New England Regional Art Museum

UNESAP Let's Hang It! 2024
2024-07-26 18:00 - 2024-08-11 16:00 (Australia/Sydney)
Discover the talents and artwork of school students from across Northern NSW who have entered into the University of New England Schools Acquisitive Art Prize (UNESAP) and have been selected to be shown in the Let’s Hang It! exhibition.
In 2024, 60 finalists have been selected from more than 500 student entries representing 46 schools in regional NSW.
UNESAP is an annual event which provides New England/North West students, from Kindergarten to Year 12, the opportunity to take part in a large art prize, be part of the wider creative community and to have their work professionally hung in an art museum.

Exhibition opening from 6.00pm Friday 26 July, awards presentation will begin promptly at 6.30pm

UNESAP Let’s Hang It! is presented by New England Regional Art Museum in partnership with the University of New England and is sponsored by S&S Creativity.

Image credit:

Opening Night | Friday 16 August
2024-08-16 18:00 - 20:00
Join us for the opening of three new exhibitions and the official launch of the Winter Blooming Festival!
6 pm Friday 16 August

Fantastical Scenes: Queering the Collection

Ley Lines: Dr Neerja Peters

Rainbow: Alun Rhys Jones

Image credit: Neerja Peters, The Self 6, 2023. Acrylic and archival ink on paper. Courtesy the artist.

Fantastical Scenes: Queering the Collection
2024-08-16 18:00 - 2024-09-22 16:00
Queer lives and artistic practices are inextricably linked in Australia in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. As this exhibition demonstrates, the collections held at NERAM are ripe with such queer stories and potentials. The words queer and queering are far from neutral. This exhibition seeks to counter ideas of queer as a category, label or a fixed or knowable identity. Instead, the collection of artworks in Fantastical Scenes explores queering as a way of being, discovering, re-interpreting, resisting and making.
Curated by Dr Ariella Van Luyn
Read the Fantastical Scenes: Queering the Collection exhibition essay
Opening night: Friday 16 August, 6-8pm
Image credit: Henri Van Noordenburg, Composition XXXV, 2015, hand-carved inkjet print. Gift of the Artist, 2020. NERAM Collection.

Part of the Winter Blooming Festival

Ley Lines: Neerja Peters
2024-08-16 18:00 - 2024-09-22 16:00
New Delhi based artist Neerja Peters finds creating paintings through geometry and colour articulation contemplative and meditative. Her distinct visual language evokes synaesthesia, perceiving beyond what is evident, leading the viewer to self-discovery, soul awakening, and divine knowledge. Ley Lines, Peter’s first exhibition in Australia, presents several bodies of work and includes drawing, painting and artist books, that demonstrates Peter’s spiritual expression through abstract geometry.
Opening night: Friday 16 August, 6-8pm
Image credit: Neerja Peters, The Self 6, 2023. Acrylic and archival ink on paper. Courtesy the artist.

Part of the Winter Blooming Festival

Rainbow: Alun Rhys Jones
2024-08-16 18:00 - 2024-09-22 16:00
Rainbow colours are often used by companies and brands to create products and services to attract the LGBTQIA+ community. In Rainbow, Bellingen-based artist Alun Rhys Jones creates a fake gift shop maximalist in its hang with bright graphics and merchandise, including T-shirts, wallpaper, and mugs, to reflect on how rainbow colours are utilised to attract the pink dollar of LGBTQIA+ consumers.
Opening night: Friday 16 August, 6-8pm
Image credit: Alun Rhys Jones, Pantone Belief System (pink), 2024, acrylic on canvas. Courtesy the artist.

