New England Regional Art Museum

Artist Talk: Lae Oldmeadow
2025-11-14 17:30 - 18:00 (Australia/Sydney)
Join us before the official opening to hear exhibiting artist Lae Oldmeadow in conversation with curator Professor Pedram Khosronejad as they discuss The Garden — Oldmeadow’s debut solo exhibition at NERAM.
In The Garden, outsider artist Lae Oldmeadow creates a contemplative and tactile installation where nature and culture intertwine. A series of Totems of Contemplation leads visitors towards the central sculptural work, The Garden, evoking the sensation of stepping into a magical forest. Crafted from palm fibre, sisal, organic cotton and ultramarine paint, Oldmeadow’s totems and wall sculptures explore themes of reverence, resilience and renewal.

Image: Lae Oldmeadow, Totem of Contemplation # 11 Leaf, 2022. Palm fibre and sisal twine sewn to canvas, acrylic paint

Book Launch: A Portrait of Howard Hinton
2025-11-11 17:00 - 18:00
To mark Howard Hinton’s 159th Birthday we invite you to the launch of A Portrait of Howard Hinton by Margaret Bain.
Who was Howard Hinton — the man behind one of Australia’s greatest art collections? A Portrait of Howard Hinton uncovers the life of this enigmatic philanthropist, moving beyond the familiar image of a shy bachelor who gave away his fortune for art. Drawing on Hinton’s long-lost diary and years of meticulous research, Margaret reveals a vibrant, generous, and deeply connected figure at the heart of Sydney’s cultural scene in the early 20th century.
Join us at NERAM to celebrate the launch of this remarkable new publication that sheds fresh light on the man whose vision helped shape the very foundations of the New England Regional Art Museum. There will be champagne and cake.

COSMOGRAPHIES : A speculative documentary film
2025-11-09 15:00 - 17:15
The struggle for environmental justice against ongoing forms of extractivism and ecological ruin in the Atacama Desert is an allegory against ongoing plans to colonise the Moon and Mars, where Māori astrobiologist Xuê Noon finds solace in 2051.
Cosmographies is a hybrid film that draws from speculative fiction, observational and poetic documentary, Indigenous futurism and Indigiqueer perspectives. It interweaves stories of resistance and environmental justice against extractivism in the Atacama Desert, Chile, as an allegory for contemporary plans to colonise the Moon and Mars. Set across 2023 and 2051, it weaves parallel stories of Lickan Antay land and water defenders, engaged scientists and fishing communities in Atacama, with the story of Māori astrobiologist Xuě Noon who finds solace in Mars and slipstreams across spacetime with an urgent message.
Screening at Belgrave as part of How to weather together exhibition
Film is 95 minutes
Q&A is 30 minutes. Finish by 5.15pm.
Credits
Director, Cinematographer & Writer (BIO): Juan Francisco Salazar (attending the screening for Q&A)
Writer & Performer (BIO): Victoria Hunt

How to Weather Together
2025-11-08 10:00 - 2026-02-01 16:00
How to Weather Together is a multi-artform project that explores how we live with and respond to climate change through the intimate, daily experiences of weather—both ordinary and extreme. Bringing together illustration, visual art, writing, film, and participatory activities, the project invites audiences to consider how the shifting climate shapes our emotions, behaviours, and communities. Rather than focusing solely on facts or forecasts, How to Weather Together encourages reflection, conversation, and creativity, prompting visitors to ask unusual questions and to imagine new habits, practices, and ways of being as we adapt to a changing ecological future.
Curated by Jennifer Hamilton
Artists:
Clare Britton, Rae Haynes, Horizon Factory (Nina Vroemen and Erin Hill), Henri van Noordenburg, Marissa Betts & Mike Terry, Tessa Zettel & Susie Nelson, The Weathering Collective (Tessa Zettel, Astrida Neimanis, Jennifer Hamilton).

Credit: Illustration by Tessa Zettel: G Market Stall from How to weather together: Feminist practice for climate change (Bloomsbury: 2026)

This exhibition is supported by Arts North West.

New England Friends of NERAM Artisan Trail
2025-11-08 10:00 - 2025-11-09 16:00
Step inside the studios of six talented New England artists and see where creativity comes to life. Across one inspiring weekend, the New England Friends of NERAM Artisan Trail invites you to visit artists in their working environments, watch live demonstrations, and gain unique insights into their craft.

