MAROOCHYDORE

We have made that journey alongside Red Chair, a Sunshine Coast arts organisation with deep knowledge of the region and long-standing relationships with its artists and communities. Red Chair produces the project on the ground, bringing together the people, places, partnerships and practical conditions that allow it to unfold. Strange Engine holds the artistic framework, leading workshops and providing ongoing dramaturgy, mentoring and creative support.

Together, we have carried The Keeper from Coolum through Nambour and Caloundra, changing the project in response to each place. Maroochydore now becomes the final town in the sequence, shaped by river, beach and a rapidly growing city.

Across thirty weeks, ten local artists will take turns becoming The Keeper. Each spends three weeks repeating a small public ritual at a particular place and time. The town becomes their studio, archive and accomplice. Stories surface, routines shift and strangers find themselves inside an artwork they did not know was waiting for them.

Strange Engine led the opening workshops with all ten Maroochydore Keepers, helping each artist turn a local fascination into a public proposition that can be repeated and reshaped by whoever turns up. We remain alongside the artists as their ideas meet weather, permissions, public space and real life.

The framework travels, while each artist and community remakes it. This is the kind of system we like: strong enough to hold the work and porous enough to let place change it. Our collaboration with Red Chair gives the project both a deep local foundation and the freedom to keep evolving.

The final Keeper completes the sequence in February 2027. What remains will be distributed through stories, gestures, relationships and a town observed a little more closely.

THE MAROOCHYDORE KEEPERS

Lee Hardisty — 22 June to 12 July 2026

Sally Brown — 13 July to 2 August 2026

Ro Clark — 3 to 23 August 2026

Jordyn Burnett — 24 August to 13 September 2026

Teddy Horton — 14 September to 4 October 2026

Terry Murphy — 5 to 25 October 2026

Nicky Wilkinson — 26 October to 15 November 2026

Olivia Smith — 16 November to 6 December 2026

Cynthia Lee — 11 to 31 January 2027

Phil Smith — 1 to 21 February 2027

PROJECT PARTNERS

Produced by Red Chair in collaboration with Strange Engine.

Supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland and by the Australian Government through Creative Australia.

Supported by Sunshine Coast Council in partnership with the Queensland Government through the Regional Arts Development Fund.