About

Nestled inside a re-envisioned domestic home in Redfern on Gadigal/Sydney Australia, Magenta House is a gathering and knowledge-sharing space that nourishes the prisms between art, food, communing and experimental practices.

We self-organise and partner with bright minds to host programs that foster community-led learning, cultural revitalisation, and cross-field dialogues. Our activities include workshops, communal meals, test kitchens, dialogues, soirées, reading sessions, and more. We also run a community library and online shop supporting social ventures, publishers, and independent artisans across Asia and Australia. Established in April 2023, Magenta House is a synergetic platform for ideas and encounters to ferment.

 

Brief history

Magenta House is led by culture worker and creative producer Mariam Ella Arcilla, who organises the programs, Shop, Library, online platforms, content, and partnerships. Artist & DJ Mason Kimber oversees logistics and home maintenance.

We met in a Redfern share-house in 2017, became a couple (it’s true, opposites do attract!), and we moved into this micro-terrace in 2022. Our career-combos in public programming, teaching, community service, administration, hospitality, and arts curating have informed Magenta’s germination. We refer to ourselves as Housekeepers because we’re interested in unfurling what it means to run a public home through an artist-run lens and how acts of service and care frameworks contribute to the heartbeat of a dwelling.

We named this project Magenta House because magenta is an extra-spectral and morphing tone. It represents our unpinned practice and the prismatic nature of our collaborators across art, food, design, literature, music and social sciences. Together, we work under the many suns of gathering and knowledge-sharing.

How we gather at Magenta is manifested through communal meals, supper clubs, pop-up exhibitions, coworking sessions, and neighbourhood soirees. And we exchange knowledge through culturally-vital workshops, test kitchens and recipe-sharing, book launches, dialogues, and e-commerce projects. Alongside this, we run a Library and a Shop focusing on food cultures, heritage ventures, and experimental publishing from Asia and Australia.

Our collab programs are organised via invitation and by-proposal. We pencil in weekly events according to the rhythms of its Housekeepers and collaborators. At the core of these offerings is an equalised dynamic between hosthood and guest-hood and the notion that a home can be a sanctuary for shared incantations and belonging.

We're open to unique proposals and venue hires in 2025 and 2026 from individuals and collectives in Australia and internationally. Read our FAQs page and contact us to get in touch!

This website is being updated (new site out in August), so we plan to post an archive of these programs soon. Stay in the loop by following us on Instagram or Substack!

View our upcoming and past events.

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Our signature events are:

Weekly events and gathering series centred on cultural knowledge-sharing, foodways, and arts engagement.

 

 
Coworking days for collectives, groups and collaborators.

 
Meet & greets and industry days for arts, publishing, and culture workers.

  
Bi-monthly Library readings and open days 

 
Bespoke venue hire for workshops, food demos,
book launches, photoshoots, pop-ups exhibitions and more.

 

Magenta House organises and supports: 

  • Feeding sessions & curated meals
  • Talks & dialogues
  • Test kitchens
  • Pop-up exhibitions
  • Coworking & parallel plays
  • Micro-workshops, demos and classes
  • Architecture & Design tours
  • Industry gatherings
  • DJ sessions
  • Library open days
  • Short film screenings

 

Our collaborators include: 

  • Artists & Designers
  • Researchers
  • Writers & Editors
  • Architects
  • Social enterprises
  • Entrepreneurs
  • Independent publishers
  • Musicians
  • Chefs and home cooks
  • Creative producers
  • Film-makers
  • Students

Our Shop partners:

Magenta House Shop is excited to partner with the following social enterprises to stock artisan products and items that support the livelihood of Filipino regional communities, mother-artists and craftspeople: 

Aban Eco

Super Inday Art

ANTHILL Fabric

Alongside this, we're super proud to supply culturally-vital items across Asia and Australia from a curated selection of suppliers, including The Slow Press, Tropical Futures, Illographo Press, Debris Magazine, and Grafis Nusantara. You can explore more via our Shop.

 

Our launch

Magenta House launched in April 2023 with Bin Alley Biennale, a community street party that saw us team up with our Surry Hills and Redfern neighbours to transforms a rubbish-bin alley behind our home into a free one-day fiesta! Under the spirit of communal cohesion, locavore creativity, and neighbourhood camaraderie, we organised DJ sets, food stalls, video art projections, and social activities featuring locals.

 

 

Through the first Bin Alley Biennale, we were able to meet our neighbours in one go and now we stage this beloved event twice a year (the catchy Biennale name stuck)!  Since then, Magenta House has hosted a range of gathering for intimate crowds, arts industries and the wider public. We also partner with artists and collaborators in Australia and overseas to stage one-off events and slow-release projects at Magenta House.

Got a bright project idea involving our space?
Contact Mariam via the Contact section.

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Magenta House in the media:

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Image credits top-bottom: Slides: (1) Library, photo: Mason Kimber (2) Filipino pot-luck, photo: Justin Cueno (3) Palestinian cooking demo with Chef Aheda, photo: Danish Ravi for Welcome Merchant (4) DJ studio, photo: Mason Kimber, Filipino Pot-Luck, photo: Mason Kimber.

Small images: (1) Library, photo: Mason Kimber; Bin Alley Biennale 2023, photo: Mariam Ella Arcilla; Filipino Pot-Luck, photo: Justin Cueno; Asin Tibuok image, Library open day, photos: Julia Guo; Runway Journal board meeting, Coworking days ; photo: Mariam Arcilla, Halo-Halo workshop with fine print magazine, Library open days, photos: Mariam Ella Arcilla; Palestinian cooking demo with Chef Aheda, photo: Danish Ravi for Welcome Merchant; Kanin/Balit, photo: Justin Cueno; Taco Gs, DJ Mason, Bin Alley Biennale 2022, photos: Mariam Ella Arcilla; DJ studio, photo: Jack Lovell; Oyster-Shucking Workshop with Megan Cope, photo: Mariam Ella Arcilla; Bin Alley Biennale projections, DJ prepping, Balinese Spice Magic food stall, photo: Julia Guo; Bin-Alley prepping, Taco Gs food stall, photos: Mariam Ella Arcilla.