CuriousWorks sent me to Hobart last week to work with Glenorchy City Council's Moonah Arts Centre planning the "Digital Mantelpiece" program. This program will give local artists and residents an opportunity to share personal stories expressed through video, poetry, audio and photos which will be exhibited at the gallery and on a special online platform. We'll also be building up digital media skills in the area with the hopes of the project becoming an ongoing and sustainable one.
The week involved meeting and visioning sessions with Moonah Arts Centre staff, and meeting with project partners at the Goodwood Community Centre and Glenorchy LINC (part of the state-wide Library network.) We were able to gather lots of information about the community and the local needs and resources, so that we could build an appropriate community engagement and skills development model.??
I met collaborating artists Troy Melville and Karen Knight. Troy is a local filmmaker with years of experience in broadcast and community engagement. Karen is a local poet with many published works (found myself reading her books throughout the week instead of putting my head down and working!) We're very excited to be collaborating with these two artists, we're gonna be making and facilitating awesome shit!!
I also had the pleasure of sitting in on a Glenorchy Arts & Culture Advisory Committee meeting where I got to hear about future plans for the area as well as share what CuriousWorks does and what Digital Mantelpiece was starting to look like. Local Independent MP Andrew Wilkie was also present at the meeting, making it a bit special! I'm hoping to meet at least one Tasmanian celebrity per trip. Tick!
A huge thanks to Eleanor Downes, Michael McLaughlin and Sean Kelly from Glenorchy City Council who were warm and accommodating with their time, and brought three very distinct and passionate visions to the project planning. The Digital Mantelpiece project acknowledges the generous support of both Arts Tasmania and the Australia Council for the Arts' Community Partnerships Program, and community partners Goodwood Community Centre, Glenorchy LINC, Migrant Resource Centre Southern Tasmania and U3A Glenorchy.??
Some other cool trip highlights:
– Michael brought me along to a very cool meeting at Wide Angle in Salamanca, where local filmmakers and representatives from Roar Film and Screen Tasmania sat to discuss the state of documentary filmmaking in Australia.??
– Didn't get a chance to check out MONA this trip (definitely next trip!) but had a walk around the Salamanca Markets and Battery Point (took some mobile pics).
Looking forward to my next visit in June, when things will be well underway!
(Props to Mark for the cool quick banner design!)
Elias Rambles 