The Zillmere Story Book

A Creative Community Project

Jun 26, 2007 Jo Murphy

The Zillmere Story Book, a Brisbane City Council - Creative Communities Project has brought the community together to make art and create a record of life in the suburb.

The Zillmere Story Book is the culmination of three months of community art workshops drawing on the stories of contemporary life and the culture of Zillmere and the surrounding region. The Story Book “is a treasured hand made record of life in Zillmere” (Project Overview)

This is how the Zillmere Story Book was constructed.

The bound book shell was created by Collection Preservation; State Library of Queensland
Originally intended to be 154 pages, the size became unwieldy, causing us to reduce it to 124 pages of A3 size high quality card pages. As it was bound each page was reinforced by a protective guard. This precaution ensured that the spine of the book would not be damaged by the bulkiness of the original artwork taped to its pages.
The construction of the book was well planned.
Together project workers mapped out

A Title Page
A Page on which to present 2 forewords
A Project Brief Page
There was to be 120 numbered pages
Each page would proudly display the artwork of a member of the Zillmere Community. The artwork would speak of that participant’s relationship to and their experience of Zillmere.
During the workshop process the size of the pages or canvas was kept relatively uniform
There was to be an index at the back of the book.

The pages were carded mostly with a very slim black edge. Occasionally some of the carding was slightly changed. This was so that in the event of slight non- uniformities the differences would not jar or look out of place
The Names of the participants of the project were hand written under the picture as was the Title of the Image and a Sentence explaining the meaning and relevance of the picture.
Very soft guidelines were drawn so that the artist knew exactly where to paste the picture
Each artwork once carded and touched up was adhered to the page with double sided tape.
Very feint lines were placed so that writing could be uniform and each work was written lightly in pencil before being written over in black and the pencil guides erased.
As the process evolved participants were asked to write their sentence on a page that also housed their permission statement. This meant that their work could be included in the book. This process kept assemblage manageable. It provided for accountability.
As the project evolved different styles were morphed. It seemed that different styles and mediums suited different smaller community groups.
The book eventually presented an interesting blend of digital presentation combined with predominantly hand created statements.
A major change to the original plan became necessary by the end of the project. It was agreed that smaller children could not manage turning the pages from front to back. Some were unable to locate their names on the index. They found it difficult to scour the book with a view to finding their own work.
It was agreed to bring the index forward and to paste it just inside the front cover so that kids could locate their name as though on a chart.

Now complete the book is large enough to deserve a table with a specially constructed pillow to protect its spine. It remains open as a permanent acquisition of the Zillmere Municipal Library. If you are in the area – drop in – you will be most welcome!

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The copyright of the article The Zillmere Story Book in Arts Education is owned by Jo Murphy. Permission to republish The Zillmere Story Book in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.