What’s happening on Wednesdays?

The spring weather is tempting us to go outside and we’re keen to re-engage with our community.

So from Wednesday 27 October (after we reach 70% double dose*) we will be running a weekly BBQ on the corner as a way of reconnecting with you all. We’ll set up outside near the Shed and welcome anyone to come by and enjoy a sausage in bread and a cuppa. We have a coffee machine we can get fired up so you can even enjoy a latte.

Keep October 27th free from 12pm. We would love to see you!

*and subject to any restrictions re. numbers and vaccination status that apply.

And when we reopen families continue to be invited along on Wednesday mornings to enjoy ‘Playtime in the Garden’ with access to our new cubby and sandpit along with craft activities set up by Lee from 10am-12pm. So you can come for a play and have some lunch as well.

We’re very pleased to be part of this event again which we are now really hopeful will go ahead. This time at ACC we’ll be hosting a salon hang of works of all the artists who make up the open studios … along with any other local artist who would like to enter 3 or 4 small works.

If you are a local artist who is interested in participating please contact our office on 9499 7227 or email info@alphington.org.au.

We’re hoping we can hold a community ‘salon opening’ on the Friday night of the 26th November, so that all the artists involved can get together and celebrate. And then we will hold our Makers Market alongside the first Open Studio weekend on Saturday 27 November, so that our community can admire art and shop for Christmas presents at the same time (and maybe even buy a work or two for a present).

If you have been busy being creative and you would like to have a stall at the market please also get in contact with us. Market stalls cost $25 and are open to any local makers.

For the last week we have been working hard to get ready for our AGM, coming up on Monday 25 October. If you would like to attend please email us here and we’ll send you the zoom invitation.

Whilst it has been quite a lot of work to get everything together (and I think we are nearly done, hooray!), it has also been really lovely to revisit all the things we did in the 2020-21 financial year.

Here are seven pictures that start to tell the story.

Despite lockdowns we ran eight classes of our Women in the Shed program - thanks Maylei and Jen for your expert tuition and Richmond Neighbourhood Learning Centre for loaning us ACFE hours to make it more financially accessible for participants. Women in the Shed has really been a wonderful program to build confidence and self-esteem, alongside building practical skills and knowledge.

And we started new programs, such as Louisa’s Drawing in the Shed classes on a Saturday. They’ve been solidly booked all year! Thanks Louisa for so generously sharing your talents with our community. It is really lovely to see locals sharing their skills in the neighbourhood.

Speaking of sharing, remember our Honestly project? Looking back I think we are really lucky to have a week by week documented account of the first 8 months of the pandemic. And as a community I am sure you will all agree that it was so interesting to read how others were travelling as the world turned on its head … and also comforting to acknowledge the connections - in the end despite our unique circumstances we were all experiencing similar feelings.

We were only able to run one community event for the year … but our Christmas Makers Market was a success and we were super pleased to partner with Ivanhoe Rotary (who ran our sausage sizzle for the first time) and also help local makers sell their wares to the community - I think I did 80% of my Christmas shopping at the market! … hopefully we’ll be able to run it again this year.

Moving things outside has proven itself the way to go in the last year … and we’ve loved seeing regulars and welcoming new people to our Friday morning tea on the corner each week. Here’s a photo of Yarra Mayor Gabrielle de Vietri having a chat with locals at one of our morning teas.

We also set up our podcasting studio The Cupboard this year. When we can get things going again inside I am sure it will prove a wonderful community resource … did you know you book in to use it when we reopen at very reasonable rates? Just give us a call to discuss. This photo is of our lovely friends from the Community Bank on Queens Parade who helped fund this project (we really are so lucky to have this model of banking in our community).

Throughout 2020-21 our playgroups resumed whenever we could open. We make our spaces available four mornings a week for families to come together and make friends through playgroups … which we know can be a lifesaver when you are immersed in the lovely but draining world of nurturing a young family! This is a photo of Maimi who runs two fabulous sessions of Japanese playgroup each week here at ACC.

The next artist to feature in the Alphington Neighbourhood Gallery is Stephen Armstrong, and you are bound to recognise the scenes in his works.

Over 3 years Stephen regularly documented the Alphington Paper Mills site as it was demolished, and painted over 200 works. Our fence will include a collection of these paintings along with paintings of familiar streetscapes and landscapes in our neighbourhood.

The originals of the works featured in the Alphington Neighbourhood Gallery are all for sale. They range considerably in size and price (from $350 to $4000).

This year Stephen’s studio will be open as part of the Alphington Open Studios weekend (at the end of November). If would like to see more of his art in real life, keep an eye out for the details - coming soon!

In the meantime here’s a sneak peek of the works that will be on our fence. Pop past ACC on your next neighbourhood walk to see them in our street gallery. They’ll be up from Wednesday. And we’d like to once again thank Yarra Council for supporting this neighbourhood arts initiative.

Welcome back to Term 4. It’s likely going to be a tricky few months through to Christmas for us all … at ACC we’ll be trying to pay attention to the kind and caring local friends and supportive neighbourhood networks that we all have. Remember, if you need a hand (or an ear) we’re right here!

And at ACC (in a rerun on 2020 …ha!) we’re planning on restarting programming with outside activities.

We’ve hoping that we can get the pergola built in the front yard very soon (it is taking forever … but such is pandemic life) so that our playgroups can meet up comfortably outside in any weather.

When we can get together we’ll also look at restarting our Friday morning activities including gardening at 10am and morning tea on the corner at 11.30am.

In addition Kalimna is going to work on getting some of the toys from the toy library available to borrow online with a click and collect system. Which will be great for now and into the future I think.

She’ll also be reviewing our book clubs for next year. If you are keen to join one, now is a good time to let us know!

Lee is working on a fun new community art installation for Children’s Week at the end of October. She’s also finalising the Heritage Walks project with Anne from our History Group (there’s one more walk to come!) and is about to install new artworks in the Alphington Neighbourhood Gallery (on the fence).

Jill will be looking at doing some community outreach on Wednesdays (we’ll keep you abreast of this project just as soon as we decide what this will look like!?!)

At the moment I am working on the Annual Report for the AGM on Monday 25 October (come along if you like! … it will probably be on zoom). It will be nice to temporarily step off the treadmill and celebrate all the things we’ve done in the past year.

And … that’s probably enough rambling. We’re looking forward to being increasingly back onsite and seeing you soon!

PS. Do you by any chance have a sturdy outdoor table unused at your house 🏡? Or know of somewhere to buy one or two? That could perhaps deliver? The ones on our corner have broken (not sure how that happened … I think someone may have stood on them because the legs broke and it’s hard to imagine how that came about with traditional table use …). In any case I think our community is missing them … especially now picnics are back.

I’m thinking about a couple of those metal and glass topped ones that are easy enough to move around (small round ones or bigger rectangular ones). Alternatively a really solid timber table. Xx