Our history

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It has taken considerable community effort and volunteerism for Sunburnt Arts to be where we are today. We honour the incredible generosity of everyone who passionately gave their time, resources and intelligence to the organisational changes that allow our community to gather, create and govern itself together. We proudly stand on the foundations they created.

Sunburnt Arts grew out of more than a decade of members gathering, building and creating together. Our gathering started with a small group of artists and collaborators, and it grew into an annual event that brings together people of all ages and backgrounds, guided by the Ten Principles. This page keeps the documents that record how we became the charity we are today.

As the community grew, members began asking how it should be held into the future. The Ancient Future report brought together what our community told us and set out a vision for a new member-owned structure. Stakeholders then discussed the restructure openly on Loomio before any decisions were made.

Red Earth City Pty Ltd ran the event before the restructure, and its financial reports helped shape what came next. We briefed our lawyers on the structure our community needed, and the restructure set up two companies: Sunburnt Arts, a members' charity, and Sunburnt Events, which was to produce the gathering under licence. Each had its own constitution.

In 2025 the two companies merged into one charity, Sunburnt Arts, with one board elected by members. Members passed five special resolutions at the August 2025 AGM to make the change. The documents below record each step of that journey.