After a very successful inaugural festival, CREATE is back with an exciting line-up of events in March 2022.
CREATE is an annual community event that’s about community engagement, expression, celebrating innovation, it’s about all things creative. Each year it has a different theme.
The theme for 2022 is Illusion.
As usual, CREATE will have a program that runs over a 16-day period, showcasing a diverse range of creative activities including exhibitions, film, music and workshops.
Each year, a different youth age group will also be exhibiting. This year, the youthful artists will be Year 11 and 12 students.
The main exhibition at The Crossing Theatre is used as a backdrop for unforgettable opening and closing nights.
To ensure CREATE keeps delivering a diverse and high-quality program, organisers have included events in Wee Waa and Boggabri, and for the first time, a digital installation in the main auditorium at The Crossing Theatre.
Another annual highlight is celebrating performers with different abilities.
This year, CREATE has Melbourne band Rudely Interrupted performing at the closing night party.
Rudely Interrupted is one of Australia’s most unique independent rock acts, touring and releasing their brand of pitch-perfect pop-rock anthems around the globe since 2006.
The opening night celebrations, which includes entertainment by local musicians, has been sold out.
The official opening night of the Wee Waa Community Arts and Cultural Centre has also exhausted its ticket allocation.
Exhibitions and digital installation
Each year, the Narrabri CREATE Festival has a different theme. Last year, it started off with ‘Home’ so this year organisers thought the festival should go with something a bit more intriguing. As a result, the theme for 2022 is Illusion. This year, CREATE has also expanded its exhibitions to three spaces.
All three spaces will be open daily at The Crossing Theatre from 10am to 3pm on March 12 to 27. A gold coin donation will go a long way in helping to ensure CREATE grows on a yearly basis.
Exhibition room
In the main gallery, the exhibition room, all paintings will be curated to give the illusion of ‘A Walk Through Nature’. This will be an immersive experience showcasing some beautiful works inspired by nature.
Riverside room
The second gallery, the Riverside Room, will be the host to works that are inspired by the 2022 theme, Illusion. These works will make you tilt your head in quandary or wonder as your mind tries to decipher some intriguing artworks.
Main auditorium
The largest gallery, the main auditorium, will have a digital installation by Lightning Ridge artist, Jillian Gates.
This work titled, ‘Liminal Space: Finding Reality’ is a video installation created solely for the CREATE Festival.
The video explores dream spaces and the blur between what is real and what is not.
Kobie Dee – Gomeroi Nations Tour
Kobie Dee is a 24-year-old Gomeroi artist from Maroubra in South Sydney, Bidjigal Land.
With an innate gift for storytelling and connecting with young people, Kobie Dee is one of the exciting new voices in Australian hip hop.
Kobie was signed to Bad Apples Music in 2019 and has performed alongside artists including Briggs, Jessica Mauboy, Nooky and Barkaa as part of Yabun, Sydney Festival and at the Bad Apples House Party at the Sydney Opera House.
As an artist, Kobie is deeply engaged in his community through performance and community work, and his passion for his culture and people is inspiring new generations.
Kobie will be performing at The Crossing Theatre on March 14. The event starts at 3.30pm, including support acts.
The cost is free but bookings are essential.
Film – Loving Vincent
Loving Vincent is the world’s first fully painted feature film. It tells the story of the last years of Vincent van Gogh’s life.
A young man comes to the last hometown of painter Vincent van Gogh to deliver the troubled artist’s final letter and ends up investigating his final days there.
The film will screen at The Crossing Theatre on March 16 at 6pm. Tickets cost $15.
Rubbish is Rubbish – that’s an Illusion!
The perception of ‘waste’ as materials we no longer have use for, is an illusion. Increasingly in our daily lives, we are choosing to live more consciously and more sustainably. This can involve seeking new ways to repurpose materials that would otherwise end up in landfill. With a little creativity, effort, and artistic flair, new life can be breathed into tired old things.
Learn about repurposing waste and then try to create a beautiful mosaic, using repurposed household materials. This eco-friendly workshop will teach you tips and hacks to live more sustainably, recycle correctly and ditch the illusion of waste as rubbish and instead, rethink it as a resource.
Brought to you by Cleanaway’s kNOw Waste Education Program, this workshop will be at The Crossing Theatre on March 12, from 10am.
The cost is free but bookings are essential.
Photography workshops
A beginners workshop is being held on March 13, costing $50 per person.
The three-hour session starts at 9am. Well-known local photographers Janet Dampney, Elizabeth McPhee and John Burgess will explain the basics of photography. For those interested in understanding the basics of your camera and how to put you in control to improve your photography. This includes both a theory and practical session. Please bring your camera and camera manual.
An advanced workshop is being held on March 27 from 9am and costs $50 per person. It is also a three-hour session and features the same well-known photographers.
This session is ideal for the advanced photographer wishing to improve their use of ambient/natural light plus the use of both on and off camera assisted lighting to improve your images. This includes both a theory and practical session. Please bring your camera manual and equipment.
Kids’ workshops
Artist Ange Strong is happy to be doing the kids’ workshops once again. Get together with Ange and throw some paint around to create an illusion. Sounds like fun.
A session is being held in Boggabri on March 16 at 3.30pm.
In Narrabri, there are two sessions on March 19 – 10am and 11.30am.
Disabilities workshop
Robin Stieger will facilitate the workshop on March 17. The workshop will focus on colour, tone and texture and how they can be used to trick the eye and transform flat surfaces into three-dimensional spaces.
Shapes will be painted and assembled into a giant puzzle.
NARRA-Bright
Narrabri Shire Council will once again host an activation project for Narrabri’s CBD as part of the NSW government Summer Fund initiative to bring life to local public spaces.
The activation project, aptly named Narra-BRIGHT will be held on March 18, from 5pm, and is a late-night trading evening, featuring the switching on of LED light installations throughout Maitland Street CBD.
With outdoor dining and local musicians, a great atmosphere is guaranteed.
Closing night party
Set amongst the main exhibition at The Crossing Theatre, Rudely Interrupted and Isaac Newton will be performing on March 26.
CREATE always celebrates performers with different abilities, this year it has a Melbourne Band, Rudely Interrupted heading our way. This band is one of Australia’s most unique independent rock acts, touring and releasing their brand of pitch perfect pop-rock anthems across the globe for many years.
The event will also have Isaac Newton and The Newton Brothers Band, direct from Tamworth, belting out some tunes – folk-pop-rock inspired original music, with heritages in Australian country music reaching more then 40 years combined experience in live performance, from rocking auditoriums to swinging town hall to ‘boot scooting’ the back end off a cattle truck.
Along with a roaming magician, an abundant grazing table, two free glasses of champagne or beer, this night is going to be a whole lot of fun!
The closing event starts at 7pm. Tickets cost $55 per adult or three tickets for the price of two at $110.
Bookings for CREATE events can be made here.