Part of the Winter Blooming Festival

OBJECTIVE SUBJECTIVE
2024-09-07 10:00 - 2024-10-20 16:00
OBJECTIVE SUBJECTIVE links objects and artworks to investigate universal themes such as love, vanity, motherhood, mourning, adornment and more. A collaboration between the New England Regional Art Museum and the University of New England’s Museum of Antiquities, the exhibition also includes thought provoking texts by ten experts, drawing out the themes and giving their own unique perspectives, resulting in an absorbing exploration of ideas and viewpoints.
Co-curated by Alina Kozlovski (UNE), Belinda Hungerford (NERAM), and Bronwyn Hopwood (UNE) with texts written by Matthew Allen, James Brooks, Penny Craswell, Lily Dedman, Mahalath Halperin, Felicity Joseph, Peter Langston, Jennifer McDonell, Siobhan O’Hanlon, and Lou Streeting.
A partnership with the University of New England

read more from OBJECTIVE SUBJECTIVE here
Public Programs
Opening event panel discussion: Saturday 7 September, 2-3pm
Stories from the Field – Archaeologists: Wednesday 18 September, 6-7.30pm
Creative Writing Workshop – Object biofictions: creative writing and archaeology: Thursday 10 October, 6-7.30pm
See the results of the Creative Writing Workshop here
Image credit: Garrett Kingsley, Eighteen, 1942. Oil on board. Gift of Howard Hinton 1943. Sponsored by John & Barbara Beynon in 2021 for the Adopt An Artwork Program.

Opening Night
2024-09-27 18:00 - 20:00
Join us for the opening of three new exhibitions.
Drawing from the Collection
Women and Other Demons
All the Excellent Dolphins

Credit: William Robinson, Chookyard, 1979, pastel. Purchased 1981. The Armidale City Collection.

Drawing from the Collection
2024-09-27 18:00 - 2024-11-10 16:00
Good draughtsmanship is the foundation of all forms of art. Sourced from the NERAM collections, this exhibition features sketches and studies, to fully realised still lifes, portraits, and landscapes where the skill of the artist’s eye, realised solely by a drawing implement in the hand, is on plain view.
Drawing from the Collection highlights the variety and skill of more than 35 artists including Judy Cassab, Margaret Coen, Elisabeth Cummings, Nora Heysen, Lionel Lindsay, Angus Nivison, Lloyd Rees, William Robinson, Desiderius Orban, Guy Warren, and Margaret Woodward amongst others.
Opening night: Friday 27 September, 6-8pm
Image credit: William Robinson, Chookyard, 1979, pastel. Purchased 1981. The Armidale City Collection.

Women and Other Demons
2024-09-27 18:00 - 2024-11-10 16:00
Maria Pia Mosquera is a Colombian-born artist based in Sydney. Rooted in the aesthetics of medieval and Latin-American colonial art, her work wryly re-imagines the contemporary world through the lens of religious iconography, mythology and folklore, vestiges from a time when the power of the supernatural to intervene in our lives was taken to be self-evident.
Making use of oneiric imagery that challenges the macabre with whimsical humour and invites reflection on our everyday lives, the paintings in this exhibition re-imagine depictions of women in ancient stories in order to engage with contemporary society, which is only beginning to reckon with the misogyny that drives persistent violence against women.
Opening night: Friday 27 September, 6-8pm
Women And Other Demons Catalogue

Image credit: Maria Pia Mosquera, Taken II, 2023, oil on board. Courtesy the artist.

All the Excellent Dolphins
2024-09-27 18:00 - 2024-11-10 16:00
This new body of work by abstract artist Catherine Cassidy demonstrates her current focus on the long history of mark-making by generations of humans. The insistent history of marks, glyphs and images, and the urgent need to inscribe, record and re-invent our worlds.
The exhibition title is inspired by artist Judith Nangala Crispin’s perspective on neurodiversity and the artist: why be seen as “a disabled wombat when you are actually an excellent dolphin.”
A partnership with AK Bellinger Gallery

Opening night: Friday 27 September, 6-8pm
Artist talk: Saturday 28 September, 10.30am
All The Excellent Dolphins Catalogue
Catherine Cassidy Artist Talk Transcript

Image credit: Catherine Cassidy, Edge 12 Gold, 2024, polymers on wood panel. Courtesy the artist.

