Individual arts grants announced for 2008

The State Government is again supporting Tasmanian artists with the allocation of more than $500,000 that could see their dreams and projects come true.

Arts Tasmania grants and loans program include rock musicians to jazz performers, playwrights and poets, photographers and visual artists.

There will be $400,000 allocated in grants to 59 artists and a further $124,500 allocated in loans to eight artists.
This represents an increase of $150,000 to grants distributed to individuals for 2008 and is the first step towards delivering on the goals of An Island Inspired.

In addition $40,000 has been allocated towards Artsbridge for 2008, an increase of $10,000 over 2007 to assist artists to take up outstanding opportunities interstate or overseas throughout the year.

An indication of the creativity of Tasmanians is reflected in the list of grant recipients.
Highlights include:

South

• Ralph Wessman will receive $9,450 to publish the well established literary journal, Famous Reporter. It features both emerging and established Tasmanian poets and essayists alongside national writers. Mr Wessman will also receive triennial funding (2008-2010), the first time this has been offered to an individual.
  
• The Scientists of Modern Music will receive $7,976 to assist with costs to tour locations in Europe, Asia and USA. They were selected from a national field to attend the Australian International Music Market earlier this year, and this has resulted in a number of international performance invitations.
  
• Tom Vincent, a jazz composer best known in Australia for the theme to the ABC TV show Collectors, will collaborate with leading jazz musicians to record an album of his work using a $6,000 grant.
  
• Unleash the Nugget, a band which received the Amplified Award for best live act in 2006, and National Campus Band Competition Winners in 2005, will record an album at The Grove Studio in NSW with an Arts Tasmania grant of $9,000 and a low interest loan of $16,000.

An unprecedented number of creative development of new theatre works are being supported this year, including:

• Seasoned theatre professional Robert Jarman will commission writer Finegan Krukemeyer with a grant of $10,000 to create a new theatre work, I Have Held my Hands up to a Different Sky, based on Robert's experiences in the Middle East.
  
• Lucy Wilson will use a grant of $13,000 to redevelop her work Underwhere with director Teresa Blake and physical performer Christy Flaws.
  
• Young opera composer Matthew Dewey will receive $5,400 to research his new work about historical astronomer Tycho Brahe in Denmark, and to work with Dramaturg Willem Bruls in Amsterdam.
  
• Jamin (Benjamin Kluss) will receive a grant of $15,000 to develop an outdoor billboard site in Hobart, each month featuring a new collaboration between a "street" based artist and a "gallery" based artist.
  
• The $5,000 Manufacturing Design Fund grant has been awarded to fashion designer Monique Germon, to undertake a residency with award winning design label High Tea with Mrs Woo.

North

• Theresa O'Connor will work with a team of Tasmanian and interstate and international practitioners to develop Silver Strings - Who's Controlling You with a grant of $9,487.
  
• Long-time contributor to Tasmanian design, Gary Cleveland, will receive a grant of $10,730 to further develop his series of publications on Tasmanian designers.
  
• Three-piece alternative rock/pop Launceston-based band Follow by the Wayside will receive a start-up grant of $3,000 to record and release their EP.
  
• Emerging playwright Carrie McLean will receive a grant of $5,000 to complete of her new script Beautiful with the dramaturgical assistance of Kathryn Ash.
  
• Musician/songwriter (and 2005 Young Tasmanian of the Year) Fiora Cutler will receive a grant of $5,000 to undertake an orchestral recording for her solo album.

North-West

• Justy Phillips and James Newitt will use their grant of $5,000 to undertake an eight week Natural and Cultural Residency on King Island towards, exploring that community's relationship to place.
  
• Senior Tasmanian artist Raymond Arnold will invite Scottish Artist Sue Jane Taylor to undertake a residency at his studio, Landscape Art Research Queenstown, with a grant of $5,000.
  
• Talented indie pop band Breakfast Balcony will receive a start-up grant of $3,000 to support an EP recording.

See the full list of grants here.