TAFE NSW Hunter Institute

The Front Room Gallery is the main exhibition space for the art school, profiling the work of students and staff and hosting a variety of special projects and collaborative community events and exhibitions.

The Front Room Gallery is a public art gallery for our students and a flexible delivery centre for Professional Arts Practice and Exhibition Practice. It is a purpose built conversion of the previous Newcastle West Post Office and houses the gallery, flexible delivery centre, offices for the Newcastle Art School and the Faculty of Art and Media.

As a functioning public art gallery it is also the venue for students to learn about presenting artwork, planning, curating and hanging art exhibitions and projects.

Exhibition Program Semester 1 2009

Artworks
Newcastle Art School Staff exhibition
4-20 February

An introduction to the staff of the Newcastle Art School and the work from their studios.

Juxtapose This!
Amanda Kenneth, gerant, Dan Smith.
25 February - 13 March
Opening: 5:30pm Wednesday 25 February
Artist Talk: 12:15 Thursday 5 March    Workshop: 12:15 Friday 6 March.
This exhibition showcases the ironic and satirical work of three Newcastle Art School graduates.
Employing biting satire and the juxtaposition of images and text sourced from popular culture, the artists critique mass media with work which can at once be comical, topical, honest or absurd.

inbuilt – instinct
Kira Jovanovski, Sandy Gray & Jennifer Smith     
18 March - 3 April         
Opening:  5:30pm Wednesday 18 March
Artist Talk: Thursday 19 March 12:15pm – 12:45pm
Across a range of media, three local artists with a shared interest in architecture and the urban environment shed new light on the places we inhabit.

Light and Dark Journeys from the Western Plain
8 April - 24 April
Opening: 5:30pm Wednesday 8 April
Artist Talk: To be confirmed, please contact the Gallery for further details.
Drawing upon life in central NSW, Fine Arts graduates from Dubbo College, Western Institute of TAFE explore the interrelationship between life experience, memory and place.

Response to Landscape
29 April - 15 May
Opening: 5:30pm Wednesday 29 April
Artist Talk: To be confirmed, please contact the Gallery for further details.
Fine Arts students and recent graduates from Newcastle Art School respond to the unique Australian landscape.

Pop Goes Newcastle
20 May - 5 June
Opening: 5:30pm Wednesday 20 May
Curator: Tom Kearney
Artist Talk: To be confirmed, please contact the Gallery for further details. 
Celebrating the legacy of the Pop Art Movement and all things banal and kitsch, Pop Goes Newcastle features some of the nations’ most promising emerging young artists. Curated by local artist & Newcastle Art School graduate Tom Kearney, the exhibition will include large scale prints, paintings and sculptures among other mediums.

High School Showcase 09
10-26 June
Opening: 5:30 Wednesday 10 June
Features the best art from Hunter High Schools' current students.

Animal Logic
Robyn McPherson, Antonia Gore, Emily Mitchell, Matthew Reed, Shan Turner-Carroll,  Samantha Dorsett, Imp Hung, Sarah Jones, Abbie Lane, Bree Sanders and Julie Lee.
1-17 July
Opening: 5:30 Wednesday 1 July
The Animal Logic exhibition will feature a collection of artworks which examine the inter-relationship between humans and animals.
The exhibition is aligned with the Animals and Art Festival, which held in conjunction with the 2009 Minding Animals Conference.

The Gallery offers educational guides for schools and community groups.
Please contact Jessica Gledhill, Gallery Administrator to make a booking. jessica.gledhill@tafensw.edu.au

Management
The management structure includes a Board which oversees the exhibition planning, policy development and general executive functions, while a committee is involved with the day to day running. Each exhibition is managed as a discreet project using project management principles.

Students are represented on the board and committee and are involved in the running of all the exhibitions. Their participation is assessed and is considered part of the suite of Professional Practice and Exhibition Practice modules that are an essential part of the Fine Arts courses.

The executive management and day to day running of the Front Room Gallery is modelled on current industry practice and students would notice no difference moving from the gallery environment in the Newcastle Art School to a professional art space. A Gallery Administrator manages the Front Room Gallery.

If you would like to be on our mail list for exhibitions either by post or email contact us.
Are you interested in applying for an exhibition? Please contact us for a package jessica.gledhill@tafensw.edu.au