June 12, 2016
The Kingaroy Art Gallery was riot of colour last Tuesday night when it officially opened its first ever Kingaroy Winter Craft Festival.
The two-month event, which will run at the Gallery during June and July, showcases the works of South Burnett craftspeople.
At the moment, the main gallery is featuring “Tangled Threads 16”, with shows works created by textile artists using a range of techniques and materials; and “Wild and Woolly” by the Alpaca Collective and Friends in Gallery Two, which showcases hand felted and dyed scarves and hats, along with other textile items.
But this exhibition will change at the end of June to allow a second, completely new craft exhibition to be shown next month, too.
In July the South Burnett Woodcrafters take over the floor of the main gallery with their exhibition “Why Knot Wood?”, while the walls will be hung with paper tole craft works created by Rosemarie Matthews-Frederick, along with a retrospective exhibition of Barambah Pottery from Cherbourg.
During both months the Gallery will also be running a number of demonstrations and workshops by local craftspeople.
They include Stitchery Art (Thelma Archibald), Pyrography (Glady Hood), Rug Making Techniques (Judy Brook), Leadlight and Stained Glass (Lesley Fewtrell), Woodwork (South Burnett Woodcrafters), Handcraft and Fine Art (QCWA Gympie and South Burnett Division) and a range of arts and crafts by members of the Jumping Ant Arts group, including silk scarf dyeing, book binding, printmaking, pottery and watercolour techniques.
There will also be a half day or full-day workshops conducted at the 1913 Council Chambers during the course of the festival, and a full schedule of all planned workshops and activities can be obtained at the Gallery.
More than a dozen organisations, small groups and individuals are exhibiting in the Winter Craft Festival, and Kingaroy Arts Team president Wayne Brown said the Gallery hopes it will become an annual event.
Wayne said the Festival is running for two months because it was the only way the Gallery could accommodate everyone who wanted to be involved.
“When we first put the craft festival idea into play we were surprised by the real hunger for such an event,” he said.
- The Winter Craft Festival will run at the Kingaroy Art Gallery in Haly Street, Kingaroy from 10:00am to 4:00pm on weekdays, and 10:00am to 2:00pm on weekends, until the end of July. Admission to view it is free.
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