SIYAN CHEN
One Arts Gold Coast is hosting an International Women’s Arts and Crafts exhibition this month that celebrates cultures from around the world through the art and craft of both emerging and professional artists.
The exhibition, which runs from September 1 to 11, was coordinated by Multicultural Families Organisation (Multicultural Families Organisation) and Gold Coast MAGIC (Gold Coast Multicultural Arts Group in Collaboration).
One Arts Gold Coast is a non-profit gallery that connects artists with the local community, providing them with a showcase and exposure for their art.
The exhibition was partly coordinated by MFO, a non-government, not-for-profit organisation that provides services for newly arrived immigrants and their families, including refugees, humanitarian entrants, and new family stream migrants, during the first five years from their arrival in Australia.
MFO Gold Coast settlement services case worker, Rana Al Mekarry, said the organisation held events and festivals that were designed to bring the community together.
“We are always trying to bring positive changes to our community on the Gold Coast and in other states as well,” she said.
Ms Al Mekarry said MFO helped organise the International Women’s Arts and Crafts Exhibition because they believed it was a beautiful way to promote both the organisation and the artists.
She said the artists came from a number of different cultural backgrounds, including Brazilian, Japanese and European.
Ms Al Mekarry said MFO events such as the International Women’s Arts and Crafts Exhibition brought women from different cultures together and gave them support.
“It is very important to promote a positive image to multicultural women in our community,” she said.
“Because sometimes I think there’s a lot of negativity in the media.”
Ms Al Mekarry said the exhibition had brought together women and helped them form support groups to help each other “grow and develop”.
“Through arts, it is great to promote positive skills and attributes,” she said.
“We hope this will be a regular thing and this group will grow bigger.”
Brazilian artist Esmeralda Maximo has some of her artwork in the exhibition.
One of her paintings, Indio Ancestral, which means “the eyes of the soul” in Portuguese, depicts a woman walking by the sea at sunset.
Ms Maximo said the idea for the painting came from her home country of Brazil and the idea of someone spending time to see the place.
“My inspiration is women, that is why I paint women all the time,” she said.
“There is strong emotion in this painting, it delivers a ‘feeling of the soul’ to people.”
Ms Maximo said she named the painting after putting it on Facebook and asking friends for ideas.
She said while many good names were suggested, she thought ‘Indio Ancestral’ was the best name for the painting.
The International Women’s Arts and Crafts exhibition is at One Arts gallery on the Isle of Capri until September 11 and is open from 10am to 3pm.
For more information on exhibitions at One Arts Gold Coast visit https://oneartsgoldcoast.com.
For more information about MFO visit www.mfo.org.au.