Community art exhibition and competition, Waste 2 Art Broken Hill, is returning for another year, encouraging and engaging people to showcase creative works made from reused and recycled waste materials.
Organised by Broken Hill Art Exchange and Lifeline Broken Hill – Country to Coast, last year’s event received 63 entries featuring in a two-week exhibition where 357 people’s choice votes were cast, and six winners were crowned.
Broken Hill also won five categories at the regional final in Blayney, with six pieces highly commended by the judging panel.
Part of a wider annual event organised across regional NSW Councils by waste advisors NetWaste, Waste 2 Art aims to challenge peoples’ perceptions about rubbish and to celebrate the reuse and recycling of waste through arts and crafts.
“Waste is such an important topic as we create such high volumes of rubbish, and this competition is really inspiring to think about waste differently,” Broken Hill Art Exchange Committee Member, Nadina Benvenisti, told the Barrier Truth.
“The community and judges were wowed by the creativity and different interpretations of the theme, Waste 2 Art,” she said.
Featuring categories for 2D and 3D works/functional objects for primary school, secondary school, community, and professional artists with cash prizes on offer, this year’s Waste 2 Art theme is ‘packaging’, though it’s not essential to use the theme material to enter as any manmade waste product can be used.
“Anyone can create or upcycle rubbish to turn trash into treasure and that’s what’s so special about this program, it’s inclusive and anyone can enter. There were some really touching personal stories from participants in the 2023 program who got so much enjoyment from the creative process,” Ms Benvenisti said.
Entrants for Waste 2 Art Broken Hill need to live in the Broken Hill or Central Darling Shire regions and have until Sunday May 12 to register, and until Friday May 24 to create artworks.
All works will be displayed in a two-week exhibition jointly held at the Lifeline Tip Shop and Broken Hill Art Exchange from Monday May 27 to Saturday June 8.
Winners from the local competition will be announced at the Lifeline Tipshop on Saturday, June 1 and will be couriered to Parks Shire for the regional exhibition and final in August.
“Lifeline Tipshop loved the community involvement and excitement at last year’s event and looks forward to seeing the amazing entrants for this year’s Waste 2 Art. It was a really fun event and worked so well combined with Broken Hill Art Exchange. It’s such a good fit for both venues,” says Lifeline Tipshop Store Manager, Jodie Anderson.
The Broken Hill Art Exchange will also be running a program of various workshops free to registered Waste 2 Art entrants to help with inspiration, with the first Crafternoon happening on Sunday, March 10 from 1pm – 3pm, with more to be announced.
For more information and to register for Waste 2 Art or the workshops, visit https://www.brokenhillartexchange.org.au/workshops/waste-2-art. A Facebook community has also been set up at https://www.facebook.com/groups/waste2artbrokenhill. All other enquires can be directed to [email protected].
