Live and Local

Em Events was contracted to curate the Gympie Live & Local project presented by Regional Arts Services Network provider Creative Arts Alliance. Emily created a micro-festival, built a database and produced two professional development nights for music makers and venues.

She collaborated with stakeholders Gympie Regional Council, Live Music Office, Q Music in the Gympie region. Part-way through the project she became the Project Lead across five Local Government Areas and mentored and led four other curators to deliver their micro-festivals.

This body of work created employment outcomes for hundreds of musicians and support crew as well as building the profile of live, original music in the Redlands, Moreton Bay, Sunshine Coast, Noosa and Gympie regions.

Gympie Music Muster

Emily worked with the non-profit owner of Gympie Music Muster and its board to deliver a considered, gender-balanced program that represented the breadth of country music in Australia and around the world. She worked to a budget and managed all facets of the program from initial negotiations and contracting to festival logistics and delivery.

As Programmer of the festival, she liaised with industry and community, represented the brand in the media and created opportunities to advance the fundraising outcomes for the 38 local community organisations that assist in delivering the event through their hard work.

Break Out West | Canada

Emily was invited to Break Out West in Canada as an Australian representative. She attended the conference in the Yukon Territory of Western Canada as a speaker and conduit to the Australian Music Industry. While there, she advanced connections with the sector in Canada and made networks in Europe. She was asked to share the experiences of being an ally invited into remote First Nations communities to assist in cultural and capacity-building projects, the importance of maintaining the cultural intellectual property in line with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and cultural copyright. She continues to nurture these connections to advance opportunities for artists in all these territories.

Deadly Ways Cultural Connections

We helped create the Deadly Ways program with University of Southern Queensland to connect students in regional and remote areas to the possibilities of university and to deepen cultural connection to their ancestry and First Nations culture.

For four years, we helped produce immersion camps that brought young people to university campuses to be mentored by First Nations arts workers including visual artists, singers, weavers, dancers, documenters, and theatre makers.

The young people spent three days exploring their culture as well as experiencing university life and doing hands-on learning activities geared towards inspiring a desire to further study.

Half-time, Suncorp Stadium

We were asked to develop a half-time activity at Suncorp Stadium during a major football match. For this project, we connected with over 100 community members from as far afield as Cherbourg and brought 50 people together to rehearse making the Aboriginal flag from fabric in the centre of the field.

This required many hours of community consultation, logistics, travel support and stakeholder management. The statement was compelling and the feeling of empowerment by participants was powerful and tangible.