By Jed Lanyon
A local art project is aiming to promote awareness about making public spaces in the Yarra Ranges more welcoming for women.
A recent report from Women’s Health East found that women are more likely to feel unsafe in public spaces and as though urban spaces are not designed with them in mind.
In response, The Beyond the Studio project invited local women to help identify public open spaces they believe would benefit from having displays of women’s artwork. The result gave artists a platform to superimpose their work to help reinvent many well-known Yarra Ranges locations.
For many years, Marilyn Hogben felt the little park situated in a main street of Yarra Junction was not a safe space to sit or even walk past.
Although she acknowledged that Yarra Ranges Council has recently done a “make-over” of this public space by painting its walls and planting more greenery, she felt that the addition of female-commissioned artwork would make this space an even more inviting place for all Yarra Ranges community members, and help increase the amount of people using this space, as well as making it more welcoming and safe.
Lucy Hawkins, a Healesville painter, shares three generations of women through her artwork – her mother, herself, and her baby daughter.
She described the ease of painting her daughter as the sky and trees reflected off her face that day. She shared her struggles in painting both herself and her mother’s portrait and said that she stayed up all night trying to mirror the reflection she saw of herself.
“But I like it. My husband calls it ‘The Warrior’. He thinks it shows the survivor in me,” she said.
Lucy believes it’s projects like this that keep important conversations going around the importance of more visibility needed for women artists and how “this is our space too”.
Warburton photographer Suzanne Phoenix was commissioned to take photographs for the project inbetween lockdowns.
They are all collaborative artworks. They couldn’t have been made by one person alone,” she said.
“I really enjoyed meeting the artists in their homes and work environments… I do think it’s a good message and we managed to achieve that and pulled it together during a pretty challenging time.”
Ms Phoenix said she would like to see the murals and artwork come to life.
“I think they’re all possible. Some are easier than others, but all are possible, it just takes some investment into them.”
Warburton resident Lindy Schneider shared a photograph of the regularly walked Story Lane in her town of Warburton and described the space as ‘blank’. She imagined how this laneway would make an amazing permanent outdoor gallery space.
Chelsea Gallop is a Mt Evelyn based artist who describes her art as a way of connecting people with nature, themselves and always finds the hidden details in things that sometimes get overlooked.
Chelsea shared how she gets to spread positivity through each piece she makes, and mentions how she has had so many messages about the confidence her pieces have given people.
It’s little pieces of herself she gets to share with the world and pass on something unique and beautiful as a reminder that the person receiving her pieces are also beautiful and unique.
Chelsea said that this is why it’s such a vital part of life to be exposed to art daily, to be a part of a community that promotes women artists and showcases pieces of our souls for the world to see. Every woman can walk by feeling empowered, safe and encouraged.
Women’s Health East health promotion officer Georgina Nix said, “It has been a privilege working on what we have found to be such a timely and valuable project for the Yarra Ranges Community.
“There has been such a great response from the Beyond the Studio project; hearing the positive impact on women’s sense of belonging and pride should these artworks become a reality.
“Continually, this project has helped continue important conversations around women’s safety and increasing women artist’s visibility and recognition. Thank you to everyone that contributed to this project, it would not have been possible without you.”
For more information about the project, visit: whe.org.au
