Slippry Sirkus

As  the New year approaches,  we would like to take this opportunity  to thank the participants, communities, artists, organisations  and funding bodies who have  engaged , collaborated and supported  the programs and projects throughout 2012 and we look forward to continuing to work together  across 2013.

During the past three months, Slippry Sirkus has collaborated with ON Track Community Programs across the past three months to produce a suite of ten digital stories that explore the many causes of homelessness and the pathways to recovery.   These stories will be available to view online at www.placestories.com and www.otcp.com.au

The Australia Council Community Partnerships Creative Producer funded project ‘Ties that Bind’ delivered in Kempsey across 2012 has provided opportunities for many participants to develop skills while exploring ‘connection’ through visual arts, music, dance, physical theatre and digital story telling.   Pubic outcomes of exhibitions, radio plays and digital projections have enabled the participants to share their stories with the broader community.   A focus over the past few months has been working with participants with disabilities.

A component of the ‘Ties that Bind’ project, is the young parent’s project in partnership with Area Health and Aboriginal health, which is now in post production.  The outcome   ’Love & Light’ a visual & digital installation, will be exhibited in February 2012.  Utilising suspended fragile, translucent casts of young pregnant women with projections of their ultrasounds and a soundscape sharing their intimate stories of motherhood and connection

Slippry Sirkus has been delighted to collaborate with the Creative People Collective on ‘River Jam’ a series of live performances with the young people of the North Coast area.

Congratulations to Benoit, the founder of Krousar Thmey who we are privileged to be collaborating with in Cambodia.  Benoit has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Child Advocacy.

Congratulations to Yanni Scott Davis, who has just completed his Cert IV in Film & Media.  Yanni continues to mentor and produce emerging HipHop artists and the Beats & Rhyme program at ‘The Loft’ youth centre in Newcastle.

Congratulations to Nixi Killick who has completed Honours in Fashion & Costume design at the Victorian College of the Arts

Nixi’s    End of Year Collection

Congratulations to Zahra Smith who is currently undertaking dance training in South Africa supported by the Australia Council of the Arts.

Congratulations to Raphaela Rosella who has completed Honours in Social Documentary Photography and who we have had the pleasure of working with since 2003. http://www.oculi.com.au/2012/11/23/raphaela-rosellas-series-we-met-a-little-early-but-i-get-to-love-you-longer-features-on-new-blog/

Congratulations to the Nambucca Valley Community Social Council who have just celebrated forty years of serving the community.   www.nvcsc.org.au

Thanks to Nambucca Youth Services who we have the pleasure of collaborating with and who continue to provide outstanding support for the young people of the Nambucca Valley.  https://open.abc.net.au/projects/day-in-the-life-11bh6tz/contributions/sue-youth-worker-15iy0vy

Soraya Touma continues her work co-ordinating youth programs in Wyndham, which we discovered on recently visiting, is the third hottest place on earth.

The Cambodian Space Project will be heading down under with their tour commencing in Perth in early 2013.  They have enjoyed great success during 2012 touring the globe and their documentary produced by Mark Eberle to be shown on the BBC.   www.marceberle.com

Deja Pearson,   a founding member of Slippry Sirkus is now based in South Africa and very successfully creating original artworks on surfboards

Reko Rennie who we have the pleasure of working with on the “You Say You Are – Then Who Am I’ project and an upcoming project for NWNSW in 2013, was recently commissioned by Sydney City Council to create a public art work.

Welcome to 'Spring Edition'

One of the outcomes was ‘Tag It’  a graffiti art style exhibition at the Macleay Valley Art Gallery which featured several local artists and project artist James Moulton

The Living Carefully ‘Growing Stronger Together’ Young Parents Program across the Nambucca Valley   continues to flourish with young parents participating in a program of  workshops from nutrition and healthy eating to  baby first aid to graphic design and screen printing to sharing their stories through digital story telling The program is a collaboration with Nambucca Valley Community Social Council and Nambucca Valley Youth Services. www.nvcsc.org.au

  Morganics and enthralled fans at ‘Local Made'The ‘Local Made’ Youth Festival.  which is an initiative of young people across the mid north coast was held in Bellingen and attracted an audience of over two thousand people. Slippry Sirkus contributed with ‘Art of Celebration’ workshops.

   Nadine & Zahra Smith with Bundjulung Elder

The fabulous Solid State circus delivered physical circus workshops across Kempsey for ‘Ties that Bind’  and provided a performance for the Nambucca Valley young parents program http://www.solidstatecircus.com.au/index.html

Emerging Fashion Artist Phoenix Keating  produced a stunning collection and has received attention not only from the fashion world but also from Lady GaGa who has borrowed several of Phoenix’s creations to wear.

