Savannah Way Public Art Trail

The vision for the Savannah Way Art Trail is a series of six cohesive, large-scale permanent feature artworks in Georgetown, Croydon, Normanton, Karumba, Burketown and Doomadgee. Through collaborative and consultative process driven by residents, arts communities, council and Traditional Owners the unique local identity of the six townships will be reflected in each installation and curated to connect the towns to the narrative through theme and/or materials.

The aim of the Savannah Way Art Trail is to enhance visitor experiences; to drive visitation, increase the duration of stay, and increase the propensity to contribute to local economies. It is proposed that the collaborative project will leverage the existing Savannah Way thoroughfare, using public artwork to enhance visitor experience, attract more cultural tourists to the region, build skills and capacity of the local community through mentoring and connection, and demonstrate innovation in strategic projects with regional development outcomes.

The Savannah Way project team from CQUniversity, in partnership with the project steering committee, will engage a lead artist/ arts group or collective to work from a community consultative model across all communities to design, develop, fabricate and install the six works of public art. It is expected that the commissioned artist/ arts group or collective will also engage in community based workshops to develop design ideas with community to enhance community engagement and ownership of the final Public Art Installations.

The project aims to demonstrate that Public Art works and artistic expression can be the catalyst for deep engagement with local culture as a driver of economic, social and cultural benefit to local communities. This project includes a research component which will explore best practices for collaborating with remote communities to implement a large-scale public art trail for maximum local impact.