Packsaddle Exhibition 2024
2024-10-25 17:00 - 2024-11-10 16:00
Packsaddle is an annual art exhibition that has been raising funds for NERAM since 1985. Each year the Packsaddle Exhibition presents a diverse range of paintings, original prints and sculpture by leading Australian artists, providing local collectors and art lovers the opportunity to purchase great artworks to start or build their own collections, while also supporting NERAM.
The 2024 fundraising exhibition runs from 25 October – 10 November with the opening night on Friday 25 October.
Opening Night Event: Friday 25 October
Viewing from 5.00pm | Selling from 6.00pm
Opening remarks by Madeleine Tuckfield Carrano, Gallery Director and owner of Artsite Contemporary

Packsaddle 2024 Program of Events

Saturday 26 October 10.30am: Packsaddle floor talk with Madeleine Tuckfield Carrano
Saturday 3 November 10.30am: Packsaddle floor talk
Sunday 10 November 1.00 – 4.00pm: Pick up Party for customers to collect their works

HOME Program Exhibition Opening
2024-11-02 11:00 - 12:30
The HOME Program, in partnership with the Art Gallery of NSW and NSW Department of Education’s Art Unit.
EXHIBITION OPENING | Saturday 2nd November 11am – 12.30pm
VENUE | Aboriginal Cultural Centre and Keeping Place, 96-104 Kentucky St, Armidale
Celebrating works by Stage 3 students from Drummond Memorial, Armidale City Public, Uralla Central, Bonshaw Public and Ebor Public schools.
This exhibition is part of the HOME program, a collaboration between the Art Gallery of NSW, NSW Department of Education’s Art Unit and Aboriginal communities and regional galleries across NSW. It connects schools to local Aboriginal artists, community, language and culture. In 2024 this program was delivered on Anaiwan country at the New England Regional Art Museum and Aboriginal Cultural Centre and Keeping Place. This exhibition came together under the guidance of Gamilaraay artist Debbie Taylor-Worley and in collaboration with Widders Consultancy.

Clay on Country
2024-11-15 18:00 - 2025-01-28 16:00
Co-curated by Jo Foster and Neridah Stockley, and toured by Artback NT, Clay on Country, ceramics from the central desert, is an impressive survey of ceramic practice that includes over thirty artists and collectives. Some are established ceramic artists others are incorporating clay into their practice for the first time, all have produced accomplished insightful and contemporary works that reflect the culturally and historically rich and complex region where they live and work.
Opening night: Friday 15 November, 6-8pm

Clay on Country, ceramics of the central desert is proudly toured by Artback NT with support from the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia program.
Image credit: Hermannsburg Potters, Antala-iperral weather, 2022, hand built terracotta, underglazes, 550 x 390mm. Image courtesy of Sara Maiorino.

Inner/Space: Helen Eager
2024-11-15 18:00 - 2025-02-02 16:00
This significant survey exhibition examines Helen Eager’s progression from interiors and still lifes to the pure abstract images that she is known for today. With works sourced from the NERAM collection, Utopia Art Sydney, and the artist herself, Inner/Space celebrates Eager’s passion for colour, light, and deconstruction.
This exhibition is the latest of a series NERAM has staged highlighting significant Australian women artists including Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Hilarie Mais, Barbara McKay, and Aida Tomescu.
A partnership with Utopia Art Sydney
Opening night: Friday 15 November, 6-8pm
Image credit: Helen Eager, Satellite, 2017-8, oil on canvas. Courtesy the artist and Utopia Art Sydney.

Fusion: Max Powell
2024-11-15 18:00 - 2025-02-02 16:00
For Glen Innes ceramicist Max Powell, fusion not only describes the ceramic process but the merging of ideas, influences and approaches. Fusion also illustrates the ceramic process of changing clay and glaze with heat.
Powell finds the natural world an endless source of inspiration and by observing the shapes, colours and surfaces is where he begins when creating paintings and ceramics. The simple act of looking and exploring reminds us to slow down and to disconnect with all the craziness of modern life.
Opening night: Friday 15 November, 6-8pm
Image credit: Max Powell, Dolomite water bowls – Ripple series, 2024, stoneware. Courtesy the artist.

