Braidwood Regional Arts Group
For ‘something like eleven years’, Kylie Dominick has been a driving force behind Braidwood’s much-loved community art space, the Braidwood Regional Arts Group (BRAG).
Kylie, who was ‘roped in’ during BRAG’s inception, soon became a member of the board, and then its president. For the past decade, she has been committed to ensuring that everyone in Braidwood and surrounds with an interest in art has had opportunities to engage in classes, exhibitions, and events.
The role has been one that has kept her constantly in touch with the creative side of life.
‘I don’t identify as an artist, but I’ve been interested in the arts all my life,’ she says. ‘I do art, but it’s not something I need to do – it’s just something that I enjoy, if you see the difference there! [laughs] That’s the whole ethos.’
‘Anyone’s welcome at any level, for any reason. We have a place for you, and you’re welcome.’
At the time we speak, Kylie is preparing for the launch of LUMINA, an exhibition celebrated the new lighting for the gallery – something that has prompted a few tweaks to the space. BRAG purchased its physical gallery, an old weatherboard, in 2012, and has been carrying out what Kylie calls ‘a constant programme of improvement’.
‘Because it’s a funny old building, we’ve never had proper gallery lighting – there’s a few things we just never really had. So our most recent work has to put in proper lighting, and we thought, “While we’re at it, we’ll do a bit of a zhuzh, and make it as good as it can be for now.” So that’s actually really exciting, because it means that artwork can be displayed much better.’
Although BRAG receives the odd grant, it is primarily a self-funding entity, relying on membership, donations, and some dedicated regular art buyers to funnel money back into its programmes. A grant from Braidwood Community Bank allowed for the new lighting to be installed a year earlier than BRAG had otherwise planned, but a fair amount of elbow grease went into the reno, something Kylie is grateful to BRAG’s volunteer labour force for.
‘With our renovation, we’ve had a group of volunteers just doing painting and all that sort of thing, and it’s just vital – it’s so necessary that the people we have just join in really help. They bring so much, and take the load off everyone else.’
The back room of the space has been adjusted to become more flexible, and will be able to be reconfigured to suit the needs of the various groups that meet at BRAG for yoga, aikido, and children’s sing-and-play, as well as for art-specific activities like classes and workshops.
The space has also played host to the Braidwood Lions Club Young Writers Festival, exhibitions of children’s artworks, and a semi-regular maker’s markets.
Thought Kylie will be stepping back at BRAG’s upcoming AGM, and enjoying some hard-earned rest, she is keen to see plans for the future unfurl under a newly-shuffled board.
‘We have an open-mic night every three months or so, which attracts all sorts and is really fun. We’d like to have more of that kind of thing, more performances, if we can. In the past we’ve had music, the odd poetry reading, that sort of thing. And that’s another thing that we’d kind of like to encourage people to consider – if they’ve got something to present, we’d like them to think of us!’
Can anyone mount an exhibition or host an event at BRAG, or do you need to be a member?
The majority of exhibitions are members-only, though from time to time we’ll open to everybody, because we are a community organisation. After the fires, for example, our ‘Art on Fire’ exhibition was open to anyone who wanted to exhibit. [Editor’s note: a beautiful book documenting this very meaningful exhibition can be found here.]
And with LUMINA, we thought it would be nice to invite anyone who was interested, just to help us launch our lights. But you don’t have to have always been a member – you can join when you’re submitting your artwork.
That said, people do come along and hire us for an exhibition over a weekend, or even for a day! Whatever you feel like doing. We’re always open to interest from the community.
And events? I know that there’s a bar space at BRAG, which is always nice for a glass of wine during life drawing afternoons. I imagine that for that reason alone it would be popular.
That’s something else we welcome at any time. Sometimes people do hire the space to have a party! One of the benefits of membership is that you get hiring for a reduced rate, as well as reduced rates for life drawing classes and things like that. We really try to give our members something for their input, so it works both ways.
Is there anything that the BRAG group is looking for specifically when it comes to serving on the board?
There’s no particular criteria, I must say… it’s about being interested. Anyone who’d like to get involved is going to have something that they can bring along. One thing I would like to see is if we had a specific communications person; that would be fabulous. But we try to spread the load as much as we can.
We try to communicate everything we’re doing as best as possible on our website and newsletter, so I guess I would suggest that anyone who thinks they might be interested could sign up to the newsletter and see what happens!
Learn more about BRAG at www.bragart.com.au
Contact: admin@bragart.com.au
Location: 45 Wallace St, Braidwood NSW