Annual Appeal 2024

Creating Our Future: access to arts and creativity for all in New England

Everyone benefits from investment in the arts. The arts enhance our lives, entertain us, teach us to be critical thinkers to have curious minds, to ask big questions, challenge us to be more just and compassionate. The arts make the world more beautiful, knowable, innovative, and vital. Art plays an important role in addressing complex social issues, promoting inclusion, neighbourhood revitalisation, health, wellbeing, and economic development. It is essential that these benefits are distributed where they are most needed. The arts are not a luxury; they are embedded in and are intrinsic to the fabric of our lives.

At NERAM we believe that it is every person’s fundamental right to be able to access and participate in culture. We strive to be a cultural, social and community hub that supports broad and diverse engagement from across New England, inclusive of all the region’s various communities and people. NERAM’s program endeavors to remove the real and perceived barriers that limit engagement in cultural spaces, by providing free entry, accessible and affordable programs, being responsive to the varied needs of our communities and ensuring that a broad range of perspectives and lived experiences are represented and celebrated through our exhibitions and events.

One of the key programs that has shown resounding success in supporting meaningful engagement with the arts is NERAM Creative Learning. Launched in 2020 thanks to a generous donation by Tim and Gina Fairfax and further supported by government grants and community donations, the program supports lifelong arts education and aims to ensure that every child in New England is given the opportunity to see real art (not a digital image), and to express their own ideas and imagination through hands on art making activities.

The program offers curriculum linked art appreciation and making workshops related to NERAM exhibitions, encouraging school excursions, with supplementary education resources and teacher professional development sessions supporting in-class learning. Outreach options, that bring aspects of NERAM’s collections and activities into classrooms are offered to schools unable to travel to the art museum. Last year close to 4000 students participated in the program. There is significant research that proves the many benefits of arts education over and above the obvious development of individual creativity and self-expression, from academic, to social and health outcomes – access to the arts is a foundational component of a positive future.

The NERAM Creative Leaning HOME project integrated visual arts, music, and Indigenous cultural practices focused on the central theme of ‘home’ to connect with young people’s experience of the Black Summer Bushfires. Developed in partnership between NERAM, the New England Conservatorium of Music and the Armidale Aboriginal Cultural Centre and Keeping Place, HOME was delivered to 14 regional and remote small schools with 258 students engaged in choir lessons, artmaking workshops, cultural dance, and language sessions across 2022/2023, accompanied by teacher professional development with Indigenous artists, and musicians. The program was awarded the 2023 Innovation and Resilience IMAGinE Award.

NERAM Creative Learning does not only focus on youth engagement. The program aims to offer arts learning opportunities including workshops, art classes, lectures and exhibition tours for all ages and levels of art experience and interest. In 2023, NERAM relaunched Remembering with Art, a program designed to help boost cognitive function, as well as enhance communication and social connections for people living with dementia through discussing and socializing and using art as a stimulus. As with many of NERAM’s programs, Remembering with Art has only been made possible with the generous giving of our community, and with support of dedicated volunteers.

Your generosity has and continues to have a magnificent impact. Thank you for being part of our community of supporters.

As the end of the financial year approaches, we ask you to consider making a tax deductible donation to NERAM as part of our 2024 Annual Appeal and help support the future of the New England Regional Art Museum.

In 2024, our Annual Appeal continues to focus on four areas of development critical to the future of NERAM: the NERAM Foundation, our Cultural Program, Creative Learning and the NERAM Building Improvements.

• NERAM Creative Learning Program is aimed at expanding life-long arts education opportunities, the program is now thriving, and we have been thrilled to see the level of participation particularly from schools. From Toddler Art Play through to Creative Ageing and everything in-between, NERAM strives to be a key contributor to New England continuing to be an outstanding education region.

• The NERAM Foundation remains one of the most critical and successful strategies for securing NERAM’s future and providing financial sustainability to NERAM and its activities. As the Foundation’s endowment fund grows, it will provide more funds each year towards NERAM’s operational costs such as staffing, insurance, building maintenance as well as the programs that activate the art museum and make us a key cultural destination.
• The NERAM Cultural Program is the central focus of NERAM’s activity. Exhibitions, events, and cultural experiences are how we inspire, challenge, educate and entertain visitors to the Museum and they are what makes NERAM a vital, vibrant cultural centre.
• NERAM Building Improvements will be a key focus for us as we aim to deliver on our vision for the future of NERAM. Donations to the NERAM Building Fund will be used in the development and implementation of facility improvements as determined by the NERAM Master Plan.

You have the opportunity to nominate the focus area you wish your donation to the 2024 Annual Appeal to be invested in, all of which are vital to the vitality and success of NERAM and the broader region’s bright future. If you can give, please use the enclosed donation form, or visit us at NERAM to make a tax deductible donation.

We sincerely thank you for your generosity and support, and we hope to see you at NERAM soon.

• Rachael Parsons, Art Museum Director, New England Regional Art Museum Ltd