Wild Rivers: Lizzie Horne
2024-11-15 18:00 - 2025-02-02 16:00
A journey to capture the essence of the wild rivers of New England on paper has taken Armidale printmaker Lizzie Horne far beyond local gorge country. A more than decade-long exploration of printmaking techniques with teachers and mentors in studios around the world has led her to a deep dive into sugar lift etching.
Horne has experimented with the medium to create a body of gestural, expressive works informed by the scale, movement and force of the New England awe-inspiring land and waterscapes.
Opening night: Friday 15 November, 6-8pm
Artist talk: Saturday 18 January, 10.30 – 11.30am
Restricted exhibition access 29 January – 2 February. Viewing by appointment only. Please call the Gallery on 02 6772 5255 to enquire.
Image credit: Lizzie Horne, Cloudfall (II), 2024, open bite etching, US. Courtesy the artist.

Colourful Coventry
2024-11-15 18:00 - 2025-02-02 16:00
Celebrating Chandler Coventry’s 100th birthday, this exhibition is a cracker for the kids showcasing some of the brightest and boldest artworks in the Chandler Coventry Collection. Coventry moved from Armidale to Sydney and opened his own commercial art gallery in the 1970s, later donating his personal art collection to NERAM when it was founded.
See gems from the Chandler Coventry Collection in a new way with this interactive display of colourful artworks accompanied by a variety activities – a scavenger hunt, dress ups, colouring in and more. Colourful Coventry is perfect for the whole family these summer holidays.
Opening night: Friday 15 November, 6-8pm
Image credit: Gunter Christmann, Attis, 1975, acrylic on canvas. Gift of Chandler Coventry 1979.

The Interior: Natalya Hughes
2025-02-07 17:30 - 2025-04-06 16:00
The Interior is an immersive installation combining sculptural seating, richly patterned soft furnishings, and uncanny object d’art, nestled around a hand painted mural to generate a stimulating space to unpack our collective and unconscious biases.
Natalya Hughes, one of Australia’s most exciting mid-career artists, is known for her explorations of decorative and ornamental traditions and their associations with the feminine, the human form, and excess. Recent bodies of work investigate the relationship between Modernist painters and their anonymous women subjects.
Curated by Tulleah Pearce.
The Interior is a travelling exhibition organised by Institute of Modern Art (IMA), toured by Museums & Galleries Queensland.
The Interior has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body; the Australia Council’s Contemporary Touring initiative; the Fini Artist Fellowship through the Sheila Foundation; Queensland College of Art, Griffith University; Creative Art Research Institute, Griffith University; and Porter’s Paints, New Farm.
Natalya Hughes is represented by Milani Gallery, Brisbane, and Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney.

Opening night: Friday 7 February
In Conversation with Natalya Hughes, 5.30pm
Opening remarks, 6pm
Image credit: Installation view, Natalya Hughes: The Interior, 2022, Institute of Modern Art. Photography: Charlie Hillhouse.

Contemplations: Contemporary still life
2025-02-07 18:00 - 2025-03-16 16:00
This exhibition of still life artworks offers a compelling exploration of one of the oldest and most enduring genres in art history. In contemporary art, still life continues to captivate artists with its potential for experimentation and reinterpretation. Still life allows artists to engage with both the ordinary and the symbolic, offering a meditative space to reflect on the relationship between objects and human experience. In today’s fast-paced, image-saturated world, still life remains a powerful vehicle for introspection and an enduring testament to the ability of art to capture the beauty and meaning in the simplest of things.
Featured artists include Andrea Gledhill, Fiona Cotton, Fiona O’Byrne, James White, Jodi Thompson, Kate Durack, Kir Larwill, Leah Bullen, Lucy McCann, Michaela Laurie, Phoebe Hillard, Samantha Dennison, and Simone Hale.
Opening Night: Friday 7 February, 6-8pm (opening remarks 6pm)
Contemplations Catalogue
Image credit: Jodi Thompson, Does my bum look big in this?, 2024, oil on ply, 63 x 42cm. Courtesy the artist.

