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Unleashing Creativity: Strategies for Growing Western Sydney’s Creative Industries.
Thursday, 21 November 2024
10am - 1pm
Parramatta Town Hall
182 Church St, Parramatta, NSW 2150
With our partners at Western Sydney Creative and City of Parramatta. Western Sydney Creative invites you to save the date for the official launch of the report Unleashing Creativity: Strategies for Growing Western Sydney’s Creative Industries.
Discover how Western Sydney's vibrant and thriving creative industries, with the right vision and support, have the potential to become a cornerstone of the region’s economic and cultural future.
With additional thanks to City of Canterbury-Bankstown for their support.
Image credit: Photograph by Sally Tsoutas of a digital artwork by Serwah Attafuah, Sunset on Red Brick (Polding St), 2021
Stella Day Out Sydney
You are invited to the inaugural Stella Day Out Sydney on Saturday 19 October.
Stella Day Out is a free one-day literary festival that celebrates and promotes the outstanding contributions of women and non-binary writers to Australian literature.
Stella Day Out is our series of accessible and inclusive literary talks that leverages our alumni of Stella Prize-listed authors and promotes the outstanding contributions of women and non-binary writers to Australian literature. It offers an event series about great writing and great ideas for everyone. Each Stella Day Out iteration is a one-day festival featuring Stella Prize-listed authors.
At Stella, we're dedicated to making literary experiences accessible to readers from all walks of life.
Stella Day Out Sydney is in partnership with Western Sydney University, Level 9, Peter Shergold Building. The day will consist of 3 sessions featuring acclaimed Australian writers, Debra Dank, Yumna Kassab, Michelle Law, Alexis Wright and Dr Yves Rees.
Don’t miss out, please book your free tickets here: https://events.humanitix.com/stella-day-out-western-sydney-university-g57v7qrk
Media Diversity Australia 2024 Symposium
3 October Janice Reid Pavilion Parramatta South Campus
The Media Diversity Australia 2024 Symposium, “From Challenges to Opportunities,” is dedicated to exploring and addressing the current challenges and potential opportunities that exist within the Australian media landscape.
Hosted by the School of Humanities and Communication Arts and Western Sydney Creative, the event will gather thought leaders, media professionals (at all levels), academics, and advocates to explore the current state of affairs, providing an opportunity for a collaborative and insightful dialogue.
The Symposium will serve as a platform for thought leadership, enabling leaders and policy makers to better tackle the critical challenges of authentically embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion within the media. It will offer innovative and practical solutions to tackle some of the most pressing issues facing the sector.
Confirmed speakers: Narelda Jacobs (NITV & Ten), James Taylor (SBS Managing Director), Waleed Aly (Ten), Race Discrimination Commissioner Giri Sivaraman (AHRC), Dai Le (Independent MP), A/Professor Tanya Notley (School of Humanities and Communication Arts, WSU), Mariam Veiszadeh (MDA), Shirley Chowdhary (AAP board), Anna Draffin (CEO Public Interest Journalism Initiative PIJI), Jenae Tien (freelancer), Karina Hogan (freelancer), Kieran McGuinness (University of Canberra), Wenlei Ma (Seven News), Anushri Sood (Nine News), Elias Clure (ABC), Sowaibah Hanifie (Seven News), Preeti Phartiyal & Dylan Nicholls (Psychs for Journalists) & many, many more!
Word Up! Lunchtime Artist talk with Dr Sally Gray
Building EA.G.18, Western Sydney University Parramatta South Campus
Thursday, September 26, 12pm - 1pm
Join us for our Word Up! Lunchtime Artist talk with Dr Sally Gray at Paramatta South Campus on the 26 September at 12:00pm.
Dr Sally Gray - The Art and Design of David McDiarmid
My priority as an artist has always been to record and celebrate our lives. Having lived through an extraordinary time of redefinition and deconstruction of identities, from camp to gay to queer; and seeing our lives and histories marginalised every day, we all have a responsibility to speak out. To bang the tribal drums of the jungle telegraph 'I'm here, girlfriend; what's new?
