Local artists take part in Artisan in Residence Mentorship Program
Published on 18 May 2021
Five local artists will get a helping hand to develop their artwork and its business potential with an Artisan in Residence Mentorship Program to be held at the Walter Reid Cultural Centre in May, supported by Rockhampton Regional Council.
Michelle Black, Yvonne Maloney-Law, Erin Dunne, Carolyn Stevenson and Gail Meyer will work alongside Brisbane based artist and designer Mari Hirata, who will share insights and processes about her practice as a visual artist and designer / metalsmith.
Since completing her MAVA at Queensland College of Art in 2002, Mari has exhibited in venues throughout Australia and overseas. Her practice over the years has revolved around photography, sculpture, installation, and silversmithing, and her works are housed in collections including the National Gallery of Australia (Canberra), HOTA (Gold Coast), and UTS (Sydney).
The mentorship is all part of CQ Shopfront, a two year developmental program to build the business capacity of visual artists across seven local government areas in Central Queensland, and to encourage development of commercially viable products.
CQ Shopfront is delivered by The Ideas Distillery, a Bundaberg based arts consultancy which helps to make ideas a reality through arts-led innovation.
From 9 to 23 May, Mari will work alongside the artists, creating new work, running workshops and offering mentorship.
She will talk to mentees about their artwork and product development needs and co-work toward the development of a final showcase that will evolve throughout the residency, inspired by the concepts of Place and Transformation.
The mentee’s work will be included in the exhibition that will run throughout the last weekend of the residency.
Rockhampton Regional Council Community Services spokesperson Drew Wickerson said that the mentorship program would be very beneficial to the local artists who have been selected to take part.
“We certainly have many talented artists in this region and if we can help them develop their product through programs like this, then it will help to develop the local visual arts industry as a whole,” he said.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Mari Hirata is a visual artist, designer & metalsmith based in Brisbane. Since completing her MAVA at Queensland College of Art in 2002, Mari has exhibited in venues throughout Australia and overseas. Her practice over the years has revolved around photography, sculpture, installation, and silversmithing, and her works are housed in collections including the National Gallery of Australia (Canberra), HOTA (Gold Coast), and UTS (Sydney).
In 2011 Mari was awarded the JUMP National Mentoring Program through the Australia Council and Arts Queensland, and since 2014 has received ongoing mentorship under renowned Gold & Silversmith Sel Pilgrim, which has seen her progress onto developing a distinct style that responds to her surroundings and relational concepts, while reflecting the aesthetics and sensibilities of her Japanese cultural heritage.
Mari was selected as Artist In Residence at Bundanon Trust in 2018, and received a Regional Arts Development Fund Grant to support her residency. In 2019 she was a selected artist in Elements, an outdoor sculpture exhibition as part of Horizon Art Festival, and was a finalist in Contemporary Wearables ’19 at the Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery. Mari also had her wearable sculptures featured in State of Shine, an exhibition representing QLD in Radiant Pavilion: Melbourne Contemporary Jewellery and Object Biennial.
In September 2020 Mari was awarded the Neumann Family SWELL Sculpture award on the Gold Coast, and also received the Environmental Award at this year's Sculpture at Scenic World outdoor exhibition at the Blue Mountains, NSW.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
CQ Shopfront is a project of The Ideas Distillery.
This project has been funded by the Queensland Government Through Arts Queensland and CQ RASN. The Regional Arts Services Network is an initiative of the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland. CQ University has been appointed at the Central Queensland provider. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.