TICKETS - SOLD OUT
Saturday 8th July 2023
5pm - 9pm
Discover Montsalvat by night with amazing art, music, poetry + more!
Montsalvat WinterFest returns on Saturday 8th July 2023 from 5pm – 9pm. Join us for an evening of art, dance, roving fire twirlers, live music and poetry readings plus delicious food and mulled wine! Warm up by the fire side, marvel at art and artists, explore your creativity and experience the beauty of winter at Montsalvat.
This is a ticketed event. Join the waitlist for tickets by clicking the link below. You will be notified by email if any tickets become available.
TRANSPORT:
We strongly recommend catching public transport to the event and allowing extra time to arrive.
Carparking: Montsalvat has extremely limited carparking and this will be reserved for limited mobility ticketholders. Parking on Hillcrest Avenue is strongly discouraged as it is highly likely you will obstruct neighbouring properties.
Public Transport: We highly recommend parking your car in Eltham township and catching bus #582
Eltham Station is on the Hurstbridge train line. Montsalvat can be reached from bus #582. Disembark at the Rockliffe St/Mt Pleasant Rd stop and walk a short distance along Hillcrest Ave to Montsalvat.
Free Shuttle Bus: This bus will run from 5pm – 9pm. Pick up location is from the Eltham train station, please look out for the Montsalvat WinterFest signage. The bus will operate between Eltham train station and Montsalvat. Once the bus is full at each end it will depart. The bus journey is approximately 5-10 minutes.
ACCESS:
Montsalvat has gravel pathways, uneven heritage pathways, steps, stairways, and overhead archways. Please be mindful and take care when moving around. Do not run and please supervise minors (under 18 years of age) at all times.
We highly recommend flat, supportive footwear (gumboots may be a good idea!).
CONDITIONS OF ENTRY:
BYO picnic rugs and low chairs are permitted.
Children (under 12 years of age) must be supervised at all times by a responsible adult.
No pets are allowed due to the birdlife at Montsalvat. Please do not touch or feed the birds.
No BYO alcohol or food permitted. Alcohol purchased from bars must be consumed within 5 metres of the bar service area.
No smoking permitted.
———
LIVE MUSIC
Pablo Naranjo
5pm – 7pm Barn Gallery
Pablo Naranjo is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer whose career spans over twenty years as the leading composer/songwriter of rock band Septimo Aposento and classical/jazz guitar duo Orbeum. Pablo's music features the guitar as the leading instrument in all his pieces. ‘Ecos del Frio’ is Pablo’s latest album and has been recently described as 'an expansive and meditative journey' by Sydney magazine Happy Mag.
———
Vardos Trio
7.30pm – 9pm Great Hall
Image: Melissa Savickas.
Driven by violinist Alana, chased by Kirri (double bass) and Sofia (accordion), Vardos play folk and Romany music learnt from Rroma (Gypsy) musicians during their Eastern European travels. Formed late last century, Vardos have played in every state of Australia, toured to Europe, Britain, New Zealand, New Caledonia, and the U.S. and appeared in film and television.
———
DANCE
ONDINE Leila Lois + David Slattery
5.30pm – 6pm Great Hall Gallery (Upper Gallery)
Image: David Slattery.
An ancient legend of Celtic origin, Ondine tells the story of a woman torn between two realms: the land and the sea, navigating the tides of love and loss.
Leila Lois and David Slattery have collaborated on this immersive performance, using original choreography, poetry and music to activate the liminal, other-worldly spaces of Melbourne’s waterways, teeming with collective history and beauty.
David Slattery is an artist with a diverse range of interests including instrumental music, painting, photography and video. Since the pandemic, David has developed an emerging interest in Dance and a collaborative practice with Leila Lois involving choreography, video and photography.
Leila Lois is an interdisciplinary artist, a dancer and writer of Kurdish Celtic origin, who has performed and published her work in Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania.
———
CHILDREN’S WORKSHOP
5pm – 6.30pm Clay Talk Ceramic Centre
A free drop by session where children will paint ready made ceramic shapes that celebrates the winter season! All child safe materials provided in the warmth of Clay Talk Ceramic Centre, this will be an experience for your child not to miss!
