Art show defies Black Saturday devastation
The Age
Saturday October 31, 2009
FOR 17 years Marysville Primary School has run an annual art exhibition, showcasing local and interstate talent over the Melbourne Cup weekend. This year the only thing left of the school is a desolate field of rubble and charcoal €” but the art show is bigger than ever.Relocated to Taggerty Town Hall, the show opened last night with an eclectic collection of 232 Australian works. All proceeds will go towards funding the new school.Among the artists is Aaron Burfield, 18, who collected the charred residue of the fallen structure to produce an image of the school before the fires. "I was so touched by what had happened, that I just had to give something to the community €” and the only thing I have is art," he told The Age yesterday."You can rebuild a structure, but you can never bring back the primary school as the locals remember it. I tried to bring it back."Mr Burfield has been travelling with his father between Adelaide and Marysville, working with the school since May.While he's been supported by friends, family and colleagues, he has still invested a few hundred dollars out of his own pocket for the cause. "I was actually saving up for a car, but early this year I quit my job, started busking with my guitar to raise funds, and then started working with different charity organisations full time," he said. Kylie Cairns, a staff member of Marysville Primary School, and manager of the exhibition, is optimistic about the future."Our heart and souls were in that school," she says, "but you can bet, come first term next year, Marysville Primary school will be back up and running."In a further sign of renewal, John Philip's annual Marysville heirloom tomato sale will take place this weekend in a neighbour's new garage in Barton Avenue, Marysville.The heirloom tomato sale will be held today and tomorrow, from 10am-4pm. The venue will be sign-posted.
© 2009 The Age
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