Magenta House

26/12/2025

Holiday tunes to sweep into your ears! 🧹🎧 Recorded at Magenta House on Gadigal/Sydney, Australia, this new mix takes you on a laid-back journey through lush jazz and soulful electronica, with nods to the Música Popular Brasileira movement. Mixed by Mason Kimber and shot by Mariam Ella Arcilla🪺

Recorded at Magenta House on Gadigal/Sydney, Australia. A laid-back journey through lush jazz and soulful electronica with nods to the Música Popular Brasile...

18/11/2025

Across the archipelago, millions of Filipinos have been brutally impacted by the cataclysmic, lives-shattering Uwan and Tino typhoons, following the North Cebu earthquakes. In the face of infrastructural collapse and gross absence of government support, Filipinos again turn to one another, assembling to provide paramount support to countless families who have lost homes, livelihoods, and access to basics (food, clothing, shelter, clean water).

Shops turn into canteens to feed the hungry. Artist-run spaces become medicine drop-off centres. Colleagues traverse villages to offer life-support machines. Children collect books to distribute in lieu of school closures. These efforts are fueled by community donations and people power. ✊🏾Which is why any support from Australia GOES FAR. The exchange rate is 1 PHP = 0.03 AUD, so if you give $25 it could feed a family of 4. That said, it can sometimes be difficult to donate online if you don’t have G-cash or a Pinoy bank.

So here’s an avenue where you can effectively support from afar! 𝙍𝙖𝙛𝙛𝙡𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙍𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙚𝙛: 𝙋𝙝𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙥𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨 is a fundraiser organised by Filipina writer Pauline Morrissey donating 100% of proceeds to on-the-ground rescue and relief efforts ❤️‍🩹 https://chuffed.org/project/157196-raffle-for-relief-philippines

As part of the prize pool, Magenta House is donating a Summer Pack spotlighting Filipino artists and makers across art, foodways, literature & design (valued at AUD $308). In the bag:

🌳 In the Name of the Trees by Merlinda Bobis
💌 From Baybayin to Abakada zine by Reese Clro
👝 Abaca Bucket by Anthill Fabric
📒Pamphlets on Design by Kara Abola
🥥 Lokal Flavor by Lokal Lab
🙏🏾For Us Sinners by
📅 2026 Pilipina Bagwis calendar by Imprenta 31
🪭Pamaypay & Bottle bag by AbanEco

If you enjoy or have benefited from Filipino culture, the people, the history–please consider donating! If you’ve ever attended a free communal event or library session at Magenta, or if we’ve provided you with in-kind support letters, industry advice, food, or labour—then this can be one way you can give back. Pls dig deep for Pilipinas. Maraming salamat! 🗾🙏🏾

Click below to donate, learn more, or view list of raffle donors: https://chuffed.org/project/157196-raffle-for-relief-philippines⚡️

13/11/2025

Last Sunday, students were engulfed in spring colours as we learned how to make, eat, and paint Filipino halo halo together 🍧🖌️Back for its third edition, the Halo Halo Watercolour Workshop with Gizelle Faye and Mariam Ella Arcilla featured a kaleidoscopic of seasonal fruits, jellies, milks, mini-cakes, beans, home-made ice creams, and other delectable toppings! Whether you like this beloved dessert with crushed ice at the bottom or on top to crystallise the ice creams–there’s no single correct way to build halo halo. Which makes it the perfect creative specimen to paint and experiment with👩🏽‍🔬And we did just that through tasting, texturising, layering, and colour mixing. Super fun day, thanks to the participants who came to connect and celebrate Filipino kultura through art and food! 🫟 Event Credits: Halo Halo Watercolour Workshop 🪻Spring Edition Sun 9 November, Magenta House 🍧Halo halo maker: Mariam Ella Arcilla 🎨Watercolour teacher: Gizelle Faye 📷Photographer Anna Hay 🥄Event support Jessica 30% of proceeds from this session donated to Northern Cebu Earthquake Relief fund ❤️‍🩹Visit our workshop page for more details. https://magentahouse.com.au/programs/halo-halo-watercolour-workshop-spring All photos: Anna Hay

13/11/2025

23/10/2025

Hello to our new followers!
*𝘱𝘶𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘵* 🪺A lowdown of what we’re about:

Magenta House is a gathering and knowledge-sharing space based in Redfern on sovereign Gadigal land/Sydney. We explore the synergies between art, food, communing and experimental practices. We aim to support emerging artists, experimental practices, and equitable arts ecologies through co-designed projects, events, and resource-circulation.

