Category Archives: Community Arts

Community Arts projects,

Welcome… to Hallowaeon!

Ghouls, goblins, and little ghosties, prick up your ears! For the scariest day of the year – HALLOWEEN – is fast approaching, and Aeoncademy will be holding a special celebration for the day. We’re calling it Hallowaeon!

Bookings are an absolute must for the day and we’re offering a special discounted rate for bookings made for Hallowaeon! $25 for the session starting at 4pm, $13.25 for the Bridging session – but only for bookings made in advance for Hallowaeon. Call the office to book in today!

Things will kick off with a celebratory bridging feast with some spooooky elements that our catering crew are brewing up in the storeroom even as we speak.

Then in an Aeoncademy first, we’ll be running an extra-special session that will last an EXTRA HALF-HOUR from 4pm until 6pm. And what a session it will be! Not only are we running extra special stories, art and cooking programmes from 4 through 5 for the children, but during the last hour of the program (from 5pm onward) we’ll even be throwing open our doors to parents who want to join in in the Hallowaeon Extravaganza!

What’re we doing on the day? Well…

In Creative Catalyst we will join in the ancient-most of Halloween traditions, painting their faces like scary monsters – zombies, vampires, werewolves – to protect themselves from prowling monsters on the way home. Here’s hoping they don’t get confused and come to think they themselves are the monsters painted on their skin…

Sparks will put on their lab-coats and prepare to learn from our resident mad genius Anna Wishart the slippery ways of Slime Science! Red or green, yellow or blue, ghostly ectoplasm or sticky blood, even non-newtonian goopy creations, our inventors-in-training will cook up all kinds of slimy concoctions. Let’s just hope that their creations don’t slither away from them….

Vala will explore the haunted back-alleys of Mexico City as they learn about the Aztec roots of Dia di Muertos, the Day of the Dead. If they aren’t careful, they may even glimpse the ancient deities Mictecacihuatl and Mictlantecuhtli roaming their former stomping-grounds and learn the true meaning of the word sacrifice…

Get a look at what your children do all term, maybe even engage in a little project of your own, and join your kids and our spooktacular staff for a sausage sizzle to celebrate the spookiest night of the year.

See you all at Hallowaeon!

Community Arts, The Blog

Spring is set to spring — the Open Day is coming up!

Open Day Term 3

That’s right. This weekend is Aeoncademy’s famous Open Day!

Come for the community, for the exhibition of children’s art, for the demonstration of dramatic storytelling, for the handmade food (made by the Sparks!), or for the release of our fabulous Spring Holiday Program (or for the massive 20% Discount on bookings made for it on the day).

Not only is Aeoncademy’s Open Day happening, but right across the road, Teffany Thiedeman (our Thursday ceramical genius) will be revealing insights into her arts practice from her home studio just across the oval. Check out more here.

Community of Child Aeoncademy is a strong believer in the local community, and our Open Days are one of the ways we try and bring a bit more creativity into everyone’s lives. From Art & Craft advice from our supremely qualified facilitators, to chats about the things that impact our community.

Not only is the Open Day great for our community to interact with us, it also gives us a chance to check in with our families, to get to know each of you a bit better, and to help inform our philosophical approach to education through creativity!

Dramatic Adventure

We also love seeing you – too often our only chance to have a word is in the wild and hectic moments during drop-off or pick-up. The Open Day gives us a chance to sit down, have a cup of tea, and really get to know you all.

For our Adolescent Artists, there’s space available for you to come and Make Art here at Aeoncademy. We’re also very keen to see you! Do come by.

Community Arts

Open Studios across Canberra

26034356752_6fe850c638_z THIS WEEKEND!

Meet the makers…

20160810_164714 (1) — Three Ceramicists in a Row!

Want to see a working artist’s studio? Interested in the art work the teachers make? Well you have an excellent opportunity to see at least three this weekend!