- David McDiarmid, A short history of facial hair, 1993
Dr Sally Gray is a writer, curator and cultural historian. Her writing on art and fashion history and the culture of cities is published in books, book chapters and scholarly journals. Her curated exhibitions have appeared in Sydney, Melbourne, London, Beijing and regional galleries in Australia. She was the executor of the estate of famed queer artist David McDiarmid. She has curated a number of exhibitions of McDiarmid’s work, including a major retrospective at NGV Melbourne, and has brokered his work and reputation globally.
Word Up! Lunchtime Artist Talk, A Wry Observer with Kenny Pittock
Building EA.G.18, Western Sydney University Parramatta South Campus
Thursday, September 5, 12pm - 1pm
Join us for our Word Up! Artist talk with Kenny Pittock on the 5 September at Parramatta South Campus (EA.G.18) at 12:00pm.
Kenny Pittock - A Wry Observer
Kenny Pittock is an artist based in Narrm/Melbourne who works with sculpture and painting to playfully critique the seemingly mundane. Pittock often uses humour as an entry point to discuss weightier topics such as anxiety, both on a personal level as well as globally. Pittock has held solo exhibitions in Italy, Singapore and Aotearoa / New Zealand, as well as in many institutions throughout Australia. Pittock is a finalist in the 2024 Sulman Prize at the AGNSW, and his artworks are included in many collections including Artbank, Bendigo Art Gallery, the University of Queensland and the National Gallery of Victoria.
Word Up! Lunchtime Artist Talk with Kate Just
Building EA.G.18, Western Sydney University Parramatta South Campus
Thursday, August 29, 12:30pm - 1:30pm
Join us for our Word Up! Artist Talk, Knitted Activism with Kate Just at Margaret Whitlam Gallery Conference Room, Whitlam Institute on the 29 August at 12:30pm via Zoom.
Kate Just is a feminist artist best known for her inventive and political use of knitting. In addition to her solo practice, Just often works socially and collaboratively within communities to create large scale, public or textile based art projects that tackle significant social issues including gender-based violence, reproductive freedom, LGBTQIA rights and political protest.Just was born in Hartford, CT in 1974 and migrated permanently to Melbourne, Australia in 1996. Just holds a PhD in Sculpture from Monash University, a Master of Arts from RMIT University, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Victorian College of the Arts where she is a Senior Lecturer in the Master of Contemporary Art program. Just has exhibited her artwork extensively across Australia including at The National Gallery of Australia, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Arts, Artspace, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Gertrude Contemporary and The Centre for Contemporary Photography as well as Internationally.
Word Up! Art, Text and Design Exhibition Launch
Margaret Whitlam Galleries
Thursday, August 22, 5pm - 6:30pm
Join us for our Word Up! Art, Text, Design Exhibition Launch at the Margaret Whitlam Galleries on the 22 August, 5pm. Opening address will be provided by Distinguished Professor George Williams AO, Vice-Chancellor and President at Western Sydney University.
Word Up! presents contemporary Australian artworks in textiles, jewellery, ceramics, video, prints and neon, alongside artists’ designed posters that use text for social commentary, activism, promotion and self-expression.
Art and text have long been intertwined, because words have power!
Many of the artists in the exhibition use text to reclaim their own stories or that of their marginalised communities. They are expressing themselves as truth tellers and are asserting their identities. Many of the artworks in this exhibition are conceptually formed through the lens of Indigenous Australians’ fight for self-determination and recognition, women’s equity and feminism, and LGBTQI+ rights and acceptance. The artworks often use colour, humour and joy to traverse these issues.
Exhibiting artists: Amala Groom, David McDiarmid, Elvis Richardson. Garage Graphix, Gerry Wedd, Jessica Wheelahan, Kate Just, Kelly Dolly, Kenny Pittock, Troy-Anthony Baylis, Martin Sharp, Min Wong, Owen Leong, Reg Mombassa for Mambo Graphics, Paul Yore, r e a, Sarah Edmondson, Tony Garifalakis, and Zoe Brand
Exhibition Curated by Margaret Hancock, Senior Curator Western Sydney Creative
Word Up! is supported with a series of exciting public programs developed by the curator in collaboration with Dr Leo Robba, Associate Dean of Engagement – HCA, and Dr Kate Fagan, Director of the Writing and Society Research Centre.
