G-CAR panel appointed

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

The decision to support the Arts community was taken by Council at the 14 April
meeting by allocating $20,000 towards the new committee’s operations.

The 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.

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

The G-CAR panel met for the first time this week.

Councillor Trent Sullivan, Chair –
Arts, Culture and Heritage portfolio:

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.

/Public Release. View in full here.