From delicate watercolours and expressive landscape paintings to fine ceramics and reclaimed metal sculpture, this is a rare opportunity to meet the makers shaping our region’s vibrant arts scene.

Tickets are available for individual studio visits or as a weekend pass giving access to all six studios. All proceeds support the work of the Friends of NERAM in raising funds for the New England Regional Art Museum.

Tickets:
$40 Friends of NERAM members
$45 Non-members
$12 per individual studio

Book now via TryBooking

Black Gully Festival 2025
2025-11-08 10:00 - 19:30
The always highly-anticipated Black Gully Festival is set to kick off on Saturday, November 8th, 2025, in the scenic Black Gully Reserve (behind NERAM on the south side of the creek). This free, family-friendly event celebrates the vibrant spirit of Armidale as the weather warms up, offering a day filled with music, art, environmental and community engagement. The festival promises an entertaining experience for attendees of all ages.
Festival Program

9.00am – 7.30pm – Festival Livestream and broadcast 2ARMFM Community Radio
10.00am – 4.00pm – NERAM Art Gallery & feature exhibition How to Weather Together
10.00am – 2.00pm – Aboriginal Cultural Centre & Keeping Place – Music jam w/ Des Ahoy, Peter Georkas & Bob Blair (10-12)
10.00am – 2.00pm – Museum of Printing
10.00am – 4.00pm – Makers, Community and Environment Markets

Caring for Koala Country, Clothes Swap and Slow Living, Community Garden tours, Community Weathering Station, Electrify Armidale, Growing Sustainable Landscapes, Healthy Headwaters and Creek bug collecting, Highlands End of Life Project, NERAM Family Art Making, Platypus Play and Clay, River Weaving and Rising Tide, Save our Styx, Talking Soil, The Highlands Poet, Weeding for Weaving w/ Andrew Parker, Face painting and more…..

10.00am – 7.30pm – Food Vans
12.00pm – Official Opening – Welcome to Country + Thanks to Sponsors + announcements
7.00pm – 8.45pm – Astronomy night with the Stars & UNE & NT Astronomical Society@NERAM cafe

Music, Dance & Theatre Program

Main Stages
10.00am to 7.30pm

10.30am The Holy Horns
11.15am Alejandro & Armidale Salsa
11.30am JazzLab
12.00pm Welcome to Country + Thanks to Sponsors + announcements
12.30pm Tandav School of Dance
12.50pm Blakk Dynasty
1.20pm The Rocky Bottom Girls
2.10pm OhMaSoul
3.00pm MC & The Squares
3.50pm Dusky Buzz
4.40pm The Cham Cham
5.30pm PartyLine
6.30pm The Chads

Acoustic Stage (NERAM Café)
9.00am to 4.00pm

9.00am Judith Betts
9.45am Bruce’s Country
10.30am Pete Stanley
11.15am Barney St Band
12.00pm The Miggy Man
12.45pm Dallas Muirhead
1.30pm Ian Russell
2.15pm Khaleel Jundi
3.00pm Firebirds Choir
3.30pm Saturday Magic Theatre Troupe presents Pandora and the Dragon

Talks, Activities & Workshops Program

Clothes Swap@ Slow Living Tent

10.00 to 11.00am Clothes drop
12.00 to 2.00pm Clothes swap

The Community Weathering Station (CoWS) at Black Gully Festival (North Village)
The Community Weathering Station is a market stall about climate change. This Black Gully Festival we have a program of visiting artist-researcher facilitated workshops that link up with the themes of weathering: a concept that explores climate change from a grounded, localised and embodied perspective.
Throughout the day we will also offer Tea/Tarot readings when the readers are not off enjoying the festival, and there will be other little things in the stall to look at and discuss.
For the workshops: We will endeavour to have all the materials you need on hand, but please go to the link below form more details, any specific instructions and to register (FREE REGISTRATION).
CoWS workshops are for people aged 16+

10.00 -11.00am: Mixed Weathering Workshops – w/ Tessa Zettel, Astrida Neimanis and Jennifer Hamilton.
11.00am – 12.00pm: Rest your identity – w/ Ju Bavyka
12.00 – 12.30pm : Welcome to Country (MainStage)
12.30 – 1.30pm: Day for it! why we love good weather – w/ Blanche Verlie
1.30 – 2.30pm : Lunch Break
2.30 – 3.30pm : Learn to Scry with the Sky: how to prophesize through gazing – w/ Nina Vroeman

