A Splash of Colour in Thirroul

I visited the installed artwork at Thirroul for the first time today.  It was very exciting to see it all finished.  During this project, I was in the wonderful position of trainee artist, which meant I got to work across all areas of the project with all artists and community groups.  This means that looking at the completed work I can appreciate all the different stories, experiences and creativity that went into it.

Below is the text that I have just finished writing to be fired onto a tile to accompany the work:

This collaborative artwork aims to capture some of Thirroul’s unique stories, characters and images.  Artists Jasmin Carter, Sam Newstead, Michael Keighery, Terry Cook, Jess McKenzie, Anita Larkin and Laura Bergmann ran workshops with local community groups to gather creative interpretations of Thirroul. The artists worked with Wollongong Youth Centre, young people at Thirroul Neighbourhood Centre and St Michael’s Catholic Parish Primary School over a number of weeks to create these vibrant ceramic and painted murals to be displayed at Thirroul Plaza.   The artwork is brimming with colour and meaning.  It combines sketches by children of themselves at Thirroul beach with a photo of children from Thirroul orphanage taken by Algernon Winn in 1910 that comes from the collections of the Wollongong City Library and the Illawarra Historic Society.   If you look closely, you will discover paintings of local people and transport, representations of the beautiful escarpment and unusual stories such as the Thirroul elephant.  All of these images have grown from Thirroul and return the stories to the community.  This project is part of Wollongong City Council’s commitment to creating a strong local community identity through the development of public art that reflects the cultural diversity and sensitivities of the Wollongong community.

Managed to get a photo of all the murals and me!

Four beautiful mural panels by artist Sam Newstead with assistance from me and worked on by young people at Thirroul Neighbourhood Centre

Innovative panels that I worked on with Anita Larkin at St Michael’s School

Sitting infront of ‘Generations’, the ceramic mural created by Michael Keighery, Jess McKenzie, Terry Cook, St Michael’s School and me