{"id":67062,"date":"2014-05-11T23:08:00","date_gmt":"2014-05-11T13:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=67062"},"modified":"2020-11-30T16:47:35","modified_gmt":"2020-11-30T06:47:35","slug":"nanart-bows-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/05\/11\/nanart-bows-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Nanart Bows Out"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Nanart\"<\/a>
Nanart president Lois Hamilton next to a tribute display erected in her honour … the popular annual arts festival is calling it a day after 14 years<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

May 11, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

The annual Nanart Arts Festival bowed out this weekend after 14 years service to Nanango’s arts community.<\/p>\n

The festival, which was founded by former Nanango Shire Councillor Mayleen Green in 2000, at one time stretched for more than a week and involved most of the town’s CBD.<\/p>\n

In recent years it has gradually shrunk to an annual three-day arts and crafts exhibition at the Nanango Cultural Centre.<\/p>\n

Now the committee has decided to call it a day.<\/p>\n

The announcement of the Festival’s demise was made at the Nanango Cultural Centre on Friday night when the group unveiled its 2014 Nanart exhibition.<\/strong><\/p>\n

President Lois Hamilton said many committee members were “getting on” and some had spouses in declining health.<\/p>\n

So while the committee were very reluctant to put an end to the event, they felt they had little choice in the circumstances.<\/p>\n

At Friday night’s opening, Mayleen Green reflected that in the early years the event had drawn “tremendous crowds” and was one of the highlights of the town’s social calendar.<\/p>\n

The Festival had also played a big role in promoting tourism and in the town’s economic development.<\/p>\n

She said in the Festival’s early years, there were a lot of empty shops in Nanango’s CBD which had been used by artists during the Festival week to display art and craft works.<\/p>\n

Now there were far fewer empty shops in the town.<\/p>\n

However, she said, things seem to follow a cycle of seven good years followed by seven lean ones and the last seven years had been a lean period, so in the circumstances the committee’s decision was understandable.<\/p>\n

Lois Hamilton told the audience the closure of Nanart marked “the end of an era”.<\/strong><\/p>\n

She thanked the committee for their many years of hard work and paid special tribute to the Festival’s many sponsors for their dedicated support.<\/p>\n

Compere Rod Morgan echoed her sentiments, saying Nanart had played a significant role in introducing the arts to Nanango and demystifying it for the town.<\/p>\n

He thought its loss would be sorely felt.<\/p>\n

Despite the sad news that this weekend’s exhibition would be the last, the general mood during the evening was otherwise upbeat and – as usual – first and second prizes were awarded to winners in the art exhibition’s nine separate sections.<\/p>\n

The 2014 Nanart winners were:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Section 1 – Lois Hamilton Open Oil<\/strong><\/p>\n