The City of the Blue Mountains is located within the Ngurra (Country) of the Dharug and Gundungurra peoples. Blue Mountains Cultural Centre pays respect to Elders past and present while recognising the strength, capacity and resilience of past and present Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Blue Mountains region.
Eric Holowacz –Manager, Arts & Cultural Services
This is my first opening message for InSight, since taking over from Paul Brinkman and Katrina Noorbergen (in the acting role) in March. They certainly left some big shoes to fill—after a decade of arts, culture, and heritage developments that would be the envy of any town. Besides the oversized footwear, I’ve also inherited amazingly active cultural facilities, wonderful arts management teams, and diverse public programming that has kept me busy from day one. The dust has yet to settle, and I am grateful to everyone for the warm welcome and stirring creative energy. I’m also proud to now be living and working on Gundungurra and Dharug Country. And I look forward to sharing and nurturing new ideas with you all in the coming years.
The past few months have seen our teams concluding the annual Blue Mountains Portraits exhibition, presenting local artist Bill Hope’s Living Room in the Altitude exhibition space, and with guest curator Djon Mundine opening the extraordinary survey of Aboriginal art, Three Echoes – Western Desert Art
Looking ahead to the next four months we will present the Dobell Drawing Prize #23, reveal a project called Disruptor: for all that matters and celebrate NAIDOC with a range of community-minded programming, including free entry to the Gallery for the duration of NAIDOC Week.
After a six month closure and lots of work behind the scenes, we’ll be reopening Braemar Gallery in Springwood with a group exhibition celebrating art by our volunteers and a suite of new creative spaces for local artists inside.
So just what is the new guy’s vision, you ask, as we travel through 2024 and look to the next decade of arts and culture in the Blue Mountains? My answer is bold but simple: by that time, I want the Blue Mountains to be seen as the most creative place in Australia. I dream that our communities and villages have endless opportunities to express, connect, learn, grow, and celebrate. I want our artists, performers, producers, and storytellers to be seen and heard—and kick up the dust— around the world. I hope to leave behind even bigger shoes. And I hope that the things we do together will tell everyone how very special the Blue Mountains are. With your creative energy ever—swirling around us—I know we will.
We are pleased to announce the three artists that have been selected for the 2025 Altitude Program; Gianna Hayes, Ebony Wightman and Linda Swinfield.
Gianna Hayes is a multidisciplinary artist whose hand dyed works incorporate plants that are connected to her lineage and overall plant healing journey. She said of her selection, “I am deeply honoured and grateful for being selected to the Altitude Program. This program provides access for me to expand on my concepts, experiment with new materials and engage with the community on ecology, diasporic connections, and ancestral remembrance.”
Ebony Wightman is a designer, illustrator and artist. Ebony’s work reflects on her experience of complex mental and physical health challenges in addition to her lived experience as an Autistic person. Ebony explains the concept for her upcoming exhibition: “The vision for my exhibition Comfort is to redefine arts involvement for individuals like myself with disabilities who have felt disconnected from the wider arts community. Grounded in authentic community-engaged conversation and process-driven art making, this exhibition will serve as an experimental interrogation of cultural safety, intersectionality, and the privilege of ‘Comfort’.”
Linda Swinfield is a contemporary artist and printmaker living in Medlow Bath. She has said of being selected, “I am ‘over the moon’ to be given this exhibition opportunity. I hope that visitors to my exhibition will think about their own family histories, and our collective social histories, and perhaps consider the layers of history within our landscape.”
Stay tuned for more information on these exciting Altitude exhibitions coming soon.
B ecome an InSight Member today and join our community of art lovers. By becoming an InSight Member you will receive invitations to exclusive events at discounted rates, gain insider knowledge into the Cultural Centre Fine Art Collection and are supporting us in continuing to deliver dynamic exhibitions and programs.
YOUR INSIGHT MEMBERSHIP PLAN:
Individual Adult: $50*
Duo (2 adults, children 16 & under free): $70**
Concession: $40*
Individual Patron: $200
Business: $250
* 2 x complimentary guest tickets per membership.
