NEW INSIGHT MEMBER BENEFITS
As we celebrate free gallery entry for all visitors to the Cultural Centre, we acknowledge and thank our existing InSight Members for their ongoing support and engagement. We are also pleased to introduce a new free membership tier for young people aged 16–25, designed to engage younger audiences with the arts locally and encourage greater participation in our programs and events.
Your InSight Member benefits will continue to offer you discounts in the shop, café and on public programs, and you can look forward to a new range of exciting exclusive events aimed at connecting members with each other and with artists.
In the coming months, we will also introduce new InSight Member benefits, including weekly café specials and priority bookings for both selected public programs and selected Blue Mountains Theatre presented shows.
SENSORIAL HITS THE ROAD
Our touring exhibition sensorial will make its next stop in Port Macquarie. Opening on Saturday 25 July at Glasshouse Regional Gallery and on exhibition until 13 September.
2027 BLUE MOUNTAINS PORTRAITS CALL OUT
In 2027 Blue Mountains City Art Gallery will host the popular Blue Mountains Portraits exhibition from 13 February – 4 April 2027. The call out will open 16 August 2026 and closes midnight Wednesday 30 September 2026. Successful applicants will be notified early November.
Blue Mountains Portraits People’s Choice Winner 2026, SARAH SOUTHALL self-portrait in biro 2025, blue pen on cartridge paper
INTO THE BLUE
The Blue Mountains World Heritage Interpretive Centre, a high-tech, interactive exhibition which explores the natural as well as the social landscapes of this unique area.
Audiences are invited to navigate their way through these stories in an immersive exhibition experience, introducing them to the richness and wonders of the Blue Mountains World Heritage area.
NGURRA BAYALA (COUNTRY SPEAKS)
Co-curated with Dharug artist Leanne Tobin, Ngurra Bayala (Country speaks) celebrates the video work of seven female First Nations artists. This exhibition will be on permanent display until December 2026.
National Gallery of Australia Artists: Megan Cope, Fiona Foley, Julie Gough and r e a.
SESSION TIMES:
The World Heritage Exhibition is a 60-minute moving image program.
Ngurra Bayala (Country speaks) starts on the hour and runs for 45 minutes.
Into the Blue directly follows and runs for 15 minutes (starting at quarter to the hour, every hour).
Blue Mountains Aboriginal practitioners: Aunty Sharyn Halls (with Craig Bender and Vera Hong); Jo Clancy (with Sue Healey) and Leanne Tobin.
Image above: JO CLANCY & WAGANA DANCERS Yindyang
Bila, 2022, still photo: Sue Healey. Commissioned by Blue Mountains Cultural Centre with support from Create NSW Image right: Into the Blue. Photo: Liam Foster
THE ART OF ADAPTATION: CULTURE CHANGES EVERYWHERE
20 Jun – 2 Aug
Marking ten years since its founding, this exhibition surveys a decade of projects by the Kandos School of Cultural Adaptation (KSCA). Bringing together work from across the collective, it highlights how creative practice can support cultural change in response to climate challenges. KSCA’s approach is grounded in the belief that art is an active tool for shaping how communities adapt to shifting social and environmental conditions.
Participating artists include Diego Bonetto, Laura Fisher, Lucas Ihlein, Ian Milliss, Georgina Pollard, Imogen Semmler, Peter Swain, Leanne Thompson, Erika Watson, Kim Williams, Alex Wisser, and Vickie Zhang. Contributing members over the past decade include Gilbert Grace, Eloise Lindeback, Sarah Breen Lovett, Christine MacMillan, Emmanuela Prigioni and Kelly Reiffer.
A Manly Art Gallery & Museum touring exhibition as part of its CEAD (Collective for Environmental Art & Design) initiative
Curated by Ben Rak and Katherine Roberts
ALEX WISSER An Artist, a Farmer and a Scientist Walk into a Bar 2021
REFLECTIONS NAIDOC 2026
4 – 26 Jul
Fifty Years of Deadly marks a milestone. It is a tribute to the people who built the NAIDOC movement, and reflects on time passed, while recognising the momentum that still builds. We honour what came before by continuing the work.
