Anime Soul – Art Exhibition and Anime Workshop

Art Mania Studio was very lucky to be asked to be a part of the City of Newcastle Count Us In festival for 2023. Count Us In is an annual festival celebrating accessible arts in Newcastle, which this year included events such as inclusive sports days, professional training days, wetlands tours, discos, ghost tours, game […]

Music & people flourish at Art Mania

Music creates special moments Sometimes there are golden moments in the Art Mania Studio. Impromptu, out of nowhere, perfect moments that tell us that we are on to something really special. At work if you can’t find Gino Palmieri teaching one of his painting and drawing classes, you’ll often find him strumming on a guitar […]

Refractions: Diversity From Within

 Thank you so much to all those who came along for a fun afternoon with us, on Sunday 14th August, to celebrate the launch of our exhibition at Lake Macquarie’s Museum of Art and Culture titled ‘Refractions: Diversity Within’. Our amazing artists (pictured above David, Fee, Andrew, Lara, Gini, Geoff, Opaque, Absent: Indi). Each artist […]

LOCKDOWN WITH A LABRADOR

It’s been weeks since we went into lockdown and my golden labrador and guide dog Aimee is not happy. Not only is she unhappy, she is making sure I know it! Once a week, on a Tuesday morning, my support worker, Alichea, and I take Aimee to the dog beach. Aimee knows the routine and […]

HOW ART IS MAKING ME BRAVE

I am not a particularly practical person. If something breaks or stops working around my house, I contact the real estate  so they can send someone to fix it for me. If my computer plays up, I call one of the IT techs at Guide Dogs so they can talk me through the process of […]

STAFF SPOTLIGHT: ANDREW

Andrew is one of our glass fusing and lead light teachers. He is also responsible for kiln maintenance firing schedule development. If anything goes wrong with the kilns, both glass and clay, it is Andrew who is comes in to save the day and keep everything running and stopping general panic amongst students wanting to […]

SKILLS I’VE LEARNED AT ART MANIA STUDIO

In the last few weeks, I’ve been struggling with my inner critic,. Every time I’ve sat down here at my laptop and tried to put a post together, my inner critic has woken and started nagging at me, making me question everything I’ve tried to write. So this post is going to be a little […]

The Two Jimmys

When I started taking classes in pottery last year, I began to hand build creatures out of clay. They were initially creatures from my head. Mythical creatures that live in dreams and fantasy stories. One day, I was beginning what I expected to be another mythical creature. This piece of clay had other ideas, I […]

Digital Accessibility Day

This week on the 20th May, we celebrated Global Accessibility Day. A day to focus on the digital access world for people with disabilities. It would be easy to assume that the digital world has made it easier to access resources, information etc for those with a disability. And in many ways it has been […]

International Guide Dog Day

The last Wednesday in April is International Guide Dog day. A day to celebrate the work that our incredible four legged friends do for us every day. It’s also a day when the Guide Dog association focuses on a particular issue specific to guide dog teams. This year, it’s responsible pet ownership. One of the […]