Tamworth Regional Council loans 'rare' Utopia Collection to galleries in Wagga Wagga and Ararat

The collection of Utopia batik silks, and works on paper, will travel to Ararat in regional Victoria and Wagga Wagga, after the council approved to loan artwork for the first time ever.

The Utopia Collection is a historically and culturally important collection created by first nations people in the Utopic region north east of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.

It includes more than 50 batik silks, garments, acrylic paintings on paper, silk screen prints, etchings and carved wooden figures.

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Tamworth Regional Gallery's education officer, Emma Stilts, said the gallery is very lucky to have a number of the silks from the rare collection.

"What's exciting about that is they're using a form of art making from Indonesia where you use hot wax applied to the silk and then dye and add more wax to create different forms in the cloth," she said.

"They're just beautiful representations of the local flora and fauna and their own important stories recorded on the silks."

Ms Stilts said the request from other councils to loan the works shows the quality of Tamworth Regional Gallery's collection.

"We're just excited to have such great textiles and artworks that we can share and with such great galleries," she said.

Tamworth mayor Russell Webb said the community was so lucky to be the custodians of such a wonderful collection of artworks.

"Other councils around Australia are very envious of our collection and many of them come to us and ask to loan some of the artwork to put on display and exhibition in their local government areas," he said.

"And it's with great pleasure that we will loan some of those very prestigious artworks. I think it's a wonderful opportunity to share some of the assets that we have with other council areas and we can receive back from them reciprocal arrangements into the future."

The collection will go on exhibition at Ararat Gallery Textile Art Museum Australia from May 21 to August 14, 2022 and from September 5 to October 30 at the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery.

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