7/28/2019 Punctum Next on Now Substation

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THE SUBSTATION 1 Market Street Newport 3015P.O Box 57 Williamstown 3016PHONE (03) 9391 1110FAX (03) 9391 1220

www.thesubstation.org.au

To the Visual Arts Board ARI panel,

As curator and head of the Visual Arts team at The Substation, I am delighted to support Punctums grantapplication forNext On Now.

In 2012 the Substation partnered two significant initiatives with Punctum.The first featured a new live art/installation work by a Punctum mentored artist Katie Sfetkidis.Her work, Dark Matters, was noteworthy on several levels its high production values, the freshorientation it brought to our program of exhibiting artists, the way in which it engaged in new ways withaudiences and brought critical debate around live art to The Substation, and the extent to which the artist

was self sufficient. Dark Matters was booked out and went on to great success as part of the Under TheRadar festival program.

The second initiative in late 2012 was the first regional placement of the Substations initiative FutureNow. Future Now is a curated exhibition of selected Honours graduates from the Victorian College of theArts. We received funding trhough the VCA and Arts Victoria to tour the exhibition to 3 regional centres.Our first incursion was to Castlemaine in partnership with Punctum. Working in close collaboration withPunctums Artistic Director,Punctums networks and artists, together we initiated artists talks and criticaldebates, school workshops, and field trips with over two hundred people. Punctums collaboration wasconsidered exemplary by the VCA , the artists exhibited, the schools and participants and set a standardthat we now aspire to for regional partnerships. We are therefore very keen to extend our collaborationwith Punctum through supporting their Next On Now initiative which has grown from their analysis of a

pilot of the same name which took place through a residency in Bendigo over 6 months in 2011 and early2012.

The ongoing rigor, support and resourcing that Punctum brings to emerging art forms and artists is uniquein regional Australia and we share in their desire to encourage and drive innovation and excellence inemerging artists practice. To this end The Substation will participate in the selection of the 5 emergingartists, and in collaboration with Kent Wilson arts writer and himself a curator - facilitate regionally baseddialogue and critical debate around each artists work along with a half day workshop forum on thecurating of emerging art forms. The Substation also undertakes to curate works emanating from the NextOn Now initiative within its program of exhibitions and contemporary installations/live art/ performance.Housed in the historic Newport Substation, The Substation Gallery consists of six curated exhibitionspaces and presents a monthly program of exhibitions from emerging and established contemporary

artists.

We look forward to partnering Punctum in this new and exciting initiative which encourages audiences andartists alike to engage with excellence and surprise in the work of emerging artistsPlease dont hesitate to contact me should you have any queries.

Kind regards,

J essica BridgfootCurator, Visual Arts Program Manager The Substation

23/01/13