Five months into her tenure as director, Dr Zanny Begg’s focus for the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery is clear to see. The day I interviewed her in November 2024 happened to be the day her position was confirmed. I asked Dr Begg, ‘If I came back in 12 months, what would you ideally like to report had been achieved in that time?’
“I think the Shoalhaven has really vibrant First Nations communities, and the gallery has done some really great work, but a really big shift that I would like the gallery to have made would be consistently doing more to connect with First Nations communities and artists.”
Feature Artist 2025 – Cheryl Davison
Zanny’s intention and focus is already evident, both physically in the building and in the exhibition, event and education programming for 2025.
For the first time the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery has a feature artist. For 2025 it is Cheryl Davison who has given permission for large scale reproductions of four of her paintings to appear on prominent walls in the building. Now when you visit the gallery you are greeted by Davison’s My Favourite Place on the foyer wall opposite the main door and the word Walawaani (Welcome).
Cheryl Davison is a Walbunja, Ngarigo woman who was born on the shores of Wallaga Lake, on the far South Coast of New South Wales but grew up in Nowra and Bomaderry. Cheryl’s grandmother was a Ngarigo woman from the Snowy Mountains region of New South Wales.
As a young child, Cheryl’s grandmother was stolen away from country and never had the chance to return home in her lifetime. Cheryl grew up on country, surrounded by her Elders and the community, listening to stories of the Yuin people.
Cheryl has studied and taught visual arts, graphic arts and printmaking and has exhibited across Australia and overseas. She is the founder of Four Winds Aboriginal Djinama Yilaga Choir, composing songs in Dhurga language telling important Yuin stories.
On your next visit to the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery make sure to see Cheryl’s four paintings around the building, Sooty (Oyster Catcher), My Favourite Place, Bats of the Bay and Bringing the Rain.
Cheryl’s work can also be seen in the current exhibition at Bundanon Art Museum, open until 09 February 2025. bagan bariwariganyan: echoes of country is a body of works by renowned Gweagal/Wandiwandian storyteller and artist Julie Freeman, leading Walbunja/Ngarigo artist Cheryl Davison, and Wiradyuri/Kamilaroi artist Jonathan Jones.
Winner Inaugural First Nations Exhibition – Nicole Smede
Soon after taking up the role of director, Zanny introduced a significant opportunity for First Nations artists comprising an artist fee, an exhibition at the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery and mentoring from renowned Wiradjuri artist, Karla Dickens. The winner of this inaugural First Nations exhibition is Nicole Smede with her project Bagandha yanggamba-ngga / Country sings in me.
Nicole is a multi-disciplinary artist of Warrimay, Irish and English heritage, living and creating on Wadi Wadi Dharawal Country. A reconnection to ancestry, language and culture ripples through her work in voice, song, sound and poetry, exploring what it means to be ‘of Country’. Nicole’s project embodies this approach to her art practice:
Bagandha yanggamba-ngga / Country sings in me will be a new video and sound installation that speaks to the origins of our traditional languages and the reciprocal exchange between Country, human and non-human kin. In collaboration and consultation with community, this work will feature community Elders and custodians of the Mudingaal Yangamba choir and honour the deep ties between spirit, place, language and song.
Bagandha yanggamba-ngga / Country sings in me will be at the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery 24 May to 19 July 2025, presented alongside a solo exhibition of works by her mentor, Karla Dickens.
Reconciliation
At the time Zanny was appointed as director of the gallery, Shoalhaven City Council was part way through developing its Reconciliation Action Plan in which art played an integral role. Jaz Corr, a proud Dharawal woman, won council’s tender, ‘for an artist to create an artwork that will symbolise the Reconciliation Action Plan, and represent the diversity of the Shoalhaven’s Indigenous communities’.
The project included a budget of $10,000 for implementation of the successful submission. Jaz’s submission called, Woven, was conceived as a communal painting that would serve as a powerful symbol of Aboriginal identity. Jaz held four workshops across the region in the areas of Nowra/Bomaderry, Jerrinja/Roseby Park, Wreck Bay and Ulladulla, involving Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities in the artwork’s concept development and its making.
The opening weeks of the Smede and Dickens exhibitions coincide with Reconciliation Week 2025 (27 May – 03 June). At Zanny’s instigation, Shoalhaven City Council’s Reconciliation Action Plan will be launched at the gallery with appropriate ceremony.
“I’ve been working with the council’s Reconciliation Action Plan team and the launch of the plan is going to be at the gallery, in the amazing courtyard we have here that’s a natural gathering space. We’ll have a smoking ceremony, dances, speeches.”
First Nations Focus in February
Saturday 15 February 2025 sees the opening of the next suite of exhibitions at the gallery, including a travelling exhibition from the National Gallery of Australia, Single Channel.
Jointly curated by the NGA’s Senior Curator of First Nations Art, Tina Baum, and Curator of Photography, Anne O’Hehir, Single Channel brings together key moving image works from the NGA’s collections made from 2000 to 2019. The selection traces the emergence of the moving image as one of the success stories of contemporary practice, its connection to portraiture, and exploration of self-identity and its promise of narrative possibility.
Focusing on works by First Nations and Australian artists, the exhibition includes key work by Tony Albert, Destiny Deacon and Virginia Fraser, Gabriella and Silvana Mangano, Club Ate, Shaun Gladwell and Tracey Moffatt. Each work is produced as a single channel format by the artists and, exclusively for the exhibition, the works are shown consecutively as a single channel projection creating a unique and exciting viewing experience.
Single Channel is a National Gallery Touring Exhibition supported by the Australian Government through the National Collection Institutions Touring and Outreach Program.
Dr Zanny Begg
Zanny Begg is an experienced advocate for the arts who has worked as a director, educator, curator and researcher across multiple contemporary arts organisations. She has previously worked as the Director of Tin Sheds Gallery, the Faculty of Architecture Design and Planning, at the University of Sydney and the Digital Creative for Museum and Galleries of NSW.
“I think in 12 months if the gallery has really done the work right, and has made those connections with First Nations communities and artists, and has listened and has been respectful, then that helps all contemporary artists because I feel getting that right is core to being a contemporary art space.”
Zanny has taught curating and contemporary practice at UNSW Art and Design and Wollongong Innovation TAFE and has been a guest lecturer at multiple institutions including AFTRS, NAS, MACBA (Barcelona). She was on the Artists Advisory Board of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney and the Board of Management of the South Coast Writers Centre and was a mentor for Accessible Arts, Art Screen Program from 2020-2023.
Zanny is a practising artist who was recently curated into the 60th Venice Biennale. She is the Creative Australia Visual Arts Fellow 2023 and the winner of the 66th Blake Prize Established Artist Residency, the 2018 winner of the inaugural ACMI and Artbank artist film commission, the 2016 winner of the Incinerator Art Award, Art for Social Change, and the 2016 winner of the Terrence and Lynnette Fern Cite Residency Paris.
Zanny has a PhD from UNSWAD in place making and socially engaged art practices.
Find out about Zanny Begg’s art practice on her website.
Find information about Shoalhaven Regional Gallery, its opening hours, exhibitions, events and education programs on the gallery website.
