Maribyrnong Community-Engaged Residency
In 2026, Arts & Culture Maribyrnong is offering a Community-Engaged Artist Residency opportunity for an individual artist or collective to work with and celebrate the communities that use the Maribyrnong Community Centre. The program was previously offered at Braybrook Community Hub. In 2026, this program is being offered to the communities who use the Maribyrnong Community Centre.
2026 Maribyrnong Community-Engaged Artist in Residence
Community Archiving
Artist and educator Emma Ismawi is the Community-Engaged Artist-in-Residence at Maribyrnong Community Centre for 2026. During her residency, Emma will work with community members to create a small, co‑designed book/zine that gathers and celebrates some of the 80 languages and 135 cultures in the City of Maribyrnong. This project will be titled Community Archiving.
The book will celebrate the community's diverse backgrounds, histories, heritages and embodied knowledge, functioning as an archive that puts their stories in their hands. It will have a permanent home at the centre and the participants will receive a copy as a keepsake and to share with future generations.
Throughout the residency, Emma will host creative workshops and informal sessions where participants can make artwork and share stories together, contributing to a growing “living exhibition” in the centre’s foyer and the final publication.These free workshops cover subjects such as storytelling with objects, creating community maps, typography, zine-making, print-making, and book design.
About Emma Ismawi
Emma Ismawi is a multi‑hyphenate creative working across design, illustration, zines, printmaking, painting, producing and public art. Her practice centres co‑design and participatory methods, and she regularly runs workshops with people of all ages and backgrounds. Emma was previously commissioned under Council's StreetWORKS program to design and install a mural, Meet Me at the Centre, on the wall of Maribyrnong Community Centre.
How to attend Emma's workshops
All of the workshops will be listed in the Events directory on the Arts & Culture website. Workshops include:
- Object storytelling
- Cultural participatory mapping
- Diaspora dictionaries
- Zine-making
- Creative drop-in
- Experimental print-making
- Lino-printing and stamp blocks
- Open studio: design
- Open studio: community review
Browse the events page here
About the program
The Maribyrnong Community-Engaged Artist Residency is open to artists of all genres and mediums who can deliver an arts project that is developed with the Maribyrnong Community Centre users and community.
The program should celebrate the people, perspectives or local environment and the resident artist/s will engage the community as essential co-creators in the work - presenting arts participation opportunities suited to a range of ages, backgrounds, time commitments and arts experience levels.
The resident artist/s are expected to build a deep connection to the community, working part-time over approximately a 3 month period on a creative project. There is no requirement for applicants to either live or work in the City of Maribyrnong, however, connection to the local community and strong demonstrated experience in community arts practice will be viewed positively. Maribyrnong Arts & Culture encourages applications from First Nations and culturally diverse artists, as well as artists living in Melbourne’s west.
Maribyrnong City Council will provide artist fees of $10,000 as well as a contribution towards working materials, and marketing and producer support.
How to submit an expression of interest
Expressions of interest for the 2026 residency closed on 15 October 2025.
For further information on the program, read the guidelines
Guidelines for Community-Engaged Residency Program(PDF, 819KB)
Previous artists in residence and projects
2025 Braybrook Community Engaged Artists in Residence Activities
Slow Colour, Community and Well-Being was a project with Vietnamese-Australian textile artist, Phong Chi Lai of Studio PCL. The project invited the Braybrook and wider Maribyrnong community to connect and engage with each other, their green spaces and to uncover the hidden potential of plants.
The project included three months of free natural dyeing/eco-printing and stitching/making workshops and drop-in events open to all skill levels, resulting in a collaboratively created patchwork banner that acts as a shared record of the Braybrook community and the natural surroundings.
On Wednesday 6 August 2025, the Braybrook Community Hub hosted the launch of the banner with a celebration event. At the launch, Phong shared his observations from the project and unveiled the final textile banner.
The banner features patchwork squares created by participants and an embroidered border of words inspired by the values that make Melbourne’s western suburbs such a special place to live, work and creatively engage. It has been installed in Braybrook Community Hub for the community to enjoy for years to come.
2023 Braybrook Community Engaged Artists in Residence Activities
Machine Imagining
Machine Imagining is a project with artist Kate Geck, inviting the Maribyrnong community to explore the natural world in collaboration with machine intelligence. Through a series of free workshops, community members were invited to draw creatures from the local area - plants, animals and insects.
These drawings and photos were used to produce a community database of observations of the local, natural world. These datasets then trained machine learning models to generate new, machine imaginings of the Maribyrnong area. These imaginings were arranged through collage into large hanging textiles, and finally were finished with hand embroidery.
Kate worked with a dedicated and ongoing group of Braybrook community members through all stages of the project, spanning from January to June 2023. After a launch event in September 2023, these works will be displayed for all to enjoy in the Braybrook Hub Access Gallery until Friday 6 October 2023.
Image provided by Kate Geck.
Born in a Taxi
Acclaimed local performance company, Born in a Taxi, developed a new performance work about the wonders of being the age you are, with contributions from the Braybrook community! They collected perspectives from people aged 1-100 who were keen to share. During October 2023, Artistic Directors Penny and Carolyn set up conversation areas in the Braybrook Hub Foyer and popped into classes and gatherings for a chat about 'being your age.'
Photography by Bryony Jackson
2022 Braybrook Community-Engaged Artist in Residence Activities
Living Portrait Braybrook
Photograph supplied by Carla Gottgens
Celebrate the creativity and imagination of the people who use Braybrook Community Hub in the Living Portrait Braybrook photography exhibition, available for viewing in April and May 2022. Come along to the Hub and view photos installed along the walls of the entire building, connected by red string.
Living Portrait Braybrook creatively explores the identity of the people who use Braybrook Community Hub. Artists Carla Gottgens, Catherine O’Leary and David Wells collaborated with visitors to the Braybrook Community Hub to playfully explore how they would like to present themselves in a portrait. This interactive project was spread out across the lockdowns and restrictions of 2020-2021.
Together community members and the artists undertook a process of transformation using costumes and props to create an image that tells a story. In the finished portrait, a bright red line connects each photograph to the next, threading lives together and celebrating the spirit and diversity of the Braybrook Community.
Rapping workshops at Braybrook Community Hub
Want to try rapping? Learn how to write your own lyrics and set it to a beat? And what about the rest – copyright and getting it out into the world? Learn from professional rapper and musician One Sixth at Braybrook Edge!
The Western Edge Youth Arts rapping workshops in 2022 were a free 10-week intensive workshop geared to any artists or young people aged 14-25 years old who want to develop and harness their creative skills, and confidently join the global music community! They discussed the various aspects of the creative process and learnt from guests along the way who have experience in the industry and know what it takes to keep reinventing and creating as often as they can.
Pictured: Meet Me at the Centre by Emma Ismawi, Maribyrnong Community Centre. Photo by Nicole Reed