BigCi - Bilpin international ground for Creative initiatives

BigCi - Bilpin international ground for Creative initiatives Independent, artist run, not for profit artist residency program focusing on artists’ professional de Visit us at www.instagram.com/bigciaustralia

Meet Jo Truman, multimedia synaesthetic artist, at BigCi Open Day on Sunday 28 June, 11.00-5.00.From her earliest memori...
23/06/2026

Meet Jo Truman, multimedia synaesthetic artist, at BigCi Open Day on Sunday 28 June, 11.00-5.00.
From her earliest memories, Blue Mountains multimedia synaesthetic artist Jo Truman's great great grandfather, the 19th century Scottish ornithologist, natural history illustrator, proto-ecologist, writer and poet William MacGillivray, has been a constant background presence in her family's life.
Jo believes William's influence nurtured her love of birds and birdsong, and consequently her eclectic flexible approach to the voice and improvisation as she mimetically engaged with birds from a young age. This became a precursor to her microtonal extended vocal techniques and lifelong preoccupation with how the voice and embodied emotional states interact, drawing on internal and external landscapes.
In her Open Day presentation/performance, Jo will bring William into the foreground, positioning herself as William's intergenerational "echo" resonating between the 19th century Romantic colonial era and the Anthropocene, and drawing on William's poem Solitudes.
Jo Truman will also conduct a short voice workshop exploring breath, toning, movement and gesture for those who would like to participate.

Other artists taking part: Mandy Galbraith, painter Marian Drew, photographic and multimedia artist. Luke Foster, visual artist and writer Jacob Murray, writer
All details and RSVP at https://bigci.org/new-news/ in Profile.



galbraith.art


Meet Jacob Murray, writer, at BigCi Open Day on Sunday 28 June, 11.00-5.00.Living on Garigal country on the Northern Bea...
22/06/2026

Meet Jacob Murray, writer, at BigCi Open Day on Sunday 28 June, 11.00-5.00.
Living on Garigal country on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Jacob is a writer of contemporary prose fiction whose work is marked by an interest in alienation, transgression, and those fragile spaces in which meaning breaks down. Jacob’s work has a realist bent and prioritises honesty, pragmatically subversive stories, and emotional texture. This residency at BigCi marks his first venture into long-form prose – a harsh, experimental portrait of the interdependence and mutual propagation of abuse and addiction.

Jacob will host an interactive workshop Closeness in Prose during the Open Day. The workshop will offer a lens through which to approach prose both as a reader and a writer, centralising emotional ‘closeness’ and ‘fidelity’. He will discuss some relevant learnings from examples of iconic literature before guiding the audience in the implementation of these learnings in a collaborative construction of a short prose vignette.

Other artists taking part: Jo Truman, multimedia synaesthetic artist Mandy Galbraith, painter Marian Drew, photographic and multimedia artist. Luke Foster, visual artist and writer
All details and RSVP at https://bigci.org/new-news/ in Profile.



galbraith.art


Orlando Luminere’s Camera Obscura-making workshop during the Open Day was a big success.Our current artists-in-residence...
21/06/2026

Orlando Luminere’s Camera Obscura-making workshop during the Open Day was a big success.

Our current artists-in-residence are presenting 3 different workshops during the next Open Day on Sunday 28 June.
All details and RSVP at https://bigci.org/new-news/ in Profile.


BigCi Open Day!Sunday, 28 June 2026, 11.00-5.00.Meet the artists. See and experience the work of: Luke Foster, visual ar...
20/06/2026

BigCi Open Day!
Sunday, 28 June 2026, 11.00-5.00.
Meet the artists. See and experience the work of: Luke Foster, visual artist and writer Jacob Murray, writer Jo Truman, multimedia synaesthetic artist Mandy Galbraith, painter Marian Drew, photographic and multimedia artist.

An opportunity to hear artist talks and participate in 3 special workshops: Closeness in Prose workshop with Jacob Murray Voice workshop with Jo Truman Experimental Photography workshop with Marian Drew.

