Inaugural show at Ngununggula Regional Gallery opens at Retford Park Bowral

Australian artist and founder of Ngununggula - Ben Quilty - believes the gallery is the “last piece of the puzzle” for the Southern Highlands cultural scene.

It’s been five long years in the making but the team behind the Southern Highlands first regional gallery says it was worth the wait.

Ngununggula, which means ‘belonging’ in the language of the Gundungurra First Nation people, was first imagined when celebrated Australian artist Ben Quilty moved to the Southern Highlands.

“I was really confronted by the fact there was no gallery here, no proper serious indoor music auditorium, no big theatre. It was all community run projects,” he said.

Mr Quilty said the lack of local cultural facilities prompted him to found Ngununggula for the benefit of the community, particularly the youth who were being deprived of exposure to art and different ideas.

“(Ngununggula is) not just kids who are going to be artists, it’s for all of them to be more creative,” he said.

Artist Ben Quilty founded Ngununggula Regional Gallery in the Southern Highlands to ensure equitable access to art. Picture: Adelaide Lang

The gallery will work closely with 42 schools in the Southern Highlands to ensure local children have access to cultural experiences and the opportunity to broaden their minds.

“This will be the first time that they’ll have a gallery at this scale in their own backyard and they don’t have to travel anywhere else for it,” Megan Monte, Ngununggula director, said.

Ms Monte said the team behind the Southern Highlands regional gallery has worked tirelessly to highlight the abundance of talent and imagination in the area.

“The Southern Highlands already has such a vibrant creative community and through Ngununggula, we aim to add to this and create a centre of arts and culture in the region available to everyone,” she said.

Both Ms Monte and Mr Quilty emphasised the gallery had been made possible by the myriad community arts organisations.

Mr Quilty said he hoped Ngununggula would create a platform to inspire community theatres and galleries and provide them leverage “to have a bigger voice”.

“I see this as the last piece of the puzzle in the Southern Highlands to really give all those community organisations who have struggled and strived – and succeeded – for so long, to actually give them that lynchpin,” he said.

Artists Ben Quilty and John Olsen (whose work will be exhibited in 2022) at the site of Ngununggula in September 2018. Picture: Simon Bullard

The inaugural exhibition at Ngununggula is a multi-sensory collection created by Australian artist Tamara Dean, who was formerly a media photographer, covering warzones and the traumatic 2004 tsunami.

Dean’s exhibition High Jinks in the Hydrangeas is a deeply personal exploration of nature and isolation, juxtaposing the beauty of the Southern Highlands gardens with a moody meditation on the trials of the last year.

“This show was made in the shadow and the smoke of the bushfires and coming up as a respite into the Southern Highlands to photograph some very extraordinary and beautiful gardens,” Mr Quilty said.

“It’s very poignant for the gallery to have that.”

Tamara Dean’s The ruin of the Garden of Eden (2021) installation.

Tamara Dean's There is something in the air (2021) installation.

The next exhibition will be The Dingo Project, an examination of the “human animal interchange” curated by Djon Mundine and showcasing some of Australia’s most important artists.

Ms Monte said Mr Mundine “is renowned for really pushing the barriers”, which made him the ideal artist for Ngununggula.

Mr Mundine told The Bowral News he would be spending a length of time in a room with a dingo in order to bond with the animal, and the exhibition itself will begin with a flock of 20 white sheep in the gallery admiring the art.

The project encapsulates the unbridled creativity Ngununggula aims to share with the Southern Highlands community, Ms Monte said.

“We’re really looking at the spectrum of what art is and what ideas are when it comes to art making now and historically,” she said.

Over the next year the gallery will feature some of Australia’s most significant artists and showcase unique artistic collaborations, including a highly-anticipated show by Ken Done and Rosie Deacon from August 6 to October 9 2022.

Director Megan Monte and assistant director Milena Stojanovska outside Ngununggula Gallery. Picture: Adelaide Lang

NSW Arts Ministers Don Harwin said he was proud the state government’s Regional Culture Fund could help facilitate the gallery’s opening.

“With its beautiful setting, cultural heritage, and magnificent exhibitions Ngununggula will be a drawcard delivering significant economic benefits to the Southern Highlands through employment and tourism,” he said.

Ms Monte said the gallery had big plans to capitalise on its potential by holding a number of community events and discussions, including evening performances. The gallery currently has two staff, six casual gallery assistants and 20 volunteers, although Ms Monte suggests nearly three times the amount of volunteers will be needed.

For hungry art-lovers, a cafe run by beloved local eatery Moonacres Kitchen is slated to open in mid-November, if all goes to plan.

The gallery will open to the public on October 12 to entertain, educate and inspire. It will remain free to enter so it can be enjoyed by all.

Ngununggula Regional Gallery is located at 1 Art Gallery Lane in Bowral.