Hi!

I love seeing Hi!

My name is Sarah, I’m an arts worker living in Geraldton and have previously worked in Kalgoorlie and the Northern Goldfields. Will you be my friend and colleague?

I love the regional life and the career and lifestyle opportunities available for me and my family.

Do you get to Perth much?

That’s me on the left alongside Jane Menzies, Samiah Umer, Ron Bradfield Jnr. and John Rees as part of a lunchtime public storytelling event. Ron’s the best at telling yarns. I recited my Pepeha, an introduction of my Māori lineage and identity, and taught everyone a Maori nursery rhyme with actions

As an arts worker, it’s sometimes a bit lonely. It’s not like there’s a workforce equivalent to mining or education, health etc, those bigger industries in our regional towns. It seems like for every 30,000 people, there’s maybe 5 – 10 people working at a semi/professional level in the Creative Industries. I absolutely love the people I work with now – Shout Out to Euphorium – but I would also like to meet you and learn about your day too, the tasks and responsibilities you have and what you have achieved. Maybe if there’s something getting you down, grants (ugh) or engagement, we could work together!

I think that the job I have now is a ‘future job’. As a slightly directionless youth I attended a lot of career guidance sessions but never came to the conclusion that what I do now was even a role. I had been involved in arts in school and as a hobby and as a teenager, when collecting the dole had to enrol in a program which had a mutli-arts curriculum and was a memorable 10 months spent with like minded creative teens. I thought I might like a job as a painter and decorator or signwriter, but the first was apparently “not going to be your cup of tea love, not with all the swearing” and the second, was quickly becoming a digital industry for which I had little interest – I wanted to hand paint signs and it had already become obsolete!

It wasn’t until I attended the 2017 Regional Arts WA conference in Mandurah that I had that lightbulb moment, “I’m an arts worker”, I hadn’t wielded the brush but I had played a fairly significant role in the production of the 2017 & 2018 Heartwalk CBD festival in Kalgoorlie-Boulder as the Project Assistant, thrilled to have been working with Creative Director Paula Fletcher. She’s so smart and talented, I’ll introduce you to her too.

Our submission for the 4.2km walking trail created from mapping the 50+ murals of Heartwalk, supported by the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, to the Australian Street Art Awards won Bronze in the Street Art Trail category in March 2021. Pretty satisfying. Have you seen the murals yet? You can download a map here and hit the KB streets www.heartwalkcbd.com. In September I’ll be there ~~running~~ doing guided walking tours. If you’d like to wait, we can grab a cuppa and check it all out together.

A little more about me and my day… I work as an Investment Officer for Euphorium, a Creative Production company based in Geraldton. There aren’t enough words in the blog post to tell you all about what we do so please check out the website linked at the end of this blog.

My role is a bit creative but more often process driven. I love that act, belong, commit mantra* and love making connections in the community, I trawl websites for funding opportunities and am working with the innovation industry to see what investments or partnerships there are available for arts development. If you’ve met the dynamic Katie Evans from the Junction Co in Port Hedland, you’ll know that there are many opportunities for growth if we just become that much more corporate in our thinking and do better at building cross industry relationships.

I’m not suggesting we should become joined at the hip because who needs that kind of pressure but there’s all sorts of platforms that we can connect on for the intro and extroverted. If you’re keen to start a convo and want to collab or commiserate please send me a text. Mycelium, driven by Fiona Sinclair from Southern Forest Arts, will make our connections stronger. If you’re not already subscribed please do so now. We’ve all learnt that we can work together remotely and how good it is for our well-being to stay in touch professionally and socially so let’s keep up the momentum and see what cool things can become of it.

I love all sorts of art. Here’s a video of me dancing in front of a Roderick Sprigg mural in Leonora because that’s what art does for me. It makes me jive.