Welcome to the Portland CEMA website!

"Portland CEMA Inc" is the umbrella organisation for the Arts in Portland, Victoria, Australia. We provide facilities and resources that allow local groups of like minded individuals to pursue their artistic passion. The artistic disciplines our groups pursue vary from quilt making to woodturning, from poetry reading to choral music, from painting to screen printing and various others in between and beyond. We promote services to the Arts at an executive level, providing members on the Glenelg Shire's "Arts Advisory Committee" and "The Arts Company Board of Management". We also disburse donations from our "CEMA Public Fund" as appropriate to needy arts bodies and projects in the region.

Our closely associated organisation: "The Arts Company" manages the "Portland Visual Arts Complex" which provides a shop front for members to sell their work, as well as providing gallery and work space for most of our visual art groups.  It also runs the "June Hedditch Apartments", which provide artist's accommodation in the centre of town. Although The Arts Company is technically a separate entity from Portland CEMA, it sprang from us originally and most people that produce their art at the Arts Company are members of Portland CEMA.

This website provides information on the current and past activities of both Portland CEMA and The Arts Company, at the executive and also at the member group level. Here you can find information on the major facilities utilised by our members at the Portland Arts Centre and the Portland Visual Arts Complex.. There is also information on The June Hedditch Apartments for those who wish artist accommodation. Here you can find web pages for all our member groups, containing information and history for current and prospective members. Here also are photo galleries of selected performances and exhibitions run by CEMA, The Arts Company and their member groups. Finally it is here that you can find details of coming exhibitions and performances, the latest news from our President and the full text of our newsletters, from the very latest to years old.

How Did We Do It?

It hasn't been easy to develop this level of organisation, resource and expertise. Generations of dedicated Portlanders and Heywoodites have worked very hard for more than 60 years on a volunteer basis to build it up. Along the way people have also had a great deal of fun and a vast number of concerts, shows and exhibitions have been put on for the enjoyment and cultural enrichment of the local public.

But why Portland?

Maybe the temperate environment, the stunning scenery and wild coast attracts people who are interested in the Arts and cultural development.

Maybe it is the remoteness; being halfway between Melbourne and Adelaide. With the relative paucity of imported entertainment Portland people have had to make their own.

So Where Is Portland?

Built on a couple of volcanic capes out-thrust from the sandy bays on each side of it, Portland boasts the best deep- water harbour between Melbourne and Adelaide. The continental shelf is just 40 km from Portland and there is nothing but sea due south all the way to Antarctica, giving Portland some of the cleanest air in the world.