An Illawarra arts funding group is aiming to raise $10,000 to help give South Coast bushfire victims a voice.
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Culture Bank is a member-funded project that provides money for Illawarra creative projects.
Tania Mastroianni from Culture Bank said the team wanted to raise some money to fund arts projects between Nowra and Bega. They put the idea to the members and got a big thumbs up.
"We feel strongly that everybody tends to rally around and want to contribute at a crisis stage," Ms Mastroianni said.
"But once that crisis stage finishes, people still have a lot of grief and trauma that they need to voice, they need to process that experience.
"So we thought this funding could actually contribute in that way."
While she knew bushfire victims had "more pressing issues" now, art can help give some peace down the line - and it can generate income and tourism as people visit the areas to see the finished works.
"People tend to think it is something that only happens in the good times, but art and culture is also important when people are struggling and they don't have a voice," she said.
"So that's what we want to do, we want to give people a voice."
Culture Bank has already thrown $2500 into the funding pool and is looking for businesses, groups and individuals to make a one-off donation.
"We had some funds returned to us from our last funding round - $2500 - that's what we put up," Ms Mastroianni said.
"Then we've asked the community to jump on. We're aiming to raise $10,000. If we can get more than that we will open the borders further down to Eden.
As of Wednesday afternoon almost $4000 had been raised.
For more information or to donate, visit the Culture Bank Facebook page.