There is a whole lot of artistic talent inside the walls of the Goulburn Options Disability Support Services office in Seymour, and now a new mural is exhibiting those skills on one of its most prominent walls.
A collaboration between Goulburn Options artists, Tallarook Arts Inc. and local artist Rosa Purbrick has resulted in the bright creation adorning the entrance wall of the Goulburn Options’ new building in Station St.
GO artists Susan Meadows, Leonie Nunn, Lisa Sterio and Robin Grak all contributed to the design of the mural and Ms Purbrick brought them to life in mural form, with the whole exercise supported by Tallarook Arts.
“Tallarook Arts brings great events to Tallarook and our goal is to make a profit from those events and then we want to put it back into the community for different arts activities,“ Tallarook Arts secretary Carolyn Munckton said.
“I approached Goulburn Options and said, ‘If we can bring some artists to work with your artists, how would that be?’ They said, ‘fantastic’, and Rosa kindly offered to be the first artist in residence.”
Ms Munckton said the mural showcased the great talent of the the GO artists.
“There are a lot of artists with disabilities out there, not just here in the Seymour district,” she said.
“There's lots of examples of very, really quite successful practitioners and, yes, I'd be happy to have any of their art on my walls.”
Goulburn Options chief executive officer Melinda Burgess said the organisation appreciated Tallarook Arts’ role in the mural project.
“They've done some other fundraising for us, but to actually get the mural there is fantastic as an entrance into a creative space,” she said.
Ms Burgess also said the work of GO artists was starting to be recognised for its quality on the art market.
“The arts program is something we certainly hang our hat on with Mandy (Gloede), who heads up that program, and she's managed to get our artists exposed to actually selling their art,” Ms Burgess said.
“Quite a few of them are under Loom Arts and Management, where they actually get a small fee taken from any sale, but they're exposed to a whole lot of other markets.
“We're hoping to have exhibitions and other things here as well.”
Ms Purbrick said she found some of the images created by the GO artists, including rectangular clouds, “amazing”.
“All I've really done is co-ordinated all their different pieces of illustration and form the map to create a mural that's colourful and represents this place so the artists here have a lot of ownership,” she said.
The GO mural is Ms Purbrick’s fourth in the past decade, and she would like to see the trend towards regional towns adorning their buildings and structures with them continue.
“There's so many different styles. So yes, I think they really enhance the place, especially if you have a dull space,” she said.