Winton a hive of placemaking-public art

Recently Fiona and I were fortunate enough to do a road trip to Mackay and Longreach for art purposes. On the way to Longreach we passed through Winton and were impressed with a number of placemaking art pieces including: the Waltzing Matilda story; the Musical fence; and Arno's Wall.

In this post I will share a few photos of the Waltzing Matilda display and will do separate posts on the Musical Fence and Arno's crazy wall.

The Waltzing Matilda place is on a median strip in the main street. The Waltzing Matilda poem originated in Winton so it is really part of that place; and the public art is therefore connected to the community - it creates a sense pof place. The 'art piece' consists of a series of sandstone blocks - about 900mm high and 600mm square. Each block has a verse of Waltzing Matilda and out of the block is some bronze piece that represents the core element of the verse. The photos show the overall place and a few of the blocks. The other thing that amazed us was that this was created with public funds.

Sculpture on the Edge - sculptures reflecting place

In one sense the Sculpture on the Edge Exhibition advertised in the flyer below is not really placemaking art in the purest sense but in a broader sense it is.

A bunch of Arts Connect and ArtSite artists (about 15 artists in all) are creating sculptural art for places. In the exhibition these art pieces will be in the Lucas Parklands garden and associated rain forest walk; but the art could also be just as well suited to public and community places.

The artists have accepted the challenge to create new works and installations (some ephemeral and some that can be moved to other locations) that reflect the forest and the special features of the forest walk. Many of the works will be comments on aspects of the place and aim to communicate that to visitors.