Caring exhibition at Heritage House showcases 40 years of local helpers
Do you care about history? Do you have a history of caring? You must visit this exhibition that combines both and celebrates 40 years of essential community work in the City of South Perth by Southcare.
Residents in the City are invited to take a trip down memory lane to meet some of the faces and favourites that have helped care for our community since 1982 in a new exhibition that represents and connects all of us.
“The Faces and Favourites of Southcare’s 40 years” is a 6-week exhibition told in photographs, stories and memorabilia from the Manning based charity that was first founded by volunteers on 6 April 1982 and continues to provide essential services today.
Much of the exhibiting works have been made possible with archival records unearthed from the State Library of WA and permission to show for a limited time.
The exhibition also invites you to create history by leaving a message on the “caring wall” to inspire others about how you care and what you can do to be a helper in our community.
The caring wall is a huge hand knitted blanket, and we want people to pin messages of hope to inspire others, in the way Southcare did 40 years ago when it was founded by volunteers who knitted baby blankets for mothers in crisis.
Southcare Chief Executive Officer Dr Nicky Howe said this was an exhibition for everyone.
“All of us in some way is a carer. Many people over the years have invited Southcare into their homes and hearts and through this exhibition we are inviting everyone in the community to see the tireless work that is done day in and day out to care for the most vulnerable in our community in the hope it will inspire them to make positive change too,” Dr Howe said.
“The world always needs helpers and now more than ever we know that to be true.”
City of South Perth Historical Society President Lynn O’Hara said hosting the exhibition at Heritage House made perfect sense.
“Southcare has been part of the fabric of our City since 1982 and our Society was founded in 1989 to bring history to life and we are excited to do that with a cause so close to our homes and hearts,” she said.
In its first year in 1982, a small group of volunteers helped 9 local mothers living in crisis in Manning and Karawara by knitting and giving baby blankets to keep their newborns warm. Since then, thousands of residents have been helped across 57 suburbs of Perth with 38 volunteers and 96 employees.
The Faces and Favourites of Southcare’s 40 years will run from Friday 8 April to Sunday 15 May.
Visit any Friday between 10am – 4pm or Saturday or Sunday from 1-4pm or join in the festivities at a Sundowner on Friday 29 April between 4.30pm – 6.30pm which is catered, hosted and funded by Southcare as a community get together.
Entry is free and the gallery and cultural centre is located at 111 Mill Point Road (corner Mends St), South Perth.
RSVPs for the Sundowner should be sent to marketing@southcare.org.au before 22 April.
