Areka Brown is a printmaker and art teacher from Ballarat, who now proudly calls East Gippsland home. Areka has worked as a secondary art teacher and now works as the Art Learning Coordinator for East Gippsland Art Gallery. She runs workshops for adults, children and disability support groups and brings education programs to schools around East Gippsland from Bairnsdale to Mallacoota. Areka is a passionate advocate for good mental health. She often explores her own struggles and triumphs with Bipolar Disorder in her artworks and strongly believes a problem shared is a problem halved.

In these art making workshops, Areka Brown will focus on three different artmaking techniques targeted for adults with disabilities. The first workshop will involve participants creating their own scratchboard artworks. In the second workshop, participants will make collagraph printing plates and prints using cardboard, textured papers, leaves, feathers and other mixed media, and in the third workshop participants will create their own acrylic painting, focusing on different painting techniques and mixing colours.

Gippsland Art Gallery are offering public sessions on three dates in February, book in for your preferred date via the links below:
- Thursday 12 February 2026
- Thursday 19 February 2026
- Thursday 26 February 2026

These sessions have been organised in partnership with Wellington Shire Council and supported by Vic Health.