The Panorama Project is a multi-faceted initiative that provides a supported pathway for disabled community members to develop their artistic practice and identify as an artist. This project is part of The Junction Co.’s Pilbara Creative Disability Inclusion Program (PCDIP) that was launched in 2021. The PCDIP is a wholistic program that builds capacity through the exchange of skills and knowledge for those living with a disability.

The Panorama Project consists of two artists in residencies, Bruno Booth, Kate Leslie and Amanda Bell, as well as a structured mentoring program. Bruno Booth, an established artist with a disability, Kate Leslie, an established artist and skilled facilitator, and Amanda Bell a multidisciplinary artist, will carry out their residencies here at the Courthouse Gallery+Studio; the artists will lead a series of workshops with members of the disability community to develop new work. During these workshops, a handful of participants will be invited to participate in an emerging artist mentoring program and group exhibition (Radius 5.0). Kate will lead the mentoring program. Three exhibitions will be delivered as part of the Panorama Project.

Artist in Residency

Bruno Booth
8 – 19 August, 2023
Courthouse Gallery+Studio
16 Edgar Street, Port Hedland

Along with working from the Gallery, Bruno will be facilitating workshops with various local groups to explore and create works that will be used in a future exhibition by Bruno Booth.

Artists in Residency

Kate Leslie + Amanda Bell
26 September – 25 October, 2023
Courthouse Gallery+Studio
16 Edgar Street, Port Hedland

Kate and Amanda will be working within the Gallery, with various local groups and with the public to explore and create works that will be used in a future exhibition by Kate Leslie and Amanda Bell.

Exhibition Opening

Kate Leslie + Amanda Bell
27 October 2023, 6pm – 8pm
Courthouse Gallery+Studio
16 Edgar Street, Port Hedland

More information to come.

Double Exhibition Opening

Bruno Booth Exhibition: High Fantasy, Low Expectations

Radius 5.0 Exhibition

23 February, 6pm – 8pm
Artist Talks from 5pm
Courthouse Gallery+Studio
16 Edgar Street, Port Hedland

More information to come.

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE 26 SEPTEMBER – 25 OCTOBER 2023

Kate Leslie (born in Perth Western Australia) is a practicing artist who graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art from Curtin University in 2004. Kate has held solo and group exhibitions in Australia and New Zealand and is currently working on a new body of works from her studio at PS Art Space. 

Kate is interested in the intersection of reality and the fantastical, her dreamt-up scapes are places for creatures and characters to inhibit. Often taking inspiration from moments of the everyday Kate infuses the mundane with an ethereal quality. Her work traverses the interplay between light and shadow, reverie and authenticity. She is inspired by myth, archetypes, tarot, peace, symbolic meanings and the human condition. Questioning the boundaries of our world Kate uses her paintings to create new possibilities of what could be, shaping new worlds and dreamscapes. 

In collaboration with Amanda Bell, Kate’s next body of work will be a multi-disciplinary installation titled: The party is on the inside. The artists will run a series of workshops in print and sculpture. The works produced by participants during workshops will provide the artists with a collective chronicle that captures peoples dreams and joys; a happiness bank. From these images and concepts Amanda and Kate and will re-create sets and dream worlds of shared joys, an archive of happiness! The exhibition will be at The Courthouse Gallery+Studio, Port Hedland and will be a combination of, mixed media, painting, photography, performance, sculptures and still life.  

Kate has worked as a facilitator, mentor, art consultant and curator with community arts organisations and individual artists across a range of sectors. Kate has a passion for working with people and supporting artists of all abilities to access their creativity to develop a strong professional practise while delivering high quality contemporary art. 

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE 26 SEPTEMBER – 25 OCTOBER 2023

Amanda is a Badamia Yamatji and Yued Noongar artist woman living and working on Wardandi land in Goomburrup. 

A striking neon glass sculpture is the emerging artist’s first acquisition into the State Art Collection currently on display at the Art Gallery of Western Australia. Titled From our lip, mouths, throat and belly, the bright pink work takes the form of the Noongar word ‘Moorditj’, which means good or awesome in English. 

A sound work accompanying the sculpture plays the voices of Aunty Gloria Hill and Aunty Lola Garlett sharing their stories. The work reflects on the weight of words, and the power of language in connecting with one’s cultural and familial heritage. 

From our lip, mouths, throats and belly premiered at Fremantle Arts Centre’s (FAC) 2021 Revealed Exhibition, an annual showcase of Western Australia’s emerging Aboriginal artists. The work has gained iconic status and is an innovative use of neon glass. 

In 2022 Amanda was a finalist in the John Stringer Art Prize at John Curtin Gallery, showed work at The Goods Shed, Bunbury Regional Art Gallery and the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery and curated Noongar Country 2022, an annual exhibition at BRAG showcasing the work of Aboriginal artists working on Noongar boodja. 

 In 2023, Amanda has work in a group exhibition Emergences at the Holmes a Court Gallery at Vasse Felix and is currently in the midst of co-curating and creating an installation work at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery for the Gallery’s second season Shimmer. 

“I seek to engage with others by telling stories in a way that is ‘right way’ for me as an Aboriginal person and artist, and to make a contribution to making spaces culturally safe in the arts and beyond.”

Quantum of Blood, inspired by her personal experiences of ‘otherness,’ attempts to say something about the use of language and its role in the creation and maintenance of power structures. This piece also honours the rage. 

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE 8 – 19 AUGUST 2023

Bruno has used a wheelchair for most of his life, interrupted by a short and unsuccessful career as an amateur stilt walker when he used prosthetic legs as a child. In his memory these leather and metal devices would not have been out of place on the set of some dystopian, apocalyptic epic – not in a cool and attractive Fury Road sort of way, more like the zombies in the original Walking Dead. The experience of wearing restrictive equipment left him with a dislike of tight-fitting clothing, a love of speed and a need to reach over his head in supermarkets – as a child he made the decision to use a wheelchair as his primary mode of transport – and he’s never looked back (probably because he’s too busy looking out for sand pits on dark footpaths). Having a disability has been a constant background hum throughout Bruno’s life. Kind of like a social tinnitus – you know it’s there, but you try not to talk about it. It was only when he started to call himself an artist, without cringing too much, that he began to engage critically with what it meant to be categorised as disabled.

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This program was made possible by the Australian Government and the Australia Council of the Arts.