Art funding for Pambula

Pambula Business Chamber president, Michelle Pettigrove said they were thrilled to receive the funding which would allow the village to make a start on its art trail.

The project has been planned over the last 18 months after a discussion at the chamber meeting when the idea of painting some of the bare walls (not heritage ones) was raised.

Now the chamber aims to get artwork installed 17 bare walls around the town ranging from 2sqm to 30sqm in size which will give Pambula its own art trail around the village.

In addition the chamber plans to have a self-guided history tour taking advantage of a number of historic buildings and sites. There are 22 locations in all and the information about each location has been written.

Bendigo Bank has already agreed to provide assistance with signage for the historic tour and both the Merimbula Imlay Historical Society and the Bega Valley Genealogical Society have been consulted for their advice.

Ms Pettigrove said council's grant writing expert, April Merrick, was "instrumental" in providing assistance which helped them tackle the job of finding and applying for the right grant.

Ms Pettigrove said that the chamber would like to see Aboriginal input in both the art trail and the self-guided history walk.

"The great thing is the project is scalable; we can make a start and move on with it," she said.

"This will be great for the community. This grant funding is about helping communities recover after natural disasters and including the drought, this community has been hammered.

"It benefits the artists and brings tourists and cultural diversity," Ms Pettigrove said.

"We have a list of artists we will approach and they are all from the Bega Valley."

Some art will be painted directly onto walls and some will be put onto aluminium sheets and applied to walls.

"Public art is really important and it has the ability to reinforce community spirit. The works will represent Pambula," Ms Pettigrove said.