Frank Van Straten Fellowship Recipient Announced

Arts Centre Melbourne is delighted to announce the recipient of the inaugural Frank Van Straten Fellowship, award-winning playwright Dr Kate Rice.

Commencing in March 2020, Dr Rice will use this incredible opportunity to research a number of historical theatrical performances documented in the Australian Performing Arts Collection to produce a series of podcasts that bring these forgotten gems of the Australian stage to life.

Awarded for the first time this year, the Fellowship provides an opportunity to document, analyse and interpret any aspect of the 690,000 plus items in the national performing arts collection. It is open to digital media artists, visual artists, conservators, musicians, composers, writers, scholars and creators who have an academic interest in any area of performance.

The Fellowship is made possible through the generous contribution of the Frank Van Straten AM and Adrian Turley Foundation. Frank played a pivotal role in the establishment of the Australian Performing Arts Collection in the late 1970s and was the founding director and first archivist of what was then the Performing Arts Museum. Arts Centre Melbourne has been the proud custodian of the Collection since its creation in the early 1980s.

"The Performing Arts Collection is vast, and this Fellowship offers the opportunity to really bring out its drama. I'm so excited to find the real experiences and stories behind the collection, and create a podcast series that will bring them to life," said Dr Rice.

Frank Van Straten said, "Adrian Turley and I were delighted to learn that Dr Kate Rice had been selected as the recipient of the inaugural Frank Van Straten Fellowship. Kate's proposed Past Performance podcasts have the potential to bring the Australian Performing Arts Collection to a vast national and international audience, highlighting its important work and the treasures of its vast collection. As a former broadcaster I am well aware of the power of audio to excite, inform, document and inspire. Kate's expertise in this area is proven, and we are looking forward to 'tuning in' as her podcasts go to air."

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