Colours of the Country III: The Alice Springs Beanie Festival has just opened at Wagga Art Gallery.

This collection of beanies, drawn from the Alice Springs Beanie Festival, demonstrates the growth of the beanie as an art form over the years and the imagination, creativity and fine craftsmanship presented in each piece.

Colours of the Country is an exhibition that is always embraced by a broad cross section of the community.

The collection will inspire audiences to laugh, don crazy headwear and bring out those knitting needles all over again and the exhibition will be here until Sunday, July 12.

To join in, come along to our special Bling Your Beanie event, for a festival of tassel-making, pom-pom construction, and a whole barrel of other techniques.

Bling Your Beanie will take place on Saturday, June 13, from 10am to 2pm – it’s a free event, but bring your own beanie to take part.

Symposium: Loss, reverence and longing

IN CONJUCTION with the national commemoration of the centenary of Anzac, Wagga Art Gallery has proudly presented the exhibition Loss, reverence and longing: Anzac stories from the Home Front, in partnership with the Pioneer Women’s Hut and Charles Sturt University.

To celebrate the heartfelt community response that has been received by this exhibition, the gallery will present the Loss, reverence and longing symposium on Saturday, May 30, at 12.30pm.

Loss, reverence and longing includes unique and cherished quilts and other domestic artefacts of rural working families’ lives from the Anzac era selected from the Pioneer Women’s Hut collection, together with a diverse range of contemporary art works created by significant regional Australian artists in response to these items and heritage.

The 16 invited artists of national and international standing and varied backgrounds and practices, are Casey Ankers, David Burraston, Veronica Cay, David Gilbey, David Green, Scott Howie, Sarah and Vic McEwan, Chris Mullins, Chris Orchard, Adele Packer, Shona Pratt, Jacob Raupach, Lorraine Tye, Kath Withers and Helen Wood.

The exhibition was co-curated by Linda Elliott and Julie Montgarrett.

The Loss, reverence and longing symposium will provide an opportunity for visitors, friends and family to explore both the stories behind the works on display, and the meanings and the ideas that they evoke.

Like the exhibition itself, the symposium will highlight the importance of re-contextualising contemporary ideas surrounding the Anzac legacy.