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Team

Ashleigh Campbell | Artistic Director / CEO

Hamish Sawyer | Acting Director

Aven Noah Jr. | Curator & Gallery Officer

Jamaylya Ballangarry-Kearins | Gallery Officer

Jamie Clarke | Communications Officer

Katrina Iosia | Programs Coordinator

Lauren Carter | Gallery Store Manager

Melania Jack | Events and Content Producer

Rebecca Youdell | Executive Administrator
 

Join the NorthSite team

Open Position | Programs Coordinator

Open Position | Retail Assistant


 

Current Board

Michael Cosgrove | Chair

Andrea Huelin

Bruce Prideaux

David Marsden

Francoise Lane

John Stafford

Michael Marzik

Finian McGrath

 


About the Institution 

In 2020, NorthSite Contemporary Arts (formerly KickArts) relaunches within Bulmba-ja Arts Centre (formerly Centre of Contemporary Arts) in Cairns. About NorthSite formerly KickArts Cairns.

As a key company (one of few independent contemporary visual arts institutions north of Brisbane), this organisation has advocated, demonstrated resilience and excellence over decades, championing artists of the North and presenting boundary-pushing programs through an experimental ethos relevant to a wide region.

We work across disciplines (visual art, craft, design, sound, performance & screen media), in collaboration with individual artists, Indigenous-led art centres, other galleries, touring bodies and partnering companies to realise 30+ exhibitions and 150 programs each year; often presenting a diversity of work unseen elsewhere in Australia.

 

A Proud History in Cairns 

KickArts holds a proud 30+ year history since its inception as a boundary-pushing artist collective formed in Cairns in the early 1990s.

Highlight exhibitions include:

The Fish John West Regrets (1993). Linkage Leakage (1993). Baggage: A Pastiche of Portable Art (1996). Kicking Cans (1997). Ailan Currents: contemporary printmaking from the Torres Strait (2007). Blak Roots (2008). Thancoupie: Ceramic Exhibition (2008). Sting in the Tail (2009). Brian Robinson: Men+Gods (2012). Renegades: Outsider Art (2014). Sageraw Thonar: Stories from the Southeasterly Season, contemporary expressions of cultural knowledge from Badu Art Centre (2016). Teho Ropeyarn: Ulada Ikya Ami, listening to Beforetime Stories (2017).

 

Where we are – NorthSite Now

Formerly Centre of Contemporary Arts, Cairns – Bulmba-ja was renovated by the Queensland Government (2018-2020) and has been gifted the name by representatives of the Traditional Owner groups, of the Yirrgandji and Gimuy Walubara Yidinji clans.

Bulmba-ja is an incubator and performance venue. It’s home to the next wave of Indigenous dance and performance in Queensland. Boasting flexible exhibition and co-working spaces plus theatre and rehearsal spaces, fronted by the dazzling NorthSite Store, where we showcase the work of leading artists from across Cairns, Cassowary Coast, Cape York, the Gulf of Carpentaria and Torres Strait Islands.

NorthSite Contemporary Arts is a new artistic experience for artists & audiences. Come in and check out what’s on!

About NorthSite formerly KickArts Cairns

About NorthSite formerly KickArts Cairns

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