Established in April 2023 as a voluntary-run initiative, our programs come alive through micro-workshops, library sessions, artist talks, pop-ups, food demos, test kitchens, and book launches. We also run an open-access library and online shop to support social ventures, publishers, and artisans across Asia and Australia. Magenta House is a prismatic platform for ideas and encounters to ferment. Let’s shine bright together!

Step inside our 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘸𝘦𝘣𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘦 💻🪅 to find out more about what we do, how we housekeep, and the collabs that we brew up in harmony with a constellation of artists, culture workers, chefs, home-cooks, designers, technologists, poets, farmers, performers & more.

FAQs are up and we’re spending the this summer populating our 2023-2025 Archive, so stay tuned for our expanded program list feat. too many angels to tag here on IG ~ u know who u are, sending eternal mwah! 💋👼🏾🪽😍 For now, keen to hear your thoughts, fam 😊🪅

Swing by www.magentahouse.com.au

Reel: Mariam Ella Arcilla
Web design: Elle Williams Studio
MH logo: Van Low

15/10/2025

Serene moments at Magenta House as we welcomed back our friends at Bangka Healing Arts back on 11 October for an intensive workshop to collectively create Lana: a sacred coconut-based oil used for rituals, medicine and cooking across the Philippines archipelago. 🌺🥥🫚

During the day, Nawa and Argo began a grounding practice by inviting participants to share stories of healing and folklore. We then moved into Kamangyan rituals and imbued the Lana ingredients–like ginger, guava, and moringa–with spiritual intention. As we prepared the mixture, we reminded ourselves that each pound connects us back to the Earth. And that the chopping and ripping of plants, and their eventual mixing, steeping, and setting, calls us to intersperse the powerful elements of water, air and fire. In return, we gave thanks to the ancestors who continue to guide us–through orasyon, knowledge-sharing, and shared labour.

For lunch, Mariam prepared homestyle Filipinx meals for participants that swirled with key Lana ingredients–namely coconut milk, honey, flowers, ginger, turmeric, and lemongrass. The workshop concluded with the pouring and setting of Lana oil for participants to keep and gift to loved one in their lives. Participants went home with pocketbook guided detailing the healing energies of topical and folkloric plants, and a recipe to continue to make Lana at home. 🫙🤝🌸

If you’re curious about Filipinx healing modalities, good news! We’ll be back at Magenta in 2026 for another Lana workshop ~ stay tuned!

Lana-Making Workshop 🥥✨
11 October 2025, Gadigal Land
Facilitators/Researchers:
Argo Theoharis & Nawa Sybico (Bangka Healing Arts)
Event Organiser/Food & Drinks: Mariam Ella Arcilla (Magenta House)
Video: Adesti Prabowo

14/10/2025

PINOY-CORE SZN at Magenta House, talaga! 🇵🇭🌺
Open for all to attend, here’s what’s coming up:

📅 Saturday 25 October, 2pm-5pm
Bahíon ~ novel & poetry readings + merienda chats with Merlinda Bobis & Eunice Andrada
✨Sold out ~ join the waitlist:
https://magentahouse.com.au/programs/bahion-bobis-andrada

📅 Sunday 9 November, 1-4pm
🍧 Halo Halo Watercolour Workshop ~ painting class + dessert-making sessions with Gizelle Faye & Mariam Ella Arcilla
✨Few tix left: https://magentahouse.com.au/programs/halo-halo-watercolour-workshop-summer

📅 Sunday 16 November, 1-3pm
🥣Breakfast with Nanay ~ childrens book launch + workshop with Klyde Salcedo, Maysie Lecciones & Josephine Mead
✨Tix on sale soon!

We kicked off month with the Lana medicinal oil-making workshop on 11 Oct with Bangka Healing Arts and are grateful to continue to rebraid our ancestral roots and diasporic magic together with y’all for these upcoming Filipinx art + lit + food sessions! 😘💖

Can’t make these events? We have associated publications available to read in our community library + some are for sale soon!

Head to www.magentahouse.com.au for more connective juice 🎟️🌴