Friday, 5 August 2011

Perth International Arts Festival is delighted to announce Rio Tinto's ongoing and increased financial support for 2012-2015, doubling its commitment to support two key areas of the Festival: the Family and Education Program.

The new partnership follows on Rio Tinto's successful partnership from 2009 - 2011.  Perth Festival General Manager Julian Donaldson welcomed the $260,000 contribution each year for the Rio Tinto Family and Education Program.

"Rio Tinto's increased support will have a major impact on the Family and Education Program," Mr Donaldson said.

"This very generous investment will help the Festival to encourage young people to engage with the arts as a means of developing creativity and innovative thinking.

"Rio Tinto's partnership with the Festival also helps us develop resources for schools in order to enrich and deepen students' engagement in the arts."

Chair of Rio Tinto WA Future Fund Greg Lilleyman said Rio Tinto was pleased to be able to provide its ongoing support to the Festival's Family and Education program areas.

"We have been operating in Western Australia for more than forty years and need to attract and retain an innovative workforce.  We are therefore committed to supporting projects that showcase Perth as a vibrant, diverse and creative city and share the Festival's aspiration of developing young people's creative capacity through active engagement with the arts," he said.

Perth Festival Artistic Director Jonathan Holloway said Rio Tinto's generous support would help the Festival build on the existing strengths of a program stream that expands and deepens our engagement with children and families as we aim to inspire and engage the largest possible proportion of the community.

Perth Festival is committed to the growth and development of our Education Program, which aims to enrich and energise education by providing access to exceptional arts and literary experiences.  Rio Tinto's support will allow the Festival to improve professional development for teachers, expand our artist talks, workshops and education packs for teachers.  It will also help provide improved access for rural and remote students and to develop a new interactive education portal on the Festival website.

The Family Program includes free family events, special children's prices for ticketed shows, and the highly successful Perth Writers Festival Family Day.

This investment allows the Festival to realise our vision of increasing the sustainability of the arts by building a new generation of culturally inspired Festival goers," Mr Holloway said.

Perth International Arts Festival

Founded in 1953 by The University of Western Australia, the Perth International Arts Festival is the longest running international arts festival in Australia and Western Australia's premier cultural event.  The Festival has developed a worldwide reputation for excellence in its international program, the presentation of new works and the highest quality artistic experiences for its audience.  For over 50 years the Festival has welcomed to Perth some of the world's greatest living artists and now connects with over 300,000 people each year.  Jonathan Holloway is the Artistic Director 2012-2015.

Media references

Rania Ghandour (+61 8)  6488 8618  /  (+61 4) 03 025 535
Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 5563  /  (+61 4) 32 637 716

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