Hervey Bay Regional Gallery - 2024-2025 Year in Review

2024-2025

Year in Review

Bay Regional Gallery

Fraser Coast Regional Council

INTRODUCTION

Hervey Bay Regional Gallery (HBRG) re-opened in April 2022, and in just three years has made ambitious strides towards achieving the goals set out in the 2022–2026 Strategic Plan. The gallery has quickly established a reputation as an emerging regional arts destination, with thought-provoking exhibitions, engaging public programs, and strong community partnerships.

We are proud to present the 2024–2025 Year in Review, the first to chart a full year of the gallery’s programming. This year we continued to offer a dynamic program of exhibitions celebrating leading local artists alongside high-profile national artists, always reflecting stories and conversations pertinent to our context on Butchulla Country.

This year began in June 2024 with a local favourite—the Hervey Bay Art Society’s 40 th Annual Competitive Art Exhibition, followed by the inaugural Regional Spotlight program, platforming the diverse work of artists across the Wide BayBurnett region. Brisbane-based artist Phoebe Paradise’s immersive exhibition ‘Burbs to the Bay put a new spin on the familiar ‘Queenslander’ architecture, and a mural produced with local artists continues to offer a warm welcome to gallery visitors.

The 2024-2025 year also included curated thematic exhibitions that drew on our historical, environmental, and social context, sparking conversation, recognition, and reflection for visitors. Forest to Fibre told a multi-vocal story of the timber industry on the Fraser Coast, including Butchulla perspectives and cutting-edge local innovations in wastewater treatment and timber processing.

Picturing the End brought together leading contemporary artists from across the country to ponder our enduring fascination with apocalyptic narratives in art. Presented alongside Picturing the End , Burmese and Butchulla artist Mia Boe’s exhibition Guwinganj also looked to the future, drawing on ideas from science fiction to imagine how AI (or Aboriginal Intelligence) may help save the planet.

We commenced 2025 with a suite of solo exhibitions by women artists with a connection to the Fraser Coast; Emma Thorp, Joyce Watson and Natalie Lavelle. Through very different aesthetic and material approaches these inspiring local artists demonstrated the diversity of creative practice from the region.

In late February we officially launched our collaboration with the National Gallery of Australia, National Interests: Australian Art in the 20 th Century , part of the NGA’s Sharing the National Collection initiative. This exhibition, on long-term display until

2027, gives local audiences the opportunity to see works by some of the most prominent names in Australian art history—from Arthur Boyd, to Sidney Nolan, to Margaret Preston—curated alongside pieces from the HBRG Collection.

Local audiences and visitors were also treated to high quality touring exhibitions by leading Queensland artists: Joe Furlonger’s Horizons , toured by the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, and an exhibition of the late Torres Strait Islander printmaker Billy Missi, developed by NorthSite Contemporary Arts with Gab Titui Cultural Centre/Torres Strait Regional Authority and Museums & Galleries Queensland.

Our engagement team continued to provide accessible and inclusive opportunities for visitors of all walks of life to engage with contemporary art. Drop-in children’s activities accompanied every exhibition, proving popular as free family-friendly entertainment, while targeted teacher networking and professional development programs deepened connections with local educators.

The HBRG team is proud to share this report, which celebrates the year’s achievements and reflects our vision of being a place of significant and meaningful community connection through storytelling.

Sarah Thomson Director, Hervey Bay Regional Gallery

Vision

Hervey Bay Regional Gallery will become a place of significant and meaningful community connection through storytelling

Mission

Hervey Bay Regional Gallery connects communities through ideas, arts, place, history and culture

Objectives

1 2 3 4 5

Hervey Bay Regional Gallery will become a place of consequence known for excellence across its operations by 2026.

By 2026, storytelling will become a foundational value in how we connect to community.

We commit to the values of learning, sharing and connecting as a pathway to meaningful relationships with Butchulla (Badtjala) people.

We will build, maintain and share a Fine Art Collection of State significance.

We will engage with our diverse communities and stakeholders to promote a sustainable creative economy.

