The Mountain Festival celebrates life in Southern Tasmania by connecting the arts with the region's unique natural environment.
Climate Change Theme for the Festival
Our climate change related performance events and forums are designed to inspire and inform.
Click here for more information.
Click here for more information.
The Mountain Festival creates exciting and innovate arts projects whilst linking together community values, cultural history and the sense of place that is invoked by an inspirational natural environment. The link between arts and environment has been an ongoing inspiration for Tasmanian artists and has created a global reputation for artistic excellence. Being community based the Festival provides opportunities for participants and audience to explore, have fun and celebrate our uniqueness.
Mt. Wellington, part of the much larger Wellington range, is an important part of that uniqueness and is indeed a major landmark for the south-eastern area of Tasmania through both its topographic power and cultural value. The "mountain" creates a physical link to the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. Previous Festival events have explored the unique biology of Mt Wellington through many different artistic vehicles including giant puppet performances, sculpture and music. The Festival continues strongly in that traditon while considering a range of broader values that are relevant to the region.
Mountain Festival Goals
The mission of the Mountain Festival is to:
- Inspire and facilitate community based participation
- Raise awareness of connectedness to the environment
- Give conscious expression to sense of place
- Develop links between the arts, science and the environment
- Create innovative new work
Long-term aims include:
- Making international connections with other communities that have an urban / mountain interface.
- Promoting the festival as an international model for celebration of place.
- To establish Tasmania as a venue for international conferences on arts and environment.
Awards and Achievements
- Short listed in 2006 for a national AbaF award for a business partnership with NRM South.
- The Hobart City Council 2005 Australia Day Award for Best Community Event during 2004.
- National Australia Bank Community Link Award in 2002 for arts and culture in Tasmania.
Science Collaborations
The Mountain Festival produces a range of shows that involve collaborations between artists and scientists. In 2008 the Moving Mountains community collaboration is based on an arts-science collaboration. The scientists who have contributed to production of Moving Mountains are:
- Dr. Mark Hovenden, Senior Lecturer in Plant Ecology, School of Plant Science, University of Tasmania
- Dr Jennifer Lavers, Research Scientist, CSIRO
- Michael Pemberton, Manager Biodiversity, Department of Primary Industries and Water
- Dr John Hunter, Research Scientist, Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC
Past projects include our dynamic community performance events, Alive on the Mountain in 2002, Invertebrate in 2004 and Windpiece in 2006. There has also been a range of forums and a highly successful series of collaborations between poets and scientists. We would like to thank the scientists who have contributed to those events. They include:
- Dr. Peter McQuillan - Lecturer in Ecosystems, Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Tasmania.
- Dr. Leon Barmuta - Lecturer, School of Zoology, University of Tasmania.
- Prof. Alastair Richardson - School of Zoology, University of Tasmania.
- Dr. John Gooderham - Author and researcher, School of Zoology, University of Tasmania
- Michael Driesson - Entomologist, Department of Primary Industries Water and Environment.
Organisational Partnerships
The Mountain Festival has a policy of partnership development at a committee and event level. Please contact us if you require information about our extensive event partnerships with Tasmanian cultural organisations.
The organisational partners at committee level are:
The organisational partners at committee level are:
- Fern Tree Community Association
- L'Aquila Sister City Committee
- Tasmanian Environment Centre
- Tasmanian Regional Arts
- United Nations Association (Tasmania)
- Wellington Park Management Trust
- Wildcare Inc.
Featured Event
Summer Screen Safari Forum
Summer Screen Safari is a unique film training initiative. Over the last four months film makers have been planning, marketing, writing, shooting and editing short films on the theme of Tasmanian Gothic, with the support of Wide Angle Tasmania and guerrilla film maker Rachel Lucas.
As part of the Mountain Film Festival, two forums will be held to screen the films and todiscuss the project directions as well as general issues related to film marketing and distribution.
More Information
Friday 4th Jul 08