MALA & GLENN
Schoolhouse Studios
Schoolhouse Studios (SHS) was co founded by Alice Glenn in March 2010 on the site of the former St. Joseph’s Technical College and more recently the Sophia Mundi Steiner School at 73-97 Nicholson Street, Abbotsford.
The SHS community grew exponentially within 9 months from 27 tenants to over 100 in 2012. Glenn transformed the disused and dilapidated buildings into a thriving community with little to no start up capital. The project was realised through community contribution and elbow grease.
SHS went on to secured a new home at 81 Rupert St Collingwood in 2014; a pre-development site owned by development company Molonglo Group. SHS raised $150,000 and again embarked on process of transforming a vacant site into one of Melbourne’s most renowned cultural hubs.
Today the Rupert St site is home to around 100 artists and creatives, Mankooshe café, and weekly public events exhibitions. A second site in East Brunswick was opened in 2016 providing studios and workshop space for a further 40 creatives. Since formation in 2012, SHS has housed more than 1000 resident artists and hosted hundreds of exhibitions and events.
Over the last 8 years with Alice Glenn at the helm Schoolhouse Studios has successfully adapted three warehouses spaces clearly displaying her ability to design and construct creative villages from the ground up.
No Lights No Lycra Education
What is NLNL?
No Lights No Lycra is a global dance community providing an inclusive and non-judgmental place for people to dance in the dark. We grew from a small gathering in Melbourne into a global community, simply because joy is contagious, and people love to dance.
What is the School Ambassador Program?
The NLNL Student Ambassador program has been designed around the The Australian Student Wellbeing Framework. Schools play a critical role in supporting students to make healthy lifestyle choices and to understand consequences of lifelong health and wellbeing.
The link between health and wellbeing and positive body image, confidence and academic performance is well researched: Healthy students are more alert, engaged and better able to concentrate and learn.
Designed in collaboration with high school students, The NLNL Student Ambassador Program gets your school community moving for better health and wellbeing.
Steph Hughes Collaborative Murals
Steph has been creating community art projects based around drawing, play and mural making for the past few years, enjoying and believing in the connection artistic expression in a group creates, and striving to break down the potentially intimidating elements of art making. Her passions for sustainability, connection, and community always make their way into her work.
Recent work includes two community murals at the Russell Street renovation project (Coburg) with local students communicating and drawing their visions of a Sustainable community. This work was a finalist in the Premier’s Design Awards 2020.
https://conversations.moreland.vic.gov.au/russell-street-community-art-project
At Fleming Park in East Brunswick, Mala and Glenn were brought in to create a mural with participants from the sporting and music clubs that work and play on the oval. (Brunswick Lacrosse Club, Brunswick Bowls Club, Moreland City Band) This collaborative project was brought together remotely through Naarm’s sixth lockdown, creating a sense of connection with the clubs although activities were on hold.
In ‘Faces & Places’ (a collaboration with Playable Streets) 60 local participants were brought together (remotely) through a pen pal/sketchbook program. Rolled out over 6 months and two lockdowns, 30 older community members (from aged care facilities Wintringham and Northern Gardens, and additional local citizens) riffed with 30 local school kids on their favourite humans, places and thoughts on their beloved Coburg neighbourhoods. This succeeded in creating safe intergenerational community connections during these complicated collaborative times, and resulted in a huge, vibrant patchwork mural of their work, painted over a week in December 2020.