Goulburn’s Lieder Theatre director Chrisjohn Hancock and film maker Hilary Balmond from Welby and were each awarded a 2018 Veolia Creative Arts Scholarships for their arts practice.

Sculptor and painter Lucinda Lewis of Moss Vale received an Arts Recognition Scholarship.

Veolia Creative Arts Patron Jennifer Lamb and Wingecarribee Shire Council Cultural Development Officer and panel member Jenny Kena recently presented the scholarships, which aim to support practicing and emerging artists and recognise the valuable contribution artists make to enrich our community.

Ms Lamb said the Veolia Mulwaree Trust must be congratulated for its support of creative arts  through the scholarships.  

“There are many arts workers across all artistic disciplines in our region, and most receive minimal financial reward for their work, even though that work enriches communities across the region – and beyond” Ms Lamb said.  “The Veolia Mulwaree Trustees are enlightened in their recognition of this and in their financial and moral support for the artistic vitality of our region.” 

This is the 11^th year the scholarships have been awarded, assisting 40 artists across the region. Applications for 2019 Veolia Creative Arts Scholarships will open early next year.

The scholarships are on offer to local creative artists working in any arts discipline, including but not limited to, visual arts, music, theatre and writing, in either arts practice or arts study from the region serviced by the Veolia Mulwaree Trust.

A $3000 Arts Practice Scholarship was presented to theatre director Chrisjohn Hancock of Goulburn. He has been artistic director of the Lieder Theatre Company in Goulburn since 1992 and has a passion for working in regional communities to create and producing arts projects that are entertaining, innovative, educational, challenging, healing and dynamic.

Chrisjohn has been invited to take part in Teatr Brama's major Theatre Festival in Poland in 2018, the culmination of a four year social theatre project throughout Europe working with more than 50 cultural professionals and their associated communities across Europe and beyond.

Teatr Brama's director and part of their company will visit the Lieder Theatre in Goulburn in October. Chrisjohn’s participation in the Poland event will inform the nature and direction of the local event planned to host this international group.

Film maker Hilary Balmond, from Welby, received a $3000 Arts Practice Scholarship.

She has finished the principal filming of her recent feature documentary 'Champion Girls' and the film is now in post production.

She intends to use the Veolia Mulwaree Trust scholarship toward editing and finishing of 'Champion Girls' and to enter it  in the Sydney Film Festival 2018 at 'rough cut' stage.

Several of the characters in the film are from the Wingecarribee and Wollondilly areas and Hilary hopes that the film is screened in regional cinemas around Australia.

Sculptor and painter Lucinda Lewis from Moss Vale received a $1000 Arts Recognition Scholarship.  Her sculptures are generally abstract with a systematic, playful approach to colour, line and shape, aiming to create harmonious symmetry with the forms and shapes relating to each other and the surrounding space.

Lucinda was a Tom Bass Sculpture Prize finalist and will be exhibiting at the Bowral Art Gallery in 2018.