No Place Like Home

A No Place Like Home workshop | Presented by Gungahlin Arts and Woden Arts

A monthly workshop series presented by Gungahlin and Woden Arts, running from April – November 2023.

Please scroll down for details on upcoming workshops

No Place Like Home is a series of affordable, creative workshops that invite Woden and Gungahlin residents to connect with and shape the place they call home. Engage deeply with your surroundings while spending a Saturday afternoon learning from local artists. Each workshop is a fabulous opportunity to uncover hidden treasures in your own backyard through drawing, printmaking, photography, indigenous knowledge and more.

The workshops are open to all levels of artistic experience. Workshops are designed with adults in mind, but passionate children and young people are welcome too. However, please note that all children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult. Bookings for each workshop will open one month prior to the start date.

No Place Like Home is a collaborative program, brought to you by Gungahlin Arts and Woden Arts and is supported by the ACT Government through the Woden/Gungahlin Pop Ups program. For more details on No Place Like Home workshops in the Gungahlin region visit the Belconnen Art Centre website.

Explore the No Place Like Home workshops

28 October Workshop

Poetry and Prose with Sarah St Vincent:

Explore ideas, emotions and memories about home in short poetry and prose with Sarah St Vincent Welch. Home can be a place, a person or people, family or friends; it can be many things. We may have more than one home. What is home to you? In this workshop Sarah will guide you with free writing, examples, and discussion. Expect to come away with draft poems or microstories you can share.

Bring one small object from home eg. soft toy, cooking or gardening utensil, hand made item, preferabley something with a story or memory associated with it to help inspire your words.

About Sarah St Vincent

Sarah St Vincent Welch has facilitated writing in our community for over thirty years, including at University of Canberra. She is known for chalking her poetry on the footpaths at art festivals. Her ‘chalk borders’ was published in 2021.

Instagram: @sarah_st_vincent_welch

Website: sarahstvincentwelch.com

Gungahlin: Saturday 4 November, 9:30am-12:30pm

$25 per person
Classes are capped at 12 people.

Woden: Saturday 28 October, 1:30pm – 4:30pm

$25 per person 
Woden Community Studio at Woden Library 
Corinna St &, Furzer St, Phillip ACT 2606
Classes are capped at 12 people.

PAST WORKSHOPS:

30 September Workshop with Emma Rani Hodges

Exploring personal history through fabric sculpture with Emma Rani Hodges

In this workshop you will get the chance to explore an aspect of your identity or personal history through fabric sculpture. Emma Rani Hodges will guide you through the process of narrating an aspect of your life through the use of fabric, paint, beads, needle and thread.

Bring a photo or an object that has significance to you. This will serve as inspiration for the fabric sculpture you create!

About Emma Rani Hodges

Emma Rani Hodges is an emerging artist who grew up on the unceded lands of the Ngunnawal, Ngunawal and Ngambri peoples. They lived the first 18 years of their life in Charnwood and are currently living and working in Belconnen. Their practice explores their mixed Thai, Chinese, Anglo-Australian heritage and low socioeconomic background through a postcolonial and intersectional feminist framework.

Working in the language of expanded painting, they draw on personal narratives and insert marginalised voices into the dominant cultural discourse of white Australia. Fluctuating between image, text and object, their work resists easy categorisation. They combine incongruous material (painting, textiles and found objects) to assert that their multiethnic identity can exist as a cohesive unified whole and challenge the view that individuals of mixed heritage are ‘caught between two worlds’.

Instagram: @Emma_Rani

16 September Workshop

Mixed Media Still Life with Michele England:

Led by visual artist Michele England, create a mixed media still life using paint, print and paper. Participants will learn simple techniques based on relief printing, painting and collage to create their own artwork to take home.

About Michele England

Michele is an artist whose work investigates issues regarding the environment in which we depend. Michele is intently interested in making works that engage your eyes, body and mind. Her artistic output is mostly paintings, textiles, printing or small sculpture. The paintings often use a collage aesthetic to combine imagery, painting techniques, pattern and forms. Michele also enjoys combining the practices of art and craft. This pursuit produces works that utilises craft techniques with everyday objects to make interesting metamorphoses and contextual changes to these objects.

Instagram: @eon.artlife

Website: Micheleegland.com

29 July Workshop

Sculpting Ephemeral Animals with Tess Neill:

In this beginner-friendly workshop, Tess Neill will take you through the process of creating your own ephemeral clay animals using pinch pots and coiling techniques. You’ll also have the opportunity to work with a range of tools to create texture and expression.

You’ll be able to follow along with Tess and focus on skills development as she takes you step-by-step through the process, or if you’re feeling more adventurous, you can bring along a photo of an animal you would like to make.

Your finished animals can be taken home with you on the day and can then be left on a patio or in your garden where they will gradually deconstruct and return to nature as rain, dew and frost interact with them.

About Tess Neill

Tess Neill is a Canberra based ceramicist and sculptor whose love of ceramics started in her final years of school. She dabbled in sculpture while juggling the demands of parenting, work, and life. Over the past six years or so Tess has been focussed on learning the skills involved in sculpture, hand building and ceramics at Canberra Potters.

