School holiday activities

Look no further than the Ballina Visitor Information Centre and discoverballina.com.au for your guide throughout the spring holidays to keep the kids busy, happy and entertained. Guides can be collected from the visitor centre or printed from the Discover Ballina website after Friday 25 September.

Be a tourist in your own backyard, the Northern Rivers has far more to offer than you may realise! The team at the centre can assist with sharing their knowledge of the region to get you out and about doing things you’ve never done before or didn’t know existed.

Our region is blessed by Mother Nature, it’s a region where tourists love to flock too, and in these uncertain times, we largely have it to ourselves. Take the opportunity to holiday here this spring and share the love locally.

BALLINA VISITOR INFORMATION CENTRE 6 River Street Ballina | 1800 777 666 | discoverballina.com.au | ballinacoastandhinterland

Northern Rivers Regional Gallery

Current Exhibition Dates: 12 August – 18 October 2020

Unconditional Stories | Ballina Hospital + TAFE NSW Lismore

Join us on this journey of health, illness and life experiences transformed into art.

Students from TAFE NSW Lismore Creative Design and Ideation Faculty collaborated with Ballina Hospital patients to produce a range of artwork that reflects unique and personal stories of sickness and healing.

Image: Juliette Rengel, In Sickness and In Health, 2020

Boundlessness | Bruno Kortenhorst

SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER

Kortenhorst’s photographs explore the boundaries between inner and outer worlds and are informed by his lifelong interest in meditation.

Kortenhorst uses an analogue pinhole camera which does not have a viewfinder. The process is intuitive and experimental, and the results have a dreamlike quality.

Image: Bruno Kortenhorst, P-013-08, 2019

Eco-Land | Geoff Tolchard

Artist and art history lecturer Geoff Tolchard presents a series of drawings completed during lockdown. Tolchard uses animals as a metaphor for tolerance and hope. His drawings can be seen as ‘single frame stories’.

Image: Geoff Tolchard, The Interview, 2020

On Orchard | Michael Stiegler

Stiegler’s unconventional mixed media works comment on excess in contemporary culture, portraying vulnerability, desire, anxiety and lust for consumption. Ugliness and beauty coexist in his work, as they do in reality. His works combine art, fashion and photography with an energetic street appeal.

Image: Michael Stiegler Roman, 2019

upcoming exhibitions

Exhibition Dates: 21 October– 13 December 2020 | Launch: Thursday 22 October

Graduate SCU Art Prize | Elizabeth Russ

Russ explores the deciduous and gravitational nature of contemporary spirituality in the era of the 6th Mass Extinction.

Elizabeth Russ is the recipient of the 2019 Southern Cross University (SCU) Graduate Award.

Image: Betty Russ Crystal, 2019 NOVEMBER / DECEMBER

No Mud, No Lotus | Aesha Kennedy

No Mud, No Lotus responds to the teachings of Buddhist monk Thich Time: 9.30am – 12.30pm Cost: $235 (includes all materials)

Nhat Hahn. Kennedy’s abstract paintings explore his teachings and that nothing exists without it’s opposite.

BAM Art prize | 2020 Finalist Exhibition

The BAM Art Prize promotes awareness of the arts in the Northern Rivers.

The Finalist Exhibition showcases shortlisted artworks in the 2020 prize.

Image: BAM Art Prize 2018, visitors viewing winning art work by Helle Jorgensen (photo Michelle Eabry)

ART STATION

Join two exciting days of creative arts workshops for kids. On Wednesday make wild creatures and build sculptural worlds to tell stories about our precious environment with facilitator Cara MacLeod. On Thursday join artist Karma Barnes for a creative and fun session creating mixed-media collage artworks of your visions of the worlds in the future. Day: Wednesday 7 or Thursday 8 October 2020 Time: 10am – 1pm Cost: $35 (includes all materials) Ages: 8+ BOOK ONLINE @ www.nrcgballina.com.au Bookings essential to secure a place. Image: Future Collage with Karma Barnes