Regional Arts Victoria funded the building of a floating art studio on Lake Tyers in 2017. Tracking the changes uses State of Community Indicators to give visibility to the impact of a facilitated engagement of those involved in the Float Almanac www.float3909.com/almanac . This reflection records WHAT happened, it is one aspect of a chapter looking at each of nine strategies of Collaborative Engagement that lead to transformative change that unpacks the HOW, WHY, WHEN, WHERE, WHAT FOR and WHO of any project.
The FLOAT Almanac generated friendship and trust among locals and guests. As people shared thoughts and insights the richness of community life in all its complexity became evident and generated action in personal and public life. People invested in the local economy, culture and environment, social activity, along with personal and spiritual development. While the Almanac culminated in an art+science+environment+culture exhibition at Lake Tyers House in February 2018 the foundations of custodianship of the catchment continue.
The State of Community Indicators were designed in 2000 to make visible subjective experiences of those involved in Regional Development activities (https://ruralcommunities.com.au/beyond-social-capital-contributions-of-subjective-indicators-from-within-communities/)
FLOAT continued the traditions of the ‘f’ movement that began with (F)route www.froute.com.au
Read the Float Almanac 2017 -2018 by Dr Helen Sheil here (PDF 404Kb)
The Almanac is also available to download in Word format (DOC 710Kb).