Above: Dean Baylis Memorial Award Custodian Ursula and award winner Doug.
Above: Malcolm with his photograph called The Gathering.
Lights. Camera. Art!
Housing Choices WA tenant Jacqui participated in our Tenant Art Showcase for the first time this year displaying her hand-made jewellery. Jacqui is currently studying creative writing, and recently critiqued shows for Fringe World in Perth, so we invited Jacqui to review our 2024 Tenant Art Showcase from the unique viewpoint of a first-time visitor and artist.
were paintings, sculptures, photographs, pyrography, wood carving, mixed media, embroidery, jewellery, beanies and even bonsais. No matter what you were looking for, there was something for everyone. As well as being packed with art, the room was filled with people admiring and talking about the artwork. A lot of them were artists themselves, their friends and family and Housing Choices staff. The biggest take away for me was the many happy faces, together, in one big room. It was like a music festival but an art-based celebration centring on Housing Choices tenants’ artistic endeavours. All the artists had badges, with their name and ‘Tenant Artist’ printed underneath.
There was also an Artist Catalogue which not only listed the 51 artists involved but told meaningful stories of their lives and artworks and showed the care Housing Choices has towards the tenants. This warmth radiated around the room between the artists’ themselves and the staff with several tenants receiving accolades and vouchers for their work. There was something that Nat Sangalli, the General Manager of Housing Choices WA, said at the beginning of the event which struck me: “Art brings joy, joy promotes well-being and that promotes connectivity.” And she was right.
Absolutely nothing could prepare me for the smorgasbord of art and people that enveloped me as I walked into Housing Choices WA’s 2024 Tenant Art Showcase at the Gary Holland Community Centre in Rockingham. What a feast for the senses! The question was, where to start? The enormous room was full to the brim with a variety of unique and high quality works of art. There
By Jacqui
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