In Focus

Faces of Townsville

The outdoor exhibition Faces of Townsville saw Gallery Services once again partner with ABC Open to activate Townsville’s public spaces with an inclusive and engaging art program.

The exhibition, which featured large-scale photographic portraits of Townsville residents, by Townsville residents, was displayed in various locations around the city in the form of backlit photographs and paste-ups, and formed part of Gallery Services’ Creative Spaces stratagem.

Faces of Townsville was displayed during The Percivals, from 9 May to 13 July 2014, expanding the multi-faceted city-wide festival of portraiture beyond the confines of Townsville’s gallery spaces.

Faces of Townsville participant Margot Douglas was particularly appreciative of the public setting, stating, “I am excited to be part of this exhibition as photography is a new art form I am exploring, which can be utilised across many platforms. I like the partnership and collaboration and the fact that the works are outside of the gallery walls into public spaces where a wider audience can engage with them (or not) on a daily basis (a little like social media!)”

Faces of Townsville participant Marion WalkerCampbell said she was, “really excited about the entire concept, I think it’s a way to ‘personalise’ Townsville and bring more positivity to the community.”

The local portraits for the exhibition were created as a part of ABC Open’s Snapped project.

Each month Snapped creates a challenge to help amateur photographers to learn new techniques. Snapped recently asked photographers to take portraits that captured the many faces of Australia.

Over 1000 portraits were submitted, including many from North Queensland.

North Queensland’s ABC Open producer Michael Bromage said, “the Faces of Townsville outdoor exhibition celebrated local writers, photographers and filmmakers who actively contribute stories to ABC Open.”

The Faces of Townsville exhibition received positive community feedback, and enjoyed substantial promotion through ABC Open and ABC, the Sun local newspaper, as well as through interviews with the Faces of Townsville participants on Spaceville, Townsville’s interactive online streaming community TV show.

A developed program of activities, events and competitions delivered by ABC Open also ensured broad public engagement. Such activities included a ‘Find the #FacesofTownsville portraits’ competition conducted through facebook, instagram and twitter; a series of 12 short videos of people who are featured in the portraits sharing a story relating to Faces of Townsville, and uploaded via facebook and vimeo; and CBD photography and time-lapse video safaris.

Beyond skills development, the exhibition also contributed to the encouragement of creative pursuits, with participant Jan Wallis stating, “sharing my stories through ABC Open has given me the belief that I can do this! And this exhibition is a great way of letting others know, you can do this too.”

The exhibition also elicited professional development opportunities for the participants, namely through the strong program of photography and digital story-telling workshops conducted by ABC Open to deliver the exhibition, but also through the process of installing the works.

Participants were involved in a hands-on capacity in installing the paste-ups in various locations around the city, while a ‘wheat paste’ cooking demonstration video was also produced for those interested in the process.

VRROOOM: Design Your Own Car Competition

As part of the 2013 Children’s Exhibition, VRROOOM, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery ran a Design Your Own Car competition which saw a host of creative entries by artists aged 4 – 13. 22 of the best entries were subsequently displayed at The Galleria, Riverway Arts Centre, in the form of large-scale vinyl stickers. The competition proved very popular and unearthed a host of talented young artists, and validated Gallery Services’ efforts to reach broad cross sections of the community by partnering with leading events in the city.

The VRROOOM partnership with both the V8 Supercars and specifically Team Erebus was a key example of an initiative to achieve this.

In July 2013, eleven-year-old Amy Butler was crowned the winner of the Design Your Own Car competition during the Sucrogen Townsville 400, and eagerly watched on as the Erebus Motorsport V8 team’s #47 Heavy Haulage Australia (HHA) racing car showcased her work to a national audience.

Amy was selected as the winner by HHA racing driver Tim Slade, who commented that, “Amy’s design is very cute, creative and it stood out visually. I could see this car being a character in a Disney movie and I think it will give my car a fun edge. All the entrants did such a wonderful job and it was difficult to pick the winner from so many great designs.”