Geelong Arts Centre among winners of PAC Australia IMPACT Awards

The PAC Australia’s IMPACT Awards celebrate performing arts leadership and excellence, with a focus on lasting community impact and were announced on 21st August 2023 at the Geelong Arts Centre, as part of the Australian Performing Arts Exchange (APAX).

PAC Australia’s Executive Director, Katherine Connor enthused “we extend our heartfelt congratulations to all the winners who have truly exemplified impact and excellence in their artistic work. This being the third year of our newly reimagined awards format, tonight has been another remarkable celebration of the groundbreaking work that unites and motivates us all. And what an honour it is to celebrate here at the stunning Geelong Arts Centre - winners of the Performing Arts Centre of the Year.”

The highest achievement in the awards, the Wendy Blacklock Industry Legend Award, acknowledges exceptional, longstanding contributions to the performing arts field by an individual or organisation. This Award honours the illustrious career and the services of Wendy Blacklock AM, who was a pioneer of national touring and founder of Performing Lines.

The 2024 recipient of the Wendy Blacklock Industry Legend Award is Annette Downs from Tasmania
From her work at Terrapin, through to Performing Lines Tasmania, PAC Australia has long observed and admired the career of Annette Downs, particularly the support she has provided for artists to thrive in a regional context. In particular, the sharing and legacy of Annette’s artist residency and development model continues to hold strong resonance and impact across the country, including as part of the Local Giants program co-developed by PAC Australia, Regional Arts Australia and Performing Lines.

The 2024 Performing Arts Centre of the Year Award is Geelong Arts Centre
Geelong Arts Centre has demonstrated a deep commitment to the arts, community engagement, accessibility, and artistic excellence. Their transformative redevelopment co-designed with ARM Architects, Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation, and the wider First Nations community, as well as leading inclusive initiatives, and collaborations have positioned  them as the leading arts centre in the Geelong and surrounding region. Their Creative Engine program is a groundbreaking program fostering pathways for local creatives to professional artistic practice through funding opportunities, workshops, professional development, networking and events.

A total of seven IMPACT Awards (general category) were presented in 2024.  The winners are:

IMPACT Award Winner: Australian Dance Theatre, Blak Dance and Adelaide Festival - Blak Futures
Blak Futures 2024 was a never-before-seen gathering of First Nations artistic directors of dance companies from across Australia. These visionary artists gathered on Kaurna Yerta to plant the seeds of the future of Blak dance and artistry in Australia.

Co-presented by Australian Dance Theatre, BlakDance and Adelaide Festival, Blak Futures was a two-day event in March 2024 that saw industry, Elders and community come together in an epic surge of ideas during a revolutionary moment for dance in this country.

IMPACT Award Winner: Frankston Arts Centre - Arts Access Program
Frankston Arts Centre’s robust and meaningful Arts Access program seeks to engage vulnerable and disadvantaged people in their community to provide opportunities for them to actively engage in the arts. The Frankston Arts Centre's legacy of investment in the accessibility space, with its dedicated Arts Access program demonstrates ongoing commitment to removing barriers, ensuring participation and engaging the community.

IMPACT Award Winner: Legs On The Wall - THAW
Legs' high impact artistry is exemplified by THAW, a durational work in which a series of artists perform on a suspended 2.7 tonne ice sculpture as it melts. Created by Legs' Artistic Director Joshua Thomson, with a score by Alaska's Matthew Burtner, THAW defies perceived impossibility and acts as a powerful metaphor for urgent action on climate change.

Witnessed by over 16,000 people in Australia and New Zealand, and over 10,000 viewers of the live stream of the Sydney Festival premiere, THAW also acted as a platform for diverse voices, with each performer ascending the ice bringing their personal and cultural backgrounds and responses to the climate crisis to the work

IMPACT Award Winner: Jens Altheimer
This award is bestowed to recognise the impact of Jens Altheimer in national touring. Across his touring career Altheimer has established meaningful, long-term relationships with venues and audiences, built environmental sustainability into his touring models long before the urgency of sustainable touring was recognised, and developed long-term connections with the communities in which he visits, often being invited to return to regions to deliver bespoke community projects.

IMPACT Award Winner: Arts Centre Melbourne and Polyglot Theatre - When the World Turns
When the World Turns is a disability inclusive theatre in schools production. Originally commissioned as a mainstage presentation, co-developed by Polyglot Theatre and Oily Cart, When the World Turns fosters shared learning and collaboration. This exceptional piece of inclusive and sensory theatre is delivered via an innovative touring model - presented in Victorian Special Development Schools (SDS), achieving a new level of accessibility by taking the work directly to the young people with and for whom it was made.

IMPACT Award Winner: Everybody NOW! - Roller Coaster
Fierce, tender and explosive, Roller Coaster was a participatory work with humour, heart, and a propulsive live soundtrack based on real community stories exploring the roller coaster of contemporary life. Featuring an award-winning team of actors, musicians, directors and designers; the work also engaged 500 roller skaters across South-East Queensland, 95% of which had never participated in an arts project before.

The work represents significant achievement across audience development, social and artistic impacts; attesting the social value of participatory art-making for bonding and building experiences that support communities.

IMPACT Award Winner: Dubbo Regional Theatre & Dance Makers Collective - The Saturday Night Social
This award recognises the shared ingenuity, reciprocity, care and commitment of Dance Makers Collective and Dubbo Regional Theatre in the development and ongoing presentation of The Saturday Night Social.

The project demonstrates new and exciting ways of thinking about touring and extending the legacy of a touring work. The development The Saturday Night Social establishes a model of touring that not only deeply engages with the community it visits, but has the potential to exist in communities without the original company artists, touring a concept, rather than a work and demonstrates what can be achieved with a strong Presenter/Producer partnership. 

PAC Australia’s Executive Director, Katherine Connor enthused “we extend our heartfelt congratulations to all the winners who have truly exemplified impact and excellence in their artistic work. This being the third year of our newly reimagined awards format, tonight has been another remarkable celebration of the groundbreaking work that unites and motivates us all. And what an honour it is to celebrate here at the stunning Geelong Arts Centre - winners of the Performing Arts Centre of the Year.”

The largest ever Australian Performing Arts Exchange (APAX) continues until 23rd  August in Melbourne, Victoria with conversations, panels, and networking opportunities for over 460 performing arts professionals.

Discover more at paca.org.au/events/impactwards/