Creative Sparks Program 2023 grant recipients
The following Creative Sparks grants projects were approved in March 2023.
Successful grant recipients receive funding to implement creative projects, develop a professional practice or foster creative entrepreneurial partnerships with Brisbane artists and cultural workers.
| Recipient | Project name | Description | Amount approved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Andrea Moser (Auspiced by The Trustee for Donagh Gibson Mengel Family | Brisbane Places | The project will be an exhibition of mixed media artworks called ‘Brisbane Places’. The paintings are created by engaging with culturally and linguistically diverse community groups about their icons, places and landmarks in Brisbane and why they are meaningful to them. | $7,900 |
| Christine Ko | Departure | ‘Departure’ is a community art project using interviews and participatory workshop to invite participants from the wider migrant community to share their stories and create a collective installation for exhibition. The project aims to give voice to participants' experiences and contribute to larger conversations around immigration and race in Australia. | $11,000 |
| David Megarrity (Auspiced by Queensland University of Technology) | Development of libretto and music for backstage musical Call Time | Creative development of Call Time: a backstage musical exploring past and present day precarity in the performing arts. Beginning with bows and ending with an entrance, cast and crew are called unexpectedly early, trapped onstage between matinee and final evening show. The call time is not all that's altered. | $10,000 |
| Finley Wegener | The Human Theremin Project | The project will support the creative development for a new choreo-musical performance work called The Human Theremin Project. The work will explore the fusion of dance and music creation using motion tracking technology and will be presented at Superordinary Northshore in Brisbane and festivals in Southeast Queensland. | $10,101.30 |
| Joanne Moore (Auspiced by St Vincent's Care Services Ltd) | Yarn Flower Cascade | The Monastery on Church Road has been an iconic landmark for the local Community since 1929. The project brings the community together to activate the monastery tower with a cascade of 1000 handmade yarn flowers, representing the 1000s of lives and stories that have connected in this place. | $6,577.20 |
| Jodie Rottle | Two new compositions for Matt Hsu's Obscure Orchestra | Jodie Rottle and Hannah Reardon-Smith will write two new works for Matt Hsu’s Obscure Orchestra, to be recorded and performed live at the Brisbane Powerhouse in October 2023. One work features Brisbane vocalist Erin Fitzsimon (aka INIGO) and explores disability, and the other explores themes of queerness, community, and friendship. | $11,000 |
| Karen Roberts | Sex & Other Philosophies | The project will present a season of Sex & Other Philosophies at the Pip Theatre. This collaboration continues the trio’s work and dedication to creating innovative new work that breaks down barriers and challenges audiences in social inclusion and mindset around the LGBTQI+ and disability sectors in Brisbane. | $11,000 |
| Kathryn Wild | Tirra Lirra By the River | Combining their extensive experience as directors, dramaturgs and playwrights, Heather Fairbairn and Kate Wild will collaborate on a director-led adaptation of Brisbane-based, 1978 Miles Franklin award-winning novel, Tirra Lirra by the River by Jessica Anderson. This funding covers the development of a first draft script and a public rehearsed reading. | $10,670 |
| Marilena Hewitt | Platypus Essentials_ i. Water | This project will support the creative development of Platypus Essentials_ i.Water. It will platform First Nations and LGTBQTI+ voices documenting ecological crisis using poetry and humour to establish new relationships to the biosphere and culture in Australia. | $11,000 |
| Neridah Waters | The Common People Project | Common People Project will be a podcast that extends Brisbane’s iconic Common People Dance Project. Launched live in November 2023, it will foster and elevate the unique and evolving cultural identity of Brisbane; and encourage local and international digital audiences to connect with the value of play. | $11,000 |
| Nicolas Huntington | Building the Scene - Season 1 | This project involves producing the first season of Building the Scene exploring historic buildings in Brisbane and the many live entertainment establishments that have opened their doors and pushed forward the culture of Brisbane along the way. | $11,000 |
| Oliver Hetherington-Page | Spectrum Singers Autism Choir | The Spectrum Singers will be a new choir made up of neurodiverse singers in Brisbane. Funding will be used to recruit and rehearse the choir with the aim to foster connection and social inclusion. The choir's first professional performance will be at the end of 2023 | $10,968.10 |
| Paul Adams | World Premiere of Adventures of Peter Rabbit | This project will support the final development and premiere of Adventures of Peter Rabbit by Paul Adams. A fresh twist on Potter’s classic stories, paired with Offstage activities, this is the first full length production focussed on developing ongoing artistic employment by serving a specific sustainable local audience. | $11,000 |
| Robert Davidson | The Resilience Project: Development and Presentation | The Resilience Project will support the development of a new song cycle, drawing on diverse experiences of human resilience, building creative capacity through a new partnership. The new work, accompanied by a community composition workshop, will be presented, streamed, and documented. | $11,000 |
| Sophie Banister | Brisbaret | Brisbaret, a monthly variety show created by emerging arts leader and producer Sophie Banister, will present two “one-night-only” shows at Queensland Cabaret Festival and Brisbane Comedy Festival. This will grow its audience base and artistic reach to become a sustainable ongoing quarterly variety show in Brisbane’s creative sector. | $10,633.70 |
| Studio1 Brisbane Ltd | Studio1 and The Workroom Professional Development Program for Dance Artists | The Workroom Program is a professional development, capacity building and residency program for Independent Dance/Physical Theatre Artists in the Brisbane region. Supporting sustainable and adaptable careersand encouraging collective change through peer-to-peer learning, itmarries together artistic rigor and micro-business management skills. | $10,000 |
| The Trustee for Mill Street Studios Trust | Data-Trail: surveillance, scrutiny, and framing of women | Data-Trail is a new multi-frame screen-dance work exploring surveillance, scrutiny and framing of women in post-feminist culture. It explores surveillance of women through technology/media companies, and the 'surveillant imaginary' as women monitor themselves and others. Data-Trail will employ a team of Brisbane creatives, with a screening and digital outcome. | $11,000 |
| The Trustee for Room to Play Trust | A Woman Alone | This project will support the creative development of a new theatre work which explores themes around the coercive control of women. The work will be inspired by the political theatre piece, A Woman Alone, by Italian Nobel winner Dario Fo. The translation/adaptation will be Brisbane based, using Brisbane artists. | $5,390 |
| Vulcana Women's Circus Inc | Impact | Impact is a large-scale outdoor performance event created in collaboration with the Vulcana community, First Nations writers, local Pasifika communities, and guest artists, about the impact of a climate disaster on individuals and communities. It will support storytelling by diverse participants using circus, movement, sound, text and digital interaction. | $9,900 |
| Zachary Lurje | Steve The Queen | The project will develop the short film, Steve The Queen, that tells the story of a single dad drag queen striving to be the best parent in the world. It will employ Brisbane cast and crew and showcase Brisbane's queer community. | $10,000 |