An informal monthly gathering for lovers of stitching, on the first Thursday of the month, 1 – 3pm.
Bring your own hand-stitching projects to work on with some friendly company. All varieties of stitching and skill level welcome!
Free entry, and there is no need to book but room capacities are in place. Please check in with the QR Code provided – if you do not have a smartphone, please speak with staff for assistance checking in.
Janette Lucas is an artist with decades of experience exhibiting her
paintings throughout Australia and Indonesia. Her work is held in
public collections, including Museum and Art Galleries of the Northern
Territory (MAGNT), Australian Defence Force Palmerston NT,
Government House & Parliament House Darwin, along with many
private art collections.
After studying and teaching in Victoria, Lucas moved to Arnhem Land
with her family and from then on much of her career as an artist was
spent in the Northern Territory. She was founding co-ordinator of
Bábbarra Women’s Centre, lectured in drawing at the Darwin
University and was head of art at Batchelor College, Rum Jungle, where
she taught indigenous students from the education, linguistics, and
media faculties.
Having re-discovered a deep affection for children’s books, Lucas
wrote her first book Margot and Milligan – Curious as Cats on a road
trip south from the green rolling hills near Byron Bay in 2020.
The original illustrations used in the book, created with pen and ink with watercolour on paper, can be found on the Community Wall in the gallery foyer.
Saturday 31 July, 1.30pm – 3.30pm
The practice of wrapping thoughtfully is a part of Japanese history, and has evolved to become a sustainable practice that continues in their culture today. Inspired by items held in the Ararat Gallery TAMA Collection, Leanne O’Sullivan will demonstrate several traditional Japanese wrapping techniques. Using cloth, paper and raffia join Leanne to learn how to wrap in a variety of different styles for packaging or gifts and weave a string for hanging chillies or herbs to dry.
Materials provided.
Please book your place below:
Saturday 31 July 2021, 10am – 12.30pm
Inspired by her textile collection featured in the ‘Thread of Life’ exhibition, Leanne O’Sullivan will show the tradition of the Japanese slow stitch in this enjoyable class. Participants will bring new life to swatches of vintage Japanese kimono fabric and hand-stitch a drawstring pouch. Leanne will demonstrate useful tips and helpful hints for stitching traditional Japanese boro techniques and repurpose cloth to make something useful.
Materials provided.
Please book your place below:
Join us for an artist talk presented by Kate Rohde on Saturday 3 July at 2pm!
Melbourne-based artist Kate Rohde makes highly ornate sculptural objects, taking inspiration from Rococo and Baroque decorative art, science, zoomorphism and the Wunderkammer (cabinet of curiosity). Kate’s process is complex and time-consuming, starting with hand-building forms in clay or plasticine, then creating moulds and casting resin pieces, before sanding and polishing them using power tools in a labour-intensive process that produces spectacular results.
This public program is presented as part of Obsessed: Compelled to make, an exhibition that showcases the awe-inspiring creativity and innovation of makers from across Australia and examines the fundamental human need to make.
Obsessed: Compelled to make has been assisted by the Federal Government’s Visions of Australia program, supporting participation in, and access to, Australia’s art and culture. The Australian Design Centre receives funding from the NSW Government, through Arts NSW and the Federal Government through the Australia Council. The organisation is also assisted by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments.
For everyone’s health and safety, the event will be held in accordance with COVIDSafe guidelines – we thank you in anticipation of your support:
→ Masks are required for visitors 12 years of age and over (unless a lawful exception applies)
→ You must check in with the QR Code provided. If you do not have a smartphone, please speak with staff for assistance checking in
→ Capacity limits apply and are signed throughout the gallery spaces
→ Please use the hand sanitiser provided
→ Please stay 1.5m apart from other people at all times
→ If you are unwell, please stay home.
→ For any enquiries, please call 03 5355 0220.
In the event that there are changes to this event due to COVID-19, ticket holders will be contacted.
Due to limited capacity, this event will not be seated. If due to health reasons, you do require a seat, please advise us before the event.
This event is free of charge, however, bookings are essential. Please book your free tickets below:
Established in 1968, Ararat Gallery TAMA (Textile Art Museum Australia) holds a distinctive place amongst Australia’s public galleries through its longstanding celebration of textile and fibre art. Ararat’s historical association with fine merino wool production, increasing recognition of craft as an important art form, and significant funding from State and Federal governments in the 1970s secured the establishment of the Gallery’s now highly valued fibre art collection.
