Pages of Me is a new multimedia project by Beci Orpin, exploring the journey of finding happiness through individuality and embracing one's unique self.

Drawing from her textile-focused background, Orpin delves into mascot culture, crafting a larger-than-life mascot set within a large textile structure. The textiles will feature oversized pages from her sketchbook, blending bold patterns, random imagery, and messages of realistic optimism. 

In addition to celebrating positive individualism, the work touches on themes of future nostalgia, luck (both good and bad), and femininity. Together, these elements create a visual representation of Orpin's metaphysical self—both weird and wonderful.

The exhibition will also invite viewers to get involved, encouraging them to create their own mascots based on the qualities they appreciate about themselves, fostering pride in their identity.

Image courtesy of the artist.

Catherine Opie has an international reputation as one of the leading photographers of her generation. The exhibition at Heide combines key works from across her oeuvre with a focus on notions of affiliation.

It traverses Opie’s early, most recognisable works exploring constructions of gender and sexuality, through alternative conceptions of the nuclear household—chosen family portraits that transcend traditional familial ties—to more recent musings on solidarity and collective action in the face of proliferating global crises.

In 1994, Heide exhibited eighteen of Opie’s portraits in the exhibition Persona Cognita, curated by Juliana Engberg. That exhibition represented Opie’s first showing in Australia, and now almost three decades later Heide will host the first survey of the artist’s work in this part of the world. 

Catherine Opie - Oliver in a Tutu. Image courtesy of the artist.

It can be fun to plan an overseas holiday where you set your itinerary. Sometimes you don't want to be stuck on a bus and herded like cattle when you travel. You want to be free and tailor your own schedule. 

These two 2.5 hour informal sessions will explore how to plan, book and enjoy an overseas vacation when you want to do your own thing. 

We will explore how to go about this complicated exercise including:

• what to plan
• how to estimate the cost, and zoom in on the actual cost through the process
• when to use a travel agent and when not to use a travel agent
• economy versus premium economy versus business class – air travel
• fly/drive versus bus tours
• consideration of train travel versus car versus bus for medium distances
• travel insurance
• difference between travelling to Europe, USA and Asia – language, culture and cost
• using money overseas
• internet and phone access
• planning for medication
• and much more depending on where the discussion and questions take us.

The session will be guided by an experienced overseas traveller and is not commercially motivated. 

The main focus of the sessions will be to answer questions in advance of your proposed planning and travel – especially if you have not travelled internationally or not travelled for many years.

Manningham Art Gallery is excited to present Gosia Wlodarczak's A Space of Facial Deconstruction. 

Over a five-day onsite performance, Gosia will create a large-scale drawing installation spanning across the interior of Gallery One. 

The gallery environment and self-portraits submitted by Manningham residents are translated into shapes through Gosia’s senses. In a continuous process of meeting, overlapping and collision - in endless movement, the ongoing change and exchange will create a drawing installation over the period of the performance.

The result will be a stunning group portrait of the Manningham community.

View the performance

• Visit the gallery between 11.00am to 5.00pm from Tuesday 29 November to Saturday 3 December to watch Gosia's drawing performance

View the completed artwork

• Visit the gallery during regular opening hours up from Wednesday 7 December to Saturday 17 December to see the completed artwork.

During your visit to the gallery, you can also explore A Fragment of the Infinite Magnificence by Zahra Marsous in Gallery Two. 

For further information on submitting your self-portrait and getting involved, please visit Gosia Wlodarczak: A Space of Facial Deconstruction.

Photo Credit: Longin Sarnecki

Spirit Worlds and Dreamscapes explores for the first time Albert Tucker’s lifelong fascination with spiritual and esoteric ideas and how he integrated his belief in invisible forces into his art.

The exhibition has been made possible by the Albert and Barbara Tucker Foundation and is showing until 31 August 2025 in the Albert and Barbara Tucker Gallery.

Visit the Heide website for opening hours and information about how to plan your visit.

Image: Installation view, Albert Tucker: Spirit Worlds and Dreamscapes, 2025, photograph: Christian Capurro.

Explore a stunning reach of the Yarra River enjoying spectacular views as we rock hop over the escarpment and then along the gentler banks. Here we will see the results of more than 25 years of wildlife habitat rehabilitation.

The walk is 4.5km over 3 hours. Parts of the trail are not on a flat walking track and involve good balance and rock hopping. Please consider your ability to complete the walk, being mindful the group will need to keep a steady pace to complete it in the allocated time.

Wear solid walking shoes, weather appropriate clothing, a hat and sunscreen.

Participants must provide a mobile number.

Please note: This walk starts and finishes at different locations, so will involve a car shuttle with fellow walkers.

Location will be given upon registration.

This event is part our Manningham Spring Outdoors Series, where we offer a range of fun outdoor activities across Manningham.

