The Stanthorpe Artists’ Festival will be held in Weeroona Park on Saturday, February 20th, 2021 from 9am – 7pm. It is a free, family friendly all day event showcasing local artists and musicians from the Granite Belt Region. Free wellbeing workshops will be run all day as well as a kids art space, a Bushkids stall for Mum’s and Bub’s and a chai tent / relax space. In conjunction, the Art Gallery will be holding public tours of the National Art Prize. There will not be food onsite so please bring a picnic, a blanket and set up to enjoy the day!
The festival’s theme is recovery, resilience and healing on many levels. As a community we have endured many challenges over the past few years and many rural families especially have been effected by the bushfires and drought that has swept the land, not to mention artists and musicians who have been without work over the past year due to Covid-19. The idea is to bring our local community together via uplifting music and inspiring art and enable people of all walks of life, young and old to unite and share their stories. Funding has been generously given by Bendigo Bank’s Bushfire Recovery Grant and there has been much support from the Southern Downs Regional Council and the Stanthorpe Regional Art Gallery.
In addition to this, there will also be a community art project where anyone who comes to the festival can participate. Boomerang Bags will be involved with many fabric swatches for people to draw or write on, creatively expressing their own experiences through the bushfires, drought and Covid-19. These swatches will then be sewed together onsite to create decorative bunting which we can put up around the festival as the day progresses. The RFS will also have a presence with their fire truck and an information stall. There will be three portraits being painted by local artists of three RFS members onsite throughout the day. After the festival, stage two of the project involves the community bunting along with the three portraits from RFS members to be toured to the local schools as a way of showing continued support and education to our younger community members.