All Day:

By sign-up sheet on the day: Tea & Tarot by Donation (with Piers Kelly & Ju Bavyka)
How to weather together exhibition (Mazda Gallery inside NERAM)

Full program and registration details available at: https://communityweatheringstation.net/2025/10/13/2025-black-gully-festival-stall/

Community Garden

10.30/12.30/2.30 – Composting with Joi (@ the Community Garden
Community Garden Tours – Come for a visit! Tours running from 10.00am to 4.00pm -as needed

Sustainable Living Armidale (SLA) and Friends @ North Gully Village (NERAM Side)

10.30/3.30 – Rhizomatic Somatic Meditation (1-hour sessions) for 16+ – w/Pip Ryan @ Rhizomatic Chorus tent
11.00 to 1:30 – Magpie print making @ Museum of Printing
10.30/1.00 – How healthy is my soil? – why not soil some undies! @Talking Soil tent
11:00/1:30 – Digging Together: Where Soil Science Meets Community @Talking Soil

SLA and Friends @ the Packsaddle room (Below NERAM)

11.00am – SPECIAL Presentation – Healthy Headwaters of New England and what our creek invertebrates tell us (30mins) – with Dr. Sara Mika, UNE Aquatic Ecology Lab
12.30pm – SPECIAL Presentation – The Bell’s Turtle: A Turtle of Our Own – with Dr. Lou Streeting, UNE Lazer Lab

SLA and Friends @ South Gully Village (Stage Side)
• 10.30/11.30/12.30/1.30/2.30/3.30– The Magic of Science Show @UNE Discovery
• 10.30/1.30 – Cozy Story Time – The Platypus – w/Sue Eliot @SLA and NE Rakali and Platypus tent
• 10.30/11.15/2.45- Native Rodents – who are they anyway and why should we care? @Threatened Species Tent
• 10.45/2.00 – Chatting about Energy-Efficiency – for beginners 101@Electrify Armidale tent
• 11.00 to 12.00 – Weeding for Weaving w/Andrew Parker @the Big Weave
• 11.00 to 12.00 – Making Seedballs @Armidale Tree Group
• 11.30 – Cozy Story Time- Where are all the baby Turtles? – w/Lou Streeting – @SLA and NE Rakali and Platypus tent
• 11.30 & 1.30 – Creek Bug Collecting – meet @UNE Aquatic Ecology Lab
• 12.30/2.00- Bat’s in the Backyard and Insect-eating bats @Threatened Species Tent
• 1.00 – Black Gully Walk and Talk with Funky Dave and Friends of BG – meet@the Black Gully Central Tent
• 2.00 – Chatting about Energy-Efficiency –bring your really tricky questions @Electrify Armidale tent

The Black Gully Festival program is subject to changes at any time. Please refer to website for any updates or amendments.

The Black Gully Festival – Partners and Sponsors
The Black Gully Festival would not be possible and nor would it be able to provide a free community event without the contribution of over 70 volunteers and our Partners and Sponsors. The Black Gully Festival organisers would like to extend a huge thank you to our volunteers and to the following:
Partners
Musicians of Armidale (MOA)/Sustainable Living Armidale (SLA)/New England Regional Art Museum (NERAM)/2ARMFM Community Radio/Southern New England Landcare (SNEL)/Armidale Tree Group (ATG)/Aboriginal Cultural Centre and Keeping Place (ACCKP)
Supermega sponsors, Very special sponsors, and Festival friends
Sustainable Living Armidale (SLA)/Origin Energy (Renewable energy and the New England Community Investment Program)/Armidale Regional Council (ARC)/BlackDot/Gallery 126/The Welders Dog/StringyBark Ecological/Back Track/Creative Streets Festival

The Community Weathering Station at Black Gully Festival
2025-11-08 10:00 - 16:00
The Community Weathering Station is a market stall about climate change. This black gully festival we have a program of visiting artist-researcher facilitated workshops that link up with the themes of weathering: a concept that explores climate change from a grounded, localised and embodied perspective.
Throughout the day we will also offer Tea/Tarot readings when the readers are in, and there will be other little things in the stall to look at and discuss. For the workshops: We will endeavour to have all the materials you need on hand, but please read below for any specific instructions and to register to help us plan for numbers.
All Workshops begin at the CoWS Stall