Andrew Chapman OAM has photographed much of Australia’s social and political landscape over the last five decades. His images have featured in many Australian publications, and his work is held in public and private collections both in Australia and internationally. In 2014 Chapman was awarded the medal of the Order of Australia for work within Australia’s photographic community. His interest in shearing began in 1976 and he has been travelling the country documenting the sheds and the people who inhabit them ever since.
The Mark of Time was shot in April 2021 throughout Ararat and the surrounding region. Often framed with the background of the Grampians or the Mount Cole State Forest, evidence of the rich wool heritage of the district can be found in the form of classic woolsheds and outbuildings.
With thanks to the property owners and managers for their hospitality and support.
The Japanese word boro can be translated to rags, but there is a deeper meaning hidden within the threads and stitches of these patched textiles. Characterised by meticulous stitching, hues of indigo, and many-layered patchwork, boro originated as a thrifty utilitarian technique since before the 19th century but is now considered a highly prized form of unintentional abstract textile art.
Collector Leanne O’Sullivan first encountered the intriguing indigo patchwork while living in Japan in the 1980s. O’Sullivan’s collection has been gathered on trips across Japan, from the snow country of Nagano in the north, around the mountains of Fuji to the seas of Japan, with some pieces dating back to the Meiji era (1868-1912).
“Whilst living in Japan, I was constantly inspired by the extreme contrasts around me – everywhere I looked there seemed to be a mix of the traditional and contemporary co-existing beautifully.”
Leanne O’Sullivan lives and works in Melbourne, Australia, where she designs fashion accessories and craft kits, and teaches workshops in traditional Japanese crafts and culture.
In response to these textile pieces, this exhibition includes a small selection of objects from the TAMA Collection, originating from The Art of the Japanese Package, an exhibition curated by Hideyuki Oka that toured to 10 Australian and 11 New Zealand public galleries in 1979 and 1980. At the conclusion of the tour, The Japan Foundation and the Crafts Board of the Australia Council donated the majority of the exhibition to the Gallery for its collection.
Join us for an artist talk presented by Lisa Waup on Saturday 13 March at 2pm!
Lisa Waup is a multidisciplinary artist and curator working across weaving, printmaking, photography, sculpture, textiles and installation. Waup will discuss her distinctive weaving practice, which highlights the importance of tracing lost history, ancestral relationships, Country, motherhood and time.
Born in Melbourne, Victoria in 1971, Waup is an artist of Gunditjmara, Torres Strait Islander and Italian heritage with an affinity with Melanesian culture, developed through her extended family and experience of living in Papua New Guinea.
TAMA’s most recent acquisitions, a trio of baskets by Lisa Waup, are showcased in our exhibition Looking Through Time: Basketry from the TAMA Collection.
This seated talk will be 20 – 30 minutes in duration, followed by a 10 minute Q&A session. Please enter via the gallery entrance, where you will then be shown into the Town Hall auditorium.
For everyone’s health and safety, the event will be held in accordance to COVIDSafe guidelines – we thank you in anticipation of your support:
In the event that there are changes to this event due to COVID-19, ticket holders will be contacted.
Please book your tickets below:
Australia’s most influential and celebrated textile designer of the mid-20th century, Frances Burke (1904-1994) employed Australian native flora, garden flowers, marine subjects, Indigenous culture and increasingly, abstract motifs in her stunning modern fabrics. As a confident, determined young woman, Burke made the shift in her studies from fine art to design in 1937.
While she began by designing dress fabrics for Melbourne’s fashionable Georges Department store, Burke’s furnishing fabrics took their place in influential modern buildings through collaborations with leading architects and interior designers. They included Robin Boyd’s 1949 House of Tomorrow, Roy Grounds’ Quamby flats, Guilford Bell’s Royal Hayman Island Resort for Ansett Airlines, and Yuncken, Freeman Brothers, Griffiths and Simpson’s Canberra Civic Centre Theatre.
In the post-war period, Burke made regular trips to the US and Europe, on her return advising homeowners and manufacturers on the latest trends in products, colours and home design. At New Design her fabric showroom and interior design consultancy Burke introduced furniture by emerging designers Clement Meadmore and Grant Featherston in the early 1950s.
Burke’s three decades in business (1937-1970) were an unparalleled success in the story of Australian design. Her fabrics have been collected by the NGA, the Powerhouse Museum, NGV, RMIT Design Archives and Sydney Living Museums in addition to Ararat Gallery TAMA.
Written by Nanette Carter and Robyn Oswald-Jacobs.