Current & Upcoming Exhibitions
MICHELE BEEVORS
ANATOMY LESSONS
30 November 2024 - 2 March 2025
Anatomy Lessons by Michele Beevors, features meticulously sculpted, life-sized animal skeletons painstakingly measured, drawn and sculpted from steel, wire, and foam, and knitted over, in a fine-art softening of the subject beneath. Seventeen years in the making, the creation of the pieces has been a long and exacting process: from measuring bones in museum basement collections, to sculpting and articulating skeletons, to the slow, meditative act of knitting. A silent, soft protest at the violence we are inflicting on the planet.
Image courtesy of the artist.
ZAHALKAWORLD
an artist's archive
7 December 2024 - 2 March 2025
Anne Zahalka is one of Australia’s most highly regarded photo-media artists who has exhibited extensively in Australia and overseas for over 40 years. Her work explores cultural and environmental points of tension through a humorous as well as a critical lens.
ZAHALKAWORLD – an artist’s archive is a major survey exhibition that brings together bodies of work that span Zahalka’s practice and treasures from her archive that inform and inspire her. The exhibition encompasses material that is both personal and professional, intellectual and physical. Imaginative, immersive and playful, the exhibition invites audiences into the artist’s working life and creative process to explore her illusionary worlds.
There are eight key bodies of work that form the basis of the exhibition, including Bondi: Playground of the Pacific, The Landscape Re-presented, Resemblance and Resemblance II, Wild Life and Wild Life Australia, Open House, The Fate of Things and Details.
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This exhibition is also accompanied by an award-winning publication proudly supported by the Gordon Darling Foundation and an education kit.
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A Museum of Australian Photography travelling exhibition.
Image: Anne Zahalka, The Bathers 1989, from the series Bondi: playground of the Pacific, chromogenic print, 95 x 112cm. Museum of Australian Photography, City of Monash Collection, donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program by the Bowness Family 2010. MAPh 2010.022. Courtesy of the artist and the Museum of Australian Photography.
ANDREW ROBARDS
NOW SCREENING
30 November 2024 - 23 February 2025
Now Screening is an exhibition of digital media works by Mudgee based artist Andrew Robards that explores visual digital culture through the creation of hybridized screen languages incorporating captured imagery and animated sequences. Robards’ artistic practice utilises glitches, data-moshing techniques, kaleidoscopic and abstract patterns; spanning over numerous screens and devices to examine the relationship between audience, digital media and it’s ubiquity in contemporary society.
Now Screening is an exhibition that focuses on providing an alternative slower-paced engagement with everyday digital devices in a world saturated with screen-based communication.
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This is a HomeGround exhibition, produced by the WPCC and supported by Orana Arts. HomeGround is sponsored by Wingewarra Dental.
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OFFICIAL OPENING: Saturday 30 November, 2pm
Image Credit: Landscape (video stills), 2019, dual-channel video installation, duration: 6:32 (loop), dimensions variable. Image courtesy © artist
1080: RABBIT CONTROL
23 November 2024 - 11 May 2025
Using a series of rare images this exhibition explores the environmental impact of the European Rabbit as an introduced species into the Australian landscape. By the 1950s Rabbits had reached plaque proportions across Australia, and attempts to control the rabbit problem, included experiments conducted by the Dubbo Pastures Protection Board with the poison 1080.
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This From the Vault exhibition has been supported by funding from Create NSW
Image Credit: Photographer Unknown, Trail leading up a hill for 1080 poison baits, c.1953, Central West Local Lands Service, Local Studies Collection, Dubbo Regional Council, 2018_103_PHO
FROM THE VAULT
A WOMAN'S PLACE
10 May 2024 - 4 May 2025
This exhibition explores the stories of three local women of Dubbo, from three different time periods dating from the late 1800s through to the 1940s. The stories of these women reflect a broader discussion around women’s roles in the public sphere.
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Mrs Blanche Soane was a prominent Suffragette, Nurse Mary Adams, the Matron of a Lying-in Hospital, and Mrs ‘Kep’ Wilkins, a prominent producer and organiser in Dubbo’s Theatrical community, how do we understand such prominent and respected local women in an era when it was a firmly held view that a ‘woman’s place’ was in the home?
From the Vault is supported by Create NSW
Curated by Simone Taylor
​Image Credit: Photographer Unknown, Group portrait of nurses including Mary McDonald, later Matron Adams, Local Studies Collection, Dubbo Regional Council, 2015_222_PHO
YEAR OF TOYS
WASTE 2 ART
8 March 2025 - 25 May 2025
Waste 2 Art is an annual community art exhibition and competition that features artworks created by community members using recycled and unwanted materials. The results are imaginative and thought-provoking with the artworks showcasing recycling and sustainable living.
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With this creative use of waste materials, Waste 2 Art also provides an innovative approach to waste education. Schools and community groups take up the challenge and create artworks out of materials that might otherwise be thrown away.
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The theme for this year's exhibition is Toys.
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Dubbo Regional Council is a proud NetWaste member and supports commitment to re-use and recycle through creative expression.
Image: Zachary Craig, Mr Porkbunz, 2024, cardboard, image courtesy of Dubbo Regional Council.
PEOPLE PLACES POSSESSIONS
DUBBO STORIES
Permanent Exhibition
The history of Dubbo told through the people who lived here. Stories of hardship, perseverance, ingenuity, tragedy and joy – Dubbo’s past is at once surprising and enlightening.
Telling the story of a place and its people is made easier by examining the myriad of ways we document, express and articulate our experiences. For a museum, the photographs, books, objects and official records help us to record history. The archives held by the WPCC allow community members to access this material for research or general interest. From diaries and ledgers to photographs that transport us back in time, the WPCC Collection provides a unique portal to our past.
Image Credit: Maker unknown, Shoe – Female – Chinese, date unknown. Red satin. Braid edging continues down to the toe. Calico sole with embroidery under the heel. Bird and flower embroidery. Orange tie embroidered in shades of blue. Designed for the custom of bound feet. Collection WPCC.