You can also check what’s happening across other Councils by visiting the Spring Outdoors website.

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We acknowledge that racism continues to be a reality for many people in Victoria. This event provides an opportunity to hear from people who have explored this topic extensively with local communities, and those with lived experience.

Tackling Racism is an event to mark United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Manningham Council has partnered with Victoria University on a project mapping racism where it occurs, understanding the reporting barriers and supporting the needs of people who experience it.

Come along to hear Dr Mario Peucker, Associate Professor and Principal Research Fellow, share his findings from the report. Lingzhi Ruan, from Womens Health East, will talk about their anti-racism project Taking Action to Combat Racism with Mandarin speaking women. The event will also feature a panel consisting of local community members and the Eastern Community Legal Centre sharing their insights and experiences on tackling racism and promoting equality.

Want to reduce the amount of waste you produce, but don’t know where to start?

Join Nanna Anna to discover how small, simple changes in your everyday life can significantly reduce the amount of waste you produce.

Living a lower waste lifestyle is something that many Australians are keen to do, as it becomes increasingly obvious that our daily choices directly affect the environment. But when faced with the abundance of information available, it can be overwhelming to know where, and how, to begin.

This free face-to-face presentation is designed to help you explore ways to live a more low-waste lifestyle. It will cover practical examples of how to identify waste elements in your household; low-waste alternatives to everyday items and consumables; and different approaches to implementing low-waste strategies and habits in the future.

Registration is required and spots are limited.

As part of the Warrandyte Community Centre outdoor upgrade, a mural will be designed and installed by artist Angharad Neal-Williams.

Warrandyte residents are invited to join Angharad for a series of free, community-based workshops to collectively contribute to the thematic development of the mural.

Experience a range of different ways to create, contribute and brainstorm together and explore your favourite things about Warrandyte.

Catering will be provided.

Bookings essential via the registration link.

About the artist

Angharad Neal-Williams is an Illustrator, muralist and graphic recorder based in Melbourne. Her work combines strong line drawing with controlled colour and shape to create thoughtful, fun and conceptual drawings.

She utilises both digital and traditional mediums to ensure outcomes feel natural and expressive through quirky imperfections in the simple line work. Her style is distinctly optimistic and focuses strongly on the importance of composition and line.

In 2023 she was awarded Nillumbik Shire Council's Young Creative Leader of the year.

Photo credit: Fluid Imagery

At Manningham we want to ensure everyone feels supported and included. If you require any support to improve your experience, please send a confidential email to Emily Sweeney (Public Art Officer) at arts@manningham.vic.gov.au.

This group is for teenage girls, non-binary and gender diverse people to connect with others and develop confidence communicating their feelings and needs.

Participants will be supported to explore:

• experience of emotions in the body
• responses to conflict, including fight, flight and freeze responses
• communication of feelings and needs
• strengths and developing self-confidence
• needs for connection

This group is facilitated by skilled counsellors with the use of creative methods within an inclusive, strengths-based and trauma-informed approach.

Participants are required to participate in all 4 sessions. The maximum number of participants is 8.

Please note: this group is not suitable for those who are experiencing mental health issues that require more specialised professional support.

 

Imagine looking back on your life at what you've accomplished. 

Do you need motivation and encouragement to move forward in your life?

Reconnect with your dreams and desires at Doncare's Vision Board group. 

Facilitated by skilled Art Therapists and Counsellors, you will explore the following themes across the four sessions:

• Connecting to others
• Inspirational goals
• Personal values
• Future possibilities
• Fun and creativity

All materials will be provided.

The four sessions run on Wednesday from 10:30am - 12:00pm, commencing on Wednesday 30 April. Cost is $65 for 4 sessions; concessions are available.

Beyond the Table: The Dinner Party Reimagined  is a reimagining of a traditional dinner party, with a nod to 1970s nostalgia and celebrating one of the key gathering spaces in our homes, the humble dining table.

The installation is on display at Manningham Art Gallery as part of Melbourne Design Week, Australia's premier design festival featuring events across Melbourne and regional Victoria.

Emerging Manningham artist Isobel Goodman responds to and selects works from Manningham Council’s ‘Potters Cottage Collection,’ a grouping of vessels created by the Potters Cottage co-operative. The co-operative was founded in Warrandyte in 1958 to advocate for and sell handmade functional Australian pottery.

Goodman hand builds her signature papier mâché and plaster sculptures – organic and abstracted forms to reference a dinner party table setting – vases, cutlery, plates, and candlesticks that play off and create a contemporary juxtaposition against the Potters Cottage vessels from the 1970s. 

Surrounding the central dining table presentation is a display of paintings from local Manningham artist Jade Piltz. These works depict bright, layered and abstract domestic objects that encapsulate the exhibition’s celebration of communal gathering and ritual. 

