Listed below is a selection of the Nelson Meers Foundation’s philanthropic partnerships. Please click on the organisation logo for a description of the project.
The Nelson Meers Foundation is proud to be supporting the former Head Curator of Australian Art at the Art Gallery of NSW, Barry Pearce, in writing a significant book which will showcase the Gallery's magnificent Australian collection.
The Nelson Meers Foundation is involved in an ongoing project with the AGNSW to augment the Gallery’s collection of paintings by Sir Sidney Nolan.
“In a world that is difficult, hard to get through, music and painting and poetry are a kind of device, maybe even a kind of evolutionary device, maybe even a kind of evolutionary device, which has developed to get us through.” – Sidney Nolan.
Concert Series 2011, 2013, 2015
Australian World Orchestra (AWO) brings together Australia’s most successful classical musicians from around the globe to form one of the country’s most electrifying orchestras. This all-Australian orchestra will perform 3-4 concerts on a bi-annual basis with each concert being prefaced by an Australian composition, thus creating a huge celebration of our proud and talented composers, conductors, soloists and musicians.
The Nelson Meers Foundation has provided a three concert commitment to supporting this innovative and exciting new cultural organization.
“The very name Australian World Orchestra excites me. I love the idea of bringing together so many splendid musicians. I find it truly inspiring.” Peter Sculthopre, Composer.
For further information click here
AWO Bringing Together Australia's Finest Musicians from all over the World Inaugural Concert Season 26 – 28 August 2011 Concert Brochure
The BMRI was established in 2006 to reduce the burden of disease due to brain and mind disorders, which now account for more than 40 percent of all illness, costing the Australian economy an estimated $30 billion each year. It is in a unique position as a leading clinical, research and treatment centre.
The Nelson Meers Foundation is excited to be working with the BMRI to expand its current range of mental health recovery and social connectedness programs by supporting the development and implementation of a 3 year multi-media arts program for young people experiencing mental illness. A key feature of the program will be its clinical intervention framework, which differentiates this program from other community arts programs. The program will be incorporated into the clinical care of the young person and will target the key areas of brain development implicated in the transition to major mental illness in adolescence and young adulthood.
The Centre for Social Impact (CSI) at the University of New South Wales brings together the business, government, philanthropic and third (not-for-profit) sectors, in a collaborative effort to build community capacity and facilitate social innovation.
Its ambition is to help build an Australia which is renowned for its professionalism and competence in delivering community benefits and social innovation.
CSI brings a sense of urgency to the task of building a civil society that is open, inclusive and sustainable, driven by its core commitments to collaboration, transparency through accountability and flexibility. The CSI teaching program is aimed at supporting the next generation of leaders, providing professional development, mentoring and networking opportunities. The Nelson Meers Foundation is delighted to be supporting a scholarship for a CSI student working in the arts and culture sector.
The Nelson Meers Foundation proudly supports Unguarded Moments, the City of Sydney's Village Art project for Art and About Sydney 2011, produced in partnership with creative studio killanoodle and researcher & producer Sarah Barns.
Unguarded Moments presents a series of site-specific film portraits capturing the changing faces of Millers Point, with projections drawn from documentary films and photographs, featuring past & present residents and workers. The living history of the area’s working port, its waterside workers and its residents is beautifully re-inscribed back into its present day environment, connecting us to the area’s living history and the ties existing within the community today.
The Nelson Meers Foundation has given one of the projectors a home in our office!
Image: Artist's impression of the film projections to feature in Unguarded Moments. Still image of Bettington St sourced from the State Records Authority of NSW via The Commons on Flickr. Original image can be found here.
To view the Unguarded Moments website, click here
The Nelson Meers Foundation is proud to support A Curator's Last Will and Testament by Juliet Darling, a moving documentary about Nick Waterlow OAM, one of the world's first contemporary art curators, respected internationally for his selfless dedication in helping others understand contemporary art and the nature and importance of art curating.
Documentary Australia is a private initiative to provide information and resources to philanthropic grantmakers, charitable organisations and documentary filmmakers in order to explore, share and enhance their mutual objectives of creating a better society.
The Nelson Meers Foundation strongly believes in the effectiveness of documentary as a means of raising awareness of and building momentum on significant social issues, and for this reason we are supporting the future growth of Documentary Australia Foundation.
The Nelson Meers Foundation supported bursaries for 4 members of the Gondwana National Indigenous Children’s Choir to attend the 2011 Gondwana National Choral School in Sydney this January. Led by Gondwana Choirs’ Artistic Director & Founder Lyn Williams OAM, Gondwana National Choral School is an annual two-week residential camp of inspiring musical and educational opportunities for Australia’s most talented young singers.
