In 2016 I was engaged by the Bass Coast Shire Council to works with the communities of 5 tiny towns to conceive THE EDGE OF US, which was awarded a $350k Victorian Government Small Town Transformation grant. I led the two year project with Mary Sullivan in the first year and Jeannie Haughton in the second.

 

The LUMINOUS GALLERIES, the permanent legacy of this project, are four clusters of permanent up-lights set in concrete pads at ground level in four different bay side parks (Pioneer Bay, Grantville, Corinella and Coronet Bay). The Galleries were launched in April 2018 as a canvas for community and artists to place artworks which will illuminate at night. A series of small grants by the project enabled a 5-month program of mentoring and fantastic exhibitions (largely by non-artists making art for the first time) which could be experienced at any time of the night. Tenby Point, the 5th town in the project, hosted a winter solstice event involving its residents and boat owners in luminous creativity. 

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The gallery project has now been handed over to a new group of community curators for future use. The lights are managed by the Bass Coast Shire Council.

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The Galleries emerged from an ambitious first project in 2017 called LUMINOUS STREETS where five artists - one in each town - worked with community members and children at the Bass Valley Primary School to create hundreds of temporary light based artworks. The artworks were assembled in 5 tiny waterside parks and celebrated by many hundreds of viewers who traveled between the towns by a fleet of free buses on their opening night - April 8 2017 - then were lit up for 5 consecutive nights with a battery recharge system involving many community members.  The artworks were driven by 200 re-chargable batteries, 600 LED bulbs, nearly 1000m of electrical wire, and over 500 participants.