Not all the news to come from the extraordinary flooding events of 2022 is bad, with Gympie Regional Gallery being marked as a finalist in the 2023 Gallery and Museum Achievement Awards.
The exhibition earning them that distinction was the hugely successful 22.96/receding co-exhibition by artists Miriam Innes, Joolie Gibbs and Leeroy Todd.
Miriam and Joolie’s moving artworks actually incorporated water colours made from the actual flood silt left behind by the floodwater and Leeroy’s photographs and filmography told the whole tragic tale from the viewpoint of the people directly involved, showing the full impact.
The exhibition was opened in conjunction with the one year anniversary of the record flood, and is named for the official height the flood water reached at Gympie at it’s peak on Sunday, 27 February, 2022 – 22.96m.
“The exhibition aims to bring together the community and acknowledge the community’s resilience while encouraging healing through creative recovery initiatives,” in was written in a Gympie Regional Council statement, released to coincide with the exhibition’s opening in February this year.
Gympie Regional Gallery is up against Babinda Museum for ‘Building Babinda Museum’, HOTA Gallery, Home of the Arts for ‘Postcards from the Edge’, Ipswich Art Gallery for ‘Just be Your Selfie’, Mapoon Cultural Centre for ‘Creating a new cultural centre for Mapoon’, Museum of Brisbane for ‘Making Place – Accessibility’ and for ‘Play Moves’ and the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art for ‘QAGOMA Learning: Design Tracks’.
The winners will be revealed at a special award ceremony to be held in November 2023.