The 4 Indigenous bursary recipients travelled from the Torres Strait Islands, Cairns and Shepparton to join with 280 other young people aged 10 - 25 from across Australia who share the same passion and talent for singing. They worked with Australia’s finest choral conductors and music educators, dynamic pianists and a range of professional musicians and artists in rehearsals, workshops and performances. As well as receiving specialist vocal training in an intensive learning environment, the choristers also participated in visual arts and Torres Strait Island dance workshops during National Choral School and had the opportunity to explore the sights of Sydney.
The Gondwana National Indigenous Children’s Choir (GNICC) gives talented Indigenous children the opportunity to join with their peers from across Australia, take part in musical, social and cultural education and performance opportunities, and share the voice of their generation with both the nation and the world. The GNICC has performed at many major national and international events, including The Dreaming Festival in Queensland and Australia’s National Day at World Expo in Shanghai and is well known to many through their performance on the Qantas commercial.
For further information click here
Image credit: Angus Wilkinson
The Nelson Meers Foundation is delighted to be supporting Legs On The Wall to take up the invitation of the Arts Council of England to participate in the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, a huge event that encompasses the entire United Kingdom across 12 weeks from 21 June until 9 September.
Legs on the Wall will present The Voyage, a spectacular outdoor performance with UK based Motionhouse Dance Theatre. The Voyage involves six performers from Legs, twelve from Motionhouse, a choir of 40, an all women brass band and 140 community performers. It is co-directed by Legs On The Wall’s Artistic Director Patrick Nolan and Motionhouse’s Kevin Finnan. Taking place in Victoria Square, Birmingham, The Voyage will be one of the opening events for the 2012 Cultural Olympiad and will be performed on four consecutive nights from 21 – 24 June.
Beginning with the construction of an enormous ship in the centre of Birmingham, The Voyage is a story that explores the courage and imagination that prompts us to embark on journeys in pursuit of our dreams. The production turns the city centre into a massive set in which the audience become vital players in the action. Starting out as the send-off party on the docks, the voyagers set sail across the seas, get swept up in a huge storm, help rescue passengers washed overboard and finally become the welcoming party in the new land once the boat finds safe harbour.
The Voyage celebrates what distinguishes and unites us, by telling the story of a group of people that face the challenges of crossing oceans in search of a new life. As participants in this adventure, the audience are central to this odyssey in which the old ways and the fearful are left behind in search of the new and the hopeful.
http://www.legsonthewall.com.au/index.php/Productions/more/the_voyage/
Marrugeku is at the leading edge of Australian contemporary intercultural physical theatre. Drawing from the lives of people and communities living in remote North West Australia, Marrugeku shares the memories and traditions of Indigenous culture through contemporary dance-theatre. Place and identity, migration and misplacement, and the constant shifting world of cultural identities, inform the direction of their productions.
The work Buru draws inspiration directly from the young people of Broome, tracing the traditional stories of their country and their relationship with the land and town, set against a background of their fascination with contemporary multimedia, hip-hop and rap. Buru is an impressionistic suite of stories based around the annual cycle of six seasons identified by the Yawuru, traditional owners of Broome. Three of the stories inspired by the seasons are traditional stories for country and the other three are contemporary stories of the lives of young people in Broome.
Buru on tour to The Kimberley - October 2011
The Nelson Meers Foundation is proud to be suppporting Buru's Western Australian tour! Buru, a physical performance piece designed for families and children and performed by nine talented young Indigenous and non-Indigenous performers is taking to the road. You can catch them at:
Garnduwa Festival, Fitzroy Crossing
Wed Oct 5th 6.30 pm
Fitzroy Recreation centre. Corner of Forest and Fallon Roads
Entrance free
Mowanjum Art and Culture Centre, Mowanjum Community
Monday 10th Oct 6.30pm
Mowanjum Community
4km up the Gibb River Road from Derby
Tickets $15 adults $5 children available on the door
The Nelson Meers Foundation is proud to be supporting Milk Crate Theatre, Australia's leading theatre company dedicated to working with people who have experienced homelessness and marginalisation.
Milk Crate Theatre is both a theatre company and a community, consisting of creative individuals who come together to make entertaining, challenging and inspiring performances, whilst exploring issues, opinions and life experiences in the process. They are a direct partnership between actors, artists, welfare services and community participants, exploring the tension between inclusive theatre arts practice and community development.
"When you see a fair bit of theatre around the traps, every now and then something leaps out and wakes you up and makes you realise the transformative power of a live performance... if you ever have the chance to see a Milk Crate show, don't miss it." Central Magazine, 18 August, 2009
The Nelson Meers Foundation is proud to be supporting the Premier’s Teacher Scholarships, a program designed with a vision of global educational exchange to assist our best teachers to further their knowledge and skills.
Partnering with Dr Gene and Brian Sherman and David and Angela Kent, the Nelson Meers Foundation is funding the inaugural Contemporary Art Teaching Scholarship, which will allow a NSW teacher to undertake an international study tour to visit some of the world’s best institutions and centres of learning.
The mission of the Power Institute is to develop the latest ideas and theories concerning visual art and culture -- past, present and future -- and to communicate them, both nationally and internationally.