———
OPEN ARTIST STUDIOS
Mary Caia
Montsalvat Studio Artist Mary Caia brings the ingenuity of visual concepts to life. Her impressions of the human form, nature and the animal kingdom are executed with a detailed eye to create images full of colour, harmony and a connectedness with the viewer. www.marycaia-artist.com
Carmen Tuke
Carmen Tuke is a multi-faceted artist whose skillset ranges from sculpture, printmaking, metalwork, painting and baking. Carmen is also a skilled musical instrument maker and plays experimental music on her harp and gong. www.ectuke.com.au
Rochelle Van Der Merwe | Storyholding
Montsalvat Studio Artist Rochelle Van Der Merwe is a writer, photographer and contemporary collage artist. She creates a portal to a wondrous, fantastical world through her art that celebrates the powerful healing nature of simple, mostly everyday pleasures, transcending external societal values, such as status, race and gender. www.storyholding.com.au
Ryo Yamauchi | Life Drawing Project x Samuel Lawrence
Montsalvat Studio Artist, photographer and printmaker Ryo Yamauchi holds a life drawing session with performance artist Samuel Lawrence. Ryo has been exploring how improving observation, spatial cognition and dexterity through life drawing feeds into different aspects of creative life. In Justus’ Studio - one of the most symbolically valuable spaces in Montsalvat, visitors are invited to try drawing and immerse themselves in the history of the place and the ephemeral beauty of the human form. www.ryoyamauchi.com
———
ART INSTALLATIONs
LUMINOUS Susan Reddrop
Be curious and you might find a glowing surprise by Montsalvat Studio Artist Susan Reddrop!
Community-made Lantern Installation
Bring a friend and come along to a lantern workshop before the event to make your own creation and see it installed in the grounds on the night of Montsalvat WinterFest! Guess what! Workshop tickets include WinterFest entry. Book into a workshop by clicking here.
———
POETRY
Steph Amir, Katia Ariel, Gayelene Carbis, Barbara Kamler + Lisa McNeice
7pm – 8pm Long Gallery
Steph Amir is a statistician, parent, and emerging poet. Her poems have been published in Australia and internationally, including by Australian Poetry Journal, Burrow, Foam:e, Plumwood Mountain, StylusLit, TEXT, and others. In 2021, she was a Writer’s Victoria Writeability Fellow (a fellowship for writers with disabilities) and in 2022 was shortlisted for the Lord Mayor’s Writing Awards. Steph can be found on Instagram @steph_kaymir.
Katia Ariel (she/her) is an author, book editor and educator from Melbourne/Naarm. She was born in Odessa, Ukraine. Her memoir, The Swift Dark Tide, chronicles the discovery of queerness later in life, as well as the history of desire and rebellion in her female line.
Gayelene Carbis’s first poetry book, Anecdotal Evidence, was awarded Finalist, International Book Awards, 2019. Her second poetry book, I Have Decided to Remain Vertical (Puncher and Wattmann) was published in 2022. Gayelene recently won the Ros Spencer and My Brother Jack Poetry Prizes; Best Micro Fiction Award (SF3 Festival Awards); Runner-Up in the Val Vallis Poetry Award 2023; Finalist, Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Writing (Poetry); and Second Prize, Newcastle Poetry Award. She teaches Creative Writing at various universities.
Barbara Kamler is a poet and educator who came to Australia in 1972 and developed a distinguished academic career over the next forty years. Her latest book, Love, regardless, is a collection of poetic portraits celebrating love that endures, as lived by fourteen couples—across ages, sexualities and cultures. Her debut collection, Leaving New Jersey is a memoir told though prose poems, exploring the upheaval, loss and reconnection in moving from one country to another.
Lisa McNeice is a poet, songwriter and painter whose explorations focus on the operation of landscape and treasured objects on memory and therefore on the stories we tell ourselves. Lisa loves to collaborate to give voice to ideas through words, images and music.
———
ART EXHIBITIONS
James Voller
Barn Gallery
This exhibition is an immersive photographic installation that examines place, photography, and the meeting points of digital and technology.
James Voller is the Founder and Creative Director of Collide. Collide is a public art initiative at the intersection of art and architecture.
———
BLACKBIRD Hayley Miro
Long Gallery
Hayley Miro is a Melbourne-based artist specialising in analogue photography, printed by hand in her colour darkroom. This exhibition is a collection of photographs, drawings and text inspired in part by the mythical story of Echo, the less familiar character in the infamous story of Narcissus.
———
Helen Skipper
Resident’s Gallery
Helen Skipper (1914-2000) is a founding member of Montsalvat, the mother of Sebastian and Sigmund Jorgensen and a talented visual artist and horsewoman. See a selection of paintings on board and tapestries by this important artist whose skyscapes and other works evoke the mystery of Montsalvat during the 1930s-1960s.
——
FOOD + BEVERAGES
Yo India
Pizza Forno
Happy Kransky
Jerry’s Vegiburgers
The Boulevard Restaurant
Pookie May Coffee
Flo’wn Desserts
JoyHa Chai
Mulled Wine Bar
Montsalvat Bar
———
SHOP
Montsalvat Ceramic Goblets
$30 each | Available for purchase at WinterFest!
Beautifully handmade ceramic goblets made at Montsalvat by master potter, Sergei Shatrov. Collect your one-of-a-kind handmade ceramic goblet on the night to take home as your own to cherish forever. Fancy a mulled wine in your goblet? Just take your goblet to the Mulled Wine Bar and enjoy!
———
Proudly supported by IndigiPrint.
