By Callum Ludwig
The exciting opportunity for artists to showcase their works next year has arrived with nominations open for Yarra Ranges Council’s Regional Exhibitions Program 2024.
The program gives the artist the chance to exhibit in The Gallery at The Memo in Healesville or in The Studio at the Arts Centre, Warburton.
Regional Exhibitions Officer Bronwyn Ward said they’re open to any ideas and suggestions.
“They are each really vibrant spaces suited to different types of artworks and approaches so we’re looking for a broad range of mediums, including installation-based works, or whatever people want to present,” she said.
“It’s a great time if you’re a local artist to put together an idea and to pop a submission in.”
An information night is being held online on Thursday 6 November where artists interested in the opportunity can have any questions they have about the program answered.
Ms Wad said the response this year was extraordinary and they were really overwhelmed by the applications they received.
“It’s meant that we’ve been able to deliver a really strong and varied program which has been fantastic, and for next year we would really hope for more of the same; to have some artists who really want to showcase their work and provide something that’s really interesting and engaging for our community,” she said.
“Our incredible team working in the background has added in points where we can suspend work from the ceiling and a state-of-the-art lighting system has just been installed in The Memo, so these spaces are operating at their best at the moment and have that flexibility for ideas to be expanded on.”
Artists can find out more about the specifics of the gallery spaces at www.yarraranges.vic.gov.au/Experience/The-Arts/Our-creative-community/Regional-Exhibitions-Program-2024/Gallery-spaces.
Ms Ward said it’s definitely worth having a go, whether you are a local artist or from elsewhere.
“It’s something that you need to have a really good balance of, we need to be using these spaces to celebrate and showcase our extraordinarily talented artists that live within the Yarra Ranges but I think there’s also a place within these spaces to bring in really exceptional work from outside the region,” she said.
“I spend a lot of time one-on-one with artists to help them work through their design concept and discuss how they’re going to present their work to make sure that when their exhibition is up, it looks as good as it possibly can.”
Anyone interested in applying or finding out more can do so at: www.yarraranges.vic.gov.au/Experience/The-Arts/Our-creative-community/Regional-Exhibitions-Program-2024.
