Multicultural Arts Victoria is thrilled to continue its partnership with Melbourne Festival in 2016, for the 6th year in a row to present Igniting Imagination: a partnership project that activates our global networks and builds dynamic bonds with our culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

Igniting Imagination features Festival Ambassadors who for 2016 are: Ajak Mabia Kwai, Astrid Mendez, Chaco Kato, Danny (Daniel) Atlaw (Seifu), James Henry, Mindy Meng Wang, Suzanne Kalk, Tomoko Yamasaki and Victoria Chiu.

In addition, MAV is programming Our Place, Our Home (Sunday 23 October, 10am-6pm at the Melbourne Town Hall) for the culminating moments of the 2016 Melbourne Festival in a celebration of diversity—a fitting bookend to the Festival’s opening ceremony from the land’s First Peoples, with a multicultural exchange through coffee, tea and music. Artists from diverse backgrounds will showcase beverages unique to their culture: from Turkish elma çayı (apple tea) to Ethiopian buna (coffee) to Indian chaay (chai). Local artists will perform acoustic sets while Chiharu Shiota’s wondrous The Home Within looks on.