Curated by Aunty Elly Chatfield, this year’s NAIDOC exhibition, REFLECTIONS, invites viewers to consider how each contributing artist has responded to this Culturally significant milestone.
This year’s theme honours the Elders who stood firm, the organisers who made space, the artists who turned resistance into expression, and the Communities who keep showing up year after year. NAIDOC has always been more than a week – it’s a platform, a celebration, a statement of survival, and a stance of resilience.
REFLECTIONS OPENING NIGHT
Friday 3 Jul, 6 – 8 pm
Be captivated by the exquisite voices of First Nations women, as Dharug language meets with music, and be treated to a performance piece exploring purpose, and reminding us of our responsibility to care for those more vulnerable than ourselves.
Yanama Budyari Gumada.
All welcome, RSVP to: culturalcentre@bmcc.nsw.gov.au
Photo: Aunty Elly Chatfield
ANIMAL DREAMS: BRIA McCARTHY
1 Aug – 20 Sep
Pondering the question ‘what do animals dream of?’ multi-disciplinary performer and artist, Bria McCarthy explores the uncharted realms of sleep, multispecies imagination, and neurodivergence. Audiences entering Animal Dreams will be immersed in an imagined theatre backstage, where experimental shadow puppetry, sculpture and installation come to life.
Animal Dreams is a compelling, sensorially considerate exhibition that recognises the importance of cross-species connection through imaginative empathy, and playful approaches to the unknown… with puppets!
A Blue Mountains Cultural Centre Altitude exhibition
ANIMAL DREAMS OPENING NIGHT
Friday 7 Aug, 6 – 8 pm
A double opening event with the Hill Painting Prize.
All welcome, RSVP to: culturalcentre@bmcc.nsw.gov.au
ARTIST TALK
Saturday 1 Aug, 11 am – 12 pm
Join us for a gallery talk with our curator Hayley Zena Poynton and artist Bria McCarthy.
Free. RSVP via Eventbrite
SHADOW PUPPET STORYTELLING WORKSHOP
Sunday 30 Aug, 10 – 11.30 am
A hands-on shadow puppet workshop for ages 6+ to create creatures, explore storytelling, and perform a mini show using light and shadow.
$15 / $10 InSight Members. Tickets via Eventbrite
Cultural knowledge sharing bears no charge for all First Nations participants. Free entry is available for those experiencing financial hardship. Phone 4780 5410 to book.
SHADOW PUPPET ZINE-MAKING WORKSHOP
Sunday 6 Sep, 9.30 am – 12 pm
With light, play, and imagination, create a handmade shadow puppet zine. Design characters, tell stories, and bring paper creations to life. This workshop is designed for participants 12 years of age and older.
$15 / $10 InSight Members. Tickets via Eventbrite
Cultural knowledge sharing bears no charge for all First Nations participants. Free entry is available for those experiencing financial hardship. Phone 4780 5410 to book.
BRIA McCARTHY Animal Dreams. Photo: Geneva Valek
CITY ART GALLERY
HILL PAINTING PRIZE
8 Aug – 20 Sep
The inaugural Hill Painting Prize is a celebration of the natural landscapes, urban spaces and man-made environments of the Blue Mountains, captured through the medium of painting.
Artists were encouraged to submit original 2D paintings in any painterly medium including oil, acrylic, gouache and watercolour. We were thrilled to receive 200 applications from artists across Australia.
The prize is a competitive, biennial, non-acquisitive competition and exhibition. Open to all Australian residents, the prize includes three awards; People’s Choice, Artist’s Choice, and an overall winner, with a total prize pool of $12,000.
The overall winner will be announced at the opening night.
