Baa. - Will we bother?

From its beginnings Gosford has been described as a “sleepy hollow”. While much energy has been expended counting sheep, posts to the Back Page have been slow in coming.

So if you are eagerly waiting for something to happen, perhaps you can relax by counting sheep at the sheep market website (there are 10,000 in case you don’t get finished). The site takes a minute or so to load.

[Thousands of workers on Amazon's Mechanical Turk webservice were paid two cents to "draw a sheep facing to the left." Their sheep drawings were collected over a period of 40 days.]

Gosford Art Flux Forum (GAFF) has not been sleeping, but incubating projects and talking with Gosford Real Estate people about a temporary place in Gosford for art. There is little interest in that quarter. There have been some leads followed, but commercial interests in Gosford seem not aware of the importance of art and culture in urban renewal (at least not to the point of sustainable action)

GAFF applied to join Gosford BID (Business Improvement District Association) to contribute expertise to discussions on ways forward for Gosford centre, but the application was not accepted.

In this regard Frank Sartor’s recently released Central Coast Regional Strategy has one or two (that’s about all) mentions about art and culture.
Here they are:

[There are] “forecasted high rates of growth for cultural industries as well as accommodation and hospitality. The Region’s tourism advantages are also likely to increase.

"5.3 Councils are to investigate strategies to ensure sufficiently zoned land to enable the provision of comparatively low cost premises for start-up business. Centre strategies should include provision of low-cost office and studio space to assist business start-ups for cultural activities."

"Priority will be given to:
• expanding retail and commercial activities in the city centre and ensuring that these functions are not put at risk by residential development
• encouraging and facilitating the development of strategic sites in the city centre that help to achieve the vision for the regional city
• integrating the waterfront with the city centre and developing marina, performance and artistic cultural activities as well restaurants
• requiring a high standard of urban and building design within the town centre
• investigating how through-traffic can be better managed through the CBD or redirected around the CBD."

How many sheep have you got to by now?

No News.
GAFF’s Cultural Grant applications to Gosford City Council were both unsuccessful.
One was to produce a Gosford Art Journal focused on contemporary art, as a pilot for a quarterly publication, and to document past achievements by local artists and groups in the field.
Another was to produce more out-of-gallery projects in the centre of Gosford, including rental assistance for a temporary contemporary art coordination and project place in Gosford centre. The project was a blueprint for a much needed function identified through GAFF research in discussions with practitioners and in the forum at Art inTent.

No doubt there were many worthy projects competing, so for now energies will have to be redeployed and invested where there is a better prospect for sustainable outcomes.

Still on the drawing board.
GAFF Contemporary Art Future Forum
Exhibition by Irish artists (approx 14) coming in October.

Other news.
There has been an indefinite postponement of the June meeting of Gosford Regional Gallery Advisory Committee.

Up at Christ Church, Meredith Brice (merrybrice@hotmail.com) has organised an exhibition, w.a.t.e.r, opening on the 19th of July.

Those of you who know Anne Graham will be interested in an opening of her work (with performance) at the Gosford Regional Gallery on the 18th of July.

A meeting for members of eO inc. is scheduled for the 27th of July to decide about winding up the association.

Meanwhile - enjoy the Sydney Biennale !!!

Number 7,298 is cute.