Fabric of Life workshops begin on Flinders Island
The Fabric of Life workshops kicked off yesterday at The Rose Garden Room at Whitemark with Artists Andy Vagg & Richard Bladel working with enthusiastic community members from Flinders Island. It was a thrill for Andy & Richard to work with some seriously skilled textile artists from Flinders and we all learned a lot from each other.
The Happiness Pod cinema dome will be decorated on the inside by The Fabric of Life: an amazing multi-coloured patchwork of community made collages created from items of recycled clothing and clothing that people bring along and offer to make these amazing artworks. Each item of clothing has a personal story attached, and the stories are embedded into each panel.
The workshops begin with some play and experimentation with a huge variety of what most people think of as rubbish, and the workshops explore the telling of stories through the use of objects and materials. It’s a lot of fun.
Andy will be running workshops in the other 5 communities that are involved in The Happiness Project: Dover, Cygnet, Glenorchy, Oatlands and Levendale. Watch this space for more news…
Pics from top left: Andy collects workshop materials at the Whitemark Tip; Andy washes each piece of rubbish for use in workshops by hand; Jana, Maria, Andy & Judy at the workshop; Ben and his story.
Jami Bladel I Artistic DIrector / CEO
Jami Bladel has been the Artistic Director and CEO of Kickstart Arts since 2006. Prior to that she was the founding Artistic Director of Big Wig Youth Theatre and worked extensively as a freelance theatre director, actor, writer, dramaturge and specialist teacher. She graduated from the VCA (Bachelor of Fine Arts – Theatre Practice) and from UTas. (Bachelor of Education). Jami develops and manages creative projects; brokers partnerships; works as a teaching artist and mentors emerging teaching artists. Awards include the ABAF Toyota Community Partnership award – State winner 2011 and National Disability Services Award for Excellence – for services to Social inclusion in the Arts 2010. Jami sits as a member of the Health and Wellbeing Advisory Council to the Tasmanian Minister for Health and is on the Leadership group of the National Arts and Health Foundation.
Richard Bladel | Creative Producer
Richard Bladel is well into his third decade of working as a professional artist. At one time or another he has worked with all sorts of arts organisations as a writer, playwright, dramaturg, video maker and as a producer of projects in music, visual arts, digital media, performance and writing. Richard has a focus on encouraging the expression and inherent creativity of people of all ages, building connections between people through art making and on breaking down the barriers between the arts and other sectors. He studied BA in Communications at the University of Technology, Sydney during the 80′s, majoring in film theory and production. He was founding Artistic Director of Kickstart Arts, and managed the organisation from 2001- 2007. From 1998 to 2000 he was Arts Officer at The Tasmanian Trades & Labor Council (now Unions Tasmania).
Happiness: News from the front.
The Happiness Project is in full swing!
Random Moments
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