FORM acknowledges the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Western Australia both past and present, whose enduring connection to this Country and ongoing contributions to our collective culture and communities we respect and honour. We appreciate and are deeply grateful for the privilege of working on these lands.
FORM Building a State of Creativity
Level 4, 99 St Georges Terrace Perth WA 6000
www.form.net.au
mail@form.net.au
08 9385 2200
Copyright for imagery and written content in this publication is held by FORM Building a State of Creativity Limited or the individual contributors, where applicable. All permissions to use these images have been received. Every effort has been made to adhere to best practice ICIP protocols.
Front page: Allery Sandy, Melissa Sandy, Dawn Sandy, Justina Willis of Yinjaa-Barni Art. Our Pilbara Wildflower Country, 2025. Image courtesy of FORM Building A State of Creativity.
Welcome to FORM, and our world for the next six months...
We’re FORM. We connect and collaborate with communities, creative practitioners, businesses and all levels of government. We explore and empower meaningful social and cultural engagement through artistic projects, high-impact partnerships, and creative learning programs.
In responding to Western Australia’s size, diversity, economic complexity and creative potential, we’re unafraid to push boundaries in supporting the growth of confident, expressive mindsets and lives.
As an independent non-profit organisation, our mission is to be a leader in developing a vibrant creative economy for the benefit and wellbeing of all Western Australian communities. Our projects and programs take place all over Western Australia, from the Pilbara to the Great
Southern. We run creative learning programs in schools; take children’s authors and illustrators out on the road to remote communities; create large-scale arts experiences to attract visitors and enhance local economies; and we also run a feefor-service consultancy offering planning and management for public art projects and cultural strategy.
We run FORM Gallery on Whadjuk Noongar Country in Perth, and an Aboriginal art centre, Spinifex Hill Studio, on Kariyarra Country in South Hedland in the Pilbara.
Welcome to what’s happening in our world for the next six months.
See the impact of our work
Savage Beauty, Kari Kola, Connemara, County Galway, Ireland, 2020.
Photograph courtesy of the artist.
"I really appreciate the way FORM has showcased our local talent so professionally and given the regions a platform and opportunities"
-
Michaela Hendry Regional Development Officer, Goldfields-Esperance Development Commission
Discover one of our past exhibitions, Once Upon A Sometimes
FORM Gallery & Café
FORM Gallery provides a showcase for FORM’s collaborations with the creativity and communities of Western Australia, while our good friends from El Cabro run the Café and keep the local community fed and caffeinated.
Here, we present exhibitions, and host residencies and events that speak directly to the ideas and energy emerging from Indigenous and nonIndigenous artists, our educators and writers, and the next generations of our State’s creative talent. Stop by and see what we’ve been doing!
Opening Hours
FORM Gallery & FORM Café
Mon–Sun: 6:30am–1:00pm
FORM Gallery & Café 4 Shenton Road Claremont WA 6010
form.net.au/gallery-café mail@form.net.au
@formgalleryandcafe
The Spirit of Kepa Kurl Esperance exhibition opening, FORM Gallery, 2025. Photo courtesy of FORM Building A State Of Creativity.
FORM Gallery & Café
THU 4 DECEMBER 2025 –WED 4 FEBRUARY 2026
Kate Leslie: The Gravity of Play
Kate Leslie is an acclaimed Western Australian artist, mentor and art consultant and FORM’s Summer Artist-in-Residence.
The Gravity of Play is her first major solo exhibition in her hometown of Boorloo (Perth). Kate works primarily with paint, executed in layers to illuminate the colour and gesture of her subject and story.
Her paintings intertwine elements of humour, melancholy and romanticism: a reminder of our shared humanity. The Gravity of Play includes a large-scale canvas featuring a single figure in a paredback landscape. During the residency, this painting will grow and evolve through a series of creative workshops in dialogue with community voices, inviting people to respond to and expand upon the figure and its environment.
The Gravity of Play (detail), Kate Leslie, Acrylic on Canvas, 2024. Photograph by Johanna Keyser.
