Receive>Respond 2023 Exhibition

Dessert Feast, acrylic paint, impasto and wall grout on canvas by Chloe Dwyer (St Andrew’s Catholic College 2022)

Thursday 25 May - Saturday 17 June 2023

The Receive>Respond arts challenge and culminating exhibition provide an opportunity for artists aged 15 to 25 in the Cairns region to share their passion for art and collaboration.

The challenge is simple. This year’s selector, NorthSite Acting Director, Hamish Sawyer, receives all submissions and selects approximately 30 to participate. He then pairs up the artists like a “Secret Santa". Each artist receives their paired artwork and then creates a new artwork that responds in some way to that image. The resulting exhibition places the paired works together and gives the artists the chance to meet each other and discuss their responses. This challenge highlights the talent and diversity of creative expression here in our own backyard.

There is also a Reflect component to the Receive>Respond program, including professional and creative development workshops for selected artists, helping to ease them into the vibrant community of young creatives we have in our region.

Launch: 6pm Friday 26 May

Image details: Dessert Feast, acrylic paint, impasto and wall grout on canvas by Chloe Dwyer (St Andrew’s Catholic College 2022)

Half Moon Bay, oil on canvas by L. Hall (Cairns Regional Council Art Collection)

Public Program: Free Pop-Up Art Studio

You’ve seen the Receive>Respond exhibition, now it’s your turn! Share your own passion for art and collaboration by challenging yourself to create an artistic ‘response’.

Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to randomly select an artwork from the ‘lucky dip’ envelopes in the Receive>Respond>Response pop-up art studio and using the materials provided, create a new artwork that responds to that image in some way. When finished, pair your response artwork with the received image and who knows, someone might even choose to create a response to your artwork!

All artworks are drawn from the Cairns Regional Council Art Collection. You can access the entire collection anytime at from the Cairns Arts and Culture Map.