The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre
An innovative multi-arts hub in the heart of Blacktown City.
Bayadyinyang budyari Dharug yiyura Dharug Ngurra.
Bayady’u budyari Dharug Warunggadgu baranyiin barribugu.
Bayady’u budyari wagulgu yiyuragu Ngurra bimalgu Blacktown City. Flannel flowers dyurali bulbuwul.
Yanmannyang mudayi Dharug Ngurrawa. Walama ngyini budbud dali Dharug Ngurra Dharug yiyura baranyiin barribugu.
We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of this Land, the Dharug people, and their continued connection to Country.
We pay our respects to Elders from yesterday to tomorrow.
We extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples of Blacktown City where the flannel flowers still grow proud and strong.
We will walk softly on this land and open our hearts to Country as the Dharug people have for tens of thousands of years.
Credit to: Dharug woman Rhiannon Wright, daughter of Leanne ‘Mulgo’ Watson Redpath and granddaughter of Aunty Edna Watson
As a part of the Safer Cities: Her Way Program a collaborative partnership between Blacktown City Council and Transport for NSW, Blacktown City Council has commissioned temporary public art interventions to improve perceptions of safety for women, girls and gender diverse people in public spaces and transport hubs.
Through a series of walks and online surveys, the community provided ideas about what would make these spaces feel safer. Directional signage, more lighting, vibrant art, more greenery and greater activation were among the suggested ideas.
In response to the desire from the community for colour and vibrancy, Blacktown City Council engaged women and gender diverse artists from western Sydney to lead and deliver a series of temporary public art interventions in our CBD.
Yan Willama Road, Blacktown (behind Warrick Lane, parallel to railway line)
This artwork brings together Aunty Edna Watson’s and Leanne Redpath’s Dharug cultural knowledge and artwork with Tina Barahanos and Alex Byrne’s imagery of natural elements from the local area.
The finished artwork reflects natural environments and warm colours of earth, sands and sandstones present in the region. Imagery includes; meeting places, people, paths, tools and significant native flora, fauna and waterways. Elements are represented in Dharug and English to preserve language in our present.
Creative Team: Aunty Edna Watson, Leanne Redpath, Tina Barahanos and Alexandra Byrne
Local Business Partner: Blacktown Fruit Market
Yan Willama Road, Blacktown (behind Warrick Lane, parallel to railway line)
Consensual Hallucinations is the conception of artist Serwah Attafuah. Serwah creates surreal dreamscapes, populated by afro-futuristic abstractions of self with strong ancestral and
contemporary themes.
Creative Team: Serwah Attafuah
Local Business Partners: LJ Hooker, Classic Homewares and property agent Burgess Rawson
Jim Simpson Lane, Blacktown
Blacktown based and disability artist-led organisation We Are Studios have co-designed ‘Welcome Home’, a suite of 4 artworks for Jim Simpson Lane with students and community partners from the Australian Catholic University (ACU) in Blacktown.
Inspired by the common theme of home the We Are Studios artists, led by Ebony Wightman, have created a series of digital drawings based on the unique domestic architecture of Blacktown and the diverse yet transcultural creature comforts of home from coffee and tea to slippers and pot plants.
Creative Team: Ebony Wightman, Adrienne Proud, Kiri Smith, and Miah Tito-Barratt.
This project has concluded.
Main Street, Blacktown
Winnie Dunn and Natalia Figueroa Barroso from Sweatshop Literacy Movement were commissioned to lead a writing workshop for members of the community to produce short texts based on the theme of safety. Excerpts from these texts have been selected to create whimsical street signs printed with a mix of memories, reflections and words of wisdom.
The reverse of some signs reveals charms taken from designs by artist illustrator Leila Frijat, who developed 4 light projection designs, inspired by the texts created in Sweatshop’s co-design workshops. Both the signs and the light projections are installed on light poles on Main Street, between Blacktown Station and Warrick Lane.
Creative Team: Winnie Dunn, Natalia Figueroa Barroso, Leila Frijat and Kareena Bridges.
Blacktown CBD
Blacktown Council, in collaboration with Blacktown Arts, have produced the ‘Her Way: Banner project’ which exhibits the portraits of 21 local women of significance on civic flags cross our CBD. The portraits were captured against the backdrop of the bustling cultural spine that is Blacktown’s Main Street.
Participants: Alex Byrne, Catherine Leung, Ebony Wightman, Emie Roy, Joycelyn Adan, Leanne Tobin, Marwa Abouzeid, Mary Nguyen, Maryam Zahid, Mina Lee, Nishtha Nagi, Ozlum Gucuk, Pryanka Gunder, Ritika Gilfedder, Rosalind Stanley, Sima Alikhani, Sonia Kalsi, Tarni Eastwood, Tina Barahanos and May Mamour.
Photographer: Caterina Pacialeo.
This project has concluded.
Edna Watson is a Dharug elder, cultural leader and educator based in Western Sydney. Her daughter, Leanne (Mulgo) Redpath is a Dharug artist and cultural knowledge holder in Dharug community. Artist’s Tina Barahanos and Alexandra Byrne are the creative partnership, Barahanos Byrne. Together they’ve been collaborating on large scale public artworks and private commissions since 2020.
They create artworks, with an open spirit of discovery and respect, through conversation, shared vision and freedom of play bringing together Watson and Redpath’s First Nation voice with Barahanos Byrne’s own cultural heritage and perspectives as Dharug allies. Our artworks combine Redpath’s Dharug cultural knowledge and artwork with Barahanos and Byrne’s imagery of site specific elements from the natural landscape.
