Almost a month ago we joined forces with Found Festival and held four fantastic classes at the Abbotsford Convent. With our whiteboard, projector and clipboards packed, we headed down to the Industrial School and Magdalen Laundries to set up our little Laneway Learning classroom!
Feminism
Kate Iselin returned with her introduction to everyday feminsim, updated with some recent events. The first time we ran the class, Julia Gillard was still Prime Minister: the intense public discourse about leadership and gender has died down a little since then but there was still plenty to talk about!
The school girls kidnapped in Nigeria led to a discussion of clicktivism and it’s effects (good and bad) on campaigns for change. We also watched a Snickers advertisement which depicted construction workers shouting non-sexist remarks at passing women… although the general agreement in the audience was it was still awkward to be shouted at at all!
More Than Muses
Sophia Dacy Cole, our popular teacher of Melbourne Art Secrets, presented a brand new class on some famous, infamous, and less-known female artists. Georgia O’Keeffe was discussed: did you know she consistently insisted that her painting of flowers were simply of flowers, and not meant to represent female genitalia?
After pondering some other female artists such as Frida Kahlo, we finished with a discussion of the audience’s personal favourites.
Loosen Up Sketchy!
Erin Greer, first-time Laneway teacher, brought a dose of hilarity to Wednesday night with her class about having fun with drawing. There were a variety of activities, including drawing an object from the sense of touch only, and sketching a photo using only a description by the person opposite you.
Some of the students clearly had some drawing experience, and others (like me) just had fun playing the games! The final activity was to start drawing a portrait of Erin’s assistant, but before you could finish, you had to pass it along to the next person who could then add to it in any way they liked! In the end we had mermaids, zombies, giant monster-women destroying the city with laser eyes and more!
Braiding
How can you go an go wrong with Braiding with Theresa Winters? Educational and entertaining as always, our enthusiastic students experimented on each other’s locks creating simple braids at first, and finishing with an attempt at “the waterfall”.
A Big Thank You
We had a fantastic time at the Convent and everything ran incredibly smoothly. Jonathan at the bar was helpful and happy to accommodate all our little requests. But the biggest thank you goes out to Audrey for organising the whole event and for inviting us to be part of it! Hats off to you Audrey!