**4 x complimentary guest tickets per duo membership. Complimentary tickets only valid when accompanied by an InSight Member.
Visit our friendly staff at Reception or call 4780 5410 to join or renew. Staff can provide an InSight Membership Form where you can provide your details. This form can also be posted to;
Blue Mountains Cultural Centre InSight Membership Application Locked Bag 1005, Katoomba NSW 2780
We now have online registration and renewals to make your InSight journey more convenient. Visit the InSight Membership page on our website for the link.
• UNLIMITED FREE entry to Blue Mountains City Art Gallery and Into the Blue
• DISCOUNTS on Cultural Centre public programs
• 10% DISCOUNT at the Gallery Shop and Gallery Café
• LIMITED complimentary tickets for guests *conditions apply
• INVITATIONS to exhibition openings and exclusive events
• INSIDER knowledge into the Cultural Centre Fine Art Collection
• SUBSCRIPTION to InSight Magazine, delivered three times a year
• SUBSCRIPTION to the Cultural Centre’s monthly e-newsletter
• ACCESS to InSight Members Lounge (Wednesday – Friday, subject to availability)
Into the Blue
The Blue Mountains World Heritage Interpretive Centre.
A high-tech, interactive exhibition which explores the natural as well as the social landscapes of this unique area. Audiences are invited to navigate their way through these stories in an immersive exhibition experience, introducing them to the richness and wonders of the Blue Mountains World Heritage area.
Session times:
The World Heritage Exhibition is a 60-minute moving image program.
Ngurra Bayala (Country speaks) starts on the hour and runs for 45 minutes.
Into the Blue directly follows and runs for 15 minutes (starting at quarter to the hour, every hour).
Ngurra Bayala (Country speaks)
Co-curated with Dharug artist Leanne Tobin, Ngurra Bayala (Country speaks) celebrates the video work of seven female First Nations artists. Ngurra Bayala will be on permanent display, as per the Cultural Centre’s opening hours until December 2025.
National Gallery of Australia Artists: Megan Cope, Fiona Foley, Julie Gough and r e a.
Blue Mountains Aboriginal practitioners: Aunty Sharyn Halls (with Craig Bender and Vera Hong); Jo Clancy (with Sue Healey) and Leanne Tobin.
25 May – 28 Jul
The Dobell Drawing Prize is Australia’s leading prize for drawing, an unparalleled celebration of technique, innovation and expanded drawing practice. Presented by the National Art School in partnership with the Sir William Dobell Art Foundation, this biennial exhibition explores the enduring importance of drawing within contemporary art practice. This National Art School touring exhibition showcases a selection of 47 finalists’ works from the 2023 Prize, revealing the vitality of current Australian drawing.
Fire Within
29 Jun – 11 Aug
Embracing this year’s NAIDOC theme, ‘Keep the Fire Burning! Blak, Loud and Proud’, Fire Within is a celebration of resilience, strength and solidarity. The exhibition exemplifies the drive of First Nations people who strive for a better future in post-colonial Australia.
An ACRC NAIDOC exhibition
NAIDOC Community Day
Saturday 13 Jul
10 am – 2.30 pm
A free community day featuring a Fire Within community art project at the Makers Trolley, Smoking Ceremony and Welcome, dance performances and, drop-in weaving workshops.
To celebrate NAIDOC Week the Blue Mountains City Art Gallery will have free entry from 6 – 14 July.
Blue Mountains City Art Gallery
for all that matters
3 Aug – 6 Oct
Disruptor: for all that matters features fifteen artists who pursue diverse practices, each motivated to create art that responds to environmental concerns by examining ecologically significant Blue Mountains biospheres. In recognition that we are not separate from the natural world, that we are connected, and that our very existence is dependent on a healthy environment, the artists have created works with the purpose of raising awareness of the tender ecosystems that intertwine our neighbourhoods.
Curated by Justin Morrissey and Freedom Wilson. A Blue Mountains City Council Planetary Health exhibition.
