Bentley Harmony Day 2012

17th March 2012 our third Harmony Day Celebration at Hedley Park Bentley.

This years school art projects was again a great success. Bentley Primary School, Al Hidayah Islamic School and Santa Clara Primary School again took part. I thank all school principals and their teachers for their commitment to this annual celebration and for the brilliant, colourful and imaginative work of the students.

This year the students made masks, which were displayed in the park on the day of our celebration.

This year we also had an ephemeral art project on the day of our celebration. For this over 100 plastic drinks bottles were collected and primed for painting and decorating on the day. We were able to obtain an old Hill's Hoist from he department of Housing when we had erected n the park for the celebrations. The bottles were painted and decorated with glitter and sequins and hung from the Hill's Hoist. 

This proved to be a popular activity, with most of the bottles being painted and suspended from the Hill's Hoist. The resulting collaborative work was beautiful, bright colourful and sparkled in the sun.

There were those who invented a new game! these kids were running under the Hill's hoist and jumping up to hit the bottles! Good to see a bit of spontaneity!

Using Art as an Engagement Tool at the Australasian Facilitation Conference

In November 2011 I was asked to provide an art project for the Australasian Facilitation Conference in Fremantle, and to run a collaborative arts workshop.

The art project: all delegates were given a mask to decorate. The masks were made from recycled newspaper.
decorative materials: sequins, feathers, glitter and art pens.

participants decorating their masks

 masked!!

radically masked!!

I constructed the large masks from recycled cardboard

these were used throughout the conference        

The art workshop was run to demonstrate the value of art as a collaborative tool. There were approx 18 participants in this project.

The project: the participants were asked to produce a work of art which would represent 'Harmony' a celebration of cultural diversity in Australia.

The materials: Base for work, foam core board. Decorative materials, coloured post-it notes, art pens and glue sticks.

The participants divided into four groups. They were advised that they should collaborate to come up with their ideas within their group and negotiate with the other groups with regard to use of space on the board.

No further instruction was offered. 

The four groups quickly came up with their ideas and move onto the board to develop the collaborative work.  Following brief discussions it was decided that one of the groups would tie the work together by using a trail of arts across and around the various elements in the final works. The result was a colourful and attractive collaborative piece.

Observations: 

• Within groups: collaboration, co-operation, listening, respect
• Across groups; collaboration, co-operation, negotiation, respect
• During the creative process, initial discussion, period of silence during creation, followed by discussion on how to bring it all together.

School Holiday Recycled Art Project at Perth City Farm

January 2012 the school holiday project at Perth City Farm for a week. The Children involved were aged 4-9 years. My project was Recycled Art which involved making hand puppets from plastic yoghurt cartons, masks from recycled cardboard and other works of art.

The work produced by the kids was diverse and colourful. The value of art and creative crafts is immense. It offers the opportunity to explore and develop many skills. These skills are soon lost if not nurtured.  Group/Community Arts projects are a vehicle for breaking down social barriers, giving everyone a voice and an opportunity to explore their creativity. 

Arts projects engender an atmosphere of collaboration, co-operation and respect for the views and ideas of all participants. This has been observed across all ages.

Recent Community Arts Projects

The Bentley Community Garden

Since July 2011 I have been working with the residents of Brownlie Towers Bentley to develop art works for the new Bentley Community Garden.

The garden had been the dream of the residents of Brownlie Towers since 2009. A temporary site was established at the Love Bentley Community Centre run by the Full Gospel Assembly, at Brownlie Towers, early in 2011. A more permanent site was established at Nyamup Way in September 2011. On land owned by the City of Canning.

A number of arts projects were undertaken for the the new site. Using recycled scrap wood and metal sheeting.

 The first project was to make a sign for the garden. This was made out of scrap wood which was cut into rectangles, sanded and the edges routed. Both sides were painted by the group.  each piece on its own is not particularly outstanding, but when all the pieces are put together the form a beautiful work , just as the pieces of a patchwork quilt may be insignificant individually but as a whole become a thing of beauty.

Two of my regular artists are Erica and Ben, they both enjoy painting and are very creative, this picture show the painting one of two large works on scrap sheet metal. These paintings have added colour and vibrancy to the garden.

The garden was officially launched on 19th November 2011. I designed an art project for the day which would offer the attendees the opportunity to be involved in the creation of a communal artwork for the Garden.  The project was inspired by the beautiful work of my dear cousin Ann Stephen, a very talented mosaic artist. it again involved the use of scrap wood cut into triangles to make wooden bunting, this was painted by participants on Launch Day the pieces were later varnished and strung along the fencing in the garden.

Following the Garden launch the group set to work designing some garden furniture, with the plan to submit for inclusion in the Rockingham Castaways Sculpture on the Beach Award. the first chair was completed in February, work will start on the second chair soon.