Alison Page is at the forefront of the remote working revolution. As a cultural arts peak body coordinator and an agent for Aboriginal artists, she generates design opportunities, contracts and new business for artists working in remote Australian communities.
“It doesn’t matter where the artists and designers are, all they need is an email and we’re good to go,” says the winner of the Regional or Rural Emerging leader category at the NAB Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards.
“I think Aboriginal people moving into niche and innovative areas in cultural industries create a great opportunity for people living in country or regional areas. But we need to be really clever about it.”
Page is the creative director of the commercial agency arm of the Coffs Harbour-based Saltwater Freshwater Arts Alliance, and the executive officer of the alliance, which she helped found in 2008.
Her role sees her broker commercial relationships between manufacturers, builders and the artists she represents. This can range from global manufacturers to smaller projects such as site specific interiors. The agency works with clients to weave Aboriginal stories into spaces and objects through colour, pattern and shape.
“I wear two hats and I’m constantly juggling lots of things,” says Page. “Seventy per cent of my time is spent on the commercial social enterprise agency arm, and 30% on the alliance.” The alliance runs workshops and festivals to empower and employ Aboriginal Australians in the creative industries.
Having recently returned from an Accelerate program for Aboriginal creative coordinators with the British Council of the Arts, Page is passionate about leadership and creating employment for Aboriginal creators.
“I strongly believe that culture can be the foundation for our future. The key is the development of the Aboriginal people in the region,” says Page. “Our work is about providing aboriginal traditions as cultural events, and providing training so we can continue to provide culturally-based employment opportunities in arts, events and design.”
She says the heart of her culture is story telling. “The language that we use for story telling can be visual arts, cave painting or dance, but the language I use as a designer is the built environment. The stories told are really critical, because the stories told reveal what’s at the heart of our culture.”
The stories told through the art depend on the context of the project. Objects that could end up anywhere in the world usually feature more universal stories. For those local and more site specific projects, Page and her team work with local communities to understand and gain their blessing to weave their stories into a space.