Public Program Details
Sat 13 December 2025 10:30–11:30am Sun 25 January 2026 10:30–1:30pm
Join Kate as she shares insights into her exhibition, stories behind the paintings, and the collaborative public program that invites community voices into the work. It’s a relaxed conversation about painting, art and play.connections during her FORM residency.
In this workshop all about colour, we will look at simple colour tricks in painting alongside a deeper dive into all things colour theory, pigments and paint. A creative way to start the year. All ages and abilities welcome, all materials included.
Sun 14 December 2025 10:30–12:30pm Sat 17 January 2026 10:30–12:30pm Sat 24 January 2026 10:30–12:30pm
In this this collaborative painting workshop, you’ll be adding to the large-scale canvas in The Gravity of Play.
For more information and booking, go to www.form.net.au/gallery-cafe
All ages and abilities welcome, all materials included.
FORM Gallery & Café
WED 21 JANUARY 2026
National Visual Art Education Conference 2026 | The National Gallery of Australia
Presented by the National Gallery of Australia in association with the 5th National Indigenous Art Triennial: After the Rain, an immersive exhibition exploring themes of rebirth and intergenerational legacy, celebrating cultural warriors past, present, and future.
Calling all educators, school leaders, cultural and creative practitioners. Join FORM’s Creative Learning team for our satellite NVAEC event: a special day of streamed keynotes, thought-leadership and debate to inspire and energise best-practice teaching and learning in the visual arts.
For more information and booking, go to www.form.net.au/gallery-cafe
"What I love about FORM is I am admiring a beautiful piece of art and standing right next to the artist, which is awesome"
- Guest at exhibition opening
Water Carrier, Bobbi Lockyer & Skye Lockyer, 2024. Spoilbank Marina, Port Hedland. Photograph by AB Videography.
THU 12 FEBRUARY–THU 26 MARCH 2026
Momentum: a FORM Exhibition
Public art at Elizabeth Quay. Optus Stadium. Perth Airport. Crown Towers. Port Hedland’s Spoilbank Marina. A trail of massive artworks on silos from Northam to Albany by way of Merredin, Newdegate, Pingrup and Ravensthorpe. Giants in Mandurah, a haunting 'field of light' commemorating the end of the Great War. Murals on walls, campuses and structures from the Pilbara to the Great Southern, transforming inner city and outer suburbs, and a host of regional communities.
Where to next? Join FORM's Arts & Cultural Consultancy as it paints the walls of memory lane and reveals the way ahead.
THU 19 MARCH 2026
Perth Design Week 2026 with FORM
5:00 –7:00pm
Join us for a night of conversation, connection and creativity at FORM Gallery, bringing together professionals from across the design and arts industries for an evening of light refreshments, networking and ideas.
This popular event featuring guest speakers from Perth Design Week is always wellsubscribed, so book your ticket now.
For more information and booking, go to www.form.net.au/gallery-cafe
Opening Celebration Thu 9 April 2026 6:00–8:00pm
THU 9 APRIL–THU 2 JULY 2026
Revealed: Bidyadanga and Martumili
Presented as part of Revealed: New & Emerging WA Aboriginal Artists 2026
Bidyadanga Artists and Martumili Artists are two significant art centres representing diverse First Nations communities from the Kimberley and Pilbara regions of Western Australia. While each centre has its own distinct artistic traditions, this exhibition explores the deep cultural connections between these communities, highlighting movement over Country and time, and the ways in which these experiences continue to shape identity, artistic expression and commercial enterprise today.
"When I’m not in the desert, I feel like I want to paint about it, and painting makes me feel like I want to be there. It’s important to paint about the Country because our Elders looked after the Country long before us"
- Martu artist Chloe Jadai
Untitled (detail), 2024 by Wilson 'Junior' Mandijalu, 91 x 122 cm, Acrylic on canvas.
Courtesy of Martumili Artists.
