Lovely to see local events like the Fairfield Primary School art show starting again after the Covid hiatus.

I (Leanne) made some stools for them to auction off (even though my kids aren’t there anymore) and added a bit of spruiking of our lovely community centre into the event in the banter that went with the auction!

Hope you went along … aren’t we lucky to live in a such a great creative community.

This week is National Recycling Week and we’ve been celebrating recycling in our programs. We kicked off with Visible Mending Club on the weekend and sent along some fabulous potential mending supplies for the group that Anne had kindly donated (patches and lace and all sorts of interesting things) … then offered a range of fun recycled craft activities for playgroups … and will finish the week mixing up recycling with gardening … making recycled seed packets for seeds we’ve saved from the garden and also potting up some of the lettuce seedlings we’ve been growing - again in recycled pots and tins.

And we made this great sign as well! Just for fun. Using a whole range of donated/recycled things we had hanging around … so Happy National Recycling Week.

We are very excited to have recently received a State Government Living Local grant to update our back garden to create a lovely indoor/outdoor creative arts space that will make the most of this part of our site that needs a refresh,. It will also increase wheelchair accessibility here at ACC. We have lots of people with mobility issues who attend ACC regularly.

Our local MP Kat Theophanous came along to Friday morning tea to officially announce this grant of $143,500, and also announced a surprise - an additional commitment of $100,000 from the Labor Government for ACC if they are re-elected.

As you possibly know, our core funding already comes from the State Government, with additional reliable support from Yarra and Darebin Council - but to do all the things we do we are always applying for additional funding and grants: So we are pretty thrilled that the State Government is recognising all the good things we do and investing in community building through neighbourhood houses via grants … and election commitments.

After the wild weather on the long weekend we came back to sticks everywhere. Some found their way into Still.Life this week.

Local artists … do you want to be part of the Alphington Open Studios salon exhibition coming up in late November and early December here at ACC? We’re looking for creative locals to participate. You can enter 2 works. Find out more and sign up here. It is free to enter.