Get your walking shoes on! Annual event to colour community

ONE of Ballarat’s oldest suburbs will soon become a large-scale exhibition space with the return of the Soldiers Hill Artist Collective’s annual ArtWalk.

The initiative, which is set to run from Friday, 19 to Sunday, 28 May, will see at least 20 artists displaying their works and offering them for sale throughout 14 venues and three studios.

With the event coinciding with Ballarat Heritage Festival, SHAC chair Neale Thompson said he expects this year’s ArtWalk will herald a resurgence for the event.

“It’ll be good to get it back to what we’ve been used to what with COVID and other stuff going on the last couple years,” he said.

“We hope to see more people out and about and taking the opportunity to have a walk around, have a coffee, just take in the artwork in the various venues.

“We’ve got three studios exhibiting at the front of their houses, which gives people the opportunity to talk to the artists which is a really important element of the walk.

“We’ve also got three new members and a couple new venues like the North Star Hotel and the North Britain Hotel this year.”

In a returning addition from last year, students from Macarthur Street Primary School, St Columba’s School and Soldiers Hill Kindergarten are expected to participate with their own art on display.

Two workshops around fibre art and botanical dying will be held at the Ballarat North Bowling Club.

This year’s ArtWalk is set to begin with a launch event on Friday, 19 May also at the bowling club, which all are welcome to attend.

A map detailing the locations of each venue involved will be made available a few weeks before the launch, with organisers aiming for Friday, 5 May.

SHAC member and former president Ian Kemp said the ArtWalk is the group’s biggest event of the year.

“It’s local artists from Soldiers Hill connecting with the local community with cafes and businesses,” he said.

“What we’re trying to do with this is show that art belongs in communities, not just in galleries.

“So, to be displaying it publicly we think creates a really good vibe for people living in an area that values art in all its forms and the culture that goes with that.”

Judith Bryce is a foundational member of SHAC and has been involved in their Art Walk since their joint establishment seven years ago.

She said she loves the social atmosphere of capturing the beauty of Soldiers Hill.

“SHAC has created a group of people who live in this area and we all have something in common,” she said.

“That is that we like Soldiers Hill and we create art, together or separate. Some of us have forged good friendships too.

“We take all of this for granted because we’re in the midst of it and there are lots of old houses.

“But if someone from out of town comes here from a more modern era, they’re in awe of what we have.”