All details and RSVP at https://bigci.org/new-news/ in Profile.



galbraith.art


Orlando Luminere, Canberra-based contemporary art photographer and educator, said, “The residency at the BigCi in Bilpin...
20/06/2026

Orlando Luminere, Canberra-based contemporary art photographer and educator, said, “The residency at the BigCi in Bilpin provided an environment that enabled me to expand the breadth and scope of my creative photography.
I had started with a well-developed creative approach based on using camera obscura built from repurposed waste. My time at the BigCi allowed expansion of this approach, focusing on environmental issues and newly incorporating written text and markings directly onto the image projection screen inside the camera obscura, something I had not done before.
The combination of dedicated time, physical space and supportive culture were the key factors in the expansion of my work. In particular, Rae’s support, guidance and enthusiasm really helped in developing and articulating the work I have created during this residency.”

Read what other artists said about their residence experience in https://bigci.org/artists-in-residence-2/ in profile.



Meet Luke Foster, visual artist and writer, at BigCi Open Day on Sunday 28 June, 11.00-5.00.Luke’s art is usually multim...
19/06/2026

Meet Luke Foster, visual artist and writer, at BigCi Open Day on Sunday 28 June, 11.00-5.00.
Luke’s art is usually multimedia, meaning a mixture of video, photography, sculpture, and installation. The multimedia work Luke is making for the Open Day is called Numinous, which means something that creates a sense of awe or spiritualism. Luke is also hoping to finish a book of sixty essays called Spiritualism in Art and Life, ready to be sent to literary agents by the end of the residency. This is Luke's seventh residency at the BigCi, and he loves the nature, the sense of community and the big space to work in.

Other artists taking part: Jacob Murray, writer Jo Truman, multimedia synaesthetic artist Mandy Galbraith, painter Marian Drew, photographic and multimedia artist.

All details and RSVP at https://bigci.org/new-news/ in Profile.



galbraith.art


A terrific exhibition opening of Entangled Grounds, presented in partnership with Hawkesbury Regional Gallery.Entangled ...
05/06/2026

A terrific exhibition opening of Entangled Grounds, presented in partnership with Hawkesbury Regional Gallery.
Entangled Grounds brings together new works by Yandell Walton (pictured here with Yuri and Rae) and Mar Serinyà Gou, developed during residencies at BigCi on the edge of the Wollemi National Park
Yandell’s Artist Talk is on today, 11am-1pm.
All details at https://mailchi.mp/da74c0c005ce/bigci-entangled-grounds in Profile



London-based artist Eoife Huo, born and raised in northern China, wrote "The wilder side came to me in adulthood — all f...
03/06/2026

London-based artist Eoife Huo, born and raised in northern China, wrote "The wilder side came to me in adulthood — all from a meet-cute with a eucalyptus in the Canary Islands. I followed him home to the Blue Mountains to meet his family, not realising quite how enormous that family was! BigCi, on the edge of Wollemi National Park, is a wonderful playground — and the perfect place to continue my ongoing project of staged self-portraits as playdates with trees, learning the art of loving from some very patient teachers. Yuri's exploratory walks opened my eyes to landscapes both outside and inside. The fire ecology and bark shedding have inspired me to shed a few layers of my own. Rae told me at the start to let myself be surprised — and her mentorship was as sharp and generous as that advice. The Art Shed offers incredible freedom for imagination — I built my first site-specific installation around a vessel of fallen eucalyptus, connecting photographs, colours, and the place itself. The wild is playful, loving, and endlessly inventive, and BigCi gave me the space to respond in kind. I made lasting friendships with fellow residents, learnt from people who have loved gum trees much longer than I have, and left with a practice transformed by this place and its people."
Read what other artists said about their residence experience in https://bigci.org/artists-in-residence-2/ in profile.

Address

C/o Bilpin PO
Bilpin, NSW
2758

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when BigCi - Bilpin international ground for Creative initiatives posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category