Ms Goldman, now in her eighties, is the author of My Memories Of Norman Lindsay and My Life In The Theatre.

Festival organiser, the Creswick and District Development Association (CDDA), has approached the council for a grant of $3000 to help stage the event.

A report to last night's council meeting said the festival would highlight the cultural prominence of the Creswick community and showcase the town, its lifestyle, culture and history.

"It is planned that the Lindsay Arts Festival will be an annual event,'' the report said.

"The CDDA is a proactive community based incorporated entity, which seeks opportunities to advance the attractiveness of the Creswick area by helping to provide an exciting, secure and progressive community environment to attract new visitors, engage new businesses and provide

residents with a sense of inclusiveness, pride and prosperity.

"For sometime the CDDA has successfully held the annual Lindsay Dinner, which acknowledges Creswick's close ties with the heritage endowed by the Lindsay family.

"The 2009 festival aims to build on the annual dinner.''

The report said other projects initiated by CDDA included the Lindsay Arts Trail and the Magic Pudding Playground, both of which were now part of the council's long-term project plan for Creswick.

"The Lindsay Arts Festival will use the attraction of the Lindsay family's impact on Australian art and culture as the focus with the objective to promote and brand Creswick as an arts town,'' the report said.