As part of our Room to Create Program, four Melbourne artists have been selected to participate in a three month artist-in-residency pilot program. 

The program aims to make use of three currently under-utilised council venues to provide affordable spaces for creative people, one aim of the Room to Create Program.

The residencies commenced in September across three council sites: Florence Peel Centre, Williams Reserve Community Room and Hugo Wertheim Studio One. The artists, Audrey Lam, Zilverster and Lyn-Al and Robert Young will each present a public program as part of their residency.

About the artists:

Audrey Lam

Audrey Lam studied film and photography at Queensland College of Art. Her work often chronicles everyday landscapes and encounters, revisiting small moments and changes in some way to reflect on thoughts and time missed. Her work has screened at film festivals including BFI London Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, Visions du Réel and Melbourne International Film Festival, and programmed in arts festivals including Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions, Next Wave and Otherfilm. In 2015 she undertook an Asialink arts residency at Green Papaya Art Projects in Manila. She is currently artist-in-residence at Yarra City Council’s Room to Create program.

As part of filmmaker Audrey Lam’s Room to Create residency at Yarra City Council, she presented four of her past films as well as a current work-in-progress. Find out more about the program with Audrey Lam

Zilverster

Zilverster is an ongoing collaborative project between Sharon Goodwin and Irene Hanenbergh, Melbourne based artists who have garnered strong individual reputations for their imaginative, elaborate and meticulously rendered expanded drawing and painting practices. What began in 2010 as a problem solving exercise – with one artist offering problematic, unfinished works to the other for advice on resolution – has evolved into a rich shared practice that continues to extend the discursive as well as process potentialities of each artist. While there are many shared interests and concerns between the two artists – (art) history, fantasy, cult  iconography, alchemy, supernatural phenomena to name a few – each operates from a distinct temporal and imaginative framework: Goodwin’s contributions are embedded in a medieval, Gothic context while Hanenbergh’s derive from a European Romantic sensibility. Zilverster’s practice continues to develop out from an original series of beautiful, fantastical drawings that remain compelling in their strangeness.

Zilverster were recently part of The 5th Bus Projects Editions Exhibition, a fundraising exhibition featuring emerging and mid-career artists. In 2017 they will host a third year Professional Practice student group from Victorian College of the Arts Drawing and Print Media Department.

Artwork completed from the Williams Reserve Community Room residency will be exhibited early next year at Sarah Scout Gallery.

Zilverster are represented by Sarah Scout Gallery.

Robert and Lyn-Al Young

Robert and Lyn-Al Young will present a series of workshops titled Dreaming Together, designed to empower and re-engage youth who are disconnected from family and culture. 

‘Young Art—Old History’ is the Gunnai Waradgerie Young family slogan—they have run workshops for over 15 years for Indigenous, corporate and school groups.

In collaboration with City of Yarra, Young Art will partner with several Indigenous organisations to deliver workshops in which participants will learn to craft traditional artefacts (boomerangs, shields, clapsticks), work with textiles and visualise ‘their’ story through painting. 

Participants will emerge with new skills and improved social/emotional health and wellbeing. These workshops strengthen cultural identity and increase confidence and community pride.

All workshops will be open to members of the public.
Robert and Lyn-Al Young will also build on their own respective art practices and create works for an exhibition at Richmond Town Hall Exhibition Space in November this year.

For more information about any of the programs or to register your interest email