Kaniva and District Progress Association has been awarded a small grant through the Local History Grants Program and Public Record Office Victoria for 2023/24, supported by the Victorian Government through the Community Support Fund, and we would love you to be part of this exciting initiative.
"What sort of a place is Wiregrass? Cripes, it's just a town up the bush, an ordinary sort of a place with ordinary sort of people. It's a go-ahead place Wiregrass, not only in the arts. It's got running water, and electricity, and isn't far behind in the fashion stakes either. No, Wiregrass is a buzzing metropolis. Lots of motor cars. A Beehive Store, Printery, a Mechanics Institute, a Mayor and the Royal, that's the pub!"
Percy Leason grew up in Progress Street, across from the railway where his father worked as the local grain merchant. It was a hive of activity and allowed Percy to meet many people in the district as they delivered their wheat on horse-drawn carts. As Percy grew older, he helped to stack the weighed bags onto railway carriages and often lay on the bags, listening to the conversations around him. He memorised people's appearances and mannerisms and later drew them in his sketchbook, creating valuable references for what would become his Wiregrass cartoon series.
Overview of the Wiregrass Main Street Heritage Trail Project
The Wiregrass Heritage Trail is an exciting and fun project that aims to shine a light on the social history of rural Australia through the lens of Percy Leason’s cartoons. Percy Leason, born in 1889, and in 1924 became Australia's highest-paid cartoonist, if not the world. His Wiregrass series, based on the mythical town of Wiregrass, captured the essence of rural life in Australia during the twenties and thirties. This project aims to use his cartoons and story telling to engage with new audiences through a main street trail with people who may not necessarily engage with traditional art galleries and museums.
Project Components
Significance
Funding and Support
This is a community led project, driven by the Kaniva and District Progress Association (KDPA). The total cost exceeds this grant, however it is a complete project with the additional costs sourced from our own fundraising activities. As a community driven project, KDPA have raised money by the sale of Silo Art Calendars, and subsequently received a generous donation from Australian Art Trails towards Arts Tourism projects to fund the necessary project components not covered by the grant. Please bear in mind that this is only a $15K grant, and therefore we would appreciate any further financial support. We will be working directly with Percy's family members and were recently loaned an extensive collection of Percy Leason cartoons by Peter Perry OAM, former director of Castlemaine Art Gallery, author, historian and custodian of an extensive Percy Leason collection. We are grateful for Peter's guidance and assistance to bring this project to fruition.
Project Background
Mike Fenton, grandson of Percy Leason visited Kaniva in 2003 from America, with a view to setting up a Percy Leason gallery, but it was deemed too difficult to manage from overseas. In 2013, with the assistance of WWSC's Mary Lu Amos, KDPA applied unsuccessfully for the small towns transformative arts grant. This was a big project and aimed to highlight all three of Kaniva's famous artists. It included a variety of elements including a Percy Leason gallery in the old Kaniva Shire chambers, plus outdoor cut-out art installations and stop motion animation, with digital nighttime projection of Percy Leason's cartoon characters. We then applied in 2022 through the small history grant unsuccessfully and tweaked our project to apply again in 2023. Other ideas have also included expanding this project to include a cartoon village playground and feature film.
Call for Volunteers
We invite all community members to participate in this exciting project. Whether you have skills in digital media, historical research, arts, or just a passion for Kaniva’s heritage, we need your help to bring this project to fruition. We are also looking for businesses who would like to participate in this project through offering a wall, plaque space, or permanent exhibition space for consideration. Keep an eye out for our pop-up community sessions and share your social history stories of life in the twenties and thirties. We anticipate completing this project by the end of the year.
How to Get Involved
The Wiregrass Heritage Trail is a unique opportunity to celebrate Kaniva’s social history through the art of Percy Leason. With the support of the community, this project will not only create a sense of place, but also promote Kaniva as a vibrant tourist destination with a cultural heritage that is fast disappearing from Australia's urban landscape. Join us in making this vision a reality.
For further reading, see the book Percy Leason: An Artist's Life This well researched and beautifully written biography on Leason features the artist’s entire career as a painter and cartoonist renowned for his depictions of Australian society in the 1920s and 1930s.
Further background reading: see Percy's memoirs of growing up in Kaniva here. Percy Leason memoirs
Kaniva and District Progress Association gratefully acknowledges the Local History Grants Program and Public Record Office Victoria, supported by the Victorian Government through the Community Support Fund. We also gratefully acknowledge the ongoing support of Percy's daughter Nancy and grandson Mike Fenton, along with Peter Perry, without whom this project would not be possible.
"What sort of a place is Wiregrass? Cripes, it's just a town up the bush, an ordinary sort of a place with ordinary sort of people. It's a go-ahead place Wiregrass, not only in the arts. It's got running water, and electricity, and isn't far behind in the fashion stakes either. No, Wiregrass is a buzzing metropolis. Lots of motor cars. A Beehive Store, Printery, a Mechanics Institute, a Mayor and the Royal, that's the pub!"
Percy Leason grew up in Progress Street, across from the railway where his father worked as the local grain merchant. It was a hive of activity and allowed Percy to meet many people in the district as they delivered their wheat on horse-drawn carts. As Percy grew older, he helped to stack the weighed bags onto railway carriages and often lay on the bags, listening to the conversations around him. He memorised people's appearances and mannerisms and later drew them in his sketchbook, creating valuable references for what would become his Wiregrass cartoon series.
Overview of the Wiregrass Main Street Heritage Trail Project
The Wiregrass Heritage Trail is an exciting and fun project that aims to shine a light on the social history of rural Australia through the lens of Percy Leason’s cartoons. Percy Leason, born in 1889, and in 1924 became Australia's highest-paid cartoonist, if not the world. His Wiregrass series, based on the mythical town of Wiregrass, captured the essence of rural life in Australia during the twenties and thirties. This project aims to use his cartoons and story telling to engage with new audiences through a main street trail with people who may not necessarily engage with traditional art galleries and museums.