Dancing with Colour: Jamie-Lee Garner & Frances Edwina Powell
2025-02-07 18:00 - 2025-03-16 16:00
A joint exhibition between local artist and potter Jamie-Lee Garner and Brisbane-based artist Frances Edwina Powell. Each embraces bold colour in their artistic practices, imbuing their works with movement and dynamism. Garner creates her pottery vessels then ‘upholsters’ them with vintage textile offcuts while Powell mimics acts of daily pantomime with her collages reminiscent of Matisse.
Jamie-Lee Garner is an interdisciplinary artist that lives and works from her studio in the Northern Tablelands, on Ngarabal country in NSW, Australia. She received her BA in Architecture from the University of Sydney in 2018. By working across various mediums, including ceramics, recycled textiles and oil painting, Garner creates work about the discovery of self in a way that aims to be accessible and most importantly delightful.
Frances Edwina Powell is an emerging artist and arts facilitator based in Meanjin (Brisbane). She received a Bachelor of Fine Art (Studio) and Business (Marketing) from the Queensland College of Art in 2021. Powell often references figure drawing, abstract shapes and colour associations within her work, crafting collages and illustrative oil paintings that explore form and concept, along with ideas of the body, relationships, performance and home, primarily working on paper. Frances Powell is represented by Side Gallery, Brisbane.
Opening Night: Friday 7 February, 6-8pm (opening remarks 6pm)
Image credit: Frances Edwina Powell, Ribbons and twirls! (hyper today), 2023, oil paint and pencil on archival paper, 59.4 x 42cm. Courtesy the artist and Side Gallery.

Vibrations: Abstract women in the collection
2025-02-07 18:00 - 2025-03-30 16:00
Vibrations: Abstract women in the collection shines a spotlight on incredible works in the NERAM collections created by leading contemporary women artists.
Featured artists include Suzanne Archer, Vivienne Binns, Marion Borgelt, Judy Cassab, Elizabeth Coats, Michelle Collocott, Elisabeth Cummings, Debra Dawes, Helen Eager, Vivienne Ferguson, Rosalie Gascoigne, Helen Geier, Julienne Harris, Mimi Jaksic-Berger, Eva Kubbos, Pat Larter, Rosemary Madigan, Hilarie Mais, Barbara McKay, Wendy Paramor, Fay Porter, Marisa Purcell, Cassandra Sharp, Ann Thomson, Aida Tomescu, Louise Tuckwell, Maeve Woods, and Margaret Worth.
Opening night: Friday 7 February, 6-8pm (opening remarks 6pm)
Image credit: Barbara McKay, Wattle, 1974, acrylic on canvas. Gift of the artist 2024.

Oddity Part 1: KHR Stewart
2025-02-07 18:00 - 2025-03-30 16:00
KHR Stewart explores the subliminal world of the subconscious in this exhibition, drawing from life experience in collaging influential moments in time and personal relationships interspersed with the surreal. Her current process involves collecting and combining photographs into digital tableaux which are then reproduced as detailed oil paintings.
KHR Stewart was born in Orange, NSW. Moving to Lismore at an early age, and then studying Architecture and Fine Art at University of Newcastle, she completed her Fine Art studies at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Whilst now based in Brisbane, her work continues to draw upon her lived regional experience, and that of her family more broadly, intertwining natural and built landscapes with eclectic memory.
Opening Night: Friday 7 February, 6-8pm (opening remarks 6pm)
Image credit: KHR Stewart, The Victorians (Giantess), 2018, oil on canvas, 85 x 70cm. Courtesy the artist.

Opening Night
2025-03-21 18:00 - 20:00
Join us for the opening of two new exhibitions.
Panel discussion with BGP: 5.45 – 6.30pm (opening remarks 6.30pm)

Pass the Print: An experimental collaboration with the Black Gully Printmakers

Fifty/ 50

Image credit: Del Kathryn Barton, Wild carrot dream, limited edition archival print. Courtesy of the artist.

