Arts Center gets a visit from Ian Potter foundation

The Alethea Mountain Retreat Arts Centre received significant funds towards the building project from the Ian Potter Foundation.

Pictured here is some of the Ian Potter team who visited from the mainland earlier this year to see the developments. We had very encouraging feedback about the vision of the project, and its potential in Tasmania, and impact beyond!

“The Ian Potter Foundation makes grants for general charitable purposes in Australia that advance knowledge and benefit the community in the areas of the arts, community well-being, education, environment and conservation, health, medical research and science.”

We wish to convey a huge thanks to the Ian Potter Foundation (and our other supporters) and their contribution towards such an important development, of the Arts in Tasmania, and our village and its future.

To find out more about the Alethea Mountain Retreat Arts Centre  click the link and it will take you to our Poatina Arts web page, where you can see a slide show of the development of the building.

The project is in its final stage, it is so close, and we are so grateful for those that have helped contribute to get us this far! …but it is still in urgent need of significant financial support to get it to its final completion.

If you are interested in supporting this project to help its completion, please phone 0402314 816. Or click on the Donate Now button at the bottom of the Arts web site.

(Make sure you also email artscolony@fusion.org.au with the same information so we can know who has given the support  – thanks!)

The big move has begun!

The larger items of the Poatina Hot Glass studio equipment have now been shifted from the old studio to the new Alethea Mountain Retreat Arts Center this past week. The move was relatively smooth, apart from a few broken floor boards and having to remove a wall to get the glass furnace out of the old studio!

Arts Center continues to grow!

The progress of the Alethea Mountain Retreat Arts Centre has moved forward a long way since this time last year!

Just in the last few months a huge 6,000 litre LP Gas tank was installed (to supply gas to the glass blowing equipment) and a massive electrical cable was laid to power the building. The timber frames for internal walls have been built and put in place, ready for the next stage, and the electrical wiring has also been installed in the walls.

Last week the frames for all the windows were delivered, with the large glass bi-fold doors installed to the front of the building. (see more photos at bottom of this entry)

We are very excited as we watch it grow, and prepare for a future of creative endeavors in such a beautiful building, and environment.

We look forward to sharing more with you over the next few months!

Thanks to all the team that has given so much time to get this exciting project to this point!

If you would like to inquire about joining the team, email: artscolony@fusion.org.au or phone 0447 358 006

or if you would like to donate towards helping the completion of the project click here.

Stay tuned over next few months for more pics and updates!

If you would like to read more and see a slide show of the development of the project click here.

The roof is going on!

Its an exciting few weeks in Poatina!

The roof for the new Alethea Mountain Retreat Center is looking awesome!

A small team of guys have been working long hours this week

to get the roof  near to completion! Its taking ‘shape’!

New Poatina Arts website officially launched!

The Poatina Arts website is here!

Click here and link to the new site which has loads of amazing photos and information about Poatina Arts and its connections not just in Tasmania, but all around the world.

The next major event is Faith and the Arts 2012 8-15th January 2012, in Tasmaina. Check out all the wonderful electives offered, great line up of teaching artists including Dennis Clare, Eric Ajay and Lea and Spike Mason, and loads more… it will be an amazing week of creativity.

Arts centre – Wonderful shapes and design!

The Alethea – Mountain Retreat Arts Centre

is beginning to take ‘shape’.

The frame is completely up! Quite an impressive building already, with an amazing view! Stay tuned for more developments over the next few months! It’s exciting times!

The Alethea – Mountain Retreat Arts Center – up it goes!

The Alethea – Mountain Retreat Arts Center

begins its ‘upward journey’ this past week, with the structural beams being positioned in place ready for the arched roof.

The project has received significant financial contributions from Arts Tasmania, The Tasmanian Community Fund, The Ian Potter Foundation and a number of private donors.

The centre will allow the newly established Poatina Hot Glass Studio to relocate to a purpose-built area within the building. The Hot Glass Studio will be the flagship of the centre, offering an exceptional tourist attraction to members of the public who will be able to view live glass blowing and witness Tasmania’s only Hot Glass teaching facility in action.

Poatina Arts Centre building moving forward!

An article in Examiner Newspaper Launceston 

- 26 July, 2011

Arts future fuses together in hangar for the village ‘We are creating a pathway for young people’ from school-age right through to a professional levels

 AN AIRCRAFT hangar will become the new Poatina arts centre.

The hangar had housed the North Esk Rowing Club until it was bought in 2006 by the Fusion Arts Colony for its centre.

Arts Colony co-ordinator Keith Dougall said the group had since raised money to re-erect the building and secured funding from the Tasmanian Community Fund and the Ian Potter Foundation, Victoria.

“The size and shape of the hangar will work really well for our needs,” Mr Dougall said.

“It will allow us to use one third of the building for a hot-glass studio, and the rest will be used for classrooms and a multi-purpose art studio with a kiln room for ceramics.”

A mezzanine floor which is subject to further funding is planned for a communal meeting space and artists’ studios.

“We are putting a new roof on, so it will be a unique, attractive piece of architecture, that sits in an undeveloped part of the village, nestled among gum trees with a 360-degree view of the valley and mountain,” Mr Dougall said.

The centre is crucial to Fusion Arts Colony’s development as a nationally-recognised arts hub for professional artists.

Mr Dougall said the hot-glass studio section would become Tasmania’s only teaching facility for glass blowing, offering workshops and training courses to students and the general public from Tasmania and interstate.

“We are creating a pathway for young people from school age right through to professional levels … and we are seeing a real desire for mainland artists to come here and spend time contributing to the arts community.”

Photo caption: Artists Elijah Bradbury, Osi Harding, Kirsten Culhane, Elise Hanscamp, Keith Dougall, Spike Mason, Steve Cooper, Chris Neild, Hayley Thomson, Billy Cooper, Leigh Thompson, Helen Wright, Stephanie Quinn, Mabel Cooper, Hannah Cooper and Hayley Neil jump for joy at the site of the new arts centre.