12,000

visitors

1 July 2024 - 30 June 2025

13 exhibitions

181 artists exhibited

48 public programs

43 school & group visits 85% local artists 85% original HBRG-curated content

9.3 visitor satisfaction score 57% had never visited the gallery before

VISITORS MOST VALUE

Being

Hervey Bay Regional Gallery will become a place of consequence known for excellence in its operations

Phoebe Paradise: ‘Burbs to the Bay

21 September - 17 November 2024

Known for her brightly coloured illustrations, murals and public art installations, Phoebe Paradise’s work examines the often-overlooked charm of the suburban and mundane.

‘Burbs to the Bay presented a surreal reimagining of South East Queensland suburbia filled with technicolour streetscapes and twisted architecture. In this sweaty, twilight world the iconography and aesthetic of subtropic Queensland was brought to life.

Evoking a fever dream of endless summer heat and chirping cicadas, ‘Burbs to the Bay created a sense of both wonder and unease, enchanting local and visiting audiences.

‘Burbs from the Bay built upon Sunburnt in the suburbs , an exhibition developed by City of Moreton Bay at Pine Rivers Art Gallery in 2022, and included a newly commissioned mural for the HBRG foyer, The Hunters (2024). Paradise was assisted by two local artists, Halle Bryant and Matthew Graveson, who undertook a mentorship with the artist to learn mural production skills.

The Hunters was supported by the Regional Arts Development Fund, a partnership between the Queensland Government and Fraser Coast Regional Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.

Hervey Bay Regional Gallery will become a place of consequence known for excellence in its operations

Natalie Lavelle: In the Making

1 March - 11 May 2025

Raised in Hervey Bay, In the Making was Natalie Lavelle’s first major exhibition on the Fraser Coast and the first survey of her practice to date.

The exhibition captured her evolving artistic practice, bringing together early experiments in abstraction and colour field painting with large scale monochromes and new works that expanded into spatial installation. This exhibition distilled Lavelle’s interest in the formal language of painting, using colour, form and texture to create a meditative space for the viewer.

HBRG commissioned three new essays from emerging writers about Lavelle’s practice and public programs included a reading group on abstract art with Sunshine Coast-based artist Petalia Humphries.

In the Making epitomised HBRG’s focus on identifying and platforming up-and-coming Queensland artists at pivotal moments in their careers through ambitious survey exhibitions.

Hervey Bay Regional Gallery will become a place of consequence known for excellence in its operations

Picturing the End

6 December 2024 - 16 February 2025

Picturing the End presented works from significant artists locally, across Australia and abroad—alongside a curated cinema program—to reflect on our enduring fascination with humanity’s downfall.

Artists in Picturing the End met narratives of decline and doom head-on. Reflecting on, subverting and remixing how we collectively imagine “The End”, these artworks compelled us to dwell on the difficult and ominous without the hyperbole and righteousness of doom and gloom.

Picturing the End offered gallery audiences the opportunity to engage with thought-provoking and intellectual rigorous works by leading contemporary artists including Tiyan Baker, Joseph Breikers, Michael Cook, KC Green, Kinly Grey, Guy Louden, Dana Lawrie, Tracey Moffatt, and Grant Stevens.

The exhibition was complimented by a film screening program including classic films and little-known experimental and indie releases, providing a curated cinema experience for gallery visitors.

Hervey Bay Regional Gallery will become a place of consequence known for excellence in its operations

Joe Furlonger: Horizons

24 May - 3 August 2025

Joe Furlonger: Horizons was a touring exhibition developed by the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art. One of Australia’s most respected landscape painters, Joe Furlonger came to prominence in the late 1980s with a series of large-scale figurative paintings.

Employing a highly physical method, he applied swathes of colour with vigorous sweeps of the brush drawing inspiration from Matisse, Picasso, and Ian Fairweather. Drawn from the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) Collection, Joe Furlonger: Horizons traced the artist’s career through a range of media from painting ceramics, sculpture, and drawing.

Joe Furlonger visited the region to launch the exhibition, treating local audiences to an intimate conversation about his practice with QAGOMA’s Simon Wright, and hosting a plein air painting workshop with local creatives.

Storytelling will become a foundational value in how we connect to community

Joyce Watson: Family and Country, many people’s stories

1 March - 11 May 2025

In Family and Country, many people’s stories , Aunty Joyce Watson explored her ancestral connection to Waanyi Country in North West Queensland through stories of endurance and connection.

