Bimblebox: art – science – nature exhibition opened at the New England Regional Art Museum in Armidale last Friday evening to a large and enthusiastic audience of around 100+ people. I saw some familiar faces of the people who I’d met at the Sustainable Living Forum, but there were many more new faces from this interesting community. Armidale has a great combination of rural farming community mixed with a university town – people were very knowledgeable about their local area histories, their substantial and impressive art collection, and keen to explore new directions in creative community engagement. The recently appointed Director of NERAM, Robert Heather is former Queenslander and long-time colleague and I’m sure he is going to enjoy Armidale immensely, and vice versa. Thanks Robert for taking and supporting this exhibition. I’ve had some exciting feedback and follow-up from artists interested in Bimblebox – the place, the artist camps, and the cause to prevent coal mining in the Galilee Basin. It’s also interesting that researcher Andrew Nicholson will be undertaking doctoral research in the area of environmental education through the University of New England, utilising the Bimblebox: art – science – nature exhibition as a case study. We look forward to seeing how this ongoing conversation with Armidale evolves.

Thanks also to the staff and volunteers at NERAM – your multimedia and installation skills are impressive and your pretty good company too! It was a pleasure working with you.

Beth Jackson

A great audience for opening night at the New England Regional Art Museum

It was great to have these long low plinths to extend Gerald Soworka’s grand and eloquent artist books – they drew everyone in!

There was also a good crowd attending the exhibition floor talk I gave last Saturday with people staying afterwards to have good conversations.

Robert Heather, Director of NERAM, pictured at the back. It was a pleasure hearing him speak about the exhibition – he’s obviously been following the project. Great to have your support.