Broken Hill’s Gaara Arts Celebrates Upcoming National Water Week

Art Scene



Town Hall Facade - Argent Street
Courtesy of the Barrier Daily Truth



Broken Hill’s prolific all female art group Gaara Arts Inc. is holding another exhibition 20 September to 21 October 2012 to celebrate upcoming National Water Week which is immediately following the exhibition and runs from 21 -27 October.  The name of the exhibition is ‘Water, one drop at a time’.

Their thought provoking works are available for sale at the unique Town Hall Façade space located at 256 Argent Street, Broken Hill.  Prices range from $50 - $2,200.




“Before the Rain” and “After the Rain”
by Julie Anne Horsburgh
courtesy Gaara

Ten artists are exhibiting, they are Jenny Cattonar, Maureen Clark (the group's publicity officer), Deirdre Edwards, Angela Fitzpatrick, Julie Anne Horsburgh, Pauline McLennan, Wendy Martin, Betty Pearson (the group's President), Phyllis Ragenovich and Robyn Taylor.

"Cityscape a rainy night"
courtesy of artist Maureen Clark

The hours of opening are 10 am to 4 pm daily and entry is free.

Deirdre Edwards - "From Eagles View"
courtesy Gaara

Gaara Arts originally formed in 2008 as Women Artists of Broken Hill, under the auspice of Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery and with direction from the then manager Bruce Tindale.  Gaara means “girls and art in regional areas”, and became the first incorporated women’s art group in Australia in May 2010.

Since forming, Gaara members have excelled in their art and some members have held solo exhibitions.

The exhibition sounds wonderful.  With the Silver City Show just finished for another year, why not pop down to the exhibition and take a look around.

To read about my article on Gaara's exhibition from earlier this year entitled "Plastic Lives: A Womans Tale" see here.

I wish all concerned every success with the exhibition.

Cheers, Jane D

International Women's Day 2012 Art exhibition in Broken Hill by Gaara Arts - opens 9 March

La Femme au Naturelle by
and courtesy of Maureen Clark

Art Scene

Straight from the Media Release -
Gaara Arts is a group of women who also happen to be Broken Hill artists.  Since forming in 2008, they have become an independent, incorporated entity, producing prolific work.  Primarily, they respond to issues that face women in society by raising community awareness of these issues through exhibitions of their artworks at the Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery and other public venues. Biannually, an exhibition is timed to celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8.  In 2012, the theme of the International Women’s Day exhibition is “Plastic Lives – A Woman’s Tale”.

The 40 works of art on display, in a variety of media, reveal a wide interpretation of this theme.  Add to this, an innovative move into multimedia and the scope of interpretation is broadened even further.

Each painting has been thoughtfully assessed by a poet who has then written an ekphrastic poem which seeks to interpret and, sometimes, confront their subjects.  Local Broken Hill poets joined with metropolitan and interstate scribes to compose their works which will hang beside the paintings in the main gallery of the Regional Art Gallery in Argent Street.

One such poet is Sheryl Persson, an ekphrastic poet who transcribes visual art into poetry. Sheryl’s poetry group, DiVerse, performs regularly at the National Gallery and the Art Gallery of NSW.  She has written a collection of poems, Scarcely Random, and has had articles and stories published widely.  Sheryl will join other poets and the Gaara artists in at the Gallery for the opening of the “Plastic Lives” exhibition at 6.30pm on Friday, March 9.  The exhibition will run until April 22^nd.

Betty Pearson is the President and Angela Fitzpatrick the Vice-President of Gaara for 2012, while established artists such as Jenny Cattonar, Deirdre Edwards and Wendy Martin act as mentors for other emerging painters.

The group is hoping to repeat the success of the opening of their previous exhibition, “One Barrow, One Shovel”, which attracted 200 people to the art and memorabilia show in December last year.

All I can add is that I wish I could be there on the opening night.  Luckily I will be back in Broken Hill at some point during the exhibition nonetheless, so I can’t wait to see it, it sounds quite fascinating.

Cheers, Jane D