By Christine de Kock
TWO Victoria University lecturers are researching the impact opportunity stores have on the community and the role they play as community hubs in the western suburbs.
Dr Enza Gandolfo said it was a creative arts research project that was funded by Arts Victoria through the university.
“We are looking at the role of op shops and what they mean to people,” she said, “what they mean to volunteers who look after the shops and what they mean to people who donate.”
Dr Gandolfo and lecturer Sue Dodd will undertake a series of interviews at op shops in Maribyrnong and Brimbank.
They will also hold a writing workshop at the Williamstown Literary Festival next month. As part of their project participants will write stories inspired by things bought at op shops.
“Both Sue and I visit op shops,” Dr Gandolfo, a Yarraville resident, said. “I buy books, clothes and bits of furniture.”
The West Footscray Uniting Church Op Shop on Barkly St is one of their favourites.
“It’s like a social centre, people go in there to chat to the volunteers, people who are lonely or who just like to chat.
“Some volunteers have been there for 20 years or more so they know their community and are a source of information.”
She said their research would study people who shopped at op shops – those looking for affordable clothing, artists who bought items that inspired their creativity and students interested in vintage fashion.
“You also have interior designers who shop there and there’s one woman who regularly buys clothes to send back to South America.
“And just think about it, if you didn’t have op shops a lot of these things would just end up in landfill. The stores provide a huge service,” Dr Gandolfo said.
The research will be used to develop a collection of stories about the op shops and will also result in an exhibition to be held at the Living Museum of the West in Maribyrnong.
Ms Dodd said: “Mostly, for us, it is a place crowded with stories that are lined up on shelves, piled into boxes, hanging on racks – lost personal and cultural stories waiting to be told.”
Interviews will be held at St Vinnies, 71 Main Road, West St Albans, from 9.30 to 11am on 27 April, 11 May, 25 May, 8 June, 22 June and on the same days at the Bargain Browser, Sunshine Rd, Tottenham, from 11.30-1pm.
They will be also held at the Uniting Church Op Shop, Barkly St, West Footscray, 9.30-11am on 20 April, 4 May, 18 May, 1 June, 15 June, 29 June and on the same days at the Yarraville, Anderson Street Bargain Browser from 11.30-1pm. Call 9919 2611 for details.
