Launch of partnership with Ballarat Arts Foundation 27/4/23 Gallery

Our meeting this week had a very different feel as we moved from the Ballarat Golf Club to the historic Ballarat Art Gallery to celebrate our partnership with the Ballarat Arts Foundation (BAF) and launch our three year sponsorship of the Foundation's Mentoring Program as part of our Vocational Service program. The Mentoring Program has been successfully piloted and seeks to provide support and advice to emerging artists (of any genre) on how to build their artistic and art-business careers. Over 50 Rotarians,BAF members and guests attended the launch.

The speakers at our Mentoring Program launch included BAF President, Paula Nicholson, past Mentor Erin McCuskey, past mentee Kirrily Urquhart and poet Megan Riedl. Paula provided a detailed over- view of BAF and the history and purpose of the Mentoring Pro- gram. She emphasized the need for an organization such as BAF to support and encourage Balarat's artists.

BAF awards a range of scholarships in addition to conducting the Mentoring Program where pairs of mentors and mentees are created to provide a personalized and tailored support program.

Erin and Kirrily gave us with a detailed and humour-filled summary of how the mentoring program worked for them. They emphasized the collaborative nature of their relationship and how it developed in a non-linear manner overtime;especially given the challenges of working together during the COVID-19 lock downs! They both highlighted the need to take time help Kirrily as the mentee focus on determining her true passion and to develop strategies to achieve a balance between her artistic and art business goals.

Megan Riedl's eloquent and vibrant rendition of her poems certainly had everyone enthralled especially as she gave us all flashbacks to the challenges of living through repeated COVID-19 lock downs. Megan is also an alumnus of the Mentoring Pro- gram and the quality of her work certainly speaks volumes about the value of our new partnership.