Hawkesbury Regional Gallery has held its annual art showcase for over a decade, and this year it is allowing anyone to participate for the first time.
Since 2014, the gallery’s Hawkesbury Now program has been the region’s centrepiece celebration of local art — a yearly gathering of painters, photographers, printmakers and makers from across North-West Sydney.
For most of that time, getting a spot meant belonging to one of the established groups: the Ferry Artists Gallery, the Hawkesbury Camera Club, Macquarie Towns Art Society, TAFE NSW’s Media, Arts, Design + Entertainment faculty out west, and half a dozen others with roots deep in the community. That model worked. But it also left people out.
Starting Monday, 15 June 2026, the gallery is switching to an Expression of Interest process — open to any artist living within the Hawkesbury Local Government Area, whether they hold a society membership or not. The application window runs for six weeks, closing Sunday, 2 August 2026.
The change came after the gallery listened. Feedback from exhibiting groups and solo artists, combined with a review tied to Hawkesbury City Council’s Cultural Plan, pointed to the same problem: talented independent artists with genuine ties to the region had no clear path into the program. The new process gives them one, assessed on the same terms as everyone else.
For artists who’ve spent years making work in the Hawkesbury with nowhere obvious to show it, that matters.
Details and eligibility criteria are on the gallery’s website.
