QPAC

Arts Magic is a city-wide program that seeks to engage the Greater Springfield community through creative workshops and demonstrations including circus, dance and sculpture. This year, the program culminated in the inaugural Arts Magic Festival on Friday 14th August. 

The festival featured presentations from Queensland Ballet, CIRCA Zoo and Australian Dance Collective (ADC), as well as a stellar performance from Bobby Fox ahead of his role as Don Lockwood in Prospero Arts' Singin' in the Rain - In Concert. QPAC, a long-term Arts Magic partner, facilitated a drop-in arts workshop and display titled Wishing Tree.

A concept originally produced by QPAC's Out of The Box Festival in 2014, Wishing Tree is inspired by an ancient Japanese tradition made famous by Yoko Ono. During Tanabata in Japan, people of all ages make a wish, write it on a colourful strip of paper and tie it to a bamboo stalk which are often placed in a river to float away or set alight as an offering. 

Prior to the Arts Magic festival, QPAC held a workshop at Springfield Lakes State School during which students were encouraged to ‘write, draw or craft’ their wishes on paper tags. The tags then took pride of place in the Wishing Tree at the Arts Magic Festival for the public to enjoy and contribute their own. Including wishes for a sustainable Earth, clean seas, new siblings and the all-encompassing wish for ‘Love’, the tags hanging from the Wishing Tree.

For Brett Howe, Out of The Box producer and facilitator of the Wishing Tree workshops, Arts Magic presents an invaluable opportunity to provide arts education and facilitate self-expression with the Springfield Lakes community. “QPAC has a long relationship with Springfield, partnering to embed arts and culture as a foundation of strong communities and neighbourhoods," he explains. 

"We were thrilled to partner with so many of our arts colleagues and friends in the delivery of Arts Magic, an event that amplifies the opportunities for children, families and the whole Springfield society to celebrate the Arts in their own backyard.”

Each their own work of art, the Wishing Tree tags will be archived alongside a growing collection from previous workshops, allowing opportunities for reflection and celebration of the big wishes held in young hearts. 

Watch the video below to find out more about Arts Magic 2022.