Melinda from the Ballarat Imaginarium - Hidden Lanes Ballarat Self-Guided Tour

Hi, my name's Melinda Muscat and I'm the owner of the Ballarat Imaginarium. I started life out as an artist, a visual artist working across a lot of mediums. During COVID, I got to explore even more mediums and prior to COVID hitting, I used to sell my wares at the shop that used to be here prior to me, which was playing in the attic and at the gallery gift shop. And then, yeah, one day I came into the shop here and Trudy, who had playing in the attic, said, sorry, but I'm going to leave soon. And I just kind of went, oh, I've always wanted that little spot. So I took it on board. And the other reason was that I was really aware of like, there are just so many talented artists and makers in Ballarat. So I thought not only do I need a place to showcase my work, but so do all the other people in Ballarat. So the Ballarat Imaginarium is a place where you can come to view as many local makers, artists, locally made gifts as you possibly can. There are also other items that aren't locally made, but I try and keep that to a minimum. But at the same time, you've got a great selection of gifts, really unusual items, toys, and some art materials and retro items too. I love being able to tell people about the things that the artists make more than anything, I suppose. Particularly like there's, say for example, one of my latest favourite things is say, an artist named Maggie Parks. She's a jeweller. She makes things out of polymer clay and she has a very dark kind of look to her work. So firstly, when we say artists, I don't just represent visual artists. I also represent writers and musicians. There's with the visual work, there's everything from landscape arts to lives, to very surrealist work, printmakers, drawing, and then you've got sculpture. And my sculptures are fairly surrealist-like as well. And then with the writers, there's a real variety. Though I am finding that in Ballarat is, I think the genre of fantasy is a really big one, but there are also historians that have done works on places around Ballarat, that varies. And there's poetry in kids' books as well. And then with the music, there's everything from punk to Gothic, ambient sorts of work, acoustic, all sorts that way too. So it is a very, very eclectic mix of people. Well, I was drawn to Ballarat while I came here for a weekend away once, came to Ballarat. Ballarat to me was like, say, Fitzroy, just a hundred kilometres away. It's got amazing galleries. It's got really great community where everyone's really friendly. It's got a really good art crowd here that, yeah, just really make things happen. Yeah. And yeah, there are some cool, quirky things in Ballarat. We've got really good retro shops here and antique shops. The cafes have really built up and all the restaurants and all together with amazing old architecture that hasn't really been destroyed yet. And like, you look at our main street, it's just so beautiful. Yeah. With the rotundas and the gardens and everything. And we're surrounded by bushland within a few minutes of a drive from the centre. Frances Gurren, she does the kangaroo-chi people or hu-ma-roo-chis. She's got two types. I first met Frances at Backspace Gallery at a show that she was in about 12 years ago. And I just loved their character and each one is very individual. Plus she does the rabbits as well. Another favourite is Sylvia Hollis. I remember when I was signing up artists and I had to let people know I take 30% commission. And she said to me, well, you deserve more than that if you can sell my work because it's so unsellable kind of thing. But I feel like her work is just so different to anyone else's. And so, I don't know, there's a certain kind of empathy in her work that I just haven't seen in anyone else's. So I feel like even if I don't sell a Sylvia Hollis work, I am very happy to have them here. Another one would be probably Peter Sparkman. He's got digital works around the place. I love his sense of humour, his use of colour. Yeah, and they sell really well. They're just beautiful works, yeah. And real statement pieces. I've really tried hard to, you're not just walking into a shop. I'm hoping that I've created an experience with all the colour and the juxtaposition of all the different things and having crazy things like horses hanging from the ceiling. So you're really having a shopping experience while you're here too.