Photo: Inverell Library staff member Maria Mutimer with one of the over 300 Panorama Project sketchbooks on display
The Arts North West Panorama Project, a creative record of our region in the time of COVID, is now installed at the Inverell Public Library until 23 December.
Arts North West (ANW) sent small A5-sized custom sketchbooks in the winter of 2020 to people across the New England North West. Participants filled their books with visual or tactile art, and writing, then returned their sketchbooks to drop-off spots in their communities. Now on tour, the entire collection will tour the region’s libraries until early August of 2021.
“We have loved seeing Panorama Project out on the road. And we have had some lovely messages from library visitors who have enjoyed spending time browsing through all the sketchbooks,” ANW executive director Caroline Dower said.
The exhibition launched at the Glen Innes Library in late October, in time for the library’s Community Open Day and 66th Anniversary celebrations. After its three-week stay, it was hosted by Our Place Wine and Espresso Bar in Tenterfield before it came down to Inverell.
“I heard the most amazing story from Our Place owner Amanda Rudge when I went up to collect the show,” Panorama Project manager Michèle Jedlicka said.
“A woman from the coast stopped in on her travels, and Amanda suggested she have a look at the sketchbooks while she waited for her order. This woman was astonished to find the first book she picked from the shelves was actually made by her friend who lived in Narrabri. That coincidence was extraordinary.”
Michèle invited the public to sit down and spend time looking through collected talent and memoirs in the sketchbooks.
“This project gives us all sense of our connectedness and similarities. I have loved helping this project happen, and I am so grateful to all the people who took part.”
You can follow the progress of the Panorama Project at: www.artsnw.com.au/#/panorama-project.