Belco Arts acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land where we meet and work, the Ngunnawal people, and recognises all other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with connection to the lands of the
Image: Mitch Daley and Uncle Warren Daley performing the smoking ceremony at NAIDOC in the North 2024. Photo: Andrew Sikorksi.
Welcome to a new season at Belco Arts
2025 promises to be a year filled with fresh inspiration, entertainment and artistic ambition You can be confident that when you visit us at Belconnen Arts Centre or venture into the Gungahlin region, you will find something to feed your creative spirit We are delighted to be able to provide you with a magnificent banquet of opportunities to fuel your love of and engagement in the arts.
We relish in sparking your imagination through our diverse array of exhibitions, workshops, community celebrations, live music and other arts experiences
2025 welcomes Mockingbird Theatrics into the Rehearsal Room to make their new home Their arrival brings in a suite of new offerings of live performances, workshops, play readings and other activations.
We extend our reach into the Gungahlin region through our Gungahlin Arts Program. There are opportunities for you to make, sing to your heart’s delight and feed your creativity
Our programs continue to grow and evolve, so keep up to date with all we do through our e-newsletter or website: belcoartscomau
Monika McInerney Artistic Director & Co-CEO, Belco Arts
February Exhibitions
Opening: 6pm Friday 7 February 2025
Exhibitions continue: 7 February – 23 March 2025
Neither Here Nor There
Liz Faul
Generator Gallery
“I was born in Canberra and grew up here. Being a local is what influences my work.”
Faul’s work celebrates native fauna through detailed portraits of birds, mammals and insects, combined with collaged papers.
Image: Orana Bay (detail) by Liz Faul.
TILT
Alex Asch & Mariana del Castillo
Pivot Gallery
TILT is the final exhibition in a twoyear collaboration between artists Alex Asch and Mariana del Castillo.
The Pivot Gallery allows the artists an opportunity to create an exhibition that broadens their conversation of overlapping realities.
Image: Dusks accomplice (detail) by Mariana del Castillo.
WHAT'S ON JAN-JUN 2025
ARTISTS IN CONVERSATION:
Sharon Field
2pm Sat 22 Feb | FREE Belconnen Arts Centre
3000 days … and counting …
Sharon Field
West Gallery
An exhibition of Sharon Field's epic challenge of a drawing/painting a day for 3000 days as a visual record of the plants we are in danger of losing to climate change
Image: 3000 days … and counting … (detail) by Sharon Field.
Celebrate Gungahlin: Young Voices
The Nook
Celebrate Gungahlin: Young Voices features artworks and documentation from the 2024 Celebrate Gungahlin Festival
Image: Carnival of the Animals makers and masks for Celebrate Gungahlin.
February Exhibitions
Opening: 6pm Friday 7 February 2025
Exhibitions continue: 7 February – 23 March 2025
Escape. Control. Delete. Kristie Watts
Window Gallery
Escape. Control. Delete. is a process and conceptual based installation making the statistics of violence against women in Australia visible.
Image: Escape. Control. Delete. (detail) by Kristie Watts.
Bespoke, handmade gifts that support Australian artists.
Image: Punch Bowl by Ruth Allen
Image: Almost Always exhibition by Isobel Rayson and Nick Stranks. Photo: Andrew Sikorksi.
Our Gallery Spaces
West Gallery
Architectural in its presentation with large west facing windows, this space beautifully allows for the presentation of the full suite of traditional visual arts.
East Wall
Facing our gallery reception as a prime location, suitable for small exhibitions or one large individual work.
Generator Gallery
Open, inclusive, and always dynamic with several moveable walls allowing for new perspectives for every exhibition.
Pivot Gallery
This light-controlled space extends our capabilities to include the presentation of new media, projection, and installation work.
Window Gallery
A bold and inviting exhibition space, beautifully positioned on the street frontage for 24/7 viewing.
The Nook
This 6.4m square area exhibition space is configured in partnership with the Generator Gallery.
Gungahlin Arts: Creating community, one program at a time
Gungahlin Arts programs are built in collaboration with local artists, audiences and community organisations. Our door is always open, whether you’re a Gungahlin region artist, or a local resident with ideas for how to nurture and expand the cultural life of our region. We always love to hear from you – after all, the program is built on community needs!
