G A R M A    F E S T I V A L   A N D   G A P A N   G A L L E R Y

The Gapan Gallery at the Garma Festival is the print space's big event of the year - it's an annual event and the festival attracts about 2000 visitors each year- you can read more about it here - http://www.yyf.com.au

For the art centre is a very important weekend not only to generate sales but also to generate interest and contacts and have a bit of fun while camping.  The Gapan Gallery is an outdoor gallery that nestles itself just off site in a circle of stringybark trees,. We paint the tree trunks white with gapan (the white cay used for bark painting, and ceremonial body painting) we hang lights and the framed prints and we spread white sand to create a white gallery space , its magical. 

on opening night the ladies cry up the land in the darkness as everyone sits in the sand and then the lights come on and boom! 

The set up of the gaan gallery takes a bit of time but thats why we have Aimee and her clipboard - she is very organised and runs the show with impressive style and grace ... 

this is the day the sand arrived after we weeded the area

then Aimee arrived with her clipboard

we painted the trees white

 Godut, Paula and me

the finished result 

this year for something different we were coerced into doing a talk - a presentation of the printspace and the prints-  we did do pretty well considering ALL of us loathe public speaking - I look alright with a microphone ! not

you can read a bit more here http://www.yyf.com.au/news/detail.aspx?SubjectID=1&ArticleID=34 

we had some help from Denise Salvestro a great women doing her Phd on the 

print space -  most useful!

crowd

the shy Bawu speaks about her print

and Burrthi about his - he looks good with a microphone! 

the festival opened Friday 1st August and ran until Tuesday - 

after the pack down we packed our bags and flew to Darwin for the

Art Fair, Art Awards and another full-on intense week but

more on that later ...