The Nelson Meers Foundation is delighted to be funding, with the Getty Foundation, four important books in a series entitled “Australian Studies in Art and Art Theory”.
Underbelly Arts 2011 brought us some of the best new works by Australia’s freshest creative talent, all in the incredible surrounds of Cockatoo Island, Sydney Harbour. We watched in awe as over 150 artists collaborated on exciting, innovative and experimental projects during the 10-day residency, The Lab, and then saw over 2000 people come to The Festival, the grande finale showing off and celebrating fruits of the artists’ hard work.
For further information, click here.
To view Underbelly Arts 2011 A Video Snapshot, click here
Wall Boy is the true tale of a vulnerable 16 year old boy forced to work as a male prostitute at Sydney’s notorious ‘Wall’ on Darlinghurst Road. A Youth Worker from the Salvation Army becomes the only person who can save him from certain death at the hands of a street predator and a spiralling drug habit. Wall Boy’s predicament is frighteningly common, and the film demonstrates the grim reality of youth homelessness and the value of intervention services in turning young lives around. It also reaffirms the importance of outreach workers having a presence in the city’s darkest, most dangerous locations.
A Shark Island Productions film, Wall Boy is a companion piece to Ian Darling’s Polly and Me, a harrowing glimpse into the life of an abused and neglected 8 year old girl. The education and outreach strategy for both short films follows in the footsteps of the award-winning documentary, The Oasis, also a Shark Island Productions film. The Oasis, a feature documentary and outreach campaign with unprecedented social impact, has become an important case study for its return on social investment.
Wall Boy will be accompanied by a study guide an interactive website and, together with Polly and Me, will be distributed to schools, youth centres, social work courses and social welfare organisations.
Tokujin Yoshioka: Waterfall
07 Oct 2011 – 17 Dec 2011
The Nelson Meers Foundation is proud to be suppporting Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation's exclusive presentation of Tokujin Yoshioka: Waterfall.
Waterfall explores the work of endlessly inventive Japanese artist Tokujin Yoshioka. Known for the simplicity and ingenuity of his concepts and holistic approach to design, Tokujin’s interdisciplinary practice has garnered him much attention since founding his eponymous studio in Tokyo in 2000. Tokujin experiments with a sophisticated play of materials and shapes using his art as a means of communicating something fascinating, surprising, joyful and unexpected. SCAF has invited Tokujin to create an extraordinary installation transforming the gallery space and giving Australian audiences a rare opportunity , over three months, to view the work of this influential designer.
Click here for further information and opening hours
The Nelson Meers Foundation is delighted to be able to support KidsXpress by providing their dynamic CEO, Margo Ward, with a Scholarship (together with the Stanford Australia Foundation) to attend the Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders Course offered by Stanford University’s Centre for Social Innovation within the Graduate School of Business.
KidsXpress is a dynamic program for children 4-14yrs who have faced challenges, loss and or trauma in their lives. During the KidsXpress program children are finding ways to cope with their situation through music, art and drama therapies, providing kids with the foundation to learn positive coping mechanisms for life. KidsXpress empowers children by providing a creative opportunity to identify, express, enjoy and enhance positive strategies for their lives. These skills will significantly increase the self-esteem and resilience of children and will contribute to their development to healthy adulthood.
KidsXpress is leading the way, as the first centre of its kind world-wide; never before have the three therapies been integrated in such a unique concept that provides a service for such a diverse range of children in need. There is no magic wand to avoid life or its challenges but KidsXpress can make a difference when the difference counts and to the health of our community.
Margo Ward is the visionary and founder of KidsXpress and is committed to empowering children and making a difference that will have lifelong positive effects. Margo’s career expands over multiple areas of child and youth related industries including Manager of the Recreation and Play Therapy Department at Sydney Children’s Hospital, Executive Member on the Paediatric Oncology Unit, clinical expertise in paediatric chronic illness groups, adolescents, trauma and bereavement. For three years, Margo was the Centre Manager of LifeForce (a national suicide prevention program). With qualifications and experience in early childhood teaching and family/child therapy spanning over more than fifteen years, Margo has pioneered a number of therapeutic interventions across Australia and has lectured both locally and abroad. Margo was also a finalist and runner up in the recent Equity Trustees CEO Awards and has recently been awarded the Rotary District Humanitarian Service Award.
The mission of the Stanford University Center for Social Innovation (CSI) is to foster innovative solutions to social problems by enhancing the leadership, management and organizational capacity of individuals and institutions pursuing social value creation. The center's core activities of research, teaching and community engagement focus on social entrepreneurship, nonprofit leadership and management, philanthropy, corporate social responsibility and public policy. Each year, the Stanford Center for Social Innovation (CSI) selects nonprofit leaders from social and human services, healthcare, community development, and education organizations to become CSI Fellows. Drawing on the leading-edge research and course offerings of the Stanford faculty, the program integrates conceptual knowledge with Fellows’ own experience to generate powerful and practical insights about leadership and management.
