Announcing the 2025 Gunyah Artists-in-Residence


Thank you to everyone who applied for the 2025 Gunyah Artists-in-Residence program!

And thanks to the selection panel, Danica Knezevic and Kath Fries. 

There will be writers, musicians, curators, researchers, filmmakers, sculptors, painters, storytellers, photographers, collaborations and families; from NSW, ACT and VIC; participating in 2025 residencies at Gunyah, on Worimi Land.

We are delighted to announce the artists selected for the 2025 Gunyah Artists-in-Residence Program:

  • You're only half an hour away: Katie Shammas & Maissa Alameddine 
  • Harriet Gillies & Bron Belcher
  • Elise Harmsen & Nicola Smith 
  • Zipper: Celeste Aldahn & Liam Kenny 
  • The Happy Mondays: Jodi Vial, Josepha Dietrich, Betty O'Neill, Catherine Johnstone 
  • Ren Gregorčič 
  • Catherine Polcz 

You can follow @gunyahartists on Instagram to see posts from their residencies during the year.


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Gunyah artists-in-residence program is located on Gathang Land, the ancestral Country of the Worimi People. We acknowledge them as the traditional custodians of this place, land, sky, and waters. When artists come to the Gunyah to develop and share their own creativity, learning, skills and cultural practices, we respect the knowledge embedded forever within the First Nations Custodianship of Country.



2025 Gunyah residency applications now open!

Calling for 2025 Gunyah Artists-in-Residence applications!
Background photo: Kath Fries, Gunyah waterfront

I'm delighted to announce that applications are now open for the 2025 Gunyah Artists-in-Residence Program!

Since 2011, the Gunyah AiR program has been providing low cost accommodation for short term self-directed residencies for solo, collaborative, family and group projects. 

 

Applications are now open for visual artists, writers, composers, musicians, performers, directors, and other creators, to apply for a 2025 Gunyah residency. 


There will be seven residencies in 2025, each running for ten days. See the APPLY page for the specific dates available and subsided artist rates. 


Please read ABOUT GUNYAH before applying and see the APPLY page for links to the online applications forms. 

 

Applications close midnight 16 December 2024. 

Residency report: Bronwyn Rennex

Bronwyn Rennex, Gunyah Kookaburras 

I’m working on a creative non-fiction project and thinking about birds, so being at Gunyah was a great opportunity to s.l.o.w.d.o.w.n. and observe. I eased myself into a different scale of being, a lovely respite from sitting at my desk in Newtown getting caught up in doom scrolling, bill paying, grocery shopping, clothes hanging…

Bronwyn Rennex, Gunyah fire

 

At Gunyah I listened to unfamiliar birds bring in the day. I watched the pair of noisy miners (… my friend Dave called them pardalotes … I still think I’m right), whose nest is just above the back deck, defend their chick(s) from the daily incursions of bigger birds. I paddled across the water towards the island, where what looked like a pale branch at the top of a tree, ended up being the white breast of a sea eagle surveying its world. At night it was cold enough to have fires. 

 

Bronwyn Rennex, Adam and Bron at Gunyah


I worked pretty solidly each day, whether it was writing, going down Google rabbit holes via famous Bronwyns; through to Welsh mythology; and a story about soldiers carrying the head of fellow warrior back home, where it continued chatting to them for the next 7 years; or reading what Ralph Clark wrote about dreams and birds in his journal. My partner Adam visited for a few days, then my friends Dave and Janet came. It was lovely to be able to share the experience with them and enjoy the added bonus of their excellent cooking skills.

 

Bronwyn Rennex, Gunyah reading


I’ve come back to Newtown refreshed and inspired to continue working. Thanks so much Kath and Gunyah for the gift of space and time.


Bronwyn Rennex, Gunyah jetty selfie panorama


Gunyah residency report, October 2024
Bronwyn Rennex

Residency report: Karlina Mitchell and Lee Mitchell

Gunyah was a time of rest and productivity. We started by working on individual projects, I spent time writing and reflecting on work and exhibitions I have been part of over the last 12 months. Lee found an amazing resource at the local Hawks Nest tip and finished a series of zines made from reclaimed books and paper. We went on bushwalks around North Arm Cove, I took photos and we worked on developing ideas for our collaborative project. The project explores our childhood experiences and we found this being reflected in the adventures we had with our kids when at Gunyah.


Gunyah residency report, September 2024
Karlina Mitchell & Lee Mitchell


Karlina Mitchell, photograph.

Lee Mitchell, zine.