Disruptor: Creative Forum
Saturday 10 Aug 10 am – 3.30 pm
A full day of artistic innovation and connection led by keynote speaker Uncle Chris Tobin. Join us in the Gallery to hear the exhibiting artists speak about their work in this groundbreaking planetary health exhibition. Add on to your ticket an eco-dye workshop, tours of the Farm it Forward Vegetable Plot and the Blue Mountains Food Co-op (limited places for all addons). For the full program and to purchase tickets please visit our website.
To celebrate this important environmental exhibition we have developed a program series including the Disruptor: Creative Forum (above), artist-led workshops and activities for families. See pages 20 – 21 for more programs.
Blue Mountains City Art Gallery
Jennifer Brady: Space to think, feel, learn, grow 17 Aug – 13 Oct
Space to think, feel, learn, grow is Jennifer Brady’s exploration of shared mental health experience through site-specific installation. Engaging with the English language, the exhibition seeks to provide space for gentle rumination and reflection – on where you have been, where you are now, and where you are going.
Drawing influence from childhood play mats, the exhibition centres around bedding sourced from the artist’s childhood home. Tactile and soft, with ambiguous and speculative sentences embroidered across the surface in light colours, the audience will be invited to remove their shoes, and walk, sit or lay on the work and find connections with the words and materials.
A Blue Mountains Cultural Centre Altitude exhibition
Artist Talk
Saturday 17 Aug 11 am – 12 pm
Hear from Jennifer Brady about her exhibition Space to think, feel, learn, grow.
$5.50 / $3.20 Concession FREE InSight Members Tickets via Eventbrite.
Slow stitching, slow thinking
Saturdays 7, 28 Sep & 12 Oct 1.30 – 3 pm
Join artist Jennifer Brady in her exhibition space for group embroidery sessions. Using simple slow stitching and recycled materials, we will create marks and conversations and reflect on the memories we associate with fibres. Sewers of all abilities are welcome. Bring your own mending projects from home, or join Jennifer in mending the artwork.
These sessions will take place in our Gallery. Ticket price includes gallery entry.
$5.50 / $3.20 Concession FREE InSight Members Tickets via Eventbrite.
SIXTY: The Journal of Australian Ceramics 60th Anniversary 1962–2022 12 Oct – 24 Nov
SIXTY:TheJournalofAustralianCeramics60thAnniversary1962–2022 is a special Australian Design Centre On Tour exhibition project presented in partnership with The Australian Ceramics Association to acknowledge this significant anniversary.
The Journal of Australian Ceramics (JAC) has, over its sixty years of print publication, presented the history of ceramics in Australia. It has acknowledged the achievements of so many in that time, as well as educating readers on the importance and position of ceramics within Australian art. The JAC has been at the forefront of addressing significant issues of the time and, in turn, is a dynamic source of contemporary history.
Over the sixty-year history of The JAC what has unified the thousands of artists is their sense of community, as well as the generosity in passing on skills and knowledge to their fellow artists and for the next generation of makers. It is because of the many that have been involved over the years that The JAC has been such a success.
We find ourselves at a fundamental time in contemporary ceramics. The significant interest in ceramic art is recognition of the accomplishments of Australia’s ceramic artists and potters and The JAC and its contributors have played a key role in this revival.
The exhibiting artists are: Glenn Barkley | Alison Milyika Carroll | Kirsten Coelho | Greg Daly | Pippin Drysdale | Dan Elborne | Penny Evans | Honor Freeman | Susan Frost | Shannon Garson | Patsy Hely | Jeffery Mincham | Damon Moon | David Ray | Ben Richardson | Tania Rollond | Owen Rye | Jane Sawyer | Yul Scarf | Vipoo Srivilasa | Kenji Uranishi | Gerry Wedd
This celebratory exhibition was guest curated by Anna Grigson and ADC’s Lisa Cahill with design by Studio Garbett and video by Jane Curtis.
