Mansfield Arts

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High Country Hut Ceramic Murals Project (2008) In response to a growing need for our community to find out more about its heritage and the unique characters that pioneered our district the Arts Council of Mansfield coordinated a premanent art project in 2008. The project was suported by the Regional Arts Fund and Mansfield Shire Council. The Project: Ceramic Artist, Ann Ferguson worked with Mansfield artists to create 11 ceramic sculptures each referencing high country huts and the local stories and legends associated. The artworks are now installed as a permanent public art work in the centre of Mansfield. The project was supported Mansfield district artists and traditional users of High Country Huts. An important aspect of this project was to facilitate a conversation between the artists and the traditional users of High Country Huts for the artists to hear first hand the stories and legends that only families associated with the High Country traditional lifestyle of living in a High Country Hut would know about. Stories associated with cattle musters, fire in the bush, tales of strange happenings and the hierarchy of life and the importance of self help support of each others’ families. The information gleaned at these ‘frank’ sessions was a platform for the artists to further research and find more information about the sorts of things that happened in the bush and how our heritage and the spirit of the traditional people who grazed cattle, the timberworkers and early skiers forged a life and social network in the bush. The benefits of the project is best summed up by one of the artists who participated – Sue Binzer; “This ceramic project was an invaluable experience. I came away knowing far more about our local heritage and how the mountains and their mysteries are actually the ancestral lore of many of our townsfolk. I understood for the first time that the high country huts form a neighbourhood of their own, albeit spread far and wide throughout the mountains, and the people who use the huts behave today as they have always done, as a caring community. Clay is a wonderful medium to work with; it stoops to lift even a novice's creativity into beauty. My expression was certainly enhanced by the group's supportive input and I appreciated the breadth of knowledge and generosity of more experienced artistes”. First time: This was the first time the Arts Council of Mansfield had initiated a permanent public art project. We chose Ann Ferguson because of her affinity to the Mansfield community, which created a lot of enthusiasm for participation and public support. We wanted to do 10 murals but 11 people put their hand up and we didn’t want to put anyone off. We found a bit extra in our own bank to pay for the extra mural and Ann was very accommodating. We had not worked on a common theme before and some artists were challenged by the selection process as they had not had to put in a submission before. We overcame this shyness by encouraging people to ring and find out more in a personalised way. The Arts Council committee is large and we were able to get the word out easily that the project required commitment and research, but would be accessible to experienced and less experienced ceramic artists. We used different workshop spaces during the process and this created more knowledge of what we were doing across the community. People were made to feel comfortable about coming and seeing what we were doing and chatting about the project. We were practically on the footpath when we used the MACE room. It was a lovely day and we moved outside and curiosity got the better of lots of ‘passers by’. We used a local engineering firm to create the frames and fittings for the murals atf the Mens Shed and as all the welding equipment was right there. The engineers became quite attached to the project and installed the murals on the wall as well. New experiences : A few of the artists were nervous about putting their work in a public environment, but as each mural was unveiled one by one at a public community event – (The Spring Arts Walk) – it became evident we were all in it together and the group of murals each telling a different story combined to became one artwork. The murals had been covered with brown paper to create community anticipation for the ‘unpeeling event’. We unpeeled the murals under candle light which made it very atmospheric and people crowded around to touch the murals which were purposely placed low on the wall. The Mayor officiated, all the artists were there lined up near the murals with Ann Ferguson, our Regional Arts Development Officer, the owner of the wall and the engineers. It was quite an impact. A flier with a brief explanation about each mural to give the community an idea of the inspiration and reason behind each image and this created another dimension of public understanding of the subject and the style of each artist. Expectations: The project surpassed the participating artists’ expectations. They were surprised at the things they learnt, the process of engaging with different members of the community and finding out more about our local history. The process of making marks to tell a story in clay was a new skill learned. Over the project, people helped each other sometimes working on another’s mural. The cutting of the work into tiles is the bit that makes or breaks the ‘look’ and Ann supervised this part very carefully, giving good instruction along the way. Ann was very knowledgeable about colours and with two professional and experienced ceramic artists in the class it was good to hear the three of them discussing options and working things out. The community has been very enthusiastic and complimentary about the project. They love having a theme about Huts in the main street. They are often seen touching the murals and wondering what certain things in the murals might mean. We were pleasantly surprised by the amount of support and encouragement from traditional users of High Country Huts. More a ‘practical’ type of person, not terribly involved in arts projects, they were delighted and excited that we were interested in this subject which is very dear to them and their families. In the words of Geoff Burrowes, who was one of 3 traditional users of huts who firstly had the conversations with the artists, and who spoke at the ‘unpeeling’, “It’s great to see something of the High Country come down to town, normally it’s the other way around. I am so very pleased that these murals are now part of our town landscape!” Download full explanation of each mural
