We are thrilled to announce the latest recipients of the Create [SPACE] Artist-in-Residence program at Werribee Open Range Zoo, Wunggurrwil Dhurrung Centre and Little River Mechanics Institute Hall. Toneya Kennedy is a proud Barkindji woman and multidisciplinary artist with focus on painting. Karlia May Cook is a dancer and choreographer. Tamay Beam is an Aboriginal artist and Cultural Awareness workshop facilitator.
TONEYA KENNEDY (Multidisciplinary artist) Werribee Zoo
Toneya will use the space to create a new collection of artworks featuring some of the animals at Werribee Zoo. She will draw inspiration from her surroundings and focus on endangered animals particularly native animals.
Toneya is a proud Barkindji woman and contemporary Indigenous artist, originally from Wilcannia in NSW. Toneya has resided in Naarm for many years and in the Wyndham area for three years. She has been painting for 15 years mostly in acrylic on canvas but has also worked on murals, custom shoes, emu eggs as well as emu feather jewellery. Toneya is a huge animal lover and most of her work includes animals.
KARLIA MAY COOK (Dancer/Choreographer) Little River Mechanics Institute
Karlia will be developing a new work titled two thread in collaboration with her sister Danni Cook. The concept of this work is centered around the spectrum of similarities and differences of two bodies that have been carved out of the same mould. Alongside developing two thread Karlia will use this space with collaborators benefiting and cultivating a stronger relationship between artists living and working outside of the city.
Karlia is currently based in Geelong working between Naarm and Geelong as a freelance dancer and choreographer and in 2023 completed a Masters in Dance from the Victorian College of the Arts. Karlia has worked with companies and artists such as Chunky Move, Joel Bray Dance, New Zealand Dance Company, Guts Dance, Julie Minaai and Bella Waru.
TAMAY BEAM (Artist) Wunggurrwil Dhurrung Centre
Tamay will focus on her artistic practice and community engagement. She will develop new work, enhance her skills, and contribute to the local community through workshops and resource sharing.
Tamay has been a resident of Melbourne's Western Suburbs for over five years with her family. She has established herself as an Aboriginal Artist and Cultural Awareness Art workshop facilitator. Tamay has engaged the Wyndham community and beyond through various art and Cultural programs and sports activities that has deepened her connections within the community. Tamay has participated and facilitated community led and First Nations events calling the Wyndham region her home
About Create [SPACE]
Create [SPACE] program is designed to provide temporary spaces for local artists in Wyndham venues. The residencies are for artists to develop existing or new work, experiment, and expand on their practice. Create [SPACE] program partners artists with venues through an Expression of Interest process and panel. Wyndham is home to a range of unique locations, businesses, vibrant community centres and libraries. Artists come from a range of practices reflective of the diversity of Wyndham artists. During the residencies, artists are encouraged to work on creative projects that connect to the venue programming and the community that use the venue. The residency will culminate in a public sharing of practice such as an artist talk, workshop, or exhibition to be negotiated with residency partners.
Previous Create [SPACE] artists at Dianella Community Centre, Werribee Historical Society, Featherbrook Community Centre and Point Cook Library.
MITA CHOUDHURY (Multidisciplinary Artist / Researcher) - Dianella Community Centre
Hasina Chowdhury, mostly known as Mita Chowdhury, is a multidisciplinary visual artist born in
Bangladesh and now lives in Tarneit. As a practice-led researcher, her creative practice deeply explores a personal journey that investigates her cross-culture, heritage, and history. Her experimental material approach, incorporating native tradition, history, knowledge, and experience as a first-generation female immigrant, is the visual storytelling of her research. However, her research consistently examines the concept of 'identity' and the in-between space she inhabits within her hybrid cultural identity through disparate material practice. Her works thus often depict the peculiarity and ambiguities of living in an in-between place. Mita's approach holds this ambivalence to bridge her past Bangladeshi history and to present positionality.
https://www.mitachowdhury.com/
Image by Daniel A’Vard courtesy of artist
CATHY MACKAY (Painter/Multidisciplinary Artist) - Werribee Historical Society
Cathy is a painter who is passionate about capturing the essence of nature and the profound
human connection to the environment and place. Her work often reflects a deep reverence for the natural world and the intertwined relationship between people and their surroundings. Cathy’s aim is to create a dialogue between the past and present, exploring how our histories and environments influence our contemporary lives. This exploration of memory and place is central to her artistic journey, driving the creative process and enriching the contributions to the art world.
JESS FAIRFAX (Sound Artist/Creative Producer) - Point Cook Library
Jess Fairfax is an experienced audio and events producer, using creative expression to inform environmental awareness, action and community connection. Jess has over nine years broadcasting interviewing over 800 guests, including musicians, visual artists, poets, academics, historians, activists, community leaders and curators. Continuing her love for the art of radio and broadcast, she continues to work as a freelance audio producer, creating podcasts, soundscapes and radio documentaries for the ABC, Monash University, Arts Centre Melbourne and Wyndham City.
Image courtesy of artist
NICOLE HAWKE (Poet / Writer) - Featherbrook Community Centre
Nicole’s been a writer since childhood. Immersing herself in poetry; she is inspired by Australian landscapes as well as odd people. She has a degree in journalism, is published in many anthologies, won awards for her work, published a recipe book and is the founder of two writing groups.
She is co-chairperson of Williamstown Writers, a member of Moorabool Writers’ Craft and has two children's books to be published. Nicole lives in Point Cook with her best friends and is the mother of two gorgeous children.
Image courtesy of artist