Upcoming artist-in-residence: Bronwyn Rennex

Bronwyn Rennex

Bronwyn Rennex is a writer, artist and arts professional, living on Gadigal Land, in Sydney's inner west. Her creative non-fiction work combines pictures and words - sometimes her own, sometimes others' - to consider how history resonates in the present. Bronwyn is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Newcastle and 2024 Visiting Scholar at State Library of NSW.


Bronwyn Rennex, Life with Birds, 2022


Bronwyn's first book, 'Life with Birds' was published by Upswell in 2022. It's a delicate commonplace book that invests in the small scale, the domestic and the ordinary as an essential and overlooked part of Australian military history.


Bronwyn Rennex, No, No, No, 2004, cyanotype



"... During my residency I plan to continue my work with the idiosyncratic First Fleet journals of Ralph Clark who, as his transcribers suggested, might be 'the original whinging Pom'. I have collated extracts from his journals and plan to use the residency to respond to and riff off them, thinking about dreams, women, colonisation and birds ..."


You can find out more about Bronwyn's work on her website bronwynrennex.com and Instagram @frombron

Residency report: Obscuria Deaf Collective


Obscuria Deaf Collective: Irene Holub, Angie Goto, Sofya Gollan and Riona Twomey


Irene Holub: "This was my first arts residency and my first experience sharing Deaf Arts space over 10 days. I would wake up every morning for long walks and be inspired by the beauties of nature and then work all day making art. It validated the need to access space that allows us to connect, create and engage on an intellectual, creative and emotional levels with other deaf artists. It inspired us in many ways to collaborate and envisage a pathway of Obscuria Deaf Arts. Thank you for this opportunity." 

Angie Goto: "My time at the Gunyah was healing and full of inspiration surrounding nature. It was particularly special to fully conversing in Auslan with my creative Deaf women friends. It was so special to have the time and Deaf space to decompress from the fast pace of hearing world and life. We all enjoyed learning from each other in a few creative activities and brainstorming on ideas for our future exhibition. Also during our stay, we visited the Creative Incubator in Hamilton which was valuable to bounce off ideas and feed off one another's creativity."  

Sofya Gollan: "The opportunity to dream by the river, walk through bushland and watch pelicans chase boats from the loft window was a beautiful hiatus from my usual push and pull of everyday concerns. I wrote every day on my screenplay, cracking the spine of the story to make significant progress that I was able to continue on my return home. Having that dedicated time to explore, write dead ends, and track back to start again was invaluable. The spare time was used in exploring disciplines I am not used to , such as painting, collograph printing, and personal vision writing to create a blueprint for the next few years. In short, a creative to-do list was largely conquered, in a beautiful tranquil setting with three other deaf artists. The chance to check in every day with other Deaf Auslan users meant we were able to create a safe and sign language rich experience, where we did not have to ‘code-switch” between having to lip-read and speak, and then back to Auslan again. It was a rare opportunity to be simply and fully Deaf."

Riona Twomey: "The ten day residency allowed our group to refocus and talk together, dream and plan pathways in which to grow and strengthen the aims of the groups objective. Doing art, exchanging art skills, sharing and educating each others in their creative processes, the walks together have brought us closer together."

Gunyah residency report, August 2024

Obscuria Deaf Collective

Irene Holub @ireneholub 
Sofya Gollan @bolshiebird 
Riona Tindal @riorioartist 
Angie Goto @turbly 

 


Upcoming artists-in-residence: Karlina Mitchell and Lee Mitchell

Karlina Mitchell and Lee Mitchell are multi-disciplinary artists who have a collaborative practice and also individual practices, they live on Dharug and Gundungurra Land in the Blue Mountains. 

Karlina Mitchell and Lee Mitchell

Karlina Mitchell is a multi-disciplinary artist. Her practice looks at the impact multiple cultural identities can have on the formation of self and understanding of belonging. Karlina Mitchell was born in Nausori Fiji and her vanua is from Vunivaivai Village, Nausori. @karlina_mitchell www.karlinamitchell.com

Karlina Mitchell, I thought of the people before me who had

looked down at the river and gone to sleep beneath it, 2023,

Photography/Collage


Lee Mitchell is a multi-disciplinary artist primarily working in sculpture, specifically discarded found objects. His work explores structures of memory and belief using pop culture references, history andnostalgia to address current political issues such as increasing power imbalances, the surveillance state and its impact on the individual mind. @leemitchell888

Lee Mitchell, Study of Chinese Masonic Lantern, 2022


" ... During our Gunyah residency we are planning to work together on a collaborative project that explores our parallel experiences of childhood in Australia ..."

Karlina Mitchell and Lee Mitchell, Moce, 2023, HIDDEN Rookwood Sculptures
https://www.karlinamitchell.com/moce-for-hidden-rookwood



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