The site of Natimuk's Arts and Crafts building lies dilapidated on the town's main street.
Fortunately, this is not a metaphor for the town's much-loved community of artists right now.
This Saturday from 6.30pm, creatives aligned with the organisation Arapiles Community Theatre (ACT) Natimuk, they will host the annual rock climbing short film festival, Goatfest.
The hosts will appear over Zoom and the films entered will be shown on video hosting website Vimeo.
In a normal year, attendees would view the films from Natimuk's Soldiers Memorial Hall, located right next to the Arts and Crafts building, over the Easter weekend.
Tracey Skinner, ACT Natimuk's co-manager, said they had initially postponed the event due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"We want to keep the festival going to keep some continuity: It's been going since 2002," she said.
The films, which must be under 15 minutes long, range from non-fiction footage of difficult rock climbs to mockumentaries.
"This year, we do have an entry filmed outside by a US man who was in Australia for quite a while last year," Ms Skinner said.
"They can be filmed anywhere in the world, though often they're from Australia. We hope it's going to provide some community."
ACT Natimuk also hosts the Nati Frinj art bienniale, normally in November.
Ms Skinner said the 2021 event would go ahead, though what restrictions on gatherings would look like - as thus how people can attend the event - was unknown.
"I think people have been using this time to think about how the will pivot, and change the way they do things. You're limited in what you can do, so it's a really good time to develop new works, some of them actually inspired by what is happening."
ACT Natimuk is itself thinking about such a pivot: This week, the Victorian government announced it as one of 78 organisations statewide receiving money under round two of the Strategic Investment Fund.
Ms Skinner said they had received around $23,000 to develop a strategic business model to adapt to the new arts landscape.
"We are doing this on a small level with Goatfest, and our strategic plan coming up soon will probably look quite different to what we were going to do before COVID," she said.
"We've got some ideas that require development time and thought, and that funding will help us do that so next year we can hit he ground running."
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Alexander Darling
Alexander has been a member of the Wimmera Mail-Times' editorial team since December 2018, covering politics, business and property among other rounds. He is a passionate St.Kilda and rock and roll fan, and has previously worked as a radio reporter in Port Macquarie and Gosford, NSW.
Alexander has been a member of the Wimmera Mail-Times' editorial team since December 2018, covering politics, business and property among other rounds. He is a passionate St.Kilda and rock and roll fan, and has previously worked as a radio reporter in Port Macquarie and Gosford, NSW.
