Welcome to Townsville, Cinderella
- 4 Jan 2018
From recycled banners to the Townsville Fashion Festival, wearable art is making its mark in Townsville.
What
Townsville-based artists Christina Papadimitriou and Claudia Williams delivered a free two-day workshop to construct a wearable artwork made from a recycled Welcome to Townsville banner. The resulting Cinderella Dress was showcased at the Townsville Fashion Festival drawing interest from local tourism stakeholders.
Funding from the Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF) was used to support the two artists to run the workshop, as well as for model hire, hair and make-up, and the printing of three new banners to promote the dress at the fashion festival.
The workshop participants collaboratively designed and constructed the artwork. They learned about wearable art from local artists/designers, where to source innovative materials, how to use the materials, as well as different fabrication techniques.
Who
Claudia Williams: Concept Designer, Artist and Project Manager
Christina Papadimitriou: Project Manager, Artist and Photographer
When
14 May 2016 to 29 May 2016
Where
Umbrella Studio, Flinders Street, Townsville
Key stats
- 24 participants
- thousands of audience members
Investment
$4,670– Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF)
RADF is a partnership between the Queensland Government and the Townsville City Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.
Outcomes
- The participants gained experience in working with recycled materials to create a wearable art piece.
- There were employment and profiling outcomes for the hairdressers, make-artists, models, stylists and artworkers who contributed to the project.
- Media coverage has resulted in increased community awareness and profiling opportunities for wearable art. The dress was showcased at the Townsville Fashion Festival, The Runway presented by Lexus of Townsville at the Townsville RSL Stadium and the Alfresco Fashion Event City Lane in Townsville. The Cinderella Dress also featured on the January 2017 cover of DUO magazine.
- Christina and Claudia were asked to be the curtain raiser for the James Cook University’s live screening of the All About Women celebrations. They spoke about the inspiration behind the Cinderella Dress and audience members were able to see the garment modelled live.
- Claudia and Christina were also invited to Hair Expo Australia (in June 2017) by leading hair stylist and educator Lorna Evans. The artists created two more banner dresses and, with the help of the Townsville City Council’s RADF were able to travel to Sydney to showcase their works on the main stage. The council purchased all three garments and will use them to promote the city at future events.
Learnings
The artists noted ways in which they would improve the delivery of similar projects in the future:
We would advertise the workshop further in advance.
Allow more time – the timeline for the workshop and showcasing of the final product were too close.
Find more sponsorship, e.g. for materials.
The artwork was so successful that we were not prepared for the attention. We had to refine the budget to accommodate the extra showing including model, hair and makeup. These costs weren’t initially included in the budget. This was however beneficial to our goal.
What next?
Inspired by the success of the Cinderella Dress in 2016, Claudia and Christina launched a new and exciting event called Wearable Art Townsville (WAT), bringing wearable art to the wider community. Billed as an event where “Fashion and Art Collide”, the inaugural show held in Townsville on 26 May 2017 attracted more than 40 entrants from across Queensland including Erica Gray, a successful wearable artist from Brisbane.
In the lead-up to the WAT show, the artists held community workshops (based on the original workshop held for the Cinderella Dress) in order to create collaborative wearable artworks for each of the categories in the show: Cultural, Environment, and Avant Garde. Indigenous designer Grace Lillian Lee led the Cultural workshop, teaching the participants traditional Torres Strait Islander weaving techniques to incorporate into the overall artwork.
WAT was made possible with funding from Arts Queensland’s Queensland Arts Showcase Program. The ladies are already planning the WAT event for 2018.
For further information
Christina Papadimitriou - chrispa7@bigpond.com
Claudia Williams - jc@claudiawilliams.com.au
Wearable Art Townsville email: info@wearablearttsv.com
Wearable Art Townsville website: http://www.wearablearttsv.com/
Wearable Art Townsville instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wearable_art_townsville/
A PDF version (PDF) (712.4 KB) of this case study is available.