For the past 25 years, the Newcastle Community Arts Centre (NCAC) has been working closely with local artists, community groups and business organisations in the Hunter to promote the region’s cultural development. The not-for-profit organisation has strong links with Hunter-based companies, and according to Dr Grant Keene, Chair of the NCAC Board it is the centre’s links with both the community and business sectors that will be vital to the long-term vitality of NCAC.

 

The important role NCAC plays in fostering local community initiatives was evidenced at the recent Bounceback exhibition, hosted jointly with Hunter Arts in Recovery. Bounceback showcased over 250 works produced by local artists who have experienced mental illness. Exhibiting artist, Lynn Tucker said of the exhibition, “Arts in Recovery provides a non-judgemental refuge where participants can move beyond their identity as a sufferer of mental illness and learn to better express themselves through the visual arts…The exhibition itself is a tremendous recognition of the time and effort that has gone into the artworks, and a celebration of the journey many of the artists have gone through since joining the program.”

 

Bounceback is the biggest exhibition of its kind in the Hunter, with the success of the program leading to the launch of a special Youth Arts in Recovery Program, targeting people under the age of 25 accessing both government and non-government mental health services.