SEAMSTRESS Heather Horrocks, otherwise known as an artist and one half of the Pike- Lettes, is a dab hand with the needle and thread knocking up eureka flag dresses faster than raising the flag.<\/p>\n
Spruiker extraordinaire Marg Dobson, the other artistic half of the Pike-Lettes, held forth on the benefits of their Billboard Soapbox artwork adorning the wall of Ballarat\u2019s Police Lane.<\/p>\n
Dobson used the megaphone, when it wasn\u2019t doubling up as Horrocks\u2019 chapeau, to spark a conversation in the community about the Creative City Strategy featured in their public art display.<\/p>\n
Dobson and Horrocks see this as a unique way to encourage community action, look up from the computer, read the message on the wall, and have your say.<\/p>\n
Grab a highlighter and comment on the parts that grab your attention, paste a post-it-note on the section you like, rock up to the regular reading performances by the Pike-Lettes to engage in discussion, discourse and debate within the community.<\/p>\n
Horrocks and Dobson want their fun way of delivering inspiration to be infectious.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are inspired by the concept of the strategy because it means our artistic colony here in Ballarat is only going to improve,\u201d Dobson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPutting the strategy document up on the wall as a paste-up piece of artwork divorces it from what we usually look at.\u201d<\/p>\n
They put a different spin on the council\u2019s call to action.<\/p>\n
Instead of reading a pdf on a screen or a printed handout of implacable pages, Horrocks, who specialises in paste-ups, suggested they put it up on the wall to encourage the community to look at it from left of centre.<\/p>\n
Within five hours of the Billboard Soapbox being live there was a post of four photos of different statements \u2013 four elements of the strategy that for them was important – on Facebook.<\/p>\n
Horrocks and Dobson will read all the comments on the paste-up and include in a submission to council.<\/p>\n
Billboard Soapbox is up until Friday, 1 February in Police Lane, which runs between Lydiard Street and North and Alfred Deakin Place alongside the Art Gallery of Ballarat.<\/p>\n