The Artful Dodger — December 2024

From the Chair

2024 at Warrandyte Arts has been the year for breaking records and reaching major milestones…

We now have the highest number of paid-up members since (Trybooking) records began in 2016!

Warrandyte Theatre Company (WTC) sold the most tickets per show for a season, since we moved to our small table ‘cabaret’ style seating, for the virtually sold-out final season of Hotel Sorrento.

The Chocolate Lilies community choir celebrated an amazing 30 years under founder Nerida Kirov’s expert direction.

Fundraising and work on the Community Pottery Studio to prepare for its restoration continue apace. In fact we collected more container deposits than any other organisation in Victoria! We are confident of being able to meet the criteria to access a generous ‘challenge grant’ we received from Bendigo Bank.

Congratulations to the many members whose efforts made all of this and so much more possible within and around our thriving local arts community. Read on for more details and check out this month’s Warrandyte Diary for articles about the Chocolate Lilies and the WTC.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all,
Bruce Turner, Chair
[email protected]

It’s time to renew your membership!

It’s been a bumper year with 171 members! The greatest number since commencing Trybooking registration of membership in 2016.

Annual subscriptions are due on January 1, for continuing members or when a person joins a group. Under our rules, if you are an existing member you have until February 28, to pay. Your membership lapses after this date and you won’t be able to get involved in the Association’s activities - until your subscription is paid!

Memberships for 2025 can be renewed anytime from now.

Visit https://www.trybooking.com/CXBDU click on ‘Book Now’ and follow the prompts.

Fees for 2025 are unchanged from this year. For more details of the various membership categories and benefits, see Membership Coordinator Noelene’s article at the end of this edition.

Warrandyte Theatre Company

Hearty congratulations are the least we can provide Grant Purdy and the cast and crew of Hotel Sorrento. The production has re-set the bar for an end of year play using the modified table seating arrangements.

528¹ tickets were sold for this show. Only one performance of nine² failed to sell out and clearly those 12 people³ have forever missed a never to be repeated opportunity. Anecdotally, many of the tickets were purchased by people new to the WTC which is interesting and bodes well.

Thanks to the cast and crew for their promotion of the show among friends and family, and of course, to their commitment to the production and flexibility at being available for the extra show.

Feedback has been excellent as expressed in a note from audience member:

“Just wanted to say thank you for a wonderful performance. We loved it and the environment that you set up in the theatre. We live locally and have been meaning to come to a show for a long time. It was great and we look forward to many more.”
— Liz

We hope this feedback is reflected in additional ticket sales in 2025.

On an associated note, for the first time in memory, we were able to promote an entire year of our productions for the coming year.

More congratulations to Kellie Tweeddale — and The Things I Know to Be True cast — most of whom, along with your correspondent, attended the Victorian Drama League Award night. Special congratulations to Tim Byron and Sam Corr, both of whom were nominated for awards - Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor in drama, respectively.

Pottery News

There is much activity in the hub of the Pottery Studio. Potters are madly producing Christmas gifts galore. The variety in glazes has been quite tremendous the past few months as Potters experiment with new glaze applications and methods. It’s always like Christmas when we unpack the kiln to discover our finished creations. This keeps us inspired and excited as we continue to learn and create.

The walls of the downstairs studio have received extensive cosmetic work - especially by hard working Ceri - cleaning, filling and primer painting, then onto the final coat. We are then hoping to do the floors during summer. It’s a slow process
but we will get there.

We juggle the logistics of the studio around the most important focus, our pottery! To our community potters the studio is our haven and safe place, where we come to share, listen, talk, giggle and learn, while we create and meditate with clay.

Warrandyte Community Pottery members wish everyone a happy and safe Christmas.

Alison Beanland

POTTERY NEWS FLASH!

As of January 2025, we will have a jar in the Grill’d Restaurant at Eastland, to support our cause in repairing the termite damage to the Pottery Studio.

One of the perks, I have been told, is to tell all your friends and family about it. If they inform the staff at the Eastland Grill’d that they are involved in the Warrandyte Arts Association, the staff will put a handful of tokens in our jar as a bonus.

There will be more perks for our cause and they will inform us of these soon.

Annie Kennedy

Repair Café

Volunteer Grant for Tool Acquisition

As part of our recent federal grant monies for supporting volunteers we have purchased work lights for all the fixers that need them. This month we were also able to use the remaining money to purchase a range of tools to assist hall volunteers of the Repair Café (or the WA repair/maintenance work more broadly). We canvassed support for the various tools and, while there wasn’t 100% consensus, we have ended up buying a great range to meet our various needs at the hall. We paid slightly more to get high quality tools, but they will last longer and we got excellent Black Friday bonuses! Now we just need to find a secure home and perhaps a little user training!