Gallery Talk
Saturday 12 Oct 11 am – 12 pm
Learn more about this significant exhibition during this talk in the Gallery.
$5.50 / $3.20 Concession FREE InSight Members Tickets via Eventbrite.
Mountains City Art Gallery
19 Oct – 24 Nov
Every year the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre Fine Art Collection grows through donations and purchases. Our most recent acquisitions include works by: Vicky Browne, Bette Mifsud, Peachey & Mosig, Michael Shirley, Anne Smith, and Leanne Tobin.
A Blue Mountains City Art Gallery exhibition
Collection Tour
Saturday 19 Oct 1 – 2 pm
Join Curator Hayley Zena Poynton for a tour of the Collection including public art pieces and new acquistions.
$5.50 / $3.20 Concession FREE InSight Members Tickets via Eventbrite.
Scrolling with the Eucalypts by
Chia Moan
Living in the spectacular Blue Mountains of NSW, I spend a lot of time looking and listening, drawing, and painting, as a way to explore the unique complexity of this ancient country. In the bush, I travel light, with a book and a pen. The rivers and the horizons lend themselves to long format books which have also led me to experiment with even longer-format scrolls.
This was happening alongside my increasing interest in the natural scrolls that are the discarded bark of eucalypts. These natural scrolls began to feel like a conversation with my paper ones. This work has involved months of investigation, looking, drawing, painting, photographing, and sculpting. I have collected, soaked, scrubbed, shaped, dried, resoaked, redried, and rubbed beeswax into these pieces to reveal and highlight their characteristics for this installation. I regard the process as not only a conversation but a meditation. I have a bodily relationship with each fragment. The process has moved me through observation to creation and then collaboration. In a way it is a perfect example of how what you focus on expands.
I have often pondered why artists bother when all around us nature is busy creating beauty, both ephemeral and enduring. Why do I bother? What I have come to is that drawing is a relationship between the drawer and the subject matter. In terms of product, image making draws attention to what is being observed. Here in this World Heritage listed National Park tourists flock to Echo Point and other viewpoints. I love the vistas too, but I am also looking at the everyday, the overlooked, the disregarded, discarded. The trodden upon bark strips lying in the road. I hope my work is saying ‘Pause, look down, look up. Wonder. Find the connection. We are part of nature’.
Streamers peel
Rattling and scraping the
Naked skin smooth as a baby’s cheek
Unwrapped, held by limbs
Tugged and stripped
Divesting bark boas to fly out
Only lightly anchored
Until at last tugging and yanking
They are gustily dropped
Piled up in a confused hubbub of peach, grey, ochre
Ribbons, coils, spirals
Shapely and broken
That yet
Carry the memory of the trunk
Reminding me of socks or a leather jacket
Hanging on the back of a chair
A pair of worn jeans discarded on the floor
In the shape of a body
How our clothes memorise us
Even as they are stripped off
The people and places who have held us
The people and places we have held
Even though sloughed off
Disrobed, denuded by gravity
Or weather
Peeled bare
Peeled bare
a body memory is there
This is the conversation I have with the eucalypts
Terms of Occupation
Can you tell us about the thought processes that created the foundation for this work?
The artwork is called Terms of Occupation, it’s my response on what to do about a Treaty in this country, and it follows on from the bruising result of the referendum. I often get asked what can be done and I can only tell people what I can do personally. I had the thought, well, what could I do to add to the Treaty debate here and I thought okay, if we’re going to be occupied, what are our terms of occupation?
What would you like viewers of your work to consider?
I’d like audiences to consider the Aboriginal perspective and outlook on matters. For instance the absurdity of the Crown’s claim of our Country, wanting to have a good think on that and maybe explore ways that we go from here.
Do you have any reflections on the environment locally, you know, within your Country that you’d like to share?
I’m celebrating that I’m being invited and encouraged to state these terms in the supportive arts community up here that cares about social justice and the environment, and I feel very comfortable having these discussions in our community in the Blue Mountains.
