Small Town Transformations

Small Town Transformations invited Victorians to think big about how art could transform their town.

Across the state, nearly a third of all eligible towns with fewer than 1,500 people responded to our provocation. Following an intensely competitive application process, Avoca, Ouyen, Natimuk, Neerim South and Ouyen were each granted $350,000 to embark on a significant artistic project that would leave a lasting legacy.

Small Town Transformations was presented from 2012 - 2014 by Regional Arts Victoria on behalf of the Victorian Government.

I was the Project Coordinator at Regional Arts Victoria for Small Town Transformations.

Image Joanna Gould

Connecting history, community and a sense of place was essential to Avoca’s transformation. In collaboration with landscapers, historians and artists, a garden has been created celebrating Avoca’s Chinese heritage. The Garden of Fire and Water speaks to more than just the history of the area; it has started a broader discussion in the small community about inclusivity and cultural legacy.

Every element of the garden has been carefully considered, from the wood used in the pavilion, to the beautiful Scholar Rock by Chinese Australian artist Lindy Lee. It has become a place of quiet contemplation and cross-cultural understanding in the town.

Image Joanna Gould

Something started to stir in Dookie in early 2013. A key creative group saw potential in the places and people of the town to create something excellent. What started with an idea for a majestic but hidden quarry grew into an artistic project that touched every member of the community.

With active participation across Dookie and far further afield, creative gatherings transformed the town. The biggest of these was the 12-hour festival Dookie Earthed, a stunning critical mass that overtook the town with street works, opera on silos, children’s performances, and an unforgettable evening of sound and light works in the quarry. Dookie Earthed lives on through the Dookie Arts Hub, a dedicated art space that will create many a future project and keep the Dookie creative vision alive. 

Image Joanna Gould

Dookie - Dookie Earthed 2014. Image Joanna Gould

A strong artistic community inspires the town of Natimuk, from the adventurous climbers of Mt Arapiles to the collaborators on Nati Frinj festival. It was this group who originally saw the creative possibilities in the median strip in the centre of town. Working with artists and town residents, the aim was to create a new space that was inclusive, social and imaginative.

The entire Natimuk community shaped the project as a whole, creating a gathering place on the verge that includes a communal table and play spaces, as well as a striking centrepiece: The Thing. This enormous sculpture needs your arms and legs to power it, and as it lights up, it focuses Natimuk’s new place for gathering and creativity.

Image Joanna Gould

Naitmuk - The Verj 2014. Image Joanna Gould

Building a strong sense of community is what motivated Neerim South, drawing on the power of art to create meaning, identity and lasting connections across a town. While the great Bower sculpture is the project’s most recognisable artwork, its development has inspired creative projects all over Neerim South.  

Neerim South’s local artists and makers led the design and fabrication of The Bower. The transformative work has happened in the gatherings, workshops, schools projects, competitions and sculpture prizes that have embedded creative collaboration into the town’s ethos. As soon as you drive through their new gateway, you know that Neerim South is a town inspired. 

Images Ruth Burleigh

Neerim South - The Neerim Bower 2014. Images David Brown

In the heart of Ouyen is the iconic Roxy Theatre, The Jewel of the Mallee. It’s also the central point for Ouyen’s transformation, creating a vibrant centre for the town through art, architecture and landscape for a new public space. What began as a focus on one site rapidly stimulated satellite projects that built a strong creative momentum.

A wall garden, terrazzo artworks, a historically researched performance in the hundred-year-old Ouyen Courthouse, a movie heralding the zombie apocalypse: these works are original, cross-generational, meaningful and fun. Ouyen has embraced the power of art to bring people together, with a legacy of collaboration that will carry on.

Image Fleur Ruddock

Ouyen - Mallee Up in Lights. Image Joanna Gould