Arts OutWest, in partnership with Health Infrastructure, are working within Blayney Multi-Purpose Service (MPS) Residential Aged Care, using art making experiences to both engage residents and create new artworks for the space.
Blayney MPS has recently been redeveloped. This program is funded by Health Infrastructure as part of the redevelopment.
This program includes:
– a 7-week visual artist residency with workshops
– a 3 week music workshop residency
– designs for entrance spaces featuring work by local Aboriginal artist
Visual artist residency
After an EOI in early 2026 Blayney paper cutter artist Laura Baker was selected for the residency. Laura will run seven workshops with residents between June and August 2026.
The program invites residents at Blayney MPS to explore colour, pattern, memory and place through a gentle collaborative paper-based project. The program is designed for residents with a range of abilities and levels of art experience, with participation possible through conversation, colour choice, mark-making, pattern, arrangement, gluing, observation and shared decision-making.
Laura has designed the workshops as a relaxed and supportive space for residents to engage with familiar visual languages: fabric, patchwork, wallpaper, gardens, clothing, interiors, colouring books, domestic objects and handmade traditions.
The project draws on the histories and skills many residents may bring with them, including sewing, homemaking, colour selection, pattern recognition and care-based making.
Laura says of the workshop series:
“The first stage of the project will focus on accessible colour and pattern experiments using large sheets of paper and materials such as paint, pastels and paint markers. Residents will be invited to create simple marks, colour fields and repeated patterns in response to prompts around home, memory, music, comfort, place and everyday beauty.”
Between workshop sessions, Laura will photograph and/or scan selected resident patterns and digitally develop them into repeat designs. These will be printed as patterned papers, allowing residents to see their original marks transformed and returned to them as new material for making.
The second stage of the project will bring these printed patterned papers together in a large communal paper mosaic. Laura will create a base design in response to words gathered from residents during the workshops, and potentially from lyrics developed through the parallel music residency. Residents will then work around a shared table to collage their patterned papers into the larger design.
The final work will develop like a paper patchwork quilt, built from many individual gestures, colours and memories.
Once complete, selected panels from the larger collaborative mosaic will be cut, framed and displayed, preserving moments from the shared artwork while acknowledging the collective process that created it.
Music residency
Musician Abby Smith is also working with residents. Abby was part of the Virtual Arts Snacks artists team that worked in MPSs in the WNSWLHD in 202xxx.
Abby Smith is taking residents through a song building workshop on Tuesdays in June and July. Abby worked in with Laura’s program of colour, pattern, memory and place to shape a song.
Abbby used a lyric-building game where they chose random words based on the theme, write them out, and structure poetry using only those words. The poetry doesn’t necessarily make sense, but the game allows people to use language/lyric techniques like rhyme and rhythm without being hung up on actually writing lyrics.
Aboriginal artworks
Blayney based Wiradjuri artist Nyree Reynolds is painting an artwork for the window and doors at the new entrance. This is in process and will be translated by a designer to create decals later in 2026. There will be a launch event for the exhibition of the artworks.
Coordinated by Arts OutWest Arts & Health Coordinator Steven Cavanagh.
Images: Artworks made in Laura Baker’s workshop at Blayney MPS/ Steven Cavangh, Arts OutWest.