Roomies Artspace at Newtown Festival 2007

Approx 75,000 people were at Newtown Festival on November 11^th 2007. It was a beautiful day and the biggest and best Festival ever! The Roomies Artspace tent was eyecatching and appealing and offered a great exhibition of Roomies artists works.

Roomies Artspace at Newtown Festival 2007 was funded by a grant from Festivals Australia, and provided a wonderful showcase of art by inner Sydney boarding house residents on display panels surrounding the art workshop marquee.

Roomies Artspace Tent was opened by the Hon A. Albanese and Sydney Street Choir. 25 artists and 50 members of the community participated in producing the artworks, either ahead of time or at the Festival in a series of workshops led by artists with mental illness or disability, supported by art tutors.

Art workshops delivered by Roomies artists and art tutors were very popular and had to be capped at 10 participants per session. We were accompanied by workshops from other local groups, Wrapped with Love knitting group and Samoan garland making, and Tai Chi demonstrations, augmenting the local village focus of this section of the Festival.

Festivals Australia funded the production of the tent and panels, and the public festival workshops. The display panels and marquee have been used at successive events, to promote the work of roomies artists.