GALLERY TALK
Saturday 8 Aug, 11 am – 12 pm
Join us in the gallery for insights into the inaugural prize with curator Hayley Zena Poynton.
Free. RSVP via Eventbrite
HILL PAINTING PRIZE
OPENING NIGHT
Friday 7 Aug, 6 – 8 pm
A double opening event with Animal Dreams.
All welcome, RSVP to: culturalcentre@bmcc.nsw.gov.au
EXPLORING DRAWING: THE HILL PAINTING PRIZE WITH PAM VAUGHAN
Weekly on Wednesdays, 7 classes: 5, 12, 19, 26 Aug, 2, 9, 16 Sep 10 am – 1 pm
Join artist Pam Vaughan for a 7-week studio course exploring drawing as a dynamic and responsive practice, developed in connection with the Hill Painting Prize exhibition. Suitable for both new and returning participants, this course offers the opportunity to develop a body of work while deepening your understanding of how landscape can be constructed, interpreted, and reimagined.
$465 / $418.50 InSight Members
Tickets via Eventbrite
DAVID R HILL Blue Mountain Cadence 2026, oil on canvas, 80 x 102 cm. Courtesy the artist
UNBOUND: LEE MITCHELL
26 Sep – 15 Nov
For centuries our shared understanding of humanity was shaped by books. Handed down, leather bound, paper backed and dog eared. Today, rapid digitalisation means hundreds of millions of books are discarded annually in Australia alone. Unbound asks what happens when the dominant medium for connecting us with our past is untethered.
Using discarded books, found locally, the exhibition comprises a series of impressive sculptural installations. Exploring questions of mass consumption and its environmental implications, it celebrates the beauty and diversity of the ideas, images and colours that culturally formed us as we attempt to come to terms with our collective and personal pasts.
Moving into an increasingly uncertain future Unbound asks what do we hold and what do we release?
A Blue Mountains Cultural Centre Altitude exhibition
UNBOUND OPENING NIGHT
Friday 25 Sep, 6 – 8 pm
A double opening event with 24th Dobell Drawing Prize.
All welcome, RSVP to: culturalcentre@bmcc.nsw.gov.au
ARTIST TALK
Saturday 31 Oct, 11 am – 12 pm
Join us for a gallery talk with our curator Hayley Zena Poynton and and artist Lee Mitchell.
Free. RSVP via Eventbrite
LEE MITCHELL Dedicated (detail) 2026, salvaged pages, 1000 x 200 cm
LEE MITCHELL (detail) The Valley 2026, discarded books, 950 x 500 x 150 cm
26 Sep – 22 Nov
The Dobell Drawing Prize is Australia’s leading prize for drawing, and an unparalleled celebration of technique, innovation and expanded practice. Presented at the National Art School in partnership with the Sir William Dobell Art Foundation, this biennial exhibition continues to highlight the enduring relevance and changing role of drawing within contemporary art practice. The winning work enters the National Art School’s significant collection, built over the past 120 years.
The 24th edition was curated by Lucy Latella and showcased the work of 64 finalists at the National Art School Gallery, selected from 965 nationwide entries by judging panel Vernon Ah Kee, Dr Yolunda Hickman and Paula Latos-Valier AM. The works, through various media, consider a range of themes including domesticity and community, environmental care, and the impacts of colonisation and climate change. The 24th Dobell Drawing Prize touring exhibition shows a selection of 42 finalists works for the regional tour.
24TH DOBELL DRAWING
PRIZE OPENING NIGHT
Friday 25 Sep, 6 – 8 pm
A double opening event with Unbound.
All welcome, RSVP to: culturalcentre@bmcc.nsw.gov.au
ARTIST TALK
Saturday 26 Sep, 11 am – 12 pm
Join us for a gallery talk with exhibiting artist Yvette Hamilton.
Free event. RSVP via eventbrite.
JENNIFER MILLS Head in hands 2023, watercolour and pencil on paper, image courtesy and © the artist
ANIMAL DREAMS: BRIA McCARTHY
Altitude artist Bria McCarthy speaks with curator Hayley Zena Poynton about her upcoming exhibition Animal Dreams.