Project Components
- Mural: Post Offices were a hive of activity in days gone by, with everyone relying on mail to stay connected. Did you know that Artist Percy Leason created a cartoon in 1932 around this idea of picking up mail, and likened it to a grand opera? As part of our Wiregrass Heritage Trail Project, we are creating a mural depicting a lively scene of several townsfolk queuing up for the Post Office. This will be painted by local artist Sharon Merrett as a community led arts process and featured on the side wall of the Kaniva Pharmacy. Now, we need your help! Let us know what characters you'd like painted by filling in our Wiregrass Survey. From this mural, we aim to create a trigger point using one of Percy's works through augmented reality to create an engaging digital storytelling experience.
- Main Street Heritage Trail: Kaniva's preserved buildings will serve as trigger points to create a snapshot of life in Kaniva over 100 years ago, these cartoons could possibly include the Post Office, Beehive Store, Butchery, Puzzling and Prohibition.
- Exhibition: A small permanent exhibition will further enrich the trail, these cartoons could possibly include the Fire Brigade, Kaniva Show, Brass Bands, Cricket, Parlour games, Farming, Drought, School cantatas, Church life, Wiregrass Cup, Trains, Depression and Bankruptcy.
- Marketing and Promotion: Various forms of digital media plus a brochure will form a strong part of this project and help to tell Percy Leason's Wiregrass stories to a wide audience.
Significance
- Cultural Heritage: Percy’s cartoons offer a snapshot of life in the 1920s, capturing the spirit of rural Australian utilising Kaniva’s main street, social life and local characters.
- Economic Benefits: The project has the potential to become a 'must see and do' in Kaniva, building on the growing interest in arts tourism. This helps to extend the visitor stay, thereby creating demand for visitor services in the accommodation, hospitality and retail sector.
Funding and Support
This is a community led project, driven by the Kaniva and District Progress Association (KDPA). The total cost exceeds this grant, however it is a complete project with the additional costs sourced from our own fundraising activities. As a community driven project, KDPA have raised money by the sale of Silo Art Calendars, and subsequently received a generous donation from Australian Art Trails towards Arts Tourism projects to fund the necessary project components not covered by the grant. Please bear in mind that this is only a $15K grant, and therefore we would appreciate any further financial support. We will be working directly with Percy's family members and were recently loaned an extensive collection of Percy Leason cartoons by Peter Perry OAM, former director of Castlemaine Art Gallery, author, historian and custodian of an extensive Percy Leason collection. We are grateful for Peter's guidance and assistance to bring this project to fruition.
Project Background
Mike Fenton, grandson of Percy Leason visited Kaniva in 2003 from America, with a view to setting up a Percy Leason gallery, but it was deemed too difficult to manage from overseas. In 2013, with the assistance of WWSC's Mary Lu Amos, KDPA applied unsuccessfully for the small towns transformative arts grant. This was a big project and aimed to highlight all three of Kaniva's famous artists. It included a variety of elements including a Percy Leason gallery in the old Kaniva Shire chambers, plus outdoor cut-out art installations and stop motion animation, with digital nighttime projection of Percy Leason's cartoon characters. We then applied in 2022 through the small history grant unsuccessfully and tweaked our project to apply again in 2023. Other ideas have also included expanding this project to include a cartoon village playground and feature film.
Call for Volunteers
We invite all community members to participate in this exciting project. Whether you have skills in digital media, historical research, arts, or just a passion for Kaniva’s heritage, we need your help to bring this project to fruition. We are also looking for businesses who would like to participate in this project through offering a wall, plaque space, or permanent exhibition space for consideration. Keep an eye out for our pop-up community sessions and share your social history stories of life in the twenties and thirties. We anticipate completing this project by the end of the year.
How to Get Involved
- Video/ Audio: Do you have a Percy Leason story or artwork? Was your relative featured in one of his Wiregrass cartoons? We would love to hear your personal connection to Percy Leason to be promoted through our project.
- Artwork: Do you have an original art work? We would love to be able to use a digitised copy in our project.
- Mural: Just as Percy painted characters from our town, we want you to tell us which characters you love the most, that we could reproduce for our upcoming mural. Artist Sharon Merrett will be leading this component as a community led arts process, in conjunction with local volunteer artists.
- Students: If you have a passion for art, social history and digital technologies, we'd love to utilise your skills and expand this project. This could be by way of major assignment or internship with a stipend.
- Contact: All enquiries, please contact project coordinator and KDPA secretary Helen Hobbs, ph 0429 888 250 or email [email protected]
The Wiregrass Heritage Trail is a unique opportunity to celebrate Kaniva’s social history through the art of Percy Leason. With the support of the community, this project will not only create a sense of place, but also promote Kaniva as a vibrant tourist destination with a cultural heritage that is fast disappearing from Australia's urban landscape. Join us in making this vision a reality.
For further reading, see the book Percy Leason: An Artist's Life This well researched and beautifully written biography on Leason features the artist’s entire career as a painter and cartoonist renowned for his depictions of Australian society in the 1920s and 1930s.
Further background reading: see Percy's memoirs of growing up in Kaniva here. Percy Leason memoirs
Kaniva and District Progress Association gratefully acknowledges the Local History Grants Program and Public Record Office Victoria, supported by the Victorian Government through the Community Support Fund. We also gratefully acknowledge the ongoing support of Percy's daughter Nancy and grandson Mike Fenton, along with Peter Perry, without whom this project would not be possible.
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Kaniva, first and last highway town in Victoria.
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