Australian Ceramics Community

On Wednesdays you can find not one but THREE ceramicists hanging around Aeoncademy. Of course none of us are really hanging around we are doing our art thing and in one week you are all invited to come and see where that things springs from.

Right across the road from our Aeoncademy Open Day, Teffany Thiedeman our Thursday ceramical genius will be revealing insights into her arts practice from her home studio, Hearth http://www.teffanyart.com/

Isabelle Mackay-Sim our fabulous Wednesday 2D class facilitator, will be showing her latest works in progress at the Canberra Potters Society in Watson.

Catherine Drinian a regular arts support worker on Wednesdays is based at Straithnarn Arts http://www.strathnairn.com.au/ . She will be showing off her fine thrown work.

Have a inspiring weekend!

opendaynow

Community Arts, Education through Creativity

Water fountains and civic features

After two weeks in Barcelona, there are some civic features here I really appreciate. For instance, you don’t need to lug a water bottle around while tracking through the streets or exploring the many parks because there are water bubblers everywhere!

Not only do they dispense water but some of them are old and incredibly beautiful, others more contemporary or with a bit of a DIY aesthetic. In this densely populated city of 1.6 million people, tourist season peak time can swell numbers to 8 million! A massive increase of people with all their demands for rooms, food and rubbish disposal.

Modenista Fountain — Modernista Fountain

Fountain inspired 'Personage' by Joan Miro — Fountain inspired ‘Personage’ by Joan Miro

Everywhere you walk there are recycling hoppers to sort out your waste. This city is very well maintained with round the clock cleaning by electric cars on all the main tourist routes.

People here value plants and greenery. Tiny balconies are full of pot plants, there are squares and avenues planted with lovely shade giving trees and community gardens pop up on roof-tops and in communal courtyard spaces. Large parks have been carefully planned: providing lawn space, scented avenues and lots of shade.

One of the best things about this city is the bicycle sharing system called Bicing (rhymes with icing). For about $50 a year, residents can join up which gives them access to a bike from any of the 6000 available at 420 stations around the city. You can ride the bike for free up to 30 minutes and then there is a small charge for up to 2 extra hours after that. You want to get the bike back to a station before 4 hours though or it get expensive. This shouldn’t be a problem because there seem to be bike stations all over the place, just like the bubblers and recycling centres.

https://www.bicing.cat/

Popular bike station with only a couple of bikes left

Community Arts, The Blog

Thank you for a wonderful Open Day!

While the cats are away… we had an Open Day.

IMG_20160528_100824524 IMG_20160528_100851581 IMG_20160528_120243100 IMG_20160528_131301030 IMG_20160528_131316019

A massive thank you to all the families who came to see us, who booked in for the program, who got involved in our sweet crafternoon, and joined our dramatic adventure! It was wonderful to have you come by.

We also got to release our Winter program!

The Winter Program

We’re all super keen to be putting on this fantastic program these coming holidays. If you’d like to find out more, get in touch with the office here, or give us a call – 6142 3268.

Following a fantastic Open Day, we have been left with a few treasures yet to make their way home. Canopic vessels, birds of all designs, doors to other worlds and musical chimes from the Summer holiday program are all currently being displayed in a cupboard just outside the Art Room door.

If you were unable to come by on the open day but would like to pick up any work you can visit us during our after-school care hours (Monday to Friday from 2-6pm). If you do pop by don’t forget to ask us about the fantastic Winter program that will be running between the 4th and 15th of July.

There will plenty of opportunity to create new ceramic masterpieces in the upcoming program as well as explore how mixed materials can be shaped into powerful staves, test the flexibility and function of wire and metal while creating sculptures, investigate object placement and the forms of living sculptures as terrariums take shape not to mention participate in a dramatic adventure or two.

Bushrangers, Dragons, warriors, adventurers, smugglers, fey folk, and pesky Time Bandits will all have their time to shine in the hall. There are choices to be made, decisions to ponder, doors to open, and close, defeat, victory, and stories; to be told, and rewritten. What legend, fable or tale will be sung of your adventures and who will write it?

