Welcome to our list of arts and cultural events happening in the NSW Central West gathered from artists, event producers, great local venues and groups across the region. Use the contact or ticketing details listed with each event.

It’s free to submit your local events.

For maps and details of museums, galleries, artist studios, historic sites, Aboriginal experiences and sites, craft shops, handmade retail outlets or public art go to the Culture Maps Central NSW menu.

Still Life

Orange Regional Gallery Theatre, 149 Byng Street, Orange, NSW, Australia

This selection of works from Orange Regional Gallery’s Collection presents various approaches to the still life genre. Ranging from works on paper, painting, photography and ceramics, each is an invitation to imagine the daily life and narratives of the objects, artists, and times from which they were made.

Free entry

Collection Highlights and Recent Acquisitions

Orange Regional Gallery Theatre, 149 Byng Street, Orange, NSW, Australia

This exhibition includes recent acquisitions by John Olsen OAM, Elisabeth Cummings, Peter Boggs, Kevin Connor, Rachel Ellis, Hendrik Kolenberg, Margaret Loy Pula, Mandy Martin, Arthur McIntyre, Mavis Ngallametta, Tom Polo, David Serisier, Tim Storrier, Aida Tomescu and John R Walker. These are shown alongside collection highlights.

Marang Connections Calendar of Free Events

Marang Connections is a free 12-month program aiming to increase resilience, wellbeing and social connections for disadvantaged and disengaged young people aged 8-16 years. Young people will be offered one workshop/session per month facilitated by professional and reputable organisations to promote marang (well/good - Wiradjuri) lifestyles and connections.

Woodworking Course

Molong Molong, NSW, Australia

How you can make a Windsor Stool.
Using traditional hand tools learn how to make a beautiful stool from green wood logs.

Recurring

Trundle Film Society

The Staging Post Trundle, NSW, Australia

Annual membership $100. Contact john.lagerlow@gmail.com or 0408 022 571.

Danelle Bergstrom: Afterglow

Bathurst Regional Art Gallery 70-78 Keppel Street, Bathurst, NSW, Australia

Based in Hill End since 1997, Bergstrom now lives between Australia and Åland, a remote archipelago in Finland.
Bergstrom uses landscape and portraiture as vessels to navigate “human emotion, experiences and choices”, where the artist paints what she feels, rather than what she sees. Afterglow traces Bergstrom’s own life as it is reflected in the overtures and undertones of her subjects, from major landscape paintings and portraits to intimate sketches and drawings.

Leanne Wicks: Birds Like Us

Bathurst Regional Art Gallery 70-78 Keppel Street, Bathurst, NSW, Australia

of artists associated with the artistic programs of BRAG and the Cementa art festival. Each portrait merges the personality and practice of artists with Australian birds to create a unique and whimsical knitted installation.

art on the side

Hill End Art Gallery Beyers Ave, Hill End, NSW, Australia

Hill End Arts Council Inc invites you to participate in our coming exhibition ‘art on the side’ at our Hill End Gallery.

Exhibition tours

Bathurst Regional Art Gallery 70-78 Keppel Street, Bathurst, NSW, Australia

Tours every Saturday morning

June Golland Past Present Continuous

Kandos Projects Windows - 24 hour access 18 Angus Ave, Kandos, NSW, Australia

Past, Present, Continuous is a series of hand-cut and hand-beaded curtains made from flame-polished plastic, a craft material from the 1960s. The work was inspired by a collection of the material gifted to the artist. Referencing transitional spaces within domestic homes the installation is a gentle meditation on the passing of time and how places and materials haunt us.

Free

“DRYLANDS – Sacred ground” – Exhibition by Joy Engelman

The Peisley St Gallery, Orange 54 Peisley St Gallery, Orange, NSW, Australia

A selection of works from Engelman's travels across the outback over the past 12 years, these focus on the dry lakes and deserts, and are representational works of the energies and spirit she felt during my explorations. We live in amazing country unlike any other, a wide expanse of flatness filled with awe and colour, it reminds Engelman, she states, of driving through a large painting; the creation of a vast universal mind. 

Free

Suzanne Archer: The Mermaids Tail

Orange Regional Gallery Theatre, 149 Byng Street, Orange, NSW, Australia

With over 35 years working in the bush, Archer’s life and work are inextricably linked with landscape. The Mermaid’s Tail presents large-scale paintings and works on paper from the last five years.
During this time Archer responded to COVID lockdowns and the period since, in which she has explored the South Coast of NSW. Archer playfully and surreally entwines her narrative with the landscape, marking time and experience – both real and imagined.

Waste 2 Art Mid-Western 2023

Mudgee Arts Precinct Market St, Mudgee, NSW, Australia

WASTE 2 ART Mid-Western 2023 is a community art exhibition and competition open to all local residents. It showcases creative works made from reused and recyclable waste materials. The aim is to challenge people’s perceptions about ‘rubbish’ and to celebrate the reuse and recycling of waste through arts and crafts.