Pass the Print: An experimental collaboration with the Black Gully Printmakers
2025-03-21 18:00 - 2025-05-04 16:00
A collaborative printmaking project challenging the Black Gully Printmakers to embrace experimentation and freedom in printmaking. Each participant provides a print to another member who then responds to the initiating artist’s imagery and approach. Each participant is relieved from conceiving an entire finished work, and instead, brings their own flavour, technique and finesse to another’s. The results are anyone’s guess!
Participants include: Eve Chan, Heather Cowie, Clint Harvey, Cat MacGregor, Beth Macraild O’Loughlin, Dzintra Menesis, Jennifer Miller, Dinny Perry, Emily Simson, Rosalie Rigby Susie Spencer, Chris Vickery, and Margaret Vickery.
Opening night: Friday 21 March, 6-8pm (opening remarks from 6.30pm)
Panel discussion: Friday 21 March, 5.45 – 6.30pm
Image credit: Jennifer Miller, Untitled, reduction Lino Print with collaged gelli plate.

Fifty/ 50
2025-03-21 18:00 - 2025-05-04 16:00
Back by popular demand! Fifty/ 50 is an exhibition, it’s a raffle, and it’s a fundraiser for the Art Museum. Artists have donated artworks that are up for grabs in a progressive raffle that will be drawn at the conclusion of the exhibition. If your name gets drawn out first, you get first pick from all of the artworks on display, and so on until the last person drawn gets the last artwork remaining. There are limited tickets available and with artworks by artists such Ben Quilty, Angus Nivison, Del Kathryn Barton, Isabelle Devos, Ken Done, Stuart Boggs, Hiromi Tango, Paula Jenkins, Martin King, Adrian Lockhart, and Caroline Zilinsky, we suggest you buy yours quick!
Opening night: Friday 21 March, 6-8pm
Fifty/ 50 will be drawn on Sunday 4 May, 3pm
Fifty/ 50 artists include: Adrian Lockhart, Alex Sugar, Angus Nivison, Anna Johnson, Anne-Marie Zanetti, Arthur Boyd, Ben Frost, Ben Quilty, Caroline Zilinsky, Chelsea Gustafsson, Del Kathryn Barton, Denise Faulkner, Ebony Russell, Elizabeth Barnett, Emily Day, Fiona O’Byrne, Hiromi Tango, Isabelle Devos, John R Walker, Judith Nangala Crispin, Julianne Ross Allcorn, Kate Rohde, Ken Done, Leah Bullen, Lihao Lu, Liz Gridley, Mandy Francis, Marie Mansfield, Martin King, Max Powell, Michael Simms, Narelle Zeller, Nat Ward, Natasha Junmanee, Neerja Peters, Paula Jenkins, Petra Reece, Rachel Favelle, Rhiannon Mowat, Robyn Lees-West, Rosie Lloyd-Giblett, Rowen Matthews, Ryan Pola, Sally Kent, Samantha Frye, Sandra McMahon, Sarah Waghorn, Scott Breton, Stuart Boggs, Vanessa Ashcroft.
Fifty/50 Artwork List
Fifty/ 50 is supported by Beautiful Bizarre Magazine.

Image credit: : Del Kathryn Barton, Wild carrot dream, limited edition archival print. Courtesy of the artist.

Terms and Conditions

Tickets go on sale on Friday 21 March.
Total tickets available will equal total artworks available.
Individuals are able to purchase multiple tickets.
All artworks are valued at $500 or over (value information received from artwork donors).
Artwork labels detail if the work comes framed or unframed.
On the last day of the exhibition (Sunday 4th May) a public event will be held where tickets will be drawn.
All ticket holders will receive an artwork from the Fifty/ 50 exhibition that they will select in order of the public draw.
The first name drawn at the event, gets to choose from all of the artworks on display in the Fifty/ 50 exhibition. The second name drawn gets to choose from the remaining works and so on. The last name drawn receives that last remaining work and a bottle of bubbles.
Tickets are non-refundable.
All selections are final and NERAM will not be involved in any negotiations to swap or exchange artworks. An exception may be made if an artwork is damaged, and the damage is recognised and reported prior to it leaving NERAM.
Ticket holders who are unable to attend the public event can complete a Fifty/ 50 Preference List – the form will ask you to rank all Fifty/ 50 artworks in order of your preference. When your name is drawn a NERAM staff member will secure your highest-ranking artwork from those still remaining.
All proceeds will support the NERAM exhibition program.

