Rockingham Visual Arts Society
Rockingham contains a wealth of creative women, and the Rockingham Visual Arts Society is one of the OG collectives. Established in 1976 by a Rockingham Senior High School teacher, the club meets regularly in a heritage listed building to create all different types of art, from watercolours to mixed media, sharing skills and socialising. It’s the longest running Arts & Crafts club in Rockingham. Costs to attend are extremely low and the club is always welcoming to new members (who are not just women).
Judy, who has been the president of Rockingham Visual Arts Society for the last three years, took the time to tell me more. She described the club’s energy as ‘friendly, the club is about the members and what we can do for them, we pride ourselves on keeping our costs down, and we aren’t cliquey.’
Members are naturally creative and share their knowledge, with leadership being an organic and fluid process.
For example, one member teaches how to make junk journals on Wednesdays, another will be teaching encaustic art and charcoal portraits, whilst another might teach creating art with paint pouring.
You don’t need to be able to teach, however, and when you attend, members are always willing to help. Plus, every member gets a say on what kind of art they’d like to learn about next. It sounds like a true democracy! New members are encouraged to come for three meetings on a casual basis before deciding if they would like to join. Whilst bringing young children is OK, Judy says they must be supervised as they can be disruptive.*
The cost to attend is only $3 for your first class, then $1 for the next two. They welcome people to just turn up on one of the days they are open (you can check their Facebook page for these times) and are located at the Baldivis Reserve, corner Fifty and Baldivis Roads, opposite McDonalds. As mentioned, the building is one of the beautiful heritage-listed buildings here in Rockingham, but it was almost condemned. It was actually the members who rallied against this, and the heritage status was granted in 2013.
The Rockingham Visual Arts club is a not-for-profit and often raises funds for charities, such as at the Mystery Wrap Auction for the Cancer Council’s Biggest Morning Tea, which was held at their recent member’s Morning Meeting, held on the last Monday of the month. What’s a Mystery Wrap auction? Simply, members collect random objects from their home, wrap them in newspaper, and these are auctioned off. A little eccentric and a lot of fun! The club then rounds the proceeds up to the nearest hundred dollars before donating. Quite generous since they receive no funding at all.
I love their stance on sustainability, too. Judy says, ‘We try not to put too big a footprint out there.’ Much of the art is created using recycled materials, even recycled canvases! And there’s a library of donated art books, such as those on watercolours.
The Rockingham Visual Arts Society is not just about art, though. It’s also a community who support one another and socialise together. As well as holding book swaps and clothing swaps, they also gather together for outings, such as an Insight tour with bubbles, non-alcoholic drinks and refreshments at the Rockingham Arts Centre, or lunch.
To get involved, just visit their Facebook page.
*Just as an aside, this view on young children is not shared by Southern Harbour. Southern Harbour feels strongly about welcoming people of all ages, babies and children included, and their mothers and caregivers, into our community spaces. We recognise that it is not always possible nor desirable for mothers and babies to be separated, and creating social spaces within our community where they can be together is vital in easing the social isolation that many mothers of babies and young children often experience in those first few years. And that babies and children bring much value to our community.
