Foyer activities: Puppet making & zines

Drop-in art activities in the foyer will keep little hands busy. Puppet Making returns this year giving kids another chance to make a puppet with artists Eleanor and Giovanni. In this drop-in workshop, participants will be guided through the making of a pom-pom creature, and then transform it into a marionette puppet and bring it to life with puppetry.

Take inspiration from the real world or delve into your imagination to make a fantastical creature using yarn, bits of leftover fabric and joggle eyes! ­­Zine Making with Bec is for all ages. Take an A4 page, add a fold here, a cut and a crease, bring it together and Ta-Da… you’ve made a Zine! Add a few words and images to create your own mini book.

Upstairs at TAC: Music Making and Felt Flowers

In The Space, music sessions with Katie and Jess Cole will focus on voice and percussion. Katie & Jess have been running the music sessions at TAC’s Art & Action school holiday program for the last three years. Always popular and fun, the sessions begin with a few simple exercises to warm up the vocal chords. Participants will have fun exploring different rhythms through body percussion exercises and take part in a high-energy collaborative music-making sessions playing ‘drummers not plumbers’ colour coded chord sequences. The session will culminate in a dance, song and play performance on the outdoor stage. For acompnaying adults wanting to enjoy a activity, the easel sketching and star making activities are simple creative activities inviting relaxation and stunning views.

The Lakeview office will be transformed into a felt making workshop. Adults are invited to sign-up for a free felt making class with artist and educator Lynn Petersen. Lynn will teach techniques of wet felting, guiding you through methods of making ‘nuno’ felt flowers. Suitable for beginners, it’s a great opportunity to come and try this colourful activity. And if it’s your thing, you might like to sign up for Lynn’s six-week short course starting in October. Adults are welcome to sign-up with their child, however the activity if not suited to children younger than 14.

Upstairs at TAC: Gallery Viewing and Artist Talk

Upstairs, showing in Gallery 2 is Patternmakers, a curated exhibition, with established Canberra artists, Vivienne Binns, Hamilton Darroch, Al Munro and Ric Blackwell. The artists share a preoccupation with patterns and repetition in their artmaking. Each is highly regarded and lives or has lived locally. Be beguiled by fabulous colour and scintillating surfaces in painting, relief and three-dimensional works. Pattern recognition is fundamental to higher cognition, learning and problem solving.

In Gallery 1, painter Hank Reynolds, presents his first Solo show, Remedies. Hank is self-taught and is currently studying painting at the ANU School of Art. Hank’s painting practice is an integral part of maintaining good mental health. He works spontaneously to create vibrant colourful and expressionistic compositions that suggest city scapes, interiors and more, without being representational. If you should feel inclined to play, “Which one do I want to take home?,” Hank’s works are for sale, from reception.

 At 1.30pm, Lucille Nobleza, will talk about her portrait photography in Our Everyday Extraordinary Canberrans, beginning at the landing space in the front stairwell. Follow along as she introduces her works and their subjects and tells stories about her adventures in the arts, and tales about the establishment of TAC.

 The Patternmakers are, Vivienne Binns OAM is considered a pioneering feminist and community artist and taught at the Canberra School of Art for many years. Her work Particle Thought, represents a longstanding practice of small-format experimental notation. Ric Blackwell works across printmaking, robotic fabrication and automated industrial manufacturing processes, and he constantly reflects on how the very processes he uses are changing ways of life, living and working. Ham Darroch’s sculptures are created from altered and discarded existing objects, conceptually redirected by painting with harmonies of colour. His works evoke a sense of memory or nostalgia. Al Munro is Canberra-based artist practicing in painting and drawing. Her art research draws on diverse fields including artistic abstraction, geometry and textiles to explore the relationships between visual art, craft and science.  

Outdoors activites: Live entertainment, mural making & pop-up photobooth

The outdoor Lakeside stage will come to life with performances by local artists, community groups and music students from Lake Tuggeranong College and Gugan Gulwan. There will also be performances by Fresh Funk, Belly Up, Tuggeranong Valley Band, Sing with Toby, and participants of the music sessions with Katie and Jess Cole.

Outdoor stage timetable

• 10:30 Gugan Gulwan
• 11:15 Sing with Toby Choir
• 11:40 Belly Up
• 12:10 Lake Tuggeranong College
• 12:45 Singing and percussion with Katie Cole
• 1:00 Fresh Funk
• 1:15 Tuggeranong Valley Band Ensemble

Take part in live mural making at TAC using your choice of Vinyl fish and flower shapes, chalk or mixed media. Learn the art of vinyl paste ups to make a composition of colourful shapes or let your own creativity go wild using colourful oil pastels on board or chalk on the black board. There will also be flower making with pipe-cleaners and wool.

Artists from Photoaccess will with their temporary photo booth in action at Grand Day Out, capturing portraits and stories from members of the community. Pop in and share a cherished memory, something you love about living in Tuggeranong or something you wish people knew about Tuggeranong. Your story will be captured on paper to accompany your portrait in a black and white portrait exhibition at the Tuggeranong Arts Centre.

Drop-in Music Activity: Come and Try an Instrument with Tuggeranong Valley Band

Tuggeranong Valley Band will be hosting a hands-on “come and try” activity in Dance Studio 2. Drop in and have a go playing a variety of exciting instruments like baritone, trumpet and flute. The friendly band members will show adults and little ones how to hold the instruments and make their first sounds. You can also find out how you can become a member of the Tuggeranong Valley Band! All welcome and no experience required.