Opening Night
2025-04-11 18:00 - 20:00
Join us for the opening of three new exhibitions.
The Landscape of Giving: Celebrating 10 years of the Adopt an Artwork program at NERAM

Halfway Home: Bridie McKelvey

Galah: Regional Photography Prize

Opening remarks will commence at 6.30pm
Join us prior to the opening at 5.45pm to hear from Julian Bickersteth AO, CEO of International Conservation Services. Julian will discuss his global experience in conservation, with highlights from the past 10 years of NERAM’s Adopt An Artwork Program, and celebrate the generous contributions to this incredible project which supports the preservation of our beautiful collection. Please R.S.V.P for the talk here…

Image credit: Elioth Gruner, Winter Afternoon, Bellingen, 1937, oil on canvas. Gift of Howard Hinton 1938. The Howard Hinton Collection. Sponsored by Paul & Miriam Martin, Lynne Walker and Richard Bird in 2021 for the Adopt An Artwork Program.

Halfway Home: Bridie McKelvey
2025-04-11 18:00 - 2025-06-08 16:00
A solo exhibition of delightful and whimsical assemblages and dioramas representing a small escape from life’s hectic and sometimes harsh realities. Bridie McKelvey’s work takes seemingly mundane objects transforming them into intricate reimagined landscapes. Favoured materials include paper, tins, toys, beads, threads, old books, paper, found objects, wire and pressed flowers, that are applied with repetition throughout her work – continually toying with colour, balance and texture, and delivering on an objective that is purely decorative and designed to delight.

Now based in the Northern Rivers, Bridie McKelvey grew up and attended high school in Armidale. McKelvey has studied visual arts and graphic design and has participated in several group exhibitions in NSW.

Credit: Bridie McKelvey, Owl and flowers, n.d., mixed media assemblage. Courtesy the artist.

2025 Galah Regional Photography Prize
2025-04-11 18:00 - 2025-06-08 16:00
The biennial Galah Regional Photography Prize, established in 2023, has been created to encourage excellence in contemporary photography from regional Australia. The intention of the prize is to celebrate, support and advance the practice of regional photographers.
Galah has announced 42 contemporary photographs as finalists in this year’s $27,000 Regional Photography Prize, Australia’s richest photography prize for regional artists. The judging panel selected 42 images made by 37 regional photographers from more than 1100 entries across regional Australia.
The finalists’ work will be presented at the New England Regional Art Museum in Armidale, NSW, in an eight week exhibition from 11 April to 8 June 2025.
The winning works will be announced at an exhibition party at NERAM on Friday 2 May 2025.

Image: Mike Terry, Beef Week, 2024. Ilford Fibre Gloss 310gsm – archival print

The Landscape of Giving: Celebrating 10 years of the Adopt an Artwork program at NERAM
2025-04-11 18:00 - 2025-07-06 16:00
NERAM is proud to celebrate the tenth anniversary of its Adopt an Artwork program, developed to support the ongoing preservation and conservation of artworks across the NERAM collections. Since the program was launched in 2015, over 208 artworks have been adopted for treatment and over $460,000 in funding has been raised. Showcasing a large selection of artworks that have undergone preservation treatments over the decade and acknowledging the incredible and generous support received from community engagement, this exhibition offers a glimpse behind the scenes of the program and a new range of artworks from NERAM available for adoption.
The exhibition will be opened by Julian Bickersteth AO, CEO of International Conservation Services on Friday 11th April 2025 at 6.30 pm
Please join us at 5.45pm in the Mazda Gallery to share Julian’s global experience in conservation, with highlights from the past 10 years of the Adopt An Artwork Program, and celebrate the generous contributions to this incredible project which supports the preservation of our beautiful collection.

Supported by Packsaddle

Credit: Brett Whiteley, Self portrait, (c. 1972), ink on linen, (cropped) Gift of Chandler Coventry 1979. The Chandler Coventry Collection. Sponsored by Wesfarmers in 2015 for the Adopt An Artwork Program.

Opening Night
2025-05-09 18:00 - 20:00
Join us for the opening of two new exhibitions.

Outside our doors | Ascent GROUP exhibition
Movers and Shakers | Celebrating Art Deco

Image credit: ASCENT Group works, 2025.
