Lismore celebrates with sister city

AN exhibition celebrating the sister city agreement between Lismore and a Japanese city will open at Lismore City Library next week.

Lismore Librarian Lucy Kinsley with Japanaese prints featuring in the HeART and Peace exhibition. Picture: Cathy Adams

AN exhibition celebrating the sister city agreement between Lismore and a Japan's Yamato Takada will open at Lismore City Library next week with its peaceful mission to spread awareness and healing.

HeART and Peace, an exhibition on the theme of peace, will be celebrating 50 years of the sister city agreement between Lismore and Yamato Takada, Japan, which was the first of its kind in Australia.

The exhibition will open on August 6, Hiroshima Day, a commemoration of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, that occurred in 1945.

HeART and Peace features works by local artists which aim to promote peace, with works ranging from paintings with different fabrics, ceramics and sculptures.

One of these works is an eye-catching painting by Naomi Mikkelsel called Imagine Peace which was awarded first prize in the inaugural Eni Baltruweit Peace Art Prize last week.

The Lismore City Library has had a connection with Japan for a long time thanks to the sister city agreement, librarian Lucy Kinsley said.

"We're enjoying this relationship and we'd like to keep it up," Mrs Kinsley said.

She said it was important to them to maintain the bond, and their way of doing that was through their exhibitions, art displays, and donations of artworks to each other over the years.

The opening day of HeART and Peace will see an afternoon packed full of events: There will be free workshops with local Japanese-born artists from 2.30pm, where you can learn Japanese calligraphy and origami.