COOBER PEDY CREATIVE WORKSHOP

Umoona (Coober Pedy)

March 2024

Ku Arts hosted a week-long professional development painting workshop in March at Coober Pedy TAFE. Artists were invited to participate in a drop-in, drop-out style format, allowing them to create a body of work for the Flinders Medical Centre Arts in Health exhibition. This flexible approach encouraged creativity and collaboration among the artists while providing valuable opportunities for skill development.

The Coober Pedy, Strong Women exhibition was presented at Flinders Medical Centre in April 2024. The artworks were available for purchase online via the Ku Arts website, and 100% of the profits were returned to the artists.

These paintings we created together in Coober Pedy, we are sharing a bit of our Country in this show. Coober Pedy is known for opals, we are showing you something different, these are our landscapes, our creeks, waterholes, our Country. Painting brings us together in a safe, healthy, happy way. We share together, talk together, get advice from each other. Some of us have been painting for a long time, some of us are learning. Creating art makes us strong, painting makes us happy.

It’s like we are meditating when we are painting, when we create our minds get strong, for us painting is our healing, painting clears our minds.

Jillian Williams, Yankunytjatjara Artist from Coober Pedy.