The very best thing about being part of a neighbourhood house is the ability to make the most of the skills in our community and the opportunities on our doorstep.

During lockdown we met lovely local Maylei when she contacted us proposing a wooden spoon carving workshop - and followed up with a visit to buy a mask and introduce herself in person, back in the day when masks were the new thing (it seems like a lifetime ago now).

Wooden spoon carving sounds pretty cool right? And we were keen to continue the discussion (note the expression of interest process we have running - you can register here if it sounds like your cup of tea too).

Anyway, we’ve been having ongoing discussions with Maylei about how she could contribute at ACC, and last term she took part in our Women in the Shed program, with the thought that if demand continued, she could run an additional session this year.

And it has. And so she is.

So we thought it might be nice to introduce her. Maylei is a visual artist and social documentary photographer. She is originally from Sydney but moved to Melbourne four years ago.

She has a diploma in Community Development and has taught a range of creative classes to children and adults alike, including photography, visual arts and wooden spoon carving (obviously).

Maylei has a long-standing interest in wood working and particularly loves creating practical items. Here’s a photo of her with the rustic planter she made last term in our program … she made it to match one she has at home already.

If you are keen to book yourself a place in Women in the Shed it is full this term but there are spots available next term. So you can still join in this safe, kind, fun, creative and supportive class on Thursdays. And we also have a couple of Learn Local discounted spots as well for next term (these take the cost down from $150 to $50 for those that need it - just contact our office). Find out more and book in here.

Keen to get to know others in the neighbourhood? Join us for community gardening or community craft each Friday morning from 10am … and then share morning tea out on the corner from 11.30am. You’re welcome to come along for any part of this low key community-building morning.

We’ll be starting a new yarn bombing project with community craft participants inside - all skills (and no skills) gratefully received - at the very least everyone’s always keen for a chat! And the garden needs some love after our month of holidays if you’d like to be active outside for an hour or so.

We hope to see you here in 2021!

We’re super excited to be offering a Saturday 6 week drawing workshop here at ACC in Term 1 and 2. The classes run from 2-4pm, and are led by local artist Louisa Bufardeci. Term 1 starts on Saturday 13 February. Term 2 starts on Saturday 1 May. The cost is $90 for 6 weeks - that is $15 per week.

In this class you will develop basic observational drawing skills. With all materials supplied, it is a low-cost opportunity to develop and build the observation and co-ordination skills necessary to make creative drawings in any style. The course will cover contour drawing, creative compositions, drawing with perspective etc.

There are only 2 spots left this term, so book in quickly if you are keen to join in. Just click here.

All or our book clubs are recommencing for the year this month. We run 5 book clubs (Kalimna here and Jody at Darebin Libraries do a fabulous job of juggling and managing the confusion of books and people and loans and return dates) and we have a couple of spots left in our Monday and Tuesday evening groups.

So if you’d like to get together once a month with a group of local folk to chat about a book (and make neighbourhood friends) you can sign up here.

It costs $60 per year to join.

Did you know you can learn to play the harp at Alphington Community Centre? That’s pretty cool right?

Jane runs classes on a Wednesday evening and has a collection of small harps that participants use - they are very manageable in size and sound amazing!

When she first came along and gave us a demo a few years ago, I was interested to learn that the harp strings are just tuned to a scale, so if you’ve played piano etc. harp is actually very intuitive.

In any case, Jane’s classes are about group music making rather than complex harp playing … and so anyone who loves the sound of harps can join in. If you are keen to find out more give Jane a call on 0421 164 152.

In addition to Harp we have some other music making options at ACC in 2021. The Alphingtones Choir meet at ACC on Thursday evenings from 8pm if you keen on group singing. We offer Ukulele on Monday evenings. Book in on our website here. And then we have guitar lessons with Matthew (also on Thursday evenings) from 4-7pm. Contact him on 0435 265 756 if you’d like to find out more.

Our lovely friend Win having a go of one of Jane’s harps at community lunch