The Sydney Magazine, September 2011 story by Tim Elliott
"It looks like a bright and colourful wonderland, where children act and sing, draw and dance. But KidsXpress is much more than that," writes Tim Elliott. "It's a haven for the damaged children of Sydney who have finally found somewhere safe to express their fears and emotions."
Over the past eight years, the Nelson Meers Foundation has worked with the State Library of NSW to create a Gallery within the Library in which the Library’s significant collection of Australian artefacts is made available to the public through a ten year rotating exhibition program. For the first time in the Library’s history, items such as: Bligh’s logbook recording the mutiny on the Bounty; Australia’s only complete set of Shakespeare’s four Folios; Patrick White’s Nobel Prize, and Ethel Turner’s manuscript of Seven Little Australians, are now accessible to the Australian public. In support of our strong commitment to ensuring greater accessibility to the arts, the Nelson Meers Foundation’s grant will also be used to conserve and digitise each item, so that those who are unable to visit the Library (together with future generations) will have access to the items via the Library’s website.
State Library NSW Heritage Guides 2003 to 2009 - these guides contain background information and details of all items displayed in the Heritage Collection over the respective years.
A free exhibition at the State Library of NSW
3 December 2011 to 19 February 2012
The Nelson Meers Foundation is proud to support the State Library of NSW's latest exhibition: Finding Antarctica: Mapping the Last Continent.
This exhibition will focus on the mapping of Antarctica from the 15th to the 21st century, from crude woodcut maps of the known world through to the latest satellite imagery. The exhibition will tell the story of the gradual discovery, exploration and charting of this significant land mass.
Antarctica has always been the subject of much speculation, the idea of an unknown southern land began with the ancient Greeks. They believed that the earth was a sphere and that a southern land mass 'Antarcktikos' must exist as a counterweight to balance the northern world which lay beneath the constellation 'Arktos', the Bear. In the 21st century, seven countries, including Australia, claim territory in Antarctica, all of these countries have put their claims to one side and cooperate with other countries in studying and conserving Antarctica for the benefit of the world. Antarctica is now recognised as a key indicator in the debate over global warming.
The exhibition will showcase the magnificent collection of rare maps and charts held by the State Library of NSW, accompanied by rare published accounts and original sketches from Antarctica exploration by Cook, D’Urville, the United State Exploring Expeditions and the Australasian Antarctic Expedition.
The exhibition has been programmed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (1911-14) which left Hobart on 2 December 1911. A section of the exhibition will focus on this important Australian expedition with additional access to collection items through multimedia.
Exhibition Location: Mitchell & Dixson Galleries, State Library of NSW, Macquarie Street, Sydney, NSW
IMAGE: Ambrosius Macrobius, World map 1492
To view the exhibition opening hours at the State Library of NSW click here
Renowned Australian artist Tom Roberts (1856–1931) was one of the founders of the Heidelberg School that dominated Australian painting during the late 1800s.
Throughout his working life, Roberts entrusted his travel sketches, compositional ideas, head and figure studies, landscape studies, doodles and notations to the sketchbooks he always carried with him. Fifteen of these pocket sized sketchbooks, held in the Mitchell Library collection, offer a particularly personal glimpse of the artist at work, his working methods and the artistic process. Roberts’ sketchbooks include small pencilcomposition studies for icons of his oeuvre including Bailed Up! and Shearing the Rams.
Dating from the 1880s, the sketchbooks are part of a larger collection of correspondence and scrapbooks of Tom Roberts held in the Mitchell Library. This collection includes extensive correspondence with Arthur Streeton, Charles Conder and Frederick McCubbin.
Preservation work required: All fifteen of Roberts’ sketchbooks are in a very fragile condition, requiring extensive treatment. The Centenary Appeal, supported by the Nelson Meers Foundation, will fund paper repairs, resewing the sketchbooks, and repair of the spine and corner repair of covers. Each sketchbook will be boxed in a clamshell box providing complete protection from wear and tear.
The Nelson Meers Foundation is delighted to support this innovative program, the National Boys Dance Summer School, which had its inaugural run in January 2011. With tutors from The Australian Ballet, the Sydney Dance Company and Bangarra Dance Theatre, over 40 young boys, aged from 7 to 20, had 6 days of professional tuition in classical, contemporary and jazz dance. Many male dancers are often the only boys in their dance academy - the aim of this program is to give male dancers the rare opportunity to hone their technical skills and build confidence with others who share their love of dance, within an environment which cultivates social interaction, peer support and mentoring. The National Boys Dance Summer School drew participants from almost every state in Australia.
Click here for further information
Link to a performance on Youtube - courtesy Robert Fox (Shore)
A Centrepiece of Sydney Festival 2012
The Nelson Meers Foundation is proud to be an Associate Producer of I Am Eora, a groundbreaking performance event that celebrates Sydney’s Aboriginal cultural continuity and embraces the sacred heart of our contemporary city.
