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Dear M16 Artspace SWAG Members, Welcome back for 2024! We have some important updates for you, as well as dates for your diary and some sad news to share. It’s been a pleasure to work with you through 2023, and we hope that 2024 brings you much success in all your creative endeavours. Vale Marje SeymourIt is with great sadness that we inform you of the passing of our beloved M16 community member Marje Seymour. Marje had been a valued member of M16 Artspace as a studio artist since its early days, and was instrumental in making the move from the former Fyshwick studios to Griffith possible. She was a celebrated painter, creating beautiful works from impasto layered oil paint, thinly layered oil glazes and collage. We’re all indebted to her efforts for M16, and she will be sorely missed. Our thoughts are with Marje’s family, friends and colleagues at this difficult time. Marje’s family have suggested that, if anyone would like to, they could offer a donation to Hands On Studio in remembrance of Marje. SWAG Meeting Thursday 29 FebruaryAs we regroup for 2024 please join us at the first SWAG meeting of the year, on Thursday 29th February at 5.30pm here at M16. There’s a lot to discuss, including our AGM (date TBC), and getting the jump on planning for our Open Studios which will be on 9th November. Send any agenda items you’d like to raise to office@m16artspace.com by COB Thursday 22nd February. Bar RosterAs we gear up for an exciting year ahead, we need people to sign up to work the bar at our exhibition openings in 2024. As part of your studio tenancy sublicense agreement, your involvement is key. How to sign up:Attached to this email is the Bar Roster for 2024. Kindly input your names in the available slots, specifying your preferred shifts. We urgently need someone to help out at the next opening on Thursday the 22nd of February, so please email the office directly if you are available to take it. If you need help putting your name in the spreadsheet feel free to reach out! We understand that your schedules can be busy, which is why it’s crucial to put your names down for preferred shifts. If you do not sign up, we will allocate shifts for you. This ensures a smooth process and avoids any unforeseen clashes with your schedules later on. Please find the link for the bar roster below and sign up! Reinstating Friday catch upsWe’re bringing back Friday catch ups! Head down to the M16 office at 4pm on Friday 23rd February for a casual cuppa or cold beer, depending on how your week has gone. We’ll aim to keep this up fortnightly, so please come along. Tell us about your achievements!It’s Annual Reporting time, and we’d love to hear all your achievements throughout 2023. Please click the link here and let us know about your exhibitions, residencies, prizes and other key achievements before COB Friday 1 March. Throughout the coming year we hope to hear more about all your activities so we can share them across the M16 community. We’ll be sending Inside/Outside quarterly, so due dates for information will be 26 February, 29 April, 29 July and 25 November if you want to make the next edition. You can submit the info you want to share here. Chutespace and the Foyer GalleryWe’re looking for a volunteer (or volunteers) to take over the curation of Chutespace in 2024. Lani Shea-An (Studio 15) has done a fantastic job in 2023, and the next Chutespace show, opening 22 February, will be her last. Curating Chutespace is a great opportunity to learn new curatorial skills or put your training into practice, as well as deepening your connections with other artists. You could put your hand up to curate the whole year or just a few exhibition blocks. We also invite expressions of interest for any SWAG Members who’d like to show their work in the Foyer Gallery this year. We announce the Foyer Gallery display at our regular exhibition openings, so it’s an excellent chance to get exposure and possibly make some sales. We’d love someone to keep the ball rolling by curating the Chutespace show or Foyer Gallery for the opening on 21 March. Please reach out to office@m16artspace.com or drop in to see us if you’re interested to know more. Studio updatesWe will soon say goodbye to our enormously valued studio artists Sarah Murphy, Angela Bakker and Saskia Haalebos. Sarah and Angela have shared Studio 5 since our earliest days in Griffith and will be moving out at the end of February. They have contributed so much to M16 with their incredible warmth, professionalism and creativity, and have been a big part of making M16 what it is today. We are very sorry to see them go, and wish them every success with their next moves. Saskia has held our inaugural M16 Residency through 2023 and has lived up to our expectations and so much more. She’s quickly become a treasured and prolific member of the M16 community and produced a fantastic final show (open till Sunday 18 February in Gallery 2 – check it out if you haven’t already!). Since December we have also welcomed Deborah Singleton (Lightbox 2), Anna Madeleine Raupach (Studio 9) and new Emerging Artist Support Scheme recipients Asil Habara and Sophie Dumaresq (Studio 22). We’re very excited to work with these incredible artists this year. Please make them feel at home! Studio and exhibition calloutsWe have recently announced callouts for two studio vacancies, Studio 5 (approx. 