Dear Supporters,

Nihao!

We went, we saw, we had an amazing time! The PIP festival was excellent, we all agree. There was so much to do and see (and eat!) the experience was absolutely incredible. Our mission to make new contacts was a roaring success and we have a lot of new names on our mailing lists, as well as heads full of the breathtaking photography we saw and high hopes for the rolls of film we brought home with us.

If you'd like to read a little and see some photos of our adventures while in China don't forget to visit our website http://www.nihaopingyao.com.au

But the project isn't over yet! We still have the very important task of sending out your rewards, which we have yet to do. Thank you so much for all your patience while we readjust to being home.
Another exciting part of the project is that with the generous support of the Helpmann Academy we will each be making small photobooks of our work to promote ourselves! Super!

Thanks again, without your help our project would not have been possible. We appreciate your support so very much!

In the not too distant future there will be a thank you in your letterbox - please make sure we have your address.

Xie xie,
Aurelia, Sundari, Alice and Courtney

Holy smokes you guys! Are we ever feeling the love right now! To be honest we are feeling both the love and the exhaustion - grant applications! - those of you who have ever written one will know what we're talking about.

However! That's not what we are here for! We are here to celebrate obliterating that first $2000 target and going *all the way* to our ultimate goal of $4300! With your unforgettable help we upgraded our little cloud into a comfy four-seater with room for camera gear in the back. WIN! Hello China, NIHAO PINGYAO!!

We will be in touch with everyone shortly about your rewards - we're really looking forward to printing, packing up and sending the artworks we've promised to you for your help. It's good to be able to say thank you properly. Aurelia's grandma would be proud.

If you haven't already checked out our website http://www.nihaopingyao.com.au please do! You can see the work each of us is sending to China, and we've also included a blog which we will be updating every step of the way there, and back again.

Thanks again to all you beautiful people ~ lots of love from Us.

Hello & an enormous, heartfelt THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH from the four of us. It's kind of mindblowing what we've been able to achieve with your help. We can't describe how good it feels to have so much support for our art! We might burst!

Our goal is so close now, we just need to reach a few more people... Perhaps you would consider helping us by spreading the word about our project through Facebook or Twitter or over coffee to a lovely friend?

Here's a little bit of exciting news: we are going to the travel agent on Monday :D
We're also working on a grant application to send to the enormously helpful Helpmann Academy to help us make the very most out of this opportunity, and that's due on Monday too. As if that's not enough hard work for four little chickens, Sundari and Courtney are also raising money for their Graduate Exhibition catalogue at the end of the year. Alice has been in Tasmania scoping out the Honours program at the art school in Hobart. After all of that, we might get some time to MAKE MORE ART! Yay!

There are also two of the spectacularly beautiful contemporary photographs available. If you'd like to know which ones please don't be shy about asking!

Thanks so much for your spectacular generosity. YOU ARE THE BEST. The Besteresterest.

Thank you so much everyone for being so supportive ♥ We are on a bit of a happy cloud at the minute. We are going to CHINA!! Nihao!!! We are going on a little cloud made by everyone who has made this possible. It's a beautiful little cloud and we love it because YOU made it. Thank you so much!

With 10 more days to go we are going to try even harder to raise enough to cover our airfare and visas - a total of $4800. We can do it!

The BAKE SALE today was a raging success - we made over $500 - incredible! That will take care of the visas, which means we need to raise $1500 more to have all four of our bums on seats in airplanes (or little clouds) to CHINA.

In other exciting news - you might also be interested to know that Alice's work is part of an outstanding exhibition ORIGINATE at Fringe Benefits gallery, on throughout the SALA Festival. Way to go Alice!

Thanks again everyone! You are really AMAZING.

Hold the phones!

 Paauwe, Kimber & Kozka prints will be available at 11am (Adelaide time) on Tuesday the 2nd of August. That's tomorrow! First one to pledge gets first pick!*

*Please note that art courier charges are the responsibility of the purchaser.

BUT WAIT - THERE'S MORE!

Bake Sale ♥ This Wednesday ♥ Outside the Library @ City West Campus

Come by and say hello, perhaps we can tempt you with some delicious (home made) baked goods, or an incredibly fetching new brooch.

Gluten free & vegan tasty smackerels will be available.

It's only been a few days but we are already one third the way to reaching our target of $2000! That's pretty awesome. If you are one of the people already supporting us we send you BIG ♥

Truth be told, all up we need to find $10 000 to get all four of us to Pingyao in September - and even at that price we will be staying in hostels! Holy smokes!

Lucky for us we have some amazing support from three Contemporary Australian Photographers who recognise what this opportunity could mean to our careers as emerging artists, and want to help us reach that goal.

Deborah Paauwe, Bronek Kozka and Mark Kimber have each given us one of their photographs to offer as "rewards" for a pledge of $1000. Yep, $1000. INSANE BARGAIN! I know, right?! These are the photographs:

Deborah Paauwe, "Hidden Peak" 2007

 

Bronek Kozka "The best years of our lives" 2008, 63x95cm, unframed

 

Mark Kimber "Moonrise #11" 2009, 80x80cm, framed

 

Mark Kimber "supermarket" 2009, 75 cm x 74 cm, framed

 

That's right, you do want them! We know - we want them, too!

How can you get one of these beautiful artworks for such a modest sum of money? They will be available right here - Nihao Pingyao on Pozible in the next few days. Stay tuned!