OUTDOOR GALLERY

Regional Showcase: 

Sweet Alcaic Meter - Mike Terry and Dr Alana Blackburn  and

Overhead and Underneath - Joanne stead, Jodie Herden, Jody White and Karen Balsar 

This event will feature live musical performance and include presentation from the artists and Regional Arts NSW CEO Tracey Callinan from 5.30pm. 

Friday 26 June 2026, dusk till 10pm

Projection art from Mike Terry and Dr Alana Blackburn (Armidale) and Joanne Stead, Jodie Herden, Jody White and Karen Balsar (Tamworth). Both of these works respond to our natural environment.

Sweet Alcaic Meters

Sweet Alcaic Meters is a 14 minute audiovisual work produced for the ‘Regional Futures’ project in 2023. The creators, Alana Blackburn (Sound) and Mike Terry (Image) were asked to respond to the prompt ‘what does the future look like in your region?’ and were encouraged to engage with experts and members of the community to develop a creative response.

This audiovisual project began by exploring historical creative responses to changes in the environment through the writings and poetry of Judith Wright, followed by discussions with soil scientists, engineers, and station owners to capture the use, misuse and underuse of natural and civic resources within the New England North West area of New South Wales.

This project is an example of qualitative arts-based research combining both arts-informed and arts informing inquiries as a representation and response to an issue or situation. The locations explored are presented as chapters of ecological, agricultural, historic, civic, and cultural value.

Overhead and Underneath

Overhead and Underneath was an exhibition held at the Tamworth Regional Gallery in June 2025. Taking the time to look overhead or underneath your feet can be a centring experience that makes one appreciate that exact moment in time. With this exhibition theme, Tamworth Regional Gallery engaged 23 regionally based artists from Kamilaroi Gamilaroi Gomeroi country in the Tamworth region and Wiradjuri country near Albury. The exhibition invites the viewer to slow down, take time and look, observe and marvel at the world we exist in. Four of these artists, Joanne Stead, Jodie Herden, Jody White and Karen Balsar prepared work featuring their art for this projection. 

The Overhead and Underneath video brings together four perspectives that explore the visible and hidden systems sustaining life. Jo Stead’s Surface Tension reflects the fragile interplay of light on water, where shifting patterns echo the delicate balance of ecosystems. The use of tenpins becomes a quiet metaphor for interdependence—each element connected, each disturbance carrying consequences across the whole.

Jodie Herden’s Gunii-ma / Mother Earth deepens this dialogue through eco-dyed fabric, where water, Country, and ancestral knowledge flow together. Created with materials gathered respectfully from the land, the work carries nature’s imprint—its colours, textures, and stories. Water emerges as both lifeblood and storyteller, connecting generations and inviting stillness, reflection, and care for the natural world.

Karen Balsar’s Soundness reveals what lies beneath: the intricate architecture of roots, decay, and renewal. Through finely worked corten steel, she captures the quiet transformation of leaf litter into new ecosystems, evoking both structural resilience and sensory experience.

Together, these works trace a continuum from surface to soil, from reflection to regeneration, reminding us of the profound interconnectedness and enduring vitality of the natural world

Outdoor Gallery

The Tamworth Regional Gallery is excited to deliver digital artwork onto the Outdoor Gallery in Fitzroy St until December 2027. 

Each month you can experience a different large-scale art installation created by regional artists and local groups. This project helps celebrate our legacy as the city of light and showcases some of the regional talent we have. More information can be found on the Outdoor Gallery section of our website.