30sqm) and Studio 6 (approx. 20sqm), both in our lovely West Wing. If you are interested in moving into either studio, please submit an application through our website here. An exhibition callout has also been announced. We have exhibition slots available in June, August, September and October, including some spots across all three galleries. Please express your interest here. We’ve updated both our studio and exhibition application processes, so we’d love your feedback on whether they’re more user-friendly. New M16 Artspace Environmental Artist in ResidenceWe are pleased to announce that the M16 Residency will be reworked this year an Environmental Artist in Residence, with generous sponsorship from local business ConceptSix. The program will support an artist to develop and exhibit new work at M16 that examines and engages with the core tenets of environmental sustainability. The M16 Environmental Artist in Residence will be offered a $3000 scholarship, nine-month residency at M16 in 2024 and four-week exhibition in January 2025. Applications will open soon. While current M16 studio artists are not eligible to apply, we’d love you to share the callout with your contacts. Can you help us?In recognition of our roots as an Artist Run Initiative, we’re opening our office to any SWAG members who’d like to volunteer to assist with a range of tasks. If you’ve swung by recently you would have seen our massive wall planner featuring post-it notes of all the tasks we’d like to achieve! There are some key areas where we’d love your help, to make sure we can offer the best support possible for all SWAG members:
The time commitment required for all these projects is very flexible – e.g. doing a block of a few days, or chipping a way at a task for a few hours each week. Please let us know if you’re keen to get involved or find out more, at office@m16artspace.com We will reward you generously with cups of tea or coffee! SWAG Member NewsNewsBest of luck to NatureArt Lab who are in the running for a National Telstra Best of Business Award. Having won the ACT Building Communities Award in 2023, they’re competing for the national title to be announced on 8 February. We’re crossing our fingers for you! GiveawaysSaskia Haalebos would like to give away a small-ish table she’s had in her studio. 74cm (h) x 100cm (w) x 60cm (d). Please contact office@m16artspace.com if interested. Lynne Flemons is giving away some polystyrene packaging, currently in the kitchen/common room. Please help yourself! Angela Bakker has some metal lockers up for grabs for anyone who is interested in them! They are outside studio 6! A gentleman has been in contact offering a large variety of neon tubing to any artists interested. Please contact office@m16artspace.com if interested. Introducing M16 staff and volunteersBefore we wrap up we want to introduce you to the fantastic casual Gallery Assistants and volunteers who joined us in 2023. Saori Brooks, Francis Jaye Johnson, Ellen Shields and Kate Butler added to our small but mighty team – joining Karen from Hands On Studio, Kirrily, Mim and Nic. Saori brings her extensive arts sector knowledge as a graduate of ANU’s Master of Art History and Curatorial Studies and former intern at M16. She has a wealth of experience in marketing and administration, and is instrumental in helping us keep the admin workload organised and on track. (Saori also has intel on the best Japanese rice crackers… if you’re asking!) Francis Jaye has ties to M16 as a member of Canberra Art Workshop exhibition team, assisting with installation and handling artwork. As well as being a talented visual artist she’s developing her own fashion label mixing silversmithing and printmaking. Francis is going great guns assisting with the gallery and exhibition install, and loves supporting other artists including with links to developing art collectors! Ellen is a star all-rounder, being a fantastic visual artist with a degree in design, as well as a former media advisor, Navy maritime warfare officer, and senior public servant managing data strategy. She brings a unique skill set across creativity, analytical thinking and communications. (And she’s especially mean with a gantt chart or graph!) Kate is an accomplished mosaic artist with a distinguished background in project management and evaluation. She has a love of people and you’ll often see her front-of-house welcoming visitors at the gallery desk. Kate’s creative work is stunning and we’re thrilled by her recent success as a finalist in the Bermagui Sculpture Prize! Please come and say hello 🙂 And if you have any questions or need further information, don’t hesitate to reach out. Warm regards, The M16 Artspace Team Kirrily, Mim, Nic, Karen, Ellen, Francis, Saori and Kate |
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