The Friends of the Gallery arrange social functions to build a community of gallery supporters. Your generous donations and annual memberships enable us to host inclusive events for our extended community, including current and future Friends, volunteers, and the wider Clarence Arts & Culture Community. We present an annual program of events to fundraise for the JADA and support the Gallery.
Proudly hosted on Bundjalung Country
(Display photos courtesy of Melting Wax)
Upcoming Events
** CANCELLED ** Saturday 13th Sept 2025 – Jazz in the Courtyard, 3-5pm ** CANCELLED ** –
Yes… we’re disappointed too! Due to unforeseen circumstances we have had to cancel this event. Ticket holders will be refunded via Humanatix, or please contact the Friends if you have any questions.
Don’t forget you can still catch all of the current exhibitions at the Gallery, which will close on 14 Sept, and you are invited to the next Exhibition Opening on Saturday 27 September – Entry by donation, but please book via Humanitix: Exhibition Opening for catering purposes. Complimentary refreshments & Friends of the Gallery pay bar will be open.
2pm | Beyond the River Curator’s Walk & Talk with Frances Belle Parker
3pm | Official Exhibition Opening
Beyond the River
Beyond the River is a celebration of female First Nations artists from the Clarence Valley, who have dared to look beyond the river’s banks, drawing inspiration from its unseen depths and expansive reach. Their works transcend the physical landscape, capturing the essence of its influence—its rhythms, histories, and quiet whispers that echo across Country. Guest curator: Frances Belle Parker Artists: Bronwyn Bancroft (Bundjalung), Bianca Beetson (Kabi Kabi and Wiradjuri), Frances Belle Parker (Yaegl), Deb Breckenridge (Yaegl), Danielle Gorogo (Bundjalung), Kim Healey (Gumbaynggirr), Aneika Kapeen (Yaegl and Bundjalung), Bianca Monaghan (Bundjalung), Maddy Richey (Kamilaroi, lives on Gumbaynggirr country), Kristal Russ ((Jaru/Ngarinyin, lives on Bundjalung Country)), and Deborah Taylor (Gumbaynggirr). A GRG project.
KEN DONE IS MY DOLLY PARTON: Leona DeBolt
Ken Done Is My Dolly Parton is a solo exhibition of paintings by Northern Rivers-based contemporary artist, Leona DeBolt. Leona DeBolt both admires and is inspired by Ken Done, the way many fans worship cultural icon Dolly Parton. While in residency at Grafton Regional Gallery, DeBolt studied the Ken Done works held in the Gallery’s collection, and went on to spend time with Done in his Sydney studio. Beginning as a love letter to her art idol, this exhibition quickly became an immersion in the complexities of influence and creative identity. The paintings in Ken Done Is My Dolly Parton represent a turning point in DeBolt’s practice. They carry the tension between reverence and risk, and looking up to someone while standing on your own. What started in admiration has led to a clearer sense of direction, one that’s still unfolding but feels unmistakably the artist’s own. A GRG project.
SPEAKING IN COLOUR: Ken Done
An icon of Australian art, Ken Done is a name synonymous with colour, vibrancy, and originality. For the first time in years, this exhibition brings to light a selection of the many Ken Done prints held in the Grafton Regional Gallery Collection. Ken Done spent a large part of his childhood in the Clarence Valley, with the streets, bushland and waterways of Maclean his playground, before leaving at the age of 10 and later going on to study at the National Art School, then known as East Sydney Tech. Ken Done is proudly a patron of the Grafton Regional Gallery. In 2008 he generously donated 143 screen printed works on paper from his personal collection to the Grafton Regional Gallery forming a comprehensive record of the artist’s works. A GRG project
BIDHIINJA: restoring our oyster reefs
Oyster reefs were once a dominant part of our seascape. More than 99% of natural oyster reefs are now considered ‘functionally extinct’ – decimated by a combination of historical overfishing, habitat destruction, catchment clearing and water-quality degradation, land reclamation and disease. A new exhibition developed by the Australian National Maritime Museum in collaboration with NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI), Bidhiinja tells the forgotten history of oyster reefs in New South Wales and the work now underway to restore these important ecosystems. Bidhiinja invites audiences to learn about the past, present and future of Australia’s oyster reefs. This exhibition combines First Nations knowledge, western science, and design, including illustrations by exhibition artist and Yaegl woman Frances Belle Parker. Bidhiinja is presented by the Australian National Maritime Museum in collaboration with NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) NSW Oyster Reef Restoration Project.
The Friends are proud to be the major sponsor of the Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award.
Discover more about the JADA via Grafton Regional Gallery
