The Queen Street Mall area was a focus of interest last week as locals and visitors stopped to watch Barraba’s new artwork being created. Artists Scott Nagy and Janne Birkner completed the large work in just five days. The mural depicts a young person reading a book with a torch from under a cosy blanket. Aspects from the reader’s imagination are placed in the bedroom scene. There is a sugar glider, possum and owl depicted, as well as a Regent Honeyeater on the wing. The botanically inclined may recognise the blossom from a Mugga Ironbark to the right of the reader.
The Mall is situated in the centre of Barraba’s shopping strip. It is hoped that this mural, along with the Jenny McCraken work on Alice Street, will encourage travellers to stop and spend in town.
A recent donation starts off the fund for another artwork in town. The Barraba Public Art Committee has recently received $5,000 from the Australian Silo Art Trail. Australian Art Trails Pty Ltd donated $71,876 back to the 14 local communities featured in the 2022 silo art calendar. The Art Trails group published a silo art calendar to raise funds for regional communities.“The inaugural 2021 calendar was a great success, raising over $60,000 and we are delighted to see the amount increase to over $5,000 that will be donated to each of the 14 communities we featured this year,” said co-organiser Damian Modra.
“Australian Silo Art Trail was initially created to catalogue the silos and provide a simple map of the silo art locations nationally. At that time there was no dedicated tourism body promoting these great tourist attractions collectively as one national trail…and there still isn’t,” says Damian. The private Australian Silo Art Trail Facebook Group now has over 110,000 members. The group has a wide variety of members, ranging from people that are traveling around the country following the trail, people planning their next bucket list trip, and many more who are armchair travellers and appreciate the mega art murals.
Emily Bowman from Barraba’s Public Art committee says, “The committee is very grateful for the money received from Australian Silo Art Trails and will put the funds towards a fourth public art project in Barraba.” The local group, who are Emily, Karen Bishton, Angela Croll and Andy Wright, are currently seeking ideas for future artworks. “The committee is open to all suggestions and welcome any ideas from the local community. Please talk to Angela, Karen, Andy or me about any thoughts you may have,” says Emily. By Jane Harris