By Jenel Hunt
If you’re an artisan on the Granite Belt and you love to exhibit, teach or just talk about your passion, this is for you.
Local artisans are being invited to put in a bid to be part of the Granite Belt Art and Craft Trail Open Studios Event (GBART). The application process is only open until the end of next month, so interested people need to start planning now. Workshopping by artists is a favoured part of the event, which encourages visitors to gallery-hop their way around the Granite Belt and to take classes, watch demonstrations and be entertained by local talent over one huge three-day weekend.
Applications can be for an individual with a studio, a person at a commercial venue or a collective. People can also apply for space at GBART Central, which is at the Stanthorpe Showgrounds Exhibition Hall.
Usually up to 20 artisans are featured on the trail, which is a biennial event. It kicked off as an annual event in 2019 but now shares the limelight year-on, year-off with its sister event, Condamine Country Open Studio Art Trail in the northern part of the Southern Downs.
This is much more hands-on than many art affairs, and visitors from Brisbane, Sunshine and Gold Coast, northern New South Wales and further afield will have the chance to meet the makers, try their own hand at something creative and generally immerse themselves in the delights of the arts and crafts of the Granite Belt for the weekend of 27, 28 and 29 October. It’s an intimate experience that goes behind the scenes and taps into real-life art – a far different experience from simply viewing art on exhibition.
In previous years, creative opportunities have included demonstrations and workshops including watercolours, oil painting, printmaking, glass pouring, sculpture, pottery, indigenous art, candlemaking, fabric upcycling, silver jewellery, watercolour pencil, bookbinding, alpaca artistry and photography.
An online application form is available on the website, www.gbart.org.au/ and applications will be open until 30 April.
