Silo art calendar raises funds for regional communities

Goorambat and District Community Group member Anne-Marie Greenway said it was fantastic that towns on the north-east Victorian art trail were featured.

“We are delighted to say that we, and Benalla Tourism, sold a great many of these calendars, and all the monies we receive will be put back into new artworks in the town,” Ms Greenway said.

“We are also excited that post-COVID we are getting a lot of new visitors to the silo art, including many Victorians who did not realise how much there is to see and do in their own state.

“And as part of the North-East Art Trail, we are delighted that fellow members Tungamah also feature in this year's calendar.”

Annette Green, who started the silo art Facebook page in September 2018 and Damian Modra, who both call themselves regional tourism ambassadors, had an ambitious idea back in March 2020 to publish a silo art calendar to raise funds for regional communities.

“The inaugural 2021 calendar was a great success, raising (more than) $60,000 and we are delighted... that (funds) will be donated to each of the 14 communities we featured this year,” Mr Modra said.

“Planning and designing the calendar takes a lot of coordinating.

“Not only do we need to source great photos, we also needed to meet all copyright laws and artist moral rights by seeking approval from the artists and silo owners to use their creative art work for our calendar.”

Ms Green said permission was granted on the proviso that the group would donate 50 per cent of the profits from the sale of the calendar directly to the towns that would be featured.

“The Australian Silo Art Trail was initially created to catalogue the silos and provide a simple map of the silo art locations nationally,” Ms Green said.

“At that time there was no dedicated tourism body promoting these great tourist attractions collectively as one national trail… and there still isn’t.”

The private Australian Silo Art Trail Facebook Group now has more than 110,000 members.