In a novel partnership Western Australia’s Otherside Brewing Co. has signed on to a three-year partnership with a state art gallery.

Otherside has joined Art Gallery Western Australia (AGWA) in Perth in a partnership that will see the craft brewery supply beers to AGWA events and collaborate on a range of projects including can art for the brewery.

Otherside Brewing Co. is part of WA brewing and hospitality group Triple-1-Three, which has a history of artist collaborations, incubator programs and has launched its Tapped By Otherside creative grants to support the sector.It also owns a major music venue in Perth, dubbed Freo.Social.

National sales and marketing manager for the company, Steve Finney, said the partnership would provide culturally relevant opportunities for the brewing brand to engage with new audiences.

“We strive as a business to drive a creative culture across our venues, events and partnerships, as well as our staff,” he said.

“We want to walk the walk and not just talk the talk, which means giving back to the creative industries.

“The partnership with art gallery means we can work with grass roots galleries to Western Australia’s biggest art gallery.”

Finney said that the partnership will allow Otherside beers to be exposed to new markets, but it wasn’t the only aim.

“In one part it is exposure to a new market, but it’s also about us, as a company, practicing what we preach,” he said.

“We want to drive a creative culture that really helps feedback into that community.”

Their beers are already helping the creative industries, Finney said, and it seemed an obvious fit to mix beer with art.

Otherside even brewed a Festive Session Ale to coincide with the partnership, which was launched at the Arts Ball on Saturday 25 May.

“Every beer that gets sold helps pay into creative spaces, whether that’s visual arts or music, things like helping Western Australian brands get to South by Southwest,” he said.

“In the craft industry we tell a story that people can connect with and that’s where we’re winning over the big guys, and where our point of difference is.”

Finney said that it was this creativity in the sector that means it can diversify and collaborate with a multitude of other sectors.

He said that craft brewers had relatively recently got into sporting partnerships, such as Gage Roads’ high profile deal with Optus Stadium, Brewmanity’s tie up with Melbourne Football Club and Two Birds Brewing with the Western Bulldogs. The arts, however are a new sphere in which craft beer can make its mark.

“It’s just showing a change in the market itself, and that craft beer is becoming more approachable and accepted.”