LimberUp Mentorship 2018: Louise Flaherty & Laura Wills
During the 2018 LimberUP Mentorship program had some incredible outcomes. Visual artist Louise Flaherty worked with mentor Laura Wills as a part of their LimberUP mentorship, during June. The main goal for Louise was to expand her practice, engage the community and develop a participatory practice. This project continued to grow, by utilising Lousie’s Artist Residency with The Mill. The ending result of Louise’s finissage and show Memorial For Forgotten Plants can be viewed below.
Louise Flaherty, Forgotten Plants – Adelaide CBD (detail), 2018, ink on paper. Photo by Daniel Marks.
Louise Flaherty, Forgotten Plants – Adelaide CBD (detail), 2018, ink on paper. Photo by Daniel Marks.
School holiday art sessions (creating work for remembering plants – wall of drawings) Part of Memorial for Forgotten Plants Exhibition residency at the Mill. Photo by Daniel Marks.
Install shots: remembering plants – paste up on front of building, photocopies of drawings,2018 Part of Memorial for Forgotten Plants Exhibition residency at the Mill collaborative work – Louise Flaherty & Laura Will. Photo by Daniel Marks.
Install shots: remembering plants – paste up on front of building, photocopies of drawings,2018 Part of Memorial for Forgotten Plants Exhibition residency at the Mill collaborative work – Louise Flaherty & Laura Will. Photo by Daniel Marks.
Remembering plants – paste up on front of building, photocopies of drawings, 2018. Part of Memorial for Forgotten Plants Exhibition residency at the Mill collaborative work – Louise Flaherty & Laura Wills. Photo by Daniel Marks.
Louise Flaherty, Forgotten Plants – Adelaide CBD (detail), 2018. Photo by Daniel Marks.
Exhibition install shot: Memorial for Forgotten Plants – Exhibition Residency at the Mill. Photo by Daniel Marks.
Louise and Laura, along with volunteers from the community, created an imagined landscape focused on plants native to the Adelaide CBD. Throughout Louise’s residency, she invited artists and kids to participate in creating native plants via illustration, collage and painting. This community engagement not only ended up as an exhibition in The Mill’s gallery space, but also inspired a collaged, pasted mural.
ARTISTS BIOGRAPHIES
Louise Flaherty is an artist and arts worker based in Adelaide. She studied Visual Arts at the South Australian School of Art, receiving first class Honours. She was a Founding Director of Downtown Arts Space, and has worked at the South Australian School of Art and as the Arts Program Manager at Barkly Regional Arts in the Northern Territory. She has exhibited at Light Square Gallery, Adelaide Central Gallery, Artroom5 and Murray Bridge Regional Gallery and ran community workshops at the Woodville library. Louise recently undertook a mentorship with artist Laura Wills, focussing on community engagement and participatory practice. She has an upcoming residency at Sauerbier House.
Laura Wills is an Adelaide-based multidisciplinary artist. She has an expanded practice exploring social and environmental themes through using found materials, collaborative and participatory processes and community-based projects. She regularly exhibits and has received numerous grants, awards and residencies in Australia and overseas. She is currently working with Marion and Onkaparinga council on several public art projects and was recently awarded the Fleurieu Art Prize and the National Works on paper prize for collaborative work with James Tylor. Laura is represented by Hill Smith Gallery Adelaide.
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LimberUP is a career development mentorship program dedicated to providing South Australian creative professionals with flexible, funded opportunities to develop skills and artistic practice.
Since 2014, 84 artists and creative professionals have participated in Guildhouse mentorship programs with significant outcomes, reporting long-term impact on career development, networks and skill development.