Michele Grimston Gungahlin Programs Officer
Photos: Celebrate Gungahlin Fesitval 2024. Andrew Sikorski.
Photo: Members of the Migrant Women’s Art Group 2023. Tuesdays 10am-12pm during
The Migrant Women’s Art Group is a free art group for women who have migrated to Australia and live in the Canberra region. It’s a chance to share skills and learn some new ones while also making friends and connecting with the wider community.
GUNGAHLIN STORIES
Presented by Gungahlin Arts, in partnership with Eastlake, Gungahlin Stories presents an ever-changing exhibition display from artists and community members with a connection to the Gungahlin region.
Where: Eastlake Gungahlin main lounge, 10am until late, daily
We welcome expressions of interest from all artists with a connection to the Gungahlin region who would like to be considered as part of the Gungahlin Stories program.
Learn more and apply online: belcoarts.com.au/gungahlin-stories
Botanical Systems is an exhibition of digitally created textural details, light-filled spaces, dappled shadows, technobabble seeped in tradition and imagined ancient cultures.
Image: Nightly Luminescent (detail) by Paul Summerfield.
Bountiful Botanicals:
A Botanical Art Worldwide
Exhibition 2025
Members of the Botanical Art Society of Australia
Generator Gallery
The second Botanical Art Worldwide Project, Bountiful Botanicals, focuses on and celebrates biodiversity in the crops that have been closely associated with the human species over thousands of years.
Image: Doryanthus excelsa (detail) by Sue Grieves.
JAN-JUN 2025
The Botanical Society of Australia
2pm Sat 3 May | FREE Belconnen Arts Centre
Through the Small Window
Lesley Andersen
East Wall
“My series Through the Small Window is an introspective of both abstract expression and stylized stilllife works.”
Image: Poached Pears by Lesley Andersen.
Study for Stars Nana Saab
Window Gallery
“The ongoing motivation behind my creative practice is to explore and develop an approach to reclaiming industrial materials and transforming them into something that is completely transcendental.”
Image: Study for Stars by Nana Saab.
ARTISTS IN CONVERSATION:
Sophie Baker
2pm Sat 17 May | FREE Belconnen Arts Centre
Circumnavigating ‘Bush Capital’ from the (bike) saddle
Sophie Baker
West Gallery
Painting openair from mountain bike paths, Sophie ‘art’ Baker literally looks down on The Capital – from The Bush. Observing the interconnectedness of our environment, it’s creatures and people, Sophie’s work plays on light with a touch of …sand.
Image: Pink Greeb (detail) by Sophie Baker.
Design, make and walk away with two handmade rings – sterling silver or solid 9ct gold.
belcoarts.com.au/blonde
Our newest Resident Company, Mockingbird Theatrics is home to one of Canberra’s leading independent theatre companies and most respected, successful and popular acting studios
How to get involved:
See a Mockingbird Theatre play at Belco Arts
Join the monthly Monologue Slam
Enrol in a Mockingbird Adult Acting Classes (monologue and scene work)
Book your kids in for a School Holiday Program
Sign up for “Play In A Day”
Audition to be in a Mockingbird Theatre production
Learn more online and get your tickets for upcoming Mockingbird plays
mockingbirdtheatrics.com
May Exhibitions
Opening: 6pm Friday 23 May 2025
Exhibitions continue: 23 May - 6 July 2025
The beautiful place where we live
An Pan
Generator Gallery
Canberra based artist An Pan’s Australian landscape exhibition is a true record of the natural scenery of the cities and countryside he has lived in and visited, in the past 35 years.
Image: Full Moon (detail) by An Pan.
GW Bot: Portrait of a landscape
GW Bot
Pivot Gallery
GW Bot’s work views nature and landscape as active collaborators. They are a part of her as she is of them. Portrait of a landscape, curated by Joe Eisenberg, draws together many of her works of art from the past four decades.
Image: The Rock (detail) by GW Bot.