Stall opens 10am

Mixed Weathering Workshops 10-11am
Drop into the CoWS Stall and participate in a selection of activities “Lucky Dip”, “Close Meteorology”, “Speed Zining” and “Weathering With and Without”. These games are connected to How to weather together exhibition in the gallery and book of the same name. Participants can take home their contributions or they can add it to the exhibition upstairs. These activities are all designed to engage with yourself and each other differently and carefully in relation to everyday weather, but also as a method for connecting to the large scale catastrophe of climate change. If you miss the early workshop options to participate will be available throughout the day.
We believe weathering well requires the proliferation of feminist, queer and anticolonial environmentalisms and the global redistribution of shelter and vulnerability. To assist in grass-roots revolutionary mobilisation, we offer up simple practices as part of a larger historical movement: to change the climate of climate change and be ourselves changed in the process.
Facilitator Bio/s: The weathering workshops are facilated by Tessa Zettel (Sydney), Astrida Neimanis (Canada) and Jennifer Hamilton (Armidale). These three have been collaborating for a decade as The Weathering Collective.
FREE REGISTRATION

Rest your identity: 11-12
With Ju Bavyka
This workshop leans on meditation practices to examine our relationships to aspects of our identity, including habits or social roles, that get overworked in everyday life. This overwork can be a response to social injustice, patriarchy, gendered roles, being disabled, or to the self-exploitation of one’s ethnic and cultural background in order to exist and survive. After a short introduction, participants are invited to follow a guided meditation and to identify parts of themself that require a little rest, revision, and kind reintegration on better terms. A space for encounter and possible connection is created during the discussion afterwards. This workshop is included in the CoWS program as a practice that allows for new openings to the weather world.
Cushions provided.
Facilitator Bio: Ju is a visual artist, writer and community organiser. They create from a queer, forager perspective and are interested in practices of hospitality and generosity. Ju lives, works and rests on unceded Gadigal Wangal lands in so-called Sydney, Australia, and sometimes in Berlin. They have ties to Kazakhstan and Germany through their birth, education, community connections and family history.
FREE REGISTRATION (Please RSVP to help with numbers, but please also show up on the day either way)
15 Max

12pm Welcome to Country (Mainstage)

DAY FOR IT! why we love good weather 12.30-1.30pm
With Blanche Verlie
Most of our efforts to communicate the importance of global heating focus on how scary and bad changing the climate is. But a lot of people find it too scary to think about, and so they disengage from the topic. What if we celebrated all the benefits that a safe climate affords us? This walkshop riffs on the Australian idiom “Day for It!” that celebrates all the great, fun things we can do in good weather and who those activities allow us to be, to help us clarify the cultural and personal value of our Holocene climate.
What you’ll need to participate: a phone with a camera and internet connection OR a pen and paper. We’ll be walking around the Festival and chatting to people about what their favourite weather is, and why they love it.
Facilitator Bio: Blanche is a multidisciplinary social scientist whose work focuses on climate change working. Her research investigates how people understand, experience, and respond to climate change, and how we might do this differently and better. Her book Learning to live-with climate change: From anxiety to transformation is available as a free e-book. At the University of Sydney, she is a Sydney Horizon Fellow in Gender and Cultural Studies, and one of the leaders of the Environmental Justice theme at the Sydney Environment Institute.
FREE REGISTRATION (Please RSVP to help with numbers, but please also show up on the day either way)

1.30-2.30 Lunch break (& Rocky Bottom Girls playing on mainstage!)

Learn to Scry with the Sky: how to prophesize through gazing, 2.30-3.30pm
With Nina Vroeman
This workshop will explore exercises from Horizon Factory’s publication Deep Gazing.
The book is a guide, a tool, an atlas and a companion for individual and communal attunement to the environment. Opening to the expansiveness of the sky, learning to read its signs and traces, and allowing for messages and meanings to arise beyond the art of forecasting.
Facilitator Bio: Nina makes interdisciplinary work about ecology that is speculative and embodied. They live in Tiohtiá:ke (Montreal), on the traditional territory of the Kanien’kehà:ka and are a recent MFA graduate from Sculpture and Ceramics at Concordia University. For more information about their work visit ninavroemen.com/
FREE REGISTRATION (Please RSVP to help with numbers, but please also show up on the day either way)
15 Max

Stall closes 4pm

In Conversation: Behind the Scenes with Packsaddle
2025-11-01 10:30 - 11:30
Join us at NERAM for a special In Conversation between NERAM Director Rachael Parsons and members of the current Packsaddle Committee.
Together, they’ll pull back the curtain on all things Packsaddle — how this beloved annual exhibition is imagined, planned, and brought to life each year. Discover the stories behind the art, the community connections that make it possible, and why this remarkable group of women continues to dedicate their time, creativity, and passion to supporting NERAM after 40 years.
An inspiring and insightful look at one of the most enduring and generous supporter groups in regional Australia.

