Art as a balm for the island state

In the wake of January’s devastating bushfires, Ten Days on the Island offers Tasmanians a chance to come together and celebrate our shared humanity.

Publicity image for Stompin’s Nowhere. Photo credit: Jacob Collings, LUSY Productions

Hundreds of hectares of Tasmania’s once pristine world heritage wilderness were recently consumed by bushfires. Sparked by summer lightning, the fires blazed through temperate rainforest and across alpine peat rendered tinder dry by hot weather linked to climate change. While alpine parks are beginning to re-open, many Tasmanians remain on high alert.

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in 2020. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts