RADF projects on show

Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF) Southern Downs will this week begin a series of two Retrospective Exhibitions aimed at showcasing the innovation, diversity and enduring appeal of projects funded in this region during the past 20 years.
In addition to celebrating past successes, the regional committee hopes to promote similar originality in future arts projects throughout our region.
The RADF Turns 20 Project coordinator and curator of the exhibitions, Dorothy Haig, said that her “research has shown that many of the projects funded in the 1990s have been found, almost 20 years later, to have had an enduring effect on local communities and remain an important part of their psyche”.
“Projects such as the restoration of the old bullock wagon in Killarney with associated veteran logger, Eric Reis; Dawn Heath’s photographs depicting “A Town Like Allora”; stoneworks, Tiddalick on the banks of the Condamine in Warwick and The Lesleys created to overlook Lesley Dam by then Leyburn sculptor, Vern Foss; and the book, Echoes of Italian Voices: family histories from Queensland’s Granite Belt edited by Franco and Morwenna Arcidiacono from Stanthorpe, are examples of important symbols of life in our communities, symbols which became possible through RADF funding,” Ms Haig said.
The first Retrospective Exhibition will be launched today at the Civic Centre Supper Room in Stanthorpe from 5.30pm to 7pm and remain open to the public between 10am and 4pm until Sunday.
This will be repeated in Warwick at the Warwick Town Hall, with a launch on Thursday, December 8, from 5.30pm to 7pm and will be similarly available for viewing by the public until Sunday, December 11.
Committee members will be available to discuss possible projects with potential applicants for future RADF funding at both venues during the exhibitions.
To RSVP attendance at either of the launches, please contact Sue Organ on (07) 4681 5527 or email sue.organ@southerndowns.qld.gov.au