Coming soon

On April’s theme of MOVEMENT, skateboarder, experiential designer, and sustainable design advocate Kirby Clark discussed the urgency of action required for a liveable future. Drawing from their experiences, Kirby will share stories of feeling stuck, overcoming challenges, and taking the first steps towards positive change. From their work with Decks for Change to their leadership in adopting sustainable design methods, Kirby has learned that motion and momentum are critical to achieving real-world impact. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the state of the world, this is the kick-in-the-pants talk you need to start moving towards a more sustainable future.Thanks to our generous local sponsors BrightStar and Shayna Burns for supporting our speakers with presentation and SEO coaching, Shadowhouse for the video production, Offline Supply Co for the sweet notebooks, Belafonte Coffee for the incredible handmade bagels and coffee, The Commons for hosting us, and Mark Lobo Photography for continuing to support our events every month.

CORRUPTION // On our March theme of CORRUPTION, artist, performer and choreographer Holly Durant will be discussing her body and body of work as a performance artist, and ways in which she’s employed disruption and corruption of the body as a method of making and conceptual framework. An idea artist Yayoi Kusama describes as ‘evolution by obliteration’. Holly will be sharing some of her current PhD research on energetic materials and connections created by performing spaces and bodies and how they can create new worlds for future bodies.

As an artist and feminist, Holly aims to transform pejorative and oppressive limitations into generative actions. While corruption is often viewed solely as a negative force, Holly sees it as an opportunity to create positive change by growing something new from the cracks it creates. In her work, she challenges the traditional notion of beauty and strives to alter how bodies are perceived. By corrupting the established aesthetics and inherent links between appearance and attributes, she hopes to create a soft, embodied, and community-focused experience of looking and being looked at that empowers individuals to define themselves by their actions and relationships rather than by societal norms and stereotypes.

Thanks to our generous local sponsors BrightStar and Shayna Burns for supporting our speakers with presentation and SEO coaching, Shadowhouse for the video producyion, Offline Supply Co for the sweet notebooks, Allpress Espresso for keeping us caffeinated, The Commons for hosting us, and Mark Lobo Photography for continuing to support our events every month.

TOUCH // Claire Ellis - Chef-turned-ceramicist. Claire Ellis is a Canadian-born emerging ceramic artist and designer based in Naarm (Melbourne). While working as a chef at the internationally acclaimed restaurant in Naarm, Attica, Claire made tableware for the tasting menu and created a ceramics studio within the restaurant. Claire’s chef experience influences her work through a focus on raw materials and experimentation. Her research focuses on incorporating transformed waste materials into her work including glass, plastic, eggshells, ceramic sink trap waste, broken ceramics and rock by-products. Her current art practice explores avenues for environmentalism, activism and catharsis in ceramics.Thanks to our generous local sponsors BrightStar and Shayna Burns for supporting our speakers with presentation and SEO coaching, Shadowhouse for the video producyion, Offline Supply Co for the sweet notebooks, Allpress Espresso for keeping us fed and caffeinated, The Commons for hosting us, and Mark Lobo Photography for continuing to support our events every month.

SANCTUARY // Pony Club Gym is more than just another gym - it’s a sanctuary. It’s a big dream that hopes to integrate safety, education and this very important notion that ALL people deserve to have access to strength, fitness and wellbeing, regardless of who they are, how they live or what they believe. With a focus on Strength, Conditioning & Olympic Weightlifting, Pony Club aims to create space for those who typically would struggle to access a usual gym setting.

Yes, they’re focused on movement, but sport, like art, has always been a space for political change - because it’s the place where people come together.Thanks to our generous local sponsors BrightStar and Shayna Burns for supporting our speakers with presentation and SEO coaching, Shadowhouse for the video producyion, Offline Supply Co for the sweet notebooks, Allpress Espresso for keeping us fed and caffeinated, The Commons for hosting us, and Mark Lobo Photography for continuing to support our events every month.

