GRAMPIANS WILDLIFE ARTS FESTIVAL
August 31 to September 5, 2010
Produced by the Grampians Wildlife Arts Society
Directed by Peter Voice
The Grampians Wildlife Arts Festival is a workshop based event for natural history artists to experience and study Australia’s unique environment, its plants and inhabitants with unprecedented intimacy.
Based at Hall’s Gap, the festival offers 5 days of guided day and night tours of the spectacular arid mountain range that is the Grampians National Park, workshops and lectures on various materials, styles and genres of wildlife art by internationally recognised prize winning artists and exclusive after-hours and behind-scenes access to Halls Gap Zoo and its exhibits.
Spring in Halls Gap is a time of orchids, fungi, acacias and a myriad other plants filling the air with sweet earthy perfume. Birds, returning to court and breed, fill the air with sound while all manner of small creatures can be seen or heard scurrying through the forest floor. There are even dragons here but they are shy and the kangaroos, wallabies, emus and possums are easier to find.
Halls Gap Zoo ( http://hallsgapzoo.com.au/ ) is home to some of the world’s rarest and most endangered creatures. A member of the Australasian Regional Association of Zoology Parks and Aquaria (ARAZPA) it is an active participant in national and international captive breeding and release programs. Amongst its precious inhabitants are severely endangered Bilbies and Quolls and the Mainland Tammar Wallaby once extinct in its Australian homeland. Several healthy families of Tasmanian Devils are safely quarantined here, far from the fatal disease devastating the Tasmanian population.
The combination of these elements is a priceless opportunity for serious wildlife and natural history artists to explore, study and record one of the world’s most beautiful natural environments and its unique treasures. Accommodation choices range from simply camping in the park to the boutique elegance of The Mountain Grand Hotel and everything in between.
The 2010 event is strictly limited to 60 participating artists, 15 each in 4 main workshop streams and culminates with the inaugural invitational “Halls Gap Wildlife Art Exhibition”.
The workshop leaders will be Chris McClelland (http://www.wildprints.com.au/), Janet Flinn (http://www.janetflinn.com/index.htm), Stephen Powell (http://www.stephenpowell.com.au/) and Ego Guiotto (Aust. Geographic covers, stamps etc). Several secondary workshops, demonstrations and short lectures are scheduled to compliment the main workshops.
The exhibition will be partially invitational, featuring work by the workshop leaders and regionally significant artists both past and present, and an independently curated selection of works submitted by the workshop applicants.
A temporary website can be viewed at
http://hallsgapzoo.com.au/gallery-gift-shop/grampians-wildlife-arts-festival/
Further information and enquiries
Big Hill Art 61 (0)3 5358 3746 chalkcircle@iprimus.com.au
Halls Gap Zoo 61 (0)3 5356 4668 info@hallsgapzoo.com.au
After Hours 61 (0)3 5358 1918
If you are looking for accommodation, we recommend www.grampiansholidayhouse.com.au
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