1997 Art is... AGRICULTURE

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Festival Manager: Carolynne Hamdorf

The early years of the festival was run entirely on volunteer energy, commitment and good will. It was all quite raw and organic, everyone considered themselves as equal contributors and all pitched in to help out. There was a real sense of camaraderie and collective fun.

During 1997 we saw the instigation of the first of many community inspired and initiated community performances. Melbourne based director; Mahony Maia Kiely was a wonderful, wise and talented facilitator of three successive festival openings and/or closings. Her ability to coax, encourage and weave magic from the community into a meaningful story was always spellbinding. Her philosophy was to work from the ground up and respond to the community's interests and desires. This approach was absolutely refreshing and also very empowering. A concept or creative direction simply wasn't imposed on the community - it came from the community.

1997 was the year of fire sticks, a fantastic exhibitions of sheds - including the Stick Shed, wacky instruments, an exhibition of bizarre bras and our first introduction to Ballarat creative duo - Peter Widmer and Geoff Bonney, aka Ratartat. The Library's facade was changed forever....

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