Hero image: After the Fire by Marni Stuart.
Wildflowering by Design
Touring exhibition
Curated by Dr Sue Davis & Dr Lisa Chandler
Artists including: Kathleen McArthur, Rose Barrowcliffe, Nai Nai Bird, Renata Buziak, Donna Davis, Joolie Gibbs, Anne Harris, Nicole Jakins, Shelley Pisani, Edith Rewa, Cara Ann Simpson, Marni Stuart, Emma Thorp & local artists in each location.
Curated by Dr Sue Davis & Dr Lisa Chandler
Artists including: Kathleen McArthur, Rose Barrowcliffe, Nai Nai Bird, Renata Buziak, Donna Davis, Joolie Gibbs, Anne Harris, Nicole Jakins, Shelley Pisani, Edith Rewa, Cara Ann Simpson, Marni Stuart, Emma Thorp & local artists in each location.
About the exhibition
This exhibition explores contemporary responses to our botanical and wildflower heritage and presents works by Queensland female artists who work across the art and design spectrum. The exhibition celebrates the botanical environment through a design lens, exploring materiality, co-design, hand-crafting, and the digital realm, as well as functional and aesthetic dimensions contributing to a flourishing Australian environmental design culture. In Wildflowering by Design contemporary women artists take a fresh look at the historical legacy, engage with local landscapes, and extend their practice to create new, re-imagined works, and a dynamic exhibition experience.
Publications
The tour
The exhibition visited:
- Wondai Regional Art Gallery, 1 Dec 2023 - 27 Jan 2024
- Warwick Art Gallery, 28 Mar - 4 May 2024
- Bribie Island Seaside Museum, 14 June - 8 Sept 2024
- Gympie Regional Gallery, 23 Jan - 8 Mar 2025
- Redland Art Gallery, 4 Apr - 3 June 2025
- Dogwood Crossing @ Miles, 25 Jul - 13 Sept 2025
- Caloundra Regional Gallery, 17 Oct - 30 Nov 2025
And it's a wrap!
The Wildflowering by Design Queensland touring exhibition celebrates the state’s botanical heritage through contemporary art and design while supporting regional creative development and community engagement. Curated by Dr Sue Davis and Dr Lisa Chandler, the exhibition toured seven venues between 2023 and 2025, featuring works by 12 Queensland artists alongside locally developed exhibition components created through workshops, retreats and Design Lab programs.
The exhibition attracted over 20,000 visitors, supported 48 public programs, and engaged 769 participants, employing 45 Queensland artists, including eight First Nations artists and artists with disability. A total of 54 new works were created by regional artists as part of the project’s strong local engagement model.
Digital promotion significantly extended the exhibition’s impact. Drawing on the combined audiences of the project, galleries and artists, the exhibition is estimated to have reached 80,000–110,000 people and generated approximately 400,000–700,000 impressions across the tour, reinforcing its success as a highly visible and impactful regional cultural project.
The exhibition attracted over 20,000 visitors, supported 48 public programs, and engaged 769 participants, employing 45 Queensland artists, including eight First Nations artists and artists with disability. A total of 54 new works were created by regional artists as part of the project’s strong local engagement model.
Digital promotion significantly extended the exhibition’s impact. Drawing on the combined audiences of the project, galleries and artists, the exhibition is estimated to have reached 80,000–110,000 people and generated approximately 400,000–700,000 impressions across the tour, reinforcing its success as a highly visible and impactful regional cultural project.
Exhibition final report
Reviews and responses
2023-25 Touring exhibition
A Project Engaging Unique Regional Locales
Wildflowering by Design is a project including the assistance and involvement of seven regional communities, a touring exhibition inviting local artists in each region, and a schedule of over 48 workshops, talks, and participatory events. Over time, it has sought to investigate relationships amongst humans and flora and broaden creative possibilities for discovering new knowledge. Based upon artistic research endemic to each place, it has employed 45 Queensland artists. Communities and artists have been immersed in non-competitive, rich, and rewarding experiences: inviting local artists’ involvement at each regional location is paramount to the project’s goals because, “there are creative people everywhere,” as Davis has emphasised continually. Clearly, Wildflowering by Design sets a goal to tap into the imaginative, innovative, and unconventional energies at work in all communities while bringing people together, thereby nurturing affinity with more-than-human worlds."
