SIXTY YEARS The Art Collection

The legacy from art collections that have been acquired by universities over many years, bear testimony to the people and the progress of their institutions. In this, the 60th year of the University of Newcastle, we profile four exhibitions drawn from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander works in the University Art Collection.

These works show the breadth of material collected over many years, and through many means, and illustrate the strength of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island collections. In 60 years of collecting, nearly 50 percent  of more than 3,600 items in the University Art Collection, are from First Nations artists and illustrate a wide range  of stylistic diversity that span stories, regions, Nations, and generations.

Songspirals
Selected from our collection, Songspirals has been curated by Yolŋu knowledge holders from Yirrkala. Describing Gurutu and kinship, it is an extensive exhibition that includes a selection of printmaking, barks and larrakitj. The exhibition has been developed through a research collaboration between academics from the University of Newcastle, Macquarie University and community leaders from the North-East Arnhem Region of the Northern Territory.

Natural Purpose
Natural Purpose is a juxtaposition of historical and contemporary cultural pieces such as a woven dilly bag collected in c. 1916 that sits alongside a skin cloak made in 2023 by a PhD candidate that has been donated to the University for Indigenous students to wear at Graduation.

Ampilatwatja
The collection holds many works from the artists of Ampilatwatja, a small community on Aherrenge Country, the land of the Alayawaree people north-east of Mparntwe (Alice Springs). For over twenty-five years the women here have been painting Arreth (strong bush medicine) and connection to Country. This series of works are part of a permanent exhibition in the Health Education Research building on the Callaghan Campus.

Small Sample
A selection of significant paintings from our collection, including the commissioned Sixty Years artwork. These paintings have been gathered for a Small Sample of contemporary Alumni artists whose work speaks to Country, to place, and to family and community. They map connections – ancestral and present, and tell of the earth, rivers, and waterways that intertwine, bringing dayabuyarra murun (life to give).

60TH Artwork:
Renae Lamb (Wongaibon / Wiradujri)
BULAGUY MIRANGGUL (SaltBush) 2024
acrylic paint and coloured pen on canvas
91.5 x 61 cm
Commissioned by the University of Newcastle in recognition of our 60 years of Looking Ahead

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Event Information

• Date:  This exhibition was held from Thursday 15 May 2025 - Saturday 21 June 2025
• Location: Watt Space Gallery