Hayley Zena Poynton: As a neurodivergent artist working within the field of interdisciplinary artmaking, your exhibition Animal Dreams includes experimental shadow puppetry and multi-sensorial forms. Do you feel working across a range of mediums assists you in authentically expressing yourself to audiences?
Bria McCarthy: Absolutely. I feel that over time I have gotten very comfortable in a jack-of-all-puppet-trades kind of reputation, and working in this way is exceptionally AuDHD friendly. I get to work within the world of my special interest, puppetry, while also riding the dopamine waves of whichever artform is tickling my ADHD at the time. I’ve come to enjoy how this manifests in the aesthetics of my work, in that no particular part of the work is ever entirely mastered, or sometimes even finished. Rough edges, unfinished hems, and small imperfections have become a marker of my style, perhaps producing for the audience the image of an artist in a messy studio, flicking back and forth between different exciting artworks, and living in a way where this isn’t a problem at all, but a signal of art made with joy.
HZP: Multispecies imagination is central to your outlook on the world and our place in it, by what means does your exhibition Animal Dreams convey this complex notion?
BM: Multispecies thinking touches every artwork that I make, and Animal Dreams is kind of a big proclamation of this. It comes from my studies in deep ecology, and my Wiradjuri cultural thinking, and refers to the practice of making art that de-centres the human (in mind, body, and world), and favours more than human intelligence, cultures, and concerns. The imaginative part kicks in when you ask yourself ‘What do animals dream of?’. This is a question that is hard to answer realistically. Science doesn’t offer much of a glimpse into the dreams of animals except for the confirmation of brainwave activity that indicates this or that species may dream at night... but of what? In Aboriginal culture, the Dreaming is ever-present, in the air between all of us, shared between species living and in spirit, and in deep communication with the land. So our human capacity to imagine, to daydream, to make a silly attempt at answering, may be our best and most nourishing tool to connect with the psyche beyond the human. Animal Dreams is going to play within this question with shadow puppets, sculptural puppets, interactive and multisensory storytelling experiences, and playful examples of animal dreams across many other forms.
HZP: Your visual art practice began in the world of theatre through costume and shadow-play. How do you feel this has informed the growth of your methodologies?
BM: Coming into this practice with no visual arts training has been incredibly freeing. It’s also become a way to profess my love of all things theatrical in a new experimental space. I began devising shadow puppet performances during a very early Covid lockdown, and since then have fallen in love with the artform and the multispecies stories I can tell with it.
When I was approached by Bathurst Regional Art Gallery for my first visual arts commission (a video work called The Dreaming Holds Us) I discovered something wholly new, and incredibly exciting to me; video artwork, and visual arts. The questions that it has brought up have been both challenging and incredibly fun; how can I transfer this work from the stage to the gallery? How can I make work that I can leave and walk away from for others to enjoy (as opposed to performing)? How can I create the wondrous feeling of being in a theatre, and what commentary does that create about the artforms themselves?
This exhibition is a really fun expansion on this concept, and I’m having a great time working on making an exhibition that is animal, that plays, and that dreams.
BRIA McCARTHY Animal Dreams. Photo: Geneva Valek
24TH DOBELL DRAWING PRIZE
LOCAL ARTIST FEATURE
Curator Hayley Zena Poynton interviews Yvette Hamiliton, Blue Mountains-based artist featured in the 24th Dobell Drawing Prize
Hayley Zena Poynton: Your practice examines subject matter that is often considered unseen or invisible. What post-photographic processes do you employ to amplify the inconspicuous?
Yvette Hamilton: My practice often begins with things that are difficult to hold visually: atmosphere, darkness, light, duration, pressure, disappearance, and the limits of vision itself. To amplify the inconspicuous, I use processes that push photography beyond straightforward representation. These include cameraless exposures, analogue darkroom processes, scanning, layering, rephotographing, enlargement, and working across surfaces such as paper, glass and installation.
