Arts Outwest

06/09/2026

DID YOU KNOW? Cultural tourism attracts millions of visitors to regional NSW each year?

Arts, culture, heritage and creativity aren't just community assets—they're powerful drivers of visitation, local spending and regional identity.

📊 1 in 8 visitors to NSW participate in cultural tourism activities.
🧳 Regional NSW welcomed an estimated 5.8 million cultural tourism visitors in 2023.
🌙 Those visitors generated around 13 million visitor nights.
💰 Cultural tourists contributed an estimated $6.2 billion in visitor expenditure.
🎨 More than 2,700 cultural tourism experiences are available across regional NSW, with hundreds more opportunities waiting to be developed.

The good news? Regional communities already have many of the ingredients needed to create memorable visitor experiences—from local stories and artists to galleries, heritage sites, public art, festivals and cultural events.

Our free resource shares practical tools, ideas, case studies and strategies to help communities, councils, tourism operators and cultural organisations strengthen their cultural tourism offering.

📖 Download the resource via the link in our bio.

Image: The Living Desert and Sculptures, Broken Hill. Credit Destination NSW Photographer Jason Ierace.

ID: Person stands in sunset silhouette next to a rock sculpture. Text over side of image.

04/09/2026

Congratulations Harrie Fasher!

Some of the Arts OutWest team was at the Art Gallery of NSW in August to celebrate the purchase of a work by the Portland based sculptor for the AGNSW collection.

'After Pina/ Calling Kali' (bronze 354x111x140) has been purchased by the Arts Gallery of NSW with funds provided by the Mollie and Jim Gowing Bequest 2026. The work is part of the current exhibition 'The Edge of Things' (15 August 2026 to 9 May 2027) in the Naala Badu building, Lower level 1.

In these pictures: Tracey Callinan OAM (CEO Regional Arts NSW), Rich and Kellie Evans (The Foundations Portland), Martin and Monica O'Connell (The Foundations Portland), Kylie Shead (ED Arts Outwest), Nicola Mason (Arts OutWest), Sabrina Roesner, Justin Morrissey.





Harrie Fasher and Nicola Mason also had works in the 2026 Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW. Harrie Fasher has her foundry at The Foundations.

Arts OutWest supports the Foundations, Portland in the coordination of The Squatters Residency program.

Photo credit Nic Mason, Arts OutWest.

04/09/2026

Musicians, music venues, do you have questions about PAYDAY SUPER?

MusicNSW have put together a suite of resources answering all the curly Q’s around this and are a running a free online session next Tuesday evening.

Emma Brophy (The Gild Group) will host an info session on Payday Super, focusing on the information you actually need to know as an artist, sole trader, music worker or music business owner. She’ll walk through the practical steps involved in getting set up, staying on top of your obligations and making sure super is being paid correctly and on time.

You’ll leave with a clearer understanding on what Payday Super means and how to build superannuation into your working life without the overwhelm. The session will end with a Q&A segment where you can ask Emma any questions you’ve got.

🖊 New Wave: Know Your Super
📅 Tue, 8 September, 6-7:30pm
📍 Online, Register here - https://events.humanitix.com/new-wave-know-your-super

03/09/2026

CONGRATULATIONS to Central West based Wiradjuri artist Amala Groom.

Wiradyuri conceptual artist Amala Groom is amongst the 2026 National Regional Arts Fellow.

Living and working on her Mother’s Country in Kelso, NSW. Her practice performs cultural sovereignty, grounded in Wiradyuri ontology and Yindyamarra, integrating lived experience with archival, legislative, and cultural research to articulate sovereign Wiradyuri ways of being.

Click the link in our story to learn more about Amala’s fellowship project The Constitution.

The National Regional Arts Fellowship Program is a strategic project supported by the Office for the Arts Regional Arts Fund and delivered by Regional Arts Australia. Fellowships provide guaranteed income for regional artists and arts workers to develop work, skills, networks, or research.

02/09/2026

EXHIBITION OPPORTUNITY FOR ABORIGINAL ARTISTS & MAKERS.
Across the NSW Central West.

Arts OutWest are currently expanding the range of products sold at our Kew-Y-Ahn Aboriginal Gallery at the Hartley Historic Site and arts markets.

