The Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart, which was given a $2 million government grant to boost tourism. (Supplied: Mona/Jesse Hunniford).

Felicity Ogilvie, $2m grant given to Hobart museum to boost tourism in bushfire-ravaged Tasmania, ABC RN Breakfast, 17 June 2019

Listen at: https://radio.abc.net.au/programitem/pg4608Oey6

Art is being used to boost the economy of southern Tasmania after bushfires burnt through thousands of hectares of forests in the Huon Valley last summer.

Now, Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) has been given a $2 million government grant to boost tourism numbers in the region.

The first exhibit features the sounds of two thousand ravens in a forest.

The initiative is part of the museum’s annual Dark Mofo festival.

Guests:
Cassy Faux, artist, and cafe and art gallery owner
Matthew Nicholas, butcher and supermarket owner
John Fitzgerald, chief executive, Tourism Tasmania
Mehmet Ulubasoglu, professor of economics, Deakin University
Lorette, Victorian tourist
David Mason, poet

Reporter: Felicity Ogilvie