13–15 MARCH | 20–22 MARCH | 27–29 MARCH 2026
Balgang Albany | Lighting the Sound
Join us for world-renowned Finnish artist Kari Kola’s spectacular Australian premiere Lighting the Sound. Anticipated to be the largest outdoor light installation of its type ever staged, this live, open air, night-time event is presented in collaboration with Kari Kola, Menang Elders and the Albany community.
Lighting the Sound is initiated and produced by FORM Building a State of Creativity. Lotterywest is a Major Supporter of the City of Albany’s Albany 2026 Program. Lighting the Sound is proudly supported by the Western Australian Government through Tourism WA.
More information form.net.au/lighting-the-sound albany2026.com.au
Get in touch with us at culturaltourism@form.net.au
"The landscape provides an ideal setting; the presence of water adds a reflective dimension, allowing us to create a vast panoramic experience for the audience"
- Kari Kola, Artist
Savage Beauty, Kari Kola, Connemara, County Galway, Ireland, 2020.
Photograph courtesy of the artist.
Roebourne Art Development Program
For nearly 20 years, FORM has been active in supporting the creative community of Western Australia’s remote Pilbara region. Since 2008, this has included managing Port Hedland’s only Aboriginal art collective, Spinifex Hill Studio.
FORM also has a long-running association with First Nations artists working in and around Roebourne, and since 2019 has collaborated with the artists and staff of Cheeditha Art Group, Juluwarlu Art Group and Yinjaa-Barni Art on
artistic and professional development projects through our Roebourne Art Development Program.
This program, which also now supports independent practitioners, helps artists develop skills that increase the opportunities for them to share their culture, further their careers and generate income through art.
Artist Career Workshop with Cheeditha Art Group and Juluwarlu Art Group, Perth 2025.
Photography by Marnie Richardson.
*Financial year 2024-25. Figures are rounded and not inclusive of writebacks or refund amounts.
Creative Schools
Since 2016, Creative Learning has been an important organisation-wide strategy for FORM. We design and deliver programs like Scribblers and Creative Schools, which foster young people’s curiosity, a love of learning and their ability to make sense of the world around and within them.
Creative Schools trains teachers and creative practitioners to help children develop and use the Five Creative Habits of Learning— imagination, persistence, collaboration, inquisitiveness and discipline—while improving engagement in learning mainstream curriculum subjects like science and humanities.
Supported by internationally recognised creative learning mentors and scholars, Creative Schools transforms how students learn, teachers teach, and creative practitioners use artistic expertise in classrooms.
It changes how education policy makers and school communities —from principals to parents and carers—understand the value of creativity in building young people’s life skills, agency and wellbeing, and in supporting their readiness for the ever-changing world of work.
Since 2018, FORM has delivered 209 Creative Schools programs in 121 schools (public, independent and Catholic), in metropolitan and regional settings, across the age range from Kindergarten to Year 13 and in mainstream and special assistance (CARE) school settings. This means that over 10% of Western Australian public schools have benefited from the Creative Schools experience.
Does YOUR school need Creative Schools? Do you want to support the work we do in education? Get in touch with us.
@creativeschoolswa
learning@form.net.au
www.creativeschools.com.au
Professional Learning Day, 2025. Perth, WA.
Photography by Ludvig Nilsson. Image courtesy of FORM Building A State Of Creativity
Scribblers
Since 2028, Scribblers has been bringing together creatives, kids, teachers, parents and local storytellers to explore the magic of storytelling in all its forms. Our creatives are trained in the Creative Schools approach, so while Scribblers specialises in free, family-oriented events, and condensed programs in schools, all of these activities lean into the Five Creative Habits. Since 2023 we’ve had great success with taking Scribblers out ‘on the road’ into regional and remote areas such as the Pilbara and the Goldfields and who knows? We may be coming to your region too!
@scribblersfest
scribblersfestival.com.au
Scribblers on the Road Goldfields, Family Fun Day, 2025.