Watson’s work across textiles, sculpture, bronzes, drawing and printmaking drew on the artist’s matrilineal history, reflecting on the power of storytelling in the continuation of cultural knowledge across generations.

This exhibition brought together new and existing works with an installation of significant artworks and objects from the artist’s extended family.

Family and Country, many people’s stories was warmly received by the community and was a chance to celebrate a lifetime of generous creative practice by a senior local artist.

Storytelling will become a foundational value in how we connect to community

Forest to Fibre: FCRC Hardwood Plantations

21 September - 17 November 2024

Featuring research from the University of Queensland with loans from the State Library of Queensland’s exhibition Purpose Built, Architecture for a better tomorrow ; the Forest to Fibre project presented cutting edge research into sustainable timber processing and design alongside local stories, artworks and histories.

In 1991 the then Hervey Bay City Council became a world-leader in sustainable wastewater treatment by establishing their first effluent irrigated native hardwood timber plantation. By 2024 these innovative plantations diverted 2.5 billion litres each year of effluent wastewater from our oceans and into Fraser Coast Regional Council managed agroforestry.

A key asset for the Fraser Coast community, Council’s effluent irrigated plantations combine carbon sequestration and a reduction of ocean pollution with the long-term value of sustainable agroforestry.

The exhibition was made possible through Council, industry and educational partnerships, including FCRC’s Water Reuse team, the UQ School of Architecture and Timber Queensland. Forest to Fibre included a series of new video interviews with key timber industry, architecture and Butchulla voices, brought together for the first time to tell the history of timber on the Fraser Coast.

Storytelling will become a foundational value in how we connect to community

Emma Thorp: The In Between

1 March - 11 May 2025

The In Between was an exploration of the challenges of motherhood as an artist, tackling the complicated desire to carve out time for oneself and art ‘in between’ life’s responsibilities.

Emma Thorp’s practice humorously takes on these daily interactions and mundane tasks and makes them her artistic subject matter, fusing her work as an artist and mother.

Through her signature illustrative style and knack for visual storytelling, Thorp openly shared her experiences of carving out an identity as an artist mother while juggling the priorities of life.

The exhibition featured ambitious new large-scale work by the Hervey Bay artist and included the production of imited edition enamel pins as exhibition merchandise through the gallery shop.

Storytelling will become a foundational value in how we connect to community

Billy Missi’n Wakain Thamai

24 May - 3 August 2025

Billy Missi’n Wakain Thamai , was a profound exhibition honouring the late Torres Strait Islander artist Billy Missi (1970-2012). It brought together the artist’s most significant and iconic prints, including rare and never-before-exhibited monoprints, etchings, and linoprints from Djumbunji Fine Art Press and private collections. Curated by Dr Russell Milledge, this retrospective was developed in close consultation with the Billy Missi Estate, family members and friends, highlighting Missi’s critical role in the emergence of Zendath Kes (Torres Strait) printmaking as a contemporary art form.

The exhibition opening included performances and a cultural talk by Torres Strait Island Elder and community leader Gabriel Bani, connecting deeply with the local Torres Strait Islander community and other local audiences.

Billy Missi’n Wakain Thamai was developed by NorthSite Contemporary Arts (Gimuy/Cairns) and touring Australia in partnership with Gab Titui Cultural Centre/Torres Strait Regional Authority (Waiben/Thursday Island) and Museums & Galleries Queensland. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia program.

We commit to the values of learning, sharing and connecting as a pathway to meaningful relationships with Butchulla (Badtjala) people

Mia Boe: Guwinganj

30 November 2024 - 16 February 2025

In 2024 Hervey Bay Regional Gallery was proud to present Guwinganj, Butchulla and Burmese artist Mia Boe’s first exhibition on Butchulla Country.

‘Guwinganj’ is a Butchulla word for a benevolent spirit: a guiding force from the past that helps to navigate the present. The exhibition explored the role of Indigenous knowledge in addressing the challenges of the future, bringing together recent paintings, including Boe’s science fiction influenced The Aboriginal Robot series, and new cyanotype and video works inspired by her time in the region.