Teffany is currently conducting some research into a whole bunch of fabulous Spanish artists – including Gaudi and Hieronymus Bosch while in Barcelona and she is very excited to be able to return and share her reflections. Check out some of her pictures and explorations here.

Community Arts, Education through Creativity

Gaudi~ An artist of nature

This week has been a monumental one (no pun intended). Mathew and I are in Barcelona and I have finally seen, moved amongst and touched the work of Antoni Gaudi, an artist whose work I have admired since childhood.

Essentially Gaudi embodies the idea of art being an integral part of life. In his eccentric and organic architectural structures he reverentially calls upon the forms found in nature as a paeon to his God. He is famous for his saying ‘originality is returning to the origin’ an idea which is born out in his extensive use of natural forms like honeycomb, tree trunk columns, spirals and fractal like branching structures.

Gaudi's Gorgeous Structures... — Branching structures at Casa Milá

We started with a dusk visit to Casa Mila which is better known as La Pedrera (The Quarry), an originally disparaging nickname for an apartment building constructed in the modernist period in Catalonia, Barcelona at the beginning of the 19th Century. Originally constructed as an apartment for a wealthy patron it anticipated the changes of the new millennia by incorporating innovative structures like an underground car park, a lift, a light flooded central shared courtyard and open plan floors to allow the inhabitants to design their own spaces.

It is always a weird sensation to actually experience the environment you have anticipated by looking at postcards, art books or online videos.

Beauty in La Padrera — Organic and Cellular Gates of Casa Milá

Gorgeous Gaudi — Dusk at Casa Milá — from the city streets.

The Eye of La Pedrera — The open sky of the central courtyard

La Pedrera itself stands uniquely in a street surrounded by historical and stately buildings. The famous doors that look so delicate in pictures are massive iron gates inspired by the patterned wings of a butterfly. The inside ground floor of the courtyard space is flooded in colour from algal greens to floral pinks and blues. Decoratively exuberant it celebrates natural patterns from the minutiae of curlicues of balustrades and door handles to the massive bones of the entire construction . The structure rises from the floor in a giant spiral like the interior of a sea shell or snail. Massive tree like pillars support the building stretching up to the roof space which contains large catenary arches, commonly found in Gothic architecture, a style Gaudi was extremely fond of. Walking through the roof area is like walking through the body of a whale, the arches forming ribs and tunnels. Apparently this was where all the washing was hung to dry!

light gaudi — every detail is considered

Looking down from the rooftops of Casa Milá — Looking down into the central courtyard from the roof top

Organic Columns — Textures of La Padrera

From this roof space the very top of La Pedrera is accessible through narrow spiral staircases leading to more fantastical sculptural shapes rearing into the sky like Easter Island statues. Like so many historical places in Barcelona, the building is given a contemporary interpretation for public use everyday. Here a light projection show transforms the 100 year old rooftop into an incredible canvas of colour and movement with images of plants and animals in a celebration of nature Gaudi surely would have appreciated.

Wonderful colour — Mosaic in the moonligh

The Moon above La Pedrera — Casa Milá with the Moon above.

The Moon and the Statuary — A helmeted sentry

Then Park Guell…

Community Arts, The Blog

Warm your cockles at the Aeoncademy Open Day

We’re launching our Winter Program on Saturday, the 28th of May at our quarterly Open Day!

Open Day

Come for the Crafternoon, for the exhibition of Children’s Art, for the Interactive Dramatic Adventure, for the handmade food (made by the Sparks!) for the first look at our Winter Holiday Program, or for the massive 20% Discount on bookings made for it on the day.

Our Autumn Open Day from last year

Aeoncademy is a strong believer in the local community, and our Open Days are one of the ways we try and bring a bit more creativity into everyone’s lives. From Art & Craft advice from our supremely qualified facilitators, to chats about the things that impact our community.

