New art space in Sebas unboxed

A NEW community art space in Sebastopol has celebrated the opening of its first exhibition.

ArtBox at the Ballarat Neighbourhood Centre is an art gallery in a shipping container and is aiming to give the community another place to enjoy creativity.

The first exhibition celebrates the works by local artist and Kokotha Mirning Wirangu woman Deidre Burgoyne Rosier.

She also painted the outside of the container, transforming the box into a giant canvas for Indigenous stories.

“The artwork is based on a trip my family and I did through the Northern Territory and the red road and the dry land there,” she said.

“It also represents the people we met on the side of the road travelling through at the same time and the stars at night, the anthills and the rocks.”

Students from Phoenix P-12 Community College collaborated with Rosier to paint surrounding poles.

“I worked with a couple of kids doing Indigenous artworks at school and through that the children asked me to do the container because I’d worked with them,” said Rosier.

The space will act as a place for the community to get together and celebrate different art forms.

“I think it’s good for both indigenous and non-indigenous people and the children that see us older people doing it, it encourages them to want to be doing the same thing,” said Rosier.

The art space was funded by the City of Ballarat, Regional Development Victoria and the Rotary Club of Ballarat South.