YOORALLA Mansfield Community Hub are holding their first professional art exhibition entitled ‘Creative Minds’ from October 4-27 at the Mansfield Arts Collective Studios (MACS) in Crosby’s Lane.

Over the last nine months Mansfield Hub artists have worked on new artworks for the exhibition with the support of staff and art therapy student Felicity Heyward.

Felicity is completing the final year of her master’s degree online at The MIECAT Institute in art therapy.

The exhibition is part of Felicity’s final year project for her placement at the Mansfield Hub.

“We had to come up with an idea for our project,” she said.

“It could have been a mural, or something as small as writing a policy for that company.

“The institution that I’m studying with focusses on the tactile nature of materials, so everything always come back to working with how these materials interact with the person and their body as well and that's why I chose to organise the exhibition.”

There are 20 artworks in the exhibition and 14 Mansfield Hub artists are taking part.

The artists experimented with different art mediums and concepts including collage landscapes to recycled sculptures.

“The exhibition aims to allow artists to see their work in a gallery setting and receive an income from their art sales,” she said.

“All of the artworks cost around 60 dollars.

“However, we have one gentleman who has made a piano keys sculpture which will be a little bit more expensive, because there was a lot of work involved.”

Felicity said this exhibition recognises the benefits of art therapy alongside the work of a number of talented local artists.

“One of my favourite moments was when I started making greeting cards with collage sticking pictures down," she said.

“I was working with one client and all of a sudden I had another client come and sit down and before I knew it, I had a table of all full of clients wanting to work on all these cards which was really nice.

"And when I first started one of the clients he was using the paint roller and I was doing circles with him and then the following week he started drawing family, people and faces for the first time.

"It was amazing seeing him come such a long way with his art."

Suzanne Green has worked in disability support in Mansfield for 18 years and she is the acting service manager at the Mansfield Hub.

She said creating art is a way for the artists to pause and have some relaxation time.

“We don’t rush through the process, and they are focused on the task which is really nice,” she said.

“Seeing the clients using different materials has been really interesting, because I think we all get set in our ways of using the same things over and over again.”

Felicity said she could not pick a favourite artwork in the exhibition.

“They all have got something special for me and it’s the stories behind each one of them and particularly the people that I’ve worked with here,” she said.

“We worked on a lot of them together and at the institution I study at we call it co-creating.

“All of the pieces are fabulous and they’re all different too, so there’s something for everybody in all of them.”

The exhibition is free and will be open the public during MACS operating hours (11am to 3pm Friday to Sunday).

The exhibition will be opened on Friday October 4 at 5:30pm.

Everyone is invited.