Image credit L-R: Naomie Hatherley. Photography by Michael Jalaru Torres | Chelsea Hopkins-Allan. Photography by Luke Griffiths | Aaron Claringbold and Rebecca McCauley. Photo courtesy of the artists | Tania Spencer. Photography by Duncan Wright | Shandell Cummings. Photography by Jasmine Eales, courtesy of Regional Arts WA
2024-25
North Metro TAFE | Rani Fankha
Image credit: Rosie Henderson
Rani Fankha is a visual artist exploring the relationship between people and place. While her practice is largely studio-based, her work as Artistic Director at the Cannery Arts Centre in Kepa Kurl/Esperance introduced her to participatory and community artmaking. In early 2025, her mural project Esperance in your Element invited locals to paint their own stories, creating a collective portrait of place and belonging.
During her residency, Rani will expand on these ideas, examining the contrast between Esperance’s pristine coastline and the growing issue of waste. Inspired by discarded goods from local curbside collections, she will explore the hidden journeys of unwanted materials, using playful experimentation with new media to develop fresh visual forms for her practice.
Delivered in partnership with North Metropolitan TAFE.
North Midlands Project | Naomie Hatherley
RESIDENCY PARTNER
North Midlands Project, Midwest region
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Naomie Hatherley will undertake an eight-week residency across the North Midlands in the Mid West, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the Macpherson Homestead’s reopening in Carnamah. Her research will focus on the history of the homestead, particularly the relationships between the Macpherson and other settler families and the Amangu and Badymia people. Inspired by the story of eight local Aboriginal families who sent flowers to Donald Macpherson’s grave in 1931, she will explore the symbolism of this floral gesture and how such narratives can inform the concept of reconciliation.
FOLLOW NAOMIE’s JOURNEY
https://www.instagram.com/n0meshath
https://www.naomiehatherley.com
Gathaagudu / Shark Bay | Rebecca McCauley & Aaron Claringbold
RESIDENCY PARTNER
The Shire of Shark Bay, Gascoyne region
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Rebecca McCauley and Aaron Claringbold’s residency focuses on imaging Gathaagudu/Shark Bay through collaboration with Traditional Owners and community, creating an interdependent portrait of the place and its people. They aim to produce new work that highlights the profound and intricate connections between people and their environments. Rebecca and Aaron want to work with local community to create photographic portraits showcasing the world they nurture, including animals, plants, land/seascapes, and weather. They are interested in photographing how people shape the world and how their world shapes them.
FOLLOW REBECCA AND AARON’s JOURNEY
https://rebeccajanemccauley.com
https://www.aaronclaringbold.com
https://www.instagram.com/rebeccamccauley
https://www.instagram.com/toponymic_entropy
Kinjarling / Albany | Shandell Cummings
RESIDENCY PARTNER
Museum of the Great Southern, Kinjarling / Albany
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Shandell Cummings will research the fish traps in Kinjarling/Albany and community perception and knowledge of these structures. She will invite community members to gather and share conversation, providing an opportunity for personal interpretation of knowledge, feelings, and aspirations around the fish traps. Shandell hopes that her residency will strengthen connection between the Museum of the Great Southern, Menang people and the wider community, through research, community conversations and workshops, and an exhibition of her findings.
FOLLOW SHANDELL’s JOURNEY
Gathaagudu / Shark Bay | Tania Spencer
RESIDENCY PARTNER
The Shire of Shark Bay, Gascoyne region
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Tania Spencer will travel to Gathaagudu/Shark Bay to undergo an investigation into shell craft, beginning with a shell collection bequeathed by her nanna. Many of these shells were collected during her nanna’s yearly trips to the Shark Bay area. During the residency, Tania will reflect on her childhood, where they spent time together making shell ornaments from these shells. Tania aims to explore the Museum’s collection for historical stories and cultural significance of shell crafts in Shark Bay, including examining Indigenous links with colonial practices. Her residency will include community outreach to uncover and share stories and connections related to this cultural heritage.
FOLLOW TANIA’s JOURNEY
https://www.taniaspencer.com.au
https://www.instagram.com/taniaspencerartist/
Kinjarling / Albany | Chelsea Hopkins-Allan
RESIDENCY PARTNER
Museum of the Great Southern, Kinjarling / Albany
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Chelsea Hopkins-Allan will create a body of work based on the exploration of moths and butterflies in the Great Southern area, a biodiversity hotspot with numerous endemic species that have not been properly documented. This project will involve a citizen science initiative, encouraging community participation to share and create from findings, while Chelsea also creates drawings and paintings to record these discoveries. She will also travel to Perth to study the Museum’s Lepidoptera collection, drawing, photographing, and consulting with an entomologist to catalogue and identify species found in the field, including addressing the process for unidentified species.
FOLLOW CHELSEA’S JOURNEY
https://www.chelseahopkins-allan.com
https://www.instagram.com/chelseahopkinsallan_art
https://www.facebook.com/ChelseaHopkinsAllanArt
2023-24
Kinjarling / Albany | Erin Coates
RESIDENCY PARTNER
Museum of the Great Southern
ABOUT THE PROJECT
In 2024, Erin Coates engaged with cetacean bones, underwater fauna specimens and cast objects within the Museum of the Great Southern collection to speculate on animal-human encounters.
For over seven years Coates has examined elements of WA’s underwater ecology and incidents from local maritime history through her art practice. This residency project focused on her own lived experiences and family history in relation to this subject matter.
Karlkurla / Kalgoorlie | Brett Leigh-Dicks
RESIDENCY PARTNER
Museum of the Goldfields
ABOUT THE PROJECT
In 2023, Brett Leigh Dicks explored the Museum of the Goldfields’ Dwyer and MacKay photographic archive to follow in the footsteps of the two photographers, revisiting the sites of the original photographs and using the act of repeat photography to present a diachronic view of Kalgoorlie ad surrounding goldfields. The project used the rich visual legacy of the archive as basis for exploring the impact of societal and environmental change within the Goldfields.
Karlkurla / Kalgoorlie | Perdita Phillips
RESIDENCY PARTNER
Museum of the Goldfields
ABOUT THE PROJECT
In 2023, Perdita Phillips worked between the historic woodlines and ecological histories of Kalgoorlie/Boulder, mineral forms, and representations of plants and animals in the Dwyer and Mackay photographic collection of the Western Australian Museum.
She used a range of alternative photographic techniques and created projected images as one of her outcomes.
Kinjarling / Albany | Gok-Lim Finch
RESIDENCY PARTNER
Museum of the Great Southern
ABOUT THE PROJECT
In 2023-24, Gok-Lim will be creatively interrogating and reimagining the history of Chinese settlers in the early settlement in the Great Southern and the lingering traces of market gardens in Albany (Kinjarling).
The residency aims to be an opening of the Museum of the Great Southern collection and an opening of community memory through conversations about the living geography of the vegetables and fruit of settlement gardens.
2021
- Juluwarlu Group Aboriginal Corporation / Ganalili Centre, Roebourne
Sohan Ariel Hayes in collaboration with Yindjibarndi Leaders Lorraine Coppin and Michael Woodley - Museum of the Goldfields, Kalgoorlie
Nathan Beard - Museum of the Great Southern, Albany
Emilie Monty - North Midlands Project / Carnamah Historical Society & Museum
Martien van Zuilen