Happily Ever After opens at Manly Library

Walking through the doors of Manly Library, one is greeted by an intriguing trail of red paper petals, carefully cut out and stuck to the floor. Today, with our gaze firmly fixed to the floor, we wandered along and found some great things to see and do: a shadow puppet play of Rumpelstiltskin by David Murray and Theo Stephens; zine demonstrations by the funky Chris Tamm; printmaking demonstrations by Annie Day and Rosanna Jurisevic of the Warringah Printmakers Studio. And throughout the space, in glass cabinets, are the wonderful artists' books from the Happily Ever After exhibition.

One of the great things about today's event is that the demonstrations ranged from the street to the salon, with Chris' zines firmly in the blue corner of graphic art and comic book heroes (and heroines), and Annie and Rosanna's red corner representing the fine arts, and referencing (amongst other things) traditional Japanese printmaking techniques and innovative new low toxicity/green printing processes.

David and Murray's shadow puppets brought the oral traditions of fairy tales to life with a great version of the traditional tale which mesmerised both kids and adults. Before the show, various kids tried to peer under the stage curtain to see how the magic was done, and afterwards the same children clustered around to inspect the puppets. The miller's daughter was a cocktail sipping Vogue silhouette (in circa 1940 ball gown) while Rumpelstiltskin was everything an evil little leprechaun should be: spiky, deranged and agile. But the stand out shadow puppet wasn't even human, or faery: it was a cleverly constructed spinning wheel, for turning straw into gold, whose wheel actually span.

We can report that just next to the library is a cute little cafe, Cafe Hum, which does a thoroughly decent sandwhich or toastie and has nice staff. If you haven't been to Manly recently, make the Happily Ever After exhibition your excuse to check it out. We also enjoyed the Manly Council's Fair Trade market stalls (what a great initiative!), the local sourdough bakery, stunning weather and a ferry ride blessed by blue skies and racing yachts.

Happily Ever After is at Manly Library until January 29th, 2012.

Happily Ever After event at Manly Library

Join us on Saturday 3rd of December at Manly Library, from 10am-1pm, to celebrate the opening of Happily Ever After, a group exhibition of artists' books with a fairy tale theme. Manly Library have organised a great program of events, including printmaking demonstrations with artists from Warringah Printmakers Studio, artists' talks by Monica Oppen and Jan Melville, Chris Tamm will host a zine workshop (bookings essential), and there will be fairy tale readings and shadow puppets.

For more information, please click here for the media release. Hopefully see you there!

Happily Ever After at Manly Library

The Happily Ever after team is extremely pleased to announce that the exhibition will be displayed at Manly Library later this year. At this stage dates are still being worked out, but we expect that after the show closes at Artspace Mackay on Friday 28th October, it will be on display at Manly sometime in December 2011.

Manly Library is another great venue for Happily Ever After, having launched an artists' book collection and award earlier this year, and with sympathetic display facilities. Click here for more information about Manly Library's artists' books collection. The collection features some books (including works by Happily Ever after participants Anne-Maree Hunter, Janis Nedela, Peter Lyssiotis and Monica Oppen) that may be viewed online.

Artspace Mackay exhibition pictures

Some wonderful images of Happily Ever After installed at the Cox Rayner Gallery, Artspace Mackay.

Thanks again to Anna Thurgood and all the team at Mackay for doing such a wonderful job hanging a large and complex exhibition: our collective jaws dropped when we saw how good the work looks in the space!

Happily Ever After at Artspace Mackay

The Happily Ever After artists' books exhibition will open at Artspace Mackay this Friday 29th July. We're really thrilled to have Mackay, home of the prestigious Libris Awards, hosting this exhibition. Thanks to the team at Artspace Mackay for making this possible! Happily Ever After will be on show at Mackay until Friday 28th October.

Talya Rubin performance: Sunday 26th June

Image: Maya Nova

Happily Ever After is pleased to announce that Talya Rubin will present readings from her work in the John Paynter Gallery on Sunday 26th June, the last day of the exhibition! Please join us at 11am, midday and 1pm for Talya's brief performances.


Talya Rubin is a Montreal born, Sydney based poet, playwright and performer. Her poetry won the national Bronwen Wallace Award in Canada for the most promising writer under the age of 35. She has toured with her original solo plays, Ariadne’s Thread, The Girl With No Hands and Of The Causes of Wonderful Things to festivals in Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Montreal, Prague and Toronto including Brisbane Festival’s Under The Radar,  LiveWorks, Performance Space, Sydney and Arts House, Melbourne. TheAdelaide Advertiser wrote of her work: “The writing is out of this world, as sweet as honey and just as intense 5/5.” ABC Radio National commissioned Talya to adapt and perform Ariadne’s Thread as a radio drama, broadcast nationwide and The Girl With No Hands was nominated for a MECCA (Montreal English Critics Circle Award) for best new text. Most recently, Talya was short listed for the Winston Collins/Descant prize for Best Canadian poem of 2011. As writer in residence with Hunter Writers Centre at the Lockup Cultural Centre, Talya will be working on a collection of poetry about place and displacement, exile and belonging

Tea, cakes and cultural ephemera!

Please join us in the John Paynter Gallery on Sunday 19th June, from 10am until 4pm, for  a day of performance, demonstrations, artist, writer and curators' talk, and most importantly, cake!

Just click on the 'what's on' tab of this blog for more information about what's happening. Entry to the event is via gold coin donation to our host the Lock Up (90 Hunter Street, Newcastle).

And please remember that for the duration of our exhibition at the John Paynter Gallery, 10-26th June, Sprocket Roasters is offering a 15% discount to all exhibition patrons. All you need to do to claim your discount is utter the magic phrases 'Happily Ever After' or 'Once upon a time'.