Arts and culture come together

A new series of cultural leadership workshops comes to Brimbank in March with hopes it will spark an arts boom.

The workshops are designed by Multicultural Arts Victoria and will feature four sessions across the month that bring together culturally diverse artists and community leaders to share ideas and knowledge.

Facilitator Debby Maziarz said it was a wide-ranging program, with as many as 50 participants expected at each session.

“The topics are around project planning and design, and effective grant writing,” Ms Maziarz said. “It’s all about encouraging and inspiring artists to think about projects in different ways.

“There’s huge capacity for building and skill development when you bring all the different communities together.”

Ms Maziarz has run similar workshops over the past three years, and said the melting pot of ideas often yielded an explosion of new projects in the local artistic communities.

“Every time I’ve done these workshops, everyone gets into the room together and they’re just bursting with ideas,” she said.

“I think often people undervalue the value and connections of their communities, and they don’t realise how well placed they are for things like grants.

“When we all come together and share ideas, we always walk out feeling very positive.

“Brimbank is such a big area geographically and culturally, and the opportunity for a huge number of culturally diverse projects is enormous.”

The free workshops at St Albans Community Centre will run on four Saturdays starting March 4, 10.30am-12.45pm. Bookings essential: 9188 3681 or office@multiculturalarts.com.au