Christmas Party

Our final repair café for the year was well attended and busy, and we even had a visit from the outgoing Mayor, Carli Lange, who gave a short thank you speech to the Warrandyte Repair Café and the WAA, for its efforts to support sustainability. We congratulated each other further with a quick celebration and a thank you lunch, before the Hotel Sorrento matinee set-up was upon us.

Repair Café Stats

Many thanks to Pat, who meticulously keeps statistics about the success of our repairs. Highlights for 2024 include the fact that as in 2023, we assisted with over 350 items brought in for repair. Also we improved our ‘complete repair’ of items to 68% (up from 52% in 2023). Finally, the percentage of items that were ‘unable to be repaired’, dropped from 18% (in 2023) to 13% (in 2024). This is excellent news and may also indicate that the community is becoming more educated about the items that are more likely to be repairable.

International Repair Café News

The principle celebration event of the 15th anniversary of the founding of Repair Café was held in The Hague recently. As part of this, Repair Café International has published an anniversary documentary about 15 years of Repair Café. You can watch this below. (Most of us will need to turn the YouTube subtitles on!)

David Tynan
[email protected]

Chocolate Lilies News

This year celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Chocolate Lilies Community Choir. I started the choir at Allwood Neighbourhood House, then a few years later an evening group was started in Eltham, before finally finding its home in Warrandyte 20 years ago. Firstly at the Neighbourhood House, and then at the Mechanics Hall as part of the WMIAA.

As part of our celebrations we held an event last month bringing the two groups together for lots of singing, laughter, eating - along with a workshop - prior to a wonderful, beautiful sound healing, offered by Kathy, one of the choir members.

There are so many incredible stories that make up the 30 years of the choir
and its members and, I must say, I often feel overwhelmed and humbled by what I have been part of.

The day, in true Chocolate Lilies style, didn’t go to plan, and the person we had organised to run a session with us didn’t turn up, as her car had broken down on the way. Versatility being the key to any experienced group leader, a new direction was found for the afternoon and, in many ways, felt even more special.

I feel very privileged in what I do, and often overwhelmed by the beauty of our sound. Standing at the front, I am able to witness the experiences choir members are having, reflected in their eyes and smiles. What instant feedback!

If you want to hear more of our 30-year story, please read the article in the
December edition of the Warrandyte Diary.

Wishing a safe and nurturing holiday season to everyone.

Nerida Kirov

13,000 Bottles and Cans!!

Container Deposit Scheme

Early this year, Warrandyte Arts approached the manager of Hops and Vine to ask if we could recycle their empty tins. This has proved invaluable in our fundraising efforts.

In addition, a recycle bin was placed at the rear of the Mechanics Hall in February of this year. These two initiatives, along with people donating their refund to Warrandyte Arts, using the bar code in the photo below, has proven to be very successful.

We have collected more than 13,000 cans and bottles, bringing in $1,300 plus.

We have collected more than any other organisation in the State and hope we have a developing relationship Visy.

So, thanks to all the volunteer collectors from Warrandyte Arts - and thanks from the environment.

Keep up the drinking in 2025!

Adrian Rice

Membership of the Association

The Warrandyte Mechanics Institute and Arts Association (WMIAA), or Warrandyte Arts for short, is a not-for-profit, registered charity. Our only role is to maintain and operate the hall, the Pottery Studio and their facilities, for the benefit of the local community - who together own our lovely hall and pottery workshop.

Your subscriptions are used to pay for maintenance and upkeep, cleaning and energy bills.

Members have access to discounted hall hire, can vote at AGMs, have a say about the future developments, as well as receive invitations to member-exclusive special events. And of course, all can take pride in their support of a community-owned, volunteer-run community association and its assets.

To keep our Association and its facilities functioning into the future, we are always looking to grow our membership. We are grateful for members who wish to simply offer support through an annual membership - as ‘A Friend of the WMIAA’ - or by a donation, without becoming more involved.

We also need members who can help with very ordinary tasks, and we need members with expertise (e.g., publicity, fundraising, trades). No matter what your background, you may have just what we need. Please get in touch if you think you
might be able to help.

By law and under our Association Rules we must retain a register of members. This means that when you pay your subscription on the Trybooking system, you must also enter your name, address and contact details, or the name of the family or gift member you are adding.

Fees are unchanged for 2025

Full member $35.00
Australian Pensioner member $25.00
Student member $25.00
Added family member $10.00
(To an existing full membership)
Gift membership $35.00
(For another person)
Half-yearly membership $20.00
(For new members joining after June 30)

Memberships for 2025 can be renewed any time from now.

Visit https://www.trybooking.com/CXBDU, click on ‘Book Now’ and follow the prompts.

Thank you for your contribution this year and best wishes for the festive season.

If you have any membership queries, please contact:
Membership Coordinator
Noelene Cooper
[email protected]
0400 861 133

With many thanks to our generous sponsors this year.