2024 End of Year Wrap Up

We have a saying at Everybody NOW! that the “community are the company”. Our work as artists, exists in collaboration with communities. It’s a reciprocal relationship where the depth and care of our relationships impacts the making of the art, and the lives of everyone involved – the artists, the participants and the audiences. Those relationships expand our perspectives as artists and humans, and shape the future artistic work we make. 2024 has been an incredible year of expanding and reimagining our perspectives as a company, deeply considering the impacts we can make with communities through transformational arts projects. Our stories, testimonials and cold hard data continues to build around the impacts this work is creating in peoples lives, building social connection and belonging, improving wellbeing, igniting creativity and generating JOY! In 2024, we were delighted to again be the Gold Coast producing lead for Those Who Rock by JOF O’Farrell, engaging 392 Gold Coasters across 6 weeks of community workshops before they took to the HOTA outdoor stage at alongside iconic Aussie Rock Stars! This is such an incredible project to create with our community, which has led to lasting bonds with hundreds of Gold Coast rockstars of all ages. This year we expanded the Movers Who Rock workshops collaborating with the master of vibes Sid The Entertainer; and  Kids Who Rock a songwriting and band mentorship program supported by The City of Gold Coast.

“Participating in Those Who Rock was one of the greatest few months of my life. I’ve hardly stopped playing since. It was just a great thing to be involved in” – Warren Tucker – Nerang

We are really proud this year to have piloted several new arts and health initiatives. We worked with Gold Coast Health to deliver a poetry program for people who live with chronic pain and we spent time in BUPA Aged Care and Somerset Storyfest bringing teenagers and seniors together to explore intergenerational storytelling.

“This program awoke something in me that hasn’t been there for a very long time.” Anna – Poetry Participant Gold Coast Health

We shone a spotlight creative on aging as part of Seniors Month at The Shake Out; and partnered with Hey Mate and local artists to deliver creative wellbeing workshops as part Queensland Mental Health Month. We also continued our partnership with Griffith University providing creative workshops to support researchers in gathering new lived-experience stories around sport, inclusion and creativity. The Roller Coaster love continued, winning the 2024 PAC Australia Impact Award for our best practice, with a focus on lasting impact in communities, and we created a brand new music video clip Directed by Award Winning film maker, Claudia Sangiorgi Dalimore. Line it up for your summer play list and share it with your friends!

Finally, we started work on a number of exciting new projects that will be a part of our 2025 Anniversary program. The cherry on top of our year was to come together for our annual end of year art party and there are some pretty fun (and hilarious) photos if you jump over to our facebook or instagram pages. We can’t wait to connect with communities locally on the Gold Coast and right across Australia in 2025! A most heartfelt gratitude to the amazing community of artists, participants, friends, funders, partners, donor, and cheerleaders who continue to support Everybody NOW! (You can read more about our awesome partners here.) If you would like to make a donation to our work you can read more about our supporters program here. Thanks for being a part of our year!