Ceramic artwork 'Out of the Cage' by Ann Ferguson was the winner of the True Blue Art Prize sponsored by Mansfield Shire Council as part of Spring Arts 2006. Click here to download a larger high quality image - 1Mb file size
Red Carpet screening of Mansfield made movie, BLING this Wednesday at Mansfield Cinema Click for larger file Mark Lee, Mansfield Youth Worker with Daniel Belle and David Padbury are part of the crew of 'Bling'. A film premiering this Wednesday, 1st November at the Mansfield Cinema as part of the Over the Fence Comedy Film Festival at the Mansfield Cinema starting 6.30pm. The town was a buzz of movie making activity this weekend with a professional movie being created by eight Mansfield young people. A collaborative project initiated by the Arts Council of Mansfield and managed by the Youth Worker Mark Lee the youth were working with film maker Greg Coffey from Over the Fence Comedy Films. Greg travelled from Western Australia to conduct the three day workshop which is a first for Mansfield and Spring Arts. The film, scripted, directed and acted by the crew, Daniel Belle, Sam Binzer, David Padbury, Ryan Daykin, Nellie Leatham, Britney Crellin, Ashleigh Turner and Gabriel Bergmoser, will be a highlight of the Over the Fence Comedy film festival to be screened on Wednesday at the Mansfield Cinema. Greg Coffery, film maker and director said he was 'knocked over' by the talent of the Mansfield crew. "They really got it together pretty quickly coming to terms with the whole filmaking thing including mastering the professional equipment. I think Mansfield is going to be very proud of what their young people have achieved". He urged everyone to come on Wednesday night at 6.30 to see the film for themselves. The film 'Bling' is a horror movie and the crew has created all the props and costumes as part of the elaborate process of producing a professional film. The Arts Council of Mansfield president, Lyn Cole said this initiative of our young people being creatively involved in a professional film making workshop was a fantastic idea and earlier in the year interest was gauged through an advert in the local paper and the response was overwhelming. The project is so hands on over three full days only eight participants could attend, but given the interest we could well be looking at having future workshops so that more young people could learn film making skills directly from people in the industry. 'Bling' is set to premiere this Wednesday night, 1st November, at the Mansfield Cinema at 6.30.
Spring Arts rocks to new band Mode Stylus at Opening Night GiG Click for larger file Fintan Bradley, Eddy Durham, Alex Purdue and Henry Badgery are Mode Stylus Mode Stylus opened the Spring Arts 2006 GiG at the Produce Store in Mansfield this Friday, 27th October. The band travelled to Mansfield to perform to 300 enthusiastic festival goers this weekend. Mode Stylus were first band to play in a line up of top acts including Earthbound, and blues singer Lisa Bade amongst many other acts, all hailing from the Mansfield region.The guys describe their genre as blues meets funk and they certainly got the crowd rocking performing two epic encores before fans reluctantly let them leave the stage. The guys have a huge musical repetoire swapping instruments and moving between trumpet, bass, drum, keyboard and gutiar solo's. This band was tight and the crowd knew it. Well rehearsed and musically confident Mode Stylus's next GiG will be eagerly anticipated. Watch this space for upcoming GiG's.
Glen Mitchell Forging & Blacksmithing Workshops - Mansfield - 5th August 2006
The Arts Council of Mansfield as part of a skills developement program and lead up to Spring Arts 2006, invited Glen Mitchell, artist and blacksmith, to conduct a workshop in the Mansfield Community Shed on Saturday 5th August. Eleven people attended the workshop and learnt traditional blacksmithing techniques. As a result of the overwhelming success of this workshop another workshop is planned for 7th October 2006. For workshop details contact Lyn Cole: 0407 093 410
Liz Webb, Blacksmith Glen Mitchell and Susan Pickworth at the Blacksmithing and Forging Workshop at the Mansfield Community Shed on Saturday 5th August. (Download a high res image)	Liz Webb bends hot steel into a spiral shape.
Penny Murphy with her father Terry work together forging steel.	Janet Phipps is proud of her steel spirals during the Blacksmithing and Forging Workshop.

Vincent Drane Printmaking & Japanese Soft Cover Bookbinding Workshops - Mansfield - July 2006
	Kaye Hall
Vincent Drane, Printmaker and Bookbinding specialist conducted two workshops in Mansfield on 15th and 16th July. Participants produced handmade prints and then completed the workshop by incorporating the prints into a book using a specialist technique of Japanese Bookbinding. Here pictured with Vincent are two of the participants, Heather Matthew and Liz Clark. (Download a larger image file) Lyn Cole	Liz Clark
Arts Council of Mansfield wins Australia Day Award for best Community Event in 2005
Spring Arts 2005 was the winner of the Mansfield Shire Australia Day award for best community event. The award was presented to the Arts Council at the Australia Day celebrations on 26 January 2006. The award was judged by the Shire and already the 2006 Spring Arts Event is well into the planning process.
Mansfield is host to Spring Arts, a series of exhibitions in local venues around the Mansfield District. Participation is invited from people working in all art forms who have a connection with the Mansfield township, its people or the area. For information please contact the Arts Council of Mansfield. Email:admin@artsmansfield.com

Ceramic artwork 'Out of the Cage' by Ann Ferguson was the winner of the True Blue Art Prize sponsored by Mansfield Shire Council as part of Spring Arts 2006.