Attendee at the Open Day

Open Day Art

Open Day Drama

For our Adolescent Artists, there’s space available for you to come and Make Art here at Aeoncademy. We’re also very keen to see you! Do come by.

Community Arts, The Centre

Open Day and the Autumn Program

a gorgeous and colourful notice for the Autumn open day — Saturday the 5th March is Open Day

Coming up very soon is our famous Open Day, a marvellous opportunity to play with clay, ask tricky questions, fight with replica swords and get an amazing 20% discount on the next holiday program!

We will be launching our Autumn Holiday Program on the day and it promises to be seasonally inspired and engaging.

Please call in any time between 10am and 4pm to pick up fired ceramic work from the Summer Program and admire the art work from our after school classes this term.

There is always a Vala Dramatic Adventure Interactive (come see to find out what this means!) and a sausage sizzle at lunch time to keep everyone going.

The space is great for a catch up with friends and family while enjoying a little hands on activity whether it’s clay work, watercolour painting or drawing. Or just a cup of tea, a delicious biscuit (cooked during our World Cooking class) and a nice sit down.

A close up of the Forbidden City's walls — The Forbidden City’s walls

Our program for Term 1 after school classes will be on display for interested people.

Monday to Thursday children over 7 years can choose between a Vala class (drama) or Creative Catalyst (visual arts) class. Children from 4 years are automatically enrolled in the Sparks program, allowing them to experience drama, art, world cooking and more free time play. Friday all ages try a mix of our programs.

There will also be some merchandise available for purchase, our t-shirts and boffer weapons are always popular.

art for adults — Ceramic Salon in hiatus

Those who are missing the creative classes for adults, Ceramic Salon, are welcome to call in during the Open Day and play around with clay -we can make arrangements for firing any work you produce.

Same for Teenage Art Club- feed your creativity.

See you there!

Community Arts

Everyone should love their MAMA

On the way back from Tasmania to be ready for our Summer program we broke journey at the new Murray Art Museum Albury- MAMA. Lured in by the promise of eX di Medici’s first solo show in three years, the massive hot pink snails on the lush grass were also irresistible. The snails are on loan from the City of Sydney. They were created by a collective of European artists (the Cracking Art Group) who make public installations of massive sculptural animals all in recycled plastic to highlight the need for environmental awareness and encourage recycling.

Giant pink snail made of plastic — It’s ok to touch this snail!

The museum is a great space and very keen to attract a broad range of interests. A large interactive installation- The Cubic Structural Evolution Project by Olafur Eliasson is a lot more fun than it sounds! In the foyer is a 10 metre long table with three tonnes of white lego scattered over a mirror surface.

The cubic structural evolution project by olafur eliasson — Close up of 3 tonnes of lego

white lego structures constantly change shape — The table of constantly evolving structures

Everyone is welcome to sit down and become an architect of an ever changing city scape.

https://www.mamalbury.com.au/ You should check them out when you get the chance. They also make a nice iced coffee.

Community Arts, Sculpture & Mixed Materials

BBQ festivities

This weekend we will be providing playful opportunities for all ages at the first ever BBQ Festival The Big Smoque in Civic Square (outside Canberra Museum and Gallery and the Legislative assembly).

paper mache foundation — The beginnings of a marvellous beast…

Many hands have already helped to shape the form of the paper mache beast which awaits adornment in vines, flowers and fruit, horns, claws and more. All using recycled materials this beast is not for Barbecuing!

Our other activity will be the making of the timeless hobby horse/hobby unicorn/ hobby dinosaur- whatever takes your fancy.

someone made this — Get on your Hobby Horse

So Giddy-up and get along.

That’s right. This weekend is Aeoncademy’s famous Open Day!

We’re launching our Winter Program on Saturday, the 28th of May at our quarterly Open Day!

Nurturing the Creative Spark