NIDA Update
Published on 01 September 2022
Plans are firming up for the much-anticipated partnership between the prestigious National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) and Leeton’s burgeoning Roxy Institute of Performing Arts (RipA).
RipA, along with youth arts companies in several regional centres around Australia, is part of NIDA’s inaugural NIDA CONNECT program which aims to make world-class creative industry practice and training available to outer metropolitan and regional Australians.
In collaboration with local program partners, NIDA Connect will deliver courses for young people, providing opportunities for skills development across a number of performing arts and new media disciplines, these blended learning (online and face to face) discipline-specific, skills development short courses will be offered in the following areas:
• Acting
• Writing for Performance
• Design in Performance
• Technical Production
• Film and Television Production
• Digital Storytelling
Funded by the Federal Government’s Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund, NIDA Connect should have its first intake of regional students well before the end of the year.
NIDA CEO, Liz Hughes, said the NIDA was grateful for the Government’s support and super delighted to partnering with Roxy Institute of Performing Arts.
‘This new national program will connect outer metropolitan and regional Australians to creative industry practice by delivering free introductory skills development courses for young people and creative opportunities for local teaching artists. It’s exciting to be engaging with Leeton’s creative community,’ she said.
The Roxy’s Redevelopment Project Director, Katherine Herrmann, further outlined what NIDA CONNECT will mean for Leeton.
‘Because the programme involves both face-to-face and online tuition delivery locals with experience in theatre and media will be trained by NIDA to teach face-to-face components and that in itself is a-once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,’ she said.
Ms Herrmann said that the RipA team was currently finalising where the NIDA CONNECT training will be conducted while the Roxy redevelopment continues.
‘The TAFE NSW Leeton campus has brilliant Connected Classrooms which would be great for the online course components and big classrooms suitable for the face-to-face training,’ she said.
‘We’ll also shortly have further details on applying for the courses and teaching arrangements and we’ll make sure young people in Leeton and the region will be firmly in the loop,’ she said.
Leeton Council’s Cultural Services Manager, Suesann Vos, said NIDA’s commitment to the Shire was inspiring.
‘To have skills development of young locals as an integral part of our town’s new cultural precinct is such a positive outcome,’ she said.