Many thanks to all members and some of their families and friends, who worked so hard to make this festival such a warm, inviting ‘village green’ success.
It was encouraging to see such enthusiastic input from new members specially Idell Wadley who is just full of ideas and works hard to bring them about. Cr Paul Pisasale, our Ipswich Mayor, was
‘encouraged’ by Idell to, not only paint a gnome for the Great Celebrity Gnome Auction, but also put in many winning bids on his gnome and others. All proceeds from the auction – thank you to local auctioneer Rod Statham for contributing his time and expertise, went to the Sunshine Children’s Ward at the Ipswich Hospital. Paul has told us that some of the gnomes will have a new home in the ward itself to brighten up the children’s days but the rest will take pride of place in his own office.
The Fragments Captured project saw over 80 artworks from Ipswich artists laid under the sails in d'Arcy Doyle Place to create a Kaleidoscope of Colour. Chris Davy, who was the brains behind this project, not only cut each piece of ply to create this tessellated masterpiece but also made a mirrored frame for the sails’ upright to reflect the images over and over. Definitely a work of art.
The Arts Alive Children’s Art Awards, small though it was in its first year, saw the major awards going to Erin Parker and Jacob Edwards. The paintings were on display on the Riverheart office walls – hopefully next year a lot more space will be needed to display all the entries.
The Train Art project, once again so generously supported by The Workshops Rail Museum, saw Dorothy and Allan Walsh and Jaap den Otter working hard with all the littlies and is a popular component of the Kaleidoscope Festival.
Hands on workshops were offered during the festival from the Ipswich Art Gallery, the Ipswich members of the Queensland Papermakers and our own President, Mieke. Joy Truasheim and her band of happy patchworkers put on a wonderful display of quilts and other patchworked items.
Many thanks to Liz Boekholt and Phil Holmes for providing sound and lighting for the stage – reports from performers were that the sound was of excellent quality, Sarah Styles worked backstage, ran a workshop and performed – what a busy girl she was. The MC for the performance program was Denleigh Stenzel and he was assisted by Suzanne Matulich for the early part of the program.
It is really difficult to identify all the people who worked so hard for this year’s festival but Monique Buchbach, our new secretary, and Sue Lewis were heavily involved in the papermaking workshop, Tina McDermaid ran the face painting, Paul Lennon captured portraits on paper and Bev Biggs’ students offered an amazing display of their creations and a fascinating demonstration of hand built clay works. Setting up for the festival on Saturday morning was a huge job and special thanks to the workers: Jaap, Mieke and Tonn den Otter, Lorraine and Jed Kitching, Marcelle and Alan Little, Peter Parsons and Robyn Davy.
Also thanks to Monique and Gavin and their dog and Mieke and Jaap and Idell for pre festival promotional stunts which helped to raise the public awareness of the festival.
The first meeting to organise the 2007 Kaleidoscope Festival will be held early next year – do think about how you can be involved. Keep in mind that we are always looking for local artists and performers that can be invited to be a part of the program. Let any member of the committee know if you have a local artsworker to recommend. See you at next year’s Kaleidoscope Festival!
