2016… oh what a year! We here at Colour Box Studio have worked hard to host a creative program packed with local art, hands-on workshops, and many opportunities to meet like-minded creative people like yourself. In 2016 the Colour Box Studio Management family grew and welcomed interns Prue Blake as Social Media Coordinator, Liam Anderson and Rose McNeill-Young as Members & Volunteers Coordinators, Winnie Vuong and Lilly Desormeaux as Events Coordinators, Catherine McLean as Marketing Coordinator, Belinda Neilson as Projects Coordinator, and Angela Shi as Graphic Design and Content Creator.
We thank everyone who has participated in our 2016 program, whether it be exhibiting work at our group exhibition, hosting a workshop, volunteering at our Spring Pop Up Shop launch event, visiting our Spring Pop Up Shop, or even following our journey online! Let’s take a walk down memory lane and recap on the year that was.
Throw Up Your Art & Art to Art: Creative Conversations featuring Carla McRae
To celebrate our fourth birthday, Colour Box Studio hosted the annual Throw Up Your Art exhibition to showcase the work of Colour Box Studio members and volunteers. The four-week exhibition featured artists Kinga, Carolyn Warren-Langford, Anna Sorro, Leesa Gray-Pitt, @Ferney, Caroline Esbenshade, Okissu, Kerrie Theodorikakos, Belinda Neilson, Amie Batalibasi and Megan Bonnici.
Carla McRae gave an inspiring artist talk about making it work in creative fields and empowering artists and creatives to make a living from what they do. The event was topped off with a non-scary networking meet-up in celebration of artists and creatives.
Spring Pop Up Shop
In 2016 we hosted our BIGGEST Pop Up Shop to date, which showcased handmade and locally designed work of 31 creatives in our space at VU at MetroWest in the heart of Footscray. In keeping with the handmade theme, our team of talented interior design interns transformed the blank canvas – recycling and upcycling furniture, getting crafty, and using materials in unconventional ways to bring the Pop Up Shop to life.
Aptly, we launched the month-long Spring Pop Up Shop with a PARTY! Our guests enjoyed local beer from Hop Nation Brewing Co., local sweet treats from Mister Nice Guys Bakeshop, soothing harp music from Mary Buckley, took selfies at our colourful photobooth, crafted some palm charms in a workshop hosted by Carolyn Warren-Langford of The Bead Project, and picked up a few goodies from the #CBSpopup. The shop featured illustration works and art prints, handmade jewellery in precious metals, colourful resin and polymer clay, as well as screen printed cards and textiles, handmade candles, art prints, hanging planters and pots, and other homewares – all made and designed by local artists and creatives!
Featured artists and labels included Lucy in the Sky Illustration, Emilia Rossi, Heather Grafton Illustration, Hannakin, Peace Love Candles by Anna, Lila&I, HANDSIGNS BY YURI, Silly Rabbit, aeonic design, Coco and Max, goschen girls, MixedMetalJewellery, Flux Universe, Jane Stradwick, Ben Street Art, Aacute, Studio Bonnici, Second Chance Crafts, Fox and Ramona, Feather and Spear, Wally, Luna + Whirl, Warisa, New Model Beauty Queen, Frou-Frou & Sparrow, Robyn deBoar, KingasArt, Architact Collective, Yellow Ark, Spin Spin, Vicki Kinai and Troika Design.
Colour Footscray
The local community, young and old, showed off their creative talents in our colouring-in project which featured historical Footscray landmarks. Special thanks to all those who submitted their handiwork!
Workshops
Our fun-filled workshop program featured clay polymer jewellery making, screen printing, etching, and clay hand-building.
Wyndham Activate Program
This year, Colour Box Studio facilitated the second edition of Wyndham City Council’s Activate artist mentoring program. We helped a group of five awesome and talented emerging artists based in City of Wyndham develop skills to plan, facilitate and promote their own creative workshops, so they could share their arts practice with others and make income from it. The Activate participants have developed workshops in dance, stone sculpture, papercraft, contemporary glass art, and leathercraft – check out the workshops happening in December on Wyndham’s Activate program here.
THANK YOU to all our superstar volunteers who offered their time, creative talents and big smiles to make our Pop Up Shop a SUCCESS – it wouldn’t have been a success without you! Special thanks to Rovinna, Phuong, Maysie and Mariel who sawed, hammered, painted, and styled the Pop Up Shop to life.
And last but not least, special thanks to the VU team for all their help and advice, and for hosting such an amazing venue in the heart of Footscray. Community spirit thrives at VU at MetroWest, which has in turn enriched our 2016 program.
We hope you’re excited for what’s in store for Colour Box Studio in 2017, as our program continues to evolve, change, and grow according to what our creative community needs and wants. Cheers to the year 2016, and watch this space for even bigger and better things in 2017!!
In the meantime, please drop by our social media pages to get a Colour Box Studio fix:
Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/colourboxstudio
Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/ColourBoxStudio/