28 July 2019

Old buses just the ticket for CIT project funded in City Grants program

| Ian Bushnell
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CIT departments will re-purpose retired Transport Canberra buses for a Civic arts and design project. Photo: ACT Bus.

Old Canberra buses will be given new lives as part of a three-day art and design event in the latest round of the City Renewal Authority’s City Grants program.

The CIT’s Orange Wolves multi-disciplinary audience immersive experience will feature six retired Transport Canberra buses transformed by the skills and resources of CIT departments into small cinemas, music venues, fashion runways, maker spaces, and installation spaces.

The project, which has been granted $50,000, aims to provide an immersive experience including music, media, arts, fashion, technology and design.

It is one of 11 grants totalling $295,447 allocated by the Authority.

The Canberra India Council also received $50,000 to stage its popular World Curry Festival, now in its fifth year. The two-day food festival in the city includes curries from different regions, cultural performances, a chilli eating competition, and games.

Next March, Civic Square will be laugh central when the Canberra Comedy Festival turns it into Festival Square with marquees, hangout areas and free outdoor comedy events. The Authority says the Festival Square concept proved popular in 2018 and 2019, and enlivened the cultural precinct through a non-ticketed outdoor set-up and program. The Festival received $43,200 runs from 18-24 March 2020.

Civic Square will also be the focus for DESIGN Canberra’s month-long festival in November. It received $50,000 to transform the Square into its dedicated event hub during the festival. This will involve talks, entertainment, performances, art, wellness and creative ideas over three weeks. A commission for a site-specific design installation in Civic Square is also included.

The Canberra SpringOUT Association will put its $9,100 grant towards an all-day community picnic in Glebe Park on Sunday 24 November for the SpringOUT 2019 Festival’s 20th-anniversary celebration. The park will turn rainbow coloured and stage community games such as Tug-O-War and handbag toss, with entertainment from local and interstate performers including the Canberra Qwire, the Canberra Uke band, drummers, and drag kings and queens.

There will also be a family activity area with arts and crafts, a jumping castle, face painting and storytelling.

Independent arts organisation You Are Here Canberra will use its $50,000 grant to hold a three-day showcase of the ACT’s experimental art that will invite the community to interact with the city in innovative ways. Artists from a variety of disciplines will be selected from You Are Here’s 2019 Artist Development Program and will embed the unique nature of specific city spaces into their work.

A $10,000 grant will help the Braddon Town Team hold a one-day busking event in the inner city celebrating Canberra’s talent, with the goal of creating an annual festival. Buskers will compete for prizes and entry into the National Busking Festival in Cooma.

City Grants are funded through the City Centre Marketing and Improvements Levy – paid by commercial land owners in the city centre – and are managed by the City Renewal Authority.

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