Lismore Gallery reopens with weekend-long celebration

The newly restored Lismore Regional Gallery is celebrating its official reopening with a weekend of events starting with the opening night on Friday, September 27.

The reopening heralds a program of performances, installations, music workshops, artist talks, and five new exhibitions with over 30 artists from the region and beyond.

Gallery director Ashleigh Ralph said the role of a regional gallery is to ensure that art is accessible to everyone. “We support artists in presenting and developing new work,” she said.

“Through engaging with art in all its manifestations, visitors to the gallery can learn, unlearn, build new narratives, and help retain local memory through art.

The ArtHitects Gary Carsley and Renjie Teoh’s Hannah Halle presents a multi-perspectival mise en scène featuring contributions from 18 artists, confabulated from over 4,000 individual A4 prints to reimagine the prized Hannah Cabinet by Geoffrey Hannah OAM.

Buruugaa Garaa Buruu Garaa Budgeramgali (Saltwater people Freshwater people stories) is co-curated by Melissa Ladkin and features Amrita Hepi, Joshua Lynch and Djon Mundine OAM and includes a live performance by Waangenga Blanco.

Partners in art and life, Northern Rivers artists Nell Pearson and Matthew Brooks explore domestic space and two distinct visual languages whose roots are entangled, sharing a private intimacy in Blue Island.

Through a series of hyperreal textile works, sculptor Chloe Smith unravels the cruel optimism of certainty and the truths we must ultimately craft for ourselves in Unbearable Incandescence.

Sprung News by Sprung Dance Theatre investigates how accessible or inaccessible media and emergency information can be to the disability community.

Funding for the restoration totalled $1.675 million and comprised Lismore City Council funding from the NSW Government through the 2022 Community Local Infrastructure Recovery Package – Arts and Cultural Priority Needs Program and the 2023 Community Local Infrastructure Recovery Package.

The Council additionally received funding from the NSW and Australian Governments through the 2022 Community Assets Program.

“The funding was specifically for the arts and cultural facilities impacted by the 2022 floods and underscores the significance of the project and the commitment to restoring these vital community spaces,” Ralph said.

RSVP for opening night is essential. For information, visit lismoregallery.org/official-reopening