Studio Co!Lab happenings
News and updates from Studio Co!Lab programs and projects
More from Studio Co!Lab members can be found in Beyond the Studio.
Keen to find out more about Studio Co!Lab membership? Find out more.
Ironbark Arts Residency 2024
The Ironbark Arts Residency is a partnership between Orana Arts and Stuart Town Advancement Association. It is a 6 day/5 night stay at the historic Railway Hotel in Stuart Town. The October 2024 residency was the fourth residency since 2021.
Photos from the artist talks on 7 October.
Comments from the artists at the end of the residency:
I've spent the last week en plein air painting, exploring down dirt roads and farm lanes, and just resting, painting, looking and having a really good time. - Sarah
It's just been absolutely magnificent to be able to absorb myself into a small knit (sic) community, and such a lovely bunch of people here and very supportive of the program.- Mick
It's been fantastic, it's been challenging, and I have loved every minute of it. - Susan
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Mick Davis (Dubbo), Susan Yaghjian (Dubbo) and Sarah Randall (Orange) are the three Studio Co!Lab members who will be spending 5 nights and 6 days together in Stuart Town in October. Each artist will receive a $300 stipend for their time in residence. Ironbark Arts Residency is a partnership with Stuart Town Advancement Association.
Each artist will have their own process for exploring the residency, including getting to know more about each other's practices, meeting some of the Stuart Town locals, learning about the incredible history of the place, and thinking more deeply about their own practice. In their applications this is some of what they expressed about the opportunity:
Mick: I expect to engage with local culture, fellow artists, and the unique environment, enhancing my practice with new techniques and perspectives. This residency will help me expand my artistic boundaries and develop a more diverse portfolio, strengthening my career as a versatile artist.
Susan: My main hope is that I can not only learn from others but offer them support as well. When I have a short conversation with other artists, I come away feeling more confident, energized, and empowered. At this point in my career, all collaborations are worthwhile.
Sarah: Work needs time and space to be realised, this week allows for time and discovery to find what is important that belongs in the paintings. Working in the same setting as other contemporary artists in residence with different creative practice would allow for conversations and connections with peers. This would allow for concepts to develop in tandem with the studio work, building support networks and finding new ways of talking about our shared environment.
Find out more about the Ironbark Arts Residency on The Studio page.
Mick Davis, Susan Yaghjian and Sarah Randall
Q2 2024 Studio Co!Lab Members’ Grant
The first Studio Co!Lab members' grant for 2024 was awarded to Shani Nottingham (Cowra) for a project titled PRESERVED. It will be a curated collection of breadtags donated from across the world, presented at an exhibition at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, 13 September — 17 November. Shani has secured $1000 through this members’ grant to assist with the material costs of mounting an exhibition. She said in her application: While progressing and pushing me in new directions, this exhibition builds on methodology, materials and concepts I use to engage and cultivate relationships in the broader community about art and environment, creating space for dialogue, conversation, action and reflection.
Shani is a multidisciplinary visual artist and writer. WEBSITE
Our assessment panel assess each project on its merit, impact and viability and supporting material.
The Quarterly 3 grant for Studio Co!Lab members is being integrated with the 2024 Ironbark Arts Residency to provide a stipend to successful recipients. Studio Co!Lab members have access to further details on the Opportunities page of the Members’ Lounge.
Shani Nottingham (image supplied)
Q4 2023 Members’ Grant for a collaboration to go towards a national project
The $2,000 fourth quarter Studio Co!Lab Members’ Grant for 2023 has been awarded to Jack Randell (Dubbo) for his project National Life and Landscapes-Australian National Crest, a collaborative work that will involve 108 participants.
Jack says the work will be a collective visual statement about our experiences as Australian citizens, revealing the multifaceted nature of who we are. The title of the project comes from a text of the same name by Ian Burn, the thesis of which is that the romantic and classic threads of Australian Landscape conceptions were never fully resolved.
Jack continues. “With the unresolved Voice Referendum, the notion of nation has splintered. Through the disintegration and reassembly in this collaborative work, I intend to test the idea of disparate voices addressing an unknown outcome.”
