This blog post is sharing some of the behind the scenes from our current project Be Part of Things: we are the project.
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Eliza
After many months of scheming and dreaming the Part of Things Team is on the road, first stop, my place!
It had been a full couple of weeks, finalising and opening Love Notes to the Laundromat and volunteering at SALT festival, by the time Kirste and Alysha arrived I was exhausted but so excited to see them. Together we spent a few glorious days, exploring ideas, chatting about possibilities and soaking in some of the art and creativity on offer at the festival. We chat regularly online but having the luxury of slow conversations and space to properly unpack ideas was magical. Having visitors also reminds me how lucky I am to live where I do, in this beautiful place full of passionate creative folk who band together to bring SALT to life every April. While in town, the Part of Things team offered a gentle gathering for artists, held at the end of the festival, this was time to celebrate possibility and gathering and practice. It was fantastic to see everyone who joined us and helped plant a few seeds for the future of Part of Things in Port Lincoln.
I’m looking forward to getting on the road and visiting Barmera for Portal and Mount Gambier for Poetry on My Porch in the coming months.
Kirste
Yes, here we are; the first road trip blog! Here’s a quick recap of the very full six-day trip.
Stop one; Alysha picks Kirste up from Barmera.
Stop two, Burra: Refuel and explore the art. A wonderful discovery of Nick Sara’s stunning colour palettes, soft blending, and little wizard dudes walking through hills.
Stop three, Whyalla: Sleep. Refuel. Brunch with the D’faces team.
Stop four, Tumby Bay: Quick stop, but made sure to enjoy the public toilet seahorse mural.
Alysha and I spent over 24 hours together. You can imagine we talked about a lot of things. Not many of which I remember in detail, but we covered writing, books we’ve loved and been disappointed by, the complexities of the publishing industry, complexities of the art industry, complexities of the world, things we’re excited about creating and being part of (ha), Part of Things, and the Be Part of Things project. Yeah. We covered a lot of topics.
After many, many, many hours of travelling; stop five, Port Lincoln. Check in, lay on bed for an hour, join Eliza on a trip to feed Eliza’s parents’ chickens, eat takeout at Eliza’s new house.
We stopped by and read Eliza’s Love Notes to the Laundromat letters. It was so wonderful and warming to read, not only Eliza’s entries, but many community members adding their own letters to cricket fields and cafes and the jetty. While we waited for the Be Part of Things (A gathering for artists and creative folk) session, we visited Cardboard City, met the Mayor and added our own little cardboard creations to the city.
[SOMETHING]
Between all the SALT Festival and creative chats, Eliza made sure to give us the VIP tour of all things Port Lincoln, from food, to beautiful lookouts and scenery, to the iconic ArtEyrea fish on a bicycle.
I mostly spent my time in Port Lincoln trying to wrap my brain around people living with the ocean in their backyards – what do you mean you see jellyfish and gigantic boats everyday. Bonkers, if you ask me.
[SOMETHING]
It’s always so special to be with Alysha and Eliza. We talk to each other almost every second week and it’s always a joy, but the in-person connection – being in the same space with them, exploring ideas without the time pressures of our zoom meetings – is another thing entirely.
Alysha
I’ve been thinking a lot this year about the power of just starting something. It’s easy to talk ourselves out of beginning. To decide before we’ve tried that a thing will be too hard, or take too long, or that we don’t have the skills or the resources to make it happen. But there is magic in just starting where you are with what you have.
Our trip to Port Lincoln reminded me of this: visiting our friend Belili’s beautiful Cardboard City project, the SALT Festival itself (and the iterations across its history), Love Notes to the Laundromat, and our own small and large questions about Part of Things (what it is, what it does, what it could be, why it matters).
We’re in the process of formalising the legal structure of the next evolution for Part of Things, and this means considering some systems and processes and other formal-ish things but within and around this, Part of Things is just permission (for you, for me, for us). Permission and an invitation: to try out ideas, to ask questions, to gather and connect, to think deeply about the places we live and love, and to harness the ways art and artmaking can enable us to imagine new futures together. Part of Things to me has never been about a building or a particular project or program, Part of Things to me is the small moments of possibility, the spark of connection, the understanding that we are not alone in our frustrations (or our fears, our hopes, our big ambitious ideas), and it’s in the action of being part of things (whatever form those things might take).
Our time together in Port Lincoln was all of this in action. From the meandering car conversations with Kirste, the practical hosting of a conversation and exhibition in SALT, seeing Port Lincoln and surrounds through Eliza’s eyes, and the three of us together exploring and imagining what is and what could be, this is all Part of Things living and breathing around us.
I still haven’t mastered how to make a puzzle purse tho.
Also, Kirste wrote this list summarising our Port Lincoln roadtrip and I think it deserves to be published as is, so I’ve adopted it into my section even though it repeats much of what Kirste already says above (hah! take that KJV!) –
Dot point reminders of what even happened (will make words prettier another time)
- Alysha drove a long time
- Alysha picked Kirste up and together they drove much longer
- Alysha and Kirste finally arrive in Whyalla, eat and sleep.
- Alysha and Kirste talk lots about future Portal dreams and schemes (also some existential crisis stuff)
- Alysha and Kirste meet up with Michal and Deb from D’faces and chat
- Alysha and Kirste struggle finding public toilets before leaving Whyalla (and into nothingness for the next three hours)
- Tumby Bay is pretty! Fun seahorse mural
- Port Lincoln has lots of beach and Kirste is mesmerized “i can’t belive people just be living by the beach”, “that’s the biggest boat i’ve ever seen in my life”, “y’all just really see the beach every dayyyy. Crazy.”
- Yay Eliza!
- Dinner with Eliza and arts chats – be part of things team meeting in person
- Love Notes to the Laundromat viewing. Read all the notes that other people left behind too. So lovely! Really adore the project.
- Cardboard city!
- Port Lincoln tour (Kirste is still amazed by the ocean) – art chats
- Be part of things SALT discussion
- Food and more arts chats
- Poetry music gig thing. I’m sure it has a real name that I can’t remember
- Whale watching without the whales.
- Eliza made a cool cardboard salt shaker award – and Belilli won itttt!
- SALT closing ceremony and film presentation.
- Part of Things dreaming and scheming (shed edition)
- Kirste and Alysha drive a long time
- Alysha drives a lot longer
PS – if you’re in Mount Gambier, the first of the Poetry on my Porch events is coming up next month and you’re so welcome to join me (in my backyard) for a night of poetry and chats.
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Coming up as part of Be Part of Things: we are the project:
Be Part of Things: we are the project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body and the Regional Arts Fund, which supports the arts in regional and remote Australia.
#regionalarts #creativeregions #regionalartsaustralia #regionalstories
Part of Things 