Residencies
One of The Studio platform offerings is artist residencies. The Ironbark Arts Residency is our most current offering, run in October each year. Studio Co!Lab members get notification of the residency when it opens with applications by EOI.
Ironbark Arts Residency
A partnership between Orana Arts, Stuart Town Advancement Association and Dubbo Regional Council
The Ironbark Arts Residency has been part of Orana Arts’ offering to regional artists since 2021. The home of the residency is the historic Railway Hotel, in Stuart Town, now available as artist accommodation. It’s a beautiful old building just down the street from the railway station on the rail line from Sydney through to Dubbo
Between 2021 - 2024, 10 artists have been part of four Ironbark Arts Residency rounds, each 6 days/5 nights.
Stuart Town is in the Dubbo Regional Local Government area. The Railway Hotel is owned by Dubbo Regional Council and managed by the STAA.
WATCH THIS SPACE FOR OUR 2025 RESIDENCY LATER THIS YEAR.
Find out what makes the Ironbark Arts Residency so special
2024 Ironbark Artists in Residence: Mick Davis (Dubbo), Susan Yaghjian (Dubbo) and Sarah Randall (Orange).
2021 Ironbark Artists in Residence: Linda Chant (Cowra), Inel Date (Cowra) with local Stuart Town artist, Tim Winters.
Signage on the Railway Hotel, Stuart Town
Nicola Mason (Napoleon Reef), Alicia Leggett (Orana Arts), Therese Gabriel Wilkins (Central Coast), March 2023
Nic Mason, in-residency artist talk, March 2023
Therese Gabriel Wilkins with members of the STAA, March 2023
Alicia Legget, Executive Director, Orana Arts at the Ironbark Arts Residency artist talks, March 2023
Tom Williamson, STAA, March 2023
Therese Gabriel Wilkins talking about her work at the residency, March 2023
Nic Mason in the Railway Hotel during the Ironbark Arts Residency, March 2023
Danja Derkenne (Little Fores), October 2023
Danja's found objects, October 2023
Tina Pech (Baradine), October 2023
Tina's work samples, October 2023
Jason Richardson (Leeton), October 2023
Jason's zine work from the residency, October 2023
Alicia Leggett (Orana Arts), Tina Pech (Baradine), Jason Richardson (Leeton), Danja Derkenne (Little Forest), and Amanda Donohue (Orana Arts), October 2023
Alicia Leggett (Orana Arts), Susan Yaghjian (Dubbo), Cr Jen Cowley OAM (Dubbo Regional Council), Sarah Randall (Orange), Mick Davis (Dubbo), October 2024
Mick Davis talking about his work at the residency artist talks, October 2024
Sarah Randall talking about her painting during the residency, October 2024
Sarah's painting table, October 2024
Susan Yaghjian talking about her work during the residency, October 2024
Susan's found objects, October 2024
From the Artists-in-Residence
“The residency was really wonderful and it afforded the opportunity do all the things I thought would be possible thanks to the tour, insights from other artists and folk in the town. It certainly provided the stimulus for a new venture writing some poetry and performing the presentation—my first foray into combining the visual and performance.”
— Therese Gabriel Wilkins, March 2023
“ I had a great experience with the welcome, hospitality, tour, structure and opportunity to stay, create and share in The Railway Hotel. It was also great sharing this time with Therese. I felt very enlivened and had a great creative time.”
— Nicola Mason, March 2023
Ironbark artists in conversation
Nicola Mason and Therese Gabriel Wilkins talk about the layers of history and connections made while on residency together in Stuart Town on the Ironbark Arts Residency. Nic and Therese are both Studio Co!Lab members but they had never met before spending a week together in March 2023. They talk about how they made the most of the historic location, the small community there, and their time with each other. Moderated by Alicia Leggett.
THE RESIDENCY ARCHIVES
2021 - 2024
Regional Futures Residencies and Exhibitions
What does the future hold for our regions?
A creative conversation led by artists
Regional Futures was a state-wide program of creative development and conversations that places artists at the centre of a dialogue exploring a future vision for the place where they live and create.
Orana Arts and Arts Mid North Coast had a cross-region conversation about what the future holds for the regions. Dubbo Regional Council was also a partner in the project, commissioning one of the four artists.
