Beat spoke to Francesca Valmorbida, one of the artistic directors of the inaugural GLOW Winter Arts Festival. What has been the biggest challenge for Valmorbida in putting GLOW together? “The sheer size of the festival and our desire to collaborate,” she answers. “There are 50 events over 11 days – all of which have wide and varied elements. We have tried to involve every part of the City – from Chadstone to Chapel Street, Toorak Road to Dandenong Road, and we are including larger institutions such as the Polytechnic, as well as providing opportunity for the area’s primary schools, as well as visual artists, performance artists, musicians, singers, dancers, actors…and this is just an overview of the artists involved in the event.”
Was there a particular aim or objective Valmorbida set for herself, apart from the obvious one of putting together a successful festival? “The main aim of the festival is to celebrate arts and culture as well as collaboration,” she says. “We also wanted to inspire people to get out and about in the City of Stonnington in winter. The program is spread across all of the major activity centres and gives residents, tourists and people from across Melbourne a reason to do something cultural even though it’s cold.” How long has this been planned? How did the original concept arise? ”The City of Stonnington has wanted to create a winter arts festival to enliven the City for some time, and a commitment was made last year to bring it to life. From then, it was full steam ahead programming an accessible arts and cultural program across the City’s various precincts.”
How did they source the acts? “We looked at what the cultural community was working on, both locally and further afield. We also talked about the many fabulous organisations which were creating really exciting programs that had not been developed or seen in the City, which is how we ended up working with the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and the Writers Festival, for example.” There’s an interesting mixture of events and performers. How did you finally choose who was to be part of it? “We wanted to create a program that offered something for everyone. We programmed events we wanted to see, and, as the dates are set during the school term, we had the opportunity to engage with demographics differently. For instance, centre-stage of the festival is the incredible, awe-inspiring Exxopolis by Architects of Air, a spectacular walk-through installation that comes to life with light. Exxopolis is for everyone, but we have invited local primary schools to enjoy it for free during the week, so the adults can enjoy it in the evenings. For people who want to do something after work, there is also the GLOW Comedy Club programmed by the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, there is Flicks ‘n’ Feasts, which combines classic films and food in the laneway outside Prahran Market, we’ve got spectacular music and dancing in Malvern Town Hall, and a sensational cabaret lineup at Chapel Off Chapel. There are also a wide variety of exhibitions throughout the City, youth events and community activities, all offering something unique.”
Stonnington Council seems to be a generous one in terms of awarding grants and supporting the arts in general. How do you see this reflected in the community arts scene?
“Art and culture is very important to the City of Stonnington – it’s a creative city on many fronts. We have a dynamic annual events calendar packed full of music and performance held throughout our beautiful buildings and parks, and supported by the local community. We hope the addition of GLOW gives residents and visitors the opportunity to engage with their local more urban scene at a time when most of us choose to remain indoors.”
Are there any acts in particular that Valmorbida is looking forward to seeing? “What I’m most looking forward to is seeing the City’s streets come to life. Winter is fun if you rug up. I’m looking forward to the return of Arts Burst pop up festival over the last weekend of GLOW – there will be live street performances, music and light projections, an exhibition in shop windows taking place along the length of Chapel Street, with the highlight being KAGE who are to perform on the corner of Chapel and Green Streets in Windsor – without saying too much, they are not-to-be-missed performers on a fork lift.”
Were there any fights over what to include and what to leave out? “We had a clear idea of what we wanted to GLOW to look like, and as it came in to being, it was just a matter of selecting the most suitable venues and the most compatible partners.”
Would Valmorbida describe this as a curated festival? Did she have model or get inspiration from other festivals? “It is definitely a curated festival from a collective perspective. Our inspiration really came from the arts organisations around us and the festival name GLOW embodies our inspiration – we wanted to illuminate the streets of Stonnington, invite people to enjoy the arts in the streets during the winter, and warm them with laughter and dancing.”
Will it become an annual event? “That’s the plan. We’re looking forward to seeing how this year unfolds, and already have some concepts we are developing for next year. We are looking to incorporate the community’s feedback into future programs.”
BY LIZA DEZFOULI
