Create [SPACE] is a program partnering artists with a space in Wyndham to develop their practice and new work over a three-month period. The Create [SPACE] program was conceived to provide highly sought after space to create for local artists. It also gives artists opportunities to connect with the communities where the space is situated.
Artists are provided with a space, a small grant and support by the Wyndham Arts & Culture team over a three-month period from July to September 2024. This enables artists to develop work, experiment, and expand on their practice. Artists are encouraged to work on creative projects that connect to the venue programming and the community that uses the venue. The end of the residency will include a public sharing of practice such as an artist talk or workshop.
Current venues include Dianella Community Centre, Werribee Historical Society, Featherbrook Community Centre and Point Cook Library.
Artists
MITA CHOUDHURY (Multidisciplinary Visual Artist / Researcher)
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)
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)
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 (Nicole Hawke - Poet / Writer)
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