Arty Afternoons

Arty Afternoons is a creative support group at Fawkner Neighbourhood House led by Art Therapy student Mohamed. It's free to attend and runs every Thursday! Bookings are required to attend.

Read more below ⬇️

Arty Afternoons has 2 sessions every Thursday, each running for 50 minutes.

✨Session 1 : 2PM-2:50PM - A group session open to all. Creative support as a collective.💐

✨Session 2 : 3PM-3:50PM -A private session with me. One to One individual support. 🌷

Support workers are not included in the person count, just book for the person participating (i.e: a private session might include yourself and I, and your support worker but will still be counted as a 1:1)
I always encourage support workers to come along to the session, and of course can join in on the making too :)

If you work at a service and would like to book your clients in for a private group session please email admin@fawknernh.org.au and include mohamedch@fawknernh.org.au to discuss.

⚠️Sessions are limited. Please book for times you can attend ONLY and cancel if you can no longer attend. If a session is booked but not attended, then people miss out on support they might need.

• You enjoy making art and/or crafting or need time and space to work on your art/ craft. 🎨🪡

• You’d like some mental health support (non-urgent), or you enjoy/are open to connecting with people through creativity 💐

• You’d like to get in touch with your creativity or experiment with new ways of artmaking ✨

• You’re willing to be part of a non-judgmental and mutually supportive space. 💞

Any young folks (under 15) will need a parent or guardian with them.

Otherwise, pretty much anyone and everyone can come! Arty Afternoons welcomes QTIBIPOC, disabled and neurodivergent folks.‍🌟🏳️‍⚧️

If things are (or have been) difficult for you and/or you’d benefit from group-based support, then you are welcome.🤗❤️‍🩹

Arty Afternoons may act as an addition to your support network but isn’t suitable as a main source of support.🕸️ 

Make art, chat about stuff, be supported by the group with my guidance. And that’s it really! I’ll strive to lead us toward connection, expression and self-understanding. Expect a responsive space, where what happens in the moment could inform what’s next. 

While it’s sorta “vibes based” you can expect us to follow this general structure: 

1. How’s everyone doing today?  🙂
   (Temperature check. How do we want to be together today? Might involve an activity) 

2. LETS MAKE ART!  🎨
   (I’ll give a prompt to follow & we’ll explore a different art form every couple months) 

3. Show us what you’ve created! 🤩
   (A time to share what you’ve made, and chat – sharing is optional!) 

4. Whats up now? 🤗
   (A time to talk about what we noticed today. Concluding the session. Might involve an activity) 

5. Seeya next time! 👋

If that’s too vague, check out a session example below!

Here’s an in-depth example of how the session could go:

• The check-in might look like; 
  An acknowledgment of country. A short activity where we draw on a big piece of paper together. What feels good? What feels weird? We introduce ourselves while we’re drawing and share how we’re finding this activity. 

• The art-making might look like: 
  I offer the prompt “what does support mean to you?”. There’s lots of art materials in the room to support you in expressing your answer. Some light music is playing to help us settle into our felt-senses. 

• The sharing might look like: 
  Some of us share our artwork and talk about it. One person shares a drawing of them on a cloud in a starry sky. Someone’s made two paper forms and shares how it’s an expression of when they had a deep chat with a friend. Some people don't share their artwork but respond to someone else by talking about a memory. 

• The check-out might look like; 
  I offer for us to think about something that stood today, and we go around the room and share if we want. We pack up, most of us take our artworks home. Then we say bye for now. 

Art Materials available for you: 

• Fabric, Many types of Yarn, Sewing accessories, crochet hooks, knitting needles. embroidery thread. 🧵

• Coloured Markers, gel pens, acrylic markers, Water colour pencils 🎨

• Coloured Paper, Regular and watercolour paper, Magazines (for collage) 

• HB pencils, erasers, sharpener ✏️

• Miscellaneous objects (teapot, small globe, feathers, string, rope etc) 

• Jump rings, pliers (for chainmail making!) 

• Scissors, glue, holepunch, stapler. ✂️

• Airdry Clay (white and terracotta) 

• Wammys (flexible modular plastic shapes that join together, so much fun, come try!) 

Anything you create you can take home (you can also leave with me, or destroy it), but please return all equipment and reusable items and be moderate with them so we can keep the art going for everyone! You’re more than welcome to bring in your own art materials or donate anything you don’t need.  

Art Exploration Calendar: 

You can do whatever type of art you want in session, but if you need more direction, we will explore an art form every couple of months:    
 

(Images or more details of anything mentioned are available on request!) 

Location, wheel access, surrounds: 

Arty Afternoons happens at the 79 Jukes Road site of Fawkner Neighbourhood House (FNH) in the Activity Room. The house has a ramp with handrail to the entrance, or one shallow step.  
There is a gate around outside of the house. FNH is nearby Fawkner Library, a skate park, and many different types of support and health services.  🏡

Temperature, sounds, smells, light:  

The Activity Room has a split system to control temperature.  The house can be noisy on Thursday afternoons, but the Activity Room has a solid door that blocks most sounds. I like to play some light music in session to help us settle into our felt-senses, but the session can be quiet if you need. There may be some smells from the kitchen or bins nearby the Activity Room. There are overhead lights which I like to keep off and use a lamp with a warm globe instead. There are windows on 3 sides of the room all with shades and shutters. 🌞

Travel by car or public transport:

There’s all day parking nearby and accessible parking close to the entrance. If using public transport FNH is a ~20 minute journey from Fawkner Station. Catch the 530 Campbellfield (10 mins on bus, get off at Ledger Ave/Major Rd bus stop, walk for 7 mins) or 531 Upfield bus (2 mins on bus, get off at Major Rd/Sydney Rd bus stop, walk for 15 mins). You’ll walk past many cars to get to the house so be careful! 🚗