MADE OF PLACES: THE LEGACY OF MAKING

We’re thrilled to share a new collection of ceramic tiles created during Made of Places, the tile-making workshops led by artist-in-residence Beverley Sommerville.

Guided by Beverley’s expertise, participants explored decorative and textural techniques using materials gathered from Alice Billing House itself,  crushed brick, soot, ash, and slate; transforming these fragments of the building’s fabric into pigments and glazes. Each mark and impression captured something of the site’s past, turning material once discarded into a new creative language.

Over the course of the sessions, participants shaped, pressed, and painted their tiles, experimenting with the unique palette that Beverley developed during her residency. Drawing inspiration from the shapes and forms of the North Block of Alice Billing House, they made marks that echoed its architectural details. One tile from each participant was kept as a personal memento, while the others will form part of a community mural to be permanently installed in the refurbished Pavilion space; each piece signed, dated, and contributing to the evolving story of Alice Billing House.

The workshop invited people to engage with the building not just as observers, but as contributors,  leaving behind something tangible, rooted in the site’s material and history.

The resulting collection of tiles stands as a testament to what can be achieved when community, creativity, and place come together. Each piece tells its own story, yet together they speak of renewal, of old materials reborn, a building finding new life and its ever-evolving story. Tiles were made by: 1. Sunita 2. Steve 3. Nelly 4. Anne 5. Kathy 6. Aisha 7.Daphne 8. Clair 9. Dan