Home » Community Arts Projects

Community Art Projects

 

Where energy and funds permit, The Brindabella Women's Group partake in a Community Arts Project. A Community Arts Project (CAP) is an Arts based project chosen by members and created in sessions throughout the year to ultimately benefit the broader community.

2011 Community Arts Project - Tie-Up Blankets for Sapa OÇhau Centre for Education and Community Development in Vietnam

This year Jenna organised for the group to make tie-up blankets for her to take to a centre in Vietnam:

"Brindabella Women’s Group has recently had a Community Arts Project that involved the making of tie-up blankets. The idea for this project has come about due to my future volunteer placement being at Sapa OÇhau Centre for Education and Community Development. The centre helps the disadvantaged youth of the region and provides accommodation for students from outer regions of Sapa, Vietnam.  Winters in Sapa are particularly cold and blankets will be a much welcomed addition for the centre. 

 

The making of the blankets firstly involved the sourcing of fleece material in bright colours and patterns.  Then during our Community Arts sessions we all contributed by cutting blankets to size, cutting strips along the edges and finally tying strips together to create a two layer blanket. A few members were very creative and blanket stitched some objects onto some of the blankets. The finished products are bright and warm and very funky! 

 The Group will also be contributing photos so that a photo book to illustrate life in Australia and particularly life for women can be created and presented to Sapa OÇhau. This book will show them who we are and hopefully begin a relationship between the centre and our community here in Australia. 

While in Vietnam I hope to stay in touch with Brindabella Women’s Group through a blog and email." 

Keep up with Jenna's blog here.

 

 

In 2006 We created some lovely wallhanging Artworks, gained skills in Lino Cutting and had lots of fun along the way! These artworks are available to view at the Birth Centre Canberra Hospital and at the QEII centre.

In 07 we decided to create and decorate our own Hats as part of the Blue Hat Day depression awareness project, this was heaps of fun and we launched the project with a Mad Hatters Tea Party.  

Our 08 Project "in our footprints" took us out of our comfort zones and into the Community Centres backyard for some metal work and big scary welding lessons. Using just recycled junk, and thus reducing our 'carbon footprints' the final result was a gorgeous sculpture garden the community can enjoy everytime they visit the Muggaway tip! 

The 09 project "from one mother to another" contributed sewn playmats for newborns to the wonderful people at Karinya House who reduce the struggle some of our Canberra local mothers are facing through their pregnancy and raising their newborn babies. - A more detailed look at this project as well as some photos is available below.

Below are Links to Previous Community Arts Projects:

 

 2009 CAP- "FROM ONE MOTHER TO ANOTHER" - Karinya House Project

This year's Community Arts Project (CAP) will utilise our existing sewing skills, or be agreat introduction to sewing for those who are new to machine sewing. We are making play mats for babies from Karinya House. We are aiming to make over 50 bags/mats, so have been very busy cutting out circles of fabric for the front and back of mats as well as wadding (soft stuff as padding), using Kellie's large, cardboard template.

We have had a wonderful production-line going with tracing the template onto bolts of fabric, cutting them off and cutting each circle. There are plenty more to do! We also welcomed Jackie Gallagher to the group on the 2nd of June to speak to us about the work of Karinya House and Erin House, its 'sister' facility. The Houses are staffed mainly by volunteers, and I think we all agree that they provide a remarkable and much-needed role in the community. For those who missed that session, Karinya House was set up by a small group of people who saw a need in the Canberra area for practical help to new mums and pregnant women without appropriate support or accommodation.

More can be read about the work of Karinya House at http://www.karinyahouse.asn.au

Kellie Edwards is co-ordinating the project and has prepared detailed instructions so that members and visitors can construct these mats in a series of sessions. For those members who are not confident with sewing, it is a chance to once again learn new skills, or just have a cuppa, cut out fabric, iron fabric, hold a baby while someone else sews, or just watch and enjoy a break. Community Arts' Projects are designed so that anyone can join in at any stage of the project and make their contribution. We hope to see lots of members for the next sessions in Term 3.