Record $106k In Grant Funding To Go To 2019 Adelaide Fringe Artists

The Adelaide Fringe Artist Fund has awarded a record $106,000 worth of grants to artists to help them present work in next year's festival.

Thanks to thousands of donations to the Adelaide Fringe Artist Fund, 15 diverse Australian acts - across genres ranging from theatre to visual art - will share in the funding.

This year, the grants were separated into two funding streams - 'Make It Happen' and 'Innovate'. The former provides financial assistance across travel, marketing and production costs, while the Innovate grants support daring and diverse new projects to premiere at the 2019 Adelaide Fringe (February 15 to March 17).

Adelaide Fringe Director and CEO Heather Croall said the Artist Fund received 140 applications this year from right across the country.

"We were incredibly impressed by the quality of applications and we're thrilled to be supporting 15 hard-working, daring artists to present work at next year's Adelaide Fringe," Ms Croall said.

"We're committed to supporting artists to be the best they can be and we encourage bold ideas and all forms of expression, which enrich the festival for both audiences and artists."

The latest round of grants received significant funding from the "Friends of the Adelaide Fringe Artist Fund" - a donor circle launched in 2017 to support artists and provide free Fringe tickets to disadvantaged groups.

"It's fantastic to pass the $100,000 mark for grants being given out by Adelaide Fringe this year. We couldn't have done this without the amazing generosity of our Friends of the Adelaide Fringe Artist Fund donor circle and festival-goers who donated extra dollars at ticket transaction to help raise money for the Artist Fund," Ms Croall said.

The fifteen 2019 Adelaide Fringe Artist Fund recipients are:

• Clare Bartholomew - The Long Pigs (Theatre, VIC)

• 9DIMES - 9DIMES: You + Universe (Dance, VIC)

• Jacqui Clarke - Tandanya's Cultural Experience (Events, SA)

• Ukulele Death Squad - Adelaide Ukulele Festival (Music, SA)

• Kasey Gambling - The Maze (Theatre, VIC)

• Wendy Dixon-Whiley - Contrapasso (Visual Art & Design, SA)

• Yellaka - Yellaka: Old Ways, New Wisdom (Dance, SA)

• Casus Circus - Chasing Smoke (Circus & Physical Theatre, QLD)

• Leah Shelton - Bitch on Heat (Circus & Physical Theatre, QLD)

• Lewis Major - Epilogue (Dance, SA)

• Mama Alto - Exquisite (An Evening with Mama Alto) (Cabaret, VIC)

• Matthew Briggs - 30,000 Notes (Theatre, SA)

• Michaela Burger - A Migrant's Son (Cabaret, VIC)

• Nathan Sibthorpe - TRUTHMACHINE (Film & Digital, QLD)

• Theresa O'Connor - Inside the Walls, A Giant Pop-up Book Ghost Story! (Children's Events, VIC)

2019 Adelaide Fringe Artist Fund Grant Recipients

Clare Bartholomew - THE LONG PIGS

A profound, stylistically and visually arresting performance, rooted in physical and black comedy about prejudice, suspicion of 'other' and the horror of the 'unknown stranger'. Perceived as an underground clown cult, these three dark and deliciously evil 'clown scalpers', The Long Pigs work, play and ritualize ethnic cleansing by stripping the very symbol of innocence from their distant (and once red nosed) 'happy circus' cousins. In a murky soup of mutual distrust and suspicion, promises made are constantly broken and the gang ultimately turns on itself in a fatally funny and destructive climax. The Long Pigs is a cruel joke.

9DIMES - 9DIMES: You + Universe

Taking audiences on an intimate journey to the outer edges of the universe and back again, 9DIMES fuses urban and contemporary dance performed by a cast of multicultural dancers, holographic 3D overlays and a mind-expanding soundtrack. Putting relationships, identity and mortality under the microscope, 9Dimes: You + The Universe aims to refract the poetry of everyday living through the lens of space-time theory.

Jacqui Clarke - Tandanya's Cultural Experience

A showcase of cultural workshops and talks held in conjunction with Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute.

Ukulele Death Squad - Adelaide Ukulele Festival

The Adelaide Ukulele Fest is a one-day celebration of all things Ukulele. See the best Ukulele groups from across Australia perform and play these four stringed instruments like never before. Take part in Ukulele workshops and Jam sessions, cast your gaze across the Ukulele Trading Co. wide range of ukuleles, or flip through a few pages at the Ukulele Book Shop.

Kasey Gambling - The Maze

A nervous glance. A cat call. The sound of footsteps behind her on a dark suburban street at night. In a unique, site-specific multimedia experience, The Maze asks you to pull back the veil on the menace lurking around every corner for women each day. The Maze allows a single audience member to witness firsthand the fear and paranoia of one woman walking alone at night. With the audio of the woman's internal monologue, the audience becomes a spectator to incidents of harassment that blur the line between bystander and participant; The Maze is an immersive, site-specific piece.

Wendy Dixon-Whiley - Contrapasso

A visual arts exhibition designed to overwhelm the senses. 'Contrapasso' is a solo exhibition by Visual Artist Wendy Dixon-Whiley consisting of 524 individual works, which aims to bring the epic 13th Century poem 'Inferno' by Dante Alighieri to modern audiences. The exhibition will be held at the historic Hahndorf Academy in the Adelaide Hills. One of the country's most popular tourist destinations, this exhibition is sure to bring the Adelaide Fringe Festival to new audiences from both Australia and Internationally. This is a chance for the Adelaide Fringe to leave an even bigger footprint in regional areas.

