Information and Cultural Exchange: about switch

About The Switch Centre

Based within Information and Cultural Exchange, Switch Multimedia and Digital Arts Access Centre came to fruition in 2004 aided by a significant grant from the NSW Ministry for the Arts and an important partnership with Parramatta City Council. The state-of-the-art centre and outreach program attempts to engender local artists and communities’ participation, provide access for those who typically lack access to digital arts and new media technologies, act as both a hub and also outreach to Western Sydney and be a centre for innovation and excellence in new media arts practices.

Following its pilot phase, the SWITCH Centre was officially launched in February 2005 by the Minister for Western Sydney Diane Beamer. Switch has developed expertise in: music and sound, video and screen-based art and web and graphic design.

Switch has facilitated the creation of award-winning dramas, documentaries, music CDs and online mapping projects. It has enabled programs such as Originate, a digital arts professional development program for emerging cultural workers, the Emerge Refugee Radio Initiative and the Suburban Sistas urban music program and tour.

Switch is also a production house, producing several resources for government agencies to date. In 2006, we are introducing the Switch Academy, a training school for digital and new media arts.

SWITCH PROJECTS

Changing Lives

»» Changing Lives is a project engaging Arabic speaking young people with digital arts and community cultural development. The project empowers young people with skills to make and tell their own stories and share them on the internet.More »

Ali Kadhim: Parkroar

»» In 2007, new media artist and parkour practitioner, Ali Kadhim, received an Emerging Producers in Community (EPIC) grant from the Australia Council to work at ICE for a year.More »

DigiTales

»» ICE is the first Australian partner in the global digital storytelling project – DigiTales. This collection of unique local tales made by Sydney’s emerging media talent is now online.More »

Urban Music Project

»» Music workshops for diverse young people in Western Sydney with support from the Vodafone Australia Foundation.More »

PARRAMATTA SCREENING

»» A three-year initiative to building film and screen-based arts skills and output in the Parramatta area. Bringing Parramatta to the screen and the screen to Parramatta.More »

Remembering Minto

»» ICE worked with residents and agencies to collect and publish the stories and memories of Minto – a suburb lost in urban transformation.More »

Originate

»» A mentorship program in community cultural development and digital media.More »