Carol Schwarzman (PhD) independent scholar, art critic, and visual artist
For full review see Wildflowering: Art, Design, and the Intelligence of Native Flora
2021-2022 Exhibitions
"Beautifully curated, really felt a sense of how close and bonded all the artists were, it seems they all had a beautiful shared experience being part of this exhibition and I haven’t seen another group exhibition with the same kind of friendship / closeness woven through like this one." Exhibition visitor
"The exhibitions were presented to a high standard. The inclusion of Butchulla women at Hervey Bay Regional Gallery was particularly wonderful, and I'm thrilled that their work was incorporated into the exhibition." Exhibition visitor
“Travelling up to the Fraser Coast over different flowering periods to visit the Wallum Coastal Heathlands to draw, learn and connect with other creative women was a truly sustaining part of my year.” Edith Rewa, Artist/designer
“Former academic, Dr Susan Davis has organically gathered a team of committed bush flower creatives. Over several years they have been raising the bar on wildflower awareness by coming together to tread lightly on walks to discover, focus, workshop, talk, listen, learn and creatively document the wonder of wildflowers, individually and collaboratively. Varying iterations of curated group exhibitions, with numerous artists, have shown at Caloundra, Noosa, Gympie, Bundaberg and Hervey Bay regional galleries, also delivering catalogue publications and associated programming. The most recent happening, a signature exhibition for the long awaited re-opening of the Hervey Bay Regional Gallery on Badtjala country, added exponentially to the integral, informed layer of the art works by First Nations women from the region, showcasing a breadth of artmaking and wildflower wisdom.” Sandra Conte, Curator
(For full exhibition review see 'A new day for wildflowering' by Sandra Conte
A Project Engaging Unique Regional Locales
Wildflowering by Design is a project including the assistance and involvement of seven regional communities, a touring exhibition inviting local artists in each region, and a schedule of over 48 workshops, talks, and participatory events. Over time, it has sought to investigate relationships amongst humans and flora and broaden creative possibilities for discovering new knowledge. Based upon artistic research endemic to each place, it has employed 45 Queensland artists. Communities and artists have been immersed in non-competitive, rich, and rewarding experiences: inviting local artists’ involvement at each regional location is paramount to the project’s goals because, “there are creative people everywhere,” as Davis has emphasised continually. Clearly, Wildflowering by Design sets a goal to tap into the imaginative, innovative, and unconventional energies at work in all communities while bringing people together, thereby nurturing affinity with more-than-human worlds."
Carol Schwarzman (PhD) independent scholar, art critic, and visual artist
For full review see Wildflowering: Art, Design, and the Intelligence of Native Flora
2021-2022 Exhibitions
"Beautifully curated, really felt a sense of how close and bonded all the artists were, it seems they all had a beautiful shared experience being part of this exhibition and I haven’t seen another group exhibition with the same kind of friendship / closeness woven through like this one." Exhibition visitor
"The exhibitions were presented to a high standard. The inclusion of Butchulla women at Hervey Bay Regional Gallery was particularly wonderful, and I'm thrilled that their work was incorporated into the exhibition." Exhibition visitor
“Travelling up to the Fraser Coast over different flowering periods to visit the Wallum Coastal Heathlands to draw, learn and connect with other creative women was a truly sustaining part of my year.” Edith Rewa, Artist/designer
“Former academic, Dr Susan Davis has organically gathered a team of committed bush flower creatives. Over several years they have been raising the bar on wildflower awareness by coming together to tread lightly on walks to discover, focus, workshop, talk, listen, learn and creatively document the wonder of wildflowers, individually and collaboratively. Varying iterations of curated group exhibitions, with numerous artists, have shown at Caloundra, Noosa, Gympie, Bundaberg and Hervey Bay regional galleries, also delivering catalogue publications and associated programming. The most recent happening, a signature exhibition for the long awaited re-opening of the Hervey Bay Regional Gallery on Badtjala country, added exponentially to the integral, informed layer of the art works by First Nations women from the region, showcasing a breadth of artmaking and wildflower wisdom.” Sandra Conte, Curator
(For full exhibition review see 'A new day for wildflowering' by Sandra Conte
Acknowledgements
Thank you to everyone who has been involved, all the artists & galleries, the funding bodies and those who have attended the show - it has been such a joy!
This exhibition was supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.
Exhibitions were hosted and supported by Wondai Regional Art Gallery, Warwick Art Gallery, Bribie Island Seaside Museum (City of Moreton Bay), Gympie Regional Gallery, (Gympie Regional Council), Redland Art Gallery (Redland City Council), Dogwood Crossing Miles (Western Downs Regional Council) and Caloundra Regional Gallery (Sunshine Coast Council).
Local engagement programs for the South Burnett, Gympie, Redland City, the Western Downs and Sunshine Coast were also supported through the Regional Arts Development Fund which is a partnership between the Queensland Government and councils to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.
Pre exhibition workshops and the Wondai exhibition were made possible by the Australian Government’s Regional Arts Fund, provided through Regional Arts Australia, administered in Queensland by Flying Arts Alliance. The Regional Arts Fund is an Australian Government program that supports sustainable cultural development in regional and remote communities in Australia.
The Sunshine Coast Wildflowering Design Lab was supported by UniSC.
This touring exhibition was an initiative of Wild/flower Women Projects.
This exhibition was supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.
Exhibitions were hosted and supported by Wondai Regional Art Gallery, Warwick Art Gallery, Bribie Island Seaside Museum (City of Moreton Bay), Gympie Regional Gallery, (Gympie Regional Council), Redland Art Gallery (Redland City Council), Dogwood Crossing Miles (Western Downs Regional Council) and Caloundra Regional Gallery (Sunshine Coast Council).
Local engagement programs for the South Burnett, Gympie, Redland City, the Western Downs and Sunshine Coast were also supported through the Regional Arts Development Fund which is a partnership between the Queensland Government and councils to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.
Pre exhibition workshops and the Wondai exhibition were made possible by the Australian Government’s Regional Arts Fund, provided through Regional Arts Australia, administered in Queensland by Flying Arts Alliance. The Regional Arts Fund is an Australian Government program that supports sustainable cultural development in regional and remote communities in Australia.
The Sunshine Coast Wildflowering Design Lab was supported by UniSC.
This touring exhibition was an initiative of Wild/flower Women Projects.
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This project is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland . |
