Regional Arts NSW (RANSW) is celebrating 80 years since establishment as the oldest continuing creative arts organisation, providing incredible financial and administrative support to Regional Art Development Organisations (RADO) across NSW, to promote and platform regional art and artists. Despite their significant work and the millions they have provided in grants over these 80 years, social recognition and funding has remained low. When I spoke to operations and engagement manager, Beatrice Waller, who goes by “Bea,” she emphasised the organisation’s mission to cement themselves into the public by highlighting their history, advocacy and philanthropy with the goal of increasing donors and investors into RANSW. Bea explained how applicants for grants have increased as their social media page has started to gain traction but expressed disappointment with the fact that the organisation lacked the resources to keep up with the increasing demand.
RANSW evolved from what was initially founded as “CEMA” or the “Council for the Encouragement of Music and Arts” in 1943. CEMA Australia was inspired by the British organisation of the same name, which was “formed to bring music to the people and to try and keep them sane with the arts during [the] madness of war.” This description comes from Dorothy Helmrich, the Australian singer and activist who established CEMA in Australia. After the war ended, CEMA would be renamed “The Arts Council of Australia.” In her publication of “A Five Years Record 1943-1947” Dorothy proudly recounts the council’s achievements, such as their very first subsidy of 600 pounds in 1946 and the various arts programs and performances they sponsored. Dorothy also expressed her activist beliefs that art “is not a luxury for the few but a necessity for all in a community which aims to make the best of life.”
I see resonances of this activism within RANSW in their advocacy for the regional arts, which is what drew me into wanting to work with them. In contemporary Australia where the arts are demonstrably underfunded and overlooked, it is organisations like RANSW who keep the arts alive in our culture, at a time where although we’re not experiencing the “madness of war” we do experience the increasing madness of life.
In preparation for their 80th anniversary, Bea has uncovered the organisation’s archives and requires assistance to sift through them to find the gems that showcase RANSW history and the transcendental nature of the organisation’s work. Her objective is to create a “History” section for their website (https://regionalartsnsw.com.au/) as well as an 80th edition magazine and presentation for a conference where many potential donors will confer. My objective is to utilise my investigative, interrogative, creative, argumentative and synthesis skills as a student historian to assist Bea and the tight-knit team at RANSW to achieve this.
The final project will eventualise into a “History” section for the RANSW website, as well as a catalogue of digitised archives. Bea also reacted enthusiastically to my proposal about assembling a time capsule for the organisation to mark 80 years and manifest it as a good omen for 80 more.