Portraiture in Charcoal with Michael Simms
2025-11-01 10:00 - 2025-11-02 16:00
Due to popular demand, Michael Simms is back with his charcoal portraiture workshop. Excitingly the workshop has been extended to two days, giving students more time to develop, practice and hone their skills under the guidance of Michael.
In this workshop, students will learn how to draw the human face with charcoal – one of the most versatile and expressive mediums. Michael will provide his unique tips and tricks on how to simplify the face into basic shapes to make portraiture fun and accessible.
Michael will conduct demonstrations and provide individual feedback to students throughout both days.
Students will also have the opportunity to visit Michael Simms Stages exhibition in the Mazda Gallery of NERAM.
Topics covered include:

Overview of materials: the different types of charcoal and how to use it
The proportions of the human face
How to simplify the human face into basic planes and tonal shapes
How to break down individual facial features
How to build structure into your portrait
Capturing a ‘likeness’
Understanding tonal values
How to achieve a sense of volume and form in your drawings
Drawing from a live model
The impact of lighting

DATE | Saturday and Sunday, 1st & 2nd of November
TIME | 10am – 4.00pm both days
VENUE | Packsaddle Studio
COST | General Price $221.00 – FoN/Culture Club member Price $245.00
All materials are included
Min 10, Max 14

Image: Courtesy of Michael Simms

Packsaddle Exhibition 2025
2025-10-24 17:00 - 2025-11-09 17:00
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.
Opening Night Event: Friday 24 October >>>>> Book your free ticket
Viewing from 5.00pm | Selling from 6.00pm | Opening remarks by Christopher Hodges, Gallery Director, artist and owner of Utopia Art Sydney
Packsaddle 2025 Program of Events

Saturday 25 October 10.30am: Packsaddle floor talk with Christopher Hodges
Saturday 1 November 10.30am: Packsaddle floor talk
Sunday 9 November 1.00 – 4.00pm: Pick up Party for customers to collect their works

Opening Night: Packsaddle Exhibition 2025
2025-10-24 17:00 - 20:00
Join us for the ringing of the bell to open the 2025 Packsaddle Exhibition!
Be among the first to view—and purchase—original artworks by leading and emerging Australian artists. Now in its 40th year, Packsaddle is a beloved fundraising exhibition that brings together a curated selection of contemporary paintings, prints, and sculptures in support of NERAM.
Every artwork sold directly supports both the artist and the future of the New England Regional Art Museum. Don’t miss this exciting opportunity to collect something special and celebrate four decades of community, creativity, and generosity.
Viewing from 5.00pm. The bell will ring at 6pm (no artworks will be sold prior), when the selling and celebration will commence.

STAMP PRINTING WORKSHOP
2025-10-18 10:30 - 2025-11-01 15:30
STAMP PRINTING WORKSHOP: Experience NERAM Museum of Printing and UNE Museum of Antiquities as places of inspiration for stamp making.
Join Black Gully Printmaker Rhonda Ellem for a three-Saturday experimental workshop designing, making and printing stamps.
Day one at NERAM Museum of Printing. Introduction to carving rubber stamps and making stamp pads, and an introduction to using advertising blocks from the museum’s collection. Stamps and blocks will be proofed then combined with stencilling, overprinting, chine colle and collage.
Day two at UNE Museum of Antiquities (UNEMA). There’ll be a talk by Dr Bronwyn Hopwood, the Curator and Collections Manager of the recently refurbished UNE Museum of Antiquities (UNEMA). UNEMA is Australia’s only regional museum of Classical Antiquities and home to the nationally significant James Rivers Barrington Stewart Collection of Cypriot archaeological material from the stone age to the medieval period. The museum also offers displays from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Oceania, the 19th century and more. The talk will be followed by drawing in the museum taking anthromorphic and zoomorphic inspiration from the collections. These drawings will be developed into stamps back at MoP.
Day three at NERAM Museum of Printing. Final printing onto postcards, cardstock and found papers using repetition, masking, colour blending and progressive printing. Themes of Cinderella stamps and EFOs (errors, freaks and oddities) from the philatelic world will be explored.
No experience necessary.
Saturdays 18, 25 October & 1 November
TIME | 10.30am to 3.30pm
VENUE | Museum of Printing NERAM.
Please note: on 25 October the workshop starts at UNE Museum of Antiquities at 10.30 and returns to the Museum of Printing NERAM for the afternoon
COST | Friends of NERAM/Culture Club Members – $155 , General price $170
Students 16yrs + are welcome
Specialist materials supplied with a material list sent prior.

