OFFICIAL OPENING 5PM FRIDAY 11 JULY 2025
5:00 – 5:45pm Performance by Angel White
5:45pm Welcome to Country by Arakwal, Bundjalung woman Nickolla Clark
6pm Official opening speech by Daniel Mudie Cunningham, Curator and Director, Wollongong Art Gallery
Byron Shire Council’s Climate Conversations is a creative initiative that invites Northern Rivers artists to collaborate with community and explore ways we can adapt, re-organise, and evolve in the face of climate change through the arts.
The theme for the second iteration of Climate Conversations is ‘Rising’ and artists were invited to propose a collaborative, community focused project and exhibition.
Rise and Fall is a reimagined project by local Indigenous artist Karla Dickens. As a Wiradjuri women who has lived on Bundjalung country for many years, Karla explores climate catastrophe from a First Nations perspective and through her own lived experience. Through large photographic works, sculptures and installations, she conveys the urgent ideas of what it means to fight for survival and change in a world hanging by a thread, where shared responsibility for action is crucial.
The community can engage with this interactive project through a series of events, talks and workshops to help generate deeper conversations and immersive experiences, highlighting the growing sense of urgency and consciousness to meet climate challenges.
View the full events program here
Rise and Fall will be on display at Lone Goat Gallery from 12 July – 9 August 2025.
Rise and Fall by Karla Dickens, curated by Daniel Mudie Cunningham, and presented by Bondi Pavilion, was proudly commissioned by Waverley Council. The exhibition will be reimagined for Climate Conversations 2025.