Word Up! Lunchtime Artist Talk, Shimmering Resistance with Troy-Anthony Baylis
Thursday, August 22, 12:00pm
EA.G.19, Parramatta South Campus
Troy-Anthony Baylis is an artist living and working on Kaurna country. He is Sydney-born, Brisbane-bred, Adelaide-based, a descendent of the Jawoyn people from the Northern Territory and is also of Irish ancestry. With a career spanning three decades, his art has become known in recent years for its inventive use of the word, which is worked across multiple serials of work of different material, processes, and subject matter.
His work explores the intersections of sexuality and indigeneity, themes of colonisation, migration, history, reconciliation, and identity, and draws influence from multiple sources such as pop-culture, art history and queer aesthetics. He regards his work in some ways as like permaculture in gardening: “it Incorporates pests and parasites – painful elements of history as well as the celebratory to make things stronger, more beautiful”.
Word Up! Lunchtime Artist Talk with Zoe Brand
Thursday, August 15, 12pm - 1pm
Building EA.G.18, Western Sydney University Parramatta South Campus
Join us for our Word Up! Lunchtime Artist talk with Zoe Brand at Paramatta South Campus on the 15 August at 12:00pm.
Born in Meanjin/Brisbane, Australia in 1984, Zoe Brand is an artist, jeweller and truffle hunter living and working on Yuni country/Majors Creek NSW. Brand is well known for her text based wearable signs and conceptual jewellery pieces. After completing an Advanced Diploma in Jewellery and Object Design at Design Centre, Enmore, TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute (2008), she proceeded to make art, curate exhibitions, run galleries and drink beer.
In 2013 she returned to study and completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts majoring in Gold and Silversmithing at the Australian National University where she finished with First Class Honours in 2015. Brand has had numerous solo exhibitions as we as exhibiting in a plethora of group shows in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Germany, France, Estonia and the United States. Her work is also held in several significant private collections. Before meeting her partner and becoming mother of two, Brand was the Director of the Personal Space Project, a gallery located in her bedroom.
Word Up! Art, Text, Design
1 August 2024 - 15 February 2025
Margaret Whitlam Galleries
In the Western canon of art, Cubism in the early 20th Century is often marked as the arrival of text in the visual arts. This is followed by the celebration of the ‘here and now’ of the 60s pop art movement, and further to this the impactful artworks of notable feminist artists such as Barbara Kruger.
However, the embracing of text in art has a much deeper history. We only need to think of the medieval illuminated manuscripts, the Bayeux tapestry, and beyond the Western canon, to examples such as the rich arts, crafts and architecture of the Ancient Egyptians adorned with hieroglyphs, and the use of beautiful calligraphy in Islamic Art.
Art and text have long been intertwined, because words have power!
Word Up! presents contemporary Australian artworks in textiles, jewellery, ceramics, video, prints and neon, alongside artists’ designed posters that use text for social commentary, activism, promotion and self-expression.
Many of the artists in the exhibition use text to reclaim their own stories or that of their marginalised communities. They are expressing themselves as truth tellers and are asserting their identities. Many of the artworks in this exhibition are conceptually formed through the lens of Indigenous Australians’ fight for self-determination and recognition, women’s equity and feminism, and LGBTQI+ rights and acceptance. The artworks often use colour, humour and joy to traverse these issues.
Exhibiting artists: Amala Groom, David McDiarmid, Elvis Richardson. Garage Graphix, Gerry Wedd, Jessica Wheelahan, Kate Just, Kelly Dolly, Kenny Pittock, Troy-Anthony Baylis, Martin Sharp, Min Wong, Owen Leong, Reg Mombassa for Mambo Graphics, Paul Yore, r e a, Sarah Edmondson, Tony Garifalakis, and Zoe Brand
Exhibition Curated by Margaret Hancock, Senior Curator Western Sydney Creative
Word Up! is supported with a series of exciting public programs developed by the curator in collaboration with Dr Leo Robba, Associate Dean of Engagement – HCA, and Dr Kate Fagan, Director of the Writing and Society Research Centre.
Adopted Country
15 May – 18 July
Margaret Whitlam Galleries
Adopted Country is the country we connect with when we move away from home. Whether we move due to dispossession, for better life opportunities, or for a new beginning, our adopted Country embraces us, and we embrace it. While our new country doesn’t replace the deep connection we have to our ancestral lands, it is a new landscape and new community that we nurture and love just like it’s our own.