I’m interested in photography as a material process that can register forces we might not otherwise notice. Rather than using these methods to make things fully visible or resolved, I use them to hold ambiguity, instability and uncertainty and to draw attention to what sits just beyond visibility.
HZP: What is the impetus behind expanding your practice into the sculptural realm?
YH: The shift into sculptural work comes from wanting to think about photography as something that occupies space, rather than something that only exists as a flat image.
My work has long been concerned with the material conditions of photography: light, surface, exposure, darkness, chemistry and time. Expanding into sculpture allows these concerns to become more spatial, physical and embodied.
I’m interested in what happens when a photograph is not simply looked at, but moved around, looked through, or encountered in relation to light, architecture and the viewer’s body. Sculpture allows the image to become unstable and contingent, something that shifts depending on position, material and conditions.
HZP: As an artist working at the edges of photography, what concepts led you to begin your research into the field of post-photography?
YH: For me, post-photography is not a future condition of the medium, it is the reality of photography now. My work has always questioned the expectations placed on photography: what it should show, what it is meant to mean, and why we continue to trust it as evidence or representation.
This research also came from questioning my own position within the medium. After making photographs for the early part of my path as an artist, I reached a point where I began to ask why I should take any more photographs, when there were already so many images in the world.
That question fundamentally changed how I worked. Rather than abandoning photography, I began to expand my relationship to it through cameraless processes, material experimentation, installation, sculpture, video and filmbased work. I now think of photography less as a fixed category and more as a field of relationships between light, matter, time, vision and uncertainty.
LUMEN PRINTING AND PHOTO
COLLAGE WITH YVETTE
Saturday 14 Nov, 12.30 – 3.30 pm
Using small personal items and cameraless photography, you will experiment, cut, layer, and reassemble to create subtle, luminous collages.
$78 / $69 InSight Members
Early bird: $75 / $66 InSight Members for bookings before Saturday 17 Oct. Tickets through Eventbrite
Yvette Hamilton. Photo: Courtesy the artist
2027 ALTITUDE PROGRAM ARTISTS
We are pleased to announce the 2027 Altitude Artists. Helen Poyser’s Altitude exhibition Wadi has recently been presented in the gallery to positive feedback and reviews.
M BOZZEC
M Bozzec was born in Sydney in 1973. A graduate of NAS & UNSW College of Fine Arts, they have been exhibiting their work since 1998. Residing in Leura from 2018, their artistic practice is focused on drawing and the use of language, investigating the poetic intersection of words and images.
DENALI McGLASHAN
Denali Taniilux McGlashan is a multimedia artist, with a bachelors in 3D animation from Billy Blue College of Design, she is a federally recognized member of the St. George Tanaq tribe and was primarily raised in the rural communities of the Pribilof Islands in Alaska to which she is Indigenous (Aleut/Unungan). The blend of traditional and contemporary techniques that constitute her practice is something she views as a form of perceptual cartography, her work operates as both spiritual expression and tool for collective navigation.
M Bozzec. Photo: Courtesy the artist
Denali McGlashan. Photo: Courtesy the artist
Yanti Peng, 彭妍缇 is a Hainan-born interdisciplinary artist working across sculpture, film, photography, and 3D computer tools. At its core, her work seeks to decode functions of power within the labyrinth of truth and consciousness, often through humour, absurdism and magical realism. She likens her practice to the body’s fascial system, drawing connections between networked structures.
HELEN POYSER
Using watercolour on paper, Helen Poyser has developed a language devoid of the brushstroke, an artist’s most evident mark. Her work articulates, with its lack of conventional or expected markmaking, the possibilities of complete abstraction in relation to notions of self and the ego in contemporary art.
