Forget-Me-Not Good Grief Workshops

Forget-Me-Not Good Grief Workshops [FREE]
Workshops: Saturdays 1 March, 8 March, 15 March 11am -1pm, All ages

Workshops led by artist Debra Goldsmith
Join caring artists and counsellors at this 'Good Grief' workshop. You will be supported to make a flower from up-cycled materials in celebration of a loved one or something, you have lost. The flowers will form an installation in Victory/Djaara Park during the 2025 Castlemaine Fringe Festival.

Unleash your creativity and increase your wellbeing in a caring environment, supported and guided by others who care. Make your own floral tribute in the Forget-Me-Not workshop in the run up to the festival and plant it in the earth to form part of a large installation of Forget-me-nots! The workshops are for all the community to open up conversations about life and loss, to share stories and shape memories in creative form. Good Grief Gigs are all ages events for anyone who has loved and lost.

How I see the Good Grief Project for The Castlemaine Fringe Festival by Debra Goldsmith, Artist Facilitator 

The Good Grief project aims to help participants process grief by transforming these feelings through art into the symbolic physical form of flowers to be displayed in Victory Park during the Castlemaine Fringe Festival. 

This grief can take many forms: loss/death of a loved one, generational trauma, dislocation from home/family/friends/country, loss through disability, death of pets, natural disasters are some ways grief is felt.

Through the act of art making as a form of play, fun and connection to the subconscious, grief can be transformed into something that both honours the memories and feelings surrounding the grief, and also creates a way of moving out of the frozen or stuck state that can be so debilitating. This process can be symbolic, expressed through the subconscious or more literal. There is no right or wrong way of expressing grief through art. I will work with participants to help them bring the subconscious into the material world. 

For me, art has always involved processing the subconscious into the physical form of art and processing grief and trauma is an integral component of the subconscious. I have used this process of transforming grief through the creative process in many forms; art forms both two and three dimensional, through garden creation and through the transformation of my home after damage from riverine flooding. 

Transforming the unwanted, broken, discarded or what is regarded as rubbish into something that is beautiful or meaningful is both a symbolic and therapeutic process. Objects, clothing, letters/photos/personal effects (can be photocopied to use), maps, broken toys, anything that connects us to the source of grief can also be used in this project. Participants have the choice of bringing any meaningful or personal items as well as waste materials for repurposing into art or use materials provided at the workshop. 

The process during the workshops will be centred around the concept of play as an essential component of art making, exploration of the making process and imagination and connecting to feelings of grief, in order to draw out the subconscious. 

There will also be support from a professional psychologist to offer assistance to anyone who may require that. 

Participants are encouraged to register so we have ideas of numbers, but you are also welcome to just come on the day

Workshops Saturdays 1 March, 8 March, 15 March 11am -1pm, All ages
The Coolroom at the Northern Arts Hotel, 359 Barker Street, Castlemaine

Installation Ceremony in the Victory/Djaara Park Saturday 22 March 11am

Installation Exhibition Victory/Djaara Park: 22 March - 6 April, 24 hrs