School Holiday Workshop Program
This school holidays, enjoy free family friendly workshops at The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre. Drop by The Poster Centre – a mobile screen-printing studio where families and young people can learn screen-printing techniques in the tradition of political poster art pioneered in Mt Druitt by the Garage Graphix collective.
Then, drop in to Making Signs with Lettering and Prints with facilitators Joy Adan and Marietta Zafirakos and street art workshops by Western Sydney Murals, at The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre.
Please note:
- all children under the age of 9 must be accompanied by a parent or carer who must remain on-site. Due to COVID-19, only one parent or carer can accompany the child or group of children in their care. Please remember to book a free ticket.
- all materials are provided except for art smocks and aprons, so please consider bringing your own or wearing clothes that can get dirty if you’re a messy painter or art maker!
- workshop numbers are limited to be COVID safe in line with NSW government public health guidelines
- no food or drink is currently available for purchase at The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre. Please provide your child with a water bottle for their session. Feel free to bring your coffee or a snack while you are visiting The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre.
- our nearest café is the Young Lions coffee cart, located 200m directly across the road from the Arts Centre on Flushcombe Rd with opening hours 7.15 am – 4.00 pm, Monday – Friday.
Click here to plan your visit to The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre
The Poster Centre workshops
Artist Wendy Murray, Jay Kay Wassell, Sima Alikhani, Saqlain Binte Saleh
Date Wednesday 13 April, Thursday 14 April, Saturday 16 April, Tuesday 19 April, Wednesday 20 April, Thursday 21 April, Friday 22 April, Saturday 23 April
Time 11.00 am to 4.00 pm
Cost Free
Age Open to all – children under 16 require the supervision of an adult.
Drop by The Poster Centre – a mobile screen-printing studio where families and young people can learn screen-printing techniques in the tradition of political poster art pioneered in Mt Druitt by the Garage Graphix collective.
Each poster centre workshop will cover:
- Designs for printing
- Typography and type design
- Cutting your print and taping to the screen
- Single and layered screen prints
- Taking care of print screens and setting up a screen print station
Each person will take home a print designed in the workshop, and a poster screen-printed in the open studio.
Wendy Murray is a visual artist who works out of studios in Sydney and Los Angeles. Murray’s work addresses social and political issues through drawings, poster making and public art works.
Jay Kay Wassell is a multidisciplinary artist, living and working Blacktown, focusing on painting murals, printing with linocuts, painting in oils and illustrating. She loves facilitating workshops and being part of an environment that enables people to connect and grow artistically.
Sima Alikhani is a contemporary artist living in Blacktown, who likes to paint her own reality and enjoys working with diverse people as she believes that diverse teams are more productive and perform better. Working at The Poster Centre was one of the great experiences Sima had in her art career.
For Ropes Crossing resident, Saqlain Binte Saleh, The Poster Centre is a new experience for her which has taught her a lot about the creative process, and she is very glad to be given the opportunity. In her artwork Saqlain likes to create charcoal drawings based on nature and likes to use vibrant colours in her paintings.
Making signs with lettering and prints workshop
Artist Joy Adan, Marietta Zafirakos
Date Saturday 23 April
Time 11.00 am to 2.00 pm
Cost Free
Age Open to all – children under 16 require the supervision of an adult.
Join us on Saturday 23 April for a day of free visual arts workshops exploring print making, poster art and lettering. Families and young people will design and print their own personalised posters to take home. Young artists will be encouraged to use colour, lines, and shapes to create artworks that show who they are and what care about.
Lettering and printmaking workshops will cover:
- Hand lettering your name or message
- Printing with interesting materials
Each person will be able to use the skills from the workshops to create a print to take home.
Joy Adan is a Filipino-Australian writer and lettering artist from Western Sydney. A business journalist by day and memoirist and calligrapher by night, she loves to combine empowering words with paintbrushes and pens to create compelling stories that connect and inspire readers. As a coffee-drinking, book-devouring, ocean-obsessed mum of two, you’ll find some of her stories and art online at findingjoy.com.au, along with anecdotes of her attempt at balancing her creative career with a messy, fulfilling family life.
Marietta Zafirakos is a Sydney-based creative producer and facilitator. She graduated from Sydney College of the Arts, majoring in print media, before undertaking a Masters in Arts Administration. Her experience and interest lies in the process of art making, and the joy of simply making as a group.
Street Art workshops
Artist Cameron Marbus, Paul Zoeller
Date Tuesday 12 April and Wednesday 13 April
Time 1.00 pm to 4.00 pm
Cost Free
Age Open to all – children under 8 require supervision by an adult/guardian
Cameron Marbus and Paul Zoeller from Western Sydney Murals will take audiences through two days of drop-in street art workshops.
Learn effects and techniques with aerosols, graffiti markers and stencils. Take home your own small work, and contribute to a collaborative mural that will be installed in Blacktown CBD in the upcoming months.
Street art workshops will cover:
- effects and techniques with aerosols (weather permitting)
- how to use graffiti markers and stencils
- how to create public and wild style text
Western Sydney Murals is a collective of artists from Western Sydney, producing large scale murals, commissioned works and community workshops. With each artist having over a decade of experience under their belt, they specialize in a variety of styles from portraits, custom lettering, landscapes and characters.
Cameron Marbus is an artist and founder of Aerosol Obsessions. Cameron was raised in Riverstone and currently teaches signage and design at TAFE Western Sydney. He has over 10 years’ experience working with urban street art and was recently commissioned by Blacktown City Council to create a mural for Riverstone Youth Precinct.
Originally from Western Sydney, Paul Zoeller is a graphic designer, illustrator and artist specializing in print, digital, branding, illustration, textiles and web design. Paul’s professional achievements include wining the WOOF Art Prize in 2015, placing as a finalist in the Hawkesbury Art Prize (2015) and his artworks have appeared in magazines such as Australian Mining Review.