Jack Randell (image supplied)
Ironbark Arts Residency 2023
October 2023
Tina Pech (Baradine), Jason Richardson (Leeton) and Danja Derkenne (Little Forest) are the three Studio Co!Lab members who will be spending 5 nights and 6 days together in Stuart Town from 15-21 October. Each artist will receive a $300 stipend for their time in residence.
Like the previous residents (see March), each artist will have their own process for exploring the residency. In their applications they wrote:
Tina: My daily routine would combine walking and exploring the local environs, listening, observing and collecting, and documenting along the way. It would also be a perfect opportunity to experiment and begin stitching new pieces, inspired by the setting.
Jason: Previous residences provided opportunities to pursue a range of creative activities, like my daily writing practice and collecting media for immediate and future projects. I respond to the environment and explore photography and identifying flora. This residency will be an opportunity to focus on fiction I’ve been writing and collecting audiovisual media. A key outcome is meeting other members of Studio Collab and learning their creative practices, which opens discussion for future projects.
Danja: As a multi-disciplinary artist, a residency pushes ideas by collaboration. My practice investigates aspects of place. Working away is an opportunity to push such concepts. Media would be open ended, responding to a region which is geologically and historically different to my own.
Left to right: Tina Pech, Danja Derkenne and Jason Richardson
RESIDENCY UPDATE
Tina, Jason and Danja came together over the week of 16-22 October to interact, discuss, collaborate, investigate and engage with each other at the Railway Hotel in Stuart Town—home of the Ironbark Arts Residency. Danja Derkenne (Little Forest) spent time on a variety of projects including creating drawings of the various windows and other architectural features in and around Stuart Town, plus collecting and then weaving wire around animal bones. Jason Richardson (Leeton) created a zine using photographs he took in and around the area, and poetry he wrote during his residency, as well as a video set to music from local bird song. Tina Pech (Baradine) spent time generally improving her art practice documentation but also started work on a stitched book, reflecting the Railway Hotel building and its many previous occupants. The three artists also collaborated on a work that they presented to the Stuart Town Advancement Association, our partners in this program. The talks given by the artists to the community on 18 October, demonstrated their genuine engagement with the space, the community and each other.
Photos in this slideshow show the artists in residence at the Railway Hotel, and the artists with Orana Arts team members, Alicia and Amanda; Stuart Town; samples of work, and; the artists presenting their work in residence at talks event on 18 October.
This Ironbark Arts Residency program is funded by Orana Arts Studio Co!Lab in partnership with the Stuart Town Advancement Association.
LEGS23 PD (Round 2) underway
Another round of the LEGS23 grant writing program got underway mid-October, helping Studio Co!Lab members work through a grant application for project/s in time for the next Create NSW Round in early 2024. It doesn't just have to be the Create NSW grant though, it could be an application for any grant.
It's about working through:
Planning your project (the most important part), including budgets
The application - terminology, word counts, templates, requirements, what the expectations are, deadlines
Support materials - what's useful, what isn't, important formatting of key documents
What to check before submission
Studio Co!Lab members get access to an experienced Orana Arts team throughout the program, with tasks and deadlines set over about 8 weeks, receiving detailed feedback at each step along the way.
I had never done anything like this (LEGS23) before...I always ask for feedback but this was so detailed and specific. I've always wondered what I'd done wrong...now I know. The level of help was specific, constructive and manageable. —Helena Pastor (Armidale), LEGS23 (Round 1) participant.
Q2 2023 Studio Co!Lab Members’ Grant
The first Studio Co!Lab members' grant for 2023 was awarded to Jane Richens (Dungog) for a project titled Forest conversations: an exploration. It'll become a series that reimagines forest exchanges by exploring more-than-human spaces and connections. Jane has secured $1000 through this members’ grant to contribute to creating the work. She said in her application: My visual arts practice and thoughts flip between humour, playfulness, creative possibilities, the unexpected and deep concerns for our environment – it’s precarity and complexity.
