Artist Accommodation

The June Hedditch Apartments

(Low Cost Rental Accommodation For Visiting Artists)

Located at The Arts Company, these apartments offer self-catering accommodation in Portland's heritage precinct, close to the beach, port, restaurants, cinema, Portland Arts Centre, Botanic Gardens and Fawthrop Lagoon.

Up to three people may be accommodated in each of the two one-bedroom apartments, which share a kitchen and bathroom. The apartments are on the first floor of The Arts Company and are accessed by stairs.

Charges are kept to a minimum but The Arts Company needs to cover operational costs of the apartments.

Successful applicants could be employed, sponsored or self-funded, and The Arts Company may also assist in organising workshops, exhibitions and projects.

The Arts Company is a not-for-profit organisation managed by volunteers from the seven resident arts groups, and in addition to the apartments, the venue provides well-equipped visual arts workshops, meeting and display space, and a gallery/sales outlet. Performance facilities are also available in the nearby Portland Arts Centre.

The Arts Company fosters creative partnerships between the local community and visiting artists, in visual and performing arts, crafts, writing, cultural or environmental research, working in a variety of disciplines and venues.

See the Rates and Application Form pages for further information.

Background

Portland is a heritage town with superb landscapes and a supportive arts environment (see Portland CEMA, and The Arts Company pages).

Artist residencies have featured in Portland for over 25 years, developing people's arts skills and equipment, and leading to development of the visual arts groups now housed at The Arts Company.

Portland has a tradition of resident artists working on community arts projects, which aided the development of textiles and fibre, leadlighting and screen printing groups. They have been joined by art, etching, photography and wood-turning groups at The Arts Company, all enjoying professional-quality facilities.

Part of this was the Portland Emerging Artist Residencies Projects: (PEAR), 1998 - 2002, (see PEAR page).

Benefits of Artist Residency

Most artists appreciate an opportunity to focus on particular projects, or to use time in Portland as a retreat, Generally, visiting artists gain :

	Experience of a seaside regional town and its community arts environment.
	Access to a range of on-site art form studios, available by arrangement.
	Opportunity for exhibition or performance if required
	Opportunity to run workshops with local groups (subject to costs and sufficient interest).

The Portland arts community enjoys interaction with the visiting artists and their activities.

Past Resident Artists

Resident artists at The Arts Company have pursued textiles (weaving, fabric printing, fashion and costume design with performance), screen printing, etching, painting and drawing, writing and photography, for from one to 6 weeks. They have been from Sydney, Canberra, Byron Bay, New York and India; and from Melbourne , Mildura and Timboon.

Artist residents have found their experience and interaction with local artists personally and professionally stimulating; after three visits, one has bought a house and now lives in Portland.

Past artists in the PEAR program were:

Ilka White - weaving (Vic)

Freedom Wilson - fabric screen printing, embellishment, and fashion design (Vic)

Emma Ikin - costume design and execution; presentation with performance (Vic & Tas)

Kami Smith - painting, digital imaging, screen printing (NSW)

Todd Baxter - painting and panoramic works on paper (Vic)

Mark Kerr - photography and display installation (Vic)

Other recent visiting artists:

Jay Pearse - etching/painting (NSW)

Freedom Wilson - textiles (Vic)

Robyn Sweeney - painting (NSW)

Yolanda Matlakowski - etching (Vic)

Fiona Blair - theatre (Vic)

Denise Kasof - etching (USA)

Pilar de la Torre - etching (Vic)

Christine Gates - print-making (Vic)

Anne Tassie - painting/mixed media (SA)

Tonchi McIntosh - music (Vic)

Mukesh Sharma - print-making (India)

Monash Jazz Quintet - music (Vic)

Peter Dunn - drawing/painting (SA)

Cathy Johnson - writing (Vic)

Email: jhapartments@portlandcema.org.au

Phone: (03) 5523 6566 Fax: (03) 5523 6566

International Phone: 61 3 5523 6566

Snail Mail: The June Hedditch Apartments Coordinator

The Arts Company

19-21 Julia St. Portland

Victoria, 3305

Australia