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Orange Festival of Arts
DescriptionThe Orange Festival of Arts was a biennial event established in 1965. It was one of the largest festivals of its kind to take place outside of an Australian Capital City. Eileen Watts, MBE founded the Orange Festival of Arts with a small group of supporters to bring high quality culture to the country.
Eileen was awarded an MBE for her dedication towards arts within the community. Her interests covered a whole spectrum of the arts.
The aim of the Festival was to present cultural activities from all areas of the arts including visual and performing arts at a level that promoted interest and participation by all people within the community and the engagement of arts professionals from within Australia.
Other objectives included participation of youth within the region, setting up of regional centers of drama, music and art, and encouragement of country participants to establish to develop cultural identity and awareness and a sense of community involvement.
As a direct consequence of the Festival, Orange City Council built the Orange Civic Theatre within the Civic Centre complex. The Festival demonstrated the need for such a theatre to promote continued cultural activity.
Between 1978 and the late 1980s the Festival of Arts alternated with the Apple Country Fair. This was a chance for local orchardists to invite groups to their properties to see how the fruit was grown and prepared for market, and some orchardists left samples of their produce at local motels and other outlets for visitors to taste.
The Orange Festival of Arts ran for a period of over 20 years, between 1965, culminating in 11 Festivals.
CollectionOrange Festival of Arts
