Carriageworks Will Host the Black Arts Market This Year

The huge Indigenous arts market has a new home in Eveleigh.
Siobhan Ryan
Published on September 30, 2016

After a funding dispute resulted in the cancellation of Corroboree Sydney, the fate of the Black Arts Market was up in the air. But, luckily, Carriageworks came to the rescue, and has given the Indigenous arts market a new home at their Eveleigh site this November.

Featuring 55 stallholders and 93 Aboriginal artists from Australia's southeast region, the two-day market is a showcase of the cultural heritage of southeastern Aboriginal Australia.

The market itself has been curated by former curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales Hetti Perkins, and Sydney-based Aboriginal multimedia artist Jonathan Jones. According to Perkins and Jones, the market "showcases artists who have transformed their traditional knowledge and skills into contemporary artworks and products of wonderful and inspiring diversity".

It will feature 55 stallholders, including shell artist Esme Timbery (whose work earned her the inaugural Parliament of New South Wales Indigenous Art Prize back in 2005), Aboriginal florist Flannel Billy, who will be creating native floral arrangements on-site, and Uncle Greg Simms, who'll demonstrate wood carving techniques.

Visitors will have the opportunity to interact with the artists and learn about southeast Australian Indigenous cultural practices, as well as purchase works, which will include homewares, ceramics, weavings and contemporary visual arts. Local Indigenous students from Alexandria Park Community School and Darlington Public School have also collaborated with established artists to create a Welcome to Country book and a collection of contemporary rugs called the Jarjums Collection, respectively.

The Black Arts Market will take place at Carriageworks on November 12-13. For more information, visit carriageworks.com.au

Published on September 30, 2016 by Siobhan Ryan
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