The most ambitious project of its kind ever commissioned by the Sydney Festival, I am Eora is inspired by three historical, now legendary, figures whose stories still resonate within Sydney: the gifted interpreter Bennelong, the fierce warrior Pemulwuy and the spirited Barangaroo.
In the eyes of the I Am Eora creative team, led by director Wesley Enoch, each of these heroes has left a resonant legacy for contemporary Aboriginal Sydney – Bennelong embodying the spirit of reconciliation, Pemulwuy the spirit of resistance and Barangaroo, women’s strength and nurturing.
This boldly aspirational project gathers together an extraordinary group of 30 Aboriginal artists and performers in a fusion of contemporary creative skills from dance to cinematography to literature and a range of musical styles.
Whilst lamenting the great losses and the pain of the past, I Am Eora is ultimately a story of deep cultural power, enduring strength and hope for the future of Aboriginal Sydney.
To visit the Sydney Festival 2012 website, click here
The Sydney Leadership Program is Australia's most highly regarded leadership development program. An annual program bringing together leaders and up-and-coming leaders from business, not-for-profit and government, it fosters new leadership skills, new networks and a new determination to create lasting, positive social change.
Together with the Baly Douglass Foundation, the Nelson Meers Foundation is supporting a scholarship for an established or emerging arts practitioner or administrator (including visual, performance, film and new media) whose work, either directly or indirectly, is driving positive social change.
Image:
ROGER WEST
Director, WestWood Spice
Sydney Leadership 1999
MARGARET SCOTT
Senior Consultant, WestWood Spice
Sydney Leadership 2005
Photo: Martin Mischkulnig
The Nelson Meers Foundation is involved in a 3 year project with the STC to engage their youngest audience – children between 3 and 7 years of age. The STC’s Actor on a Box project, part of the Company’s fantastic STC ED program, combines the STC’s best actors and directors and classic storytelling, from Aesop’s Fables to Henry Lawson. There is a moral to every tale, presented in an intimate, family-friendly format and delivered in rich and imaginative style.
The 2010 production of The Loaded Dog received a Sydney Theatre Award nomination for Best Production for Children.
http://www.sydneytheatre.com.au/stced/2010/the-loaded-dog
http://www.sydneytheatre.com.au/stced/2010/the-red-and-white-spotted-handkerchief
The Nelson Meers Foundation assisted the University of Sydney’s Power Institute’s Department of Art History and Theory in the establishment of a 3 year Lectureship in Australian Art History. Whilst the Department is regarded as one of the jewels in the crown of the Faculty of Arts, budgetary constraints had created a situation where there was no specialist in nineteenth century Australian art history. The 3 year lectureship was so successful that the Department was able to obtain University funding for the position in the subsequent year.
The Nelson Meers Foundation is a Founder Benefactor of the Gallery’s Aboriginal Collection Benefactor’s Group, which aims to raise funds for acquisition of indigenous artworks by the Gallery.
http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/supportus/collection_benefactors/aboriginal
Image Credit: Rover Thomas, Two men dreaming c1985 © Estate of the artist, courtesy Art Gallery NSW
For two years, the Nelson Meers Foundation supported the ACO Emerging Artists Program, which identifies a number of promising graduate level music student from across Australia and gives these students the opportunity to develop a special mentoring relationship with an ACO player, The students receive individual instruction from their mentors; attend closed ACO rehearsals and performances; undergo coaching in audition preparation and technique; and participate in intensive periods of chamber music and chamber orchestra rehearsals with their mentors. The focus on their program is to prepare emerging musicians for all aspects of life in a professional orchestra.
http://www.aco.com.au/Default.aspx?url=/emerging-artists-program
Demonstrating the way in which the arts can be utilised to create positive social change, the Nelson Meers Foundation recently supported the ACF documentary, “Telling the Truth”.
The film celebrates the extraordinary efforts of ordinary Australians to combat climate change The film begins in September 2007 in Melbourne when former US Vice President Al Gore completed the training of 250 Australian-based Climate Project presenters. This moving documentary reveals the personal commitment made by seven Climate Project presenters who volunteer their time to bring the climate change message to their family, friends and networks. Although from diverse backgrounds they have a common interest all are concerned about climate change.
The documentary is part of the ACF’s strategy to educate all Australians about climate change, and to create grass roots momentum as we move towards Copenhagen next year. “Telling the Truth” is the vehicle which will allow the ACF to give people who want to make a real difference an opportunity to become involved in the Climate Project Connectors program. This program is about connecting those with the desire to do something, to the knowledge that can make it happen.
Climate Project Connectors will be the vital link between their individual communities and actions that can make a real difference to global warming. They can also connect their community with hundreds of others around the country, gaining critical momentum as we prepare for a post-Kyoto world.
Climate Project Connectors will be asked to show the ”Telling The Truth “ documentary to their community, and harness the enthusiasm it generates to stimulate a specific Connectors project. This could be anything from joining a community walking bus to organising a solar hot water bulk buying scheme.
