Small Blessings, Installation View. Photo: Tuggeranong Arts Centre.
Tuggeranong Arts Centre’s current exhibition Small Blessings concludes in late January with two public gifting days. Lynn Petersen’s exhibition opened in TAC’s foyer gallery on 27 October 2023. It encourages visitors to reflect on how they can help make our world a better place, one small blessing at a time.
Alongside three large-scale installations, is a crafting table where visitors have been working with the artist, in an ongoing series of drop-in making sessions creating objects that have become part of the exhibition. Petersen says it’s been a joy to watch the installations slowly develop and change as artisans from the local community and beyond respond to stories about small blessings and contribute to the collaborative works.
“People from all walks of life have been dropping in to make wet-felted flowers, quirky finger puppets, tea-bag cosies and small hearts, and over 150 stories and 250 works have been gifted to the project so far. A Conversation Between Birds has grown from 3 to 103 items, and the flock of fish in Delighted has grown tenfold to over 80 fish… and counting. It’s been wonderful observing people enter the foyer and become immersed in the growing exhibition. Hearing laughter as they play with the works and listen to bird songs”.
The exhibition also includes the cubby type installation created from a quilt made of hand drawn illustrations depicting 70 seven-year old’s’ perspective on small blessings. Inside the cubby is a felt covered chair, where visitors can listen to recordings of people sharing stories about their own experience of small blessings. The large panels that form Enveloped will be reworked into quilts and given to relevant local charities.
Free making sessions continue for two weeks in the New Year following the Art Centre’s Christmas shutdown. And at the conclusion of the project, the items that have been made will be gifted away – including fish, birds, photographs, glass works and textiles and members of the community are invited to choose something to take away.
“On two gifting days in late January, visitors will find a gifting bowl full of small treasures. They can choose one to keep, or better yet, give to someone in need of a small blessing. In return, I am asking people to contribute a story about a small blessing to add to the project’s online collection,” Petersen says. The online catalogue is available here: https://somethingquirkier.wildapricot.org/page-18093.
Gifting of exhibition items: Thursday, 25 January 2024 from 2 pm to 5.30pm and Saturday, 27 January 2024 from 10 am to 1 pm.
The details:
What: Small Blessings Exhibition Drop-In Sessions and Gifting Day
When: Tuesday, from 16 January 2024 at 10 am
Where: Tuggeranong Arts Centre
Cost: Free entry
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