Black Gully Music Festival 2026

Open Pages at Black Gully Festival

Saturday 7 November 2026, 10am to 3pm, Black Gully Reserve, behind NERAM, Armidale. Free.

Arts North West is joining the Black Gully Festival with a pop-up stall where visitors can pick up a prompt card and make a piece for Open Pages, the community zine for the New England North West. No experience is needed. There’s no such thing as “not creative enough,” and whatever visitors bring, they’ll find a place for it.

What’s happening at the stall

• Sketch, write, collage or scribble. Art supplies are on hand for everyone.
• Pick an object from the table and build a piece around it, or draw inspiration from the festival’s music, markets and crowds.
• Black Gully Printmakers will run small adana presses, so visitors can watch printmaking up close and print a bookmark or card to take home.
• Arts North West Connect staff will explain how to join the creative directory as an artist or a venue.

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Open Pages Zines Edition 2: “If Objects Could Talk”

Open Pages is a community zine made by people across the New England North West and run through Arts North West’s Enable Arts Program. Each edition has a theme and a deadline.

Edition 2 asks for stories about objects, from a teapot or toolbox to the thing you can’t bear to throw out. Contributors can tell an object’s story or let the object tell its own.

• Submissions close: 28 January 2027
• Publication: February 2027
• Entries: One to five pieces in any form, including poetry, photos, drawings, comics, collage, short stories or a single good sentence
• Names: Use your full name, a made-up name, or stay anonymous

Every accepted piece appears in the online edition. The best are printed and sent across the region to libraries, galleries, museums and theatres.

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Contributors can submit from home or send work made at the festival through this form: https://form.jotform.com/261728717450057

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The stall is run with Black Gully Printmakers, the community print group and custodians of the Museum of Printing at the New England Regional Art Museum (NERAM). Arts North West is assisted by the NSW Government through Create NSW and the partnership of 11 local government authorities in the New England North West.