Arena Theatre Company is located on the traditional lands of the Dja Dja Wurrung and the Taungurung Peoples of the Kulin Nation. They are the traditional custodians of this land and we pay our respects to them. We also recognise that there are many other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with links to different language and community groups across Australia who live in Bendigo, and we pay our respects to them also.
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ANNUAL REPORT 2020
annual
REPORT
2020
ANNUAL REPORT 2020
“The future is looking bright for Arena” Scroll to explore
ANNUAL REPORT 2020
Our vision is that all young people are equipped with the creative tools they need to build a new world Scroll to explore
ANNUAL REPORT 2020
2020 in numbers Scroll to explore
ANNUAL REPORT 2020
FRAME (ACTUAL SIZE)
2020 projects
ANNUAL REPORT 2020
COVID19 IMPACTS Scroll to explore
ANNUAL REPORT 2020
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Scroll to explore
ANNUAL REPORT 2020
ARENA ONLINE Scroll to explore
ANNUAL REPORT 2020
O
pportunities emerged in 2020 to develop projects that were not bound by the restrictions posed by lockdowns and social distancing arrangements. Heart VR and Journey are projects that were both in early stages of development, that received
much greater attention than was scheduled for 2020. A Kindling Throne is a project that we had scheduled for development and presentation in 2020, which we were forced to cancel and have since re-imagined.
HEART VR
WORKS IN PROGRESS Scroll to explore
Heart VR began as open-ended research into the performative potentials of Virtual Reality. Arena undertook this research in partnership with the ‘Creative Convergence’ project being run out of Melbourne University. During 2020 we elevated Heart to become our primary project in development, thanks to a special funding round from the Australia Council. Christian Leavesley, Jolyon James, Darius Kedros and Monash University intern Paris Balla conducted a series of creative workshops over zoom, and inside existing Virtual Reality platforms. The central development question was to identify elements of virtual reality useful for generating exciting performative experience. We drew on our experiences in previous workshops where 4 people improvised inside an ‘open’ virtual space, playing with
ANNUAL REPORT 2020
FINANCE REPORTS Scroll to explore
ANNUAL REPORT 2020
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ANNUAL REPORT 2020
Next: our board
ANNUAL REPORT 2020
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ANNUAL REPORT 2020
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are so many people to thank in 2020. It was a year unlike any other, a year where we relied more than ever on our government and philanthropic supporters. We are incredibly grateful for the support of the Victorian State Government who have been a lifeline for Arena during this difficult year. We are very grateful to the City of Greater Bendigo and the staff of Bendigo Venues & Events who have had their own problems to deal with and have continued to support Arena through rent relief and administrative support. We thank the Besen Foundation and the Ulumbarra Foundation for their generous support. We thank the Australia Council, Regional Arts Victoria and the Department of Premier and Cabinet for funding our creative projects. And we thank all our individual donors who have given generously to keep us going throughout 2020.
ROOM TO MOVE ROOM TO GROW