NERAM’s inclusive and innovative Winter Blooming Festival has won an accolade at the prestigious 2024 Australian Museums and Galleries Association’s (AMaGA) awards.
The AMaGA’s have been designed to serve as a platform for inspiring and acknowledging social impact and innovation within Australia’s museum and gallery sector.
The 19 winners were announced at AMaGA’s National Conference on September 19 with NERAM winning the Social Impact (group 1) award for the 2023 Winter Blooming Festival.
“We are thrilled that NERAM has been announced as the winner of the Australian Museums and Galleries Association Social Impact (group 1) award for the 2023 Winter Blooming Festival,” said NERAM director Rachael Parsons.
“It is wonderful to have this vital program recognised through this national award. We share this award with our project partners, the University of New England, ACON and Australian GLBTIQ Multicultural Council and acknowledge the support from Create NSW and the Aurora Foundation.
“Thank you to Christina Kenny, the festival’s co-producer, all of the amazing speakers, artists, performers, workshop facilitators and organisers who made the festival so outstanding and thank you to everyone from the community who came along to be part of it.”
The inaugural Winter Blooming Festival was held at NERAM in 2019 and made a triumphant return in 2022 after COVID19 cancellations.
The event was aimed at addressing the then total lack of visibility, events, spaces and services for the New England Region’s LGBTIQA+ community.
“The Winter Blooming Festival creates a unique and safe space that supports and celebrates diversity, social connection and cultural exchange,” Ms Parsons said.
“The festival includes important, challenging, and enlightening discussions that share a diverse range of lived experiences and knowledge from migrant diaspora, Indigenous, queer, and gender-diverse people, creative workshops, the sharing of multicultural food and opportunities for people to come together, socialise and find community. It is also fun!”
“We would like to thank AMaGA for acknowledging this special event with an award and we would like to congratulate all the other winners.”
NERAM continues to be celebrated for its recent programs with the art museum also being nominated for two Museum and Galleries of NSW IMAGinE Awards for two exhibitions Fluid Flax and Inspiration and Iterations. The winners of these awards will be announced at the end of November.