Yellaka - Yellaka: Old Ways, New Wisdom

With Fire, Emu, and Spear we breathe life into the Tjirbruki dreaming, a story of a great creation ancestor of this country. Immerse yourself in the dreaming track that is 7000 years old. Tjirbruki, a great warrior and master fire maker kept the peace amongst the tribal clans through his wisdom and knowledge of fire. Tjirbruki is a story which teaches the importance of truth-telling and the value of respect. Bring a small stick to place in our spirit fire of peace. Be moved by the story narrated and performed by Karl Winda Telfer, Senior Kaurna Custodian, and Yellaka.

Casus Circus - Chasing Smoke

Chasing Smoke is an evocative and triumphant performance by Australia's only Indigenous contemporary circus ensemble. Both playful and brave, Chasing Smoke is the spark that ignites the question 'Who am I?', when you have 40,000 years of history to sift through in search of an answer. Take a glimpse into the world's oldest living culture told through the art form of contemporary circus.

A dynamic, fast-moving and touching performance, Chasing Smoke stokes the fires of identity, challenge and success for a unique cohort of young Australians. WINNER of the 2017 Green Room Awards for Best Contemporary Circus.

Leah Shelton - Bitch on Heat

A new work by psycho siren Leah Shelton, Directed by renowned UK performance art provocateur Ursula Martinez. This decadent banquet of lethal lip-synch, caged pole-dance and sultry surrealism is an untamed (s)exploration of the female body and power in the age of implied consent. Dropping Pandora's box squarely into the age of all-you-can-eat, this is a pop-fuelled critique of the vintage sexism we love to hate and hate to love. Welcome to the doghouse. This bitch doesn't heel, she bites back.

Lewis Major - Epilogue

Epilogue is at once a deconstruction of and a meditation on, classicism and the role that beauty has played in the shaping of the Western canon. Epilogue counterposes this beauty against the horrors of colonialism and a culture that has wrought devastation on other traditions and their differing conceptions of beauty. In this stunning solo work conceived by Lewis Major and danced by Pascal Marty, soloist with Gothenburg Operdans, LGBTQ+ member and descendant of a culture nearly destroyed by colonial powers, Epilogue weaves a hopeful story of redemption and empowerment to a live piano score performed by Carine Chen.

Mama Alto - Exquisite (An Evening with Mama Alto)

Jazz singer, cabaret artiste and gender transcendent diva Mama Alto returns to Adelaide. Fierce, femme and fabulous, she combines sumptuous and sublime vocals with ravishing and revelatory storytelling. Let her torch songs open your heart, let her velvet voice caress you, and let your imagination take flight. Accompanied by multi-instrumentalist wunderkind William Elm, and described as "divine" (Havana Tribune), "near flawless" (The Age) and "hypnotically elegant and mysterious" (Adelaide Advertiser), Mama Alto is an Adelaide Fringe cabaret phenomenon not to be missed.

Matthew Briggs - 30,000 Notes

Josh Belperio has 4,434 notes in his iPhone, 3,923 voice memos, 3 drawers full of handwritten notes,
and scores of original compositions totalling over 100,000 musical notes. He also has 39 VHS tapes that his Nonna left him. With an upright piano, a virtual string quartet and choir of 16, and 30,000 notes, watch Josh weave a story of finding love, of finding who we can love, and how we can carry with us those who are no longer here.

Michaela Burger - A Migrant's Son

Created and performed by award winning cabaret star Michaela Burger [Exposing Edith], A Migrant's Son is a true story exploring migration from Greece to Australia during the 1930's. This extraordinary new work conveys incredible historical stories that are brought to life through original compositions, creating a unique and touching account that is both hard-hitting and hilarious. The cabaret tale tells of a young Greek man who defies the odds and rises above adversity. His unrelenting determination to build a successful life is comical and dramatic- he is an unstoppable force and is willing to sacrifice everything for his family.

Nathan Sibthorpe - TRUTHMACHINE

TRUTHMACHINE uses a working polygraph machine to examine the idea of truth in a post-truth era. A small group of participants gather under the watchful gaze of each other, as our interrogator administers a lie detector test. Some questions will be easy, others less so. By the end we'll realise that some questions are unreliable. The polygraph used to be regarded as a legal instrument. But today it's commonly accepted that the machine can be cheated. Together we will bend the truth and start from scratch. Let's see if your heart rate can lie as effectively as our leaders can...

Theresa O'Connor - Inside the Walls, A Giant Pop-up Book Ghost Story!

Experience a dark tale of spooky proportions that literally pops up from the page. Prepare for unexpected surprises, scary shadows and shoes that walk themselves! Inside the Walls is a cinematic theatre experience which is designed for children to overcome their fears & further their imagination. The intricate design mixes the age-old art of popup books and storytelling with modern technology and trickery. Paper engineering, puppets, projection, videography, electronics, contraptions, shadow puppetry, magic and a surround sound design; what more could be jam-packed into one little show!

Are you ready for what's Inside the Walls?

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