THE GERTRUDE ASSOCIATION
Understanding place and self through art.

MoM was able to steal some very valuable time from the creators of The Gertrude
Association.

Monique McNamara and Kym Ortenburg were lovely enough to take
some time out to tell us about The Gertrude St Projection Festival – what it is, where it
comes from, what it involves and the inspiration behind it all.
Monique and Kym have very different backgrounds – Kym was once a lawyer but
went back to study her Masters in Arts and found that her passion lay in the fields of
documentary and production. Monique is a graphic designer and has been running
her own agency Up and Up Creative for 11 years – A leading Australian agency for
eco-friendly graphic design and sustainability. Although her work is a love of quite
a few things, the two main things are that of art and communication. The power to
create change, through art.

Monique and Kym met while Kym was subletting a space at Monique’s agency
on Gertrude St in Fitzroy. As business owners it was important for them to look
into how they could interact with their local community- economically, socially,
environmentally and culturally. Both women had a great love for Gertrude st and
with this love came a great want to revitalize the street and give it back the life that it
needed.

But with what seemed like so many communities living in the one space, in totally
different ways- how could they bring everyone together? With a mutual love for
public art, a beautiful idea came to fruition. To put art out onto the street and let the
people have their own say. The Gertrude Association call this, “gertrufying”- using
art as a positive vehicle, a universal language to collaborate, understand and change
the future for the better, together.

Due to certain regulations it was decided that the best way to showcase this street
art would be through projection. With a government grant and three months
to organise a festival things had no choice but to fall into place rather quickly.

In 2007 the first Gertrude St Projection Festival was launched, with eight sights
and with over 40 different artists involved. There are now over 180 entries each
year,  Some from across the globe.

Each year there is a theme based on what the community-or the world, is needing at the time, the only                    selection criteria being that it is relevant to the theme, that it is suitable for the general public and due to the fact              that there is no sound, all pieces have to work silently. Individuality and freedom
of art is embraced.

It’s free to enter and you can enter as many times as you like.
This year The Gertrude St Projection Festival is currently being held as part of the
Melbourne State Of Design Festival. The theme being ‘Me. You. Us.’ A focus on
taking the time to reflect on how our immediate actions effect us a whole.

Projections along Gertrude st are from 6pm till 12am and will be showing till the 19th July.

The Gertrude Association is a non-profit organization with intentions to move to other
streets within Australia and to eventually- gertrufy the world.

For more information on the Festival and how to enter visit:

www.thegertrudeassociation.com

Story – Candice September

Pictures – The Gertrude Association