Friends of the Gallery Newsletter Autumn Edition
16th January 2026
Welcome to 2026! I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful festive season and are feeling refreshed and optimistic as we begin a happy and healthy New Year.
Towards the end of 2025, the Friends held a planning session to set the scene for the year ahead. We are excited about what’s to come and are confident that 2026 will offer many engaging opportunities and experiences for our members over the next twelve months.
One new initiative we are delighted to share is our plan to sponsor a new exhibition at the Gallery in September. We are also exploring ways to pair this with a special members' event, so please stay tuned — more details will be coming soon.
The Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre has developed the draft Strategic Plan 2025 – 2028, setting out priorities to ensure the Gallery continues to thrive as a vibrant, inclusive, and nationally recognised cultural institution. Use this link Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre Strategic Plan 2025 – 2028 | Your Say Tweed to view the draft plan and share your feedback via the online feedback form.Please take the time to have a look and share your ideas about the future of our much loved gallery.
It is with sadness that we say goodbye to Richard Roberts, who has served as our Treasurer for the past 14 months. During his time with the Friends, Richard undertook a number of important projects with great professionalism and dedication. His work has helped ensure that our operations remain transparent and fully compliant with all governance and reporting requirements. We thank him sincerely for his valuable contribution and wish him well in his future endeavours.
Please keep an eye out for emails with updates on events and activities as our plans continue to take shape.
Until next time,
Janice Jones
PresidentAUTUMN 2026 PROGRAM
Opening Celebrations, Tweed Regional Gallery. Photo: Sally Singh.
Autumn Opening Celebrations
Friday 20 February | 6 – 8 pm DST | Free
Join us for the opening celebrations for ZAHALKAWORLD – an artist’s archive, a Museum of Australian Photography (MAPh) touring exhibition; Mīa by Archie Moore, a National Portrait Gallery exhibition; Sensory by Antoinette Edmunds; and Processing by Oliver Abbott, recipient of the 2025 Tweed Regional Gallery – National Art School Master of Fine Art (Painting) Residency Award.
Bookings essential https://events.
humanitix.com/aoc26
ZAHALKAWORLD - Preview Floortalk
Friday 20 February | 5 – 6 pm DST | $15/20
Join artist Anne Zahalka and MAPh Gallery Director Anouska Phizacklea for an insightful exhibition walk-through of ZAHALKAWORLD – an artist’s archive, a Museum of Australian Photography (MAPh) touring exhibition. Learn more about the artist’s practice and the exhibition on display.
Bookings essential https://events.
humanitix.com/zw
Zahalka is represented by ARC ONE Gallery (Melbourne) and Dominik Mersch Gallery (Sydney).Here is the link to the Autumn Program
https://online.fliphtml5.com/
txcax/TRGMOAC_PROGRAM_AUTUMN- 2026_28pp_ISSUU/ Did you know that as a Friend of The Gallery you receive a discount on Floor talks and most Gallery events?
Simply go to the gallery website and follow the prompts to the "What's On" events page and when you register to attend, click on the “member” tab and your discount will be applied.
WHAT’S ART PLAY ALL ABOUT?
Image credit: Artist facilitator Charlotte Hayword working with Gallery visitors to create headdresses inspired by Maria Fernanda Cardoso: Spiders of Paradise, an exhibition developed and toured by the Museum of Contemporary Art
Art Play is an important program run with the support of The Friends of The Gallery. We chatted with Meredith Cusack, Public Programs Curator for the Gallery, who manages this program and generously took time to let us know what makes it so special.
Q. What is the purpose of the art play program?
Art Play is about having a program that specifically invites children and families to the Gallery to engage, explore and play – with ideas, materials and processes – and connect more deeply with the exhibitions. Like Gallery Playdate (for children 6 months to 5 years and their carer), Art Play is about audience development and creating fun and engaging experiences so that children (and their families) feel comfortable in the Gallery environment.
Q. Meredith, you oversee this program, what does that entail?
Like all public programs, it is a collaborative process. This means working with artists and curators to develop an activity, asking the question what is the key idea to explore here? What can children discover about the exhibitions, and what will work within this drop-in format? This is the creative part of the process. After that, it’s about coordinating dates, creating promotional materials, ensuring the artists and facilitators have everything they need to run their session, helping with set up and pack down, documenting the program and reporting on the outcomes.
Q. Do the Artists that get involved need special skills to work with children?
Some artists already have a lot of experience working with children and families, some artists are parents, so they have that knowledge. With Art Play, the sessions are guided, but children are accompanied by their parents and carers, so the artist/facilitators are often working with the whole family. It’s about expressing ideas in a simple way so visitors can jump straight in and start making, knowing when to assist and when to step back and let the process unfold. For some exhibitions, particularly touring exhibitions, we work with artist facilitators precisely because they have that understanding and experience. They can share knowledge about the exhibition in a way that is open-ended, playful and encouraging. They understand where children are at in their educational development. They also need to have a Working with Children Check.
