What's On at John Curtin Gallery

We are excited to be taking part in this year’s Lotterywest Boorloo Heritage Festival!

Explore 139 St Georges Terrace throughout April to take part in truth talks, exhibition tours, workshops and drop-in sessions!

🗓️ 1 April to 30 April 2026.
📍 139 St Georges Terrace (Old Perth Boys’ School), Perth.

✨ Witness truth telling firsthand and enter a space where shared history can be confronted honestly at our Once Known Truth Talks series.

✨ Register for a free guided tour of Once Known at Perth Old Boys’ School every Tuesday and Friday throughout April (excludes public holidays).

✨ Children and children-at-heart are invited to take part in our free Sensory Play Drop-In Sessions and Badge Making Workshop, inspired by beautiful Noongar Country.

RSVP | Free events, registration required.
🔗For specific event and activity times see link in Bio!

Lotterywest Boorloo Heritage Festival is supported by @cityofperth 🙌

Once Known is proudly supported by: @bfplperth @lotterywest @inside_bhp @colgateuniversity and #navigators

Step into a space where land, sea, and memory intertwine.
 
Kelsey Ashe’s Land of a Thousand Myths invites you into a layered exploration of cultural hybridity, ancestral memory, and myth-making. A journey across nine wooden canvases, the wax-etched textures tell the story of the erosive power of sea and sun, while reimagining Celtic convict and migratory histories through a contemporary lens. 🌊
 
Brian Robinson’s and on the fifth day the waters swarmed with sea creatures, weaves Zenadth Kes maritime knowledge, ancestral symbols, and playful visual allegories into an awe-inducing wall-based sculpture. Robinson examines the moral and psychological legacies of colonialism and the evolving identity of Zenadth Kes peoples. ✨
 
📍 Visit John Curtin Gallery’s Atrium as part of A call and response across the ocean and immerse yourself in this dialogue of land, sea, and memory.
 
A call and response across the ocean is on show until May 3! 
 
🔗More info via link in bio

📸 - Image by Sharon Baker
 
@cbfagrads @curtinalumni @perthfest @perthartlist

✨ Curator Tour with Lia McKnight 
 
Join JCG Curator, Lia McKnight for a guided tour of our Perth Festival exhibition, A call and response across the ocean.
 
📅Sunday 22 March 2026

⏰2pm – 3pm

📍John Curtin Gallery, Curtin University
 
Free event
 
This exhibition brings together living histories of the Indian Ocean in imagery, scents and sounds, reuniting friendships and kin ties that were severed through transglobal acts of colonisation.
 
This reconnection offers a vision of the world in which generosity, empathy and cross-cultural collaboration can begin to heal the wounds of the past. 💛
 
🔗 Register via link in bio!
 
@perthfest @perthartlist @curtinlifeaustralia @universityartmuseumsaustralia @curtinbfagrads @curtinguild @thaniapetersen @abdi.karya @skinnyfish_music

What can oceans reveal about Australia’s connections with Asia? 💭

Join historian Vannessa Hearman for a lunchtime talk exploring the Timor Sea as a space of movement, memory, and exchange between Northern Australia, Indonesia, and Timor-Leste.

Looking both ways: The Timor Sea and Australia’s entanglements with Asia -

📅 Wednesday 18 February 2026
⏰ 12:30pm – 1:30pm
📍 John Curtin Gallery (Building 200A)
Free event, open to the public

Drawing on place-based research across coastlines, lagoons, mangroves, and ports, Hearman reflects on colonisation, maritime borders, and how communities remember and memorialise the past.

🔗 RSVP via link in bio!

@curtinbfagrads

#JohnCurtinGallery #CurtinUniversity #LunchtimeTalk #TimorSea #HistoryTalk

Slow Making Afternoon with Jacky Cheng ✨
 
Join artist Jacky Cheng for a gentle, hands-on workshop at John Curtin Gallery that invites slow making, conversation, and reflection.
 
📅 Sunday 15 March
⏰ 1pm–3pm
📍 John Curtin Gallery (Building 200A)
 
The session offers a welcoming, inclusive space to explore folding as a creative and ritual practice using paper.

You’ll be guided through simple folding processes that encourage attentiveness to touch, repetition, and gesture.

Folding becomes a quiet act of care: a way to hold stories, mark time, and connect across personal and shared experiences.
 
$25 Curtin Students | $45 Curtin Staff / General Public
 
🔗 Register via link in bio!
 
No prior experience is required, and all materials are provided.
 
Arrive as you are – curious, reflective and ready to spend an afternoon making and thinking together. 💛

@perthfest @perthartlist @curtinlifeaustralia @jackychengart @universityartmuseumsaustralia @curtinbfagrads

Have you taken your Paper Voyage yet? ⛵️

Take a walk through our Access Gallery and let us know which place in the world means the most to you!

In response to our latest exhibition, A call and response across the ocean, this free, self-guided activity invites visitors to take a moment and explore themes of migration and shared histories through hands-on making.

John Curtin Gallery is open today (Sunday) from 12pm to 4pm.

A call and response across the ocean is on show until 3 May, for more information visit the link in our bio!

#johncurtingallery #curtinuniversity #perthart #art #gallery #perthfest

@curtinbfagrads @curtinlifeaustralia

Thank you for the warm welcome! 💛

We`re one week into A call and response across the ocean and still buzzing!

This Perth Festival exhibition brings together stories of cultural exchange, connection, and resilience.

Huge thanks to everyone who came to celebrate with us, you made this opening unforgettable. 👏

If you haven`t experienced this exhibition, you`ll want to! Open until May 3.

🔗 Link in bio, open until May 3.

📸 - Marnie Richardson & Sharon Baker.

#PerthFestival #Carrolup #LivingHistory #CommunityArts #CulturalExchange

@perthfest @thaniapetersen @abdi.karya @skinnyfish_music @berndt.museum @curtinbfagrads