Image credit: Stamp, courtesy of Rhonda Ellem
Terms and Conditions

All bookings for events, art classes and workshops require payment in full at the time of booking
A minimum number of 8 students required for classes to proceed, please book and pay by Monday 13 October 2025 to ensure classes go ahead
Please be aware that once bookings close, we are unable to offer a refund
If the class does not proceed, you will be refunded any cash amount
NERAM events have a limited capacity and use a ticketing system. Bookings are essential
Student contact details may be passed on to facilitators for communication purposes

School Holiday Workshop | CD Weaving
2025-10-09 11:00 - 13:00
Do you enjoy repurposing materials and would like to give weaving a go? Make your own fun CD weaving project these school holidays. With coloured wool and feathers the results will be beautiful and each participant can add their own flare to the weaving and a decorative piece of art to hang in a special place.
VENUE | Packsaddle studio (located at the rear of NERAM )
DATE | Thursday October 9
TIME | 11am -1pm
AGES | 8yrs and over
COST | Friends of NERAM/Culture Club Members – $32 , General – $29
Please phone NERAM 67725255 to cancel your place if you are unable to attend so that your place can be filled by someone else.

Culture Club open studio
2025-10-08 18:00 - 20:30, 2025-09-10 18:00 - 20:30
Culture Club is proud to present OPEN STUDIO.

This month we are meeting at Get Framed Armidale and taking walk with photographer Simon Scott and he is going to teach you some photography tricks and tips as well as some basic editing using Snap Seed. All you need to bring is your phone. The arty times kick off at 6pm.

Venue: Meet at at Get Framed Armidale Shop 45/195-197 Beardy Street, Armidale Plaza SC. Entrance on Dangar Street.

INFO:

Can I bring wine? YES YOU CAN
If it’s cold will you put the heaters on? YES WE WILL
Do I need to be good at art to come? NOPE
How much does it cost? NADA
Will there be snacks? MAYBE. Each month is hosted by a different Culture Club Committee member, so it’s up to them how the evening goes. They’re in charge of the music, the still life set up and the good feels.
Do I need to be a member of Culture Club to come? NO. But we’re kind of hoping that you really dig it and decide you want to support us by becoming a member.
Is there an age restriction? NO… BUT… if you are under 18, you’ll need to show up with a responsible adult… and if you are a responsible adult who shows up with a little person you’ll need to make sure they don’t climb the walls.

School Holiday Workshop | Stained Glass Printing & Zines
2025-10-08 11:00 - 12:30
Come along to the Packsaddle studio for a morning of mono printing, making stencils and experiment with colour layering. Participants will create several colourful pieces of art using gelli plates, acrylic paint and their own unique stencils. The printed paper will then be used in a zine with blank pages for future art making.
All materials are supplied.
VENUE | Packsaddle studio (located at the rear of NERAM )
DATE | Wednesday October 8
TIME | 11am -12.30pm
AGES | Open to all ages 6yrs and over, we ask parents to accompany children under 8 years old.
COST | Friends of NERAM/Culture Club Members – $25 , General – $28
Please phone NERAM 67725255 to cancel your place if you are unable to attend so that your place can be filled by someone else.

NYMPHAEA NYMPHAEA : Anna Johnson
2025-10-03 18:00 - 2025-11-09 16:00
Anna Johnson is a writer of forty years experience that came late to painting. Her art writing has been featured in Vogue, Vanity Fair, The Sydney Morning Herald and as a senior writer for Artist Profile. The third generation daughter of a large family of artists began her earliest work with watercolours, expanding to increasingly large scale paintings from 2018 to the present. Johnson has held three Sydney solo shows and presents her first New York exhibition with Kutlesa Gallery, Chelsea in March 2026. A finalist in this year’s Paddington Art prize, Johnson describes the many Australian artists she had written about as : “My collective art school.” All works presented in “Nymphaea Nymphaea” were made exclusively for NERAM as a site specific creative project

NYMPHAEA NYMPHAEA

Few associate the master of Post Impressionism with minimal abstraction. In history, Claude Monet in particular is lodged inside the most lyrical branch of landscape. His vast studies of trees, clouds and waterlilies reflected in fathomless bodies of water present a romantic, hyper-decorative idyll far removed from the industrial world beyond his garden walls in Giverny.

