By now we hope you have wandered past ACC on your daily walk and noticed the new art on our fence in the Alphington Neighbourhood Gallery.

If not, you should! The artist we are featuring this month is local Steph Briggs. The works on the fence include illustrations from a book that documented lots of familiar scenes from 2020, called ‘The year we stayed at home’. She also has some delicate sketches of houses from the neighbourhood and beyond (some done on commission if you are interested in documenting your own lovely house).

You can find out more about Steph here.

This community arts initiative is supported by Yarra City Council (thanks!).

Steph’s fur baby Leo is one of the stars of the exhibition.

Steph, Leo and Angus popped past on their lockdown walk to check it out.

Last year we made a little rhyming series of animated pictures (GIFS) with some funding from the Community Bank on Queens Parade … and then put them together with a voice over … and turned them into a poster that loads of locals collected from ACC on their daily neighbourhood walk.

It seems timely to pull them out again.

Here are the GIFS.

Here is the poster (we trust it is still gracing many a fridge or toilet door around the neighbourhood).

And here is the animation with voice overs if you’d like to watch it (it is pretty cute!).

Lockdown telly … are we back to that again? Perhaps, perhaps not. We don’t really know yet do we? In any case I have been discussing TV etc. with my family and colleagues more than usual lately and I thought I could share some recommendations.

My partner Clive raved about It’s A Sin (along with everyone else on Twitter a month or so ago) - it’s on Stan.

Also on Stan, my sister Elise noted that Paperback Hero is up … for a cheesy, nostalgic Hugh Jackman/ Claudia Karvan hit.

Mum just watched A Very English Scandal on Netflix (with Hugh Grant) and recommended it to me.

Jill at work went to the cinema and mentioned that Nomadland was great a few weeks ago … and I meant to see it at the movies. I notice you can now rent it from Optus Movie Box (and presumably elsewhere).

I have been recommending the first series of Lupin (watch it in French with subtitles, not the dubbed version) which is on Netflix to everyone because it is easy viewing, and I see that the second series will be released on 11 June … that will be fun.

If you have a recommendation or two you can add them to the comments below or send us an email.

And settle in … maybe? I’m writing this on Tuesday 1 June and a lot can change quickly …

Local artist Nicole Van Dijk’s show “Saviour” at the Gleeson Centre, Darebin Parklands was due to open this weekend, but has been postponed until the end of lockdown.

She has created a series of work focusing on the Parklands and the role it played during the 2020 lockdown.

“For me, and many others, natural, public space was our saviour during lockdown.”

The show includes original artworks, with prints and cards for sale. A percentage of the proceeds will be donated to the Darebin Parklands Association. Check it out - it looks amazing, and so familiar to us all!

This week was Education Week and we were thrilled to get a grant from the Victorian Department of Education to run a couple of podcasting workshops here at ACC to help mark the occasion. Alphington Primary School embraced this opportunity, and on Wednesday sent 12 grade 6 students along to have a crack at using our new equipment under the guidance of local podcaster and author Tony Wilson.

It was a super fun day and the students walked away having made two podcasts each. We’re looking forward to the next group coming on Friday (fingers and toes crossed).