Regional Arts Australia’s Industry Residencies Pilot Program is continuing to take shape in Witta and across the Sunshine Coast Hinterland, where A Curious Tractor’s Radical Scoops project is transforming local agricultural histories, community stories and everyday materials into a joyful platform for connection.

Delivered in partnership with Regional Arts Australia, A Curious Tractor, the Australian Network for Art & Technology (ANAT) and the agriculture industry, Radical Scoops is the second project selected for the pilot program.

The Industry Residencies is made possible through the Regional Arts Fund, an Australian Government program that supports sustainable cultural development in regional and remote communities in Australia.

Set on Kabi Kabi and Jinibara Country, the residency brings together artists, producers, processors, hospitality workers, designers, educators and community members to explore how food, creativity and shared place can strengthen regional supply chains.

For artists Nicholas Marchesi and Benjamin Knight, the first months of the residency have opened up new questions about what it means to practise as artists within a living community context.

“We’ve been thinking about what it means to be an artist,” Ben shares. “It’s been great to have a reason to think about art as a mechanism for a project… What does it really mean to be an artist, and how do you practise that every day?”

The project is grounded in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland’s layered industrial past, particularly the histories of timber, dairy and cooperative movements. Through research, conversations and on-site experimentation, Nicholas and Ben have been tracing how these industries shaped local identity, work and connection — and how contemporary creative practice might offer new ways to gather people together.

“The industries we’re exploring are the dairy industry, the timber industry and the cooperative movement in this area,” Nicholas said. “We’re interested in how art can be a medium to start a conversation and bring people together.”

That interest is already becoming visible through the residency’s evolving installations. One of the earliest works, built from milk crates, has quickly become a point of curiosity for visitors and passers-by.

“We built one of our first installations yesterday — a giant figure made out of milk crates,” Nicholas said. “Even just in the first 24 hours, hearing people’s interpretation of what that is was a real reminder of the power of art to start a conversation, get people curious or make people smile.”

At the centre of the project is The Harvest, a developing community site that will act as a physical home for the residency’s creative outcomes. 

The site is being imagined as a space for gardens, installations, events, local goods, shared meals and future artist residencies, becoming a place where community members can meet not just as customers or audiences, but as contributors.

For the artists, that shift is central to the idea of “circular hospitality”, one of the project’s key pillars.

“We love when people can bring a sense of themselves to what is a product,” Ben said. “People are very disconnected from what they eat and what they buy… When you can feel like you’re part of it, not just a customer, that’s something that’s exciting for us.”

This approach is guiding the artists’ interest in open, replicable systems that can be adapted by other communities. Rather than creating a one-off outcome, Radical Scoops is testing ways that practical materials, food systems, local storytelling and creative processes can become tools for broader regional exchange.

“The opportunity to do something and finish something is great,” Ben said, “but until you’ve had the chance to reflect on that and share that with someone, it’s not really finished. We hope that through reflection and providing templates for other people, we can show how things can be taken from something people think is ruined or rubbish and transformed into art or something practical.”

The residency has also created space for local storytelling. A conversation with Barry, a long-term resident nearing 90, offered Nicholas and Ben insight into how work, industry and community life have changed across the region. For Ben, these stories help connect the practical histories of timber and dairy with broader questions of belonging, care and cooperation.

“There’s an incredible richness in discovering what work and life was when these communities started to grow,” Ben said. “The more we can explore those things through storytelling, the more people can come together and have great discussions around why people are still here, where that came from, and what industries have been keeping people together.”

As the project progresses, the artists are preparing for a public activation around late June, with planning underway for large-scale works using approximately 1,500 milk crates and two tonnes of timber. The materials will form part of an immersive environment at The Harvest, where audiences will be invited to experience the residency’s research, experiments and creative provocations firsthand.

“We’re trying to get to this point around the end of June where we can have people at The Harvest exploring all of the works we’ve been building towards,” Ben said. “Hopefully we’ll not just have some rad things for people to experience, but a cool story to share — all the goods and bads and in-betweens along the way.”

The artist duo have realised the residency has already offered something equally important: permission, structure and trust.

“As emerging artists, Ben and I are only as strong as the community around us and the people that believe in us,” Nicholas shared. “It’s incredibly special to be backed and trusted in this space. We feel tremendously lucky.”

That sense of support is central to Regional Arts Australia’s Industry Residencies Pilot Program, which seeks to create meaningful exchange between artists, regional communities and industry partners. Through Radical Scoops, the program is demonstrating how creativity can operate inside everyday systems — food, work, hospitality, local enterprise — and make room for new forms of connection.

For Nicholas and Ben, the residency has reinforced the value of testing ideas in public, embracing process and allowing community response to shape the work.

“It’s been tremendously beneficial to have the belief and structure to give it a go,” Nicholas said. “You just have to try stuff and put it out there. That’s the whole practice in itself — not really the end product, but the journey.”

As Radical Scoops moves toward its next phase, A Curious Tractor is continuing to gather materials, stories, collaborators and creative possibilities. What began as an exploration of regional supply chains is becoming something broader: a living invitation to make, share, remember and imagine together.