Curator Hayley Zena Poynton interviews Altitude artist Jennifer Brady about the upcoming exhibition Space to think, feel, learn, grow.
Hayley Zena Poynton: There is an inherent softness to your practice, and the tangible objects you create. Can you explain the importance of maintaining a gentle approach to your work?
Jennifer Brady: The soft or gentle approach to my making has only solidified in recent years as I’ve started working with textiles and returned to graphite drawing.
In the past my practice has been loud, abrasive, sarcastic, and influenced by grunge and punk aesthetics. These works focused on articulating moments of stress and intense overthought, inciting the discomfort that mental health experiences can produce. Although successful in doing all of those things, this work was only showing one experience and didn’t allow room for processing.
The slow, soft and open-ended processes that I use now offer more room for reflection. In my work I want to create spaces that people can relate to and feel comfortable to think in, and a gentle aesthetic is key to this.
HZP: You’ve recently returned to including sound within your installations; can you elaborate on the reasoning behind this conscious inclusion?
JB: In my installation practice, I often find that elements such as sound or performance are what brings a space to life and allows audiences to fully immerse themselves. Large gallery spaces are often overwhelmingly quiet, and similarly in spaces where we are asked to just think, silence can be loud and we can struggle to land on one thing. In this exhibition, I want audiences to think, reflect, and think about their thinking.
Some people find calm in silence, where others find it daunting. The soundscape for my exhibition intentionally rests between these brackets, offering an environment that is (hopefully) welcoming and conducive to contemplation. The audio features muffled readings of poems and sentences that I have written while creating the artworks, interlaced with soft material sounds of fabric and general ‘life sounds’. Depending where you are in the exhibition or how close you are to certain objects you can hear more or less of this sound, allowing you to choose your own listening adventure.
HZP: When considering time and space, there is a fine line between staying present and looking to the past. Space to think, feel, learn, grow straddles this intersection. What is your reasoning behind remaining mindful of these dualities?
JB: When we are in periods of stress, discomfort, anxiety or general ‘low-ness’, our minds are extremely active and unable to experience or process thoughts outside of the feelings we are feeling. Any reflection or rumination during these moments is often extremely specific and leads to further spiralling and overwhelm. Looking backwards, forwards and inwards during the spaces can sometimes be unhelpful.
After these mental seasons – however long they are – comes a new space where we are no longer experiencing those stressful emotions but also not yet fully moved past them. These liminal spaces bring with them a new found calm and openness to approaching thoughts and experiences. We can see past the overwhelming haze and think about the actions that led us to certain events, and where they could take us in future. Akin to when we are waiting for someone to answer the phone: there is anticipation for what is to come and awareness of what has led you to this.
In Space to think, feel, learn, grow it is all about platforming this in-between space, offering a site for this retrospective and introspective thinking regardless of what season you are in.
Swamp Storytime
Wednesday 28 Aug 11 – 11:45 am
Storytime is a 45-minute program of stories, singing and craft. Suitable for 3–5-year-olds, led by our friends at Katoomba Library.
FREE for children and accompanying adults
Weird & Wonderful Watercolour with Wendy Tsai
Saturday 31 Aug 10:30 am – 1:30 pm
Create a collection of experimental pieces with Wendy Tsai, showcasing the wide range of effects achievable with watercolour on Yupo paper.
$70 / $60 InSight Members
Early bird price: $65 / $55 InSight Members, for bookings before Sunday 11 Aug.
Botanical Eco-Printing with Manu from Farm It
Forward
Saturday 14 Sep 10.30 am – 1.30 pm
Manu will guide you in experimental eco-printing, using common plants to make a unique design, creating a beautiful cushion cover.
$70 / $60 InSight Members
Early bird price: $65 / $55 InSight Members, for bookings before Sunday 25 Aug.
Exploring Drawing – Spring 6-week term weekly on Wednesdays
Starting Wednesday 14 Aug 10 am – 1 pm
Led by artist and teacher Pam Vaughan, you will explore a range of observational drawing techniques with a variety of media and subject matter. This will include pencil, charcoal, chalk pastels and ink with classes in still life, landscape, and animals. Repeat participants are welcome as this would be an opportunity for you to practise and extend the skills learnt during Term 1.
