ONGOING: Jaali Randall, Amy Benbow, Alistair Shaw and Jamie-Lea Novley preparing the Art Is.. Festival farewell at JRS Workshop in Horsham. Picture: PAUL CARRACHER
ONGOING: Jaali Randall, Amy Benbow, Alistair Shaw and Jamie-Lea Novley preparing the Art Is.. Festival farewell at JRS Workshop in Horsham. Picture: PAUL CARRACHER
Art Is … finished, new festival starts
25 June 2025
The Art Is … Festival has ended, although its three-decade legacy of bringing groups in the Horsham region together for participation and inclusiveness will continue in a new festival, announced last week.
Former festival director Alistair Shaw said Art Is … Festival funding, as well as volunteer numbers, had decreased, prompting the event’s end.
“We were quite well-supported financially by Creative Victoria, but we could not attract crowds during COVID-19, which affected funding,” he said.
“But things will emerge to fill this space – there are other festivals that grew out of Art Is … such as the Nati Frinj, and Wimmera Steampunk.”
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The festival was farewelled at Horsham’s JRS Workshop on Tuesday last week, where workshop general manager Shaine Hobbs said it went out ‘with a bang’.
“This would have been the fourth year we opened for the Art Is … Festival, and because our participants had been working on their pieces for a year already, I decided we were going to go out with a bang – I didn’t want the participants to miss out,” she said.
Workshop participants are from a range of backgrounds, including children’s workshops, people with a disability, and members of the public.
The workshop’s JR Crew announced the launch of the Unique Arts Ability Festival at last week’s event.
“It will be similar to the Art Is … Festival, we want the whole community to be involved, along with other galleries, artists and businesses in the area. We don’t want the festival to stop. We will run it with the JR Crew to fundraise for Tri State Games athletes,” Ms Hobbs said.
Mr Shaw said he was confident the new festival, with its connections to businesses and community, would succeed.
“Something based out of JRS Workshop, where there is bricks and mortar, but also permanent people, has got all the makings for it to happen,” he said.
“It was a really nice farewell JRS did for us. It reminded us that inclusion and diversity had always been a feature of the festival.”
