Sean
Manners, Community Artist.
(Banner Maker, Parade Co-ordinator)
Objective:
Up to twenty five banners will be made, and a community band put together. It is envisaged that nine banners will be made in the schools of Molong and sixteen banners with the Molong community. Each banner will be 90cm wide and 2.5 meters long and presented on a long pole with an L shaped cross bar at the top.
The banner making and community band component of the project will commence five weeks prior to the event on Monday 27th February.
Story collection,
banner design and making:
A workspace in the form of an empty shop was kindly donated for the duration
of the project by the Landlord of the Freemasons Hotel. This was ideally placed
in the main street of Molong and enabled easy access to the project by any interested
parties.
The stories component of the project had been well publicised through newspapers,
radio and word of mouth. A public meeting was held to outline the project to
the Molong Community. This was fairly well attended and some community groups
came forward to make some of the banners.
Both schools and the pre-school were contacted and they expressed great interest
in being involved especially as I was able to go to them with all the materials
and work within the schools. A timetable was established and designs and
concepts were discussed with each year that was to be involved. A total of
eight banners
were created by Molong Central School, two banners by St Joseph’s Primary
School, and one each by Molong Pre-School and Cabonne/Blayney Family Day
Care.
During week one
I washed and sewed the banners in readiness for the banner making phase.
The stories were starting to come in both from community groups who
wanted
to show themselves to be part of the “Molong Story” and from private
individuals who had tales to tell.
From week two to week five there was a busy schedule of different groups of people
visiting the studio and designing and painting their banners as well as the school
schedule. The banners were painted using various simple techniques such as stencils,
sponging, and taping. There was also close liaison with the community musician
who was working with the schools to produce music and lyrics that represented
Molong Stories.
The last banner was finished on Friday 31st March. The parade was the next day
Saturday 1st April. The day dawned under grey skies with gusty winds. The banners
were readied at the start point and parade participants started to arrive. By
start time there were an estimated eighty to ninety people gathered to carry
the twenty three banners that had been made. The parade made its way down the
main street of Molong and presented the banners at the main stage where a précis
of each story was read out and the music and words that had been rehearsed with
the community musician were performed. The banners were then placed at each end
of the street with a copy of their story attached to them. They formed a fantastic
image as they fluttered in the wind adding colour and movement to the Molong
Music and Arts Festival.
For the rest of the
day an open workshop was run to create a further three banners that were
added to the twenty three flying at the perimeter of the festival. These
told peoples stories of the day.
As the principal Artist in Residence I was very satisfied with the
whole project. The outcomes very closely matched my expectations
at the start, the community
of Molong very friendly and welcoming and the organisers of the whole project,
The Molong Advancement Group, very helpful in ensuring the success of “Molong
Stories”