The ACF’s initial aim is to hold 1000 screenings of the documentary by 1 December this year, when the UN Climate Change Convention meets in Poland. Ultimately, they want to have 1209 Connector projects live and running by 12/09 (December next year) when the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) convenes in Copenhagen to draw up new protocols to succeed Kyoto. By showing our leaders that we’re prepared to act, the pressure will be on them to do the same.
Cate Blanchett launches new climate doco, Telling the Truth
Become a Climate Project Connector
Image credit: The Hon Mr Al Gore, image courtesy The Australia Conservation Foundation & The Climate Project Australia
The Nelson Meers Foundation supported the inaugural Crossroads Festival, a weekend chamber music festival held on the Central Coast from 6-8 September 2008.
http://www.asa.edu.au/crossroads.html
Credit: Glen Donnelly, photo by Steve Morenos
Image courtesy the Australia Council
In 2003, 2004 and 2005, the Nelson Meers Foundation was the National Partner for the AYO’s regional “Young Australian Concert Artists” program, giving regional musicians the unique opportunity to rehearse and perform with an AYO ensemble.
The Nelson Meers Foundation supported the redevelopment of the Belvoir St Theatre. The original Belvoir St Theatre was one of Australia’s most successful and acclaimed arts venues and, as the home of Company B, one of Australia’s most acclaimed theatre companies. After 20 years at Belvoir St, Company B outgrew the building, which has not been altered since it was originally converted from a tomato sauce factory to a theatre in 1975. The redevelopment included renovation of the Upstairs Theatre auditorium and provision for entertaining areas, rehearsal rooms, workshops, new offices and increased bar and foyer space. Most importantly, the redevelopment has enabled Company B’s administration, production and artistic teams to work together on the site for the first time.
The Nelson Meers Foundation supported the utilisation of new technologies for the 2010 Biennale of Sydney to increase audience accessibility and to develop and extend levels of audience engagement. A series of educational podcasts (audio programs) and vodcasts (video programs) was produced which could be downloaded from the Biennale of Sydney website and viewed on a computer or downloaded on arrival at the Biennale venues. They contained a range of content for visitors to the exhibition to listen to while walking around the venue, including interviews with exhibiting artists in a range of languages; ‘live’ audio exhibition venue tours from the Artistic Director, David Elliot; and behind-the scenes footage of the exhibition install.
The Nelson Meers Foundation has supported Operation Art for the past 7 years. Operation Art is an annual statewide competition for school children from Kindergarten to Year 10 to create artworks for children in hospital. From over 600 entries, 50 of the children’s paintings are selected for exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW and a touring exhibition of eight regional galleries. The program culminates in the paintings becoming part of the impressive permanent collection at the Children’s Hospital Westmead and Bear Cottage (the Children’s Hospice), and they have quickly become some of the most popular with visitors. Regional hospitals and other children’s support agencies, recognising the value of this unique visual arts experience, also receive some of these outstanding artworks.
The paintings make a vital contribution to the creation of a positive environment to aid the recovery process of young patients, and are a valuable support mechanism for their families. Operation Art also enables its young artists to communicate with, and become proactive in the lives of, other children through their artworks.
https://www.artsunit.nsw.edu.au/visual-arts/operation-art/operation-art-2010
De Quincey Co is Australia’s leading practitioner of Bodyweather, a broad-based training which draws upon both eastern and western performance traditions. The Stirring brings an industrial environment to life as a place with a layered human history. It is a new site-specific work which will be created at the CarriageWorks as part of Performance Space’s inter-cultural program in November 2007. Performances will lead audiences in and around the buildings in a labyrinth of experience shaped by dance, light, installation and sound.
The new CarriageWorks centre for contemporary performance at Sydney’s Eveleigh railway workshops occupies one of Australia’s most important sites of industrial heritage. The workshops were the heart of the NSW transport system for over a hundred years and the hub of an exceptionally diverse and active local community. The industrial skeleton both reveals and obscures a European and Indigenous social history. De Quincey Co is the first performance group to create and present a work in direct response to the site’s riches and its embodied history.
Credit: Lake Mungo 1991 Bodyweather training, photography Heidrun Löhr.
Image courtesy De Quincey Co
The Nelson Meers Foundation assisted in the acquisition of the study for George Lambert’s iconic painting “Across the Black Soil Plains”. The balance of the funding was provided by the Dubbo community.
Image Credit: Across the Black Soil Plains 1899, George W Lambert (1873-1930), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, image courtesy National Gallery of Australia.
