Workshops/Events |

October 2019
Workshop tickets link is: here

31 March 2019

18 August 2018

Nature Drawn Workshop with Judy Graham

For all other information, see below:

Mushroom Sculpture – Art & Farming Workshop – Saturday 10 February 2018
to book, click here
For all other information, see below:

Duly Priced Drink Workshop

How did Duly Priced Drink come about?
A studio accident, lead to a discovery that coffee can transfer onto paper when rolled through a printmaking press. This discovery is now being shared with the community during an upcoming artist residency at BigCi in Bilpin. This residency project will take place during July. Winter was the chosen period for this ptoject so people can come together over a hot beverage, create, talk, share and learn.
Who is invited?
Our community project Duly Priced Drink aims to be an inclusive opportunity for all members of the Blue Mountains, Hawkesbury Community and beyond. It is cheap (capped at $20 only and includes a kit-bag full of art supply goodies), it is creative, it is fun and it is informative (learning printmaking skills including coffee as a material). This project aims to be as inclusive as possible and many outreach organisations have been approached for the benefit of their members and networks.
Artist Talks
Please come along and listen to the three facilitators of Duly Priced Drink speak about their own practice on the 6th July 2017. On this day, Catherine Thicket, Monique Bedwell and Katherine Kennedy will also talk about why they are working together. If we are lucky we may even hear from BigCi Director and Sculptor, Rae Bolotin, speak about her residency program! Artist talks will kick off at 11am and will take no longer than 2 hours. This is a free event.
Taking part in our Workshops
Workshops run between 9-16 July and again between the 18-24 July. Each participant is required to pre-purchase a kit bag at $20 (to be paid before 4th July) which they will use on the day, and may be taken home after the workshop – we only ask that we may retain one finished image board from each participant to use toward the final exhibition. This way, each participant can take every single print they achieve during the course of their workshop instead of a cardboard that they can’t use unless they have a press. We are using an intaglio print making method, using cardboard, coffee, inks and materials to increase textural diversity within the prints. We look forward to witnessing individuality and diversity in the outcomes and as such, creative direction will be limited, we will instead provide the skills and techniques needed.
Workshop Times & Food
The workshop space opens at 10am and closes at 4pm. We recommend that you arrive at opening time but are welcome to arrive and leave anywhere between those hours. There is no cafe on site and it is therefore recommended that you bring your own food for the day, or are prepared to travel to Bilpin for your meals. Click on the ‘things to do tab’ above for local advice pertaining to recommended food establishments.
Collaborative Image Formation Session
A collaborative Image Formation Session will take place on the 10th of July, 2017. This session involves a presentation of potential over all outcomes and explores the community input regarding individual approaches that require consolidation when considering vast input from different directions and participants. This of course relates specifically to the eventual presentation of work. Acknowledging that working with the community involves adaption and changes will occur during the course of the entire program.
Exhibition Opportunity for All!
There are three intended outcomes of Duly Priced Drink; these are a wall installation, an artist’s book, and a performance. The installation and wall work will be created using prints produced during and sometimes after our workshop sessions. We are sharing the opportunity to exhibit in a professional and respected venue at BigCi. The Event Launch is a free event and gives all the workshop participants, families and friends a chance to view your contribution to this community project.
Performance
The event includes a performance as the last effort from a 4 week artist residency involving the combination of coffee and art. The performance involves exhibition viewers who may choose to simply watch or participate by approaching our coffee market stall, ordering and paying for a coffee. Instead of receiving a coffee straight away, the participant watches the performers make a unique print, in front of their eyes, based on their individual coffee order. Essentially, we are giving each brave participant a hand made print which is created in front of them, for the price of a coffee. They then take the print out to the coffee cart (sponsored by Ugly Mug Coffee House: Richmond, NSW) and show it to the barista who gives them a real coffee (no money exchanged at this point). If you are interested in being selected as a print-performer, please send an email expressing your interest to; duly.priced.drink@outlook.com
Booking
Booking into ‘Artist Talks’ requires very little effort. As the ‘Artist Talks’ are free you simply need to email us your name and contact details. For Workshops you need materials and so although the workshop itself is free, every participant is asked to pay $20 for an art-kit-goody bag. You may wish to book some workshop dates as a group and we can tailor the hours to the needs of the group or we can book individuals, couples or whatever people wish. If you want to secure a date for your group alone, for group bookings, we will need a minimum of 8 members for the printing sessions (max of 16). We prefer all workshop payments ($20 for the art-kit bag per person) to be made prior to the start of the program (before July 4, 2017). All bookings paid or otherwise are made by sending an email to duly.priced.drink@outlook.com
Event Launch, Exhibition and Performance
The event launch is of course free and for Duly Priced Drink involves all three of the above named project outcomes including, a wall installation and an artist book made from of community prints and a performance. The exhibition and performance event occur on Sunday 30th July, 2017 and is referred to as an Open Day by BigCi. A BigCi Open Day, typically involves many diverse people and as there are other artists in residence during the time of our project, their work will be available to view also making this a very exciting and full experience indeed.
Key Dates: See Flyer
Please also feel free to attend any of our Key Dates. Artist Talks might be of interest, which will go ahead on the 6th of July. All facilitators of Duly Priced Drink will be speaking that day. We invite all networks to at the very least attend the exhibition and performance closing event to experience what printmaking in the expanded field might look like.
Accessibility
Please let us know if there is anyone in your group with special needs. Or if they are booking for themselves and reading this, ‘please feel free to discuss your needs with us directly.’ We have set aside a specific date for the ideal accessibility needs required so please send an email to discuss if this suits your specific needs.
Location
82 Hanlons Rd (North), Bilpin, NSW – it is recommended you drive to the location as public transport is difficult and it is a long walk from the main road to the property. If you drive from Sydney on Bells Line of Road (The Botanist Way), you turn RIGHT into Hanlons Road, straight after Mountain Lagoon Road, which is well marked.

