Introducing Jo Crase our new Project Officer
Jo Crase:
I am absolutely delighted to come on-board the West Darling Arts team as Project Officer for the Sturt's Steps Sculpture Project. You'll find me in the office most Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Having lived in regional Victoria since 2007, my husband and I returned to his home-town Broken Hill with our young family in 2018 and have found we really enjoy the lifestyle here.
I have a rich and diverse experience across the museum, gallery and not-for-profit arts sector. This includes positions as an events manager with Arts Mildura; visual arts curator at Brimbank City Council (in Melbourne's outer western suburbs); curator at Shepparton Art Gallery; and curatorial and collection roles at Arts Centre Melbourne, Museum Victoria and Grainger Museum.
Highlights within these roles include project managing public art projects, facilitating an 18-month community engagement project with the Coptic Women's Association, exhibition development, and documenting the Arts Centre's Nick Cave collection. Along the way I've worked with some incredible arts practitioners and discovered a passion for community cultural development.
The Sturt's Steps project will see four sculptures commissioned along the Silver City Highway from Broken Hill to Tibooburra. Inspired by Captain Charles Sturt's exploration for an Australian inland sea, the sculpture project is part of a larger venture initiated by the Milparinka Heritage & Tourism Association to improve visitor-experience infrastructure in the region. The devastatingly beautiful landscape of NSW Corner Country is rich with stories of humanity - aspiration, survival, occupation, hardship, gold-fever, and love. We hope the project will draw upon and reflect these stories and the people who have shaped the communities that exist today.
For more information on the project see www.sturtssteps.com.au
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