House debates

Wednesday, 12 May 2021

Statements by Members

Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand Fund

1:37 pm

Photo of Celia HammondCelia Hammond (Curtin, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I recently had the opportunity to visit FORM, an innovative not-for-profit arts organisation in my electorate, with the minister for arts, the Hon. Paul Fletcher, to see how the government's Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand, or RISE, Fund has supported them. FORM received $400,000 in RISE funding, which helped them deliver the Scribblers Festival, a literature and arts festival for young people in Western Australia. The festival highlights the transformative power of storytelling through author talks, creative workshops, community engagement and art installations.

As an unashamed 'brickhead' and devotee of LEGO Masters, I found one of the most impressive of these art installations to be RELICS: Bricks of the New World, which was created by Jackson Harvey and Alex Towler. For those not in the know, they were the winners of LEGO Masters series 2. RELICS presents a version of earth in 2530 where humans have long since left the planet. In the relics left behind by humans, LEGO minifigurines have sprung up to create a new civilisation. These include a civilisation of mechanics working in the back of an abandoned VW and a creative civilisation living inside a piano. Honestly this is an amazing piece of work, and it engages both young and old on many levels. I would encourage everybody in my electorate, indeed in the whole of Perth, to visit the Goods Shed on Shenton Road in Claremont.