Back in February NCNS Community Development Worker, Justine Reynolds held a number of Magnetic Places Community Consultations where community were invited to come along and share their ideas for the Illawong & Kareela Avenue Reserve in Kingswood Park.
Children and residents came up with a plan to refresh the local park with help from artist Angela Paqua, who shared her expertise of the art world and taught us all about texture, colour and the richness of the environment.
This May, the design for the park was finalised, and Justine held several Painting & Installation Workshops with community and children from the area to bring the communities ideas to life at the park. We were so grateful to have had young men participating in the Clontarf Aboriginal Boys Program help to prepare the benches by sanding, earlier this month, so they were ready for the artwork installation.
Day one of installation we had over 60 community members come along to the park to volunteer their time to help paint & install the artwork. As we painted, we were able to take in the fresh air and were comforted by the warmth of the sun on our backs.
11 wonderful helpers, students from Kingswood Park Primary sat with artist, Angela, as she explained the process of the artwork being transferred from drawing to stencil and from stencil to the ground or bench.
The next day Kingswood Park Primary students returned to continue to transform the park along with community from the local area.
Through this Magnetic Places project, we have seen local residents come together to transform this park, so that it becomes a creative and meaningful place that the community can enjoy, that was created by and for the people who live in Kingswood Park.
We are excited to see the completion of the artwork installation and will be holding an artwork launch on Saturday 29th June to showcase the creative effort of the community.
For more information about this project, please contact Justine Reynolds on 02 4729 0442 or justine@nepeancommunity.org.au