Recovery panel established to support Geelong's creative communities

The City of Greater Geelong has appointed 21 leading cultural and creative practitioners to the Geelong COVID-19 Arts Recovery (G-CAR) Advisory Panel as part of its continuing efforts to help residents and the broader community impacted by COVID-19.

The decision to support the Arts community was taken by Council in April by allocating $20,000 towards the new committee’s operations.

G-CAR has been established by the City of Geelong to hear first-hand from the panel, who all work across the arts, cultural, entertainment and heritage sectors, on how the pandemic is affecting professional practices.

This will help the City respond with new insights and programs designed to support the healing, strengthening and future evolution of their creative communities.

City of Geelong Chair - Arts, Culture and Heritage portfolio, Trent Sullivan notes “the impact of the COVID-19 restrictions on the arts and culture industry has been absolutely devastating. Here in Geelong, our performance venues, art galleries, libraries, and live music venues have all been forced to close, and the cancellation of major events such as Geelong After Dark have also hit hard.

“The council is determined to support the arts and culture community as they begin the process of re-establishing their businesses and livelihoods. The formation of G-CAR is an important step, and with the quality and variety of people appointed I’m sure they’ll help us gain a strong understanding of how we can best assist from here.”

The G-CAR panel is as follows:

Bronwyn Lawson (Bluebird Foundation)
Caroline Moore (Maverick Arts Management)
Christine Davey (Skin Of Our Teeth Productions)
Corinna Eccles (Wadawurrung Traditional Owner)
Cormach Evans (Strong Brother, Strong Sister/Ngarrimili)
Emma Watson (performance artist)
Esther Koning Oakes (community artist)
Fiona Lee (Creative Geelong)
Glenn Romanis (visual/public artist)
Hugo Armstrong (Bay City Events/The Blues Train)
Ilana Russell (Platform Youth Arts)
Joshua Maxwell (Analogue Academy)
Leigh Ryan (Pillowfort Creative)
Luisa LaFornara (Pako Festa)
Mark Beasley (Geelong Heritage Centre)
Matthew Gardiner (Arts Electronica Futurelab)
Michael Chan (Back to Back Theatre)
Nat O'Donnell (performance artist)
Peter Tullin (creative entrepreneur)
Ren Inei (Boom Gallery)
Rochelle Smith (Word for Word Non-Fiction Festival)

G-CAR has been established by the City to hear first-hand from the panel, who all work across the arts, cultural, entertainment and heritage sectors, on how the pandemic is affecting professional practices.

Image of Geelong After Dark GPAC Foyer. Courtesy of Geelong After Dark. Credit: Christina Francis