Call of the Running Tide begins this weekend
Arts & Culture
Call of the Running Tide festival (CRT) unofficially kicks off Friday at 6pm at Port Douglas Community Centre where everyone is welcome for a social gathering.
While various sculptures have been revealing themselves around town slowly over the last few days, the official opening is on Saturday but not before locals, visitors, artists and art-enthusiasts rub shoulders on Friday evening at the Douglas Shire Community Hall at 6pm.
Entry will be free for everyone and there will be a cash bar available for those who’d like to lubricate their palate.
Curator Jill Chism said CRT 2021 will be bigger and better than the previous event in 2019 with 37 interstate, regional and local artists displaying work. The artists have created multiple sculptures and multimedia works displayed in Rex Smeal Park, on the Flagstaff Hill walk, at the Northern end of Four Mile Beach and in Port Douglas Community Hall and grounds.
CRT is a high quality curated event and an invitation by artists to engage meaningfully with the unique ecosystems from Rainforest to Reef in the Far North. The sculptural and Multimedia works will also inform viewers of current local and global environmental threats.
CRT continues the region’s significant history of environmental activism. It engages local communities and visitors and aims to build and encourage environmental awareness. In addition, the Call of the Running Tide inspires and challenges viewers to contemplate how they can make a difference through art.
Garden of Plastic
One of the most anticipated events of the festival is the Garden of Plastic workshops and installation for 7-12-year-old children. Funded by the Mossman Rotary Club and supervised by two enthusiastic, experienced artists, parents can drop their children for the workshops between 10am-2pm each day of the Festival at the Mossman Shire Hall. Discarded and washed up bottle tops will be attached to wooden panels on a large Hall floor area. Selected panels from this installation will be used to create a mural at the new Paws and Claws facility in Craiglie. Students from Port Douglas Primary school have also created artwork panels, and these will be on display at the Port Douglas Community Hall
Where will the artworks be?
The environmental sculpture will be installed along the Flagstaff Hill walk, at the Northern end of Four Mile Beach, within Rex Smeal Park, and around the Port Douglas Community Centre. Multimedia works will also be projected at Rex Smeal Park. In addition, smaller sculptures, installations, and multimedia art will be displayed in the Port Douglas Community Centre.
Locations: Port Douglas: Port Douglas Community Centre and surrounds (10am-5pm daily), Rex Smeal Park, Flagstaff Hill walk (all hours), Garden of Plastic at Mossman Shire Hall (10 am-2 pm daily)
More information can be found on the CRT website.