Okay it’s not the Royal Flying Doctor Service but the Flying Arts Alliance is boosting the health of communities throughout Queensland according to Anthe Philippides.

The former Supreme Court Judge was a bit of a trailblazer and was the first woman of Hellenic heritage to be admitted as a barrister in Queensland, to attain silk in Australia and be appointed to a Supreme Court. She has been a strong supporter of cultural diversity in the law mentoring many young First Nations lawyers.

Since her retirement she has focused on her passion for the arts. She has a number of roles … as a director of Musica Viva Australia, the Queensland Youth Orchestra and the University of Queensland.

She has recently added her role as chair of the Flying Arts Alliance, an organization with core funding provided by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, dedicated to spreading the gospel of art to the state’s regions.

Ms Philippides wants to lift the profile of the organization and she’s certainly getting the attention of artists announcing recently an increase of $100,000 prize money for the 2023 Queensland Regional Art Awards (QRAA) taking the prize pool to a massive $140,000 which is more than the nation’s most famous art prize, the Archibald.

This has got the attention of artists throughout the state who will be slaving away over hot easels to get work in before entries close on October 6.

The announcement of the boost in prize money was made in Cairns recently with the organization’s patron, Governor of Queensland. Dr Jeanette Young on hand. The announcement was accompanied by a performance by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra with William Barton and the work of last year’s QRAA First Nations Award, Rosella Namok, as a backdrop.

The exhibition of last year’s winners has been showing in Cairns and will soon move to Goondiwindi, a town Ms Philippides has yet to visit. But she will. In fact, she intends to get to know regional Queensland well.

And she says the Flying Arts Alliance services the far-flung regions in a way that is not unlike the Royal Flying Doctor Service although Flying Arts Alliance administers to the wellbeing of communities in a very different way.

“I think the arts can be a kind of barometer for the health of a community,” Ms Philippides says. , “When you have healthy communities you will find that the arts are the heartbeat of that community. Queensland has this network of amazing artworkers worth supporting and that motivates me. I am amazed at the drive of artists in remote communities.

“But for too long regional artists have not been appreciated for what they contribute to Australia’s creativity. If you look at some of Queensland’s greatest creators in every field – the visual arts, theatre, music – you’ll see many are from these regional places.”

Thinking about that the first person whose name comes to mind is the late great Bille Brown, the legendary actor from Biloela who strutted the stage and screen to great acclaim.

The visionary leader of Camerata, Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra, Brendan Joyce is from the little town on Ayr in North Queensland, the artist Luke Roberts is from Alpha in central Queensland and so it goes.

Ms Philippides, an avowed classical music fan also cites Jayson Gillham, the internationally renowned pianist from Dalby.

The Flying Arts Alliance has been servicing regional communities since it was in founded in 1971 by the legendary artist Mervyn Moriarty who was quite the adventurer. He was also a pilot and he actually flew the plane that took the artists from the city to regional areas for workshops and to meet with local artists. He made his first flight in 1971, a 6000km round journey and from 1971 to 1983 he flew all over the state.

I started my journalism career on a little paper in the Central Queensland town of Monto and one of the first arts story I ever wrote was about Flying Arts. I even went out to the airstrip to meet them when they landed and iconic Brisbane artist Roy Churcher was aboard along with Moriarty for that visit.

You can see how the analogy with the Royal Flying Doctor Service can be made.

Moriarty, who died in 2021, made more than 1000 trips to regional Queensland and flew more than 400,000kms. It’s an amazing story and still one unknown to many according to Anthe Philippides.

“It’s not as well-known as it should be, particularly in Brisbane,” she says. “We want to bring the artists to Brisbane as well as going out to the regions. We want to broaden the audience for regional artists in Brisbane.”

The Flying Arts Alliance, which is based in at the Judith Wright Arts Centre in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, doesn’t have its own plane or pilots any more but it still fans out across the state delivering programs to artists, schools and communities.

Anthe Philippides says an uplift in the prize pool for the QRAA across four categories is a huge boost for regional artists.

“I am delighted that a wide range of sponsors have generously come together to support Queensland’s wonderful regional artists in offering a very significant prize pool in terms of both cash and in-kind prizes,” she says. “The prize pool for 2023 recognizes the amazingly talented established and emerging Queensland artists and their importance to our community.”

Reframe, the touring exhibition of the 2022 Queensland Regional Art Awards is on at the Botanic Gardens Visitors Centre, Cairns until September 24 and will be on at the Goondiwindi Regional Civic Centre Gallery, Goondiwindi from October 27 until November 24

flyingarts.org.au

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