Explore the exhibition in an intimate tour with your host and guide, Sir Leslie Thornton. Les will share anecdotes, inspiration and his favourite pieces in a convivial atmosphere where you will glimpse the wonderful workings of Les. Questions encouraged!

In his fifty - year career, Leslie has had over forty solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group shows and has continuously created, bringing his aesthetics to work. Born in Queensland, Les escaped as a young man, with training in civil engineering, a love of lighting and a feel for the surreal. Arriving in Melbourne, he soon left to make Castlemaine - then a haven for the arty counter culture - his home.

Vote to celebrate local women in public art

For too long the stories of the founding women of our thriving local arts scene have been absent from the history books. Together, we can change that.

We are a leading partner in Mount Alexander Shire Council’s proposal to commemorate seven trailblazing local women in a new public artwork.

Known as the first women of Castlemaine Art Museum, the group stood in solidarity for better representation of women in art. They were instrumental in establishing Castlemaine Art Gallery and Museum (now known as our very own Castlemaine Art Museum).

Their story has been shortlisted in the Victorian Women’s Public Art Program. With your vote, funding from the program can help us create a new public artwork to acknowledge their place in history, forever. Voting closes Sunday 8 December. Please share this with your networks!

Follow the link for further information and to vote:
https://engage.vic.gov.au/womens-public-art-program

To vote, click the 'participate' button, click on 'start survey' and follow the prompts.

Voting is open now until Sunday 8 December.

You are invited to join the artist Micky Allan and Judy Annear, Honorary Fellow, School of Culture & Communication, Melbourne University, for a wide-ranging conversation about Allan's practice including feminism, belief and representation.

A sense of simplicity, a sense of complexity, why not both in the same continuum? Realistic detail can be glorious, abstract space just as ‘full’ of whatever it is that moves us, which is what counts. I aim to create places for the viewer to roam in their own responses, hopefully into hints of the previously unknown in quite that way. Adventure! Into both mystery and platitude, commonplace and strange.

Engraving glass panels, sometimes on both sides, before it being placed over works on paper, lets me play with layering in more ways than one. Transparencies abound! The process is tricky, using a dentist drill with changing drill points and keeping water flowing over it with the other hand so the glass stays cool, but despite the noise, I continue to be drawn into its orbit. Look how it can create the silver light of night!
Night and day, seasonal shifts, deep sea to far space, everything in constant interaction and change. Everything ‘dies’ and renews every second. I seek to find it beautiful.

Micky Allan
July 2025

image: Micky Allan Nightlight 1 2024,engraved glass panel over pastel and synthetic polymer resin on paper in painted and collaged wooden frame. (detail) Courtesy of the artist Image: Micky Allan