Lismore Regional Gallery is known for its inventiveness in keeping art thriving in Lismore.

It has been acknowledged statewide at the Imagine 2024 Awards with two highly commended nominations in the two categories it was entered.

These commendations were granted despite the Regional Gallery building being closed and unusable.

Ashleigh Ralph, the Director of the Gallery, said,”I'm pleased to share that at the Museums and Galleries NSW 2024 IMAGinE Awards, Lismore Regional Gallery received a Highly Commended Award for two projects while operating without a building. We are thrilled that our projects were competitive with other fully resourced galleries.”

This isn’t the first recognition the Gallery has received, but it is while the gallery was not actually open.

The Pop-up exhibition was held at a shop in the CBD, while The Future of Toys project was held in the neighbouring pink building behind the Gallery on Rural Street, where the owners had generously offered the space.

Ms Ralph explains the process of developing the initiatives, “After the floods and we had no building, we thought, what are we going to do to keep the gallery alive and to keep our community engaged and active? 

“Once we got through the initial recovery phase, we were awarded grants from Create New South Wales and the Australian Government to run a pop-up space downtown.” 

Image Credit: Cherie Winter

The other award nominated was for the Future of Toys exhibition, where “We engaged lots of young people to make new toys out of flooded toys or damaged toys.”

It was a popular event and well organised so the participants could make the most out of their creativity.

Image credit, Anna Snowsill

There was one other exhibition post-flood that the Business Economic Development team at Lismore City Council worked with the Regional Gallery on - displaying artworks in empty shop windows in the CBD.  

“The idea was to activate windows, shop windows, with images from our permanent collection. The intention was to lighten things up a bit and remember the history of this place and the cultural richness of it all.”

Asked if she would do it again, “Yes, we'd love to. If we could activate all the empty shops, now, we would.”

Congratulations, Lismore Regional Gallery!

About the IMAGinE Awards (supplied)

The IMAGinE Awards highlight the resilience, innovation and creativity of museums, galleries and Aboriginal cultural spaces and recognise the people who work in them. The museums, galleries and Aboriginal cultural centres of NSW provide historical, contemporary and future context.

They tell stories about their communities and reflect on what they might become. Their programs record history and grow ideas; they generate and support creative processes that contribute to economic, social and health related wellbeing. They help build resilient and sustainable communities.

IMAGinE celebrates all institutions and pays homage to those organisations run by volunteers, with limited budgets and minimal resources. These Awards offer a unique opportunity for museums, galleries and Aboriginal cultural spaces in NSW to advocate, promote their achievements and raise their profile within the sector and the broader community.