Q. What happens in an Art Play session?
Art Play is set up with everything you need; you don’t need to book, and it’s free! Also, because it’s in the Gallery Foyer, we don’t use messy materials, so you don’t need to worry about getting paint or other messy materials on your clothes. You just turn up at any time between 11 am and 1 pm and spend as long as you like. An artist facilitator can guide you and your young visitors through the steps to create something – it may be a woven bracelet, a plasticine cardboard portrait, or a paper sculpture – you can then take your creation home with you.
Q. There must be many highlights working with the artists and children. Can you share some of these with us?
I like it when there is a level of energy that builds in the Gallery Foyer, where you see families sharing back and forth, someone is cutting paper, someone glueing, there are lots of casual conversations that happen around the Art Play tables. It feels like creating without pressure. Having said that, sometimes it’s about creating something amazing, like seeing guest facilitator artist Charlotte Haywood working with families to create these incredible headdresses inspired by Maria Fernanda Cardoso: Spiders of Paradise.
Q. Finally, what's coming up in 2026?
We are really excited about our 2026 program. We will work again with local artist Helle Jorgensen, who has created some fantastic paper sculptures taking inspiration from Margaret Olley – look out for the beautiful crab! We will be taking inspiration from Bronwyn Bancroft’s exhibition and creating a collaborative activity in the Gallery Foyer with a First Nations facilitator, so I am really looking forward to seeing that develop. We also have Anne Smerdon taking inspiration from Ben Quilty’s portrait of Margaret Olley in a very surprising way. It will be a lot of fun.
SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS ART TOUR | TRIP REPORT – NOVEMBER 2025
Ben Quilty @ Bowral Studio with the tour team – FOG Tour Image
Thank you to Diana Hughes for sharing her trip review, which captures the spirit of this great trip. And to everyone who joined the tour, thank you for making it such a memorable experience.
As Janice, our conscientious tour leader, does a final head count on our return to Sydney airport, we find ourselves reflecting on another successful Friends art appreciation tour.
Memories of the long day before remain a highlight – our visit to the 19th century Homestead, Bundanon, the one-time home and studio of painter, potter and printmaker Arthur Boyd, wife Yvonne and family, which is nestled in pristine bushland beside the Shoalhaven River. We thoroughly enjoyed a visit to the homestead, studio and tranquil gardens viewing works by the Boyd family over four generations.
Arthur Boyd’s Studio, Bundanon Homestead - FOG Tour Image
We then travelled to the Art Museum and Bridge for Creative Learning; designed by Kerstin Thompson Architects. The Bridge has spectacular accommodation which we noted for future visits.
We enjoyed a delicious lunch followed by the exhibition, The Hidden Line, featuring the art of the Boyd women spanning five generations and included painting, printmaking, sculpture and pottery, textiles, design and photography.
Bundanon Art Museum, The Hidden Line: Art of The Boyd Women exhibition 2025-26 - FOG Tour Image
The Boyd Family gifted the estate to Australia in 1995 so that all could appreciate the magnificence and solitude offered by the bush and river views that he depicted so well in his large paintings.
Another highlight was a visit to Ben Quilty’s workshop in Bowral. He and the team generously answered our numerous questions and gave us almost free-range of his studio, enabling us to get a grasp of his working environment. He also chatted freely about an important forthcoming show.
Another treat was a visit to the Southern Highlands Regional Gallery –Ngununggula – and the chance to say hello to Susi Muddiman, its new director. This repurposed gallery was once the dairy for historic Retford Park, the adjoining National Trust property in Bowral. Seldom seen works by early Melbourne painter Clarice Beckett, from the National Collection, were brilliantly displayed alongside contemporary paintings by Mirra Whale.
On the way to the airport on our last day, we stopped at the Campbelltown Arts Centre for morning tea, a browse around their gardens and a preview peek at their new exhibition, Ngarandi Nguradha (Deep Listening to Country).
Twenty of us enjoyed comfortable accommodation in Mittagong each night after clambering off our Murrays coach, along with good company and the occasional shared meal at the adjoining RSL. Thank you to the Friends and to Janice and the team for a memorable tour!
2026 TRAVEL INSPIRATION FROM OPULENT JOURNEYS
We are thrilled to be working again with Kim Rabbidge and Opulent Journeys to present these exciting travel packages. Booking deadlines are fast approaching, so click on the links below to find more details on these wonderful tours, and we hope you can join us.
Image courtesy of Opulent Journeys
Gardens, Art and Heritage: The Chelsea Flower Show, Cornwall and The Cotswolds
Image courtesy of Opulent Journeys
Morocco to Portugal: Gardens, Palaces & Heritage Tour
Image courtesy of Opulent Journeys
Japanese Art, Gardens & Culture Tour Japanese Art, Gardens & Culture Tour
We hope you enjoyed this update and are inspired by the exciting year ahead. If you would like to share any feedback or ideas or have any questions, please send us via email:-galleryfriends2484@
gmail.com Linsey Bamping
Communications Officer