Adopted Country is curated by Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay artist and curator Dennis Golding and features work from the Western Sydney University’s Indigenous Australian artwork collection.
The term adopted is one often used by Dennis to highlight stories of the Australian diaspora which speak about his own familial history, and for many communities who have migrated to Sydney. The expression also speaks to the actual process of the collecting artwork in which they move across Country to now become adopted and cared for on this new Country.
The artworks included in the exhibition explore the themes of Adopted Country by highlighting artists’ connection to Country and stories of place. Whether artists are speaking from their cultural lineage to Darug, or artists from around the country, they present stories of our lands, waters, and skies.
Together these artworks are markers in time on this land, and present how cultural practices and explorations of identity are shared through contemporary art practices.
Exhibiting artists:
Billy Bain, Dion Beasley, Janice Bruny, Sade Carrington, Lorraine Connelly-Northey, Michael Cook Blak Douglas, Fiona Foley, Alice Hinton Bateup, Mabel Juli, Marrirra Marawili, Kukula Mcdonald, Arone Raymond Meeks, Tommy Minburra, Tracey Moffatt, Balwaldja Munuŋgurr, Clinton Naina, Omborrin, Andrea Pindan, Shirley Purdie, Elaine Russell, Marilyn Russell, Christopher Tobin, Leanne Tobin, Ian Waldron, Aunty Edna Marriong Watson, Leanne Watson, Judy Watson, Barrupu Yunupiŋu, Gulumbu Yunupiŋu and Nancy Gaymala Yunupiŋu
Curator
Dennis Golding
Exhibition details
The Margaret Whitlam Galleries are open to the public on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Opening hours: 10am - 4pm.
Women (seen) Artists' Talk, Intercultural Sister Kin-a talk with Marian Abboud and Vicki Van Hout
1 May, 12 pm EA.G.19
Marian Abboud and Vicki Van Hout's careers crossed paths as part of a speed dating event pairing multiple dancers with visual artists to then make a pitch to the joint organisers Parramatta Artists Studios and, FORM Dance Projects (then known as Western Sydney Dance Action). They won with a work titled Behind The Zig Zag. Approximately fifteen years later Abboud and Van Hout have maintained their collaborative partnership which can be distilled as a continuing cultural exploration examining the ways Abboud's Lebanese and Van Hout's Indigenous heritages intersect including paradigms surrounding temporality, being, belief and magic.
Marian is a Western Sydney based socially engaged artist of Lebanese heritage who graduated from the University of Western Sydney with a Bachelor of Visual Communication. She is passionate about creating meaning across perceived borders of place, language, and identity. She has exhibited extensively locally and nationally and has collaborated on many dance and performance-based projects including Volume at the AGNSW, Mona Foma in Hobart, 24 Frames, Carriageworks, and her recent performance, Not Her Reflection, a travelling performance at Artspace. FCMG, Granville Art Centre, Pari and UTS Library.
Vicki Van Hout’s First Nations heritage hails from Wiradjuri country in far Western NSW and she has Dutch, English and Afghan roots as well. Vicki has dedicated her career to Indigenous arts practice as a graduate of NAISDA, Australia‘s premier Indigenous Dance College. Vicki returned from New York after graduating from Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance NYC to dance with both leading Aboriginal dance companies Bangarra Dance Theatre and AIDT. Vicki has won the prestigious Australia Council For The Arts Dance Awards and is the current recipient of Creating Australia's Dance Fellowship.
Their talk will focus on the way they navigate kinship structures, more specifically Marian’s inclusion of her immediate family in the process of her solo, and their combined image making.
Women (seen) Lunchtime Talk: Countess Report: Spoiling Illusions since 2008 with Elvis Richardson and Melinda Rackham
10 April, 12 pm EA.G.19
Elvis and Melinda speak on their 2023 book which charts the personal, cultural and theoretical motivations and history of the feminist data collecting project Countess Report. Exposing gender asymmetry in many arenas of the Australian artworld, we examine obstacles and inequities women and nonbinary artists encounter navigating career pathways through primary and high school, university, ARIs, art prizes, scholarships, art publications, major galleries, curatorial gatekeeping, artworld power structures, acquisitions, acknowledgement and income.
