Paula Fletcher reports back on the second Kalgoorlie Souper Pitch, where she pitched her idea for “Heartwalk”, an urban art project in the heart of the Kalgoorlie CBD.

Although our city quiets down for Christmas & New Year, it was a large, passionate crowd of locals that showed up for the Kalgoorlie Souper Pitch: New Year, New Ideas event. The second in the series of Live crowdfunding events created by social innovators Ben Fox and Julian Canny was held in the quirky laneway at Fossick Handmade, which glittered with festoon lighting and handmade bunting.

The premise is simple: Buy your soup for $10, listen to exciting new ideas for Kalgoorlie, then choose which one gets your $10. So far the patrons of Kalgoorlie Souper Pitch have raised $2600 to go toward local projects that will benefit their community.

Souper Pitch co-creator Ben Fox collects contributions from the crowd.

The gorgeous staff from Relish Kalgoorlie turned up to show their support

Perched on a makeshift stage constructed with cable ties, wooden pallets and milk crates, I pitched my new concept for an urban art project in the heart of the Kalgoorlie CBD alongside Anne Skinner from the Eastern Goldfields Historical Society (writing a book on the 1934 Kalgoorlie Race Riots) and Owen Hinton (hosting a 48hr Global Game Jam event in March).

An excerpt from my pitch:

Heart walk will inject a new creative energy into our CBD by transforming empty shop windows into artists canvases, creating an urban art walk in the heart of town. 10 local artists will be paid to paint alongside internationally regarded street artists… It’s my dream to activate an urban art scene in Kalgoorlie Boulder, from this initial project we will start seeing colour and creativity pop up in public spaces all over town. I want to empower you all to change the face of our town, to revitalise our CBD and turn it into an exciting space where people want to spend their leisure time.

I asked the crowd for an investment of $350 to go toward getting the project up and running, and was absolutely honoured to receive a crowdfunding total of $477, which has already paid to get the Heartwalk Kalgoorlie urban art project website online, with the remainder to go toward project planning, budgeting and a Facebook marketing campaign.

The pitchers from the November event sponsored by Rydges Kalgoorlie returned to give the crowd an update on their projects. Kalgoorlie Boulder Community Garden’s Jennifer Nicholls proudly presented the crowd with a freshly laminated insurance policy paid for with the $528 invested by Souper Pitch patrons, meaning the group could finally open to the public and  start allocating plots to members. The Community Garden group also picked up an incredibly generous $2,500 donation of earthmoving from Phil Yates at Versatile Plant Hire.  Souper Pitch nights don’t just assist with raising capital, but are an invaluable networking opportunity where pitchers can pick up leads, sponsorship and in-kind support for their projects.

The next Souper Pitch event is in March 2016, where you can RSVP or apply to pitch here. For more information on the Heartwalk project, visit the Heartwalk website to find out how you can get involved and to sign up for the mailing list. 

Click here to visit the Heartwalk: Art in the heart of the CBD website.

Many thanks to Kate Fielding for the photographs featured in this article.

November Pitchers Jen Nicholls (Kalgoorlie Boulder Community Garden), Kate Yates and Zach Inglis report back on their progress.

The beaming December Souper Pitch team! Back Row L-R, co-creator Julian Canny, soup chef Zach Hawke from Zach-Harry’s Place,  Kate Fielding, co-creator Ben Fox. Front Row L-R, pitchers Owen Hinton & Paula Fletcher, Sarah Hinton of Pride & Prominence, Carly McAllister of Fossick Handmade.