$360 / $324 InSight Members
Tickets through Eventbrite.
Ikebana journey with Harumi
Saturday 19 Oct 10:30 am – 1 pm
Embrace nature, find beauty in imperfection, and discover simplicity through ikebana and the Japanese aesthetic with Harumi.
$70 / $60 InSight Members
Early bird price: $65 / $55 InSight Members for bookings before Sunday 29 Sep.
The World of Origami with Harumi
Saturday 19 Oct
2 – 4 pm
Experience a peaceful hobby, a beautiful art, a craft, science, and meditation all at once through origami with Harumi.
$60 / $50 InSight Members
Early bird price: $55 / $45 InSight Members, for bookings before Sunday 29 Sep.
The Gallery Café aims to operate with sustainable and environmentally friendly practices, providing a garden to table dining experience. The menu reflects these intentions through showcasing local and Indigenous produce as well as ingredients sourced from the Cultural Centre’s roof top garden.
Spiced lentils with roast pumpkin, herbed yoghurt, and tamarind
Ingredients:
¼ diced butternut pumpkin, seasoned with salt, pepper and olive oil (to taste)
1 medium diced brown onion
2-3 garlic cloves peeled
½ cup brown lentils (tinned or soaked dried lentils)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 star anise, whole
Tamarind chutney (We used Bibi’s Kitchen Tamarind Chutney)
½ cup plain yoghurt
¼ cup coriander, fresh – roughly chopped
Method:
1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Combine pumpkin, brown onion and peel garlic cloves and roast in oven, 20 minutes or until cooked through
3. Drain and rinse brown lentils
4. Mash roasted garlic cloves
5. Combine pumpkin, brown onion, lentils, garlic, ground cumin and ground coriander in a saucepan and heat through on stove
6. Combine half the coriander with yoghurt, set remaining coriander aside for garnish
7. Serve immediately, top with yoghurt and garnish with fresh coriander
Serving suggestion:
Serve with warm naan or rice for a heartier dish.
Bibi’s Kitchen Tamarind Chutney is available for purchase at the Gallery Café.
Offering a unique retail experience, the Gallery Shop stocks a wide variety of quality gifts, books and homewares, with a focus on Australian-made products, particularly those designed and made in the Blue Mountains.
InSight Members receive a 10% discount on items in the Shop and invitations to exclusive member sales throughout the year.
The Gallery Shop is an exclusive stockist of paper artist James Gordon’s one-of-a-kind wearable sculptural jewellery pieces. Having ‘glued, snipped and pasted’ from the age of 4, James’ current art practice is an extension of that love for paper art. His career has spanned from event design and interiors, which facilitated collaborations with Collette Dinnigan and Vogue Magazine, to sculptural art. James has previously been represented by Tim Olsen Gallery where he had 5 well received solo shows and has exhibited nationally and internationally in London and Hong Kong. The jewellery pieces in the Gallery Shop are all statement pieces and wholey unique. They are lacquered paper art and while sturdy, need to be treated with care.
We now have gift vouchers available for purchase from the Gallery Shop. Vouchers can be purchased in the amounts of $30, $50 and $100. These vouchers are a wonderful gift for those who like to shop locally or appreciate the unique range that can be found in a Gallery Shop. Visit Reception at the Cultural Centre to purchase.
Little Potion Co.
Did you ever wish there was a magic potion that could create a positive mindset for your children? Designed by sisters Alicia and Jacinta and handmade by their team in Melbourne, The Little Potion Co creates magical potion play kits that encourage positivity and self belief. With a combination of fizzing, sparkling, nature based ingredients and positive affirmations, words and intentions, The Little Potion Co’s Mindful Magic® potion kits come together to create magic that can really come true for little ones. Because when you believe in magic, anything is possible.