Founder of the CoUNTess blog and benchmarking Countess.Report, Dr Elvis Richardson’s (Naarm/Melbourne) visual art practice extracts personalised objects and imagery from public sources and re-constructs them as raw materials in a studio practice that disrupts the everyday commodification’s of lifestyle to satirically expose the promises, disappointments and contradictions that we all live with. Elvis has founded and co-directed many artist-run-initiatives and her works are held in public collections.
Writer Professor Melinda Rackham (Tarntanya/Adelaide) is an award-winning networked artist, curator and cultural commentator. She empowers diverse audiences to engage with curiosity, delight, and wonder with interdisciplinary and immersive artforms; and produces images and texts that poetically and critically intersect the worlds of art, artists, networks, feminisms, social media, social justice and our planetary ecology.
Spoiling Illusions is funny and insightful - meticulously designed by Elliot Bryce Foulks and Maria Smit - grounded in 15 years of hard data, collective actions, public events and exhibitions. It is intended to start conversations and embrace actions to remodel our sector, and will be available for purchase at a Student price.
Women (seen) Lunchtime Artists' Talk with Kirtika Kain and Savanhdary Vongpoothorn
27 March , 12 pm EA.G.19
Kirtika Kain is an early career artist, writer and educator working on Dharug land, Western Sydney. Combining elements of sculpture, experimental printmaking and painting, Kirtika’s practice draws from her Subaltern Caste lineage and investigates hybridity, ancestral memory and the complexities of race and caste in the diaspora. Her work is influenced by historical and family archives, and the legacy of anti-caste literature and song. In this lunchtime talk, Kirtika will reflect on the materials and process that is central to her studio practice and the Dalit stories that inspire her.
Savanhdary Vongpoothorn is a Lao-Australian artist best known for her intricate and highly textured paintings. Born in Champasak, Laos, in 1971, she and her family fled the country and arrived in Australia when Vongpoothorn was eight years old. Her work evinces these cross-cultural influences as she combines an interest in historical art movements with pattern and language elements drawn from cultures throughout the world. Her works are included in important public collections such as the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne and the National Gallery Singapore, amongst others.
Women (seen) Lunchtime Artist Talk with Raquel Ormella
13 March , 12 pm EA.G.19
Raquel Ormella’s practice encompasses various media and can be divided into two broad thematic streams: political language and its effects on national identity, and the complex relationships between humans and the natural environment. She is a high-profile artist whose 25-year practice is consistently curated into national and international exhibitions. A major work Australia Rising #1(2009) was included in the landmark #knowmyname survey of contemporary women artists at the National Gallery of Australia. In 2018 Shepparton Art Museum curated a solo survey show, I hope you get this, that toured to 5 regional and state galleries in the Eastern States with NETS Victoria. She is a graduate from Western Sydney University and is currently a Lecturer at the School of Art & Design, Australian National University, Canberra.
Women in the Arts – Leadership Forum
Margaret Whitlam Galleries, Whitlam Institute, Western Sydney University Parramatta South Campus
5 March, 2024
Western Sydney University's Western Sydney Creative in partnership with Penrith Performing & Visual Arts present a leadership forum for women in the arts. The forum is open to emerging, mid to senior level women working in the arts to further develop their managerial and strategic skills and to explore new approaches to inclusive leadership that resonates with women.
The forum is being held in connection with International Women's Day 2024 (8 March) and the exhibition, Women (seen), which draws from Western Sydney University’s art collection and loans from artists or their estate. It celebrates 20 women artists connected to Western Sydney through work, study, family, or home.
The full day forum will include keynote speeches and panel discussions about leadership in the arts and the future of leadership, a hands-on opportunity to learn about different leadership styles as well as encouraging and supporting women to create new paradigms of leadership.
Stay tuned for more information on the speakers and panellists.
2024 Successful Recipients List
The Western Sydney Creative Collaborate Fund supports innovative new research partnerships between the University and the cultural and creative sector.
Associate Professor Kate Fagan, Director, Writing and Society Research Centre, School of Humanities and Communication Arts
Project: Writers in Parramatta
Professor John Juriansz, Director, Whitlam Institute within Western Sydney University
Project: Whitlam Essay Residency Program and Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival Partnership
Dr Brendan Smyly, Lecturer – Music, School of Humanities and Communication Arts
Project: Art of Sound Concert Series