Alongside their experienced and award-winning individual artists’ practice, their creative collaborations provide a platform to develop new artwork that utilises their combined skills and brings together diverse image concepts. Engaging open-mindedness and adaptability, they are committed to developing creative works that are inclusive and respond sensitively to dynamic environments and diverse inspirations from the natural and cultural world.
Adienne Proud is an emerging artist and illustrator working in the medium of ink and paper. In her work, Adrienne uses her detailed illustrations to explore themes of identity and social justice. Adrienne uses the pen to articulate her inner dialogue, weaving narratives, and inviting viewers into her imaginative universe. Adrienne’s work features fantastical imagery, illustrating the beauty, strength, and complexity of women, their form, and the diverse spectrum of the female experience intertwined with anthropomorphic creatures and botanical elements.
Caterina Pacialeo is a photographic artist living and working in Sydney Australia.
Her work focuses on environmental portraits, representing people, places and diversity. Her photographic prints demand reflection on the mental conditioning of reality, dreams, interactions and conformity. Caterina graduated from College of Fine Ars UNSW with a BA in Fine Arts in 1989, and a Master of Art in photomedia 2008. Caterina has held solo exhibitions and has been a finalist, awarded and participated in several group exhibitions here in Australia and the USA. Caterina has in-depth technical skills, with the appreciation for quality and attention to detail in her work.
Ebony Wightman is a Dharug based visual artist, creative leader and disability advocate with a passion for systems thinking, social justice and access for all. Ebony is inspired by the immersive power of created environments. Utilising techniques in sculpture, painting, illustration and ceramics, Ebony’s contemporary art practice communicates and explores her lived experience as an autistic person with complex health needs and chronic illness, as well as intersectional rights and identities of d/Deaf and Disabled communities. Ebony is a co-founder of We Are Studios, a disability consultant for Get Skilled Access and a freelance communications designer, working across digital, print and packaging design.
With over 15 years industry experience, Kareena has played a crucial role in bringing a visual voice to brands and projects of various scales and bringing client’s ideas to life. She has extensive experience in both the digital and print space; from social media design, email campaigns, brand identity, pitch and credential decks to publications, point of sale, signage, interactive installations and packaging. In addition to Kareena’s design expertise, she provides copywriting support for many of her clients.
Kareena’s portfolio spreads across a broad range of industries which is something she strives to continue to expand. She is passionate about her work and takes pride in delivering projects on time, going above and beyond and maintaining a high standard of communication and quality of work.
Kiri Smith is a mixed-media artist, Blacktown local and mother to two young girls. Her work is a journey of self-exploration in which she seeks to make sense of her own identity and foster a space in which her psyche can heal from the effects of intergenerational trauma and abuse. Kiri’s artwork often examines themes surrounding physical appearance and body image and how they relate to people’s self-concept and emotions.
Leila Frijat is an illustrator and artist with a keen interest in creating works that memorialise meaningful places and icons that inspire feelings of belonging and home. With a varied illustrative style, Leila has worked on a wide diversity of commissioned projects that are playful and invite audience members to look closer and discover smaller details that reflect their local community. She is also an artist and designer with work spanning across interactive installations, drawings, videography and photography.
Miah Tito-Barratt is a genderqueer, multidisciplinary emerging artist who is developing a practice in theatre, sound, installation and visual arts. Miah’s practice currently explores the nature of their disabilities and queer identity, playing with how different mediums can capture this experience. They recently exhibited in WE ARE at Balcktown Arts (2023). Miah is an experience workshop facilitator for Shopfront Arts and We Are Studios with strengths in working with young people and people with disability.
Natalia Figueroa Barroso is a Uruguayan-Australian writer of Charrua Nation, African and Iberian origins who was raised between the uncoded lands of Charrua Nation and Dharug Country. Her work has appeared in SBS voices, Kindling and Sage, Between Two Worlds, The Big Issue, Puentes Review, Meanjin and Mascara Literary Review. Natalia’s forthcoming debut novel is Hailstones Fell Without Rain (2025)
Serwah Attafuah is a multidisciplinary artist and musician based on Dharug land/West Sydney, Australia. She creates surreal cyber dreamscapes and heavenly wastelands, populated by afro-futuristic abstractions of self with strong ancestral and contemporary themes.
Serwah has collaborated and been commissioned by clients including Mercedes Benz, Nike, GQ, Microsoft, Adobe, Paris Hilton and Valentino. Notable achievements include her participation in Sotheby’s ‘Natively Digital’: A Curated NFT auction, ‘Apotheosis’: a live motion capture experience with Soft Centre at The Sydney Opera House. and a TEDX talk in Sydney on The Metaverse and Afrofuturism.
Winnie Dunn is a Tongan-Australian writer from Mount Druitt. She is the General Manager of Sweatshop Literacy Movement and the editor of several critically acclaimed anthologies, including Sweatshop Women (2019) and Another Australia (2022). Winnie’s debut novel is Dirt Poor Islanders (2024).
This project is presented by Blacktown City Council in partnership with Blacktown Arts and Transport NSW as part of the Safer Cities: Her Way program.
Thank you to our local business partners LJ Hooker, Classic Homewares, Blacktown Fruit Market and property agent Burgess Rawson for their support.