Sculptural coastlines: Site-specific artworks, beachscapes, and regional identities

The Australian beach is unquestionably an integral way of life for many Australians and a significant drawcard for many tourists. Beaches scatter the majority of the Australian island coastline, and regardless of specific location, beach landscapes play a thriving role in building a region’s identity. One way of investigating how the landscape emerges as a site of meaning-making for a region is to examine the emergence of curated, site-specific arts festivals in the location. This chapter examines how arts and sculpture festivals utilise the landscape (beachscape) to encourage participants’ engagement with the artworks. A spatial analysis has been used to incorporate both arts and tourism perspectives and examine three case studies of regional Queensland arts festivals: Currumbin’s SWELL Sculpture Festival, Noosa’s Floating Land festival, and Townsville’s Strand Ephemera festival. The findings suggest that the beachscape functions as more than a backdrop and is instead a site of meaning-making by enabling festival participants to engage with both the artworks and the beachscape.