Braemar House is home to the treasured Braemar Gallery, a Council operated community exhibition space for visual artists.
104 Macquarie Road, Springwood
Re-opening 25 Jul
10 am – 4 pm Thursday to Sunday Free admission
Exhibition
Spirit of the Blue Mountains
Braemar Gallery volunteers 25 Jul – 25 Aug
An annual exhibition by Braemar Gallery volunteers, uniting a diverse group of artists responding to the theme: Spirit of the Blue Mountains.
Become a Braemar Gallery volunteer
No experience necessary, just an appreciation for art and eagerness to welcome visitors. Enquire at braemargallery@gmail.com.
Hub Upstairs Gallery is a display space in Springwood, showcasing our vibrant arts community with regularly changing exhibitions.
Blue Mountains Theatre and Community Hub, Level 1
Mon – Fri: 9 am – 6 pm Sat – Sun: 10 am – 4 pm + when Blue Mountains Theatre is open
Exhibition
Changemakers: Crafting a difference 8 Aug to 29 Sep
An exhibition that celebrates women who have played a pivotal role in Australian society.
For further information on exhibitions and opportunities to exhibit, see under Braemar House at www.bluemountainstheatre.com.au.
Council’s Cultural Development Team has been busy making our villages and streets more creative! Springwood Commuter Carpark and Blackheath Town Centre are housing new public artworks by renowned local artists. Mural artists Man.De and Krimsone & Scott Nagy added their vibrant, nature inspired street art to the Springwood Commuter carpark walls as part of a beautification project of the precinct. Sculptor Joel Mitchell installed his work Reveal: A Celebration of Blue Mountains Orchids, in Blackheath, inspired by the rich ecological diversity of the Blue Mountains. Locals celebrated the new sculpture at a community celebration, All About Orchids at Blackheath Area Neighbourhood Centre (BANC) in April.
We think it’s important to put a face to a name. Here we introduce you to some of our team who you may see working in and around the Cultural Centre.
Alison Rose
Blue
Mountains Cultural Centre
Front of House Attendant
Tell us about your role at the Cultural Centre?
I work at Front of House, helping guests as they arrive. As part of the reception team, I also assist running the Gallery Shop, curating and managing the beautiful merchandise in our store. I absolutely love working at the Cultural Centre and adore the beautiful staff, amazing volunteers and being surrounded by so much creativity.
You’re also an artist in your personal life, can you please tell us about your practice?
When I am not working at the Cultural Centre you will find me in my studio. Art has been my constant and passion my whole life. As a trained art teacher, I have loved creating with a wide variety of media and themes throughout my artistic career. My recent studies in art therapy have subsequently grounded my work in concepts of connection and the therapeutic power of art.
You have recently collaborated with Blue Mountains Visitor Information Centre’s and Mtns Made to develop a custom range, can you please tell us more about that?
Early this year Mtns Made created a feature wall in the Visitor Information Centre promoting local creators. I was invited to contribute some of my ceramics to this wall. I had recently been playing with a glaze inspired by the atmospheric misty days in the mountains. I then developed this into a custom range of jewellery and homewares to be exclusively available for Echo Point. It has been a wonderful opportunity and so successful that the range will soon be available at the Glenbrook Visitor Information Centre as well.
ADMISSION:
Adults: $5.50
Australian concession card holders: $3.20
InSight Members: Free
Children under 16: Free
Your admission ticket allows entry to our permanent exhibition Into the Blue and the Blue Mountains City Art Gallery
We thank the dedicated volunteers at Blue Mountains Cultural Centre who provide valuable support to staff and visitors.
OPENING HOURS:
Monday – Friday: 10 am – 5 pm Saturday + Sunday: 10 am – 4 pm Closed public holidays
The Gallery Café opens 9.30 am weekdays. Café closed public holidays
BLUE MOUNTAINS CULTURAL CENTRE: Level 1, 30 Parke St Katoomba 02 4780 5410
info@bluemountainsculturalcentre.com.au bluemountainsculturalcentre.com.au
