10 Jun 2016 Shepparton News, Shepparton VIC (General News) by Libby Price MINISTERS FIRST-HAND GLIMPSE AT BENALLA STREET ART HAS COMMITTEE CONFIDENT OF GETTING SUPPORT Benallas Street Art Committee is more confident of winning Victorian Government funding for next years festival, having met with Tourism Minister Martin Foley last week. Committee chairman Jim Myconos said the meeting was made possible due to the efforts of State Member for Northern Victoria Jaclyn Symes and Benallaborn Shaun Hossack, who runs the Melbourne street art management company Juddy Roller, which has contracted all the Wall to Wall Festival artists for the past two years. Shaun Hossack and Jaclyn (Symes) knew the minister (Mr Foley) was coming up here and they worked behind the scenes and we met with him for an hourand-a-half, Mr Myconos said. We had half an hour of walking around the town and we showed him all the murals, as many as we could get in that half hour. We were pleasantly surprised that he knew a bit of the history about the artists, very impressed. We were engaging with him and trying to give him our vision of where were heading with the event and the fact that we really want to start making Benalla a destination town. In the next four to five years we can really cement this town as an art precinct, which will encompass the satellite towns around the place, Goorambat, Tatong, Devenish and the like. Thats the plan we have. What he did do, he was very, very impressed. He basically said we tick all the boxes that they would be looking at (for funding). Hes committed to giving us the correct channels to go through next year because we know that last year we thought we were going through the correct channels for funding, and most of that fell over, but hes committed with Jaclyn to give us a push in the right direction. He was going to the Mental Health Forum in Benalla afterwards and he could see the impact it (the street art) had on the town as far as community pride, just the confidence it gives the community. Benalla Ensign Caption Text: Smart arts: Tourism Minister Martin Foley, Juddy Rollers Shaun Hossack and State Member for Northern Victoria Jaclyn Symes met with Benallas Street Art Committee members