Further Information
Like and follow the Duly Priced Drink facebook page. Please feel free to distribute this information liberally.

Summary of the “Duly Priced Drink” project

Duly Priced Drink (DPD) merged coffee with calligraphic (cardboard plate) printmaking over 15 individual dedicated workshop days. There were over 70 unique workshop experiences with keen participants, some returning for several additional sessions. All participants used coffee as a printmaking tool for the first time. We had hoped to encourage a diversity in community engagement and we feel we achieved this and more.

The participating groups included an Aboriginal women’s group with a Dharug Custodian, Studio ARTES artists, Hawkesbury Printmakers, WAS printmaking collective, UNSW Art & Design students, friends and family.

The DPD endurance performance was a frenzy of activity in a pop-up-cafe styled printmaking studio within the curated space of BigCi’s Art Shed. Open Day visitors lined up to order their individual coffees and had a print pulled in front of them based on their coffee order. They then found the line for the Ugly Mug barista cart and received a real coffee. The performance ran for over two hours of fast -paced printmaking. 84 unique-state coffee prints were pulled and presented in real time. The three DPD facilitators worked with the following performers to make the prints: Katherine Kennedy, Monique Bedwell, Catherine Thickett, Kerry Pintato, Janene and Ian Bedwell, Celia and Calum Agnew.

For more information such as a pdf of the artist talk, videos and more, please visit our Facebook page Duly Priced Drink.

Previous Workshop
Back by Popular Demand:
‘Words of Art’ (writing skills for artists)
Three One-Day Workshops with Janet Fennell (can be booked as one, two or three days)
Sunday, 05/03/17, 11:00-16:00 at BigCi
Sunday, 19/03/17, 11:00-16:00 at BigCi
Sunday, 02/04/17, 11:00-16:00 at the Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, Windsor

Who is this for?
Painters, sculptors, multimedia artists, performance artists, musicians, filmmakers, curators, artistic directors, visionaries and other creative souls.
Why?
Thrilled to be exhibiting, but dreading the pesky ‘chore’ of your artist statement? Need that grant (or residency), yet procrastinating over your CV and application? Looking forward to performing, but unsure about how to introduce yourself in the official program? Paid the website designer, and now you are feeling woefully short on content?
In an age of social media profiles, blogs, homepages, increased competition for decreased funding, the pressure is on us all to ‘tell it’ as well as ‘do it’ – so that clear and engaging writing is increasingly important. Yet, so often, artists are persuaded to write to impress rather than to genuinely communicate.
What to expect from the workshop?
Whether you need help with your thinking and planning, punctuation and grammar or with content, structure, tone and pace, ‘Words of Art’ will give you the practical tools to express yourself honestly, freely, and effectively in Plain Good English: English which is readily understood. In-class exercises and examples will illustrate all points of theory, while additional hand-outs, homework assignments, and recommended readings will make revision and further learning easy.
This workshop will take away the pain and frustration element (or sense of struggle) many visual and other non-verbal artists feel around the process of writing. As with previous courses, ‘Words of Art’ will not tinker politely around the edges of a problem – just ‘fixing up’ and editing. Typically, participants will gain a whole new way of thinking about creating and producing written work, as well as a renewed confidence and enthusiasm around words and self-expression. Writing well is extremely empowering! Writing well means being understood!
Who is Janet Fennell?
Janet is an award-winning novelist, short story writer, reviewer, essayist and poet, who has an MA in Writing. She has been teaching writing skills for more than 15 years. Her short stories (general fiction, romance, science-fiction) have appeared in various magazines and newspapers, and her novel ‘Only Myself’ was published by HarperCollins. She spent many years working in library management, public relations and communications (including newsletter and book editing; writing speeches, press-releases, journal articles, research reports, proposals, brochures, grant applications, exhibition & trade-show texts) before turning to fiction and teaching.

Where?
Day 1 and Day 2 at the Art Shed at BigCi
Address: 82 Hanlons Road (North), Bilpin
Day 3 at the Hawkesbury Regional Gallery
Address: George Street, Windsor.
When?
Day 1 – Sunday, 5 March at BigCi
Day 2 – Sunday 19 March at BigCi
Day 3 – Sunday 2 April
at the Hawkesbury Regional Gallery.
From 10.30 for 11am sharp start till 4pm,
with 1 hour break – bring your own lunch.
Morning and afternoon tea provided.
Cost?
$75 when booked for 1 day only
$140 when booked for 2 days
$195 when booked for 3 days
Includes all hand-outs, morning and
afternoon tea and tuition fees.

For all bookings and payments, please go to:
https://artofwords.eventbrite.com.au

This is a unique workshop with very limited places, so book now not to miss out.
For any questions, please contact Rae Bolotin at sculptor@raebolotin.com

Presented by BigCi in partnership with Hawkesbury Regional Gallery