Objectives

The main focus over the past few years has been on assisting the activities of the Childers Visual Arts Group, a subgroup of the Childers Arts Council. This has taken the form of exhibitions, workshops and an annual art camp. It is hoped the new committee will be able to interest more members of the community in joining the arts council and encourage them to become involved in helping bring other arts, music and performance opportunities to the area. Circus has been mentioned by quite a lot of people in this area but not sure if that would be well received/attended or not.

Audience Insights

Struggling farm workers, cane farmers and their families. Some business people. More young families are moving into the area in recent years but still quite low incomes. Majority of population would be 40+. Workshops held in schools have always been popular. Difficult to reach child/youth outside school attendance due to distances into town. Many people don't like to drive at night. Country style music and jazz events at Childers Arts Space have been well received. Irish music at local club (none for quite awhile) were also very well attended.

Additional Information

The Childers Festival is a major annual event held over the last weekend in July (Saturday afternoon/evening and Sunday all day). There is talk of extending this to include Friday evening and possibly a full week in the future. The CRUSH Festival (arts and culture) is held across the whole Bundaberg region during the entire month of October, but this may shorten to about 10 days in 2014. The Festival of Small Halls was held in December last year at Wallaville (not too far from Childers) and is likely to result in return visits and involvement of more local halls across the region including Childers. The Bundaberg Regional Council is willing to assist where possible. Neither Gin Gin nor Bundaberg have a local Arts Council.