IN an artfully humanising move, a community project at Ginninderry’s The Link, has become the setting for a colourful  new barbecue area now open for members of the community.

Local region sculptors Al Phemister and Diana Vandermeys have for some time been in involved in a project called the “Link BBQ refresh”, which revolves around the barbecue area built by participants in the Ginninderry “Sparks” program, which allows young people with no experience to gain skills in a chosen path such as the building industry.

Phemister and Vandermeys worked with the conservation group that is working to save and relocate much of the flora and fauna in the Ginninderry area, then introduced many of these examples to kindergarten students at the local school, Kingsford Smith, who then drew pictures of what they saw.

These drawings were turned into stamps, later made by local indigenous high school students into terracotta tiles which form the splash back on the actual barbecue.

At a thank-you event, the young artists were able to see the results of their work over recent months and received duplicates of the arty tiles to take home to show mum and dad.

Vandermeys told the children how the colours and style of painting on the seating area had been inspired by the art of Elioth Gruner, who had won the Wynne Prize for landscape seven times and who loved the shapes and colours of the Murrumbidgee and Ginninderra gorge.

Another piece of good news was that under an agreement between Ginninderry and Strathnairn, after 10 years, the Link, now a display and information centre, would become a permanent part of Strathnairn Arts Centre. That time is not far off.

To celebrate the barbecue-refresh venture, an exhibition is running in The Link where the children show off the drawings, many showing “creepy-crawlies” they found around the precinct.

The children’s art can be viewed in The Link, adjacent to Strahtnairn, Holt,  until June 25.