THIS TIME last year FRANKSTON CITY BURSTS WITH ARTISTIC CREATIVITY
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“This anthology features 75 pieces; we’re incredibly proud of all those who participated and shared their stories,” Mayor Bolam said.
Proudly supported by Frankston Council as part of its $7.038 million Relief and Recovery Package to help the community recover from the impacts of the Coronavirus pandemic, ‘This Time, Last Year’ enables patrons to take a step back to last year and explore the inspired vision of our community.
Ms Chapman said: “Beach cleaning became an important part of my day. I’d go out with my gardening gloves, salad servers and large hat, and I’d be meeting people.”
ocal creative talents are on full display as part of the stunning ‘This Time, Last Year’ – a multidisciplinary art exhibition, time capsule, celebration and memorial all rolled into one at Frankston Arts Centre and Cube 37.
The opening event for ‘This Time, Last Year’ featured the launch of the community anthology, 'Stories at the End of the Line', on Friday 14 May. Mayor Kris Bolam said, “Brimming with bold, heartfelt, thoughtful and inventive pieces, 'Stories at the End of the Line' captures a remarkable time we’ll never forget thanks to members of the community sharing stories about their time in isolation. “Locals well and truly embraced this storytelling project with 143 submissions from writers aged 10 to 90 years sharing stories of love, loss, the mundane and the simple pleasures of family and friends. “They were all written during the first lockdown and submitted by the end of May 2020 – prior to the further lockdowns and hardship that unfolded in the following months.
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28 | PENINSULA
June 2021
Susan Chapman’s prose piece, ‘Beach Cleaner’, describes how casual walks during lockdown became a daily routine of searching for and removing rubbish from the foreshore.
“Being out in nature has been an important part of what we’re doing, and being able to write about it has been fun and something to share with people,” she said. “Cathartic is a good word for it, because our time on the beach has really saved our sanity,” Amy Newman’s piece for the anthology shares her experience of giving birth during lockdown and returning home to an environment where the normal post-birth supports were unavailable. Ms Newman said: “I’ve always been a keen writer. I wanted a way to develop my writing skills when I had just had my baby and it was also an ideal way of connecting with the community.” “I got a lot of enjoyment out of it. I was so thrilled to be a part of it,” Ms Newman said.