The Nelson Meers Foundation supported the production of The Story of the Miracle at Cookie's Table, written by Wesley Enoch, Australia’s pre-eminent Indigenous theatre director, at the Griffin Theatre in 2007. Winner of the 2005 STC/SMH Patrick White Playwrights' Award, Cookie's Table tells the story of kitchen table which is passed down through successive generations as a legacy – a way of carving out family stories. Cookie's Table was directed by Marion Potts, and ran at the Griffin Theatre from 10 August to 22 September 2007.
http://www.griffintheatre.com.au/archive/the-story-of-the-miracles-at-cookies-table/
Indij Readers develops and publishes contemporary Indigenous literacy materials for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students learning to read and write. The aim of Indij Readers’ stories is two-fold: to help Indigenous and non-Indigenous students (‘little fullas and big fullas’) learn to read, and to encourage and support teachers to explore contemporary Indigenous perspectives and issues with their students.
The Nelson Meers Foundation supported the Indij Readers “Big Books” project.
“Big Books” are large size books used by teachers as an aid to teaching the “For Little Fullas, For Big Fullas” series, a collection of stories taken from urban and rural communities around NSW.
The Nelson Meers Foundation supported the publication of two companion anthologies, the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature and the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature. The anthologies contain the best and most representative Australian and Indigenous writing across a broad spectrum of genres, including poetry, fiction and drama, and letters, diaries, and speeches. The Macquarie PEN Anthologies of Australian Literature are a major literary initiative which will have a significant impact upon the recognition and teaching of Australian literature both nationally and internationally. http://www.macquariepenanthology.com.au/
For four years, between 2006 and 2009, the Nelson Meers Foundation was the Patron of the Miles Franklin Literary Award, Australia’s most significant literary prize. Not only does the Award make an enormous contribution to then richness of Australian cultural life but, more simply, as Frank Moorehouse aptly acknowledged in his winner’s acceptance speech on 5 June 2001, it “honours the great art of storytelling”.
http://www.trust.com.au/awards/milesfranklin/2006/
http://www.trust.com.au/awards/milesfranklin/2007/
http://www.trust.com.au/awards/milesfranklin/2008/
http://www.trust.com.au/awards/milesfranklin/2009/
James Gleeson (1915 – 2008) was one of Australia’s most important artists.
In 2005, the National Gallery of Victoria curated a retrospective of his work, including 120 paintings and works on paper from public, corporate and private collections throughout Australia and overseas, many of which had not been seen since their initial exhibition. The Nelson Meers Foundation supported the tour of this significant exhibition to the National Gallery of Australia.
http://nga.gov.au/Gleeson/essay.cfm
Image Credit: James Gleeson, The attitude of lightning towards a lady mountain 1939. The Agapitos/Wilson Collection, Sydney © James Gleeson, courtesy National Gallery of Australia
My Favourite Australian is a unique multi-platform collaboration between the National Portrait Gallery and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, which called on the public to vote for their favourite Australians in two categories, Popular and Unsung Heroes. Leading Australian artists and filmmakers were then commissioned to create short duration, moving image portraits of each subject. Filmmakers were given complete independence to develop their creative concepts. This approach has created a wonderfully engaging and diverse juxtaposition of portraiture. This exhibition includes video portraits of famous Australians including Gough Whitlam, Fred Hollows and Olivia Newton-John. The exhibition formed one of the exhibitions at the opening of the new National Portrait Gallery in Canberra in December 2008. Following the exhibition, the digital portraits were broadcast as short videos on the ABC.
The exhibition now touring throughout Australia, www.portrait.gov.au
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Favourite_Australian
Image Credit: Still from: Merilyn Fairskye, William Deane, 2008 Single-channel video, duration 03:00
Produced in association with Australian Broadcasting Corporation © 2008 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
‘Artback’ tours works of art to remote regional schools, whose students are unable to attend galleries. Many of these children have never seen an original artwork. During the Nelson Meers Foundation’s support of Artback, the ‘Artback’ van visited schools in Baan Baa, Bellatal, Ben Lomond, Bingara, Boggabilla, Bonshaw, Boomi, Bullarah, Burren Junction, Carinda, Collarenebri, Croppa Creek, Delungra, Emmaville, Fairfax, Gravesend, Gulargambone, Hernani, Lightening Ridge, Mallawa, Mungindi, North Star, Pilliga, Quambone, Rowena, Tenterfield, Tulloona, Walcha, Walgett, Wallangarra, Warialda and Wee Waa.
Orchestra Victoria is the performance partner of Victorian Opera and all Melbourne seasons of The Australian Ballet and Opera Australia. In addition, the Orchestra delivers free concerts and education workshops throughout Victoria via its Community Programs. Delivering nearly 200 performances to more than 240,000 people throughout Melbourne and regional Victoria each year, Orchestra Victoria is one of Australia’s busiest orchestras.
Bystander is an interactive video installation, the latest work in Ross Gibson and Kate Richards’ Life After Wartime suite, based on historic Sydney scene-of-crime images and Ross Gibson’s haunting text. Within the walls of a seven-metre-wide pentagonal room comprised of five projection screens, a spirit-world is generated in response to the audience’s presence, creating a variable, volatile environment of audiovisual narratives. Underwritten by surround-sound music composed by The Necks, Bystander is a kind of performative story-generator, channelled through Sydney’s past. The result is a compelling, sensual and kinaesthetic witnessing of our city’s myriad stories.