Do you create…
📍 Textiles: bags, kids clothes, beanies, scarfs, headbands and hairclips, hand screened tea towels, knitted items, handmade textiles.
📍 Natural fibre work: weaving, bowls or platters, bags, woven animals;
📍 Paintings, prints, art photography or greeting cards;
📍 Jewellery: ear rings, beading, bracelets, brooches;
📍Ceramics, pottery, buttons and badges, handmade toy animals, carved wood items, candles, giftware…

About the Kew-Y-Ahn Aboriginal Gallery
• The gallery is a partnership between Arts OutWest and National Parks & Wildlife Service
• Exclusively showcasing art of Aboriginal artists from the NSW Central West
• Located in the visitors centre at heart of the Hartley Historic Site
• Work also sold at places like the National Indigenous Art Fair
• Traditional through to contemporary works exhibited – all styles welcome
• Set your own prices, get paid for your work. Items are sold on commission

FIND OUT MORE and fill in an expression of interest: https://artsoutwest.org.au/pf/kew-y-ahn-aboriginal-gallery-how-to/

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Arts OutWest is supported by Create NSW, Charles Sturt University and our 12 member councils.

The Central West Aboriginal Arts Development program is funded through the federal government’s Indigenous Visual Arts Industry Support (IVAIS).

02/09/2026

So much more than a small grant... while a microgrant will help pay for the incredible musicians who will be performing at Spring into Art at Newbridge this October (16-18), it's the small Blayney Shire community's commitment to this big weekend of art that makes it happen.

Microgrant stories: Spring into Art at Newbridge.

⭐There's a concert - in a beautiful old church - with headliners Simon Tedeschi, George Washingmachine and Clare O’Meara.

⭐Three amazing workshops
- plein air painting
- portrait photography.
- George Washingmachine and Clare O’Meara have kindly offered to deliver a two-hour Concepts of Stagecraft & Jazz Intensive Workshop for Musicians.

⭐ The big art exhibition that's a social event in itself.

The wider Spring into Art festival was built around the art show to involve the whole village community and its businesses. Complementary events over the years have included markets, open gardens and a tiny church trail. In 2026, the focus is on creative arts in the village of Newbridge itself, with free musical performances in the art show pavilions, at the church, on the verandah of Olde Bridge Gallery and in front of The Gladstone Hotel.

Read the full interview about Spring int Art at Newbridge:
https://artsoutwest.org.au/microgrant-stories-spring-into-art-at-newbridge/

This project is supported by a number of sponsors including the Arts OutWest Cultural Fund. Donations to the 2027 fund are open via our website.

Image 1: Newbridge Art Show opening night is always a buzz © Carolyn Hide Cazeil Creative
Image 2: Simon Tedeschi and George Washingmachine return for the opening night concert © Carolyn Hide Cazeil Creative

31/08/2026

On the road... at for the opening of mid-career survey exhibition last Friday night.

A packed gallery for an extraordinary body of work. Like revisiting old friends not seen for a while.

Nicole Welch: A Mid-Career Survey
Transformations: Image, Time & Landscape
Curated by Richard Perram OAM
29 August - 1 November 2026
27 years of work by the Hill End-based artist.
Alongside the foyer exhibition Graham Lupp
Five Decades: Studies in Realism

Check https://bathurstart.com.au/ for the talks and exhibition program.

Images:
The exhibition takes over the whole of the gallery
The crowds squeeze in for the speeches
Leah Haynes, Fiona Davies, Miriam Williamson with Nicole Welch
Photos: Nicola Mason, Maryanne Jaques/ Arts Outwest

28/08/2026

WHAT'S ON // Poetry Slam in Lithgow tonight.

Lithgow 2026 Australian Poetry Slam Heat

28/08/2026

OUT TODAY // The September arts and cultural What's On calendar is in this fortnight's edition of The Village Voice

Pick up a copy around Lithgow, Oberon, Blayney or Bathurst or read it online: https://villagevoice.net.au/

➡️ SUBMIT YOUR EVENTS
https://centralnsw.com/whats-on/community/add/

➡️ NEXT DEADLINES:
OCTOBER content – by 15 Sept
NOVEMBER content – by 15 Oct
DECEMBER content – by 12 Nov
JANUARY 2027 content – by 16 Dec

Arts OutWest is the regional arts development organisation for the NSW Central West and What's On is one of our free services.
➡️ Explore the calendar here: https://centralnsw.com/events/