Footscray Community Arts Centre
We acknowledge that we are on traditional lands of the Wurundjeri peoples of the Kulin Nation. We offer our respect to the Elders of these traditional lands and, through them, to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Footscray Community Arts Centre Blog
Get With The Program
Place Art Here - Taking it to VU
Just thought we’d also give you a gander at our trusty Arts Envoy, Metse Hagos in action!
Together with Alieu Jaamah and Anna Hamilton, Metse was keenly surveying folks at VU last week.
Nice one team! STAY TUNED…there’s more to come…
JONZI D – ACE, RAD, WICKIDSTICKS!
Last Saturday, over 16 very special members from the FCAC hip hop family spent an action packed day with UK hip hop legend, Jonzi D!
Jonzi is a proud East Londoner who combines his life experiences across varying hip hop practices, creating everything from emcee slams, to hip hopera, to Breakin Convention, an International Festival of Hip Hip Theatre presented by world famous theatre Sadlers Wells.
Check out some of our beautiful people in action…just look at that concentrated focus!
Juvarn Thebus Machehi Komba Carl Sevita
Lina Lonia Tong Bol Jack Hewitt
Fusen Mu Dismas Dbing Sutur
Ezeldin Deng Fenella Edwards Rob Tremblett
Danny Al Sabbagh AND JONZI D HIMSELF!!!
A big shout out to Lena and Mouna from ICE for so graciously sharing Jonzi with us whilst he’s in ‘Straya. We hope this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship Check em out folks
www.ice.org.au
Deepest thanks to our dearest friends Dan West at the Arts Centre, and Cat Sweeney and Grace Vanilau from Multicultural Arts Victoria for assisting us to connect with awesome hip hop artists from the wider culturally and linguistically diverse family.
Ups to Rachel Main, our awesome filmmaker who documented the workshop. Keep an eye out for Rachel’s new krump documentary, Burn City, coming to a hot screen new you!
It’s a wrap!
We recently held a debrief for the communities involved in The Gift of Light event in June this year. Members from the Burmese, Indian, Latin American and Centre for Multicultural Youth communities kindly gave up their time to share their very constructive thoughts about their experience(s) of the event and their aspirations for future involvement. These conversations are vital to the development of the broader Footscray family and we deeply thank Shabbir, Alisha, Kevin, Minthura, Eve, Maw Maw, Thiri, NweNi, Luis and Rob for their thoughts and contributions.
Yo Yo Good People…we’re FootscraZy!!!
Goes a little something like this…
Our fearless leader Jen Barry
Footscray 150 celebrations – Saturday 18th July, 2009
A bright bright Gift of Light
On Saturday 20th June, Federation Square light up with the boundless energies of thirteen communities including over 100 performers, Ethiopian coffee, Latin American hot chocolate, Afghan tea, Turkish delight and traditional Indian wedding sweets! Federation Square lived up to its true civic nature, as over 1800 people witnessed performances from extraordinary community members all offering their cultural relationship to light through song and dance.
Aunty Carolyn Briggs opened the festival with a warming welcome to country followed by a traditional dance by John Tye from the One Fire Troupe. The EKOL School of Arts performed a traditional candle dance which is a lament to the Turkish Romeo and Juliet whose love was thwarted by losing each other without candle light to guide their path. Contemporary El Salvadorean artist Alcides Flores Mendez created a truly beautiful work specifically for the event, called the “O” sculpture inspired by the Mayan and Aztec relationship to the astral bodies through ancient ball games. (Check it out here)
The ever elegant Chaw Po, her daughter Eve and fellow Burmese community members NweNi Tun, Thiri Kin and Maw Maw danced their version of a candle dance offering thanks to Buddha. You could get your head band to support democratic rights for the Burmese people whilst witnessing a traditional Afghan harmonium player conducting a rousing singing session from a beautifully adorned Afghan style tent. You could learn some delicate origami techniques from the ever generous Mari Heazlewood and her trusty team of volunteers from the Japanese community, whilst dancer Masami Sato performed with the very very cool Shamisen player Niroko Tadano and drummer Toshi Sakamoto. And what’s an event without a wedding…!
Under the elegant guidance of Shabbir Wahid and Pretti Jaabal, the event was ecstatic to host a wedding tent adorned by the Indian community celebrating the forthcoming nuptials of Aditi Gupta and Priyank Pattani. We were truly blessed to share in the bride and groom’s ceremony and we must give our warmest thanks to Aditi and Priyank’s parents, Renuka and Anil Gupta and Panna and Vijay Pattani for letting the world share in their children’s forthcoming nuptials. We were also honoured to have H. E. Ms. Sujatha Singh, High Commissioner of India, attend the event to share in the revelry. The High Commissioner - wow!
And of course what Footscray Community Arts Centre event wouldn’t be complete without some hot tunes somewhere in the mix? Yep, our very own DJ Metse Hagos rocked the BMW Edge at an after party celebrating the gathering of thirteen communities, their leaders and artists.
Check out some of our pics from the night…
Thanks again to everyone, truly EVERYONE involved in making the Gift of Light event possible
Ready, set…
Welcome to Get with the Program - our blog where I get to talk about some of the things that are going on within the Centre’s Artistic Program, not only in terms of what’s available to the public, but also to give you an idea of what is happening behind the scenes. Get with the Program will also feature guest blogging from members of Footscray Community Arts Centre’s Program Team, so keep your eyes peeled for insightful comments, serious analysis and all the goss from on the ground in the wonderful world of Footscray Community Arts Centre programming.
Importantly, this is where you will find information on all the global projects, people, sites and stimulus that is making our collective creative brain tick over…
Polytoxic
We were thrilled to be able to host a community workshop for young islander dancers led by Efeso Fa’anana and Lisa Fa’alafiin (for more information on this workshop visit Latest News). Polytoxic are an interesting company who mix traditional and contemporary dance styles as well as some pretty cheesy (in a good way!) physical theatre. It was certainly refreshing to see a contemporary take on islander culture live on stage. In fact it drilled home how Anglo this country’s main stage content is. Occasionally (very occasionally - to our eternal shame!) we see some indigenous content coming through but in general, we are still seeing mainstream Anglo (white) culture represented on our stages, in our films and on our TVs etc. In the land of the ‘fair go’ what happened to giving everyone a fair go? Or is a fair go, just for ones’ mates?
This is why I think Teuila Postcards is an important show – because it broke with the mainstream by telling a tale which drew its inspiration from a non-dominant culture, whilst steering clear of ethno-pornography (as I like to refer to the dioramic display of traditional cultures). Equally as important, it brought non-Anglo audience members into a traditional theatre venue, made them feel welcome and included by reflecting their heritage on stage and reaffirmed to many young performers that they too can forge a career in the performing arts regardless of their nationality or skin colour.
For more information on Polytoxic visit their website
For more information on support for multicultural arts, visit Kultour