Andrea Lane - Floating art and regeneration in Gippsland

Andrea Lane is an economist who believes in the irrefutably brilliant impact of artists in regional places. She is also the co-founder of FLOAT, an art space in East Gippsland, located on the gorgeous Lake Tyers. 

Andrea and the crew at the FLOAT are following their instinct. For art, nature, generosity and fairness, in pursuit of a regenerative region. With the luxury of being (non-indigenous) Elders they feel blessed to be free from bureaucratic fear, and can frugally invest in the things they know are important, stemming from their 20/50+ years of volunteer ‘project management’. 

Andrea arrived in Nowa Nowa in 2001 as the Fairfax / Business Review Weekly online national manager … to marry an artist. At that time, the population was 200, and there was no internet.
As Andrea telecommuted for the next 10 years, she discovered a life from which she has never wanted to return.

Despite useful qualifications in economics, information management, community development, and art in public spaces, there were few career options in East Gippsland, and none compared to what art could do to multiply her impact on regional life and the local economy.   

FLOAT revealed that regional life was jam packed with potential, particularly with art. But not just art as Andrea knew it. Rather, it was art as life, nature based art, ephemeral and environmental art, and community activation art. Towns were flipped from the poorest to the grooviest. There was an economy to be generated, and a sustainable economy to be built, and so they imagined and created ‘F Incorporated’.

Art trails dotted with wild and backyard fruit - (F)ROUTE.
A thriving maker collective in Bairnsdale - FOUNDRY.
Annual breakfasts for 200 folk, full of Johnsonville peaches – FROUTEVILLE.
An artist-made travel bureau @ Docklands – FROUTELAND.
A floating arts studio offering global arts – FLOAT.
Next up – FLOAT A.I.R. a trail of arts residencies in under-used spaces.

Andrea and her crew believe in the value of local knowledge and know that it has an economic value that has been lost in the bureaucracy. But they are finding lots of friends in the new REGEN GIPPSLAND.

Socials:

Website: http://www.float3909.com/

FB: FLOAT

Insta: FLOAT @float.3909

Enjoy the visual here on Youtube