YANTI PENG
Helen Poyser. Photo: Courtesy the artist
Yanti Peng. Photo: Courtesy the artist
Scan here to visit the website and book:
PLAYLAB MAKERS SPACE
Friday 10 Jul
10 am – 12 pm & 1 – 3 pm
Our PlayLab makers space invites kids and grown-ups to explore an exciting selection of materials in free-flowing, imaginative creativity. Brought to you through a collaboration of various Blue Mountains City Council teams this drop-in workshop is for all ages, reusing and upcycling everyday items, turning ‘waste’ into creative possibilities.
Free, drop-in event All supplies provided
UNVEILED AND INTERWOVEN
WITH LEANNE THOMPSON
Sunday 19 Jul 12.30 – 3.30 pm
A masterclass with KSCA artist Leanne Thompson in conjunction with The Art of Adaptation: Culture Changes Everywhere.
Drawing on Leanne’s multidisciplinary practice, explore a range of techniques, including weaving, assemblage, decocting colour from plants and shadow-play. Be invited to question if radical creativity and interventions within our own environment – from backyards to watersheds – can be a catalyst for change.
$78 / $69 InSight Members
Early bird: $75 / $66 InSight Members for bookings before Sunday 12 Jul Tickets through Eventbrite
LEANNE THOMPSON Sound line for compos mentis
WORLD EMBROIDERY DAY:
CHRISTMAS IN JULY
Thursday 30 Jul 10 am – 2 pm
Celebrate World Embroidery Day and cosy up at the Cultural Centre for Christmas in July. Join us for a festive, hands-on, drop-in workshop with our friends from the Blue Mountains Embroiderers’ Group (BMEG) and stitch your own beautiful Christmas tree.
Free, drop-in to the Seminar Room
DRAWING FROM THE DOBELL WITH PAM VAUGHAN
Saturday 24 & Sunday 25 Oct 10 am – 3.30 pm
Developed in connection with the 24th Dobell Drawing Prize, this workshop offers an encounter with drawing as a responsive, playful and exploratory practice. Using pencil, charcoal, chalk pastels, ink, collage and paint, participants move between observational, experimental and abstract approaches, with an emphasis on staying in contact with the drawing as it develops rather than moving too quickly to resolution or fixed outcomes.
$260 / $230 InSight Members
Early bird: $250 / $220 InSight Members for bookings before Saturday 26 Sep Tickets through Eventbrite
Samples made by Blue Mountains Embroiderers’ Group
PAM VAUGHAN untitled, digitally modified sections of ink on paper drawing, 2026
UNWIND, RECHARGE AND TREAT YOURSELF
Nestled within the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, the Gallery Café offers a warm and inviting space to pause, connect and enjoy exceptional local flavours, especially during these cooler months. Recently refreshed with a new look and updated menu, the café delivers a contemporary experience that shines a spotlight on quality and locally produced products.
The menu features a range of beautifully handcrafted toasties made on delicious Sonoma sourdough. Designed by the café’s talented in - house team, the toastie range offers comforting classics such as ham and cheese, and seasonal favourites like honey-roasted pumpkin and halloumi with house-made chilli jam.
Sweet treats take center stage thanks to offerings from local bakers, Sublime Cakes and Postmistress from nearby Little Hartley, offering beautifully made slices, biscuits and cakes. These are complimented by seasonal in-house baked items and flaky Sonoma pastries.
Coffee lovers are well catered for with Little Coffee Co. coffee, roasted in the Blue Mountains and brewed to highlight its smooth, well - balanced character. A carefully selected range of drinks complements the menu, making the Gallery Café an ideal stop whether you’re visiting an exhibition, meeting friends or looking for visitor information on the region from our reception desk.
Catering packages are also available, providing a delicious and convenient option for meetings, events and group gatherings. The Gallery Café is a celebration of local makers and relaxed mountain hospitality.
We are one of the Blue Mountains premier facilities for functions and events. Whether you’re looking for a space for 2 or 100, we’re sure to have the ideal space for your needs. Visit the venue hire page on our website for more information.