During Melbourne Design Week (15-25 May) visitors can take home a flower to celebrate this exhibition. 

Artist Bios: 
Isobel Goodman was recently awarded a Bachelor of Fine Art from the University of Melbourne. Her practice focuses on sculptural exploration and the body’s navigation of space and environment through the perspective of APD (Auditory Processing Disorder). She invites audiences to examine their relationship between the physical self and how we navigate the world around us.

Jade Piltz is a Warrandyte painter and ceramist. She is fascinated by our innate search for belonging, our desire for meaning and relationships to change and transition. Using mark making, she explores the ways our interactions with surrounding spaces and objects, narrate and inform our lives.

This Exhibition was supported by Gabriela Mello, owner and director of Warrandyte Pottery, through artist mentorship and technical and conceptual support and curated by Lucy Beattie Hughes, Manningham Council’s Creative Industries Officer.

Jade Piltz, Alone, Together (detail), 2024,  acrylic on canvas, 168 x 122cm. Image courtesy of the artist. Photo by: Emily Brookfield.
 

 
Melbourne Design Week is Australia’s largest and leading annual design festival and takes place from 15 to 25 May 2025.

The 2025 program spans 11 days of 350+ events, exhibitions, talks, and installations throughout metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria.

Melbourne Design Week is a vital platform for emerging and established creative practitioners, offering the Australian design community and audiences the opportunity to engage with a diverse program of talks, tours, exhibitions, installations, and workshops. Melbourne Design Week is an initiative of the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria and is curated and delivered by the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV).

Visit designweek.melbourne to view the full program.


 

A Fragment of the Infinite Magnificence, explores connections between our private worlds and nature through dreamlike, intimate, interior scenes. A conveying of otherworldly moments that may not be perceived thoroughly by seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, and/or tasting.

“I want to take a part of it home, frame and keep it forever at the corner of my heart, inside my mind, in front of my eyes, or rather, become one with it. I am now reflecting a fraction of all that greatness. Anyone who looks at me will see her and her glory and beauty. Now we are one. She is in my home and, I am in hers. She has always been my haven.” - Zahra Marsous

Zahra Marsous (b.1987 Tehran, Iran) is a visual artist based in Melbourne, Australia. She was awarded a BA in Painting from Tehran University of Art in 2010 and a Diploma in Painting from the Visual Art School in Tehran.

Zahra has held several solo exhibitions in Iran and Australia and participated in numerous group exhibitions, festivals, and biennials. She is interested in the female form and its relationship to nature, emotions, and feelings.

Photo by Charlie Kinross. 

Join us for an engaging session presented by Musculoskeletal Health Australia (MHA) – Australia’s leading voice for musculoskeletal health.

Presented by Helen Jentz, MHA Chief Executive Officer, the session will help you:

• learn about the muscles, bones, and joints that keep us moving
• explore the nine most common musculoskeletal conditions in Australia as well as their impact, treatment options, and self-care strategies
• find out how to take charge of your health and be an active participant in your care.

Plus, get the inside scoop on The World’s Biggest Sit In – an exciting world record attempt for the largest chair-based exercise class on Sunday 26 October 2025.

Caroline Ellen is one of Australia's most trusted parent educators. Through her presentations, podcast, online courses, private coaching, and online membership, she has helped thousands of families build stronger connections. After 15 years of being a social worker specialising in children and families, Caroline has seen first hand what information and support parents really need in order to make changes at home. Caroline delivers difficult, often challenging information in a style that feels relatable, reassuring, and safe.

In Kids, nudes & the internet, Caroline provides practical resources and advice you can put into immediate action. We'll explore what you can do to reduce the risk of harm, and how to take action if things go wrong.

Caroline's advice is clear, actionable, and empowering. Parents walk away feeling more confident about what action they can be taken to protect their children and ensure a safer, stronger future.

This event is proudly supported by Manningham Councils Community Grants Program.

Hear from renowned psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg as he shares practical advice and strategies to help support young people in a rapidly changing world.

The seminar is designed for parents, carers and professionals, and explores the new, complex pressures facing young people today – social, emotional and digital.

Young people are navigating increased academic pressure, social media influences, anxiety about the future, and a sense of disconnection or overwhelm. Many struggle with self-esteem, managing friendships, and balancing online and offline life.

Dr Carr-Gregg will provide a deeper understanding of the challenges young people face, as well as clear, actionable tools to help them manage stress, build confidence, and thrive. 

Dr Carr-Gregg is a psychologist, author and broadcaster, renowned for his expertise in parenting, children, adolescents and mental health. He has written 18 books including Surviving Adolescents, When to Really Worry and Beyond Cyberbullying.

This is a free seminar, registration required as seats are limited.