Get wrapping!!

MRAG Merchandise Officer Ash has come to the Christmas wrapping rescue with some simple tips to make your wrapping experience a little easier this festive season!

Purchase a gift in store and we will wrap it for you! The gallery shop will be open until 5pm on Thursday 24 December for all your last minute gift needs.

 

Do: at home

From the comfort and warmth of your own home join Liss for some creative yoga as she moves around the MRAG exhibition Safe Space!

Keg de Souza’s artwork Living Under the Stars (LUTS) relies on the human body being cocooned in a protective tent structure that is reminiscent of the snug play spaces of childhood. The viewer is invited to lie down and look up at the canopy where a light display on a timed sequence mimics the constellations seen in the Southern Hemisphere’s night sky.

Be inspired by Keg’s artwork and make your own safe space at home.​

Read more about the Safe Space exhibition here

Download the Safe Space Education resource here (PDF)

 

Here are some other great examples of safe spaces made by incredible local artists…

Did you see Alysha Fewster’s artwork Cubby House when it was installed in the project space at MRAG?

By elevating the act of building a cubby by recontextualising it within a fine art setting, the viewer is offered an opportunity to consider the significance of childhood experiences in nature. The profound importance of a person’s relationship to their environment transcends words. Through a visual medium I hope to offer a moment for deep reflection of the importance of a child playing in nature.  Alysha Fewster

Read more about Alysha Fewster here

 

We are big fans of Shan Turner-Carroll and his work The Cubby Cave.

Read more about The Cubby Cave here

 

Do: at home

Explore the City’s Collection online and be inspired. In this three-part series, Gallery Officer Anna Buxton Soldal shares some of her favourites with us.

Part 3 looks at Made in the light – Happy Cloud and Drips, acquired to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the redevelopment of the Gallery and to celebrate one of Maitland’s highest achievers, Nell, who was inducted into the Maitland City Hall of Fame in 2017.

As I caught the school bus to Maitland Grossmann High School every day, I would dream of being an artist when I grew up. And in my wildest dreams I couldn’t have imagined that one day I would have a permanent artwork on the outside of Maitland Regional Art Gallery!

 On the second day the artwork was installed, before it was even lit up, my 12 year old niece told me she saw the happy cloud from her school bus. How cool is that? Dreams on the school bus can come true! 

Nell, July 2019

Read more about Nell here

 

Do: at home

Reflect on what it means to you to live on Wonnarua Country today.

I am on Wonnarua Country today

Living and breathing the country my ancestors walked is special to me. It strengthens my pride in my First Nations’ ancestry and without fail, reminds me what is important – unwavering links to culture. Ancestral connection to where I live and acknowledging it aloud without fear is something generations of my family could not do. They adapted to survive. The sacrifice of their cultural identity lives within the splattering of sacred sites throughout the Hunter Valley, longing to not be forgotten. I feel grounded in the knowledge still existing in the landscape, in the stories still told and the songlines still travelled.

Elise Tonnet, Wonnarua/ Kiray Putjung Nation

 

Learn more about reconciliation by visiting the Reconciliation Australia website.

 

Join us for an online panel about improving access to online content for audiences with disability during COVID and post-COVID.

We’ve teamed up with Accessible Arts and the Australia Council for the Arts to present “Staying Accessible In A Rapidly Changing World”. Register online here.

We’ve partnered with the University of Newcastle to share ‘Waiting for Equality’ with you. This project tells LGBTQI stories about marriage equality in our region and how the wider Hunter/Newcastle region came together to produce the largest percentage vote (75%) for marriage equality, outside the capital cities, in the 2017 postal ballot.

In this interview ABC Newcastle’s Nat Little was shown around the exhibition by Gillian Shaw and Professor Marguerite Johnson.

 

Do: at home

Are you an artist, 30 years or younger, who lives or works in the Lower Hunter?

Would you like to travel to participate in an artist residency, investigate an art form or extend your art practice? Applications for the 2020 Brenda Clouten Memorial Travelling Scholarships for Young Achievers in Visual Arts are now open, so make the most of social isolation and get your application in! $8,000 in scholarships available.

Here’s a quick message from Dale Collier, 2016 scholarship recipient:

More information here, applications close 29 May.

 

Take inspiration from Kei Takemura and do some mindful mending this week.

Japanese artist Kei Takemura repairs broken objects using silk thread, transforming these ‘wounds’ into objects of beauty. In this way Takemura continues the Kintsugi tradition and questions the single-use culture that has come to dominate our contemporary lives.

Here are a few links for inspiration:

Mindful Mending (Instagram thread)

Transition Newcastle | Newcastle Upcyclers (weblink)

Australian Design Centre | Object Therapy Education Kit (PDF)

 

We have some inspirational mending books in the Gallery Shop like Lena Corwin’s Made By Hand, A Collection of Projects to Print, Sew, Weave, Dye, Knit or Otherwise Create. Give us a call 02 4934 9859 and we can pop a copy in the post for $40, we might even pop in a little something extra…

Do: at home

Explore the Collection online and be inspired.

Do you have a favourite work in the Gallery Collection? In this three part series, Gallery Officer Anna Buxton Soldal shares some of her favourites with us. Part 1 looks at a 10m long concertina book of woodblock prints created by Tsukioka Kōgyo. This Encyclopedia of Noh Plays created in 1891, was donated to the Gallery in 2017 by a private donor. See the full book in detail here.

Do: at home

Each year MRAG exhibits a selection of finalists from the Maitland International Salon of Photography.

Unfortunately, the 2020 exhibition was cut short, but the beauty of photography is that you can explore the 2020 finalists online. Perhaps its time to pull your camera out and see what you can capture this week?? Send your favourites with a title to artgallery@nullmaitland.nsw.gov.au

 

Take me to the Maitland International Salon of Photography Homepage

 

Need a recommendation for an interesting podcast?

Explore Talking With Painters and listen to the latest episode with Lucas Grogan!

Take me to the Talking With Painters Podcast

 

Do: at home

Take inspiration from innovative Australian printmakers and explore your house and backyard for interesting textures…

…try some bark on a tree or a vegetable strainer!

All you need is some paper and some crayons / pencils / pastels. Think about how you can use these textures, you could add them to your next artwork or write a special note for a friend.

#MRAG #ArtForAll #SeeMakeDo #MRAGfromhome #MuseumFromHome #SocialIsolationSeries #mymaitland #MRAGhomedelivery

 

Do: at home

Are you an artist, 30 years or younger, who lives or works in the Lower Hunter?

Would you like to travel to participate in an artist residency, investigate an art form or extend your art practice? Applications for the 2020 Brenda Clouten Memorial Travelling Scholarships for Young Achievers in Visual Arts are now open, so make the most of social isolation and get your application in! $8,000 in scholarships available.

Here’s a quick message from Liss Finney, 2016 scholarship recipient:

More information here, applications close 29 May.

 

Do: at home

Feel like getting some fresh air?

Use Dr Simone Paterson’s artwork from the Guns to Roses exhibition, as inspiration to create your own mandala out of natural materials. Traditionally used as a meditative practice in Hindu and Buddhist cultures, mandalas are intricately patterned motifs that encourage us to focus and reflect.

You can read more about Simone’s work and the Guns to Roses exhibition here

Here’s a mandala we created….

we warmly invite you to share your creations with us.

Download the Do: Mandala Activity Sheet here