Mia Boe was the 2024 recipient of the Fiona Foley Residency , an invitational biennial artist residency program hosted by Hervey Bay Regional Gallery in conjunction with Dr Fiona Foley.

We commit to the values of learning, sharing and connecting as a pathway to meaningful relationships with Butchulla (Badtjala) people

Zartisha Davis: Shell Middens

In 2025 HBRG was proud to unveil our striking new façade artwork by Butchulla artist Zartisha Davis.

Zartisha Davis was selected to create new vinyl design in collaboration with LeeLee Creative for the entrance of the gallery. The artwork, titled Shell Middens , is part of a wider project which also includes artwork by Butchulla artist Shawn Wondunna-Foley, across the façade of the Brolga Theatre in Maryborough.

Davis’s design celebrates the culturally significant shell middens that once lined the Fraser Coast shores—more than remnants of a diet, they represent gatherings where families came together to share food, stories, and connection.

This project was delivered in partnership with the Butchulla Native Title Aboriginal Corporation and is supported by the Regional Arts Development Fund, a partnership between the Queensland Government and Fraser Coast Regional Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.

We will build, maintain and share

National Interests: Australian Art in the 20th Century

21 September 2024 - February 2027

“Wonderfully displayed works by well known and contemporary artists. Well written explanatory panels. Very good grouping of artworks. Thoroughly enjoyed this remarkable exhibition in a regional galley.”

—Visitor survey response

National Interests marks HBRG’s first collection exhibition, presented in partnership with the National Gallery of Australia.

The exhibition includes works on long term loan from the national collection with support from the Australian Government as part of the Sharing the National Collection initiative.

Featuring works made from 1936 to 1997, each grouping of works of art acts as an entry point into a thread of Australian art history. Considered together, the works in National Interests paint a picture of Australia’s search for a national identity in a rapidly changing cultural landscape.

The exhibition includes works by Joyce Bott, Arthur Boyd, Robert Campbell Jnr., Marc Clark, Ken Done, Maureen Hansen, PJ Hickman, Jan Morgan, Keith Namatjira, Sidney Nolan, Elizabeth Paterson, John Wardell Power, Robert Prenzel, Margaret Preston, and Brett Whiteley.

The exhibition was officially launched, with the arrival of additional works in February 2025, by the Assistant Director of the National Gallery of Australia, Adam Lindsay.

National Interests includes works on long term loan from the National Gallery of Australia with support from the Australian Government as part of Sharing the National Collection. #ArtAcrossAustralia

We will build, maintain and share a Fine Art Collection of State significance

Collections Update

In June 2025 the Arts & Heritage Collection Policy was endorsed by Fraser Coast Regional Council.

Hervey Bay Regional Gallery are the custodians of two collections: the Hervey Bay Regional Gallery Collection —a collection of nationally significant artworks—and the Fraser Coast Regional Council Civic Collection , locally significant items for display across public and civic venues.

The HBRG Collection currently includes works by Fiona Foley, Michael Cook, Anna Louise Richardson, Sidney Nolan, Joe Furlonger, Charles Blackman, Maureen Hansen, Natalie Lavelle, Trent Mitchell and more.

Through acquisitions, donations and our acquisitive national art prize, Girra , HBRG will continue to build, maintain and share a fine art collection of state, and national, significance.

We will engage with our diverse communities and stakeholders to promote a sustainable creative economy

Regional Spotlight

21 September - 17 November 2024

& 31 May - 3 August 2025

In September 2024 Hervey Bay Regional Gallery launched Regional Spotlight , a new initiative to provide exhibition opportunities and mentorship to artists across the Wide Bay-Burnett. Curated through an expressions of interest process, the annual Regional Spotlight exhibition platforms and profiles a diversity of local talent from across the region.

Across two exhibitions in 2024 and 2025 sixteen local artists have had their work exhibited at the gallery. In 2025 HBRG initiated a series of public programs with each exhibiting artist, extending their professional capacity and reaching new audiences, including life drawing, plein air sketching, printmaking activities, paint and sip classes, a reading group and more.

Regional Spotlight will continue as an important component of HBRG’s annual exhibition program.