ON JAN-JUN 2025
HABITAT
GW Bot 2pm Sat 14 Jun | FREE Belconnen Arts Centre
An Open Printmaking Exhibition
West Gallery
Printmakers from throughout Australia have been invited to respond to the theme of what HABITAT means to them.
Image: Oikos (detail) by Peter McLean.
Rendering the Invisible
Igor Kochovski
Window Gallery
A certain fascination with the physical world in which the visible coexists and is in constant dialogue with the invisible, gave impetus to the works and formed the common thread between them.
Image: Artwork from Rendering the Invisible (detail) by Igor Kochovski.
VENUE HIRE
At Belco Arts
TALK TO US ABOUT HOSTING YOUR NEXT FABULOUS PERFORMANCE OR FUNCTION IN OUR CREATIVE, PURPOSE-BUILT VENUE.
Image: Wallabindi performing at NAIDOC in the North 2024. Photo: Andrew Sikorski.
Talk to us about your next event:
(02) 6173 3335 | hire@belcoarts.com.au
www.belcoarts.com.au
The Theatre
The Theatre is located on the shores of Lake Ginnninderra and is perfect for unique events and memorable performances.
Theatre Foyer
The Theatre Foyer provides premier 'wow factor' for your corporate cocktail mingle or small event
Dance Studio Meeting Room
The Dance Studio is the perfect venue for dance, movement, health and wellbeing classes.
Central and accessible, the Meeting Room is purpose-built for small conferences, meetings, training sessions and workshops
Generator Gallery
The Generator Gallery’s flexible, open-plan design provides a spacious and stunning private gallery experience for your next event.
Workshops presented by our hirers
Roller Fit
Self-directed roller dance training
Zest
Dance for Wellbeing
Proudly supported by Belco Arts
Simply Meditate Guided meditation sessions
West Coast Swing
Audacity Dance
Mindfulness Stretching
Z-Axis Dance Brazilian Zouk
Breathe and stretch your way to inner calm
Canberra Youth Theatre Theatre ensembles for young artists, years 4–9
Community is the place you live and work, the people you know; it is the effort you put in to the world around you.
Belco Arts works with artists every day to realise their ambitions and connect them with the community. Through Infuse, you can donate directly to Belco Arts and boost our whole program. This is the perfect way to support Belco Arts as an ambitious, sustainable, welcoming and inclusive arts organisation for years to come.
Become an Infuse donor today: belcoarts.com.au Image: Celebrate Gungahlin Festival. Photo: Andrew Sikorski.
Artwork:Oikos(detail)byPeterMcLean
Weekly
During workshop terms, see website for details and bookings.
Tuesdays
Migrant Women's Art Group
10am-12pm | FREE Common Ground, Gungahlin
With One Voice
Canberra Choir
6-7:30pm | $50/$35/month
Palmerston District PS
Resident Companies
blonde. jewellery workshops
Weekly classes | Enrol online
Belconnen Arts Centre
CIT Solutions short courses
Weekly classes | Enrol online
Belconnen Arts Centre
Marie-Cecile’s Music
Weekly classes | Enrol online
Belconnen Arts Centre
Mockingbird Theatrics
Weekly classes | Enrol online
Belconnen Arts Centre
Hiring Companies
Workshops for adults and kids
Weekly classes | Enrol online
Belconnen Arts Centre
Monthly Calendar
See website for up to date details and bookings.
January
Belco Arts re-opens for 2025 10am Tue 14 Jan
Mockingbird school holiday programs
13-31 Jan
Belconnen Arts Centre
February
Mockingbird Monologue Slam
Thu 6 Feb
Belconnen Arts Centre
Exhibition openings
6pm Fri 7 Feb | FREE
Belconnen Arts Centre
Artists in Conversation
Sharon Field 2pm Sat 22 Feb | FREE
Belconnen Arts Centre
Smith’s@Belco: Alex Lloyd
7pm Sat 22 Feb | $59/$49
The Theatre, Belconnen Arts Centre
Mockingbird Monologue Slam
Thu 6 Mar
Belconnen Arts Centre March
Inhabited exhibition opening 6pm Fri 14 Mar | FREE studio studio, Mitchell
