Add your flavour to Taste Riverina

Taste Riverina runs through October and promotes the flavours of our region, particularly food and wine.

It'd be great to see more of the culture from the Riverina join the event and they're currently looking for event registrations before Friday 3rd July.

Please consider developing a multi-faceted event, i.e. art and food, art and music, food and drama, food sculpture. Discuss ideas with Jacqui on 0427 630 349 or register at tasteriverina.com.au

Leeton's 'Mr Magic' shares his tricks

Dave Boyd is sharing his tricks. Leeton's 'Mr Magic' is known for performing at parties and events throughout the region.

Now he's putting those skills towards breaking down barriers and ensuring people of all abilities can perform magic.

Boyd's magic workshops will run for five weeks at Leeton Shire Library, starting at 10am on Saturday 18 July.

"Each week the children will be taught a magic trick and any props required will be provided free," said Dave Boyd. "The workshops are funded by FundAbility and Northcott NSW."

The workshop is open to ages nine to 15 and aims to provide a mix of all abilities. "By having a mix of children, the workshops will help get the kids interacting with each other and learning together."

"I'm hoping that having them share their skills will help those with a perceived disability to learn to entertain people using magic."

For more information contact Dave Boyd on 6953 4272. Numbers are limited for these free magic workshops.

Outback Theatre for Young People to premiere Beneath an Oxbow Lake at Griffith Regional Theatre

Outback Theatre for Young People will open their production of Beneath an Oxbow Lake, written by Julian Larnach (Griffin Award nominee, Current Writer in Residence at Australian Theatre for Young People) and directed by Paige Rattray (Current Richard Wherrett Directorial Fellow at Sydney Theatre Company) in Griffith on Wednesday 24th June. 

The play has been developed through a comprehensive mentoring process with writer Julian Larnach (Winner of the OTYP EMERGE: Riverina Playwright Commission) and mentor Jessica Bellamy (has worked with ATYP, Tamarama Rock Surfers, Griffin Theatre, among others).

Beneath an Oxbow Lake is a multi-generational coming of age tale about two young men. Faced with some big decisions as their schooling comes to end, the boys explore what staying in a small town means to their futures, and if leaving as soon as they can really is the best step. The story revolves around two local families, and investigates what impact our parent’s decisions have on us, and what impact our decisions have on our futures. It is a play that shares an authentic regional voice and resonates with our communities in South West NSW.

Julian says ‘I hope that through the combination of my own personal experiences of rural New South Wales, my extensive research on the area, and my consultation with young people, I am able to tell a story that resonates with the people who live here.’

‘My mum and her family grew up in the area so it’s always been in my periphery vision and central to my understanding of the world. Growing up in a cattle farm in regional New South Wales, my experience of theatre was limited to Shakespeare and bi-yearly school musicals. Outback Theatre for Young People is a great company as it realises that theatre has the capacity to shine a light on the manifold experience of regional Australia in an honest and imaginative way.’

Outback Theatre for Young People’s Creative Producer Sarah Parsons says ‘We are thrilled to be sharing this story from Griffith with the wider communities of NSW. OTYP has cast the production with young people from the Riverina, as we want to make sure local people have ownership over Julian’s story, as it is their story too.’

Sarah also mentions ‘OTYP is so excited to share this story with audiences in our region, and all the way to Sydney. A regional playwright sharing a regional story, told by young regional actors, it’s not every day you get a chance to see that, so it is definitely something to be celebrated.’

Tickets for all performances are on sale now. Contact the Griffith Regional Theatre, The Deniliquin Newsagent or Australian Theatre for Young People to purchase tickets.

Linking generations For Prosperity's Sake

As the launch of Western Riverina Arts’ creative ageing project 'For Prosperity's Sake' draws close, artist Louise Cooper has begun focusing on linking the stories of seniors with the visions of youth.

Ms Cooper recently visited primary schools in Leeton, Yanco and Wamoon with Western Riverina Arts regional arts development officer Derek Motion to share excerpts from the seniors’ histories and teach students how to make simple animation flipbooks.

“The flipbooks form part of the intergenerational aspect of this project and are inspired by the stories of local seniors,” said Ms Cooper. “These will be compiled and inspire an animation to be launched alongside the book and website. Children enjoyed the stories of jumping cargo trains, fishing, riding bikes, swagmen, bonfires, hopscotch and more.”

The animation and flipbooks will be available for viewing at the launch of 'For Prosperity's Sake' at 6.30pm on Friday 26 June at the Leeton Multipurpose Centre.

“We invite everyone to come and join us in launching the book and website that will result from the 'For Prosperity's Sake' project,” said Derek Motion. “Western Riverina Arts have been delighted with the stories collected by Louise and look forward to sharing the stories of so many of our community elders and their interpretation as animations by local children.”

These creations based on the stories of local elders will also be available for viewing at the Multipurpose Centre on Saturday June 27 from 11am-1pm, when Ms Cooper will host ‘A Blast From the Past,’ an intergenerational morning of "simple but good" historic pleasures to kick off the school holidays. Come to the on Saturday June 27 for old time games, storytelling, flipbook-making and a morse code demonstration by Brian Aird.

Ms Cooper is seeking seniors to volunteer to share their favourite childhood games and stories with the children on the day. To volunteer, please contact Louise Cooper on 0499 552 536 or email loulou_cooper@live.com.au

Both events are free and open to the public. Western Riverina Arts’ 'For Prosperity's Sake' is funded by the NSW Government’s Creative Ageing Fund.

Get Social Media Working For You

Social media offers businesses, including artists, a low-cost marketing opportunity and it is one that Western Riverina Arts will be promoting through workshops in Griffith and Narrandera during June.

Kim V Goldsmith, a marketing communications consultant and trainer, will be providing practical tips on how to get a result from social media.

"It's not often you get to rub shoulders with big players," said Ms Goldsmith. "It's how you use it that creates that extra bit of oomph."

Goldsmith has more than 20 years experience in media skills training, which includes running workshops for a variety of organisations such as those in local and state government.

Her workshops provide a clear overview of social media with emphasis on the audiences they reach and how to stimulate engagement.

"I focus on key performance indicators and these often aren't the numbers many people focus on when using social media," said Ms Goldsmith. "It's the old argument of quality versus quantity. I often say a conversation starts with one, not once you get to 100."

"Social media is one of the few marketing tools where you can afford to make mistakes. It's quickly changing though, particularly now mobile internet use is overtaking desktop-based internet use."

New applications like Periscope and Meerkat are now offering the ability to live-stream video to followers and these could be used to great effect by savvy operators looking to reach new customers or audiences.

"Social media is an equaliser for regional organisations and many artists would benefit from increasing their exposure."

To book your place at the Western Riverina Arts social media workshop on 15th-16th June in Griffith, visit http://www.westrivarts.com.au/opportunities/

The first workshop 'The Basics' (June 15, Griffith) will introduce you to the social media landscape and teach you how to effectively use social media to build communities of interest. The second workshop 'Building on Basics' (June 16, Griffith) will cover planning and implementation of your strategy to engage audiences, and how to evaluate results. The final workshop (June 17, Narrandera) will be tailored to meet the needs of participants - beginners or strategists.