Jennifer Broome BIA Trainee, Lynette Snider Kuranda artist, May Kepple Coen artist, Hanna Parker Residency Coordinator, Marilyn Kepple Charters Towers artist, Kay Creek Mossman artist, Pricilla Major Kowanyama artist, Margaret Creek visitor, Agnes Rocky visitor.

But for a few days in May this year, five artists from Mossman, Coen, Kuranda, Charters Towers and Kowyanyama worked closely with Nona, winner of the 2007 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, as part of the On The Edge residency funded through Arts Queensland's Backing Indigenous Arts program.

The results of their time at the residency at Tanks Arts Centre in Cairns were seen in a show called Jalbu Jalbu Murrumaka (Women Coming together). The five women - Kay Creek (Mossman), Priscilla Major (Kowanyama), May Kepple (Coen), Marilyn Kepple (Charters Towers), and Lynette Snider (Kuranda) – then showed their work in a special NAIDOC Week exhibition at Tanks which finished on 12 July.

The four-week On the Edge residency involved the participants learning new artistic skills and techniques and discussing their work with experienced artists. The workshops were co-ordinated by Hannah Parker and tutors involved Nona and Theo Tremblay, who spent two days with the women teaching them drawing and design and screen printing with paper and stencils.

After the month, Lynette and Marilyn Kepple said that they wanted to work towards an exhibition at Tanks in 2009. As for the rest of the women, it was a great experience that gave them the chance to learn.

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We welcome feedback and contributions to Arts Update. Please contact the editor, Colleen Turner on (07) 3225 8841 or email artsupdate@arts.qld.gov.au