Free entry

Cicada Press 20 Years

Orange Regional Gallery Theatre, 149 Byng Street, Orange, NSW, Australia

Please join us for the opening at 6pm on Friday 12 May 2023 Join Michael Kempson, Founder and Director Cicada Press and Bradley Hammond, Director of Orange Regional Gallery for a discussion at 5.30pm prior to the opening. Book your...

FREE

WAYOUT_blp

WAYOUT ArtSpace, Kandos 71 Angus St, Kandos, NSW, Australia

WAYOUT_blp is a site-specific artwork by Margaret Roberts that makes the site an active player in the work by inviting anyone to lend an object they live with, to be arranged with others into one shape on the WAYOUT floor. These varied objects are the artwork’s ‘chance’ materials delivered by the site. The shape into which they will be arranged is known in art-history as a ‘blp’, and used as a ‘discursive mark’ for ‘here’, wherever it is located. In WAYOUT, that art-usage temporarily frames the objects and their lenders’ decisions to participate. Multiple forms of documentation are planned during the show: observational drawers are invited to record objects’ likenesses and oral history buffs are invited to record stories that lenders tell about their objects. After 7 weeks, this shape will dissolve as objects return home, their ‘provenance’ altered by participation in the communal ‘blp’.

Free

Joleen Ford Feature Artist Official Exhibition

Orange Art Society 22 Sale Street, Orange, NSW, Australia

Join us for the official exhibition opening for our May Feature Artist, Joleen Ford.
Exhibition will be open for viewing from 14th May until 10th June

Close to Home

Alby + Esters, Mudgee 61 Market St, Mudgee, NSW

Mudgee artist Rachel Melcher’s collection of works are coming to our gallery walls. ‘Close to Home’ is a series of landscapes and still life pieces, inspired by the Mudgee region. . On-display until July 6.

Jekyll & Hyde The Musical – Presented by Lithgow Musical Society

Union Theatre, Lithgow 67 Bridge Street, Lithgow, NSW, Australia

Jekyll and Hyde is a musical that takes you on a journey into the depths of the human soul. It is based on the classic horror story by Robert Louis Stevenson, with a powerful pop-rock score by Frank Wildhorn and Leslie Bricusse.

PAINTING WITH SCISSORS – a tribute to Henri Matisse

The Odd Sock Gallery - Art & Craft Supplies + Gallery 8 Farm Lane, #Shop 4, Blayney, NSW, Australia

Inspired by Henri Matisse's cut-out technique, our new exhibition opens on Sunday, 21st May 2023.
Everyone is invited to come along and create their own artwork in this style. We have daily activities that demonstrate and teach his techniques.
You'll discover composition, abstraction, and representational art, creative process, and invention.

Safe Hands Exhibition

Safe Hands, Orange 342 Peisley Street, Orange

Safe Hands at 342 Peisley Street Orange is a place for those with disabilities and mental health challenges to work towards achieving something great.

The Sound of Music

Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre 105 William Street, Bathurst, NSW, Australia

The final collaboration between Rodgers & Hammerstein was destined to become the world’s most beloved musical. Featuring a trove of cherished songs, including Climb Ev’ry Mountain, My Favourite Things, Do Re Mi, Sixteen Going on Seventeen and the title number, The Sound of Music won the hearts of audiences worldwide, earning five Tony Awards and five Oscars.

Waste 2 Art Community Recycled Textiles Competition and Exhibition (Lithgow)

Lithgow Library & Learning Centre 157 Main Street, Lithgow, NSW, Australia

The Waste 2 Art Community Art Exhibition and competition, sponsored by NetWaste and Lithgow City Council, is free to all residents of Lithgow/ Seven Valleys region to enter and gives aspiring and professional artists the chance to explore and share their waste reduction messages while showcasing their artistic ability.

Free entry

ImaginARY

GANG GANG Gallery, Lithgow 206 Main Street, Lithgow, NSW, Australia

JAN MELVILLE & KYLIE BLAKEMORE
Exploring photography, collage, mixed media and assemblage

 

The What’s On calendar covers arts and heritage events happening across the NSW Central West in the local government areas of Bathurst Region, Blayney, Cabonne, Cowra, Forbes, Lachlan, Lithgow, Mid-Western Region, Oberon, Orange, Parkes and Weddin.

Event listings are sourced or supplied from local venues and arts organisations. Many events listed here have been originally shared by the organisers on social media. Whilst all care is taken – and accuracy is our priority – we can take no responsibility for date changes or the content of contributed information. Contact the event organisers listed for more details or to book tickets.

The best way to include your event is to use our SUBMIT HERE form (under the What’s On menu at the top of each page). These listings will be manually approved by the Arts OutWest team before publication.  Please allow a couple of days for listings to be published. If you have submitted an event and want to make changes just email us at artsoutwest@csu.edu.au

Featured events‘ are those submitted directly online by presenters.

Event promotors are asked to only include their own original images / images that they have permission to use / copyright free stock images. For more information see our fact sheet on Using Images For Promoting Events (if you can’t see this link look under ‘Opportunities’ then ‘Resources’).