By Mikayla van Loon
A colourful art installation has arrived in Mooroolbark just in time for the Celebrate Mooroolbark festival.
With the help of artist Graeme West, the festival committee organised to have two sets of wings installed on the walls of Mooroolbark library.
“In meeting with Celebrate Mooroolbark we were talking about getting families and particularly youth back involved with the festival,” Celebrate Mooroolbark marketing manager Bec Gilbert said.
Having seen a reduction in young people’s participation in the festival, Bec said the committee wanted to come up with an interactive way to bring younger people into the event.
“We wanted to make sure that there was an opportunity for people to get involved not only in person after the pandemic but online as well and to help spread awareness that the festival is on and that you can come and partake in this now we’re back to real life,” she said.
Bec said the wings were a simple way of “giving local angels the respect and acknowledgement they deserve” within the community and hopes they can become a permanent feature at the library.
With some experience in the wing art design space, Graeme said he views the wings as a symbol of returning to life after the pandemic.
“We often dream about superhero powers and what people usually think of is flight and wings,” he said.
You can stand in front of it and you can visualise yourself in that way. So the idea is about, we’ve been alive but just surviving a little bit. Now we get to possibly go out and just expand and fly to new horizons.”
Graeme said the purples, pinks, blues and greens used represent the festival’s logo and makes the design unique to Mooroolbark.
It also brightens up a corner of the library that had just been two blank brick walls previously.
Mooroolbark Library manager Angus Cooke said already he has noticed people stopping by to take photos and look at the craftsmanship of the wings.
“Just straight away people are going ‘oh, wow this is something in Mooroolbark and something in a community space’ and people also now realise there’s a library inside,” he said.
“Something like this is really good for us because it’s bringing people down, making them realise what’s in the community and is allowing them to access the resources.”
To help integrate the wings more into the library’s programs, Angus said it hopes to run fairy story times and other activities for the children.
The local angels project was funded by Yarra Ranges Council’s Art Attack program and will remain installed on the library walls for five years but Bec hopes it can be extended past that should the reaction be positive.
People are encouraged to take photos in front of the wings to be shared online with the hashtags #localangels #mooroolbarkwings and #celebratemooroolbark. There’s a set for adults and for children, with all abilities access as well to cater for everyone.
Celebrate Mooroolbark Festival will be held across two days on Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 March with lots of activities and events happening throughout the weekend.