We will engage with our diverse communities and stakeholders to promote a sustainable creative economy

Hervey Bay Art Society: 40th Anniversary of ACAE

27 July – 8 September 2024

Since 1984 the Hervey Bay Art Society’s Annual Competitive Art Exhibition (ACAE) has been the largest community art competition in the region.

The ACAE allows local, Queensland and interstate artists to come together to share their work. The special anniversary edition at HBRG featured over 140 artworks across six sections including, landscapes and seascapes, abstract artworks, flora and fauna, figurative works and portraits, miniatures, and an open category.

We will engage with our diverse communities and stakeholders to promote a sustainable creative economy

Gallery Shop

The gallery supports a sustainable creative economy through commercial opportunities for local makers. Over $6,500 in commissions have been paid to artists through products sold in the HBRG Gallery Shop in the 2024- 2025 financial year.

The gallery shop is home to products by 24 local artisans alongside a carefully curated selection of gifts, stationery and books. Since 2023, the gallery has partnered with Fraser Coast Regional Libraries to host Lines in the Sand author talks, facilitating book signings and sales.

Partnerships

HBRG has extensive national and local partnerships inclusing with: Hervey Bay Art Society, Moreton Bay Galleries, State Library of Queensland, University of Queensland, Timber Queensland, Hyne Timber, the National Gallery of Australia, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, NorthSite Contemporary Arts, Gab Titui Cultural Centre, and Museums & Galleries Queensland. Other community partnerships and collaborators include: Butchulla Native Title Aboriginal Corporation, Dr. Fiona Foley, PCYC, Hervey Bay Neighbourhood Centre, Youth Justice, and Fraser Coast Regional Council teams including Cultural Services, Water Reuse Team, Community Engagement team and Libraries.

Youth Week Makers Market

As part of Youth Week 2024 HBRG debuted a Youth Makers Market with the aim to platform young designers, artisans and entrepreneurs in the region aged 12 - 25. The market returned for Youth Week 2025 and was an even bigger success, branching out to a secondary market in Maryborough at Gatakers Artspace and featuring live music by teen band Sagnar.

EDUCATION HIGHLIGHT

“An excellent opportunity to engage with First Nation educators in art and have open conversations about topics that I had reservations on. I feel confident about implementing my learning in the classroom and sharing with colleagues.”

—Shanay Manitzky (Aldridge State

School)

National Gallery of Australia (NGA) Educator Training

In March 2025, HBRG welcomed National Gallery of Australia First Nations Educators Maggie Douglas (Kabi Kabi) and Noah Watson (Butchulla & Kuku-Yalanji) to the Fraser Coast for a teachers professional development program, focusing on First Nations art. The workshop invited participants to look at art through culture, empowering them with practical tools to foster a deeper understanding of First Nations arts and cultures in their students.

The program included sessions that engaged with the Sharing the National Collection exhibition National Interests , as well at the Butchulla Seasonal Garden and Aunty Joyce Watson’s exhibition, Family and Country, many people’s stories .

Attendees travelled from as far as Bundaberg and Gympie, situating HBRG as a hub for professional development for educators and artsworkers across our broader region.

This learning program was made possible with the support of the National Gallery of Australia Learning & Digital Patron Tim Fairfax AC.

Visitor comments

“I really enjoyed seeing local artists displayed alongside iconic national artists. Well done Hervey Bay!”

“Hervey Bay gallery is a great asset and we are very lucky to have it.”

“Very unique displays of exceptional quality.... I am a new fan of HBRG”

“Great to hear Badtjala perspectives and experience First Nations art.”

“Beautiful gallery and informative staff who were very generous with their knowledge and time.”

“The exhibitions were great, thought provoking and humorous.”

“It’s so great that HBRG is offering such challenging material alongside more traditional exhibitions it means more groups of people are being catered for. Thanks, it’s awesome!”

“...What a treat for our regional community!”

“A beautiful evocative space with just the right amount of displays - very varied and informative exhibits.”

“Marvellous exhibitions, staff so helpful, facility is such a nice space & shop full of treasure too tempting!”

hbrg.com.au

regionalgallery@frasercoast.qld.gov.au