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Click here
to view photographs of the wall preparation and tile making
About the Church
Warrandyte Uniting Church is set in landscaped gardens on
the corner of Yarra St and Taroona Ave in Warrandyte. The Church building is
architect designed and because of its architectural significance, there is a Manningham Council Heritage Overlay on the building.
Discussions were held with Manningham Council’s Heritage Advisor and the
planning permit was obtained from the Council We will continue to liaise
with the relevant staff in this area at the council as the project continues.
Our Vision
Warrandyte Uniting Church has a vision to create an area
for reflection and peace around the church which would be open and welcoming to
any community members.
We plan to offer programs and retreat days to enable visiting groups to reflect
on issues of Peace around the theme “Peace with each other and Peace with the
earth”
We believe that for many reasons, today, there is a need for communities to
seek, create and build areas which encourage Peace.
As the first stage of this area, we have constructed a community mosaic/tile
Peace Wall on the front of the Church.
The Artists
- We are fortunate to have wide-ranging artistic expertise
within our church, but to ensure that the particular requirements of tiles and
mosaic were catered for in our Peace Wall, that we involved and worked with the
community and that the work produced was a work of artistic merit, we
determined that we required the skills of a mix of artists.
- We engaged the professional artistic services of
Mary-Lou Pittard to work with our congregation and the Warrandyte community to
create and build this Peace wall.
Mary-Lou grew up in Warrandyte (as
a Liddell) and her family still lives here and remains very involved in
Warrandyte life.
Mary-Lou’s area of expertise is in
the ceramic, tile and mosaic fields and she has recently completed a mosaic/tile
project at Eltham Nth Primary School. She has strong experience working
collaboratively with community groups.
The combination of skills in our
chosen medium and her background of working with local groups made Mary-Lou an
ideal artist to work with us on this project.
- Denise Keele-Bedford, one of Warrandyte Uniting Church’s
congregation members, is a professional artist who has skills which are very
relevant to our project. She has worked with School groups and, among other
things, has tutored after school Children’s Creative Art Classes for the
Manning ham City Council at Temples owe Arts Centre. She generously
donated her time and talents to this project.
- Another of our Warrandyte Uniting Church Members, Walter
Magilton generously offered to prepare the design, provide artistic advice
and workshop participation. Walter, a talented professional artist, has a very
strong involvement with Warrandyte Uniting Church and worked with the
congregation to design and create our wonderful stained glass window.
- Warrandyte Uniting Church has a number of other artists
in the congregation, whose contributions were sought and welcomed.
The Process
- We aimed to have the highest involvement possible from Warrandyte Community Members. We saw this process as an opportunity for the
children and/or adults involved to discuss various aspects of Peace.
- The artists worked collaboratively to produce an
overall design for the Peace Wall.
- Through a number of workshops, children and community
members created images and messages of peace on tiles which were fired
and incorporated into the overall design. We worked with the artists to
ensure that the process catered for different ages and capabilities so that all
were involved.
- We liaised with each community group to determine
their on-going process for creating their tiles and provided help and advice as
needed.
- Community members were invited to assist in attaching
the tiles to the design.
- By following this process, the Peace Wall offers
images, messages and the opportunity to reflect at a close range, and at the
same time is an artwork that could be appreciated from a distance.
- The Peace Wall offers a
place for spiritual and peaceful reflection for many people.
- Our maintenance plan will ensure the on-going
sustainability of the Peace Wall. Coatings protect the tiles and reduce any
effects from graffiti. Our structural and civil engineering resources contributed advice on finishes and maintenance and a yearly cleaning and
maintenance program will be part of the process.
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