VENUE HIRE AT THE BLUE MOUNTAINS CULTURAL CENTRE
Photo: Maja Baska
MS. CHIEF DESIGNS
A new stockist in the Gallery Shop, Ms. Chief Designs features a range of textile homewares that will elevate your home.
These beautiful designs are by local artist Ida Jaros, who began her creative journey as an exhibiting Visual Artist, primarily in the fields of graphic design and photography. Ida’s most recent exhibition Shifting Screens, a collaboration with Dr. Bette Mifsud was exhibited here at the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre in 2023. Utilising her skills from these varied career pursuits has culminated in the conception and development of Ms. Chief Designs.
Ms. Chief Designs allows Ida to combine her love of nature and stunning imagery which lends itself perfectly to the creation of luxurious fabric products. The resulting designs feature on cushions, table runners, upholstery fabrics and on an ever increasing array of products.
The Australian landscape, in particular its unique flora, offers inexhaustible inspirations for her designs. Ida’s home in the beautiful township of Leura in the Blue Mountains is, therefore, the perfect place for her imagination to be fueled and sustained.
Recently joining forces with Justin de Knock whose expertise in marketing, video, web and graphics is the perfect partnership to fuel the growth of this small local creative business.
Both Ida and Justin are enthusiastic supporters of Made in Australia, utilising the skills and knowledge offered by other local businesses. Ms. Chief Design products, are printed, sewn and crafted right here, from the foothills to the summit of our Blue Mountains.
We have $30, $50 & $100 Gift Vouchers available for purchase. A wonderful gift for those who like to shop locally or appreciate the unique range that can be found in our Gallery Shop. Visit Reception at the Cultural Centre to purchase.
Images right: Courtesy Ms Chief Designs
MTNS MADE SALON
Friday 24 Jul, 5 – 7 pm Café 2773, Glenbrook
We look forward to meeting more lower mountains creatives. Spread the word! Join Hannah & Kevina to network and make connections. Check more upcoming Salon and event dates via their insta @mtnsmade or website: mtnsmade.com.au
HUBBUB
Saturday 29 Aug, from 8:30 am Blue Mountains Theatre, Springwood
HUBBUB sees Springwood Library, Braemar House and Blue Mountains Theatre + Community Hub joining together for a day filled with free activities, workshops, exhibitions, artisan markets and a Book Week parade in celebration of community and creativity.
Free event
BLUE MOUNTAINS THEATRE PRESENTS LITTLE WING PUPPETS
A LITTLE BIT OF BLUE
Wednesday 7 Oct, 10 am Blue Mountains Theatre, Springwood
An interactive environmental detective story, told with puppetry. As well as unravelling a mystery, it involves learning about the unique habits of an extraordinary Australian animal, the Satin Bowerbird.
Tickets $22 – $26
Hubbub. Photo: Maja Baska
A Little Bit of Blue. Photo: Jeremy Lavender
MTNS MADE Salon. Photo: Ona Janzen
HUB DAY OUT
Wednesday 7 Oct, 11 am – 2 pm Blue Mountains Theatre, Springwood
Hub Day Out brings the community together for free, low-stress, and creative school holiday activities. A welcoming space for young people and their families, the event features local organisations hosting games, crafts, and imagination-led play. Guided by friendly staff, attendees can also enjoy music, free food and drinks, and a dedicated chillout space to relax, connect, and be inspired.
Free event
Hub Picnic Day. Photo: Maja Baska
BRAEMAR CREATIVE PROJECTS RESIDENCY
This residency offers artists and creatives with the space and time to create and share new ideas. It will provide access to a room at Braemar House at a subsidised rate, with opportunities for support around performances, public programs or other outcomes. Expressions of interest are open on an on-going basis.
RECREATE ARTIST RESIDENCY
This residency welcomes artists to Katoomba Waste Management and Resource Recovery Facility with access to a dedicated maker space for up to three months and the chance to develop a project using or inspired by green waste, e-waste and cardboard.
