AIAA Annual Report 2014-15
Made Denis Artist-in-Residence Project 2014-15
During July 2014-Jan 2015 AIAA was very fortunate to continue the highly successful Artist-in-Residence Project with visiting Balinese musician I Made Denis from Tianyar, East Bali. Fortunately, this project was supported by the NSW Regional Arts Dept with a Quicks grant of $1500 and a donation of $2000 from the schools of the mid-North Coast of NSW. Many thanks to Vana Ford, a school principal from the area who initiated this fantastic project. The Made Denis project has been AIAA’s most successful Residency to date and continued into 2015. The project has been highly valuable for both the visiting artist and for the Australian community.
The project has been very successful in creating participation and collaboration with people of all ages across a broad spectrum of the Australian community and across a wide geographical area. The project involved direct participation and experience of Balinese Kecak Dance and Balinese traditional gamelan and contemporary music, as well as Sundanese Angklung, Silat, Balinese Offerings, Balinese, Javanese and Sumatran Dance workshops and performances.
Activities during this project included school visits to St Monica’s Catholic School, St Joseph’s School Millmerran, Toowoomba Schools Program, St Catherine’s School Proserpine in Qld and Hastings Primary School, Port Macquarie, Comboyne Public School, Long Flat Public School, Beechwood Public School, Rollands Plains Upper Public School in NSW. Other activities were the AIAA School Holiday Program with free Gamelan workshops at Brunswick River Park and Railway Park Byron as well as recording with Nakula, Byron Bay NSW.
This year while resident in NSW, Made Denis worked intensively in the following areas:
- Teaching and performing at primary and high schools
- Leading Balinese Gamelan Groups such as the Balinese community in Sydney
- Collaborating and performing with Australian and Indonesian musicians
- Presenting performances of Balinese Gamelan Music and culture at festivals and music venues
Dewa Made Nurjana Project
Balinese Master Musician Dewa Made Nurjana visited Australia in December 2013 with Gamelan Master Bpk Ketut Lanus to perform at the Uplift Festival. AIAA was able to assist Bpk Dewa by providing the use of the Balinese gamelan as well as Made Denis and Bpk Agung Pindha assisting with performing with the group. When Judy Shelley visited Bali in early 2014 Bpk Dewa assisted AIAA by providing contacts and assisting with networking with the Balinese government and National government and a number of proposals were sent for funding a proposed tour to Australia. Contact was also made with the Australian Consul General. Judy Shelley then initiated a project with the NSW University whereby the gamelan group will be participating with Bpk Dewa Nurjana in the Bali Arts Festival July 2015.
In 2014 Bpk Dewa also visited Sydney and AIAA assisted him in providing contacts with adult gamelan groups such as the Balinese Community Gamelan and NSW Uni Gamelan, working together with Made Denis.
AIAA Cultural Ambassadors Project
As a direct result of this visit Bpk Dewa returned to Australia to collaborate with the Uni of NSW Gamelan in 2015 to compose, collaborate and then perform together at the Bali Arts Festival, along with Made Denis, in July 2015 supported by NSW University, New Colombo Plan and the Australian Consulate in Bali.
Byron Harmony Festival 2015
In 2015 our Annual Byron Harmony Festival was held at Main Beach Byron Bay. The Festival was coordinated by Corinne Sinclair and Judy Shelley assisted by the AIAA subcommittee- Byron Harmony Team and was a huge success for AIAA and the Nth Coast community. Held without any funding and supported only by bucket collections of donations, the one-day festival involved a very wide representation of the many indigenous and multicultural communities that live in the North Coast and incorporated a wide variety of performances by local cultural groups and artists.
People who attended and participated were very appreciative to be involved in the Byron Harmony Day event and all performers generously volunteered their time. The Festival attracted the participation of about 300 performers, volunteers and workshop leaders and attracted an audience of approx 2000.
Byron Harmony Day 2015 involved people from many CALD groups including Indigenous, Latin American, French, Brazilian, Indonesian, Indian, Middle Eastern, Thai, African and Spanish.
Many thanks to coordinators Corinne Sinclair and Judy Shelley and many others in the Harmony Team for all their hard work.
AIAA Support for Members and Cultural Organisations
The AIAA Board and National Coordinator support many other Australian and Indonesian organizations and individual artists with performances, information, support letters and guidance for their projects as well as undertaking community action and fundraising.
Judy Shelley has been assisting the Australian Consulate in Bali and Bali Arts Magazine to make connections with Australian arts people such as filmmaker Mark White, Peter Mouseferiadis from Cultural Infusion, Manolete Mora and the NSW Uni Gamelan group, David Metcalf photographer and film producer etc
Many Thanks to the National Board
Many thanks to the wonderful National Board of AIAA Malia Ritaningsih, John Lewis, Judy Shelley, Vera Kos and Cynthia Webb for their many years of dedicated support for AIAA and Indonesian cultural exchange.
Thank you to our Sponsors 2014-15
The National Board of AIAA expresses sincere appreciation for the generous support of Bay FM Community Radio, NSW Regional Arts, Balinese Community of NSW, Mid North Coast Schools cluster as well as schools and teachers throughout Australia.
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