Several of Phoenix’s creations have been featured in Harpers Bazaar   http://phoenixkeating.com/

June

 

 

It has been a huge year for young Brisbane-based photographer Raphaela Rosella who has just been named winner of the 2012 Qantas Spirit of Youth Award (SOYA365) for photography. It’s the third big accolade for Rosella in 2012 having won the Documentary/Photojournalism category inCapture magazine’s 2012 Emerging Photographer of the Year awards and been named a finalist in the 2012 Head On Portrait Prize

Winning  a trip to Les Rencontres D’Arles in France to experience Europe’s biggest photography festival. Rosella has also won a 12-month mentorship with UK-based Australian photographer Polly Borland

http://www.australianphotography.com/news/rosella-soars-in-youth-photography-awards

July

Lynden Ainslie, visual artist collaborated on a visual arts project with the women of the Wugularr community, Central Arnhem.

Travelling directly from Central Arnhem to Wyndham in the East Kimberleys, where we delivered  three days consultation on a two year youth focused binge drinking education strategy for several organisations. The strategy will provide a program of arts based workshops, skills training and a platform to explore the challenges and produce with the young people a television advertisement

The fabulous Gordo Gamsby and the ‘Dirty Brothers’ are currently touring Europe

Josh Thomason film maker and digital media artist is currently collaborating with Barkly Arts in Tennant Creek on a project encompassing dance, music and digital media.

Slippry Sirkus is collaborating with On Track Community programs to produce a series of ten digital stories across  the NSW North Coast.  The participants will have the opportunity to share their stories of homelessness and other life challenges

The first story produced for On Track Community Programs was featured at the National Homeless Conference In Melbourne.  http://www.otcp.com.au

Yanni Scott Davis continues to work with and produce several emerging HipHop artists in the Newcastle area, while completing his studies in film and screen.  Keep an eye for upcoming short film Self Storage Security.     Experience some of the music produced at http://youtu.be/y-5If2Taztg

Nixi Killick, another founding member  has just showed her collection at Graduate Showcase Melbourne’s Spring Fashion Week. http://nixikillick.bigcartel.com “Integrating a background in circus costume, performance and the arts.   Nixi embraces creative escapism and indulgence in the bizarre in her efforts to illustrate the volatility orbiting reality.”

Benoit with the late Peter Carrette (photographer extraordinaire and philanthropist)

Benoit "Benito" Duchateau-Arminjon, founder of  Krousar Thmey has been awarded  the ’ NOBEL PRIZE FOR CHILD ADVOCATES AWARD’.   Benito will receive his award in N New York  on 25 October and is so deserving of this great honour. Benito's book  is released in English next month.

Slippry Sirkus is working  in a collaborative partnership with Krousar Thmey and Phareps on  an arts & cultural exchange strategy in Cambodia.   http://www.krousar-thmey.org/

 

Featured Artist:

 

Nick Haywood is a prominent Australian jazz double bass player, composer and music educator in Melbourne.

Born in 1961, Nick first started playing an electric bass guitar at eight years of age but did not consider undertaking a career as a professional musician.

In 1976 he started playing the Double bass. After finishing school he worked in a brewery and a tin mine.

In his mid 20's he enrolled in a Diploma of Music course at the Victorian College of the Arts and graduated in 1988

He has worked with many of Australia's best known Australian jazz musicians including Don Burrows, Dale Barlow, Paul Grabowsky, Bernie McGann, and James Morrison, and with many international jazz artists including Nat Adderley, Buddy Greco, Kenny Kirkland, Claire Martin, Jack Parnell, Mark Murphy among many others.

He has been featured on over 100 music CDs.

In 1999 Nick Haywood was nominated for two ARIA Music Awards: for Best Jazz recording for Sudden in a Shaft of Sunlight by Browne-Haywood-Stevens; and Best Adult Contemporary for Beat Club by The Black Sorrows.   http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Nick-Haywood/107930575901764

Slippry Sirkus had the pleasure of collaborating with Nick on the Women’s Project in Central Arnhem.

Hello and welcome to our first quarterly news for 2012.

The year has leapt into action with the Cambodian Space Project touring Australia and performing at  MOMA, WOMAD ,the Melbourne Festivals Spiegeltent as well as regionally. http://www.myspace.com/thecambodianspaceproject

               

On their return to Cambodia thanks to the generosity of our Chair Jodie Harrison and friends, the Cambodian Space Project’s Srey Thy delivered funds to  Rattanak and his family to enable the purchase of  a new TukTuk to generate an income . Rattanak was one of the original children repatriated from the Thai refugee camps over twenty years ago by the Krousar Thmey organisation                              www.krousar-thmey.org

The  Nambucca Valley Young Parents Program resumed, which is a partnership with Living Carefully &  Nambucca Valley Youth Services. The program which  has been successful in attracting young dads and mums and is attended by young parents from right across the community,  offers opportunities for young parents to explore the role of parenting through arts based processes and learn about nurturing, nutrition and raising healty children.    www.nvcsc.org www.nvysc.webs.com

Many thanks to artist James Moulton (Seiz)  lead artist on the Graffitti Out West project, a collaboration with the Coonabarran Council , Reconnect and the Youth Centre who facilitated the consultation with the young people, the workshops  and  the mural that  encompassed elements of all of the community.

