{"id":13477,"date":"2019-09-17T08:25:32","date_gmt":"2019-09-16T22:25:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/?p=13477"},"modified":"2019-09-17T09:44:24","modified_gmt":"2019-09-16T23:44:24","slug":"saltwater-launched-the-first-of-its-kind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/saltwater-launched-the-first-of-its-kind\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Saltwater’ Launched \u2013 the first of its kind! @beachescouncil"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In the beginning, physicist David Deutsch says the universe was pretty boring \u2013 lots of big things formed like stars and planets, and always it was those big things affecting small things. But then, the whole nature of the cosmos changed and big things came to be determined by small things, such as us humans and how our evolutionary progress takes gargantuan leaps forward from the smallest of ideas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it was last week when I proudly helped launch my ‘small’ idea<\/a> about publishing a collaborative community anthology into the gargantuan \u2018Art & Words Project<\/a>\u2019, featuring 24 local writers\/poet and artists. Wow! I\u2019ve never felt such warm vibes from a room. Writers and artists were overjoyed to meet each other for the first time, others had already met up during the project and were glad to be reunited, all the fabulous artworks were on display, and copies of the anthology almost sold out! It felt like a family coming together \u2013 igniting and strengthening connections, sharing interests, crossing the bounds of creative isolation to work together. What a night!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Browsing Artworks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Michael Regan gave a wonderful speech about reaching out to the council with more ideas (I sure will!) and how much the council wanted to support the community\u2019s creativity. It was so good to hear, because any one of us might have an innovative idea, and act on it, to benefit the greater many. Small things affecting big things!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Watching Awards<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I gave a speech too, about forging community connections and flexing superpowers. A lion may sneak into our village at night, I told everyone, and eat one of us for dinner; but the next time it comes prowling we\u2019ll be ready, together \u2013 because humans excel at cooperation, collaboration, communication, even with strangers. Thanks to the Art & Words Project<\/a>, these artists, poet and writers certainly flexed their collaborative superpowers! Once all the writers had written a short story or poem<\/a> on the theme of \u2018Saltwater\u2019, and I’d edited<\/a> them, artists dug deep until they felt a response to that story, and then created a work of art from it \u2013 using oils, pencil, ink, acrylic, copper etching, fabric, collage, photography, or even mixed media waste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I also spoke about evolving concepts of\ncreativity, because artistic expression needn\u2019t be segregated by media.\nArtworks don\u2019t have to speak without words. Writings don\u2019t have to whisper\nblindly. That\u2019s not how we experience life. Life, as well as our creative\nexpressions of it, can be multi-dimensional, multi-layered, multi-form; it can\noverlap and entwine, evolve and stimulate, reflect and deepen to offer viewers\na more immersive realistic dynamic experience. Different types of creators can\ncollaborate together. The \u2018Art & Words Project\u2019 proved exactly that! Just\nas technology constantly evolves, so must culture and creativity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which is why I\u2019d encourage everyone reading\nthis to think outside of yesterday\u2019s box \u2013 keep our culture and creativity\nevolving, keep suggesting, pitching. You never know when someone out there\u2019s\ngoing to say \u2018yes, actually that\u2019s a good idea, let\u2019s do it\u2019. And don\u2019t just\nthink for yourself, do it for other creators, with other creators. Reach out.\nThink collaboration. Think connections. Think creatively. Think family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And on that note I\u2019d like to thank mine \u2013\nfor the long hours Mummy spends trying to change the creative world of our\ncommunity, little by little. You\u2019re too kind and patient for your own good. The\niceberg of volunteer work can run deep into family time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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‘Thank you’ flowers, and chocolate of course!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Thank you also to the Northern Beaches Council\u2019s Library Services<\/a> and Manly Art Gallery & Museum<\/a> for believing and trusting in my vision \u2013 especially Megan Sadler and Katherine Roberts. Thank you to all the budget-makers, administrators, staff and councilors who supported the project, and Mayor Michael Regan for your enthusiastic speech. After the launch, I spoke with some staff from another local council, who were already thinking what more they could do. How wonderful! I gave them some ideas. Big things come from little things\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original artworks and anthology will be on display and available for purchase around each of the Northern Beaches six libraries<\/a>, as well as on the Manly Art Gallery & Museum<\/a> 24hr digital screen, during the Manly Arts Festival \u2013 on now! Pop in and visit!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first ever collaborative community anthology supporting local writers, poets & artists: ‘Saltwater’ launched! #CreativeNorthernBeaches @magamnsw #northernbeacheslibraries #ManlyArtFestival2019<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5,6],"tags":[2074,2199,2068,974,1817,1968,2073],"class_list":["post-13477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australian-authors","category-bookish-inspection","category-personal-news","tag-art-words-project","tag-david-deutsch","tag-manly-art-gallery-museum","tag-manly-arts-festival","tag-northern-beaches-council","tag-northern-beaches-library","tag-saltwater"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Zena-Shapter-launch.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13477"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13500,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13477\/revisions\/13500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}