Happy Birthday: Sculpting Stories with FANIA

Building on her exhibition Happy Birthday on show at the Northern Rivers Community Gallery (NRCG), Argentinian multi-disciplinary artist FANIA (Estefania Minniti) leads a creative exploration of birthdays and other celebrations as cultural rituals. Usually framed as joyful events, such days can also contain other more complicated emotions. Nostalgia, expectation, comparison, gratitude, loneliness, reflection; these days can be moments we look backwards and forwards at the same time and consider who we were, who has accompanied us along the way, and who we hope to become.

Commencing with a tour of her exhibition, FANIA will invite participants to reflect on the role significant dates and celebrations play in their own lives – birthdays, religious holidays, family gatherings, or even the memory of a particular person, special object, or a ritual unique to their own family or community. Following a brief creative writing and reflection exercise, participants will use simple clay hand-building techniques to transform their memories, emotions, and desires for the future into small ceramic sculptural pieces – simple objects, talismans, abstract symbols, animals or entirely imagined forms and objects.

This workshop is not about creating technically perfect ceramic pieces, but an invitation to make a space for creativity, storytelling, imagination, reflection and play, giving physical form to something often intangible, be it a memory from the past or a wish for the future.

No previous experience with clay is required to attend this workshop. All materials and a bisque firing of works produced are included. An optional glaze and glaze firing will be available to participants following the workshop for an additional fee.

Bio

FANIA (Estefania Minniti) is an Argentinian multidisciplinary visual artist based in the Northern Rivers, NSW. Working across painting, ceramics, embroidery and installation, her practice explores themes of time, identity, migration and belonging. Drawing from personal experiences of living between cultures, she creates works that combine symbolism, humour and autobiographical references to examine everyday rituals and the expectations that shape people's lives.

“Living away from my country of origin has made me reconsider many of the rituals we tend to take for granted. Birthdays, in particular, have become significant moments for me. They are often the one day when people from different chapters of my life reconnect, allowing past and present to briefly coexist. At the same time, they can heighten our awareness of time passing and the expectations we place on ourselves about where we should be in life.”

- FANIA’s exhibition Happy Birthday is on display at NRCG from 20 August to 11 October 2026.

Ignite Studios is a wheelchair accessible venue. Please contact us ahead of time if you have accessibility needs you would like us to be aware of.