Project Vision:

A connected, collaborative, sustainable and flourishing WA regional arts sector with greater resilience to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic (and other challenges) through the exchange of ideas, expertise, resources and support that grow shared vision, opportunities and benefits, including increased wellbeing for individual participants and social and cultural vibrancy for participating regional WA communities.

Project Outcomes

1. Increased connection within WA’s regional arts sector

2. Increased collaboration within WA’s regional arts sector

3. Increased sustainability within WA’s regional arts sector

4. Increased flourishing within WA’s regional arts sector

5. Increased resilience within WA’s regional arts sector

6. Increased wellbeing for individual participants

7. Increased social and cultural vibrancy for participating regional WA communities

Project Overview

Project Values:

Connection

Collaboration

Creativity

Community

Sustainability

Project Timeframe:

Mycelium will be delivered in four distinct stages

1. Stage #1: Scoping

   (June - December 2020)

2. Stage #2: Connection

   (January - June 2021)

3. Stage #3: Collaboration & Creativity

   (July 2021 - June 2022)

4. Stage #4: Community

   (July 2022 - June 2023)

Project Management:

Mycelium is the second project of The Creative Grid collective.

The Creative Grid was formed in 2017 through the Regional Arts Partnership Program (a pioneering funding program developed by Regional Arts WA).

It is a project-specific network of regional community organisations and independent arts practisers, connected to relevant metro-based Peak Service Organisations.

The collective is coordinated by Fiona Sinclair in conjunction with Southern Forest Arts.

Development Ethos:

The Creative Grid utilises a combination of approaches to project design and delivery:

• Abundance mindset - not a scarcity mindset - based on trust and reciprocity

• Co-design - the project is collectively, planned, developed and delivered

• Emergence is embraced - the project is adaptive and evolving

• Grass-roots - growth from the ground up, not the top down

• ABCD (Asset Based Community Development) principles

Project Activity Summary

Mycelium’s four project stages build one upon the other, in a deliberate layering of activities that grow the trust, complexity and reciprocity of The Creative Grid network over time.

1. Stage #1: Scoping

2. Stage #2: Connection

3. Stage #3: Collaboration & Creativity

4. Stage #4: Community

Stage #1: Scoping

(June - December 2020)

Scoping the project involves a two-way feedback process across numerous on-line and in-person platforms.

The Project Plan is currently under development. An interim Scoping Report has been completed and is available for view, upon request. The final Project Plan will be available in December.

Stage #2: Connection

(January - June 2021)

This stage focuses upon a series of conversation-based activities across multiple platforms to create an increased sense of community across the sector as it faces the ongoing challenges of the pandemic - and other (current and future) threats.

‘Connection’ nurtures trust, facilitates the exchange of ideas, expertise and support between members of the Mycelium network .

It will increase awareness about who is in the sector, what they are doing, what is working, what could be done better and how doing things collaboratively could make the sector stronger.

Some of the discussions during this stage will inform the nature of - and conceptual focus for - activities in the following stages in relation to a large-scale collaborative project that stretches across the state, based upon a single provocation/curatorial theme.

Stage #3: Collaboration & Creativity

(July 2021 - June 2022)

Deliverables in this stage are still under evolution.

There is a strong consensus for a state-wide initiative across art-forms that provides a tangible experience for organisations and individuals to work together towards a shared vision.

The model used in ‘The Alternative Archive’ exhibition series during the original Creative Grid project has been suggested as a strong commencement point. For Mycelium, it is envisaged that the sector could engage in a single conversation topic that can be explored in any creative modality and shared with regional communities across any venue and presentation format.

Stage #4: Engage & Celebrate

(July 2022 - June 2023)

This stage is the culmination of the three previous stages. It is the moment where artists and arts organisations connect with their broader community through presentation of diverse artworks in diverse locations (perhaps an exhibition in a gallery, a film screening, a dance performance, street theatre, a festival feature, a written publication, a public artwork).

It is envisaged that there will be a series of regional launches/celebrations and potentially one or more metro showcases.

The conclusion of this stage will be a final evaluation report, distributed to Mycelium participants, funding partners and other relevant individuals/groups.

Project Title

Why Mycelium is the perfect metaphor

It was suggested by a respondent in Survey #1 that we reinforce the relevance of the title 'Mycelium' by regularly exploring its connectivity.

So, throughout the project we’ll refer to images, scientific ponderings, vague creative ramblings, mind maps etc that build resonance between the activities undertaken in the project and the mycelium networks commonly understood by mycologists, botanists, biologists and gardeners etc.

Let me start by telling you how I came up with the name...

My husband (Peter Hill) has been obsessed with Mycelium for a while now. He's deep into his 'mushroom phase' (that's a pic of his hand below, holding a little fungal gem from our bush).

An artist, avid gardener and citizen scientist he's been researching Mycelium in earnest, filling our fridge with spores, transplanting them into timber logs and building a network of mushroom clusters across our Northcliffe property. He draws mycelium networks, enthusiastically shows me bits of twig covered in finely interlaced hyphal threads and is forever watching You Tubes videos about this wondrous world beneath the surface of things.

The more he talked about the value of this network to our natural ecosystem, the more I could see the synergy between the vitality of soil in our bush and garden and the vitality of 'soil' in our regional arts sector.

The threads that connect us can also nourish us; leading us into creativity and sustainability.

[Photo credit for all fungi ages on this page: Peter Hill]