Artist engaged to create community-driven art for Flemington Community Hub

Artist, Rosa Mar Tato Ortega has been engaged to create a series of digital visual works for the Flemington Community Hub project.

The artwork will be collated and transposed into designs for the perforated screens on the outside of the building and also incorporated into the interior detailing.

Moonee Valley Mayor Samantha Byrne said we want the new Hub to be a facility which adds to the visual amenity of the area and showcases artwork that represents our community and the local environment.

“We are excited that the building will incorporate a visual representation of community storytelling, and further add to the new facility becoming a community anchor and a place where all are welcome,” said Mayor Byrne.

“To enhance and support a collaborative community engagement process, Council has, through the Flemington Works project, appointed two Emerging Creatives to work alongside the artist to plan and facilitate consultation workshops, collate and evaluate feedback.”

“I encourage all those who live, work, play or learn in the Flemington neighbourhood to take part in the workshops to inform the art work and entwine your stories into the building’s history,” said Mayor Byrne.

Moonee Valley Deputy Mayor Jacob Bettio said we are thrilled that our creative community can come together to take part in this project.

“Art has a way of connecting people; of taking people on a journey and communicating a message that can be understood in different ways, by different people, at different times,” said Deputy Mayor Bettio.

“After all of the time we’ve missed being together because of the pandemic, I look forward to seeing what Rosa and our community are able to create, and for interpreting the story that they tell,” said Deputy Mayor Bettio.

Rosa will be holding gatherings to get feedback from the local community as well as engaging with stakeholders including Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Elders to connect the artwork with their history of the surrounding land and waterways.

Rosa said “I am thrilled to have been awarded an arts commission with Moonee Valley City Council. The project will allow me to further explore my interest in the construction of patterns in architecture.”

“Ornamentation is disappearing, there is a place for it here at the Hub, where it can be applied to a functional form to celebrate all that which connects the community. These 7-metre screens have the capacity to display patterns and motifs; and this familiarity can be border-crossing. Patterns connect communities.”

“The Art Project will include elements of the community member’s stories in a composition of patterning and imagery; an optical attraction in placemaking of patterns inside and out,” said Rosa.

Find out more about Rosa and the visual arts project, including how to get involved at rosatato.com

See our Flemington Community Hub and Debneys Park project page for details about the project.