The Powerhouse has announced an extraordinary $30 million investment in the future of Powerhouse Parramatta by The Walker Family Foundation and Western Sydney University.

In one of the largest donations ever to an Australian cultural institution, The Walker Family Foundation has committed $20 million to the Lang Walker Family Academy and associated programs, a commitment that will fund access to world-class immersive STEM education experiences at the museum for over 10,000 high school students from Western Sydney and regional NSW every year – including overnight stays at the museum for many of these students. The Lang Walker Family Academy programs will commence in 2022 in Western Sydney with in-school STEM education programming being planned for schools in the Blacktown, Campbelltown, Liverpool, Bankstown, Penrith and Parramatta LGAs.

“There are hundreds of thousands of Western Sydney and regional students who don’t receive the same exposure to arts and education programs that young people in other areas do. The Lang Walker Family Academy will deliver experiences for these young people that will not only spark their creativity but pave the way to genuine STEM careers in the future,” said Powerhouse Chief Executive Lisa Havilah.

Australasia’s premier art fair, Sydney Contemporary presents Explore Sydney Contemporary, in partnership with MA Financial Group, a digital edition of the Fair taking place from 11-21 November 2021. Providing crucial support for the arts community, the Fair will host 80+ galleries presenting over 400 artists and approximately 1,700 artworks on a custom dynamic digital platform, with a commissioned artist animation and a new series of First Nations artist video portraits.

Visitors to the site will be greeted by a specially commissioned animation by internationally acclaimed Melbourne-based artist David Booth, who will also present work with Blackartprojects (Melbourne) and Hugo Michell Gallery (Adelaide). Booth’s practice shifts between studio-based works, site specific installations, commissioned murals and commercial design. His work has been exhibited and acquired by several leading institutions, including the National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of South Australia, National Gallery of Victoria and Parliament House Art Collection.

UNTOLD is a new series of First Nations artist video portraits created for Explore Sydney Contemporary that brings to life the language, Country and stories of First Nations artists represented in the online fair. Giving a window into the artists’ practice, culture and ideas as they share their work in their own voice, the series is presented in collaboration with Agency Projects, and funded by Copyright Agency. Featuring artists represented by galleries in the fair including Djerrkngu Yunupingu, Robert Fielding, Jenna Lee, Regina Pilawuk Wilson, amongst others, UNTOLD will provide new insights and inspire audiences.

Image: Polly Borland, Untitled (purple, red, blackand orange), 2018, lenticular print, 76 x50.5 x 3.5 cm, Courtesy of the artist and Sullivan+Strumpf

Carriageworks, Australia’s largest and most significant contemporary multi-arts precinct, will reopen to the public on Wednesday 3 November 2021, with award-winning Kamilaroi/ Gamilaraay artist Dennis Golding’s exhibition The Future is Here. Later in the month, visitors will be offered free access to visual art exhibitions by leading Australian artists, with the unveiling of a major site-specific work by celebrated Worimi artist Dean Cross, a new video installation by acclaimed photographer and video artist Cherine Fahd commissioned and presented in partnership with Performance Space, and the return of the SOUTHEAST Aboriginal Arts Markets online. Carriageworks will also welcome back Sydney Dance Company’s New Breed, supported by The Balnaves Foundation, which showcases bold new work by emerging choreographers.

Image: Artist Dennis Golding at Carriageworks. Image: Zan Wimberley. Courtesy Carriageworks.

Ngununggula, the Southern Highlands’ first regional art gallery, will open to the public on 12 October 2021, following a delay due to the COVID-19 lockdown in NSW. The Gallery will open with two inaugural exhibitions by celebrated Australian artists Tamara Dean and Megan Cope. Meaning “belonging” in the traditional language of the Gundungurra First Nation People, Ngununggula is located in what was the old dairy at Retford Park, which has received a heritage-sensitive redesign undertaken by Tonkin Zulaikha Greer and constructed by Richard Crookes Constructions, surrounded by a landscaped garden created by Jane Irwin.

Featuring four gallery spaces spanning the 712m2 footprint of the building, including an Entry Pavilion and an education space, Ngununggula will feature a program that represents the region and beyond through significant exhibitions, artist-led projects, live events, workshops, artist talks and public programs. Creating engaging ways for the local community to connect with artists and their ideas will be at the core of Ngununggula’s philosophy.

Image: Zan Wimberley

The Powerhouse will present Five Hundred Arhats of Changnyeongsa Temple, as its major summer exhibition, opening 2 December 2021. The arhats are ancient stone figures discovered in 2001-02 among the ruins of the Changnyeongsa Temple in South Korea’s Gangwon-do Province, believed to have been built during Goryeo dynasty (918-1392) and destroyed in mid Joseon dynasty (1392-1879). The stone statues depict ‘arhats’ – ‘nahan’ in Korean – known in Buddhism as one who has attained enlightenment. The arhats represent five hundred disciples of the Buddha who gathered to compile his words into scriptures after the Buddha entered nirvana. Although they have attained enlightenment, they defer entering nirvana themselves and remain in their human state in order to teach and save sentient beings.