The Islamic Museum of Australia

From July 3 – July 5, IMA was thrilled to run a series of free art workshops in conjunction with Northlands Shopping Centre. With a range of activities on offer, from Turkish water marbling, to ceramic tile painting and jewellery box decoration, there really was something to please all tastes during this busy school holiday season!

Turkish Water Marbling

The first day was spent immersing ourselves (quite literally!) in ink paint, using a straw to blend and infuse colours, creating intricate patterns inspired by the traditional Turkish Ebru art of water marbling! Students happily experimented with ink pigment and patterns, the bold and bright colours exploding on the page and fusing with each other to create a diverse range of works that showed off the creativity of the students that participated.

Ceramic Tile Painting

The second day involved ceramic tile painting, where participants were invited to choose from a range of geometric stencils to inform their tile design, or let their creativity take charge! With a bright and varied selection of acrylic paints to choose from, some students chose to delicately paint patterns on their tile, whilst others enjoyed splatting paint onto the tile with the help of their parents and IMA volunteers. IMA thanks Bunnings Warehouse for their generous donation of ceramic tiles to help us conduct this activity.

Mosaic Box Decoration

The last day at Northlands involved getting our teeth stuck into mosaic box decoration! Workshop participants were invited to choose their own paper maché box from a range of styles that we had on offer, later adorning them from our selection of colourful mosaic tiles, sparkling diamantes, or drawing designs onto the box using bright pens. Students had great fun decorating a box that reflected their unique identity, some choosing to decorate it for themselves and others generously making presents for friends and family.

IMA is grateful to Northlands Shopping Centre for providing us with this wonderful opportunity to host an array of exciting art activities as part of their ‘Let’s Celebrate Culture’ week this school holiday season. All our volunteers had great fun working with the students and helping them participate in these activities to their full potential, we thank them profusely for their selfless dedication towards furthering educational and cross-cultural encounters.

IMA looks forward to welcoming you all to future workshops celebrating cultural diversity through the artistic medium – watch this space!

IMA @ Northlands