Artistic Director’s report (cont’d)

from Arena Annual Report 2021

Artistic Director’s report

CHRISTIAN LEAVESLEY // ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & CO-CEO

The response from the audience and the community to Baai was overwhelming. It has been an incredible project for Arena that has opened up new approaches to creativity for the Company, while celebrating the voices and stories of Bendigo’s South Sudanese community. Our presenting partner, Bendigo Venues and Events, supported us through every step of the process. We are grateful for the ongoing support.

Touring was significantly disrupted during the year, causing cancellations and postponements of Hidden Creature Gallery and Robot Song in particular. We feel fortunate to have been able to take HCG to Dream Big Festival in Adelaide, another highlight of the year. For those 2 weeks in May it felt like ‘normality’ as we toured to a major festival and were able to see a range of shows and artworks from around the country.

During the year, we held another Bendigo Studio residency, partnering with the Victorian College of the Arts and Camp Hill Primary School. We supported Goldfields Library and their incredible Allied4Em project. We hosted students’ events in the Bendigo Writers Festival, and we activated Hargreaves Mall for Bendigo’s Easter Fair, another first for Arena.

As you would expect, we always keep at least one eye on the future. For 2021, this meant developing a brand new work called Journey Journey will be a large scale, first person narrative adventure that uses Augmented Reality to animate characters, creatures and objects within a fully realised, stunningly detailed fantasy world. Journey is a highly ambitious work that puts Arena at the very forefront of works that combine first person performance and Augmented Reality. We can’t wait to show it to you in September, 2022.

When times are tricky, as they have been for the last couple of years, it is an organisation’s partners that hold it steady and help it to stay focused on its mission. Arena is blessed with a range of incredible partners – in presentation, producing, artistic, philanthropic, community, education, research and funding. We thank all of our partners who have been so committed in their support for our Company.

To sign off, I want to recognise Arena’s people. We saw two long-standing staff members, Jolyon James and Gayle McClure, move on from their positions at Arena during the year. Their work has been outstanding for many years, and they will be missed. But, it is certainly not goodbye. And to all of our staff, artists, board and the many people who contribute to Arena in ways large and small - Thank you for making the art happen!