Artists from across regional NSW were commissioned to develop creative responses to the prompt about the future. Each artist undertook a self-directed residency. The artists in our cross-region conversation took the prompt one step further to consider a post-carbon world. The artists: Allison Reynolds (Coonabarabran), Kit Kelen (Bulahdelah), Ronnie Grammatica (Crescent Head) and Kim V. Goldsmith (Dubbo). FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE ARTISTS
What the Regional Futures artists had to say
Co!Lab@CORRIDOR AIR
2022 Co!Lab@CORRIDOR AIR artists in conversation
Studio Co!Lab members, Jason Richardson (Leeton), Inel Date and Shani Nottingham (both of Cowra) spent 5 days together at Cowra in 2022 as recipients of the Co!Lab@CORRIDOR AIR program, a partnership with the CORRIDOR project.
They arrived on site with no set idea of what their short, intensive time together would create other than it was expected there be an exchange between them, if not a collaboration. In this Studio Co!Lab Talk they discuss with fellow artist and Orana Arts team member, Kim V. Goldsmith, how they prepared and approached this residency, what needs to be considered when spending time in the company of other creatives, the collaborative generation of ideas, and how to still find your own path in an intensive collaborative environment.
This is an edited version of a 1-hour Residency series talk recorded on 14 June 2023.
2021 Co!Lab@CORRIDOR AIR artists: Stephan de Wit van der Merwe and Anna Glynn (with creative collaborator, Peter Dalmazzo)
2022 Co!Lab@CORRIDOR AIR artists: Jason Richardson, Inel Date and Shani Nottingham (image courtesy the CORRIDOR project)
The Co!Lab@CORRIDOR Artist-in-Residence was a partnership between Orana Arts’ Studio Co!Lab and the CORRIDOR project. The 2021 program was the first residency offering under this three-year partnership. Each year, a short residency is offered to a visual artist, performing artist and writer who is a member of Orana Arts’ Studio Co!Lab. The 2022 artists recently completed their stay on site.
Artists are selected for this paid residency by a panel through an EOI process. Chosen artists get to engage with tCp’s Creative Producer and, when appropriate, with other professional artists during their tCp residency. The Program supports peer-to-peer mentoring and enable connections with professional bodies, galleries and funding organisations.
2022 Co!Lab@CORRIDOR AIR artists
JASON: I didn't realise how much I needed the nurture in nature that was afforded to me and am grateful for the opportunity to discuss practices.There's now an optimism that our time together will translate into future opportunities in the region and beyond.
INEL: An intense, immersive experience in a spectacular setting. Thank you to my fellow artists for being such great companions in this creative space.
SHANI: A week of exploring ideas, thinking of process, playing with the thoughts in my head, reading, connecting to creativity, looking to future projects, finding inspiration. It is a magical place, with a special energy that pervades it...Very grateful for this time, space and opportunity.
2021 Co!Lab@CORRIDOR AIR artists
Co!Lab@CORRIDOR AIR performing arts residency, 2021
Stephan de Wit van der Merwe has been working on a new audio/visual production called “My conversation with Lichen and the Stars”, that came from an unrelated residency undertaken at the CORRIDOR project in 2020. He was also successful in gaining an Arts Restart grant through Orana Arts for part of this project. His new work has been selected for an Orange Regional Gallery exhibition in 2022. During his week-long residency in November, Stephan worked on further developing the exhibition component of the project in the form of a performance work that is site-specific to the Corridor project.
Co!Lab@CORRIDOR AIR visual arts residency, 2021
Anna Glynn and her creative collaborator and partner, Peter Dalmazzo, have undertaken many residencies across Australia and overseas. Each residency offers the opportunity to learn something new about the environment and catch glimpses of what makes a particular place special. They talk about their process for working together on a residency and where this work might lead.
Inscribe writing program + residency
In 2021, five writers from across Regional NSW came together with mentor Roanna Gonsalves to craft prose around the theme of Centres & Peripheries. After several months and an on-site residency at the CORRIDOR project, near Cowra, they each produced a short story published by Orana Arts in a limited edition book. The writers were Sam Leah (Gelston Park near Wagga Wagga), Val Clark (Dubbo), Rob Salt (Dubbo), Catherine Moffat (Lake Munmorah) and Helen Pastor (Armidale).
Each story in the book was illustrated by a regional writer. They were Vicki Luke (Albury), Darren Blanch (Wellington), Amanda Donohue (Lake Macquarie), Shani Nottingham (Cowra) and Lachlan Naef (Dubbo). All the writers and illustrators are members of Orana Arts’ Studio Co!Lab.
Two versions of Centres & Peripheries were produced — one a hand-bound, hand-covered version created by Tina Pech (Baradine), gifted to each writer. The second, a softcover version available for purchase through our Shop. The book was launched in Wellington on 24 March 2022. The photos below are from the launch.
This project was proudly supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW, with support from Writing NSW.
