Geelong fringe festival : the new wilderness

Initiated by Courthouse ARTS and in partnership with Deakin’s School of Communication and Creative Arts Geelong hosted a fringe festival event titled 'The New Wilderness'. This is the an extract from the proposal put forward to both the board at Courthouse ARTS centre and the executive in the Faculty of Arts and Education:

Given the change in the economic foundations and demographics in the region a festival of the arts, centred in Geelong, is timely and, potentially, regenerative. In a series of workshops, events, performances and exhibitions – staged at Courthouse ARTS, open to the community and spanning the first week of September – the focus will be on risk, innovation, subversion and transformation. Incorporating each of these words as prompts one exciting project, The New Wilderness, uses the visual arts, creative writing and the performing arts to engage young people in practice and cross-disciplinary collaboration. With an emphasis on process the project will engage participants in a lab/studio environment over a week. Installation artists and Deakin staff members will facilitate an introduction and workshop on the theme, The New Wilderness, asking that participants respond: firstly in making a series of images and installations that transform space; secondly, in creative writing responses; and thirdly, in a series of short performance pieces interpreting the text, images and spaces created during the week. Participants will be on a time-line and encouraged to interpret and critically engage with the theme, each other and the issues set to transform the region – such as the disappearing manufacturing industry and the vast spaces it leaves behind.