If you are a local maker of wonderful things and would like the opportunity to sell those things to the local community then book a stall at our Markers Market on Saturday March 26th.

It is all part of our Alphington Show and Dog Show.

The market starts at 11am and finishes at 2pm (not even any need to get up early!).

It is $20 to book a place to set up your table. Note this is an outdoor event with BYO table, chair and shade cover.

Click the link here to book.

This week we are starting planning for the Alphington Show.

We’re partnering with Alphington CWA to run this event that celebrates the ‘domestic arts’ … if you are into bread baking, jam making, preserving, knitting and crochet this is your chance to shine! The show also celebrates the home garden … admiring your most impressive vegetables, homegrown eggs and gorgeous flowers … along with celebrating your floristry skills … and cake decorating skills.

We’ll publish the full list of categories shortly,

But in the meantime … finish that beanie you started, dig out your family scone recipe and encourage your children to perfect their lemon slice (and cook their own snack for school lunch at the same time … win/win).

The Alphington Show will run on Saturday 26 March here at ACC.

Collage is such an accessible art form and can be so very witty and clever, or poignant, or edgy and interesting …

We’ll be starting up collage classes here at ACC on Tuesday evenings this year. Kristian Glynn who has been part of our community for a couple of years now will run the classes.

His art practise often involves collaging his own small art works together … and he’ll be an amazing inspiration and will bring heaps of creativity to the the table.

If you are interested in starting collage or keen to extend your practise this class will be able to accomodate you. Note that basic materials will be provided.

6 weeks per term $150. Book here.

Today we put our latest exhibition on the fence for the summer holidays and it features photos and memorabilia relating to the Alphington Bowls Club.

1921 was a pretty great year in Alphington. The Alphington Paper Mills opened for production and the Alphington Bowls Club opened their doors. This year the club’s centenary celebrations included a retrospective exhibition of photos, stories and memorabilia at the club house which we are now sharing with you on our fence. It is pretty interesting to:

• Check out the people who attended the opening of the bowls club in 1921.

• Meet Les (perhaps the club’s best bowler) and Myrtle – they won 36 club championships between them.

• Ponder the rules that framed the Alphington Ladies Bowls Club when it was created back in 1928, and were still in place in 1972!

• Speculate on the cause of the fire that destroyed the original club house in 1951 … The ladies had a picture night that finished at 11.30pm, the fire was reported at 2.45am …

• And admire the bowlers’ uniforms over the years.

If you are keen to see the whole package of information that the club produced you can download it here. Or pop past to see the images in a larger format on our fence.

Enjoy! Thanks once again Yarra Arts for supporting the Alphington Neighbourhood Gallery.

We didn’t get to publish the beautiful photos that Kalimna took from our fun community weekend last week because we had a technical computer hitch … but we’re back up and running now.

So thank you to the Alphington Open Studios artists who we worked with for the Open Studios weekends. It was fabulous to have a shared opening night that everyone could come along to and just super to have works by all the artists in our space. Yarra Council provided us with some funding to activate our inside hanging space which supported this project.

And then thanks to our stallholders who made wonderful produce and goods for the Christmas Makers Market on the Saturday. And thanks to all the community who came along to shop and enjoy our lovely neighbourhood. I know I made a good start to my Christmas present shopping … and I am sure lots of others did too.

A special thanks to Ivanhoe Rotary who personned our BBQ. It makes such a difference to our centre to have these sorts of community partnerships and we value them so much. And my mum Cheryl who ran the kids activity - she’s a gem and the trees were very cute. And finally, finally Elaine who volunteered on our craft stall. She’s an amazing knitter and community giver as well.