Talks & Tea // BRAG May-August

Talks and Tea // BRAG Exhibitions May-August 2026

Join Bathurst Regional Art Gallery (BRAG) Volunteer Guides for a spotlight talk and walk through of our current exhibitions, followed by morning tea.

• Tour of exhibition

• Morning tea by donation, RSVP essential

Dates:

Wednesday 10 June, 10:30am-12:00pm

Wednesday 8 July, 10:30am-12:00pm (Seniors Festival 2026, all welcome)

Wednesday 12 August, 10:30am-12:00pm

About the Exhibitions:

Main Gallery

Elizabeth Day: The Fragility of Goodness: The Prison on the Landscape and Other Stories

Elizabeth Day’s survey exhibition at BRAG examines the legacy of Empire and the colonisation of Australia and its First Nations peoples. The exhibition focuses on the lasting impact of colonial prison systems and how these institutions reshaped both landscape and society.

The project connects closely to Bathurst’s history as part of a network of colonial prison towns established west of the Blue Mountains. Day has explored these themes in earlier works: in 2023, she presented There’s a Reason Beyond a Reason, 1797 Parramatta Gaol at The National 4 at Carriageworks, Redfern. This large-scale textile installation was made from unravelled second-hand garments and referenced early colonial prison architecture. Through the slow process of unravelling fabric, the work suggested the possibility of undoing the prison’s imprint on the landscape.

The Fragility of Goodness: The Prison on the Landscape and Other Stories continues this investigation. The exhibition considers how the histories of colonial prisons continue to shape contemporary Australia. Day draws connections between historical penal sites including Parramatta and Tasmania, engaging with ideas of layered colonial, geographical and social histories. Her practice is informed by both historical research and personal experience within institutional systems.

A key work in the exhibition, The Law Is Not Always Just, forms part of a new series of grass-grown texts mapping prisons across the Central West. This floor installation sits among several significant works including There’s a Reason Beyond a Reason, Notes on the Castle, the sculptural recreation of Bathurst Gaol’s Lion Gate, Invisible Words Invisible Worlds, and the collaborative community project MYCO LOGIC.

Together, this exhibition invites reflection on systems of justice, power and repair.

Foyer Gallery

Heather Dunn: Found

Found is less about the act of physically collecting objects and more about observation and presence within a landscape.

A road trip in 2025 across the Nullarbor and through the outback of South Australia during one of the region’s most severe droughts in recent history formed the basis for the imagery in this body of work. Australia’s vastness is central to the experience: immense skies, cathedral-like quiet punctuated by birdsong, stark light and the beauty of the gloaming.

The fragments of wire used in this exhibition were largely gathered from areas of abandoned settler infrastructure. Colonial expansion into the marginal rangelands and semi-arid regions of South Australia produced cycles of boom-and-bust exploitation of the land, leaving visible traces across the landscape.

Ruined towns, farm complexes and transport infrastructure remain scattered across the Flinders Ranges, often well beyond the 300 mm rainfall line. Many of these developments emerged from speculative attempts to profit from the occasional favourable season, resulting in the occupation and transformation of unceded land. Even Wilpena Pound was not immune to this extractive approach, having been cropped for wheat for several seasons during the nineteenth century.

Within this context, the small fragments and found materials in Found evoke vast and empty vistas, reflecting on the indifference of the natural world to human ambition and the marks left by settlement.

Click here for more information on the exhibitions

Bathurst Regional Art Gallery is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.

BRAG is located in the heart of Bathurst on Wiradjuri Country in the Central West of NSW.

Entry is via the Gallery/Library forecourt located at 70-78 Keppel Street. BRAG is accessible by public transport.

Plan your trip

Victoria Pass Closure: A detour is currently in place on the Great Western Highway following the closure of Victoria Pass in both directions - but don't let that halt your road-trip adventure as there are Other Ways to the West. The region is still very much open for business, and there are some genuinely spectacular ways to get here.

Click here for more information

Venue Access Information: Click here for more information

If you wish to discuss requirements before visiting the gallery, please feel free to contact us on 02 6333 6555 or email us at brag@bathurst.nsw.gov.au

Banner image: Elizabeth Day, The Flow of Form: There’s a Reason Beyond a Reason. Beyond That There’s a Reason (1797 Parramatta Gaol), 2023, unravelled op-shop garments, muslin, 2600 x 650 x 5 cm irregular. Installation view at Carriageworks in The National 4: Australian Art Now. Photograph: Zan Wimberley.