Wyaralong Sculpture Festival and Symposium

Eastern Trailhead | Wyaralong Dam | Scenic Rim

Birgit Grapentin working on Humming Stone

The Wyaralong Sculpture Festival and Symposium ran from September 26th until October 11th 2015 and featured seven acclaimed Queensland, Australian and international sculptors who created individual sculptures over 16 days to establish the Lake Wyaralong Sculpture Park on the banks of Wyaralong Dam in South East Queensland. The large-scale public artworks reflect the recreational and/or environmental elements enjoyed by Visitors to Wyaralong Dam and Mt Joyce Recreation Park.

The Symposium and Festival included the following key events:

Opening ceremony

On Saturday 26th September 2015 – Aunty Ruby and other Mununjali Elders provided a moving Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony to the seven acclaimed sculptors as they started to create seven large public artworks from lumps of rock, wood and metal at Wyaralong Dam. Aunty Ruby then joined with Member for Beaudesert Jon Krause and Mayor John Brent to caste the first blows on one of the assembled rocks.

Stone and Woodcarving workshops

Two workshops in Stone and Woodcarving workshops were by experienced sculptors at the Wyaralong Sculpture Festival and Symposium.

Closing ceremony

After 16 dats of grueling work, at 2.00pm Sunday 11th Oct 2015, a small crowd gathered to celebrate the ‘unvieling’ the seven new large scale artworks that were hewn from raw stone and wood. Those present then toured the new sculptures installed in the Lake Wyaralong Sculpture Park.

Funding

BADCAP was the major funder of the Wyaralong Sculpture Festival and Symposium using funds from over five years of fundraising in the Scenic Rim community, principally from the annual Arts in the Olives Festival.

The Wyaralong Sculpture Festival and Symposium project was made possible by the Australian Government’s Regional Arts Fund, which supports sustainable cultural development in regional, rural, and remote Australia to give artists and communities’ better access to opportunities to practice and experience the arts.

Additional funds were provided by the Queensland Government’s Regional Arts Development Fund, an Arts Queensland and Scenic Rim Regional Council partnership that supports local arts and culture. We also acknowledge the support and authorisation from Seqwater that made this event and the establishment of Lake Wyaralong Sculpture Park possible.