The Truth Panel - Alice Edy, Mikey Ting, Carissa Karamarko, Erin Lewis-Fitzgerald, Dinzi Amobi-Sanderson.In this special end of year event and collaboration with The Imposter Syndrome Club podcast, we welcomed back a selection of our 2021 speakers who only got to present virtually to ask them some cold hard truths about their work, life and practice. Like a kind truth or dare, minus the dare. What do they fear? What were their biggest fuck up? What are they most proud of? What does their day-to-day life *actually* look like? Now’s your chance to ask!Thanks to our generous local sponsors BrightStar and Shayna Burns for supporting our speakers with presentation and SEO coaching, Shadowhouse for the video producyion, Offline Supply Co for the sweet notebooks, Allpress Espresso for keeping us fed and caffeinated, The Commons for hosting us, and Mark Lobo Photography for continuing to support our events every month.

Tony Corrales has spent the last 10 years working between online and offline marketing for not for profit organisations, along with consulting work in digital strategy and operations.

We spend our lives making decisions, solving problems and aspiring for outcomes. But what is the underlying motivation that drives you?

Whether you know it or not, it’s your ethos that guides you forward, painting each stroke on the canvas of your life.

But how many of us really reflect internally to identify what our ethos is? How does it differ from ethics? And how can identifying your ethos break down the barriers that have been holding you back?

Taking you on a journey from Joe Strummer to Elon Musk, we’ll be reflecting on the influence ethos has throughout our lives and how to consciously dial in to your north star to start feeling happier, more purposeful and more intentional in your day to day life.

Award-winning artist Dr. Sarah Jane Pell is an experienced Occupational Diver, aquatic performer and versatile art and science collaborator [#bendinghorizons].   

She is leading first-generation artist-astronaut crews of the commercial spaceflight era [#artistastronaut]. Her practice aptly begins underwater by connecting with deep ecologies to embody, and critique, the culture of exploration. Artefacts include sculptural, technical, poetic events and immersive media connecting bodies of water to bodies of knowledge and movement.

In the Studio and Lab, as in the ocean and space beyond, DEPTH matters. Pell’s talk will use the arc of a dive to describe strategies for working at depth, lessons learned for performing with positive pressure, exploring limits, rapture, calculating bottom times, safety stops and ascent lines, surfacing and sharing in the responsibilities of the blue economy and deep ecology that nourishes us. 

Thanks to our generous local sponsors BrightStar and Shayna Burns for supporting our speakers with presentation and SEO coaching, Shadowhouse Music for the original music composition, and Offline Supply Co for the sweet notebooks. Thanks also to Saxall Video and Mark Lobo Photography for continuing to support our events every month.

Poets are known to be delicate flowers, ill-equipped to handle the
harsh realities other creative types take in their stride (deadlines, having a job, “constructive” feedback etc.). In this talk, one such delicate flower, aka Alice Allan, will heal your relationship to criticism through the power of her words, just like Mary Oliver does in that one poem about geese.

Thanks to our generous local sponsors BrightStar and Shayna Burns for supporting our speakers with presentation and SEO coaching, Shadowhouse Music for the original music composition, and Offline Supply Co for the sweet notebooks. Thanks also to Saxall Video and Mark Lobo Photography for continuing to support our events every month.

Beyond surface-level confidence, spiritual confidence liberates you with the quiet belief and relentless drive to conquer challenges regardless of internal or external factors. 

Committing to your self-growth allows you to step into your higher self so you can achieve the seemingly impossible while better serving those around you. True confidence revolves around accepting and trusting yourself and feeling comfortable showing up as your true self, which then influences others to have confidence in you. 

Whether it’s in business or your personal life, it’s about nurturing your mindset and being kind to yourself while you run your own race, rather than getting caught up in the comparison game.

Thanks to our generous local sponsors BrightStar and Shayna Burns for supporting our speakers with presentation and SEO coaching, Shadowhouse Music for the original music composition, and Offline Supply Co for the sweet notebooks. Thanks also to Saxall Video and Mark Lobo Photography for continuing to support our events every month.

Dana’s theme is WILDERNESS. She will be exploring themes of slow fashion, creative inspiration and survival in the jungle of small business.

Thanks to our generous local sponsors BrightStar and Shayna Burns for supporting our speakers with presentation and SEO coaching, Shadowhouse Music for the original music composition, and Offline Supply Co for the sweet notebooks. Thanks also to Saxall Video and Mark Lobo Photography for continuing to support our events every month.