Murrurundi is a small country town nestled in the foothills of the Liverpool Ranges, in the Upper Hunter Valley of NSW.

Murrurundi has a very vibrant and active arts community. Artists are attracted to the area because of its natural beauty, peaceful surrounds and crisp mountain air.

The Murrurundi & District Arts council was established fifteen years ago and enjoys an enthusiastic and active membership. Over the years it has been busy running local art shows and workshops, including the Norvill Art Prize, one of Australia’s largest privately funded landscape Prizes. Opera Murrurundi is also a very popular event run by the Arts Council where students from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music perform in the local St Paul’s Church.

The Arts Council has also been busy restoring the Murrurundi Railway Station (1870) back to its former glory, including a fully equipped kitchen, to be used for community workshop space, Exhibition centre and Function centre.

At present the Arts Council is looking into the concept of designing and commissioning a permanent sculpture for Murrurundi.

The Arts Council is delighted to be hosting the Murrurundi Keddies Pastoral Photographic Prize. We are very fortunate to have been approached by the Keddie family with their very generous donation for our town and look forward to the inaugural event in September.

A WORD FROM SARAH KEDDIE :

Russell came from Scotland with his family as an 11 year old. I am 5th generation Australian.
We came to the area in 1992 as 'city folk' having fallen in love with the grandeur of Upper Hunter Hill Country. Although we live in the city too, the plan is for us to spend more and more time here. I am already bringing patients to me at my Fernleigh complex for spinal therapy [Back-in-a-Week] programs several times a year, which is my way of combining two loves: treating patients and being rural. Russell is also able to work from here but tends to commute up and down quite a bit still, especially when I am in residence for several weeks at a time. We love being in the country and increasingly feel we have to tear ourselves away, when we have to go back to the big smoke.
To us, the idea of the Murrurundi Photography Prize is another way of city people contributing to the country. We have always felt that a strong cultural thread is the most vigorous lifeblood keeping country communities, not only alive, but vibrant and attractive. Murrurundi is a very pretty town. It has a long history as an artistic community and has its own cultural dynamic already. It has an Opera season each year, the Norvill painting prize, an elegant art gallery open all year, as well as the Murrurundi Stampede. So there is lots going on and many very interesting and community-minded people living here.
Murrurundi is our nearest town and Russell and I felt we wanted to do our bit to help it prosper. By doing it through the popular and accessible art-form of photography, we knew we were building on a strong community fabric which has already shown itself to be well-organized and committed in community affairs. We also felt a photo prize was a way of celebrating country life. In this case, it opens up a pretty rural idyll to all sorts of people, young and old, amateur and professional, city and country. We feel the prize's focus on 'the bush' is important in its own right, since country folk have done it tough for so many years, but we also feel the wider concerns of the environment at large can be highlighted by emphasizing the country viewpoint. The prize will also bring people to Murrurundi. Most urbanites love going bush but they feel 'safer' making a journey or even a pilgrimage if there is a definite focus for their journey; something to see or something to be part of.

Sarah Keddie Friday 13th 2009