2027 Creative Design of Outdoor Art Installation Project: Large Begonia Letters

The Ballarat Begonia Festival is a garden-based event, highlighting our city’s creative community and natural assets and profiling our unique and rare collection of Begonias, in a fun and entertaining environment. The Begonia Festival was established in 1953 and remains a culturally significant event for Ballarat. The City of Ballarat deliver the Ballarat Begonia Festival to attract visitors to Ballarat promoting our city as a vibrant, active, and nature-based destination and to strengthen community pride as a part of Ballarat’s story by remaining accessible to all.

In the 2027 Begonia Festival the City of Ballarat seeks to increase the visibility of First Nations stories, exploring connection to land, air and waterways. We wish to work together with First Nations artists to give them opportunities to share storytelling, artistic expression and to express culture and language. We seek to adopt a 'best practice approach' and will acknowledge First Nations people's innate value, difference from other cultures and respect their Indigenous ownership and control of indigenous heritage.

EVENT VISION

• Engaging and impactful experiences that attract interest
• Be driven by collaborative and creative community and commercial partnerships (co-creation)
• Adapting to environmental and social change
• Have a significant positive economic impact on The City

EVENT FOCUS AREAS

• Establishing a clear and consistent event that delivers impactful experiences and attracts interest
• Building creative and empowered commercial and community partnerships
• Embedding sustainability themes and adapting to environmental and social change

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR
We are seeking applications for a dedicated First Nations Expression of Interest (EOI) for the creative treatment of the large Begonia Letters. The City of Ballarat considers that First Nations people are best placed for the creative treatment of the Begonia letters as the original custodians of the land and on account of their deep connection to the flora and fauna of this country. Restricting eligibility is allowed for as a special measure under s12 of the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic) and is undertaken in good faith to promote substantive equality for First Nations people and enhance exposure of First
Nations artists who are otherwise underrepresented.

This EOI is open to First Nations creatives that live, work and study local to Ballarat, Traditional Custodians of Wadawurrung Land and the people of the Kulin Nation.
a. must be of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent
b. must identify as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person
c. must be accepted as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person by the community in which they live or formerly lived. In line with this definition established by the Australia Council for the Arts, we request applicants to identify and confirm as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, and where possible provide etters of support from community. For organisations interested in applying, at least half (50%) or more of the organisation’s membership must be of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait islander descent.

TIMELINE
Portfolio and Selection Criteria Submitted: Sunday 2 August 2026
Appointment of successful submission: Sunday 7 August 2026
Artwork completed and supplied: Sunday 1 November 2026
Installation LIVE: Friday 26th February – Monday 15th March, 2027 and 2028 dates – TBC

SUBMISSIONS
Submissions should be sent to events@ballarat.vic.gov.au by no later than Sunday 2nd August 2026.
The content of all submissions remains confidential, and we adhere to the City of Ballarat Privacy Policy. All submissions received will be assessed by an internal panel of Council Officers and all applicants will be notified of the outcome by Friday 7th August 2026.