Photo by Leith Alexander, courtesy of FORM
Spinifex Hill Studio
From its beginnings in 2008 as a small group painting in temporary spaces, Spinifex Hill Studio on Kariyarra Country in South Hedland has evolved into one of Western Australia’s most dynamic Indigenous art producing centres. It’s unique in Australia as an urbanbased, culturally neutral art centre representing Aboriginal artists from numerous cultural backgrounds. There is no dominant ‘house style’, rather the Studio supports an eclectic range of art practices in recognition of the diversity of Indigenous experience.
The Studio is a member of the Indigenous Art Code, and of the Aboriginal Arts Centre Hub of Western Australia (AACHWA) and participates in and contributes to a national sector of over 99 Indigenous art centres. In collaboration with FORM, the Studio’s staff and advisory Aboriginal Council is gradually working towards independence for the Studio and Gallery, and a future that is entirely First Nations led.
Opening Hours
Tues–Sat | 9:00am – 3:00pm
Spinifex Hill Studio
18 Hedditch Street
South Hedland WA 6772
Spinifex Hill Studio, 2024. Image courtesy of FORM Building A State of Creativity.
An exhibition celebrating the work of emerging and established artists at Spinifex Hill.
Opening celebration
6:00–8:00pm Fri 6 March 2026
FRI 5 JUNE–SUN 6 SEPTEMBER 2026
An exhibition celebrating National NAIDOC Week
Each year, NAIDOC Week celebrates and recognises the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
With this exhibition, the artists of Spinifex Hill Studio explore many levels of culture, story, resilience and Country.
Opening celebration
6:00–8:00pm Fri 5 June 2026
Spinifex Hill Studio
Spinifex Hill Studio, 2024. Image courtesy of FORM Building A State of Creativity.
Buy Authentic Aboriginal Art
Spinifex Hill Studio and FORM are members of the Indigenous Art Code, a system that preserves and promotes ethical trading in Indigenous art.
You can read the Indigenous Art Code at indigenousartcode.org
Spinifex Hill Studio is proud to be a member of the Aboriginal Art Centre Hub Western Australia (AACHWA). AACHWA works for and with WA Aboriginal Art Centres to celebrate the strength of our art and culture.
Shop the Spini. Online Store
Up at Dawn (Detail), Gus Eagleton, 2024. RIver Country Art Trail, Barham, NSW.
Photograph by Mitchell Barkman Videography.
FORM's Arts & Cultural Consultancy
We are Western Australia’s leading arts and cultural consultancy, delivering bold ideas and high-impact outcomes in public art, cultural planning, placemaking, Indigenous engagement, and creative activation.
Our ambition is to lead the growth of a vibrant creative economy that enriches communities and enhances the wellbeing of all Western Australians.
We turn spaces into stories and ideas into experiences that captivate, connect, and endure. In short, we make places unforgettable.
To learn more or discuss how we can support your project, contact us at consulting@form.net.au
Support
the work we do
Without the generous support of our partners, patrons and donors, the work FORM does would simply not be possible. Those who contribute are not only investing in the organisation, but the broader arts sector, the next generation of young creatives, and the lives and livelihoods of fellow Western Australians.
Join our generous circle of partners and donors today, contact us on philanthropy@form.net.au
Yindjibarndi artist Melissa Sandy leading the exhibition preview and tour at Where We Come From, FORM Gallery, 2025. Image courtesy of FORM Building a State of Creativity
Yindjibarndi artist and Elder Barngyi Pansy Cheedy leading a children's workshop at Where We Come From, FORM Gallery, 2025.
Photography by Jess Allan. Image courtesy of FORM Building a State of Creativity.
Principal Project Partner (Pilbara)
Trusts and Foundations
Anonymous donors
Cecile Crochu and Alan Ng
Don and Victoria Fini
Katrina and Craig Burton
Kathy Reid
Lorraine and Grame Rowley
Marco D'Orsogna & Terry Scott
Marilyn Burton
Partners and Donors confirmed as of November 2025 for the events and programming outlined in this program. Support Partners