Tess creative focus in 2023 has been making whimsical sculptures of (predominantly) Australian animals and birds. As a young child she loved children’s book illustrations and stories involving animals. As an adult she has been rediscovering the joy of observing animals and watching birds while walking her dog or as they visit her garden.

Tess has won awards for her hand-built pieces in Canberra Potters Student Teacher Exhibitions, and the Canberra Show. She has participated in markets at Canberra Potters including The Emerging Makers Market, All Fired Up and Christmas Market. Tess’s work is currently available at the Canberra Potters shop and Trove Canberra.

Instagram: @tessneill_ceramics

Website: Trove Canberra

24 June Workshop

Bracelet making workshop with Sinead Buckney:

Make your own solid sterling silver pearl mandala bracelet to take home, using simple plier hand tools. Sinead will guide you step by step to make the bracelet.  Learn basic wire working bead skills. You can adapt the design to add more pearls and adjust the length just perfect for you.  You can then use these new skills to make more pieces at home using simple tools and materials available from craft shops.  There will also be availability to purchase the pliers and an extra kit to take home.  

A full kit will be provided to make your bracelet.

About Sinead Buckney

Originally from Scotland, Sinead has been designing and making jewellery since graduating from her jewellery design degree in 2005. Studying Gemmology in 2010 ignited her passion for unusual gemstones. Asia is a big influence on her designs after living in Sri Lanka for several years. 

Sinead’s pieces are designed with sustainability in mind, using responsibly sourced gold and silver. Many pieces are made to order and customised with unique natural gemstones, becoming meaningful heirlooms that are cherished for years. Everything is designed and handmade by Sinead in her Canberra studio. 

15 April Workshop:

Experimental Drawing

Explore drawing as you’ve never experienced it before.

Experimental Drawing workshop with Robbie Karmel:

Explore drawing as you’ve never experienced it before – move beyond your hand and
eye and use your whole body and all your senses. Robbie Karmel will take you
through a series of drawing games and exercises that encourage you to explore the
relationship between human and drawing in a whole new way. Through these games,
you’ll work with drawing materials and tools in experimental ways as well as
connecting to your creativity and the world around you. You’ll then have the
opportunity to construct your own drawing apparatus to play with and perform in
during the workshop. You’ll also learn about some other artists who expand the idea
of what is possible in drawing to inspire you on your continuing creative journey.

This workshop is suitable for all levels of experience, and no previous drawing
experience is required.

All materials are supplied. Please be sure to wear clothing that you don’t mind
getting messy in!

About Robbie Karmel

Robbie Karmel completed his PhD at UNSW A+D and returned to Canberra in 2019 to
establish Studio in Mitchell with Richard Blackwell. His research and practice explore
concepts of mimetic representation, phenomenological embodiment, perception,
tool use, and representation through expanded drawing practices, extending into
printmaking, sculptural and performative methods.

Working with charcoal, oilstick and graphite on paper or timber surfaces, Karmel
maps out the body relying on the intermodal array of senses, challenging dominant
opticentric modes of picture making. This work includes the production of studio
furniture, apparatus, and tools to facilitate and interrupt solo and collaborative
performative drawing processes. Karmel has had solo exhibitions in Sydney,
Melbourne, Canberra and Perth and has undertaken residencies nationally and
internationally.

29 April Workshop

Mapping your way workshop with Pinal Maniar:

Learn to hand embroider a custom map of a place that is meaningful to you, or your daily walking route.

This workshop is a celebration of your daily routes, your favorite spots and the places that make up your everyday. It is a map of your happy place!

Pinal will work with you to draw out your favorite story, poem or incident connected to this place. You’ll then learn to develop a drawing of your map or story, transfer it onto fabric and use a variety of stitches to embroider your observation, route or story. Finish by embellishing with motifs of your
favorite flower, tree, birds patterns and more.

All materials are supplied.

About Pinal Maniar

Driven by a passion for handcrafted textiles, Pinal’s experience spans printing, weaving, dyeing, quilting, and traditional textile crafts techniques. After many years in the fabric design and manufacturing industry, she is now focused entirely on hand-made, unique, and sustainable textiles. These textiles are a medium for exploring the creative possibilities of natural materials and patterns. They are a statement about making locally and sustainably, and the artworks speak directly about the environment in which they are made.

Website: http://idyll-ink.com/
Facebook: @idyll.ink
Instagram: @idyllink

20 May Workshop

Working with Recycled Materials workshop with Al Phemister:

‘As I look around my home, I see things that are not needed, that could be turned into something else’, says Al Phemister, an artist with a passion for reimagining recycled and waste materials. With Al’s guidance, remake ordinary broken or discarded objects brought with you from home, using his simple tips and tricks to make some amazing art. Al’s aim is to inspire participants to look at things using a new lens. You will walk away from the workshop with new skills and a new perspective on reuse.

Participants should bring gloves if they wish, and any discarded objects that they may want to include in their art. All other materials will be supplied.

About Al Phemister

Al has worked with the Australian Conservation foundation, Southern Tablelands arts and the Hume Conservatorium of Music on his quest to raise awareness and reduce waste. Join Al for No Place Like Home and become part of the solution.