Brendan Clark, Kyah Peirce, Alex Stallwood and Cheryl Dalton (SBCare) (Photo: Tina Torrens)

November 9, 2015

The 8th annual disAbility Art Show was officially opened at Kingaroy Art Gallery on Saturday morning.

The exhibition features 62 paintings and sculptures by local artists who have a disability.

Many of the artists and guests attended the event.

SBcare’s Kyah Peirce and Alex Stallwood compered the opening.

“Both Kyah and Alex did a wonderful job today. They met at SBcare some three years ago and became great friends,” event co-ordinator Tina Torrens said.

“When approached by SBcare’s art trainer Kelley Crane to see if they would compere the event, they did not hesitate in accepting.”

Brendan Clark shared his story from an artist’s point of view. Brendan submitted nine works for this year’s exhibition.

He is also a regular attendee at SBcare and he talked about how his support worker at CTC CROSB helped him with some ideas for his dragon and wizard paintings.

Brendan was also very proud to share that he works part-time at the Taabinga State School where he is supported by Jobmatch.

“SBcare, Jobmatch and CROSB are sponsors of this lovely event and Brendan was a true testament of how these service providers work to help enhance the lives of people living with a disability,” Tina said.

“Brendan has a hearing impairment and for him to stand up in front of everyone today to share his story … we were all so very proud of him.”

More than 20 artists submitted works for the exhibition.

Food was supplied by Endeavour Foundation, and employee Andrew Simmons volunteered his time in providing food service to the guests.

“Kingaroy Arts Team Incorporated, who have recently taken over the operation of the Kingaroy Regional Art Gallery, were amazing and very helpful in the lead up to today’s opening,” Tina said.

‘“Wayne (Brown), Fran (Van Vegchel) and their committee of volunteers are a great team of people to work with and they bent over backwards to help make this opening run very smoothly.”

Kelley Crane also made a point of thanking Stanwell for a clay project at Sbcare which enabled her students to expand on their skills from last year and work as a group.

“(They) built this wonderful masterpiece they called ‘Peas in a Pod’,” Kelley said.

The exhibition, which is sponsored by South Burnett CTC, SBcare and Jobmatch Employment, will be on display until November 27.

Some of the artworks are available for sale.

Sisters Tiffany and Pauline Hartley with teacher Kelley Crane (Photo: Tina Torrens)
Art Gallery volunteer Wayne Brown welcomes the artists to the gallery (Photo: Tina Torrens)
Volunteer Andrew Simmons (Endeavour) with Tina Torrens (Torkit Business Solutions)
John Carey (Stanwell), Kelley Crane, Kyal Peirce, Alex Stallwood and Brendan Clark (Photo: Tina Torrens)

 

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