Knock knock: an introduction 🪺

Step inside Magenta House

Hello, I’m Mariam Ella Arcilla! AKA Housekeeper of Magenta House. AKA yapper of this new Substack. AKA typical Aquarius who declares: ‘Watch this space-we’re launching a Substack in April!’ but then life commitments gobble up your month so you’re spitballing at the tail end—right before you turn into a Cinderella pumpkin! Only your glass slipper is a house slipper.

In fairness, I’ve been nursing a knee injury from a klutzy bicycle fall, which meant I temporarily traded my desk and kneeling-chair for something less contortionist. And so I’m writing this introduction to you from my bed while plopped on a Care Bears Cloud Mobile of duck-down doonas and puffed pillows. Thanks for joining me as I vroooom up this newsletter and start with the basics.

Ok, what is Magenta House?

You’ve knocked at the right door! Magenta House is an artist-led project located inside a re-imagined micro-terrace in Redfern on Gadigal land (Sydney, Australia). I like to think of it as a commoning platform that intertwines art, food, design, and co-nourishment through the concept of gathering and knowledge-sharing.

We gather via communal meals and supper clubs, pop-up exhibitions, coworking sessions, and neighbourhood soirees. And we exchange knowledge through culturally-focused workshops, recipe-sharing, book launches, and group dialogues. Alongside this, we run a small Library and a Shop focusing on food cultures, heritage ventures, and experimental publishing from Asia and Australia. At the core of these offerings is the generative dynamic between host-hood and guest-hood and the notion that a home can be a sanctuary for shared belonging and discovery—and act like somewhat of a second home to Asian diaspora communities.

Magenta House gatherings

Magenta House programs are self-organised or staged in partnership with luminaries across various sectors—including art, literature, design, food, education, dance, and other socially-engaged practices. I’m excited to reveal more about our collaborators as this newsletter forms teeth. On a personal note, Magenta House is also the home I share with my husband Mason Kimber. We live upstairs and run programs on the ground level only. This maintains boundaries and work-life joy for us.

Currently, I manage Magenta House’s day-to-day operations (programs, partnerships, online content, bookings, Shop) while Mason provides logistical and financial advice. Our combined careers in public programming, teaching, arts administration, curating, and grassroots organising inform the functionalities and sustenance of this project.

Events are a mix of free and priced tickets depending on the format and scope. Our programs are entirely self-funded, with any profit recirculated directly to organisers and artists to account for labour, materials, equipment and ingredients. Visiting hours to Magenta House are by appointment and during events and open days. View our programs list and booking portal via Instagram or the website (simple interface for now, but will revamp at some point). Soon, we’ll start sharing programs, updates, and visiting info here on Substack, as well as industry opportunities and open-access resources that compliment our programs through the lens of worldweaving and collective joy.

Why start a newsletter?

I was thinking about this as I was self-stalking our Instagram feed yesterday to show a Shop customer an old post. It was then that I remembered, wait, Magenta House actually turned two years old (!!) this April. As an avid scrapbooker during the 1990s, I have been itching to make a digital scrapbook of the medley of programs that have swung through our door since early 2023. In this journal, you’ll learn how collaborations came to be and hear the stories of our friends at AbanEco, Super Inday Art, Anthill Fabric and more, plus you’ll deep-dive into the concepts and themes behind the events we run.

Some of our collaborators and supporters AKA legends! <3

Another reason to start this newsletter: we get regular emails and DMs from followers asking a garden-variety of questions about Magenta House. Often, I direct them to our FAQs but sometimes queries are pick-your-brain length. So I’m starting a Substack to synthesise these musings for you via a semi-regular dispatch.

Additionally, I wanted to offer individuals who are not on social media a meaningful way to connect with us. This is especially handy for those who keep missing out on event tickets and Shop/Library announcements simply because they are not always on the feeds - totally fair! And this is why subscription-supported platforms matter. I hope Magenta Digests can provide you with a source of wonderment as we share stories, ideas and introspections in the upcoming editions.

What can you expect from this newsletter?

The juice! Magenta Digests will dish out subscriber-only insights of the ideation and development process of our projects. How we foster ideas. The way we synergise our events. How these connections are then circulated. What sustains our work. All that meaty stuff! Discover new voices across our programs and collabs, and explore our archives as they grow. Treat this journal like a digestive for the heart-mind.

So buckle up and subscribe for *intermittent* (updated!) newsletters drops starting from 5 May! The next issue will feature reflections from our past programs, events playlists, Shop drops, and an exciting supperclub/book launch announcement for May. It’s going to be a spoonful!

Ok it’s pumpkin-hour - let’s hit publish! 🎃

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Side note: Thank you to everyone who has signed up to our mailing list so far. Magenta House runs on a voluntary-basis, so your support provides us with the extended breath to keep doing our work. Paid supporters will get priority-access to events, recipes, behind-the-scenes content, more audio narrations, and other yummy things! So if you have financial capacity, consider becoming a paid digester :) And feel free to restack or share this Substack with your hungry friends. See you back here soon! 🪺

Image info and credits:

1. Screenshot of Care Bears in a Cloud Mobile (unknown episode, yoinked via Pinterest) with a superimposed picture of Mariam Ella Arcilla tapping on a laptop while wearing an all-magenta fit. Photographed at the Creative Leadership residency, Bundanon, 2023; courtesy Creative Australia.
2. Rosa Zerrudo from Super Indays and Mariam Ella Arcilla at the Shop (photo: Magenta House); Aubrey Abanico from Abaneco with her banigs; (photo: 4A Centre); Bin Alley street party with
3. Clockwise from top-left: Pangalay Dance Class with Sitti Obeso and Bhenji Ra (photo: Joseph ‘Butch’ Schwarzkopf); Making Mahshi Koussa with Sahtein & Dayaa (photo: Hyun Lee); Filipino Community Pot-Luck (photo: Justin Cueno); Magenta House Shop (photo: Isabella Melody Moore); Fine Print magazine Writers & Editors Networking Day (photo: Magenta House); Library (photo: Magenta House).

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