Yet a key fact, perhaps forgotten, is that Monet’s large scale Nymphaea murals were donated to France as a symbol of peace, celebrating the Armistice after world war one. In them, the regenerative power of ecology pushes up and out of dark pools and shadows. Gestural and abstracted, these were not sentimental works that grieved the 19th century. I think instead that they subtly (and boldly) faced their time. The ambiguity of surface ornament and pockets of darkness in his late works serve as both evocative and ambiguous. A century after the final Nymphaea was painted, I feel the dynamic contradiction embedded in Monet’s turbulent and explorative beauty remains vital. If these works were simply relaxing and re-assuring they would not be quite so magnetic. Violet, after all, is the fusion of red and blue, flame and sky.

Many feel that abstract painting is a genre without a subject. But when I work I do not press mute. Recently and globally, wide spread censorship has forced many artists to resort to euphemisms. My paintings are openly about war and peace, vulnerability and sanctuary. When I painted “Blood Cloud” there was nothing metaphoric about my palette. This work is about blood. The blue “Mythology & Muse”3 series is a quartet with an aqueous nocturnal palette. It is my homage to the water lilies, but perhaps also a subliminal response the nebulous atmosphere of fear that permeates the news cycle like a pending cloud. In the process of completing this show for NERAM, I found both release and respite. Compositionally many of my paintings are hollowed out like caves. In the depths of my raw linen voids, I seek hiding places, coves and shelter. The project of “Nymphaea Nymphaea” is ongoing. Bridging the meeting point between Post Impressionism and Colour Field painting I found an unbroken thread: the power of colour to heal.

Image credit: Anna Johnson, Persephone (detail), 2025, Acrylic on linen.

Opening Night & Artist Talk
2025-10-03 17:30 - 20:00
Join us for the opening of Anna Johnson’s first solo museum exhibition, NYMPHAEA NYMPHAEA.
Artist talk – 5.30pm
Opening event – 6.00pm
Please book a ticket (below)

Image credit: Anna Johnson, Persephone (detail), 2025, Acrylic on linen.

School Holiday Workshop | Paint & Shake
2025-10-01 11:00 - 12:30
Be inspired by the painting Still Life by E.A.Harvey from the Howard Hinton collection.
Enjoy a morning of painting in the Packsaddle Studio these school holidays with a fresh milkshake while you learn how to paint this still life image onto a canvas. During the workshop participants will be guided step by step, from mixing colours through to the finishing touches. All materials will be supplied and at the end of the workshop a completed artwork will be ready to take home.
Choose your favorite milkshake flavour; Strawberry, Caramel, Chocolate, or water/juice option in the booking link below. All materials and a drink of your choose included.
VENUE | Packsaddle studio (located at the rear of NERAM )
DATE | Wednesday October 1st
TIME | 11am -12.30pm
AGES | 10yrs and over
COST | Friends of NERAM/Culture Club Members – $30 , General – $34
Please phone NERAM 67725255 to cancel your place if you are unable to attend so that your place can be filled by someone else.

Image: Edmund Arthur HARVEY Still Life 1933 oil on board 35.5 x 43.7 cm Gift of Howard Hinton 1933

Term 3 2025 | ART PLAY 0-6yrs
2025-09-24 10:30 - 11:15, 2025-09-17 10:30 - 11:15, 2025-09-10 10:30 - 11:15, 2025-09-03 10:30 - 11:15, 2025-08-27 10:30 - 11:15, 2025-08-20 10:30 - 11:15
Bring your babies, toddlers and/or preschoolers into NERAM on Wednesday mornings for a session of sensory play where we explore colour, shape and texture. Our Art Play facilitator, will bring a different activity for each session which is great for children, parents and care givers. There are art based activities that are designed for both ends of the 0-6 age bracket so everyone is entertained and learning.
A good idea to dress your child or baby in an outfit that can afford to get a little messy; if you have any allergy concerns, please contact NERAM in advance.
DATES | Wednesdays, July 23 – September 24
Please note there will be no Art Play on August 13 due to Exhibition changeover
TIMES | 10.30am – 11.15am
Bookings remain essential. Price for whole term $29 – $32 (Member price) Single sessions $4.50 each are subject to availability.*
*If you wish to attend a single session and avoid disappointment, please contact NERAM on 6772 5255 to check availability. If you cannot attend a session but have booked for the term, please call NERAM so someone else can attend.
This program is funded by the Department of Regional NSW

