Artist interview – Clare McCracken, our first Artist in Residence for 2012

Today we’re rather excited, the first of our 2012 Artists in Residence is arriving onsite! The lovely Clare McCracken is taking up residence in our Old School Room for a month to create a body of work inspired by Heritage Hill. We wanted to introduce you all to this very talented artist, so we sat down to have a quick chat with her about herself and her work… Ladies and gentlemen, Ms Clare McCracken!

 Tell us a little about yourself and your work …

I grew up on one hundred acres of bush in North Eastern Victoria and spent my childhood building cubbies, observing Australia’s fauna and fauna and hiking. We didn’t have a TV, so when I was not running around the bush, I’d discuss history and politics with my parents, or leaf through one of their art books. What I loved about art at that stage was its ability to reflect and contribute to society.  I loved the way you could look at a Rococo painting like Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s The Swing and see the incredible wealth and excess of the French aristocracy, which less then 15 years after the painting was finished, led to the French Revolution.  Art seemed to be the best way to express and debate the issues that I was most passionate about.

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Get Active – with belly dancer Karen Hartigan

Just because Get Active Month is finished, doesn’t mean you should stop with the Getting Active, and neither are we! OUr Get Active series was so popular that we thought we’d continue it a little, and chat to belly dancer Karen Hartigan.

Can you tell us a bit about the history of belly dancing?
Bellydancing or Raqs Sharqi originated in the Middle East as a form of dance by women for women. A lot of what we see today, such as glittery costumes baring bellies, is heavily influenced by the Hollywood movies trying to romanticize harem life and is not approved of in Egypt. However, originally it was a form of dance that was passed from mother to daughter, particularly in the nightclubs of Cairo.

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Artist interview – Jesse Mitchell (Sundays in the Sun)

Welcome to the first day of the school holidays! We bet you’re all wondering what to do with the kids this Sunday, arn’t you? Well, Heritage Hill has the answer for you – Sundays in the Sun. It’s our last Sunday in the Sun until October, it’s definitely only a warmer-months event!

This week’s acts are the delightful Paper Dreams, who played here in February (you can read their interview here) and the very talented Jesse Mitchell. Today we present our interview with Jesse, so you can learn a little about him before seeing him Sunday…

Tell us a little about yourself and your work…
Well aside from the music, I work for a Not-For-Charity organisation called Jem that provides supported accommodation for people who are homeless and in need of a stable place to live. I also last year launched a Fair Trade business called Little Tree Shop I’m currently just getting off the ground.. it sells a range of fairtrade and ethical products like bags, clothing, towels, tea/coffee etc.

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Get Active – with Parkour teacher and student Zeke Beilharz

Today, we have another in our series of interesting ways to Get Active and keep fit. We’re pleased to introduce you to Zeke Beilharz, who teaches Parkour and works with the Australian Parkour Association.

Can you define Parkour for us?
Parkour is a method of physical training that develops one’s ability to overcome obstacles (both physical and mental). It involves movement that will help if one is in a reach or escape emergency situation. Underpinning this is a philosophy of altruism and useful strength, longevity, self-improvement and self-understanding.

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Get Active – with martial arts instructor Roz Quin

Welcome to our third week of Get Active month! Gosh, the month is jsut flying past, isn’t it? It’s almost like March is getting Active all by itself… Today we’re talking to Roz Quin, who is both a student and teacher from Firestorm Martial Arts.

Can you tell us a little about yourself?
I’m a student and instructor with Firestorm Martial Arts. In teaching I mostly deal with Junior classes and the Women’s Assertive Self Protection (W.A.S.P.) workshops that my instructor and I designed for real-world application by women (a lot of styles don’t get that men and women have different bodies and so different pros and cons when it comes to assault).

In junior classes we focus on bully-proofing our kids, teaching them to disengage from a fight safely…along with techniques they could use on more serious assaults and of course a lot of fun stuff.
As for my own training – I’m a 1st degree black belt with a (currently neglected) love of weaponry and grappling. I’m currently studying to be ‘regular’ fitness instructor too. I attend karate classes as well as the boxing fitness classes we run at the dojo – because sometimes you just need to go nuts on a bag, ha ha.

Roz (second from the left) with other competitors from Firestorm Martial Arts

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Get Active – with burlesque dancer and teacher Willow J. Conway

This month we’re looking at different and interesting ways that people get active. Today we’re chatting to Willow J. Conway, burlesque dancer and owner of the Bottoms Up! Burlesque and Pole Dancing School.

Can you tell us a little about burlesque?
Burlesque is a form of dance and theatre that has been around since 411 BC, and since then has been developed into new forms and styles over the years being widely celebrated and practised through-out Europe and the UK in the 19th Century, and making its way to America in the early 20th century. Here burlesque boomed as a widely accepted, yet controversial, form of entertainment with hundreds of clubs and theatres dedicated to this sensual, creative, comedic and political art form throughout America from the 1920′s – the late 1950′s. A typical burlesque night included stand-up comical skits, song numbers and of course solo striptease routines performed by women clad in elegantly glamorous costumes, and sometimes with use of large props and feathered fans.

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Get Active – with games design student Chad Toprak

Welcome to our second week of Get Active month! Today we bring you an interview with Chad Toprak, an Honours student with the fascinating RMIT Exertion Lab.

Can you tell us a little about the Exertion Games Labs?
Sure! The Exertion Games Lab is a games-centric research lab at RMIT University. We focus on research in games that revolve around the body, technology and play. We create games that require intense physical effort as we believe it is important to play with our bodies. As we all know the obesity epidemic has become a big concern in many places around the world. We believe exertion games can help fight against this and aid us in keeping active and fit.

Bubble Popper

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Artist interview – Vardos (Sundays in the Sun)

Today we have an interview with the delightful Sofia from Vardos, who are our musical guests for this Sunday’s Sunday in the Sun.

Tell us about Vardos’ most recent trip overseas…
We performed in Wellington, New Zealand in February, does that count?! It was for a poetry book launch (Aleksandra Lane who is from Serbia), and we managed to see lots of Fringe shows too. VARDOS performed in 2010 at the West meets East Roma and Traveller Festival (London), Museum of the Bohemian (Amsterdam), Szent Ivan FolkFest (Hungary) and bars in Berlin. In Amsterdam we cycled to our gigs with all the instruments in a big panier at the front- including the double bass! Study and travel followed in Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and Latvia.

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Sundays in the Sun

Our first Sunday in the Sun was yesterday! Check out the photos from the day…

Pailing Black

Out in the garden, Pailing Black were the first to play. These guys are a great up and coming local indy folk band.

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Artist interview – Paper Dreams (Sundays in the Sun)

You’ve been hearing about it for a while now, and finally, it’s just around the corner! Februrary’s Sundays in the Sun is happening this weekend! This Sunday in fact. You probably already have your picnic basket packed with goodies and stashed by the front door, home-made picnic blanket draped on top, all ready for the big day. So while you hover around the house, waiting impatiently for Sunday, we thought we might give you a final preview, this time in the form of an interview with the lovely girls from Paper Dreams, one of the three bands playing on Sunday.

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