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!

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.

Rose Hamilton’s willow art

Willow art creations in Poatina

Stay tuned here for an article about Rose Hamilton a resident of Poatina Village and her adventures with her willow art sculptures! Amazing creations! Here is a picture to wet your appetite, come back soon to this blog, just hunting down the article!

Artists of all genres converge on Poatina

Newspaper article July 2011

Artists of all genres converge on Poatina

POATINA was alive with artistic genius over the weekend when 30 interstate artists, musicians and dancers gathered for an annual creative retreat.
The four-day retreat, organised by Fusion Arts Colony, allowed attendees to concentrate on their art in the quiet and peaceful setting of Poatina.
It also exposed aspiring musicians to interstate talent.
Pianist Elijah Bradbury, 15, of Poatina, who helped out behind the scenes, said the retreat gave him a chance to meet like-minded people.

“Over the years I have met some of the top musicians in Australia, like Spike Mason, one of the top saxophonists,” Elijah said. “I think it is amazing and it gets the town on the map.
“It definitely has helped me with my jazz.” Elijah has been playing music since he was seven and wants to become a professional pianist.
“I started off because my mum wanted to give us some musical background and then two years ago it took off and I really started loving it,” he said. “It allows you to express yourself in different forms – not just words.”

In May this year Elijah won the 2011 Annual Sue Cathcart Memorial Youth Jazz Award. He writes his own musical compositions and said jazz is his main focus. “I find it more expressive than classical, you can put more of yourself into a song. “There is more feeling and variety to create your own style. “I got a lot of feedback (after winning) and that has inspired me a little bit more.”  Living in a regional town has not prevented Elijah from following his musical interests. The creative focus in Poatina has instead helped him to foster his love for music. The retreat ends tonight with a performance production at the community hall at 6.30pm.

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.

Horses – A song written for Alethe

Written by Osi Harding – Trinity College Student

Some beautiful lyrics from a song written for Alethe Clezy recently sung at her funeral.

Verse 1:
I saw mahogany
chasing down the naked trees and
I saw the forest at its peak
I saw the butterflies
I chased the whispering eyes that
Were sugar coated in sparkling blue mystique

Pre-Chorus:
Open cinnamon jars
Sit back and gaze up at the stars

Verse 2:
Both cities and countryside
Singapore and Auckland Island
The stenographer with a mission on the beach
Taught life to daisies who
Thought they’d never bloom
And there’s always more to learn and more to teach

Chorus:
The sky’s ablaze and it’s seven p.m
And I’m amazed to see heaven again
And if I asked you so politely
Would you reignite me?
The horses rush they’re galloping fast
But would you blush if I dug up the past
And told you that the incredible line has been surpassed

Verse 3:
There’s awe and mystery
A stunning foreign charm
Look up a face of timidity
Realised the auctioneer
Sold off my moonless fear and
Traded for life and bravery
Pre-Chorus 2:
Clutch a flame with wide eyes
And know your name cause it glistens in the skies

Bridge:
Paint me a bookstore
Or pot me a studio
Cause there’s no one you can’t amaze
Laugh with the rainbows
Dance with the echoes
As you flash back to exploring caves

Chorus (Last time)
The sounds, the sweep of easy wind
Without a doubt the start will begin
On the darkest of the year, the house will appear
The horses rush they’re galloping fast
But would you blush if I dug up the past
And told you that the incredible line has been surpassed

A beautiful day of reflection as we farewelled a special friend.

Alethy Clezy

a pioneer of the arts in Poatina and active member of the Arts Colony. died recently.

Family and friends from the village, around Ausralia gathered to farewell a beatiuful and profoundly creative lady who brought so much to so many. The Arts Colony contributed to the service, which was a sad but uplifting celebration of an amazing life.

Poatina Open Day flags on display

Creative village project

One of the creative projects some of our artsy people have been involved in around the village is a hanging flag banner.

We wanted to find a project that reflected individuals and also gave them an opportunity to be part of an arts project that is visual, positive and fun to be part of! Each triangle is made up of recycled fabric, favorite historic and current fabrics. The community and wider district were invited to choose a fabric, cut out a triangle and write on it something positive to share that will be lasting for people to see each event when we hang it up! Its quite a long thread of flags now, which we will continue to build on and hang for people to see for many years!