ARTISTS: TAL FITZPATRICK AND MELISSA SPRATT
PROJECT: THE CITY SPEAKS SOFTLY
PROJECT PARTNER: STORYFEST
DOCUMENTATION: ELLAMAY FITZGERALD, TAL FITZPATRICK, MELISSA SPRATT

The City Speaks Softly is a collaborative artwork by Melissa Spratt and Tal Fitzpatrick that uses the comforting nature of textiles to explore how art can soften our experience of public space. This project seeks to shed light on how art might create moments of gentle sensorial reprieve and to explore the potential to gently surprise audiences.

Tal and Melissa completed their research and development in June 2024. During this phase they tested out their idea by presenting a series of street-pole maquettes, a street-pole banner prototype and a workshop. Bringing together a cross-section of the Gold Coast community at Broadbeach Cultural Precinct, the workshop taught participants how to finger knit whilst engaging them in critical conversations about how art might soften our experience of public space.

The City Speaks Softly employs artist-led workshops to share storytelling, foster community engagement, and to inspire individual well-being and social change. As a result of the workshops the artists create bespoke textile-based artworks that they then translate into print form and exhibit in public spaces.

In December 2025 the artists lead a two-hour workshop with students, parents and guardians at Somerset College that explored the power of craft and kindness. During the work shop participants learnt finger knitting and felt banner-making techniques while working with the artists to develop key messaging for street-pole banners that will be displayed during Storyfest 2025.⁠