Gudgenby Ready-Cut Cottage Residency

Venturing Past an Idea

Complimenting the Gudgenby Ready-Cut Cottage Residency project, was a half day forum aimed at exploring creative projects which engage the community and foster non-traditional relationships.

Venturing Past an Idea brought together examples of projects that link the arts with community through topical issues such as environment, heristage and audience participation.

Welcome and introduction
Barbara McConchie, Executive Director, Craft ACT
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Paull McKee and Kirstie Rea Artists
Paull McKee and Kirstie Rea are artists from different disciplines and together they will discuss their time as residents in the Gudgenby Ready-Cut Cottage.

Paull McKee
What interests Paull McKee is the relationships between heritage, environment and the arts, the values these areas share and how contemporary art practices are well placed to open dialogues between these sectors. Through our art practices we are able to find creative ways of interpreting and making visible these shared values of empathy, concern, generosity, curiosity, enjoyment and hope.
McKee discuss' how bringing these areas together can build relationships and grow future endeavors, referencing the 2005 project Memories in Place: Art in High Country Huts, an earlier joint venture between Craft ACT and the Namadgi National Park.
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Kirstie Rea
Kirstie Rea an internationally recognised glass artist whose practice is based in Canberra. An artist, educator and arts administrator, Rea was the Creative Director at the Canberra Glassworks during its formative inauguration, and lectured at the Australian National University School of Art for many years. She has participated in arts residencies both in Australia and internationally. Over the past twenty years Rea's work has reflected an intense interest in the environment and in particular our understanding and ability to experience it at its most transformative.
Rea shares her explorations of the Namadgi landscape and her arts practice as it relates to her experience as artist in residence at the Gudgenby Ready-Cut Cottage.
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George Gundry
George Gundry operates Willeroo, on the shores of Lake George, a 2000ha family property since 1894 raising Merino sheep, and of late, Angus cattle. Following an enormous life changing paradigm shift his new management regime successfully balances the needs of the land and people whilst achieving financial security.
George is a certified Holistic Management Educator, working to assist farm families and rural enterprises in their quest for quality of life, sustainable living and confident decision making frameworks. George will present refreshing insight and understanding which can assist us all to protect and regenerate our lives and landscapes, in particular drawing on his experiences with the arts project Baseline: Remnant Grasslands of Weereewa/Lake George. During this project George opened his property to artists Beth Hatton and Christine James, the experience becoming the focal point for the exhibition of the same name and an opportunity to share the work of holistic practices with broader audiences.
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Richard Perram, Director, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery
The Bathurst Regional Art Gallery has forged strong links with surrounding townships and within the local community to create a vibrant regional gallery. For over 50 years the historic gold mining town of Hill End has been the site of significant artistic creativity and inspiration for Australian artists. The Bathurst Regional Art Gallery plays a significant role through its management of the highly successful Hill End Artists in Residency Program.
Richard shares the stories behind the development of the residency and its values to the organisation, individuals, artists and in particular the benefits and contributions to the Hill End community.
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Barbara McConchie and Bernard Morris
Barbara and Bernard discuss the relationships developed between their respective organisations and participation on projects Memories in Place: art in high country huts and the Gudgenby Ready-Cut Cottage Residency. They will share the experiences and values of this significant landscape and natural resource as the instigator of cultural projects that reach out to the community.

Barbara McConchie, Executive Director Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre, is interested in the role of contemporary craft venues to present, promote and investigate objects made by artists, makers and designers, and the role objects play in our lives and how they add to our culture.
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Bernard Morris, Ranger-in-Charge, Namadgi National Park, has been involved with Namadgi National Park for over four years. During this time he has been involved in developing park management approaches from one of reactive seasonal resource protection processes to viewing management as a proactive whole of landscape engagement in partnership with the wider community that provides a positive legacy for enduring conservation management and heritage values understanding.
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This project is presented by Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre in association with Namadgi National Park, with assistance from the Australian Government's National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality.