Photographer and film-maker Hayley Millar Baker is the recipient of the Collingwood Yards First Nations Studio Residency, announced by the Collingwood Yards First Peoples’ Reference Group.
The studio residency offers a free space for 24 months to a single artist or duo, located in the second floor studio complex of Collingwood Yards’ Perry Street Building. Hayley Millar Baker will take up her residency at the first available opportunity, using the time and space to work on upcoming commissions.
“I’m very excited to be awarded the First Nations Studio Residency at Collingwood Yards. It has come at a pivotal moment in my career where I’m stepping into a new chapter of my practice, a reinvention, with new mediums and narratives,” said Hayley.
This announcement marks the second year of The Collingwood Yards First Nations Studio Residency. Much loved elder, author, and artist Uncle Jack Charles was the inaugural studio Resident in 2020/21, and has since joined the permanent studio community.
The First Nations Studio is an initiative of the Collingwood Yards First Peoples Reference Group, an advisory group composed of Board Directors, tenants and sector experts who identify as First Peoples alongside Traditional Owners of the site.
The Expressions of Interest call out attracted an incredible response – more than 25 high quality applications were received across diverse disciplines from a field of experienced and exciting talents.
The applications were assessed by representatives from the Collingwood Yards First Peoples Reference Group, tenants Tony Briggs and Moorina Bonini and Board Director Eugenia Flynn.
“Hayley is a prime example of why it’s imperative that Collingwood Yards, and similar establishments, provide workspaces for our Indigenous artists to flourish,” said Actor, director and writer Tony Briggs.
“Artists such as Hayley are the very fabric of Melbourne’s international reputation as the arts capital of Australia. We are proud to support her.”
The Collingwood Yards First Nations Residency is the most recent addition to a strong cohort of First Nations artists and organisations at Collingwood Yards.
Hayley Millar Baker is a First Nations woman and research-based artist who uses modes of photography and film to interrogate the way memories are made through acts of remembering and misremembering.
She reflects upon the potential for recollections and accounts to become improvised and embellished. Millar Baker explores human experiences through a narrative-guided lens that is non-exclusive and non-linear. Hayley is represented by the Vivien Anderson Gallery.
The First Peoples Reference Group ensures that CAP’s operations, programs and activities engage with and respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The First Peoples Reference Group guides and advises all aspects of tenant and community operations at Collingwood Yards that identifies as being by, about or for First Peoples.
Collingwood Yards acknowledges the traditional owners and sovereign custodians of the land on which Collingwood Yards is situated, the peoples of the Woiwurrung and Boonwurrung language groups. We extend our respect to their Ancestors and all First Peoples and Elders past, present, and future.
Situated on the former Collingwood Technical School campus, Collingwood Yards is a thriving artistic hub for artists and the community. For more information, visit: www.collingwoodyards.org for details.
Image: Hayley Millar Baker (self portrait)