Annie Long is a visual artist working in multi-media sculpture and oils living in Murwillumbah, NSW, Australia
The Murwillumbah Art Trail 2015-2017
The journey from studio artist to artist as curator of the Murwillumbah Art Trail (MAT) has been a three-year odyssey. The aim of this honours project at Southern Cross University, Australia, was to examine the role of the independent curator within a regional Australian context and to explore how temporal art events can serve to regenerate community interaction and local identity. A practice led methodology which included interviews with curators of regional art festivals was used to analyse my curating experience. Artist as curator, independent curating and curator as facilitator models were examined as contemporary curating practices and the collaborative nature of cultural production. The outcome was a consolidation of my role as provider of an overriding structure that facilitated the connection of artists with their audience. This contributed to the building of the existing artistic culture of the area and to the empowerment of artists in the exhibition process. For artists, the outcomes were positive in terms of economics and capacity building. For the wider community, MAT provided economic stimulus and contributed to a shift in identity as Murwillumbah as a centre for arts culture. As an independent curator, I had curatorial freedom from institutional expectations, working with artists and curators to coproduce a multi sited exhibition whose inspiration was firmly embedded in a sense of place. Please contact me to access my Honours Exegesis. MAT continues as an annual event: Murwillumbah Arts Trail