We had a lovely night last Friday for our opening. Around 60 locals came along which was fabulous, and more popped in over the weekend.

25 artists were part of the event, and we thank Sharyn Madder, Beatrice Magalotti and Wendy Roach for hanging the exhibition.

We’d also like to thank Yarra City Arts for the seed funding to get this regular event in our calendar up and running and also thank the Community Bank on Queens Parade for funding the gallery equipment install.

We have so many talented artists in our community. If you are keen to see more local art in real life or join us for another fun community event (being the opening night) keep an eye out for the Alphington Open Studios Weekend coming up on the last weekend in November!

Looking for a lovely local activity? Pop past on Friday night from 5-7pm for a drink and some finger food and to admire (and even buy) great local art.

If you can’t make Friday then the exhibition is open over the weekend too from 11am-5pm Saturday and Sunday. We hope you can come along.

With climate action in the forefront of peoples minds, reduce, reuse and recycle are steps we can each take to make a difference.

This is especially true for our clothes and the fast fashion industry that seems so disposable.

Learning how to repair those loved items rather than buy new and replace is a great start - and very satisfying.

The art of visible mending and slow stitching have become increasingly fashionable skills that also help extend the life of our clothes - keeping them from landfill.

And … these skills also create moments of mindfulness to enjoy and help us slow down!

Serene Paul is a talented local artists who does beautiful eco-dyeing and hand stitching to create art and repair clothing … and we are fortunate to have her returning to the Alphington Community Centre to share her talents.

She has been a maker all her life with sewing a childhood obsession, followed by studying fashion design and working in the fashion industry for a number of years. She is slowly building her own handmade and thrifted wardrobe and likes to make each piece unique by using hand stitching techniques along with patching, natural dyeing and appliqué.

Serene will be running a one-off Slow Stitching workshop on Saturday 20th of August from 10am-2pm. She will show you the stitches and you can practice them yourself with a kit that is provided. The cost is $50 and you can enrol here.

She will also run a monthly Visible Mending session. Bring your project and sew and chat and share skills. Join Serene from 10-11:30am on the first Saturday of each month by enrolling here.

Please keep in mind that each workshop and each group requires a minimum number of people to attend for it to run. So if you are keen and know other friends that share your interest then please enrol and encourage your friends to join in too!

Our winter art exhibition is coming up in a couple of weeks. Artists … you can still join in. Register on our website. Local friends … pop past on opening night to help us celebrate 🎉 or over the weekend to check out the talent in our neighbourhood … and perhaps buy some art!

Anne and Marie-Louise are keen to rebuild our Friday morning Craft and Chat session … which somewhat petered out over Covid. With winter here there’s NO BETTER TIME to take a couple hours out of your week to get creative, and meet up with other locals who share your interests and talents!

Also, if you are just a beginner … Anne has loads of sewing skills to share … and we have some sewing machines here you can practise on. She’s also a knitter - if you want to learn to knit. And Marie-Louise is a crocheter - who is also happy to share her skills.

So, if you’d like to get together and Craft and Chat on Friday’s from 10am-12pm (with morning tea at 11.30am) please come along from Monday 11 July (the start of Term 3).

Anne and Marie-Louise would love to welcome you!