News, Arts Events and Workshops for the Shire of Ravensthorpe

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The Ravensthorpe Town Hall was rocking with laughter on the evening of March 30 with the team from the The Big Hoo Haa giving their all to entertain the crowd.

Similar to Thank God You're Here, the two teams of comedians improvised sketches, songs, jokes and puns all based on audience suggestions making it a completely original show. The show was not rehearsed and the performers very skilled at turning the audience suggestions into fun sketches with the audience voting for the most awesome team after each session.

Directed by renowned Western Australian artist Sam Longley and featuring a number of well known comedians from Perth, the Big HOO-HAA! Was brought to us as part of the Country Arts WA 2012 Shows on the Go touring program. The Shows on the Go touring program was created to ensure that all WA communities have access to high quality events.

 

Read more: Ravensthorpe Laughs With The Big HOO-HAA!

Celebrating Year of the Farmer and the 30th anniversary of The Wildflower Show.

The RRAC will be hosting a series of weekend workshops at the end of June and July to be run by regional Artists Tania Spencer and Jodie Ditchburn to motivate participants to explore the possibilities of recyclable materials from the farm to produce a piece of art/sculpture. The finished art pieces will then be displayed in farm paddocks along roadsides around the shire to be the start of an Art Trail, with a finished collaborated piece to be on display to coincide with the 30th Anniversary of the Ravensthorpe Wildflower Annual Show in September. The RRAC are Proud Supporters of the "Australian Year of the Farmer" Campaign for 2012 which is 'about celebrating and enriching the connections between rural and urban Australia' and gives us an opportunity to showcase our great region that we live, work and play in.

An Information Evening will be held in Ravensthorpe at the Dunnart Studio and Gallery in May for everyone to register their interest in becoming part of the Farm Gate Art Project and Art Trail. The date and time of the evening will be advised soon. We will be calling for expressions of interest from farmers who are willing to part with their junk and areas on farms or gateways/entrances for sculptures to be installed.
Enquires please to Keren Stokes 0488 340555

Monique Mulligan reviewing 'Boat People', wrote "In this book Carina Hoang's collection of stories gives an account of the pain of pirate encounters, giving birth on the high seas, and other nightmares experienced by 'boat people': a hell endured by so many Vietnamese on a journey to find a country offering them the chance to build a new life. The book's layout, with its photos, facsimiles, documents, courageous stories and diary excerpts adds to what is a moving and compelling book."

In August 2012 Ravensthorpe Regional Arts Council (RRAC) proposes to bring Vietnamese author Carina Hoang, the publisher of 'Boat People', to the Shire of Ravensthorpe as an Author-in-Residence. During her nine days stay (from August 25 to September 2, 2012) Carina will meet with a variety of groups across ages, genders, ethnicities, and interests to involve them in artistic activities.

Carina will visit all schools in the district – two primary and one district high school. When interacting with primary school children, Carina will talk about Vietnamese culture and her journey as a refugee. The children will then be invited to tell of their own journeys which brought them to the Ravensthorpe Shire. In these sessions, Carina will teach the children to make Vietnamese vegetable rolls. In follow class lessons students will artistically represent their journeys in story maps and collages. High school students, with the involvement of both Art and English teachers and having heard Carina's story, will be encouraged to share the stories of their own journeys orally and then to succinctly record and present those stories in an artistic format.

 

Read more: Proposed visit of Vietnamese Author Carina Hoang

To coincide with the Ravensthorpe Regional Arts Council’s 2012 theme of “Art in Unusual and Unexpected Places”, enthusiastic young artists at Ravensthorpe District High School will be giving up their lunchtimes this Term to participate in a “Found Art Project”.  The students will be making small wire sculptures, which they will then photograph, tag and catalogue before taking home to place somewhere in the community.

The idea is that the sculptures will be found and the artists notified of the find via an email or postal address, including information such as who found it and where.  The tags on the sculpture will then instruct the finder to take the artwork to another place for somebody else to find.  We are hoping to track our travelling art works around the countryside, perhaps even overseas!

We are extremely excited to begin this interesting project and have much faith that those who find our valued art works will do the right thing and be happy to play their part. Many thanks must go to The Ravensthorpe Regional Arts Council for funding this project and also to Jack Jamieson at the Ravensthorpe IGA for his assistance in sourcing affordable materials.

So, keep your eyes peeled…in a tree at the park, under a chair at the Doctor’s surgery, on a library shelf or behind the cereal packets in the shop… you might just find something unusual and unexpected!

If you are interested in being involved in this project call Mel Daw 98 38 1530

A sincere thank you to the Ravensthorpe Regional Arts Council, the Dept for Culture and the Arts and the Shire of Ravensthorpe, which jointly funded the best ever writers’ weekend last month.

Southern Scribes plan to publish their sixth book later this year and engaged author, Dianne Wolfer, to work with them on the text.

Dianne is a multi-published author of children’s and young adult books. She conducted a strenuous and productive two day workshop covering story structure, editing and illustration. Special attention was paid to the suitability of language and content in relation to the age group for whom the material is intended, nine to eleven year olds.

Scribes writers are now fired up and frantically preparing and polishing their manuscripts in readiness to hand them over to their designer and typesetter, Beryl Semple. She will knock the book into shape and produce the masterpiece planned.

Watch this space for an announcement of the launch!

Well known Lake Grace Artist Tania Spencer a visual artist who specializes in artwork and sculpture made out of wire. Conducted 3 Days of workshop in Hopetoun in January at the Town Hall. Mornings sessions saw over 30 children learning how to make totems while in the afternoon 25 Adults learnt various techniques to completes wire tree's, animals, baskets and larger sculptural pieces. Tanya will return later in the year to run the workshops for the Farm Gate Art Project, if you missed out and are interested in these techniques please give Ainsley a call 98 383 078