PROPEL: PERFORMANCE PATHWAYS
Propel is returning to Wentworth Falls School of Arts! Open to theatre makers, dancers, musicians and experimental performance artists, the residency provides space to create, rehearse and perform. Residents can also connect with mentors and seek additional support to help them hone their craft and propel their art practice to the next level.
Get in touch to learn more about these opportunities via email: culturaldevelopment@bmcc.nsw.gov.au
Pompom Picnic outside Braemar House at Hubbub 2024.
Em Yali at Katoomba Waste Facility for their 2024 residency.
Photo: Maja Baska
Robert Frost performing Resonant Frequency Scanning at the Festival of New Work at the Blue Mountains Theatre in 2024.
Photo: Maja Baska
BRAEMAR HOUSE & GALLERY, SPRINGWOOD
Treasured heritage building, Braemar House, continues to be home to Braemar Gallery, a community gallery that presents regular exhibitions from local visual artists thanks to a team of dedicated volunteers, while the Public Sculpture Garden is always open on the lawns of Braemar House for everyone to enjoy. Exhibition opening events are held on the first Saturday of each new exhibition.
The annual Braemar Gallery exhibition open call will run from August to September. For updates, follow Braemar on socials or register online for the monthly enewsletter.
104 Macquarie Rd, Springwood
Free admission
Thu to Sun 10 am – 4 pm
For volunteers enquiries, email braemargallery@gmail.com
BRAEMAR GALLERY OPENINGS
Saturday 1 Aug, 2 pm
2026 Braemar Gallery
Volunteer Exhibition
TAFE NSW Katoomba CampusStudent Works
Saturday 5 Sep, 2 pm
Where Spirits Soar Owen Thompson
When I go under Emma Donlevy Bees, blooms and blue James Gordon
Saturday 10 Oct, 2 pm
The Great Western Highway Commute
Julie Scifo
A Tender Archaeology: Returning to Memory Marnie Tomczyk
Drawn to Nature Kerrie Lander, Annette Macrae and Carol McCabe
KERRIE LANDER King Protea 2025, watercolour, 24 x 29 cm
Become an InSight Member today and join our community of art lovers. By becoming an InSight Member you will receive invitations to exclusive events at discounted rates, gain insider knowledge into the Cultural Centre Fine Art Collection and are supporting us in continuing to deliver a dynamic exhibition program.
INSIGHT MEMBERSHIP PLANS:
Individual Adult: $50
Duo (2 adults): $70
Concession: $40
Young InSight (16-25 year olds): free Individual Patron: $200
Business: $250
*Each InSight Member will be allocated 10 passes to bring a guest with them to the Members Lounge.
Members Lounge opening hours: Monday – Friday: 9 am – 5 pm only, subject to availability. Please sign in at Reception upon arrival.
10% DISCOUNT at the Gallery Shop and Café
DISCOUNTS on Cultural Centre public programs
ACCESS to InSight Members Lounge
LIMITED guest passes for visits to Members Lounge*
INVITATIONS to exhibition previews and exclusive events
SUBSCRIPTION to InSight Magazine, delivered three times a year
PRIORITY booking for selected programs and Blue Mountains Theatre presented shows
From 1 Jul 2026
We thank the dedicated volunteers at Blue Mountains Cultural Centre who provide valuable support to staff and visitors.
OPENING HOURS:
Monday – Friday: 9 am – 5 pm
Saturday + Sunday: 9 am – 4 pm
Public holidays: 9 am – 4 pm
(Closed Good Friday, ANZAC Day and Xmas Day)
GALLERY CAFÉ:
Monday – Friday: 9 am – 3.30 pm
Saturday + Sunday: 9 am – 3 pm
LOCATION:
Level 1, 30 Parke St Katoomba 02 4780 5410
bluemountainsculturalcentre.com.au
Unbound
Day Out at Blue Mountains
Teachers workshop 24th Dobell