Jane Richens is a multidisciplinary visual artist and biodiversity farmer. WEBSITE
A record number of members applied for the grant in this quarter with some very strong projects presented to the panel of assessors. Each project is assessed backed on its merit, impact and viability and supporting material.
The Quarterly 3 grant for Studio Co!Lab members is being integrated with the Ironbark Arts Residency (see below) to provide a stipend to successful recipients.
Work image by Jane Richens (supplied)
Ironbark Arts Residency 2023
March 2023
Therese Gabriel Wilkins (Central Coast) and Nic Mason (Napoleon Reef) were our 2023 Ironbark Arts Residency recipients.
This 6 day/5 night residency for two Studio Co!Lab members was held in late March 2023. It’s a partnership between Orana Arts and the Stuart Town Advancement Association (STAA). STAA have made the historic Railway Hotel, in Stuart Town, available as artist accommodation. It’s a beautiful old building just down the street from the historic railway station. The space and location of Stuart Town allows artists the time and space to explore, ideate, and share their practice with a fellow member and the local community.
Each artist has their own process of exploration but in her application, Therese said: “Weaving narratives through the art and capturing the now for the future is a vital part of my practice. During this residency I can venture into combining writing with my art practice and performance.”
Nic Mason has family ties to the region, in particular the site where Burrendong Dam now sits. She feels the artistic rationale for doing this residency “includes being open to influence from this place and people…utilising each day to interact with this environment to think, create and write.”
Left and right: Therese Gabrielle Wilkins and Nic Mason
Since the residency, the artists have said:
I had a great experience with the welcome, hospitality, tour, structure and opportunity to stay, create and share in The Railway Hotel. It was also great sharing this time with Therese. I felt very enlivened and had a great creative time. - Nic
The residency was really wonderful and it afforded the opportunity do all the things I thought would be possible thanks to the tour, insights from other artists and folk in the town. It certainly provided the stimulus for a new venture writing some poetry and performing the presentation—my first foray into combining the visual and performance. - Therese
Artist websites
THERESE GABRIEL WILKINS
NIC MASON
More information about Studio Co!Lab memberships.
Residency photos and artist talk afternoon tea, 22 March
LEGS23 PD program (Round 1)
One of the things we offer our Studio Co!Lab members is professional and creative development opportunities. As a professional development program, Does It Have Legs (or Legs23) comes on the back of the creative process techniques explored by Jason Richardson (Leeton) in a Studio Co!Lab Artist in the House Talk in February 2023 (members can watch this back in the Members’ Lounge). Knowing some artists have trouble working through creative ideas for grant applications, we’ve developed a program of feedback for a group of members who are pitching creative ideas and working through a series of prompts that address the merit, impact and viability of these ideas, with feedback from our team and Jason Richardson. By June, we’ll have a core group ready with strong projects in time for Round 1 Create NSW funding in July. We’ll be selecting one of these for some additional help from us, to ensure it’s submitted when that round opens.
A grant writing session was run in June for our all our members.
Q4 2022 Studio Co!Lab Members’ Grant
The last Studio Co!Lab members' grant for 2022 was awarded to a collaboration between two members keen to meet and create together, who picked up $2,000 for an intensive one-week residency where they can share experiences and work towards an exhibition in 2023.
In their application, Shani Nottingham (Cowra) and Freya Jobbins (Southern Highlands) wrote: "The greatest challenge we both face as regional artists, is time to be together, to begin creating, problem-solving and making - as we have not actually met in person yet. A residency together would allow us to work on our collaboration - we intend to use this grant to pay for a residency at the CORRIDOR project."
Orana Arts Executive Director, Alicia Leggett said the members' grants are about making opportunities happen and connecting Studio Co!Lab members so they can create. "It's as much about developing ideas as it is about any outcomes that might happen in future."
We look forward to updates on how this collaboration develops.
Artist websites
SHANI NOTTINGHAM
FREYA JOBBINS
Shani Nottingham and Freya Jobbins will be working together at an intensive residency to share, create, problem solve & make in preparation for an exhibition in 2023.
