it’s Kalyna & Bob

it’s Kalyna Micenko & Bob Daly, they are both acclaimed & passionate artists & they both know the power of art and all the good it can do for our community. Both of them along with a growing number of up and coming artists have created a thriving art scene in our Port & it’s doing so much good.

Here’s a little bit of Kalyna & Bob’s story & how they have become a driving force in using art as a way to bring our awesome community together.

Bob lets us know, “Kalyna & I came together about 35 years ago to work on the project in the Festival Theatre Group Exhibition and from there, we sort of developed a friendship because of our similarities in art, music etc. From there, I was working for the Education Department as an advisor so I would go to different school classes around South Australia and I would ask Kalyna to come and work as an artist in residence in some of those positions. So, over years we got to know each other & then we were invited to go to Pakistan to work collaboratively. We went together to work on the festival and they liked us so much they asked us to come back and design the next festival - which we did! We then went to Cuba, so we’ve been constantly working together on different things for a long time.”

Kalyna adds…“We worked together for years and years in Queensland. We’d work in remote and isolated places & help young people put together cultural activities that could include anything from painting T-shirts in schools (where there's literally five kids in total) to maybe, going up the road to a school to be met by a larger number, say 20 students and we would help them put a performance together. So, we did that for many years, all over the place from the Daintree’s all the way down to Birdsville then all the way to Western Australia and we worked on a production in Tasmania so we get to travel Australia quite a bit.” 

Recently they have both been asked to go to Thursday Island…. it’s fair to say they are in high demand & very popular.

Kalyna adds…“We are community artists, we get to work with young people in schools, kids at risk or adults in Community Groups helping to create art work… We find people want to create art but they don’t know how to go about it, so we are the community artists that come in & show them how to do it.”

They came up with a cool studio name, ‘Spinifex Australia’ to reflect the collective work they do.

As always, itsportadelaide hit them up with the big question… “Why do you do what you do?”…& this is what they said. Bob reckons, “We do the art because we are good at it & it brings us a lot of joy seeing other people have and enjoy art. I think I wouldn't have a very happy life if i wasn’t involved in art, I would be sad… so I think, although I'm not wealthy, I'm wealthy in other terms…life experiences and the ability to explore the world on my own.”

Kalyna’s take on the same question was equally as powerful… “Even when we have an exhibition of our own work from our studio, we always invite community in someway, whether it’s getting young people from a local school to help do a performance at the opening, or inviting emerging artists to exhibit along side us. Stuff like that - we just can't help involving our community in art.”

They both jump at any opportunity to involve the community…. they believe the more the merrier!

Kalyna & Bob are always up for adding colour into the places we live & play. They both agree that society can be a little boring at times and feel we are going through such a grey stage. They believe having a bit of colour, fun & celebration is good for the soul. Both feel they are able to help make that happen.

Kalyna & Bob moved to the area and became part of the community in 1995 and in 2005 with the help of other people they started up Port Adelaide Artist’s Forum. They did this so they could raise their own funds and be accountable for their own projects…working with community. 

Bob adds…”We found there was a need to work with not only the community but the artists to connect them and have them talk to each other. Artist’s in a lot of cases live a fairly lonely life working in their own space, so we created an opportunity for them to meet and we've set up a space so when they do meet we have food and refreshments available for them. When we do our projects, we are always really thinking about the wellbeing of the community and the way art can reinforce the positive potential.”

Kalyna… “Our Port has enormous potential and it's great that our City of Port Adelaide Enfield council supports with things like the Tour Down Under flags. That whole display was massive and we were able to work in schools with community groups so that everyone felt some sort of ownership with those flags. Even people that didn’t work on the flags felt connected to it - the tour was in our town and the images came from here, which was a really beautiful thing.”

In finishing up, Kalyna & Bob wanted to let you all know… “We need community organisations to consider including artists into work on particular projects…it’d be great to have the opportunity to give some ideas, or give an artist’s talk or presentation.” 

Kalyna shares… “Funding for community arts is needed because the people who come to our workshops aren’t always artists. A lot of people that come are lonely, have low confidence and community arts is a great way for them to be a part of the community, to feel really good about themselves and as a result the whole community benefits.” 

What a powerful medium these two have created which is serving so many people in our community. Take a bow Kalyan & Bob for sharing your gift with us all and setting up so many others to share your love of all things arty.

Please click on these links and check out all the great work that is happening at SpinFX AustrAliA, Port Adelaide Artist Forum & Gallery Yampu 

Port Adelaide Artists Forum’s ‘It Came from the Harbour’ current exhibition is open for one more week, all details are in the links above… enjoy!! — at Gallery Yampu.