Denni Scott Davis (Artistic Director) and Soray Touma (singer/songwriteral in) travelled to Central Arnhem to meet with Djilpin Arts and the community of Beswick (Wugularr) for final consultation on arts based programs for the community which will be showcased at “Walking with Spirits’ festival  2012. www.djilpinarts.org.au

Soraya is currently in the Kimberleys, setting up programs for young people in four remote communities

Denni also travelled to Battambang in Cambodia for further consultation with Xavier Gobin, Artistic Director of the circus project and to spend several days with the Phareps  organisation which provides for young people educational opportunities along with visual arts, music and social theatre.   Slippry Sirkus will collaborate with Phareps on an arts & cultural exchange project .  www.phareps.org

An exhibition date has been confirmed for early 2013, at MetaHouse, German Cambodian Cultural Centre, in association with the Goethe institute in Phnom Penh.  The exhibition will explore the human condition through themes of identity, connection, colonisation & dispossession featuring visual and digital art from Djilpin Arts, Central Arnhem and Slippry Sirkus www.meta-house.com

Slippry Sirkus played host to Solid State Circus who delivered a series of physical circus workshops across the region.   http://www.facebook.com/SolidStateCircus?sk=photos#!/SolidStateCircus

Hemlock Mejarne, physical circus director represented Slippry Sirkus at the Catapault National Youth Circus and Physical Theatre Festival in Bathurst..

              

March:

The Australia Council of the Arts Community Partnerships Creative Producer project ‘Ties that Bind’ is quickly gathering momentum in Kempsey and the Macleay Valley.  Community partners in the project include local The Kempsey Shire Council, New Horizons, Kempsey LALC, Macleay Arts Council, Aboriginal Health, Macleay Vocational College, TAFE, Melville High School, Empire Academy of Dance, Benevolent Society, Tank Community Radio, Macleay Argus, Macleay Chamber of Commerce,  Kempsey High School, Kempsey Family Community Centre, Greenhills Community Centre.

The project aims to provide professional skills development, while exploring  connection and identity across the community.

A component of the project, a dance and movement  program was delivered across March by Diane Busuttil who is an Australian artist based in Berlin and Zahra Smith,emerging dance artist .

            

The dance program worked with profoundly disabled young people and the support unit at Melville High Schooll, young people from the community through the Kempsey Family Community Centre and dance students at the Empire Academy of Dance. In all, sixty eight participants took part in the program. www.dianebusuttil.com www.cpc.org.au http://www.macleayargus.com.au/news/local/news/general/ties-that-bind-fun-for-dancers/2509809.aspx

John Thiering, a visual artist based in the Macleay Valley created  a visual art performance during his exhibition around his visits to South East Asia.  John is collaborating on several projects including the ‘Ties that Bind’

Jasper Killick, emerging artist  is enjoying recognition of his talents as an artist, now based in Melbourne.  www.gardentuscany.com/photo_gallery/melbourne_laneway/aboutjasper.htm

The 50 m wall takes up the entire laneway and was a commission for Garden Tuscany cafe in Moonee ponds.  

Yanni Scott Davis, digital media artist and music producer  is currently  studying film and screenworks, while continuing to mentor and produce emerging artists and provide music programs for young people ‘at risk’  ..you canview one of his latest productions with MC Kaye  - link below

 http://youtu.be/ATMrs5BOBl8

Meanwhile The Great  Gordo Gamsby continues to shine, performing with the League of Sideshow Super Stars…at the Adelaide ‘Fringe’

Featured Artist : Lisa Mam Phnom Penh

Lisa (aka 'Lil Dots') is the first official female street artist in Cambodia. Her work can currently be seen in galleries, cultural centers, on billboards and on the sides of buildings all over Phnom Penh. In the past couple of years, Lisa Mam has hit a high-point with personal accomplishments. She made art pieces for a Cellcard XG commercial and Libiz Hotel, and has contributed her work to the Loy9 program and Phnom Penh in 2058 at the French Cultural Center Lisa wants Khmer graffiti and street art to be seen all around the world. She believes this will put urban Khmer art on the map and inspire Khmer  

Youth around the world to take pride in their culture. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXBaeJdQBik

Greetings,   due to  a hectic  project schedule in community and  creative development  in Berlin …‘Watch this Space’  comes to you  as a quarterly  and the final  ‘Watch This Space’  for 2011…. we will be back online in 2012…….. We wish you…  Joy for the Festive Season and Hope for the Future…

September commenced with Artistic Director Denni Scott Davis  meeting  with Australian artists based in Berlin who will collaborate on  the Australia Council Community Partnerships Creative Producer project ‘Ties that Bind’.

The projects collaborates with artists and the community in an exploration of community identity and  connection, through digital stories & media, dance, physical theatre, music, song and sound to create and produce interdisciplinary arts outcomes that  sets the stage for dialogue and discussion  and promotes social cohesion and inclusion.

Founder and Artistic Director,  Denni Scott Davis has been awarded as an individual, the Australia Council Creative Producer funding for the 2012 project  ‘Ties that Bind’  which will explore through digital stories / imagery,  music/ soundscape, physical theatre and dance …the connections & relationships  between people that creates community  social cohesion and inclusion.  The project will focus on Kempsey and the Macleay Valley building on the last three  years of the Cross Currents Strategy which has been support by the Australia Council of the Arts, Regional Arts NSW and the CocaCola Australia Foundation.