Walpole’s hidden art scene: New community-made documentary showcases Great Southern artists

Walpole’s hidden art scene has been the focal point of a new documentary, created by the people who live there. The brainchild of Walpole Community Research Centre trainee, cartoonist and filmmaker Nathan Vass Viney, Walpole Kids: Meet the Artists is a documentary aimed at shining a light on the many artists that reside in the regional town. “It’s a 19-minute documentary film we put together as a way of advertising our local community artists, because we felt they’d never really had any exposure,” he said. Mr Vass Viney has been creating cartoons for a variety of local publications since 2020 and said as an artist he wanted to do something that not only helped himself but “a lot of other people” as well. “I wanted to try and get as many different types (of art) as I could … There’s so much people are missing (when they come to Walpole)” he said. “Every community has a little art store and I think it’s so good to just go in and support them, artists are trying to make a living from something they are passionate towards and that can be a really big struggle.” After receiving funds from a Regional Arts WA grant scheme, the CRC’s initial idea was to create a short advert to promote Walpole’s art scene. However the advert soon turned into something bigger, according to Mr Vass Viney. “As soon as I started interviewing these artists and actually getting some deeper interest, I realised that this couldn’t respectfully be short - like an Instagram or TikTok video,” he said. Screened in front of a local audience during Albany’s Cinefest Oz, the story of the documentary is guided by a group of animated kids voiced by local Walpole children. Mr Vass Viney said the short documentary received a “really positive” reception from viewers and every artist that appeared in the documentary was eager to show off their artwork. “The idea of doing the cartoon characters was always in my mind because that was, sort of, where my creativity stemmed from and part of that was getting the kids involved,” he said. “A really important thing for me, was that every single element is from someone local, every single voice actor, every single artist that’s interviewed as well as the drone footage and artwork are all from people around here (Walpole).”