WEIRD: a collaborative art zine workshop

Join two emerging creatives, Linden and Nym, for a community event gathering neurodivergent artists across multi-media artforms. We want your strangeness, we want your weird, we want the angst and the joy of being other and the twisted kaleidoscopic perspective of being on the outside. If you’re an ND creative in the hills or surrounds, and you work with word, visual art, music, or something a little weirder – we want you!

We will workshop our pieces and artist statements together, collaborate on layout and design, and by the end of the afternoon, we will have published a collaborative art zine exploring and embracing the perspectives of the WEIRD.

WHAT TO EXPECT:

This is not a comprehensive list and there may be alterations made on the day, based on flexible response to the environment, the creation process, and the needs of participants and hosts.

Food / Drink:

Not provided. Please bring your own water bottle / snacks, and there will be plenty of opportunity to purchase snacks/meals/drinks from the onsite cafe.

Sensory:

Lively workshop environment with potential for conflicting noise sources, visual mess (creativity in action), food/drink smells, and limited control over the lighting or temperature. Feel welcome to bring headphones/earplugs, blankets/hoodies, or other sensory-assisting accommodations.

What to bring:

• A piece of work to contribute (Work In Progress very welcome)

• Water bottle / snacks

• Sensory-assisting accommodations

• Laptop/tablet if you prefer to work digitally (we will have a variety of physical media available, incl the basics like pens/pencils/note paper)

• Musical instrument or other specialist Tools of the Trade if relevant to your artform

Schedule Items:

• Introductions: Names, Relationship with neurodivergence, Type of artwork

• Sharing: Sharing the work we brought to contribute to the zine, potential for workshopping / feedback, OR potential to create something inspired in the moment

• About the Artist: Writing of bios / artist statements with relation to our works for the zine - we are deeply interested in the stories behind the works and behind the artists, as much as the works themselves

• Collaborative Creation: Putting it all together as a shared work. Collaborate on layout, design, and troubleshooting multimedia presentation (ie How might we include musical contributions to a physical zine? We have ideas but we want your input!)

• Publication: If time allows: Printing and compiling the zine onsite / If we run short on time: Nym + Linden will finish up post-event and leave your copy of your zine with Burrinja reception under your name for you to pick up when able.

• Optional post-workshop celebration: If your social battery and schedule allows, we would love to spend some time chatting over a cuppa with you in the cafe as part of an informal celebration. This will take place after the 3pm end time of the session.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Linden Leigh has always been a poet but only recently decided to try doing it in public. She is also the founder of Talking Tree Events, an initiative for creating small, community-driven programs.

Nym Juniper Fox is a multimodal creative; music (as Daisy Kingdom), words, wood-burning, textiles, and paint are just some of the media explored - to beautiful result. She/They are learning to bathe in whimsy, and the witching moonlight.

Both artists have lived experience of existing in neurodivergent square-peg bodies in a frustratingly round-hole world.