The Finishing School has become incorporated and is now entering a new phase. We are redeveloping ourselves as an arts collective that focuses on cross-disciplinary work. We will be working with visual artists, radiomakers, filmmakers, dancers and people working in other artforms to create dynamic and meaningful work. But we’re proud of history, which we’ve summarised here:

The Finishing School has been based at Parramatta Artists Studios (PAS) since its formation in 2016. We ran community-focused storytelling nights, as well as a mentorship program for women writers in western Sydney. This included one-to-one consultations as well as a writers’ group in where members shared and workshopped their writing in a safe and supportive setting.

We’ve been highly active in the cultural life of this area and beyond. Our members and collaborators represent the distinctive and diverse voices of this region with a strong dedication to collaboration and artistic excellence.

In 2017 the collective produced a large-scale installation for Parramatta Lanes, a festival which attracted well over 100,000 visitors. The group has held several popular events for the Sydney Writers’ Festival at PAS. We were honoured to be a finalist in the prestigious Imagine Awards for a collaborative event with the Parramatta Weave group which was run as part of Art Month.

Our achievements have increased the profile of female writers and artists in western Sydney, and we continue our work with this goal. We wish we could do more but we’re limited by resources and our busy lives, but we have lots of big plans for 2021 and beyond.