Part of My Life with Cerebral Palsy

When I was three, my folks took me to America for a treatment involving physical  exercises, which I was encouraged to do daily for a couple of years when I returned back home.

It made my neck strong, allowing me to use a headpointer now. I enjoy reading, music and watching sports. I follow Geelong in AFL Football. It was great to see the mighty Cats finally win the flag after 40 odd years and again this year.

I also enjoy going to the movies to watch comedies and true stories. While I was doing my Visual Arts Diploma at Swinburne University a few years ago, I had an idea.

It was to set up an art workshop in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. When I finished the course in 2005, I started to investigate the possibility of setting up an art studio for people with and without a disability to come together to share their interests and ideas.

The following year in March 2006, I started to email people in my community about the idea. I received good feedback, which surprised me, as I didn’t think it would attract a lot of interest. I had felt there was a need for networking in this local community and in the arts.

In May of 2006, my mum saw an ad in the local newspaper for a morning tea, so I decided to go along. I had no idea I was going to meet the wonderful Glen Park Community Centre manager Robyn. During our conversation, I mentioned that I was looking for a studio art space to paint and exhibit art along with other passionate artists.

She said the centre would allocate some time and space to start the art studio group and we decided to meet a couple of times over the next few weeks. Robyn seemed very excited at the prospect of having me involved at the centre as I had a lot of skills, experiences and wisdom to share with our community.

Over the next few months, I was busy sending emails to get the art studio going. There were lots of people who were interested in helping me out, and supporting me to accomplish my dream.

By the end of 2006, Robyn helped me to run an induction meeting for about 20 people who showed up with lots of enthusiasm. I was shocked at how many people thought my idea was a good one as I’m not aware of groups around the outer east of Melbourne offering people with or without a disability the space to come together one afternoon a week to share ideas and hold a yearly exhibition.

As Glen Park Community Centre was on the border of Maroondah and Knox area of Bayswater, both council metro access workers came on board. I knew the workers from my other job at VicNORD, and they were both excited to be involved in this new project.

As time went on, with a few meetings, things were going right as rain so we decided to advertise in the local paper for a secretary.

We were lucky to have Kate Crothers come on board as she was an art teacher, and she agreed to help out when people needed it.

Since Kate joined the team, my job has become easier as she helps me with all the correspondence that comes in and out.

Also, she is very good with each participant. We decided to start sessions in February 2007. We didn’t expect people to come, but they did, and within the next few months some of the clients had stayed while others came and went.

We are hoping that in the near future we will be able to run more sessions, as the clients would like a longer timeslot to work on their masterpieces, and we received an art grant from the Maroondah City Council and bought supplies.

At the moment, our time has been increased from two hours to three, but hopefully during this year we will have access to more hours, or run another session during the week for more people to join Creative Constructions.