General News
16 March, 2023
Avoca Arts Show cancelled due to lack of volunteers
Avoca Arts Show organisers have been forced to scrap the four-day event next month due to a lack of volunteer support to get it up and running. “We need about 12 to 15 volunteers to run the festival, but we were under 50 percent of our requirement...
Avoca Arts Show organisers have been forced to scrap the four-day event next month due to a lack of volunteer support to get it up and running.
“We need about 12 to 15 volunteers to run the festival, but we were under 50 percent of our requirement and you can’t put that workload onto the few that are there,” Avoca Community Arts and Gardens president Hugh Forster said.
“It’s disappointing for us, the artists and the town.”
2023 would’ve been the fourth edition of the event, and the first one back since the pandemic.
The art show was initially started as a way to raise funds to set up Avoca’s succesful Gallery 127, attracting around 250 works of art in the past.
This year’s event was scheduled to run from April 21-25 and Mr Forster said it’s not only a celebration of local artists, but the arts and gardens group’s major annual fundraiser.
“The implication is enormous because the arts show is really our only fundraiser,” he said.
“We’ve had no income from it for three years, plus the times during the pandemic when we had to close but still had all the costs to pay.
“Art sales are reasonable but not back to the same level they were.
“I don’t know where it’ll go.”
Mr Forster said he’s noticed dwindling volunteer numbers across many groups post-COVID.
“We put the call out for volunteers for the art show in the local papers and we got nothing, not even an enquiry,” he said.
“Through Advance Avoca, we had a stall at the Big Thank You Expo which was to thank the town and seek volunteers. That was well done, we had lots of different community groups who put stalls up.
“We got one volunteer from that, one of the other groups got one, and that was about it.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s all happened since the pandemic. People haven’t come back to volunteering. A lot of us are getting older and the younger ones aren’t coming in at all.”
Mr Forster said there were some talks about holding the Avoca Arts Show later in the year, but no official plans are in motion.
To volunteer with the Avoca Community Arts and Gardens group, email artsavoca@gmail.com or call 0439 462 344.