Experimenta Media Arts is Australia’s leading contemporary arts organisation dedicated to commissioning, exhibiting and promoting media art. Experimenta Playground is its digital media playground of interactive artworks, video installations, short films and extreme art on screen by over 30 Australian and international artists.
Through the language of play, the artists ask the gallery visitors to stop and think about complex issues and profound experiences in enjoyable, often surprising and unforgettable ways. In 2008, the Nelson Meers Foundation supported Experimenta Playground’s first exhibition in Sydney. The exhibition showcased innovative media art forms, providing a viewing context that is fun, accessible and allows audiences to engage with the artwork on a physical and emotional level.
In 2005, the Nelson Meers Foundation supported an exhibition curated by Portrait Artists Australia in which 30 portraits by Australian artists were hung in a special exhibition in the Australian Embassy in Washington D.C, in association with the Annual Conference of the Portrait Society of America. The aim of the project was to foster an international community of artists and to assist Australian artists in securing international representation.
http://portraitartistsaustralia.com.au/
Credit: Nafisa Naomi's 2010 Archibald Packing Room Prize winning portrait of Glenn A Baker
In 2002, the Nelson Meers Foundation provided funding to a young theatre group, Savage Wit Productions, to accept an invitation to perform one of its plays at the prestigious Edinburgh Festival.
Supporting the notion of Sydney as a “living” city, in 2003 the Nelson Meers Foundation was the philanthropic partner for Sculpture in the City, a two week sculpture exhibition in Martin Place, Sydney.
Photo of Michael Le Grand’s Deshabille
Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation was established in 2008 to champion research, education and exhibitions of significant and innovative contemporary art from Australia, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.
The Nelson Meers Foundation is supporting the exhibition of Brook Andrew’s new work at SCAF between July 8 and September 19, 2010. Brook is an exciting, conceptually driven artist who works with installation, mixed media, neon and video. He challenges historical and cultural conventions surrounding issues of identity, power and consumerism. Brook’s new work for SCAF will be an hypnotic immersive public installation investigating his concerns regarding politics, high and low culture, race and spectacle.
In 2007 and 2008, the Nelson Meers Foundation supported an exhibition by the State Library of NSW of material from its impressive environment and conservation collection. Impact: A Changing Land provides an invaluable historical perspective on the effect, both positive and negative, which we have had on our Australian environment, dating from the first European arrival in 1788 to the modern day. The exhibition reveals the lessons to be learnt from the past, and the way in which these lessons can be used to steer our way through the climate change crisis in which we now find ourselves.
http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/events/exhibitions/2007/impact/index.html
For four years between 2006 and 2009, the Nelson Meers Foundation supported a Scholarship for an Outstanding instrumentalist, which formed part of the McDonalds’ Performing Arts Challenge. The Scholarship aimed to discover and promote an outstanding instrumentalist in the field of strings, woodwinds and brass instruments.
In 2007, the Nelson Meers Foundation supported the TarraWarra Museum of Art’s inaugural biennial exhibition, Parallel Lives: Australian Painting Today. Renowned curator, Victoria Lynn, selected work by 17 artists, both established and emerging, from across Australia who are influenced by their contemporary cultural and political environment. The artists are Richard Bell (QLD), Kate Beynon (VIC), Jon Cattapan (VIC), Nadine Christensen (VIC), Dale Frank (QLD), David Griggs (NSW), Brent Harris (VIC), Natalya Hughes (VIC), Aldo Iacobelli (SA), Raafat Ishak (VIC), Joanna Lamb (WA), Peter Maloney (ACT), Stieg Persson (VIC), Rusty Peters (WA), Ben Pushman (WA), Paul Uhlmann (WA) and Anne Wallace (QLD).
The Nelson Meers Foundation was an inaugural supporter of the Australian Ballet’s “First Impressions” Program, which allowed disadvantaged youth to attend the ballet free of charge.
http://www.australianballet.com.au/
The Song Room is a Victorian organisation which was established to make music accessible to children who are disadvantaged by cultural, geographic or financial circumstances (currently only 1 in 4 schools has a music program). The Nelson Meers Foundation supported their pilot program in NSW.
The Venice Biennale is the oldest, and remains the most important, visual arts biennial event. Every two years, Venice becomes the world stage and the Biennale the leading showcase for contemporary art. The 2007 Biennale sees Australia's most ambitious - and exciting - undertaking yet: 3 Artists, 3 Projects, 3 Sites. The Nelson Meers Foundation supported the 2007 Biennale's inaugural professional development program, the Established and Emerging Curators' Program, which enabled fifteen Australian curators and arts educators to participate in the world's most important forum for contemporary visual arts.
http://2007.australiavenicebiennale.com.au/content/view/72/98/lang,en/