “Our proudest recent results have been around increasing the numbers of Brisbane artists represented here from 743 in 2015 to 1,379 in 2017.”
Mr Stewart said there must be greater efforts to invest in the creative community of Queensland.
“We just feel this is one small part, and we look forward to seeing the great results investments such as this and others will bring in the future,” said Mr Stewart.
Brisbane City Council Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said the new program was an exciting opportunity for Brisbane-based creatives.
“Brisbane is a vibrant, cultural city and Council offers a wide range of programs and initiatives to support locals looking to make their mark in the creative sector,” Cr Quirk said.
“This new initiative will provide opportunities for artists to continue their practice and development as creatives in Brisbane rather than relocating interstate or abroad.
“I encourage all creative producers to leverage new opportunities provided by the exciting opportunities presented by The Bridge program.”
From January 2018, producers can approach Brisbane Powerhouse with expressions of interest, with a rolling acceptance of possible projects and no formal deadline. A total of $300,000 will be granted across four years, with up to $50,000 of cash support and $25,000 of in-kind support (through discounts and waived charges) provided across a single calendar year.
Each year will focus on an art form aligned to the Brisbane Powerhouse programming vision of being the home for living arts, ideas and experience.
2017/18: Festival Artists (with support shared by those in Wonderland Festival and MELT)
2018/19: Independent Musical Theatre
2019/20: Digital and Tech-based Artists
2020/21: Circus
All submissions must have performance outcomes at Brisbane Powerhouse. For more information, visit brisbanepowerhouse.org.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Sarah Perrott
Brisbane Powerhouse
T 617 3358 8613
