Vivienne Robertson steps away from Denmark Arts but has plenty more creative projects on the way

“Art keeps the pulse alive down here.” Those are the words of Denmark’s Vivienne Robertson on the importance of art in regional communities in the Great Southern. The passionate local has just stepped away as the artistic director of Denmark Arts where she has been integral to many major art projects in Denmark, including the successful Denmark Festival of Voice. Rather than practicing poetry or painting like many of her fellow artist friends, Robertson’s art form is formulating and creating art projects and festivals. “I put my energy into making communal art opportunities for people,” she said. As the lead role within Denmark’s peak art body for 12 years, Robertson was in charge of setting an artistic vision for the organisation. “It’s about finding a balance between what the community is about and what they’re asking,” she said. According to Robertson her major contribution to the local arts industry was running the Denmark FOV event over the past seven years. “In that time I expanded that festival and took a new direction working strongly with Indigenous community,” she said. “It’s about voice so we want to hear from voices that we don’t always hear from disability, multicultural, refugee, Indigenous voices.” Robertson has been living in the Denmark region for 13 years. Before that she spent time living in Perth and Toodyay where she worked within the arts in the Wheatbelt dedicating time to a cultural festival. She was then asked to move to the Great Southern where she was soon made welcome and started making her artistic visions come to life in the regional town. Robertson has chosen to move on from Denmark Arts to pursue another project close to her heart titled Reclaim the Void. The vision for Reclaim the Void came to Robertson after visiting the Ngalia community elders from Leonora in the northern Goldfields region of WA eight years ago. After talking with the elders Robertson said their deepest pain was seeing the “holes left all over the country” from degraded mining sites. The idea to symbolically ‘seal’ one of the holes with a huge tapestry made with rugs, akin to a dot painting, expressing the story of country was conceived. Robertson said it wasn’t just about bringing beauty to a degraded mining site but also responding to the modern problem of the huge amount of fabric and clothing waste people create. Robertson said she would be dedicating the next few years to the project. “My sense is that people are hungry for arts in community,” she said. With a passion of giving back to the local people and seeing artists flourish, Robertson said the arts industry in regional towns was important for several reasons. “For the economy, events brings tourists in; there’s a networking aspect so that regional artists are seen and known by others and a sense of belonging and identity, we all need to belong with a desire to say this where I live, where I belong, this is my tribe,” she said. Along with Denmark FOV, Robertson was proud of her work with other projects such as the Kwoorabup Writers Festival in December last year. She was also instrumental in working on the first regional issue of the Westerly magazine for an online special issue featuring writers in the Great Southern. Robertson said she saw the arts as “a doorway for people”. “It’s about wanting to help people find a deeper connection with who they truly are and help them find that connection with all of life around them,” she said. “We need to look after our artists.”