All bookings for events, art classes and workshops require payment in full at the time of booking.
Please be aware that once bookings close, we are unable to offer a refund.
Classes run on minimum number. If the class does not proceed, you will be refunded any cash amount.

Winter Blooming Ball 2025
2025-09-19 19:00 - 22:00
It’s time to dance at the 2025 Winter Blooming Ball!
The prom you always dreamed of — the event of the season and a night to remember. Dress to impress as your true self, come with your partner, friends, or slay it solo. Everyone is welcome!
Tropical Fruits will light up the night with an unforgettable mix of DJs and drag performances. Enjoy delicious nibbles, cocktails from our pop-up bar, and a celebration full of sparkle.
Get ready to shine brighter than the disco ball!
Pre order your hot food when you purchase your tickets.

Winter Blooming has been Produced in collaboration with the University of New England, Australian GLBTIQ Multicultural Council, and ACON.

Open Studio - Adrienne Kenafake
2025-09-19 14:30 - 15:30
Join us in NERAM’s Packsaddle Studio, for an informal open studio visit with artist in residence Adrienne Kenafake.
Adrienne Kenafake is a multi-disciplinary Australian artist from the lands of the Widjabul Wia-bul people, Lismore, Northern New South Wales. With a focus on sculpture and performance her practice investigates the potential of objects as physical, psychological and extrasensory archives of emotion, story and place. During her residency at NERAM she will be conducting research into contaminated Xagricultural and Xindustrial land, exploring ideas of subsurface hauntings, protection and remediation through the lens of the suburban spiritist.
Location: Packsaddle Studio NERAM

For more information:
Website
Instagram

Creating Art With Paper
2025-08-16 10:30 - 16:00
Spend the day with exhibiting artist Lee Bethel, learning a variety of techniques including cutting, folding and piercing to create your own unique paper works. For Lee Bethel, elegant constraint is the foundation of her work, in her hands paper reveals its capacity for resilience and malleability.

The workshop will begin with Lee taking participants through her exhibition A Way with Words to discuss her work.
Students will then spend time planning and discussing their own works under the guidance of Lee.
Lee will demonstrate a variety of techniques that can be used in the process of creating the artworks.
After a lunch break participants will spend the rest of the workshop bringing their creations to life.

DATE | Saturday 16th August
TIME | 10:30am – 4.00pm
VENUE | Mazda Gallery NERAM
COST | General Price $175.00 – FoN/Culture Club member Price $160.00
All materials included.
Min 8, Max 12

Image credit: Lee Bethel, After Mary Delany

Artist Talk: Cosima Scales
2025-08-16 10:30 - 11:30
Join Cosima Scales and NERAM Director Rachael Parson’s in conversation as they discuss Scales’ exhibition Personal Cinema.
Cosima Scales’ paintings capture fleeting moments of domestic life — sunlight on floorboards, fruit on a table — transforming everyday scenes into quiet dramas. Balancing realism and painterliness, her works explore the rhythms of natural light and the subtle narratives of home. Scales’ exhibition Personal Cinema invites viewers to find beauty and meaning in the ordinary.
This is an opportunity to hear and learn from the artist directly and gain a deeper understanding of their work, influences and processes. Please book below.
Image: Cosima Scales, Full sun, studio window (II), 2025, oil on board

Image: Cosima Scales, Full sun, studio window (II), 2025, oil on board

Stages: Michael Simms
2025-08-15 18:00 - 2025-11-02 16:00
With a background in classical piano and psychology, Sydney based artist Michael Simms is intrigued by the interconnection of the senses – how rhythm can become gesture, or sound can take shape as colour and form – allowing the visual and sonic to inform one another. Stages is an ongoing series of portraits by Simms, honouring performers whose work spans music, theatre, dance and performance art. The series explores how presence is expressed — both onstage and off.

Credit: Michael Simms, Paul Capsis, 2017, oil on board.
