East Gippsland On Show 2010 - Final Report 2010
This year East Gippsland On Show provided another successful event for the community and visitors to the region. There was something on offer for everyone from exhibitions and workshops to musical events and drama. Communities taking part included Lakes Entrance, Lindenow, Orbost, Cann River, Mallacoota, Swifts Creek and Bairnsdale.
The Grand Opening at Community College East Gippsland was a very good day with beautiful weather and plenty of musical entertainment to keep the visitors’ toes tapping. Mayor Councillor Michael Freshwater opened the show and Lucknow PS choir provided musical entertainment and sang the National Anthem. Many of the local primary schools are in a transitional stage with their music, so we did not have as many taking part as usual, but Clifton Creek did come along in the afternoon and give two brief, but lively, demonstrations of African Drumming. We employed two sets of musical duos for the first time and they really were a joy to hear. A clown also roamed the grounds entertaining the children with novelty balloons. All the local groups who participated provided first class displays. The men’s woodwork demonstrations are always popular and many local primary schools showed off their arts and crafts. Once again the Bairnsdale Unit of the Cancer Council provided a sausage sizzle and other refreshments and we are most grateful to them for their ongoing support. We gave hourly lucky door prizes to those who donated a gold coin on entry and this did boost our coffers considerably from past years.
The photographic competition this year was highly successful with top quality photographs entered by all ages. We would like to see this competition continue to improve and it is possible that the local photographic society may take on a role in this area in future. We appreciated the services of judges Ron Yeates and Andrew Bould who both did a sterling job.
It was very satisfying to have some well known names taking part in EGOS, as in the art demonstration by Paul Margocsy; Gary Sweet who visited the Big Screen Australian Film Festival at Cann River and Mallacoota; and Toni Lamond who was in the audience for the final performance of the outstanding production of the “Pajama Game”.
However, the local talent is equally as important and all the events staged were of the highest quality. Felt making workshops by Marion Dawson and Jenny Romano are always a success and both ladies are also well known outside of East Gippsland where they teach and hold exhibitions. The paper arts and artists’ books are becoming increasingly popular in East Gippsland and the Artist Journal workshop organized by the East Gippsland Art Gallery was hugely popular. The miniaturists’ workshops offered by the National Dollhouse Gallery were not so successful. This may be due to the fact that the workshops were not advertised outside of the EGOS brochure – we do normally encourage participants to do their own promotion in conjunction with our publicity offerings. Although disappointed this year, the Dollhouse Gallery has some big plans for the future, so we wish them all the best.
New for 2010 was the Short Story Competition very generously sponsored by Country Life Publishing and also supported by Collins Booksellers. We did not have a lot of entries, but judges Barry Heard, Rebecca Faltyn, and Bill Cotter said those received were of high standard and there is plenty of potential for the future.
The Apron Challenge organized by the Boatshed Quilters was lots of fun with old and new aprons on parade and money raised going to Ronald McDonald House.
Lakes Entrance Art & Craft Exhibition ran over five days and was of the highest quality with many displays and demonstrations to keep visitors enthralled. Lindenow’s Festival was a weekend affair and very much a local community event, with enthusiastic input from the local kindergarten and primary schools.
All the art exhibitions were of a high standard. The collaboration between the Friends of Gippsland Lakes and the East Gippsland Art Gallery gave us “Around the Edge with FOGL”, which proved highly popular. The new art gallery in Orbost staged “Feast On Art at feastonart gallery and the concept of art in pizza boxes was very novel and a real draw card. Murder, Mystery & Mayhem staged by the Bairnsdale Historical Society caused a great deal of interest, which was helped along by the fascinating stories published weekly in the East Gippsland News. This also encouraged visitors to then visit the local bookshop in search of more stories and books of local history – so more networking between communities! Local artists displayed their works in “Where We Live” in Lakes Entrance at the Visitor Centre Gallery and in Bairnsdale & District Art Society’s “On Show” Exhibition at the East Gippsland Art Gallery, plus the ever popular Mixed Bag Exhibition at Bruthen – East Gippsland has a very large, active and talented group of artists. Riviera Quilters celebrated with their 10th biennial exhibition, which always draws the crowds.
Open days at Nyerimilang Park, East Gippsland Wool & Craft Group, and FusionFAN offered a taste of other arts, crafts and heritage on offer here in East Gippsland.
Stage and screen and musical events were well covered. Silent Screen Classics celebrated their fifth annual screening. This event is always booked out and highly entertaining. The “Pajama Game” was a high quality show with much local talent and a huge success. Musically we had the annual choir festival, a variety concert and two “Music and Manna” events.
Our publicity this year was greatly enhanced by the generosity of Country Life Publishing. Rebecca Faltyn, editor, gave us wonderful promotional coverage in the autumn edition of Gippsland Country Life Magazine, with the two first place getters in the Short Story competition to be published in the winter edition, plus further promotional material for EGOS in that edition. Bonaccord Ingram generously sponsored two teardrop banners for EGOS and these were printed in our corporate colours of Purple and Lime Green.
It is with sadness that I announced that this has been my final year as chairperson of EGOS. I have been involved with the organization from the beginning and chair for the past five years. It is time for me to move on. Several other committee members are also retiring, so at this point in time we are unsure of the future of East Gippsland On Show. We very much hope that other community members will step up to fill our shoes and keep this great arts and crafts organization running. Many (most) of the events are run by local communities and arts/crafts groups and can stand alone, but the umbrella of EGOS helps to give a cohesive bond and “East Gippsland Festival” flavour to the months of April and May each year.
We have received unfailing support from our auspice body – Community College East Gippsland – since our inception and we owe them a huge debt of gratitude. East Gippsland Shire have also supported us over the years with various grants and Eileen Thurgood of East Gippsland Art Gallery has been generous with her time and expertise in assisting us with artistic direction and in allowing current exhibitions at the gallery to be part of EGOS.
Lastly, I wish to thank my committee. Each and everyone has supported me and given me friendship over the years and we have been a happy and productive team – many, many thanks to you all.
Margaret
Margaret Fox
Chairperson
East Gippsland On Show |
